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

Christmas Eve Eve Eve...

Every year we have dinner (usually taco salad) at my Dad and Stepmom's the weekend before Christmas. It's our time to visit as a family and do gifts too. This is much more low-key/quite than our Christmas Day dinner at my Dad's with his whole family. I know I promised to be better about taking pictures at Christmas than I was at Thanksgiving, but I'm ashamed to admit I was not. I'm just way to wrapped up in watching Lawson experience everything for the first time. I did get these two pics with Addison and Jevin. We take a picture with each of them every year and I put it in a picture frame ornament. This way when they grow up, they will have a way to look back on each Christmas.

As you can see, Addison is being a little toot, but I did make her get up from playing with her new toy to come take a picture. I wish I had taken pictures of the ornaments, but I did not. Boo.

Mandy

Santa

Jason and I both graduated from UA Fort Smith (and now we both work there), so we have the privilege of enjoying the activities hosted by the Alumni Association. This year they hosted Donuts With Santa, so we took Lawson. Neither of us were fired up about going to the mall and standing in line to pay a fortune for a picture with Santa, so this event worked out perfectly for us. :-)

As you might imagine, Lawson was not a fan of the man in the red suite. Lawson takes a while to warm up to people in general, so we decided Jason would quickly put him on Santa's lap and step away in hopes that the photographer could snap a picture before Lawson started to cry. Epic Fail.

We even tried one with mom on Santa's lap too, but that didn't work either. Bless his little heart.

Once we got him away from Santa, he was fine. He was all silly and acting crazy with Daddy. 

Till next year Santa Clause. 

Mandy

Overnight Stay

I can't believe I forgot to post this. It's a huge deal in the life of new parents and a first-born child. Lawson stayed the night with his Nana the day after Thanksgiving!!! Yep. That's right. His first night away. They picked him up after his dinner, and Nana brought him home after lunch the next day. I realize that doesn't sound like very long, but trust me, in my world, that's an eternity without my little boy. Same goes for Jason.

I was fine until they got out the door. I let Jason put him in his seat and get him all buckled in. I had all his bags packed and ready to go. I kissed him good bye. We turned to walk back to the living room (having not even walked them to the car because that would have been WAY too hard), and I lost it. Jason gave me a tight squeeze, reassured me that he would be fine, and that he would have fun, turned me toward the couch and said, "Now, sit down and let's watch some TV...uninterrupted TV." So that's what we did. Our big night alone, and we sat on the couch and watch old episodes of The Big Bang Theory. About an hour in, Jason started running a fever, took some medicine and passed out on the couch. That's when I got busy. I tend to be the most productive when I'm angry or upset or apparently when I'm trying not to think about my child not being in the next room. I cleaned for about three hours. Then the next morning I got the Christmas stuff out and put up the little bit of stuff we wanted out this year.

Nana brought Lawson home, and we were SO excited to see him. By that night though Jason was even more miserable. The next morning when Lawson and I got up to go to church, Jason headed to the doctor. Lawson and I went to lunch with Nana at which point we found out Jason had strep throat. Awesome. So, I went to get his prescription filled while Lawson hung out with Nana, Auntie Tina and Jevin, and then I came home and packed bags for Lawson and I to stay with Nana for the night. Jason HATED being away from his boy for another night, but we did not want him catching strep.

It was a whirlwind of a weekend. Jason and I made it through Lawson being gone for the night, and Lawson had a great time at Nana's house.

Lawson playing with the kitchen in the playroom at Nana's. The stove is off limits at home, so I guess he was making up for it by playing with this one. :-)

Nana helping Lawson pop a wheelie on the four wheeler. Nan's house is like Toys R Us she has so many fun things to play with. 

Mandy

One Small Step...

Over the past week or so, Lawson has gotten more and more comfortable standing on his own and cruising along the furniture. He will even toddle beside you holding one hand for a little ways. Then, on Christmas Eve Eve, he took SEVEN steps all by himself. Now, Jason may or may not have been holding his iPhone out as bait, but still. He took SEVEN steps all by himself. SEVEN!!!

We of course did not get this on video, and the second we tried for an encore the little stinker just wanted to crawl. He's been taking more and more steps every day. He's not "walking" just yet, but he sure is getting close. I cannot believe my baby is getting so big so fast.

Since we have yet to get video or a picture of him taking steps by himself, these pics of him standing and looking all grown up will have to do.

Mandy