September

My parents came to visit again for Labor Day weekend and my birthday. We've been really lucky this year to see them fairly often, considering how far apart we live! My dad almost always has some Jelly Belly's around for Nolan and Grant. Here's a video of the dance they have to do to get one!

My boys made me a delicious cake and got me an ipad 2 for my birthday! Mike has been working locally all summer, so I've been able to use his ipad and I've gotten pretty addicted. It makes my elliptical workouts so much easier when I can play games and surf the internet. I'm very excited to have my own (although Nolan and Grant seem to think it belongs to them)!
Nolan has started playing soccer and had his first game this weekend. He doesn't go after the ball much, but he runs his little heart out up and down the field- and he sure does look cute in his uniform!

And these are just some other recent ones of the boys...

Chicago

Our final trip this summer was to Chicago to visit my brother Dan and his wife Carly. We went for a long weekend and made the most of the time we had with them! We had such a wonderful visit and loved seeing their new place. The boys hadn't seen them since Christmas (I can't believe we went that long!), but they acted as comfortable as if they had seen them last week. Of course Dan and Carly enjoyed spoiling them with toys and treats, and they also took us to Chuck E. Cheese (back-up plan due to rain), a local playground, and the airshow (although Dan spent his time in the car looking for parking...). I hope we can get back to visit them again next summer, if not sooner!

Catching Up

We've been pretty busy these last few weeks! Toward the end of July, Grant had an accident and fractured his collarbone. Our double jogging stroller (with Nolan in it) fell backwards on top of him. The poor guy was in a lot of pain and wasn't able to do a lot of his normal activities. The doctor said they would normally give someone a sling for this kind of fracture, but since Grant wouldn't understand that, there was nothing we could do except be careful. Luckily, it only took a few days for all of us to figure out how much he could do without hurting, and he was already feeling a lot better the next week.
Shortly after that, we took a trip to Ohio to visit with our families. We had a great time seeing everyone and being up there this time of year makes it seem not so bad afterall. Seeing the boys with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins really does make us wish we lived closer...only we wish they'd all decide to move further south!

Nolan caught his first fish at Grandma and Grandpa Peresie's, and then we played some wiffle ball. Grant loved playing the game with his cousins, but Nolan was more interested in checking out the tractors  :)

Next we went to visit my parents, where we spent a day at the zoo among other fun stuff! Unfortunately, I only had my point and shoot camera for the entire trip, so most of these pictures were taken by other people!

School Starts

As soon as we got back from Ohio, school started for Nolan. He's in a new room this year and is very excited about it! He's also going 3 half days a week now. He absolutely refused to let me take a picture of him on his first day (I got a few of the back of his head), but one of the other moms got this one of him with some of his buddies.

I also started Grant in the same Parents Morning Out program that I used to take Nolan to. Right now he's going once a week and next month he'll start going twice a week. It's a big adjustment for him to be away from me and Nolan, but he's doing alright and crying has been pretty minimal. My little baby is growing up so fast!!

Gram's Visit

Since my mom is on summer vacation right now, she came back here with us after our Kiawah trip. She was here for a week and such a huge help! The boys adore their Gram and miss her already (and so do Mike and I). We didn't get a chance to do too much exciting stuff, but we did make it to the Children's Museum and she helped me take the boys to the dentist (Grant's first time!), where they were on their best behavior and made me proud! And speaking of making me proud, Mike got a promotion that he's been working very hard for! We're so excited for him!
Here are some of the pictures my mom took while she was here. She finally understands just how hard it is to capture these boys!

Kiawah Island

After the 4th, Mike headed back to work and the boys and I took a trip to Kiawah Island to spend the rest of the week with my parents. It was our vacation spot almost every summer growing up, and it felt great to be back! I haven't been there in a few years (Mike and I went one spring while he was in grad school), so I'd started to forget just how beautiful it is. It took Grant a little while to warm up to the beach during the day (both boys loved it in the evening), but Nolan couldn't get enough. His favorite part was getting "blasted" by the waves, and he was also really excited to find a starfish! Of course they didn't mind being totally spoiled with attention from my parents either!

4th of July

For the first time in years, we were actually home for the 4th of July. We enjoyed a long weekend to ourselves and took the boys to our neighborhood parade and picnic. Nolan was very excited to see the firetruck! We didn't make it to any fireworks, however. Maybe next year!