May Compilation

As usual, things have been a little crazy around the Lawson household, so as you can see,  blogging has taken a back burner. Instead of doing many separate posts, I am just going to make a little compilation of May in one.

Probably the biggest thing that happened since I last blogged is one of my closest friends, Misty, moving back home to Enterprise with her sweet family. Her husband got offered as awesome engineering job that they could not refuse. They are both from Enterprise, so they have all of their family there just excited beyond belief to have them back home. Our loss is definitely their gain, and I am a better person having known Misty and shared life with her. During their last week here they came over and cooked out with us and played in the bouncy house that Knox got for his birthday. Yes, his birthday is in July, but this puppy was on sale and we thought it would help with entertainment during the summer months...

Marissa and Knox play so well together. She was setting up a little early bday party for Knox since she wasn't going to be here to celebrate :(. She went through the house and pulled out all toys for decoration and gifts. SO cute!

And here's one of my favorite babies in the entire WORLD! Sweet, beautiful Holland. Man, oh man, am I going to miss her.

We also got the opportunity to go to the beach for Memorial Day weekend with another close friend, Teal, and her family. To say it was awesome is an understatement. Between the 2 of us we have 5 kids, and they all did so well! We took the boat out to the island, and Knox and Trotter (her youngest) didn't even go down for a nap until 4:30 because they were having so much fun. First time ever that I didn't put Knox down at his normal time, and I am very proud of him for not losing his mind. He likes his afternoon nap, but apparently he likes swimming at the beach a lot more. I took next to zero pictures while we were there, and the ones I did get aren't good at all. We were too busy playing. Heck, I even stayed up until 1 a.m. with Teal the first night we were there. WHAT?!?!? This grandma is usually hitting the hay around 9:30 ish. Teal's grandmother lives next door and she is incredible. We woke up every morning and just walked next door for breakfast and coffee. She is such a servant. Not to mention, hilarious!

I mean, how gorgeous is she? I think she might be the prettiest person I know. Not a stitch of makeup, people! And here's another fun fact about Teal: If you live in the area then you have probably heard of the store "Objects" at the Eastern Shore Center. Well, she and her family own it. Such a cute store! If you've never been, you should check it out...

Murphy and Knox

Caden and Knox

Trot-Trot and Knox fishing for ice cubes...one of their favorite past times.

Greer literally slept on the boat in the shade the entire time we were there. SUCH a laid back baby, thank the Lord.

Sun-bathing beauties

Catching dinner

One of the boats in the middle had a man singing and playing the guitar. It was awesome!

 Teal is actually getting ready to  leave on Thursday for a 16 day mission trip to Africa. I am so encouraged by her and excited to see all that the Lord is going to show her. She rocks!

Next...guess who is in the process of transitioning to a toddler bed???? THIS guy!

Lee really wanted to go ahead and start the process, but I was a little reluctant and envisioned him coming out of his room all hours of the night. I am very happy to report that he stayed in there all night and didn't come out until 7 this morning. Lee said that he was standing in the kitchen and Knox's door flung open and he popped out and smiled at him and just walked over to his seat at the breakfast table. Precious! Ideally, I would love for him to stay in his room until we come and get him, but for now-considering the energetic toddler we are dealing with- we'll take it! I hope the trend continues. My baby boy is growing up too so fast :(. Pretty soon he will be off to Kindergarten and then before I know it he will be driving himself to school. Please slow down a little bit, life...

And lastly, here are some random pics taken from around the house. Trying to do some fun things each day to entertain ourselves and pass the time until daddy gets home.

I will say that this bouncy house has really been good. Knox LOVES it. He jumps, slides, eats his snack, lays and listens for airplanes, etc. on it. Big shout out to Brady and Amy...they each have one and suggested it since it worked so well for their kiddos. It takes under a minute to blow up and less than 5 to deflate and roll up. So easy, and we like easy around here!

Started making some fresh smoothies since it is so. stinkin. hot. outside. 

Survey says: It's good!

And of course, a box of raisins to wash it down with.

My sweet girl. She gets better with ever passing day. Her favorite thing is to be next to and watch Knox, and he is MORE than happy to do it. I am still shocked that he is so gentle with her. He even runs up to her, takes her fist, and gives her a "gentle" fist bump like 15 times a day. He pounds our hands off when he gives us fist bumps, but he knows to be gentle with "Gear" and has never done anything besides be sweet to her (so far, that is!). She is still holding strong with the blue eyes and brown hair. Her hair is dark brown inside, but light brown in the sunshine. So funny how things change so much with babies. I still think she looks just like her daddy!

Poor girl had some stuffy nose issues a couple of weeks ago. You can tell she doesn't feel good in this picture. I had to saline and suction her a few times, and you guessed it...she laid still and smiled through it all. Bless her sweet heart...

This guy is still holding strong to his paci at bedtime and nap time. Lee wants to cut the paci off cold turkey on his 2nd bday. Yikers. We'll see how well that goes. But for now, he wants to share his with you :)

 Showing Greer where his ears are...

 Just spotted his football on the floor and is trying REAL hard not to throw sissy on the ground so he can run and grab it...

Platypus Greer

His favorite seat in the house, and he loves watching Buzz Lightyear this way! In fact, he's  a little Buzz-crazy...

He went fishing with daddy for the first time and LOVED it:

My good friend from college, Grant, and his wife came for a visit. Knox enjoyed wearing Grant out!

And let's not forget the sprinkler...always a great entertainer for Foxie. This kid loves water!

That's about all I have time for, for now. I hope everyone had an awesome Memorial Day weekend and is enjoying all the pretty weather!

Greer's Baby Dedication and Mother's Day

What a special day this was for me. Not only did I wake up to celebrate being a mother to 2 of the greatest gifts the Lord has ever given me, but today was also the day we dedicated Greer to the Lord. We had family and friends join us in celebrating her dedication, and it turned out to be a beautiful day all together. I am so thankful for the family that traveled down to be a part of Greer's special day, and also for the family and friends that took time out of their own Mother's Day to come celebrate with us in our church and eat with us afterwards. It was truly an amazing day.

Greer wore the same gown that Knox, Lee, Jessica and her girls (Lee's sister), AND Lolli (Lee's mom) wore when they were dedicated. I just love love family heirlooms, so this gown was extra special for my children to wear. I took about 800 pictures of Greer that day, and out of those she stuck her tongue out in about 790 of them! I hope to get a chance to dress her back up for some better photos...

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to dedicate our children to the Lord (since they already belong to Him), and what it means in our role as parents. As I was standing there listening to our pastor, Mark, read over different scriptures, it occurred to me that it really felt like I should be dedicating myself to Greer (and Knox). That I would dedicate my life as a mother to seeking out the Lord's wisdom and guidance in raising them, and that I would be obedient to all the places He is calling me to lead them. The girls from small group and I are always talking about the fact that if we are truly wanting to raise our children in Christ's image, then we are going to have our work cut out for us. It seems as though raising child in this day and age to follow Christ means going against the grain in every area. It means not blending in with their peers. It means being the super weird parent at times. It means being focused on other things rather than popularity and success (although we do expect our children to give 100%, but accepting their natural bents). It pretty much means to train our children to be what society is calling "uncool" these days. How easy does that sound? Man, just the thought of the kids getting older makes me want to run and hide at times...

Greer Bennett Lawson, I dedicate my life to raising you under the supervision of the One who gave you to me. I can promise you that it will be extremely hard at times - almost too hard, but I can also promise you that He will never leave you or forsake you. The Lord tells us that "He who began a good work in you will carry it out until completion" and I can assure you that there will be trials of many kinds to refine you and shape you into the complete woman He desires you to be. I promise to pray with you and over you, I promise to speak truth to you, I promise to hold your hand when it hurts really bad, and most importantly I promise to never, ever stop loving you along the way.

And in closing, I wanted to show you what Lee did for Mother's Day. He took both Knox and Greer's birth announcements and had them matted and framed. I love it... So creative! It hangs on our bedroom wall, so now I get to see my babies first thing every morning. 

He also cooked a delicious breakfast (with the help of a certain red headed guy), and let me lay by the pool with my sister the Saturday before. Let me tell you...those few "off" hours were NICE! I wish every weekend was Mother's Day weekend :). I could definitely get use to it!

Me and the 3 Lees?

Here's a random thought: Maybe this title should be my new name for the blog, 'cause these chitlins that I'm raising are straight up carved out of my husbands back-side...

Anyways...I took G-girl to the doctor today for her check up. All is well, so we are super thankful for that. I am trying not to get too anxious over it (but if you know me, then you are probably laughing at that last statement), but our little girl is HUGE! Reason 5,356,789 that I am so glad I have kept records on the blog, because I can easily look back and see that while Greer is a pound less than Knox was at this point, she is an entire inch longer than Knox was. Oh man. I am not against having a tall girl or anything like that...it's just that I am envisioning sweet Greer to be over 6 feet tall in middle school, able to palm a basketball, 3 feet taller than her friends, and never a good candidate to ask to the Homecoming dance since most boys don't want to dance with the tall girls. Overreacting? Perhaps. Will I put a brick on her head to slow down this excessive growth? Most definitely :)

Weight- 15.7 - 75th percentile
Height- 26 3/4 - And as the doc stated, "No where near being on the chart." Thanks, bud.
Can't remember head, but he said 50th percentile.

Waiting our turn to see the doc

 This was taken yesterday. Lee calmly told me to quickly come in to the living room, and this is what I found. Lee said he grabbed her hand and wouldn't let go for at least a few minutes.

We went to the local zoo Saturday morning. I don't know why, but I always laugh when I see Lee in the baby bjorn...

Someone really enjoyed her cousins' pink tu tu! When she wasn't trying to eat it, she was laughing out loud!

And a little update on the Foxie front: I am sad to report that he seems to be losing the baby fat on his legs :(. We noticed the other day at Wawa's that half of his rolls are missing. He still has a few, but no where near what they use to be. I think I will be OK with it if I can just be assured that his cheeks will last through his adult life. I'm sure 20 year old Knox wouldn't mind it if I sucked on his cheeks then like I do now...

4 months

G-girl turned 4 months old today. Hard to believe that in 2 months she will be half a year old! Can I hit the pause button, please? Our doctor appointment is not until Tuesday, so I don't have any stats right now. All I know is that she is growing like a weed. She is still a happy and content baby, but over the past week or so she has really found her vocal cords, and home girl will definitely let you know when she is hungry. She can go from calm and smiling to breaking window panes is about .00002 seconds. As soon as she is fed then she is back to happy land. Pretty sure she gets that from me.

She is on a 4 hour schedule now. Feeds at 7, 11, 3, and 7. Sleeps from about 7:30 at night until 7 in the morning, which is lovely. She naps from 9 to 11, 1 to 3, and maybe for about 30 to 45 minutes in the late afternoon. She is dropping the 5 to 7 nap, and only catnaps from 5 to 5:45 ish. SO...that means that she gets to join us at the dinner table now which is fun. She loves to stare at Knox. We catch her smiling and drooling at him ever so often. He, of course, is going 90 to nothing, but will come to a hault to run over and kiss her or point to her and yell her name with a huge smile on his face. Just like every other mom on the planet, I love seeing them interact with each other. I am excited for the day when they carry on conversations and openly discuss important things... like how much they love their mother. Ha!

I was telling my friend, Christie, yesterday that every single minute of my day is accounted for. I always have at least 1 child with me if not 2. Knox goes to MDO and I am so thankful for that because it is a nice break for me to get things done. However, alone time is few and far between and by the end of the day I am a little worn out. But it's a good worn out. I just hope that I am doing the best job that I can of instilling Jesus into their lives with my daily time with them. I could sit here and list out all the mistakes I've made, but there is not enough time in the world for that. I just pray that I am loving them the way He wants me to and resembling Him through that love. Not just in the sweet moments, but even in the times of discipline and melt downs. Parenting can be so hard at times and I will be the first to admit that I can really doubt myself and wonder if we are doing the right things. I mean, don't we all want to do the right things? I am learning to really commit myself to praying for guidance for that. It's so easy to compare parenting and behavior to other children. Not right, but easy. I mean, I would love it if Knox sat in his highchair and ate up every scrap of food we gave him with a pleasant smile on his face while we were at a restaurant. Heck, I would probably fall out of my chair. But it ain't happenin' these days. I think if I had to confess our biggest struggle right now, that would be it. It's very easy for me to look at people around me that have children that sit pleasantly through meals and I wonder what I have done wrong as a parent? Might sound crazy, but it's the truth. ANYWAYS...I'm rambling, but the point is that I am really trying to react to situations like that the way that the Lord would want me to and show Knox unconditional love with a balance of discipline and grace, and to understand that every child is different. He has really grown up so much over the past few months. All the tantrums that he use to have rarely show their face these days (I hope I didn't just jinx myself), he is SO SO funny and says hilarious things and laughs out loud ALL the time, he loves to be loved on and is so desperate to get your praise, he has absolutely amazed us with how gentle he is with Greer-something that I was so worried about, he is super independent, extremely helpful, crazy energetic, and loves to hug and kiss you. The list could go on. What I am trying to say is that the Lord is teaching me to be thankful that Knox is JUST the way he is, even if highchairs in restaurants are a struggle for us. This probably sounds elementary to most of you moms, but if you really know me then you know that this is revolutionary for me. I have expected Knox to behave the way I want him to 100% of the time, and I guess you could say I am slowly learning that that's not realistic. My goodness, I definitely don't please the Lord 100% of the time with MY life, so why should I expect it from my 21 month old? Oh Lord, how you continue to humble me...

O.K., so now that I randomly typed my thoughts out unexpectedly in the paragraph above, I will move on the Greer turning 4 months old today. I love her. With every single ounce of being in me. I love that I get to be super hyper and crazy and wrestle with Knox, and 2 seconds later be sweet and gentle and calm with Greer. I love the way she looks at me...like nothing else in the world even matters. I can't wait for her to discover that there is a God out there that loves her EVEN MORE than I do, as unfathomable as it seems to me. Oh how I pray that her sweet spirit would remain. And Oh how I send up 1,000 praises a day to the one that gave her that sweet spirit...

Looks like she's working out with dumbbells. Interesting move, there.  

Feet!

Loving her cheeks and sweet eyelashes :)

If you're looking for Knox, you know where he can be found

Daddy's eyebrows! 

 Growing up so fast :(

 Joining us at the dinner table now!

 So random, but this guy decided that sliced apples are no longer cool. Eating it whole is what's up.

As parents we have so much to be thankful for, even the things that we wish we could sometimes change. Look at what the Lord has entrusted us with as mothers...what an honor!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Mother's Day this weekend, and you enjoy your day with your beautiful families!