Rodeo

Tuesday night we took Lawson to the Old Fort Days Rodeo for the first time. He was only five months old this time last year, and I thought it was just too hot to take him. BUT, this year, he loves being outside and he can identify lots of animals, so we went for it.

Love hanging out with the two boys.

We are very serious about this rodeo business.

My Mom and sisters and their kiddos came too, so it was a family affair. As you can see, Nana couldn't resist buying her youngest cowboy a hat too. He wasn't fired up about it, but it's still cute.

Trying to take our new hat off as soon as Daddy put it on.

With Nana.

Pretty sure I like cotton candy...

"Yep. I like it."

He just kept wanting more once he figured out that he liked it.

As you can see, both of these boys had plenty of cotton candy. They managed to get most of it in their mouths, but were still a little messy. (or as Lawson says, "messy mess.")

He decided to wear his hat a little bit more. Still didn't keep it on long, but i did get this one pic. He's so serious.

I just love these two boys! I'd rather hang out with them than anyone else. They are best buddies.

Family Fun

Last weekend Grandpa and Gigi hosted a family weenie roast. We had such a great time visiting with family, watching kiddos play and of course eating.

This is cousin Destini. She is three and a half months younger than Lawson.

This is cousin Jaxx. He is about five months older than Lawson.

 

Lawson and cousin Jevin.



Lawson and Destini's pink chair. Ha!



My Grandma and Aunt got the three littlest kids (Lawson, Destini and Jaxx) little Adirondack chairs. As you can see Jevin decided to borrow Jaxx's chair. And, Lawson like Destini's pink one as well as his blue one.



Fun on the swing.



LOVES the swing. He calls it "weeeeee!" Ya know, as in, "Weee! This is fun!"








And, we love the slide too!



What a fun day!!! It seems like we only have big family get togethers during the holidays, but if you ask me, it's just as fun to do it on a random Saturday evening!!!



Dut-Duts

Lawson is a pretty routine kind of kid. He comes by it honestly because Jason and I are the same way. For the most part, if we do something two or three times, he knows that the way we do it. It's this way with our bath time and bed time routines as well as when we eat dinner (if he's not in his chair eating within like 30-45 minutes of me getting home from work, he walks in the kitchen and starts repeating, "Eat. Eat, Eat."This can be a REALLY good thing and sometimes a not so good thing.

For example, a week or two ago as I was leaving for work Jason sat down on the love seat with Lawson and his sippy cup (they wave bye-bye to me out the window everyday), a individual chocolate milk, and a bag of mini chocolate donuts. Like most kids, when Lawson sees some one eating something, he wants a bite. Jason gave him a small bite of each chocolate donut as he ate them. The same thing happened the next morning. SO, by like the third or fourth morning when Jason walked out of the bedroom, Lawson walked to the kitchen, pointed at the donuts and said, "Dut-duts. Dut-duts. Mmmmmm." Keep in mind this dut-dut business is all happening before Lawson's actual breakfast. We try to make sure he has relatively balanced meals, but giving him dut-duts every morning is not really in line with that goal. I think he's finally realized that we don't have to sit on the couch and have dut-duts with Daddy EVERY morning, but the second he sees the dut-duts (which are no longer out on the counter but put up in the cabinet so he doesn't see them right away) he wants them.

Last week after he had eaten some more healthy breakfast food, Jason let him have a whole dut-dut. You think he likes it? Haha!

I think the second one might be one of my favorite all-time pictures of him. Such a little stinker!!

Weekend of First/Mother's Day

Last weekend was a big weekend for Mr. Lawson Jace. Firsts are important when you have a baby. First tooth, first steps, first words, etc. Here are some other, maybe not so conventional, first that Lawson experienced last weekend.







Lawson went on his first (and second and third) Jeep ride.

I think this little boy is going to love Jeep rides just as much as his Daddy. He was a little amused when the wind started to blow his hair. He just jabbered and jabbered in the backseat the whole ride.

And, we took our first ride on the four-wheeler.

Lawson likes to sit on the four-wheeler and pretend to ride when it's parked in the shop, but this time Daddy took him on a little spin (ok, multiple little spins) around the yard. Lawson loved it.

And, we broke out the sprinkler.

Lawson played in a kiddy pool last summer and loved it, but now that he can run around on his own, the sprinkler seemed like a good idea. He wasn't sure about it at first, but then he got the hang of it and LOVED it.

And, off course, last Sunday was Mother's Day. We spent Sunday evening having dinner at my Mom's (Nana's). This seems to be the only picture I have from our day, but this is pretty much what we did. Just sat around and visited while the kids played. I love that I get to spend Mother's Day with three amazing mothers: my mom and my two sisters!

Blog Book

I sometimes make comments about using this blog as a baby book of sorts for Lawson. I've said before that I plan to print the blog in book form, so I'll always have it, and someday Lawson can have them. Well, I just printed Keyes Family Chronicles Vol. 1.

I'm sure Lawson will hate me one day for using that first picture for the cover, but I couldn't help it. Even though he has changed tremendously in the past 16 months, I can still see that newborn somewhere in his eyes.

To Play or Not To Play

After I returned to work from maternaty leave, I realized just how little time I have to spend with Lawson during the week. We get some time in the morning before I leave (like 30 minutes or an hour max) and then about 2.5 hours in the evening. I remember the day I actually did the math. I was walking to my car day two back to work when it hit me. Tears started to well up in my eyes, and my feet suddenly walked with more speed and purpose than ever. Since that day I have made the decision to choose play over (house) work. Given the choice between cleaning the kitchen after dinner and playing with Lawson/spending time with my two favorite boys, I choose to play. Don't get me wrong. We have clean clothes to wear and clean dishes (even if they are paper plates) from which to eat, and my house is not filthy. However, my sink is not always dish free when I go to bed at night, and I'm okay with that. There may still be a load of laundry in the dryer that needs folded or a load of clean dishes in the dishwasher that need to be put up, but life goes on. I heard someone say once that they never looked back on their life and thought, "man, I wish I had spent more time cleaning my house and less time with my family." True. True. True.

So, this week I was faced with a very messy kitchen

 ...or a beautiful, sun shinny evening outside with Lawson. You can guess what I chose.

We went for a ride on Daddy's mower (moe-ah is how L says it).

We played with our silly dogs.

We tried to play with Daddy's tools, but they are a no-no. :-)

We "drove" Daddy's four-wheeler.

Enjoyed the sunshine. Look at that sweet, sweet head.

"Drove" Daddy's Jeep.

And, climbed a dirt hill. In this picture, he is saying, "Da-dah!!!" He's pretty proud of himself.

Once Lawson was in bed, I headed to the kitchen. It wasn't spotless when I settled in to watch a little TV with my Jason, but it was good enough.