A Month of Celebrating

This year the Christmas celebrations were all spread out...which made it feel like the never-ending Christmas...which was okay with me...and GREAT with Griffin!

 

We started with a small get together at my parents house with the Knights!  Sweet Carson was sick (that's the theme of this winter) so he stayed back - lucky for us Chad's parents were in town and were happy to keep him - while Chad, G and I enjoyed round 1 of family, food and presents!!  This holiday season was especially special for Ramsey and Jenna as they got to see Christmas through Jackson's eyes for the first time.  I must say, holidays are so fun as parents!

 

No surprise here - G at the train track! 

Since Carson missed the celebration, my mom came over the next day and we helped Carson open his gifts!  Griffin left earlier in the morning to go to Papa Don and Boo's house for the week (hallelujah - Mama needed some time away from that boy), so Carson got a private opening session.  It worked out perfectly because if G had been there, Carson likely wouldn't have gotten to play with or enjoy ANY of his loot!

His first experience with opening gifts.  He got the hang of it pretty quickly!

Fun puppets from Ramsey and Jenna were a hit!

I got Chad and I got a new camera for Christmas so I had fun playing with it and took a ton of pictures of the tree and decorations.  Here are two of my favorite.  Two out of about 700 photos.  Haha!

 

Notice our new stockings!  I love them!

Next, the Boyds were in town for a short visit and our house turned into a war zone while Griffin and Blake ran around, played and opened presents.  The adults played referee between the boys who LOVED playing with each other - as long as toys weren't involved.  Turns out neither one of them is very fond of sharing.  Fun times!  (We're going to miss this phase one day, right?)

 

I love this picture!  Thanks for the train letters Aunt Nat Nat!

The next shift was Papa Don and Boo.  Poor, poor grandparents weren't feeling well.  They were suppose to stay with us for a bit and then head up to Natalie's to spend Christmas morning up there.  Being the ever-so-loving grandparents they are, they sacrificed their time with their grandkids to keep us all healthy.  After a quick trip to the doctor (to confirm they were both sick), they came to our house for a quick present opening session, then jumped in the car and made the four hour drive back to their house.  Now that's love!

 

Papa Don in his face mask (Boo had one on too).  He does get the award for "Best Grandpa!"

As always, the boxes and the paper are the most fun.

Griffin got a big boy bike!  (A month later and the kid still hasn't figured out how to pedal.)

 

Just getting creative with the new camera.  Sweet Carson boy!

Finally it was time for the traditional Christmas Eve celebration with the Lovetts...only this year we changed the location to Tripp and Jan's house - the young Lovetts.  It was fun to have the whole gang there!  We changed it up a bit this year and did a secret Santa gift exchange which always adds a little life to the party.

I just LOVE this picture of Gaga and Chad.  They both look great.

The kids are the star of the show.  It's so fun to have little ones around!

Jackson and Carson

Griffin kept everyone busy, demanding to be chased around the house.  He ran around and around for a good 30 minutes and his sweet cousins and aunt and uncle were happy to oblige.

 

Mom and Dad and all their grands.  Wonder if we will ever get a picture of everyone looking at the camera?

Cute!

An awesome picture of two awesome people.

Carson man and CiCi!

The gift exchange got heated a few times!  Those Lovett ladies like to steal gifts!

After lots of fun with our family, we were excited to head home and get ready for Santa Clause to visit the next morning!  Griffin really seemed to "get" Santa this year - or at least understood that some man was suppose to bring him presents that he asked for - specifically a "circus train" to go with the rest of his million trains.  We explained that it would be nice to leave Santa a snack because he would be hungry when he got to our house because he had such a busy night.  Griffin chose to forgo the traditional milk and cookies and left him water and "fruit ray rays."  Fitting since this is Griffin's favorite snack.

Santa was here!

 

 

And with visions of sugar plums circus trains dancing in their heads, the boys went to sleep - ready for some fun the next morning!

 



Two Men in a Tub

Bath time has become a favorite time of day around here.  G has always enjoyed playing in the tub and Carson is a big fan too!  We use to bathe the boys separately, Griffin in his bathroom and Carson in our bathroom.  We used a man-on-man strategy to save time and get the job done.  Every now and then, usually if Chad or I was doing bath time alone, we'd put both boys in our tub.  Griffin loved this!

 

Carson still in the baby tub.

Griffin thought he'd try it out too...for old time sake.

 

Then starting about a month ago, we decided Carson was sitting up well enough for him to join Griffin in the big boy tub!  These two have so much fun and the splashing is out of control, with Carson being the main culprit.  That boy can SPLASH!

 

Griffin doesn't seem to mind sharing the tub, but sharing his bath toys?  We're working on that. 

 

Carson got to enjoy a few baths on his own while G was visiting Papa Don and Boo for a week!  Such a treat for G to have them all to himself, and it was nice for Chad and I to have some one on one time with the Carson man!

 

 

NOTE: since I started this post Griffin has decided he kind of likes taking baths on his own better.  Bath time is now filled with Carson splashing like a mad man and Griffin getting upset and yelling, "Carson!  Stop splashing MY FACE!" 

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

As usual, the holiday season came and went in a flash.  I kept trying to remind myself to stop and remember that it was Carson's "first" everything, but that was hard with big brother running around.  Griffin really got into the holiday spirit this year.  Especially Santa Clause!  Though we did remember to include baby Jesus and he had fun playing with his little "natifidy" scene. 

The beginning of December looked a little something like this:

 

We had fun picking out our tree from Home Depot.  Griffin picked the tree and it was perfect! 

 

 

It was a beautiful day so we played outside while Dada got the tree all set up and inside.

We are pretending that there is snow to sled down.  This is how you sled in Georgia during a particularly warm winter!

Carson's first Christmas tree!

Griffin and I had fun one afternoon making/decorating a gingerbread choo-choo train!  It was a fun little project for us.  Of course his favorite part was eating all of the candy before it went on the train.  And, to be honest, I wanted him to keep his dirty little hands off my master piece.  Let's just say his candy placement wasn't what I had in mind.  We had fun working together, even if that just meant he ate the candy and I decorated the train. 

 

Notice the lack of candy decor. 

....and the candy kept disappearing!

 

A Christmas miracle - Griffin let Carson come in his Thomas tent with him and they actually "played" together!

 



 

 

We spent some time up at cousin Blake's house at the beginning of the month to help Blake celebrate his birthday!  Of course, we had to have a photo shoot of all the kids together.  Boo found these adorable GAP pajamas and ended up using a few of these photos for her Christmas cards.  Very cute cousins!

 



Leah and Carson - good luck keeping those bows in your hair pretty Leah!

Carson and Blake - staring contest?

That tongue is always out!

 

Gobble, Gobble

November was a month plauged by sickness (as was December).  There was at least one member of the Herring household sick at all times.  Ugg...these winter germs got the best of us!  That said, it didn't slow us down much.

 

I distinctly remember G wearing these "real shoes" for the first time.  It was at his first GT football game.  I thought I'd better document C's first time wearing "real shoes" as well.  Hey big boy!

 

Carson toyed with the idea of crawling in November.  By the end of the month he was a professional scooter and could get to where he wanted to go pretty quickly.  Okay, let's be honest, he got there pretty slowly.  This big boy isn't very fast...yet!

G gave a stunning performace of  "The Turkey is a Funny Bird" during his class party.  This was a major improvement over last years school gatherings!

 

I know I've said it before, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  No pressure, no prep work, lots of food and time with family.  I love these next few photos of Gaga and Gingi with their great grands and then the grands.  We have the best grandparents ever!

 

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year and always.  It was fun with the addition of two little ones around the table this year.  Carson and Jackson were the most popular guests at the gathering!

G found a cozy little spot to enjoy his banana.  Or as he calls it, his "bana."

A rare moment of playing together and sharing for these two!  Griffin is not too fond of Carson's new found mobility.

Griffin's best bud Tate came home from school with us one afternoon.  I sent them upstairs to my room for the usual "Griffin time."  They were so cute and had such a fun time up there (doing seat drops and face plants on the bed).  I'm pretty sure as soon as I snapped this photo and shut the door they hopped up and started being the little rascals that they are.  Griffin still talks about Tate being at our house and them playing on the bed.