December So Far

As usual, we've been extra busy this month! On top of the normal birthdays, Christmas parties, and shopping, we spent some time dealing with Grant's medical issues. He had a rash on his cheeks and chin for a few weeks, so I brought him in to the doctor to see if there was anything we could do (I figured it was eczema). The doctor put him on an oral antibiotic in case it was infected and also gave us an ointment to use. A few days after using the ointment, things were looking much worse so we brought him back in. That doctor told us to take him off of the ointment, keep him on the antibiotic, and take him to a dermatologist. A couple days after that, the poor kid broke out in a horrible itchy rash all over his body, which turned out to be an allergic reaction to penicillin. While the penicillin worked its way out of his body, he was pretty miserable since the itching made it really hard to sleep (even with Benadryl). Anyway, we survived that, got into the dermatologist this week, and within a couple days of using a steroid ointment he's looking and feeling much better (it is just a bad case of eczema, by the way)!

The first weekend this month, Mike's mom came for a short visit. She helped us pick out and decorate our tree! She also brought the boys little battery operated trains that they quickly became obsessed with :)

The next weekend, we celebrated Mike's 32nd birthday, and he and I went to his Christmas party for work.

This past weekend, we had our 3rd annual Christmas party with friends and Santa. Grant was a little shy with Santa (he was also very tired), but Nolan loved the whole thing! 

Now Mike is off for two whole weeks over Christmas, and we're both looking forward to the break!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My parents and brother joined us for Thanksgiving weekend this year. Even though it makes for a crowded house, we love having their company- especially at the holidays. Mike cooked one of his best turkeys yet and we all had a fun weekend!

 My dad convinced Nolan that he had to wear his Indian costume to search for the Thanksgiving pies :) 

 Helping Gram and Pap decorate gingerbread cookies!

We also recently took some pictures of the boys for our Christmas cards. Like usual, we took a LOT and were lucky enough to get just a few good ones! I should probably be shooting at super high shutter speeds at all times since it's impossible to get them to stay still!

Florida

Last weekend we took a trip to Florida to visit Mike's mom. The drive is always longer than we think it'll be, but the boys did pretty well (thanks to the DVD player!). Saturday we went to Busch Gardens and had so much fun! We'd never been before, but it was a perfect place for the boys. Besides getting to meet the Sesame Street characters, ride a train, and see tons of animals, they got to go on rides and Nolan rode his first roller coaster! We were all exhausted after that, so the next day we took it easy, visiting the manatees at a local power plant (they go there for the warm water), watching football, and the boys even braved a quick dip in the pool to test out the water slide.

Trick or Treat!

Nolan and Grant dressed up as ninjas for Halloween this year. They had a blast trick-or-treating with friends and got a ton of candy! Nolan threw quite a fit on the way home (past bedtime) because we told him he couldn't eat it all that night. Poor kid :)

Pumpkins and Soccer

Nolan played in his last soccer game of the season this weekend. Although I could probably count on one hand the number of times he kicked the ball during a game, he LOVED being part of the Knights team. We're so proud of how well he listened to his coaches and ran his little heart out at every practice and game. He can't wait to play again next year!

We also carved our pumpkins this weekend in preparation for Halloween!

October

Wow, it's hard to believe this month is almost over! We have been busy with Nolan's soccer twice a week and enjoying other fun things on the weekends. We went to Cagle's Farm with some friends where we got to take a hay ride, see lots of animals, and of course the boys spent lots of time jumping on the bouncy floors with their friends!

The next weekend, the boys stayed with my parents while Mike and I enjoyed going to a friends' wedding kid-free. Although we missed them, I think we all had a fun weekend! The boys had a blast with Gram and Pap helping them pick out and carve pumpkins, going to a farm, and even making a chicken nugget pizza!