Quick Trip

Lee got back in town from France on Wednesday, so we decided to pack up the kiddos and head to Florida for some family and beach time. It was a random pick, but it ended up being a fun one. I am so thankful that Lee is loves to take spontaneous family trips. Sometimes I wonder if ALL the packing is worth it for just a couple of days, but then I remember the memories that we are making with the kids and it is definitely worth shoving all the gear in to the back of the car.

Windows down and giving some shout-outs to all the beach bound people...

We used Lee's Marriott points to book a room since, well, we all know that he accumulates them by the thousands since he travels so much. They ended up giving us a suite with 2 bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. That made all the sleeping arrangements and bottle making and breakfast feedings a bliss!

 This little one is loving her toes these days :)

 Calling his peeps to let them know he arrived safely

 And then the teenager scoped the channels for a little Buzz Light year. He was over it when he couldn't find any Toy Story on...

Staking claim on his room

We ate at a really good place called "Peg Leg Petes" the first night we were there.  They Had live music and a play area for the kids, so that was nice. Always love it when we can easily entertain the little red.

Arrrg!

We woke up the next morning and I realized that I left Greer's tub at the house. Sorry, G-girl...

Lee took Knox to the airplane and jet museum while I showered and Greer napped. Lee said he had a blast. He loves airplanes, so I can only imagine how much fun he had!

When they got back G-girl and I were ready and waiting to go have some fun!

We ended up going to an amusement/water park that afternoon, and holy COW did it end up being a good time. You had to be 36 inches to ride most of the rides, and don't doubt Foxie made the cut. He even got to ride go-karts! I was super nervous about it at first, but Lee promised to go really slow and stay on the outside. 

Knox was all business. He gripped the steering wheel the entire time and looked ahead with the most serious face. Hilarious.

 Choo-Choo!

 I can't wait to see G-girl riding with her big brother one day soon...

 Come on. You didn't think I was going to let Lee have all the fun, did you? I am soaking wet from water bumper boats in this picture. Had to ride so that I could dry out a little...

We had a blast and came home wayyyyyy past bedtime. Knox was wound up, so he and Lee had a little wrestle mania before bedtime.

It was a great weekend. One that I will remember for a long time (and even after that, thanks to the documentation on the blog :)). I love taking trips, but there's nothing like laying your kids down in their own beds. We are back safe and sound... with 2 precious babies sound asleep in their rooms! Thankful to have sweet time with my family this weekend...

Encouragement

Brady forwarded me this blog post, and it spoke volumes to me...especially since Lee has been out of the country for 6 days. It encouraged my heart, and maybe it will do the same for you.

http://lilycrowder.blogspot.com/2011/06/motherhood-as-mission-field-by-rachel.html

Missing Daddy

Welp, the ole' hubs is in France for the Air Show for the week, but it's all good because 2 little lucky kiddies and I are in Fairhope, Alabama for the week, and well...that's SO much better than Paris :). Sike your mind. We are on day 2 of yet another solo parenting excursion, and so far so good. I won't lie, there are a lot of things in life that I'm like "O.K., God, I don't understand this or that," but one thing I know for sure is that the Lord has us living where we live right now so that I can be close to my family. Their service to me and my family is so much more appreciated than words can explain!

I am always sad when Lee leaves. Always. However, I was way more sad than usual when he left Friday. Of course it would be nice to have the extra help with the kids, but really I just miss my husband when he's gone. BUT...I know that God is good ALL the time, and He will give me all the strength I need to survive. Thankfully, he has given me the Haygoods for the past couple of days :). Day 1 was filled with tons of backyard time with 3 of the cutest and sweetest girls I know. These  girls cater to Knox Lawson when they are around, so needless to say... he was in hog heaven. We introduced the Buzz and Woody slip-n-slide to him yesterday. Hilarious. He was timid at first, but after watching the girls AND his 30 year old mommy sprint towards the plastic and scream all the way down, he warmed up quickly. He couldn't quite make it to the end, so he was able to lobby a little extra help from the crowd:

I have about 50 pictures of them going down this thing, but I will spare you and only post 1. I'm not sure who had more fun...Knox or the girls. They took turns dragging him down and catching him. He was a good sport and let them have their fun with him :)

After they got tired of that, Abbie decided it would be fun to put the sprinkler under the trampoline and let the water spray them from underneath, but Foxie wasn't sold on it. He decided to be a spectator:

My sister and dad (and the girls) came back after nap time and brought dinner to cheer me up. It was so nice to have them here with me. I can only imagine how lonely it would be if they weren't here! Thanks, guys! 

Today was day 2, and we decided to have a "sitter," a.k.a. Ashton, come over and play with Knox while I did some things around the house.

 I took them to pick up chic fil a after Greer's nap and we went to have a picnic in the park. Wouldn't you know that Ashton lost her front tooth while eating lunch and SWALLOWED it?!?!?!? Isn't that crazy? I reassured her that the tooth fairy would definitely come whether she had the tooth under her pillow or not, and she was very comforted by that. I don't want to rush my kids into growing up, but it's so fun to have real conversations with the girls. I can't wait for the day to come when I can talk to Knox and Greer like that. They are such sponges, soaking in every little thing. Makes me realize how much of an impact we have on our kiddos. 

Knox has really gotten to understand how to use my phone. He can take it, unlock it, and go straight to his little toddler games. It's nice when we are in grocery stores, but it's a little scary how well he can use it. I downloaded some new shapes games and made the mistake of showing him last night. I laid Greer down beside him to read storied and say prayers, and little man did not want to give the phone up. I think it hurt Greer feelings :). She even looks like she is trying to bite him in one picture!:

Tomorrow we are headed to my mom's house. She had back surgery last week and is still in the  recuperating stages, so hopefully we can take them lunch and bring them some merriment!

Looks Who's...

(semi) sitting up like a big girl now!



She only has eyes for brother, and would prefer to watch him rather than look at the camera.







And...she had her first solids and loved them-bananas!



She even blessed her meal










Looks like bananas are a keeper :)

Hodge-Podge

Last week the girls from study weren't able to get together Wednesday night due to husbands being out of town as well as some sicknesses, so we decided to all get together Friday during the day with all of our kids. We threw them all in the backyard and pulled out every toy we had for their entertainment. Hilarious. The scene was totally ghetto and it looked like we were running an illegal in-home daycare. It was only Angie, Brady, and I..and between the 3 of us we had Trevor, Charlie, Olivia, Shephard, Sawyer, Sanders, Knox, Greer, and we also picked up Teal's kids (she is still in Africa), Caden and Murphy. So that's 10 kids, not to mention 5 of them were age 2 and under...and.... we had a set of twinsies. WHOOP WHOOP! Now that I think about it, we should have invited all the teenagers in a 10 mile radius to come on over...they would have had a great dose of birth control :).

 Knox and Sanders were a little warm and thought that they should actually get IN the water table

It was super chaotic, and the adults didn't get to sit and chat like we hoped for, but the kids had fun.

Friday night, after we put the kids to bed, Lee and I poured a glass of wine and blew off the dust from our rehearsal dinner slideshow. Some pictures were so funny that I laughed until I cried, and some were  so bad that well...I just wanted to cry. I want to personally thank everyone that continued to be my friend through some terrrrrible hair decisions, clothes decisions, make up decisions, etc. Man, some of it was hard to watch. However, I did love seeing some pictures of us as babies since we have children of our own now. I almost spit the wine through my nose when I saw this picture of Lee:

He was in the 10th grade. I can't handle the skinny-ness. I am almost certain that my own arms and legs have never been that skinny. Even when I was a newborn. Hilarious. 

We both instantly agreed that Greer Lawson looks JUST like Lee in this picture:

And then we both SCREAMED when we saw this one. I am Knox's mother, and I can honestly tell you that I had to do a double take. They could have been identical twins!

Here is my baby picture. Yep. They look NOTHING like me. The only thing that I passed down is the baby pug nose :). Greer and I have the same exact nose. K's was pug too. There you go, kiddos. My gift to you. O'well. Maybe you'll have my dancing skills.

And this one just made me smile. We were engaged and Lolli had just given us some cute trinkets for our tropical honeymoon. We look so carefree and young. So much has changed since this picture was taken, and definitely for the better. No, it hasn't been easy having 2 kids so close in age within 5 years of marriage, but it has challenged us, strengthened us, and drawn the both of us closer to the Lord, and well...that's always better :)

It was really fun to sit with Lee and look at all the pictures. If I had time, and it wasn't annoying, I would post all of them on here. It has been a sweet thing for my heart to look back and see where we came from and all that the Lord has taken us through in the almost 5 years that we have been married. When I was engaged, people told me that marriage wasn't always easy. I scoffed. My marriage would be different. Easy. Loving all the time. Pleasant all the time. No tears would be shed and I would never be frustrated with my sweet husband (or frustrate him :)). One word for that brief vision of deception: humbled. I love looking at the picture above, but I more so love looking at the picture of where we are today. Continuously being molded and shaped into the children, spouses, and parents that God wants us to be. Hard at times, but always good. 

And lastly, I'm going to continue to "give it up" for the big guy for as long as I can. I was telling Brady yesterday that I am going to really continue to praise him for all that he is doing because so often I focus on the negatives and I can really get sad and frustrated when he doesn't behave the exact way I want him to. Terrible, I know. So...Knox is still doing awesome in the big boy bed, AND he is really blowing us away with his eating! He will eat anything I serve him! I'm talking anything. He even ate a whole piece of baked fish the other night with all the sides, and he loved it! He also sat for the entire meal at chic-fil-a with Lee and I on Saturday and ate every bite without really being distracted by the playground. So pleasant!  For those of you who know our struggles with this, you know how big this is. I am not naive enough to think we are in the clear, but I am definitely thrilled enough to praise this little boy's pants off while I can! Thank you, Lord, for even the smallest of things that can make parenting so much smoother. It's little peaks like this that can really help encourage us when we go through the valleys!

You rock, Foxie!

Praises!

I wanted to make note that this guy has really amazed me for the past week. Not only has he slept in his big boy bed every night and waited for either Lee or I to come get him in the mornings without getting out (even during nap time), but he has also sat down for every meal without whining and ate practically EVERY SINGLE BITE of his food. I'm talking NEW foods that he has never tried before. I honestly can't convey how much this means to my heart and what a battle it has been. I have no idea what next week holds, but this week...THIS week...I chose to relish in his obedience and praise his pants off for making "happy" plates. I have practically done every kind of crazy dance and cheer for him in the kitchen for doing such a good job... some of them scary, I'm sure.  It's like all of a sudden he has decided that he loves food...all kinds of it. I am almost tearing up over it since it has been such a challenge. Thank you, Jesus (and I do NOT say this lightly). Wanted to give my guy some credit where credit is due...he definitely deserves it! Yay, Foxie! So proud of you, big guy!

5 months

G-girl turned 5 months yesterday. I am actually a little sad to type this post. I feel like I don't have a baby anymore. I know that's not the truth, but I definitely don't have a newborn anymore and that makes me really really sad. BUT...the good news is that she is healthy and wonderful, so we have a lot to be thankful for!
I only spent about 2 seconds getting pictures. It was a little hectic and she was tired, as you can tell in the pictures. I know if I put it off and try to take pictures later I won't ever get around to it, so I might as well document what I have!

The only pic that I have of her looking at the camera

 Once we brought the rattle in, all eye contact was over

And when I tried to change locations, it was complete game over...nap time.

 

Man, oh man, does she look like her daddy :)

G-girl, at 5 months you...

* Are still a super sweet baby

* smile through the majority of every feeding

* sleep from 7:30 to 7:30

* just started rolling like crazy, and it sort of ticks you off. In fact, mommy and daddy have actually         tried to prevent it as much as possible. We actually DON'T want you to be mobile just yet!

* have the cutest squeal and talk ALL day long

* Love watching Knox and being close to him

* grab your toes

* blow bubbles

* get really really mad when you have a stinky diaper

* do NOT like to be hot

* are very interested in everything that dangles from your exersaucer

* still have very little hair

* love to hold things and put them to your mouth

* will go to anyone (big difference from Foxie!)

* have brown hair and blue eyes

* prefer to sleep on your tummy

* are so calm and incredibly gentle. I just re-read Knox's 5 month post, and I can't believe you 2 are 

   related! I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings, but I hope you wait a while before you crawl and 

   walk. Mommy will definitely have her hands full when that time comes!

* Look just like your daddy! 

And lastly, here you are again beside your brother when he was 5 months old. You guys don't favor each other as much as you once did (at least, to me you don't). 

                                                                   

We love you sweet girl, and are so thankful for the sweet blessing that you are to this family!

Oh, and an added bonus: My sweet friend Christie and her husband came through town this weekend. They live in Mississippi now, but when they lived in Daphne I think we spent every waking moment together. I was so sad when they moved! However, when they visited this time they had their precious baby Hayes with them. He was so so so cute! Both babies were headed down for a nap so we were only able to get this one picture, but I am so glad that I got it (she's holding G and I've got sweet Hayes)!

Love and miss you guys!