Several FIRSTS around here!

This past weekend was the FIRST time that Baby Girl has been away from me overnight. You see, just in case you don't remember (or weren't reading then), I have a Love/Hate relationship. You see, Sweet Girl refused a bottle, but as of a week and a half ago, she had to say "good-bye" to her #1 love, ME. She is just now starting to come around to drinking out of a sippy cup (after months of trying) and after many moments of fretting over whether one ounce of liquid a day is sufficient. (Yes, I have called my pediatrician . . . and she is finally drinking. . . some.)

You see, I had to wean her because she the kids went to my mom and dad's for a planned weekend because Chad and I entered our FIRST half marathon!

Here we are on Thursday picking up our numbers, "chips" and other goodies.

Here we are after FINISHING our FIRST half marathon! We had a great time and would like to do it again! And NO, we did not run it together! He is about eight inches taller than me and has legs that won't quit. I, on the other hand, am a bit "stumpy". :)

He had a goal to finish in 1:55 - and finished in 1:56! I am so proud of him and his dedication and speediness! He is already thinking about doing the full next year . . . I, on the other hand, just wanted to run the entire time and finish. Proud to say - I did run the entire time, and I did finish - in 2:19!

Funny thing - out of 32,000+ runners, I not only ran into Cayce (on the left) before the race, but ran into Cayce and Natalie after the race, too! It was great to see my old college roomies (who are REAL runners) at the race.

Here we are in front of a downtown view of Music City as we were walking back to our car. Here's to next year!

Have you heard the great news about Baby Jacob? Be sure and check it out! :)

One last thing - can you please keep my first cousin, Mary Anne, in your prayers? She found out yesterday that she has breast cancer. She will be 35 in two weeks and has two young kids, Faith and John Derrick. Please pray for her, her husband, Kevin, the doctors, and her family as they deal with the shock of this. I have been in constant prayer all day - and in shock myself. I know she appreciates and can feel all the prayers!

4 year old peer pressure

As we were getting ready to go to the Y the other morning (at 8:00 a.m.), Lawton asked me if he could bring his lunchbox to the Y with a snack (at 8:00 a.m. . . right after we had just finished breakfast).

"MOM! (Yes, he said MOM - so grown up) EVERYONE brings a lunchbox with a snack."

Oh. I didn't know that was the "cool" thing to do since EVERYONE brings their lunchbox to the Y.

So what does a MOM do? I let him bring a cereal bar in his Lightning McQueen lunchbox . . . as he walks out the door with his red Air Jordan baseball cap with his Cars sunglasses resting on top - just like his daddy wears his cap and sunglasses.

I didn't say all peer pressure was bad. :)

He exposed himself . . .

Don't worry - it's not what you think! I know some of you were gasping as you read the title of this post!

Seriously, as the weather finally turns warm, there is the always the first day to wear shorts. It's been warm enough around here to wear t-shirts and jeans, but not shorts quite yet. Until Saturday.

As Lawton came out of his room wearing the shirt and shorts he had picked out, I couldn't believe my eyes. He had grown little boy legs over the winter! Now, I knew last fall that my baby's sweet, toddlerish legs were quickly going away, but over the winter I had forgotten about it.

I mean, yes, I have given him baths and helped him get dressed (some), but it's not the same as seeing those legs - those bony, bruised up, skinny little boy legs- in shorts, socks and tennis shoes.

Where did my sweet, plump, rounded little legs go that were there just months ago? In a few more years, I will gasp as he walks out one spring and has hairy legs from puberty, and then I will go crying for my little boy legs.

While I'm on the subject, do you all know about the puppy smell? After your little boys have been playing outside for a while and they come in, they smell like puppies in that sweet, stinky way! I can't explain it, but I want to bottle up that smell forever - before my house turns into a sweat box from puberty instead of the puppy mill.

Excuse me, I must go grab a box of Kleenex now.

A "speedy" good time!

Last Tuesday, on Lawton's actual birthday, we had a friend party at our house. We had a lot of fun with all his sweet friends! (If you aren't familiar with the Disney movie, Cars, then a lot of this won't make sense to you! :)

Like I promised on an earlier post, here is the AWESOME cake that my sister-in-law Emily made for Lawton. I was blown away when I saw it! It was super yummy, too. You can check out her blog and other cakes she has made HERE!

Brown and Lawton dig in to some yummy cake!

Walker and Carolina (along with all the other little siblings and mommies) were real troopers - of course it was the one cold windy day of the week (just like last year's party). Arghh. You never know in April . . .

Some of the partiers waiting in line for the "obstacle course", which included running in and out of cones,

up into the "Cozy Cone Motel" and then down the slide, pushed in a Cozy Coupe by cousin Houston, and then rolling a tire back to the starting line.
Everyone got to ride around "Los Angeles International Speedway" on a vehicle of their choice . . .

earn jellybeans by correctly naming Cars from the movie (hidden under the cones),

and "fill up" at "Flo's Cafe".
They were able to get tattoos at "Ramone's House of Body Art"

and play with Cars legos at "Luigi's Casa Della Tires".

At "Sarge's Surplus Hut", Lawton opened all his presents from friends . . . with some curious onlookers watching closely!

Happy Birthday, Lawton! We love you!

School party

For Lawton's birthday celebration at school, I brought Krispy Kreme mini donuts for snack. Have you guys seen these? They are the cutest! And they all got to eat two, which was fabulous in their minds!

Noni and Carolina reading and waiting . . .

His sweet little class . . .

Here is a video of the favors we gave his friends. Moms, you can thank me later. HA! :)

Easter 2009

Okay, I know most of you are totally over the Easter posts, but I can't NOT post about Easter! These are my two favorite pictures of the day I think. Brent took the pic of Lawton above. See that little glint of mischieviousness in his eye? ha! I think this is the first picture (below) where you can really see Carolina's three teeth (that you can drive a truck through!) :)

Carolina was so excited about the box of band-aids and the shaking noise that she could make. It's a good thing the Easter Bunny brought some girly band-aids because she had her first tiny scrape on her knee yesterday!

"Look, brother! Mommy's trying to take a picture!"

A family picture - two days in a row!

This was about the best I could get of the two of them together. . .

Watching her cousins playing ball in the front yard. This was the dress I had my one year old picture in. (thirty-one years ago!)

Here is the best picture of the cousins I could get. Out of all sixteen or so I took, there wasn't ONE where all four were looking at the camera, much less smiling!

Hunter is doting over his most favorite baby cousin!

Papa J helps Lawton scour the yard one last time for any overlooked eggs!

The boys and all their loot! Carolina was snoozing away during the hunt. Just wait until next year!

Ka-chow! Part 1

Warning: I realize I have a problem. I love pictures and had a really hard time narrowing down to just these 13 pictures. None of you probably care about all these, with the exception of grandparents. Just to warn you. . . and guess what? Lots more pictures are in the near future! :) (Just ask my mom how many pictures and clear plastic frames I had on every square inch of shelving in my room in high school. I have a problem.)

Saturday (yep, the day before Easter) we celebrated Lawton's FOURTH birthday (Cars theme if you were wondering about the title) with family. Is it possible that he is already four? Sniff. He is so proud that he is four and is "getting bigger." Since he is "getting bigger", four year olds no longer get up after they have been tucked in their beds and must try everything on their plates. Just in case you didn't get the memo . . . :)
I really went all out on his birthday cake. :) You see, I didn't want to upstage his real cake that Emily was making him for a friend party later. Because, um, her cake was UNBELIEVABLE! I would link you to her awesome cake blog, but you must wait a few days - unless you already have seen it for yourself! Lawton enjoyed helping me make these cupcakes, and I was suckered into buying Cars sprinkles - like anyone even knew they were the Cars (movie) sprinkles. Suckered I tell ya.

An attempt at a family picture. . . I don't think we have tried to get one since Christmas. Notice how Lawton is CONSTANTLY patting Carolina in some form or fashion. Man, he loves that girl! :)

Chad got a hammock from my parents for his birthday. We swung the kids for a few minutes, ahem, my dad and Chad swung the kids. Carolina was so relaxed and loved it! She makes us laugh so much! Just a chillin'!

We gave him a real bat, glove and baseballs. He was pretty excited!

Noni and Dandy gave him a scooter, and surprisingly he could do it right away. I'm not sure if he's ever tried one out before, but he loves it!

I think this is the best picture of the night . . . I'm not sure how Uncle Lance always gets him to smile so good. And isn't Heather, my future sister-in-law, the cutest ever?

It was a little chilly once the sun went down, so we built a fire. It felt great!

Luke and Carolina were having fun pushing trucks around. She had a funky crawl going on outside because she doesn't like her knees on the hard/cold ground. Only one knee was down and the other leg was hiked up. Pretty cute. . .

Carolina LOVES her cousins! The other day she was at their house and noticed Houston's big five year old picture hanging over their mantle. She squealed and kept pointing to it over and over again. Emily would ask her, "Where's Houston?" and she would squeal and point up to his picture. (He was at school.)

Dandy with sweet Luke and Carolina. Can you tell who the wild one is? :)

I'm so glad that my grandparents were able to come. I think they really enjoyed getting to come and I think my Granddaddy loved being outside.

This is the proof that Hunter was there . . . for a little bit. He fell off the monkey bars at a playground (after playing a great baseball game - the first of the season) right before coming to the party. His elbow was swollen and hurting - so they ended up taking him to the ER. Initially they said it wasn't broken, but after going back to the doctor yesterday, they decided it probably is! Poor Hunt! He's a tough little guy!

Lawton had a great party - thanks to our wonderful family who came and showered him with some love!

I'm looking forward to this next year, but a little sad, too. When I taught, the four year olds were always my favorite (I taught a mixed classroom of 3-6 year olds.) I'll be honest - this past year has had it's ups and downs with Lawton's temperament. It could be his personality - but I'm thinking it was more of an age/phase thing. (I hope!) Don't get me wrong - most of the time he is wonderful - but when he's not, well, he's NOT!

I'm sad because this means I only have one more year with him before he goes to kindergarten. My eyes are welling up with tears . . . my sweet baby boy! Happy Birthday!