It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

It's hard to believe it's the 23rd already...  It's been a busy December, but this week we did get a chance to slow down a bit and enjoy the Christmas season.  Yesterday, mom, Mary Beth and I worked all day on Christmas cookies and other treats.  Lawson joined us later in the day and helped us out. 

We were really happy with all that we accomplished - especially since everything tasted SO good!  :)

I also managed to get Lawson in to see The Big Guy this afternoon.  Unfortunately, I made a small miscalculation...  Lawson still has difficulty understanding time (past and future) and he has a hard time getting that Christmas is a specific day, not just a season.  Therefore, he really didn't understand that even though he asks Santa for a present, he doesn't actually get it right then and there.  The look of disbelief on his face when Santa took him off his lap and gave him a coloring book as a souvenier, rather than the Toy Story shoes he'd just asked for, was hilarious!  Everyone in the room (including Santa) laughed at his reaction.  I guess it'll all make sense soon enough...

Merry Christmas, everyone! 

Winter Program

Last night was Lawson's school's Winter Program.  Here he is at Grandma and Grandpa's house, right before we left:

None of the kids sang last year, so I wasn't expecting much this time. I gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised!Most of the kids in all the classes at least attempted to sing along, even if their voices didn't really project.  Lawson's class sang "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music.  It was so fun! 

If you click on the link below, you can see the video Grandpa shot of the performance.  It's a bit long, but the kids really were so stinkin' cute!  Lawson was a total goofball...  he did manage to sing most of the lyrics in between goofy noises... Oh, and then he kept running off the stage to see me.  *sigh*  It was a bit like herding cats, but totally fun to experience! 

Concert Video

Here's Lawson with several classmates and his fabulous teacher, Miss Amber.  We LOVE her! 



Thanksgiving Trip to Boston

We went to Boston again this year for Thanksgiving and had a great time!  We spent lots of time with family at the Ryans'  house and we maintained our tradition of spending at least one day out and about, seeing the cool stuff in the area.  This year's expedition was at Plimouth Plantation, a spot I've wanted to visit for a few years now and it was definitely worth the trip.  Lawson seemed to have a pretty good time, too.  Poor kid, we really wore him out by the end of the day, though...

Here's a preview picture:

The rest of the photos are posted on my Facebook page, which you can find by following the link below. 

Boston Trip

The Tree

I have a book of poems by Robert Louis Stevenson that my mom read to me as a child and now we read them to Lawson.  He loves them as much as I did.  Well, this weekend, he wanted to climb one of the trees in our front yard.  It was his first time up in a tree and he was in heaven!  I think he's going to spend a lot of time up in trees in the next few years.  But as he sat and stared down the road...he said he was up in the cherry tree.  It's a reference to this poem that he likes:

Foreign Lands

UP into the cherry tree

Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.

I saw the next-door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,

And many pleasant faces more

That I had never seen before.

I saw the dimpling river pass
And be the sky’s blue looking-glass;
The dusty roads go up and down
With people tramping in to town.

If I could find a higher tree

Farther and farther I should see,

To where the grown-up river slips

Into the sea among the ships,

To where the roads on either hand

Lead onward into fairy land,

Where all the children dine at five,

And all the playthings come alive.

Pumpkins!

We've been so busy, we hadn't had a chance to get out to the pumpkin patch yet this year.  We finally went this week with my parents and had a great time!  It was sooo warm that day and the wind was blowing like crazy, but it was nice.  Lawson got a couple of pumpkins, we took a nice long hayride and we got to feed some fun animals. 

As is becoming the norm, I'll post a preview picture and then direct you to the photo album on Facebook.

Pumpkin Patch

State Fair of Texas

I hadn't been to the State Fair of Texas since middle school in the late 1980s, so this was a fun treat for me, as well as Lawson.  He loved every minute of it, from the food to the music to the animals and tractors...  We really had the most wonderful day!  It was the last day the Fair is open and the weather was beautiful so the crowds were a bit overwhelming, but we managed just fine. 

Once again, I'll direct you to the Facebook album I have, but I'll give you a preview of some of my favorite pictures here:

State Fair

Birthday Fun!

Lawson's birthday party went off beautifully!  It was a gorgeous day, which was perfect for my outdoor party plan.  8 friends showed up with parents and a few older siblings, so we had quite a crowd here!  The kids had a great time running around outside as well as playing with Lawson's toys inside - we didn't need a lot of fancy games.  He got a ton of great presents and was just so excited to have the day be all about him. 

I worked really hard on his cake and was pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Thomas's face got a little messy, but Lawson was so thrilled about it and it was certainly a conversation piece at the party! 

We took a crazy amount of pictures and I narrowed down the list a bit, but it's still too many to post here.  I'll direct you to the Facebook photo album to see them all.  Enjoy! 

Lawson's Party Pictures

I also included pictures from our trip to the Dallas Zoo last weekend when Brad was in town.  It was so fun!