Santa 2014

I love taking the kids for pictures with Santa.  This was the first year that no one cried.  Lauralyn was very serious, but she ran right up to him and hopped in his lap.  Lawson did the same.    

Santa 2013

Lauralyn was once again not a fan a Santa.  Lawson loved him.  I have a feeling this will be our last year for a crying picture...and that makes me a little sad.

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day at my parents house swimming.

Lauralyn didn't swim, but she had fun playing! I think the pool was too cold for her. Lawson on the other hand loves it!

Sissy and Asher 

The three boys chilling on the lounge chairs.

A couple pictures of Lawson and Lauralyn sporting their red, white and blue!

Mother's Day 2013

Mother's day 2013 was low key.  I'm glad I did actually take the time to get a picture made with my babies. I love them more than words could say.

Small Camo Party

We decided just to have a small family party for Lawson's 3rd birthday.  It was low key, low stress and just right!  Jarrett made chili and we had frito pies, hot dogs and homemade dip.  Jarrett's mom and nanny brought the cutest little bundtinis from Houston.  Basically, we ate, sang, opened presents and just let the kids play while the adults talked. 

The most fun thing about the party this year was that Lawson was really excited.  I took just him to Hobby Lobby to pick things out for his party, and he really got into it.  He kept asking when his camo party was and any time we saw camo, he would say he needed it for his camo party. 

THREE!

My baby is three, how is it possible?  Over the past few weeks, Lawson has completely changed.  Its like one morning he woke up a little boy.

He is finally for the most part potty trained.  Still a few accidents here and there.

He loves to sing songs.  He surprises us all the time with new songs he has learned at school.  Some of his favorites are:

• The B-I-B-L-E
• Jesus Loves Me
• Twinkle, Twinkle little star
• Five Little Monkeys

And my two all time favorites, his ABC's which he insists on singing every time he sees letters.  For example, we drove by Hobby Lobby and he saw the sign on the front of the building and said "Oh, I need to sing my ABCs".  My 2nd favorite is the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  He sings it in all kinds of different voices from a high pitch voice to a low loud voice.  I'm assuming this is what they do at school.  It is too cute.

He loves to play outside.  He plays on Jarrett's boat, digs in he dirt, rides his gator, pretends he's hunting or fishing.  Anything outside, he loves.

The biggest challenges with him are of course the potty training and also night time.  He won't fall asleep without one of us laying with him.  He also usually gets up in the middle of the night and crawls in our bed.  He loves to say "hold me mommy" or "hold me daddy".  It can be exhausting, but we try to just take in the sweet cuddle time.

Some other things I want to remember are that he knows his shapes and colors (since around 2 1/2) and can count pretty well.  He is extremely funny and extremely stubborn.  He can also be extremely sweet and loving.  His pisses (that's how he pronounces kisses ha!) and hugs are the best.  He is a great big brother!  He loves his sissy.

I still can't believe he is three!

Picture with Santa

We waited until Christmas Eve to take the kids to see Santa.  It wasn't on purpose, it really just snuck up on us.  I was dreading it because I thought it would be crowded and our children just are not the easiest to handle in pubic these days.  When we got there at 9:30, there was no line and we walked right up.  This year Lawson was hesitant to walk up to Santa.  Before we left the house, we looked at pictures from last year and he pointed out his sissy and his blanket in the picture.  This year he HAD to have his blanket in the picture too.  And poor little Lauralyn was just frightened by the jolly ole elf.

Thanksgiving and the Deer Lease

We spent the night before Thanksgiving at my mom's house stuffing ourselves with yummy food.  It is always a good time and my mom always makes way to much food.

Here is Lauralyn in her fall dress from her Barbar.

The next day, Jarrett and I loaded up the kids and headed to the deer lease in Graford.

The trip was one of those experiences that wasn't a ton of fun until it was over ;)  Let's just say, a two year old and a one year old plus a small camper, cactus, a daddy gone for hours hunting, dirt and very little running water are quite an exhausting mix.  In the middle of the trip I had the thought "what were we thinking".  Some of the highlights of the trip were not showering for 2 days.  Pulling cactus out of Lawson's legs.  Cleaning dirt out from under fingernails. Wiping snotty noses.  Having Lauralyn scream because she couldn't run around everywhere outside.

Some of the other highlights were sleeping between my two babies and snuggling all night.  Seeing my children light up as the ran around and had the time of their lives.

Having their cousins and Aaron and Ashley come up the second night.  All 8 of us sleeping in one camper (I wanted so badly to head home because I didn't think Lauralyn would sleep well.  However, she fell asleep easily at about 8:30 and slept until the next morning).

It was all worth it.  And was an experience I know I will never forget.  Since we've been back home Lawson will randomly ask to go to the deer lease and likes to tell everyone that "daddy not see a deer".

Unpotty Trained

There are so many things I want to blog about so that I don't forget them.  We had so many adventures this summer and I just never found the time to get them typed up.  Hopefully I can get caught up in the next couple of weeks.

One of the big adventures....that is still ongoing .....is potty training.

About a month ago when I thought about typing this post and documenting this milestone, I had a 100% tee-tee potty trained little boy.  It took about 3 days to get there and we were shocked!!  He was a few months over 2.   We were very excited and he was in underwear all the time.  He was still having poop accidents, but that was once a day, so we were just dealing with it and knew it would come in time.

Well, that started three weeks before I went back to work.  I thought this is great, we will work on the poop and then he will be potty trained, piece of cake!  Now keep in mind I had been dreading potty training, so the fact that it happened somewhat easily floored me.

Fast forward three weeks to Lawson starting school again.  Since he wasn't fully poop trained, we had to put him in pull ups for school. The policy is they have to be accident free for 2 weeks before they can come in underwear.  And that's when the unpotty training happened.  The first weekend after his first week of school I put him in underwear like I had been doing 100 percent of the time and it became accident city.  I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown.  He had more accidents in that weekend than he had the entire time when I was "training" him.  In his seat at the dining table, in his carseat which trickled down to the actual seat of the car, in the floor, you name it.

So right now we are at a stand still.  For Lawson it seems that as long as he has to wear pull-ups at school, he is going to continue to have accidents.  We are still trying, but until I get to be with him around the clock and have him in underwear 100% of the time, we aren't putting tons of pressure on the topic.  So for now, we try, we don't get frustrated and we just remember that he won't be wearing diapers when he goes to high school.

And hopefully in a few months I will be typing a post of a fully potty trained little boy!

Brotherly and Sisterly Love

Okay mom, take our picture already!!

Think she'll stop if we give her a big smile?

We really are the best of friends!

 And we will always love and protect each other!

Lawson's 2 Year Well Check

I was a little nervous about taking Lawson to his two year well check because the last time I took him to the doctor when he was sick, he wanted to get out of there as fast as he could!  This time, he did great!  He stood on the scale and got weighed and measured and headed straight to the exam room.  He jumped up on the table and laid his head right on the pillow.  He sat while he got his blood pressure checked and just did so great!  It was so easy.  He was entertained with a quarter while we waited on his doctor and then he proceeded to want to play catch with the doctor, but all in all it was a great visit.  He did get one shot, but that is all he has to have until he is 4!  He just talked and talked and picked out his little toy at the end....a ball of course!

He weighed 29 lbs and I can't remember his height :(, I'll have to ask next time!  And he is healthy as can be!  It is so easy to take health for granted, but I'm trying to remember to thank God each day for his health and really the good health of all of our family.

Our two year old loves.....

To play with Daddy

 To wear his boots....with any outfit.

 To play with his sissy

 To swim

 To mow the yard with daddy....every Thursday

Lawson's End of School Program

Tuesday night Lawson had his end of school program.  It was the cutest thing and he did a great job mostly dancing, clapping and just having a good time.  His little class sang I'm a little tea pot and he even got into it with some of the motions.  He definitely had the tip me over head move down.  Unfortunately I didn't get many good pictures.  I will have to be more prepared with a better lens next time!!

Here is the best picture we got of the our family.  Jarrett had to come straight from work, thus the uniform.  My mom and dad and brother and sister-in-law and Abram and Asher all got to come too!!  I'm sure there are many school programs in our future!

Flu and Two

So as it turns out, we had to cancel the big party for Lawson's birthday, and scale it down to just family.  He ended up having fever on Friday, and we just couldn't risk him still be contagious on Saturday and plus he was still laying around and not acting like hisself.

The family party turned out great though!! We had beef and chicken fajitas from the Supermercado with all the fixings and cupcakes and ice cream. We sang happy birthday to Lawson and he was spoiled with great gifts. It really was a lot of fun, and we just might start doing family birthdays more often!  I did a little bit of last minute decorating to make it festive.

The Life Skills teachers that I work with make amazing cupcakes.  They made these red velvet, lemon and vanilla cupcakes for the party.  They were delicious!

Tired little sister!

Present time!

We got Lawson a pair of boots.  He loves them and wears them all the time....even with shorts!

Fortunately, he was much better on Saturday and he played and played and played with his cousins Abram and Asher.  He absolutely adores them, and they are soo sweet to him.  They rode his new Gator with him.  He loved it!  He wants to drive it all the time!  He also got a trampoline that we still need to set up for him.  I know he and Lauralyn are going to have hours and hours of fun on it!

It turned out to be a great day.  We are so thankful that Lawson felt better and that the flu had left our house with no one else getting it!  

Baby Dedication

Sunday we had baby dedications for Lawson and Lauralyn at church.  The intention of a baby dedication is for the parent's to commit to pray for their children and to raise them according to God's will.   We were so blessed to have Jarrett's mom and nanny in town, as well as my family including Aaron, Ashley, Abram and Asher in attendance. 
It truly was a special time.  We had the opportunity to read them a letter that we wrote to them of our commitment to pray for them constantly.  It is so easy to get caught up in the things of this world, and as we wrote the letters to them I was reminded that my greatest desire is for their salvation and that they will serve Christ with their lives.  They were each given a small Bible with their name on it, and I plan to write the letter in each of their Bibles.