M&M's

My mom came to see Lawson after church on his birthday, and in true Nana fashion, she brought him balloons and a 2 pound bag of M&M's. we let him try a few, and he loves them of course. Also know that over half of them are still in a bowl on my table three weeks later.

Birthday Donuts

Lawson's birthday was on a Sunday and his party was scheduled for the following Saturday, so for his actual birthday we got donuts for breakfast and sang Happy Birthday randomly throughout the day. He also got a drink of Daddy's chocolate milk, which he really wasn't super pumped about. Silly boy!

Bedtime

I realize this post is a little random, and I know I need to post about Lawson's awesome birthday. But, I've been meaning to post this for a while and just keep forgetting.

Lawson's bedtime routine is pretty basic. It just kind of fell into place over the first year. For the most part, we've done the same thing at bedtime every night (with a few exceptions for family functions, holidays, etc.). I figure someday I might want to think back on it, but my memory is shot, so it will be fuzzy at best. For the sake of being able to look back on this time in the life of our family, I thought I'd post about it.

Sometime between 7:30p and 8p is bath time: Jason handles bath time, and Lawson LOVES it. There have been a few occasions where I've taken care of bath time, but it has kind of become a special thing for Daddy and son.

Between 7:45p and 8:15p bath time is over, and I take over. I snuggle Lawson in is cozy towel and get him all dry then give him a good rubdown with night time lotion (the purple kind that is supposed to relax the baby but also works on mom). I get Lawson all deck out in his cozy socks and jam-jams. He has some footie jammies and some one piece jammies, but for the most part he wears two piece jammies. My favorites are a toss up between blue dinosaur jammies, his camo long johns, and his Batman jammies. During this time, Daddy gets the bedtime bottle ready.

Between 8p and 8:30p Daddy gets his bedtime snuggles, and if Lawson isn't too sleepy/fussy, the boys say their ABC's. Then I take over again and Daddy pushes play on our bedtime music. I love the Jewel Lullaby CD we listen to every night. If you have a child or are expecting one, I highly recommend it.

 

My favorite lullaby on the CD is called "Sweet Dreams For You". Here are the lyrics:

The shadows are waltzing

The moon beams are calling

Like a dream I am falling into

Silver threads lined with two twinkling stars seem

To shine just for you

Behind your eyes

Are endless blue skies

You travel places I want to come to

Each breath that you breathe is a brush stroke

That leads me to you

So, sleep

Fall into night’s indigo hue

Believe me it’s true

There’s nothing that I would not do

For my dream is sweet dreams for you

It seems far away

But there once was a day

It was grey in a world without you

To this heart like a doll from above

A miracle of your love found me

So, sleep

Fall into night’s indigo hue

Believe me it’s true

There’s nothing that I would not do

For my dream is sweet dreams for you

So hush-a-bye

And don’t you cry

Sweetly dreaming, little baby

Yes, sleep

Lose yourself in night’s indigo hue

Believe me it’s true

There’s nothing that I would not do

For my dream is sweet dreams

Yes, my dream is sweet dreams for you

I give Lawson his bottle as he drifts off to sleep. I always tell him how much he is loved and how special he is. Two verses that always come to my mind are Jeremiah 1:5 and Jeremiah 29:11, so I tell Lawson about the verses in God's word and how they apply to him.

"Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I already knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart." Jeremiah 1:5

"'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11

I hope that these verses (and many others) will be imprinted in Lawson's mind and his heart as he grows up and becomes the man God created him to be.

Once Lawson is good and asleep, I put him to bed, cover him with one of his quilts (each of which was made with love by someone special to our family), and quietly slip out of the room.

I know this post may not be everyone's favorite, but it's about something I want to remember. That I want to be able to look back on in great detail. Time is fleeting, and my goal is to soak up every ounce of time I can with my sweet baby boy, making memories (like this one) all the way.

Mandy

Oreos

I love Oreos! Jason loves Oreos! According to the package, Oreos are milk's favorite cookie. Well, Lawson seems to love them too. Just had to document his first Oreo.

Randomness

Sometimes I have pictures of Lawson that don't really need an entire post, so I've decided to put them all together. They are just way too cute not to post.

What's cuter than a sweet baby boy flipping through a book all by himself.

Blowing kisses. We actually sent this virtual kiss to a friend from work with our Facebook Happy Birthday message.

Yes, Mr. Rogers, I will be your neighbor. I know it won't surprise anyone to know that I loved Mr. Rogers as a kid...okay...I still love Mr. Rogers. Well, Lawson actually likes it too. He loves the music and Trolley.

This is just stinking cute. He's wearing Daddy's camo hat. Look at that sweet little smile.

Mandy

Daddy's Little Helper

Lawson and his Daddy are best buddies. In true little boy fashion, Lawson wants to be wherever Jason is. He's also Daddy's little helper. When Jason is working on something, Lawson just watches intently. Sometimes he "helps" too. Jason got a new shop vac for Christmas (which actually became my shop vac for in the house since Jason already had a big one for outside), and Lawson helped him put it together.

Look how happy they both are. Man I love these two boys!!!

Mandy

White Christmas

I think everyone has wished for a white Christmas at one time or another. Well, this year we had one!! It started snowing pretty early on Christmas Day and just kept coming. Our plan was to go to my Dad's house for Christmas dinner with his family. He lives less than 10 minutes away and it's not really on the back roads, so we decided to go ahead and venture out. I had baked a cake (for Jesus' birthday per a request from My step mom), baked a ham and made pasta salad. It took us 20 - 30 minutes to get there but we made it. Turns out we were about the only ones who made it. Steph and Addison were there too but that was it. So, our Christmas dinner consisted of ham, pasta salad, 7 layer dip, rolls, cake and cookies.

We ate and then headed home pretty quickly. It took us about 20-30 minutes to get home but we made it safely thanks to Jason's careful driving. I actually didn't get any pictures on Christmas Day, but I got a few the next day when we took Lawson outside to experience snow for the first time. Technically Lawson's first snow was last winter, but since he was only about a month old at that point, we didn't get him out in it. This time we did. As you can see, the snow was pretty deep. Lawson wasn't sure what to think of it. I'm sure if we get snow next winter his reaction will be substantially more enthusiastic.

Lawson's Ball Pit

We got Lawson a bag of balls for Christmas because he loves to throw and, let's face it, what kid doesn't want 100 balls to throw around and play with in their room? Here are some pics of the fun we had those first couple of days with the balls. I will post videos later.

Lawson's First Christmas

There were a lot of activities and firsts leading up to Christmas at our house. Jason and I had a lot of fun shopping for this first Christmas with our boy. We just had a hard time waiting until Christmas to do presents. Jason and I have been married for almost 12 years, and I promise you we have never once waited until Christmas to give each other presents. We decide the first year we were married that we were grown ups and could do whatever we wanted. We knew it would be had to keep presents hidden until Christmas, and it was!!

As you can see, Lawson had a good Christmas. We also got him a huge bag of balls like the ones in the ball pit at like Chuck E Cheese. We just dumped these out in his room. I will post pics and videos of that separately.

Christmas Eve at Nana's

Each year we have dinner at my Mom's (Nana) on Christmas Eve. Usually my Uncle David and Aunt Debbie and their family join us too. We eat WAY too much food, open gifts and visit. This year was no exception. We (or should I say I) ate way too much. We had a great visit with family. And, Nana and Bopa went crazy overboard on gifts...especially for the kiddos.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve. Auntie Tina and Jevin didn't make it to Christmas Eve (or Christmas) because poor Jevin had the flu AND strep throat. Bless his heart! They sent their gifts though, so we took these pictures of Lawson opening the gifts they got him.

We changed into our jammies at Nana's so when we fell asleep on the way home, we could just go straight to bed. Lawson was the only kiddo left by this point, so he decided to help himself to one of Nana's ornaments. He tried to put it back but couldn't figure out how to do it, so he handed it to me. Sweet boy. 

mandy

Christmas: Aunt Kristin and the Girls

The weekend before Christmas Jason's sister and her girls came over to visit and bring Lawson his Christmas presents. This was actually his first experience with opening presents, so it was interesting. I promise I took pictures AND videos, but for the life of me, I can't find them on Jason's phone or mine. What the heck!?!?!? Anyway, what I do have are a few pictures of Lawson with these lovely ladies and a couple of the ladies when they visited.

As you can tell this was when Lawson was still tiny. What happened to that little baby!?!? That's Aunt Kristin and cousin Ashton.

Miss Ashton

Miss Allyssia

Aunt Kristin

Aunt Kristin giving Lawson a little piano lesson. 

If I find the pics or videos from present opening, I'll post them later. Needless to say, this was just the beginning of the abundance of gifts Lawson received for Christmas. Can anyone say SPOILED?

Mandy