party pics.

We celebrated Lawson's birthday with family last Sunday. I'm just slow to get around to posting about it. :)

Making his ice cream "dirt cake"... complete with gummy worms.



Lighting was bad... but picture was still cute.


Opening presents...


Sophie's present... she picked it out just for him, and paid with her own money (from her fuzzy pink wallet!)


I think he liked it. :)


Almost every present got shouts of "Wow! Just what I wanted! I love it!" (He's a very enthusiastic little guy... and he was especially energetic this day!)



Lots of shooting rockets, bubble guns, flying things, and toys for outdoor fun. Which didn't work out too great considering the yard was covered in snow. But the driveway was clear and Uncle Brian, Aunt Heather, Grandpa and Uncle Casey were great sports.

Noise putty from Uncle Casey...

He was pretty thrilled with his cow umbrella!

So ornery...

but so, so sweet!

4 years old.

Happy Birthday, Lawson!

Every day, you make me laugh.
Every day, you make me glad to be a mommy.
Every day, you make a memory I'll never want to forget.
Every day, I'm more thankful than the day before that you are my little boy.
Every day, I see your red hair and touch your soft skin and wonder how I ever lived my life without you.
Every day.

I love you, little man.
Out of all the little boys in the world, I am so glad God gave me you.

bracelet.

This was one of my Valentine's from a first grader...

How sweet is that?!

It's from a little boy, even!

ballet.

Just a preview...

Recital is on May 2nd!

update.

I've been way too exhausted to blog in the evenings lately. (SuperDad is still doing way more than his share. Gonna have to figure out a good way to repay that man once this first trimester is over...)

Since it's 11* outside right now and we're waiting on our 10-12 inches of snow (stupid weather. It was 80* last week. Seriously) we're doing indoor recess. And since these little children have been climbing the walls the last 2 days, but are actually playing quietly right now, we'll do indoor recess for a bit longer than normal. :) And... since I'm not currently struggling to keep my eyes open, I'll do some blogging!


Sophie...
Struggling so much with attitude right now. Not at school. Not at church. Not at ballet. Just at home. So frustrating. I keep telling myself that if she's going to be sassy and rude to anyone, I would rather it be me. But really, is it too much to ask that she just not be sassy and rude at all?! If 6 is this hard, 13 is going to kill me. We're trying some different strategies... trying some positive reinforcement... trying to be consistent... trying an earlier bedtime... praying for patience. She was wonderful this morning. I love mornings like that.

funny... She told me the other night when we were picking out clothes that she "had to wear a dress to school!" When I asked why, she said it was because Mrs. Roux told her to "leave her cranky pants at home." (She did have one tired day at school where she was apparently easily annoyed by other kids. Not rude to her teacher at all. Just cranky and annoyed with other kids.)


Lawson...
Still sweet. Still funny. Still the snuggliest little thing ever. And I still can't believe he turns 4 on Sunday. I did tell him last night though, that when he is 4 he cannot cry and whine about silly things anymore. We'll see how well that works! :) He has for some reason started oinking like a pig at random times. When we are praying at supper, when he gets nervous, when someone asks him something... Not a bunch of oinks, usually just one. No idea why or where this came from. Maybe he'll stop that when he turns 4, too.

funny... I got this email from his pre-school teacher the other day:

Since I don't see you that often, I had to pass this on to you. The minds of 3 (almost 4) year olds crack me up! When we were sitting at circle time today, I brought a box of buttons with me to use with the story (for "B" week). As I was sitting down, I told the kids that I was going to use the buttons today to help me tell the story. Without missing a beat, Lawson kind of giggled, but was very serious when he said, "Ms. Karri, I don't know how that's going to work because I've never seen buttons talk before!" It was a bright spot in my morning!!

marley.

Marley before her visit to the groomer...



She does have eyes. Really.

and after...

Her legs look so skinny and her feet seem so small!

You can see her eyes!

It's like a whole new dog! (a cleaner, nicer smelling dog!)

park.

It's always fun to meet Daddy for lunch.
Especially since Daddy works at the park!

dentist.

I took Lawson into the dentist at 8:00 Friday morning.
(Can you tell by his eyes that we haven't been getting up this early for any of Spring Break?!)





He said it looks like he impacted that tooth (jammed it up into his gum) when he fell. Not enough to damage the permanent tooth behind it, but enough that it will probably damage this tooth. It should tighten up on it's own and not be wiggly anymore, but it will probably start to discolor in a couple weeks and may eventually turn gray, or a beautiful "pond water brown."

Lovely.

But it could be worse.
And honestly, I'm surprised this little man hasn't done something like this before now.
I'm still a little bit amazed we haven't visited the ER with him yet.

He has a routine cleaning scheduled for June, so they'll check it out then.
He did say that if it gets too ugly (or it is bothering Mommy too much!) they could just go ahead and pull it. Then he would just have an empty spot for however long it takes for his permanent tooth to grow in. (I'm thinking that may be cuter than a gray-brown front tooth.)

pet store.

We went for a walk with Grandma to visit the little pet store in town.

We loved this guy's buggy eyes...

This furry little guy was my favorite...

We stopped for about 10 minutes on the walk home to pick these up...

So fun to run into you while we were collecting, "Big Amy!" :)

cookies with grandma.

Sophie was so proud of herself!

Grandma let her do almost everything on her own!

abilene.

The kids and I made a quick trip up to Abilene Wednesday evening to stay the night with my parents.

It should have been a rather uneventful trip...

It started with a $123 speeding ticket. Lovely.
(Amanda... you came to mind while I was sitting there on the side of the road. Where do things like that fit into your budget plan?!)


For lunch on Thursday we took the kids to Burger King. They were so excited to play in the little play area after they ate!
For some reason, Lawson got scared and didn't want to do it, but his big sister took him all the way through and he came out like this...



Laughing about how much fun it was and how it wasn't scary at all!
He goes jumping up the steps to crawl through again...

slips, and does a face plant right on one of those red (slightly cushioned) tubes.

Instant tears and quite a bit of blood.

He ended up with a really fat lip, a big gash inside his lip (he bit it really hard), bruised gums, and a wiggly front tooth. Ugh.

(We called our dentist back home and they said to bring him in the next day. More on that...)

He did settle down and end up going around several mores times with Sophie.

Such a tough little guy.

love this.

Two pieces of my heart... snuggled up together on the couch.

9 weeks.

October 20th is the official date!

It's amazing to me... only a few centimeters long, yet you can already see a tiny little person.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:15-16

funny.

I took the kids with me to the store the other day, just to grab some fresh fruit.
Sophie is browsing and I hear her say, "What are these orange things?!"
Me: "Uh, carrots." (we eat carrots all the time!)
Sophie: "They're HUGE!"



I realized... we've never bought whole carrots. Ever.
We always buy the baby carrots.
That's all she knew.

So we bought the huge carrots.
And they thought it was hilarious to eat them.
Funny kids.

quiet.

I'm at my parents house... still in my pajamas. (yes, it's 11:15 am)
The house is quiet.
I have a good book, a computer, and hot chocolate.
The kids are feeding cows with Grandma and Grandpa.
Did I mention the house is quiet?


Gotta love grandparents.

energy.

I had an email from a friend, saying that she hoped the "energy booster bunny" had visited our house. We skipped out on our small group Wednesday evening while the kids are at Awanas. I just couldn't do it. Conferences Tuesday from 4:00-8:00 and the same on Thursday evening. I was already wiped out and knew I couldn't do one more thing.

Although I'm feeling a bit more energetic today, I'm still waiting on that bunny to come. Yesterday (my first official day of Spring Break) I did absolutely nothing. All day. The only remotely productive thing that I did was take a shower. And that didn't happen until 5 pm. I kept assuring Corey that I will be productive... just not that day. But I did make a list.

I'm feeling okay, most of the time, just exhausted a lot of the time. My morning sickness comes in the evening and I don't actually get sick, I just feel really yucky. So I'm doing a lot of laying on the couch, doing nothing, while SuperDad handles things. Yesterday I was feeling good... until I started making supper... then the nausea hit me. So, once again, I retreated to the couch while SuperHubby took over supper for himself and the kids.

He cooks. He cleans. He does laundry.
He does bathtime, storytime, bedtime.
And while both kids are napping and he could have a break... what does he do?
Watches part of "Grey's Anatomy" with me on the DVR (which he doesn't like) and then heads outside to insulate the garage.

He's the best.
Such a lucky girl.

we hadn't decided...

if this little man would ever be a big brother.
So God decided for us...

We're experiencing a happy mix of shock and excitement with a little bit of overwhelmed thrown in.

It was a surprise.

But a happy surprise.

The guess right now is mid-October.

We'll hopefully get a more accurate date after a few doctor appointments.

The kids are thrilled.

Family is excited.

I'm feeling pretty good... just exhausted.

My morning sickness happens in the evenings. I never actually get sick, I just feel yucky.

So I'm spending lots of time on the couch (hence the lack of blogging the last couple weeks) and SuperDad is taking over.

I'm a lucky girl.

this morning.

We have our usual morning routine... and it works pretty well.
I get up and start getting around, Corey gets up a few minutes later and ready for work, then we get the kids up around 6:35.
Corey wakes up Lawson and carries him downstairs.
He wants juice. First thing.
I wake up Sophie and carry her downstairs.
Corey is snuggling with Lawson on the couch and I plop Sophie down right beside him.
They watch "Martha Speaks" on PBS for about 15 minutes until Corey has to leave.
I usually have about 5 more minutes of "getting ready" to do, then I come downstairs and snuggle on the couch until the theme song from "Curious George."

So today...
I'm upstairs, finishing my last couple minutes of getting ready. (grabbing clothes for the kids)
I hear the kids start yelling, "What happened to our show?! What are we watching?! What is this?!"
I figure someone sat on the remote, and they are just watching something other than "Martha."
So I'm yelling back to them I will be there in a minute! I will fix it in a minute! (good mommy moment, huh?)
I come downstairs to see both kids staring wide-eyed at the tv and a movie preview for "The Saw V." Lovely. Lawson said something about the monster finally going away. Fabulous.

The guilty one? The dog.
Marley had put her ginormous monster paw up on the coffee table and hit something on the remote that made it go to the Cox OnDemand channel. Where they apparently show lovely horror movie previews at 6:55 am.

I tried to refocus them pretty darn quick and get back to the end of "Martha."
No one said anything about it all day.
Hopefully they forgot.
But what a lovely way for a 3 year old and a 6 year old to start their day.