Lawson!!

Lawson is 17 months old now!! He is getting so big and is so much fun!! He makes all kind of crazy faces and has a smile that can make you melt.  He is a pretty laid back kid.  Well until he isn't!! He is a FIT thrower!! Oh my!! But most of the time he is just go with the flow. 

He has started to want to feed himself using a spoon or fork.  This has been really nice.  Especially on days like today where I have all 5 boys!! It is so great that he can do applesauce or yogurt on his own.  He still spills, but for his age is is doing great!!

He is starting to talk.  He says "no" "mama" "dada" "psss" (please) "ba" (ball) "bo" (book) it is pretty cute to hear is voice!!

Easter

 We had a great time decorating eggs this year!! Both boys had such a great time!! Lawson was so so excited to drop the eggs in the color!! Judson was excited that we used a new method for creatively decorating our eggs. 

 We used tape to keep the color in some places and then dye the egg again! 

Here are the finished eggs.

 Sunday morning we did a very small egg hunt around the living room.

 Lawson was excited that they were filled with things! :)

 Our church family does prayer and fasting on Saturday and then on Sunday morning we do not have bible classes and break fast together with breakfast.  Well before we left I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of the boys, but that did not work out so well! :)

 They did at least let me take individual pictures!

 After lunch and naps we did another egg find in the back yard.  Yes a find, not a hunt, because they were not very hidden! :)

 And I finally got a better picture of the boys!

I struggled a lot this year with Easter!! Judson kept asking if the Easter bunny is real...I just kept dodging the subject.  I really want him to know the real reason for Easter and we tried to talk about it a lot. We read in his kid bible and we talked through the resurrection eggs.  But so much is focused on the bunny!! So for this year we did an egg hunt but did not do baskets, and the boys didn't even notice! :) So we will see what happens next year.  A good friend of mine did new bibles in each of her kids Easter baskets which I thought was really great.  Maybe will I will steal that idea for next year!

TEXAS!!!

The boys and I went on a trip to Texas last week! It was such a great time.  The boys traveled so great and we were able to see so many great friends!! Primarily we went to see my best friend Laura Beth and her family.  We have not seen each other in 3 years!! So we had not met eachothers youngest children.  It was so great to see all of our kids play together, my 2 and her 3! Five kids made for a busy week,but it was so great! They all played together so nicely and of course the weather was amazing so we were able to spend a TON of time outside!

So for our trip we left Friday the 15th, we stopped in Wichita for the night and stayed with a friends parents.  It was so nice to stop half way! Judson has only been on one long car trip and Lawson not any.  So I was not sure how they were going to do.  But they did so so good!!

We woke up early Saturday morning, well early for a Saturday :), and headed down the road.  We were on a mission to make it to Killeen to visit friends that used to worship with us here in Ankeny, but have now moved.  With some traffic and delays along the way we made it, but later than I had hoped!  But we were able to see Ashley, Keeli and meet sweet baby Cayden!! We missed Caleb because I wanted to get down the road to Round Rock by 7 or so that night!

And we did! We made it just after 7!! I knew the boys would need some time to run around before bed but needed to get to sleep at a decedent time since it was a Saturday night. I was really looking forward to worshiping with Cliff and Laura Beth and learning more about their church, since this is the reason for their move.

The rest of the week was an amazing playdate.  The kids all played so well together and made it a fun and easy week for Laura Beth and me.  We went to many parks, had picnics, went to a movie and played outside int he backyard a lot!!

On Tuesday night we were able to drive to Hutto and catch up with Kallie and Gerry.  I know it made their day very busy but it was so great to see them!!

It was all very relaxed, but super great!! It was so nice to have time to catchup.  In many way it was as if no time had passed.  But then at the same time so many things were different...like having 5 kids to keep up with!! :)

These are just some of the many pictures! :)