Christmas 2009

Our Christmas adventure began on the 23rd, when we left our apartment to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa. It was 75* and we were roasting in our long-sleeved Christmas shirts. At least there were plenty of puddles to jump in. And yes, the hat was Lawson's idea...

On Christmas Eve day, it started to snow...hard. But because it had been so warm all week, it took a while for the ground to cool off enough for the snow to stick. After about 6 hours of hard snowfall, the stuff finally started to stick. We got about an inch of it, which was enough to qualify for a White Christmas! In Texas!!!

"Samma Cause" was good to Lawson this year, as you can see. He LOVED his tricycle and all the cars, trucks and trains he opened.

Mary Beth shot a nice video of Lawson's first glimpse of the tree and all his goodies. Please excuse the paparazzi-like flash of my camera while the video is rolling. I tend to go a bit overboard...

Christmas Morning

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Christmas with a little one is just about the best thing ever. We are having so much fun this year! Lawson has no real idea what this is all about, but he loves it anyway! He likes "KIM-is Tees" and "KIM-is songs" and "KIM-is Yites". His favorite songs to sing are Jingle Bells and Oh, Chrismas Tree. He's got the first lines down, but then it just gets hilariously wrong... haha! I really need to get this stuff recorded. That's my goal for this week.

He also REALLY likes "Samma Cause"! He's been so intruigued for the last few weeks and just gets so excited whenever he sees him. We went to sit on his "yap" (can you tell "Yawson" can't say Ls?....lol) yesterday and he did really well. I thought he might still cry like he did last year, but he just grinned the whole time! Yay - we've turned a corner!

We've also had a few fun moments of Christmas cookie baking. Lawson is really good at cutting out the shapes....

But we're still working on the fine art of "sprinkling" the colored sugar...

Elf Yourself

For the last several years, OfficeMax has offered up a fun way to waste some time...through its Elf Yourself videos. They're a hoot and I wanted to share this year's video with all of you. Merry Christmas a little early from Lawson and me.

Elf Yourself Video

Winter Program

Lawson's daycare center is the greatest! They go out of their way to do really cute things to get families involved in the school and it's always such a good time. Last night was no exception, as they held their 1st Annual Winter Program (it's a new school). Lawson's class has been practicing their song for a couple of weeks now - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - and it's been fun to overhear him at home. It usually goes something like this: "Tinkle, tinkle, yittle tar, how I wonna...tinkle tar...YAY!"

The school made cute shirts and hats and paraded the kids out on stage in a nice neat little line and the music started....and the kids all got that "deer in the headlights" look. Not a one of them sang the song...just the teachers did...but they looked so cute! Lawson freaks out sometimes and I was so proud he stayed on stage and didn't cry. Aren't they adorable? Who cares if they didn't sing...?

Here's Lawson with his idol - Mr. Austin. He was the music teacher at the school and Lawson has LOVED him since day 1. That's the reason I got the guitar for him - so he could be like Mr. Austin. Austin has moved on to another job, but he did come back for the program to play and the kids were overjoyed to see him!

Snow!

It's been a cold week here in North Texas. Wednesday morning, when I opened the door to leave for work, we got quite a surprise...a real snowfall! Not just a couple of flurries and not the usual ice that we get here, but honest-to-goodness soft snow that was coming down really hard. It stuck on the ground for just a couple of hours and was gone, but we sure enjoyed it while we could.

Lawson doesn't remember the snow we had in Kansas, so this felt brand-new to him. He just laughed and laughed as the snow hit him in the face and stuck in our hair. I taught him how to catch snowflakes on his tongue and he thought it was positively hilarious.

Thanksgiving in Boston

Another Thanksgiving in Boston. Another fabulous time! Lawson has changed so much since we were last there and everyone enjoyed seeing him...and he loved seeing them. He can say almost everyone's names now and he's still talking about them. I mean, how can you NOT have fun in a family like this...?

How do you NOT have fun with special family moments like these?

And seriously? How do you NOT have fun in Boston?!!!! Lawson did great on his first historical tour...and Boston was a great place to start. Despite nasty weather, we braved the Freedom Trail and had a really fun time!

He LOVED the "Big Boat", aka the USS Constitution, with its many guns, and thought the man on the "horse - nay!" (Paul Revere) was pretty cool, too.

Just Some Silliness...

So, the week after Halloween, I found an actual cowboy hat for Lawson at Bass Pro Shop. I wish I'd found it before Halloween - the hat that came with his costume was cute, but not really realistic. Oh, well. He loves both of them. But he really likes to wear the cowboy one while he plays his "tars".

Lawson is going for a haircut this afternoon so he looks sharp when we go to Boston next week. His hair is so long right now and I decided to have a little fun last night before we go get it cut. He looks awfully cute with a little product in there...

Halloween

Boo! Betcha thought I forgot all about the blog, didn't you? I'm not really sure what happened - I just got a little busy. But if we go back a couple of weeks, there are some great memories to share.

Lawson really enjoyed Halloween this year. Last year was fun, but he didn't really "get it". This time around, he LOVED knocking on doors and saying "trick or treat!". He was a little frightened by a few of the houses (they were "cary"), but for the most part, he lived it up! I thought if we lasted 20 minutes, it would be a good night....we were out for an hour and a half! Granted, we moved at a pretty slow pace, but he would've kept going if I'd let him (and if the people in the houses kept the lights on). Well, without further ado...

Lawson helped clean out the pumpkin to be carved that morning:

Our finished product:

My favorite little cowpoke:

I just thought this was a cool pic of the house:

Once we were back home, Lawson dug into his candy. Quite a bit of sugar, as well as staying up WAY past his bedtime, resulted in this:

Lawson vs. the M&Ms

Enjoy!

Random Happenings

It's been such a busy week here. I've taken a bunch of pictures but this is my first chance to get them off my camera and onto the blog. Hope you enjoy our little moments...


For Lawson's birthday, G-Daddy and Judy sent some money for us to shop with. One of the cool things we picked out was this red, Hawaiian-decorated ukelele. Lawson has been obsessed with music for a long time and G-Daddy lived in Hawaii for a few years in high school while his dad was stationed at Pearl Harbor. It seemed like a good fit. Lawson LOVES it! He carries it everywhere and calls it his "tars". On his small frame, it looks like a guitar does on a grown-up, so we just call it a guitar. He just strums randomly, but he does it as often as possible and even takes it to bed some nights. He has a T-ball stand that serves as his microphone and he holds concerts for me. Here he is the other day, having a little trouble setting up his sound stage....

Lawson and the guitar.

Lawson also LOVES the harmonica he got for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa and plays with it whenever he's not busy with his guitar. I definitely have a music lover on my hands!

Lawson is so independent these days. He just opens the fridge and helps himself (whenever I'm not smart enough to remember to engage the fridge lock...). Fortunately, it's usually the grapes he's after. And before you tease me.... Lawson puts his hat on that way by himself - I don't do that. He's very insistent that hats go on backwards...

Yeah...but you should see the other guy.... Lawson had a rough week at school. They create a "boo boo" report any time a kid gets hurt more than a little bruise. Well, Lawson got his first one on Tuesday and wound up with two more by the end of the week! He's got a lovely blackened right eye after running headlong into the sink and he nearly cracked his chin open after he slipped on some wet tile. He also got a nice goose egg Friday afternoon, but that was after I took this picture. His teachers said in all cases, he only cried for a minute and then was more interested in showing off his "boo boo" to the whole school. Thank goodness he's made of rubber...

Stay tuned for tonight's Halloween pictures!

Whoop!

The Texas Aggies have had an abysmal season so far, but tonight they pulled out an upset over sort-of rivals Texas Tech. Here's what Lawson had to say about that...

Gig 'Em Aggies!

Owens Big Pumpkin Farm

Last Saturday, we joined a friend and her family for a morning at the Owens farm in Richardson for their pumpkin festival. It was a perfect autumn day and we had so much fun!

Lawson was so serious about being careful with his pumpkin! It was so cute.

I always like it when I get a good picture of Lawson and me together:

They had cups of food we could feed the goats. Lawson can be a little fussy about stuff like this, so I didn't think he'd like it...um, yeah... I was wrong. He LOVED it!

Oktoberfest

It's been an eventful week. I think everyone knows now that my divorce was final on Tuesday and I have reverted back to my maiden name.

My fabulous family took Lawson and me out to one of my favorite restaurants that night for a little fun...The Bavarian Grill. Lawson loved the music and the train that circles around the dining room, near the ceiling. But his favorite part was the apfel streudel....

He got very excited at the prospect of participating in the chicken dance and despite his neutral expression, he was thrilled by our lovely hats. But once the music started, he wanted nothing to do with it! We went straight back to our table!

No Real Need for Words...

I spent the afternoon watching the Cowboys vs. Broncos game with some friends from work, while my parents and sister watched Lawson. They went to the Olive Garden for dinner, and well.....

Lexington

I came across this tonight and just had to share. I miss Lexington so much and really hope I can move back there someday.

America's Coolest Small Towns

I miss fall in Virginia...

Hail Thee Festival Day...er, Weekend!

I am so excited about this fall! It's too hot here in the summer to get out and do much, but now that the weather is cooling off, it's fun to be outside again. (And by "cooling off", I mean temps in the 80s)


Saturday, the whole fam went to McKinney for their Oktoberfest celebration. We listened to some fun music, had some nice brats and kraut and wandered around and looked at all the booths. Lawson loved the petting zoo...

Today, Lawson and I headed down to the Greek Food Festival of Dallas. One of my students is Greek-American and told me about this. It was awesome! It was more kid-friendly than the Oktoberfest and we had such a good time! We had a gyro for lunch and a baklava sundae for dessert... YUM! We got to tour the gorgeous Orthodox church sanctuary with its stunning artwork. Even Lawson could appreciate that. He kept pointing around and saying "wow!"

Lawson's favorite part was the dancing. My student was in the group and it was fun to see her do her thing outside of school. Lawson kept asking if he could dance on the stage with the big kids!

Happy Birthday!

Two years ago today, Lawson entered my life and changed almost every facet of it. He's such a sweet boy and I love him more than I ever thought I could. Here's a quick look back over the last year of his life:

Lawson's Second Year

We had a small birthday party with just immediate family, but I went nuts decorating his cake. It was a lot of hard work, but I'm mostly happy with how it turned out.

The highlight presents included this super-fun bus with all kinds of fun activities on it. There's even a steering wheel/gear shift/ignition key on the "inside". He loves it!

He also loves this beautiful stool handmade by Grandpa:

Studio Portraits

On Friday, we took Lawson to JCPenney for some professional pics...hoping we could capture those awesome Lawson expressions that we just can't seem to do as amateurs. I feel less bad about my photography skills since even the pros can't get him to ham it up. He makes the cutest little faces at home, but as soon as a camera is in front of him, he freezes.

Fortunately, we did get some cute shots. Here are a handful of the best:

This shot is quinessential Lawson... Too bad he was running away from the camera and is a little far away. It's still my favorite.

Birthday Boy, Part I

Lawson's 2nd birthday is Monday, so Brad came into town for a few days this week to celebrate with him. We opened presents yesterday and it was so much fun!


He's already really good at hitting the ball off his new t-ball stand.

He loves his new collection of Matchbox and Tonka cars!

We found this awesome remote-controlled train for our little train enthusiast. It just might drive me straight to the assylum, but Lawson's in love... Here's a little video of him playing.

Lawson's Choo-Choo

Lawson's been really interested in my camera in these last few months, so I jumped at this toy when we saw it. It's like the old-fashioned View Finders that I had as a kid, but the pictures are on the inside of this camera. They change when you press the shutter button - it's so cute! Lawson has been carrying this around whispering "chicka chicka" since he got it!