Funny Phone Pics

 

Nolan crashed out in the bottom of the stroller, where he often rides.  He fell asleep while I was volunteering at the school yesterday.

 

 

Me: "Hey Jack, can you put some toys around Luke?"

Warren: "Whoa, Jack doesn't understand figurative language."

 

Nighty night!  What a lucky Mama I am to be surrounded...

***

 

There are SO many silly things that happen around here every day.  I really need to start recording them again so that I don't forget!

Bragging

Warren got elected to be a student council representative for his class.  He is beyond thrilled.  Here is his speech:

Warren’s Student Council Speech:

I really want to be in the student council for my class. This will be my first year of doing it and I really want to have a chance of doing a good job. If I get chosen, I will be very excited. I am very responsible and I am never late for school or anything. I am also the oldest of four boys in my family who will all go to Betty Adams. My brothers all look up to me and depend on me to make the school better.

I also play tackle football, which shows that I am a hard worker, since that takes over 8 hours a week and you have to be a good team mate.

When you vote for student council, don’t forget to vote for Warren Lawson to get the job done right!

Also don’t forget to tell your parents to vote yes on 3A and 3B!

Thank you for your votes.

***

He only practiced once and was so excited to share his news when I picked him up from school that day.  He said "Mom, my heart was beating so fast when the votes were getting counted." 

We celebrated with icecream during his homework before football practice.  Yes he wore his tie and yes this kid ROCKS!  We couldn't be more proud of him.

 

Jack scored at his recent football game. 

 

"You can stop now, Jack." Haha, that's our boy!

 

I am so grateful that there is so much to celebrate around here! 

 

Warren has his second appointment with a holistic pediatrician in Denver this week.  Much more on that soon!  We are so excited at the prospect of what this Doctor has to offer him.

Sunday Funday out with Nolan

It's not very often I get to spend time with just one little boy.  I got to take Nolan to a preschool friend's birthday party today and boy did he soak up the one on one attention for the whole 4 hour expedition.  Truth be told, Luke went with us.  But he slept the entire time in the stroller so Nolan didn't even know he was there :)

One of my favorite Nolan faces!

Mining hat.

Panning for gold with the help of the sweetest staff girl at the Aquarium downtown.

 

There were scuba divers in there!

 

Mesmerized by the fish.

 

Nolan loved the turtles the most.  Almost as much as he loves getting his picture taken.

I am so happy with my new camera!  All of these were taken with no flash and are not edited at all.  I got a mirrorless DSLR and am completely sold on the concept. Just what I needed to get back into taking regular everyday pictures and possible regular blogging again. 

Such a fun day out with Nolan.  My sister has Jack on a "date" to see Frankenweenie right now and I hear football on tv and Bryan in the basement installing a new whole house humidifier.  Life is good!  I have so much to brag about these boys in another post soon.

Football

We are nearing the end of a very (it started before school even started) football season for Warren and Jack.  This is Warren's second year of tackle and Jack's first of flag football.  It is pretty all consuming with practices and games.  I keep waffling in between resigning to the chaos of the season and then fighting with all I have to keep some sense of normal.  Although there's nothing normal about eating out three nights per week and having a couch upstairs full of laundry waiting to be folded. 

So, I do my fair share of griping about how draining this all is and I keep checking the schedule to see how many games are left and cringing when I see an entire Saturday dissipate before my eyes with a game in Highlands Ranch.  But I also love watching my boys.  Love cheering for them.  Love seeing them learn a sport and be a team mate.  Love watching them grow up so supported by us and full of pride. 

Today was no exception.

It was a day of football, with little gems of home time in between.

Nolan loves the tennis courts.

 

Huddle time.

 

Sleepy time.

 

Exersaucer time.

 

Coloring time.

 

Bumbo time.

 

I got a new camera today.  And I am so happy with the straight out of the camera shots, that I may never open my editing software again! 

Lovin' Luke Duke at 4 months

Luke is already 4 months. We really can't believe he's ALREADY 4 months and yet we also can't believe we ever somehow existed without him. Does that make any sense? Luke Duke, as we all call him, is the happy spot in our family. A true measure of joy and the perfect caboose to our clan. Gosh we love him so much it is all kinds of corny, sappy, and silly. He is rolling and eating solids and responding to his name and verbalizing and still nursing probably way more often than he "should" and sleeping right next to mommy every night. I am truly busy savoring each day of his infancy before it is gone. I know all too well how that goes. So please pardon my absence...I'm having a love affair with baby Luke and cannot be bothered to clean my house or blog. {First bath with the brothers}

{"Goo!"}

{Sitting in the Bumbo chair}

{Well, that explains a lot!}

Anyhow, I have big plans. An image in my head of my four precious boys in a picture together. Getting back to regular updates. Maybe keeping this house in less chaos....maybe. But for now I am a teenager doodling "Luke" in the margin of my notebooks and feeling all lovestruck and consumed. Updates all around:

***

Warren had a rocky start to 3rd grade behaviorally but is so on track the last two weeks. I am trying a supplement with him from Whole Foods and have an appointment scheduled for next week with a holistic pediatrician in Denver to talk about his hyperactivity. He is such a SMART boy academically and is proving to be a real stud on the football field too. Sometimes I think there's just so much awesomeness bundled into that boy it is overwhelming and cannot be contained. I rely on him every day for his help and humor and brains. The world is so much better off with him in it I am sure.  

***

Jack. Oh Jack. My romantic boy. Comes home most days and writes me love letters. Equally smart and loving first grade. Doing flag football this season and way more interested in making friends and practicing than actually making an impact at the games so far. Loving Legos more than ever. Jack is doing SO GOOD in school; reading up a storm...he is an "enthusiastic learner" according to his teachers. Jack regularly throws his beloved blankie in the trash proclaiming he no longer needs it, only to rescue it a couple hours later and spend a few hours snuggled up on the couch with it. He is such a man/child and seriously could not be any cuter. Jack is our perfection.

***

Nolan Patrick is in preschool two days per week now. He doesn't ever want to go. I am partly annoyed by his proclamations and yet I partly revel in them knowing he would rather stay home with me. Nolan is ever a Mamma's boy still. He knows so much more than he lets on and his verbal skills are exploding this year. He is the only one in the house who doesn't coddle Luke, and that is valuable too. He can ride his balance bike without putting his feet down for long stretches now. He finally quit drinking milk out of a bottle over the Summer cold turkey thanks to Daddy. I might have let that go on to age 12 if he hadn't intervened. Nolan is the kind of boy it's hard to say no too...at least for me. He's got a healthy self esteem and rightfully so in my opinion. I have a real soft spot for little Nolan right now.

***

Us. We have the Madonna concert this month and a trip planned for just us in December and we are surviving. Not great. Not the best place we've ever been in our relationship but this is hard work and we sometimes blame each other for all the imperfections of life, when in reality we know that if we weren't so tired we could see they are just the perfect imperfections and no body's fault. We are not fully matured at 32 years old and that's okay. No body's really mad for reals. No body's going anywhere as far as I can tell and we are a big crazy family that most people probably cringe at and we somehow like it that way. Watch out, the Lawsons are a party of 6 now and we are LOUD and messy.

Wow.

Life with four kids is busy and full.

Warren is into his first week of football (Jack starts next week for his first season of flag football and this is Warren's second year of tackle). The kids have meet and great at school next week. Nolan starts preschool this year too! Luke is ever the "perfect" baby and I cannot even begin to put into words how much I love that boy.

Aunt Jenny's wedding is this weekend. Little boys in tuxedos...gonna be killer! We are coming up on our 9th wedding anniversary. Wow. Almost a decade! And four perfect babies! I like to poke fun at Bryan every now and then about a fifth baby. He isn't having it at all and I'm not even sure I'm serious. But it is a guaranteed rise out of him so I keep doing it. Crazier things have happened though...

Even though life is zooming by, we still manage time alone with each boy doing things that they love, which for Jack is hands down riding his bike at the dirt track. I took him there the other day, just he and I...he calls it "Houston."

{Can you see him??}

Warren's annual trip to Alaska was perfect. He thoroughly enjoyed his visit and we redecorated his room while he was gone.

Suddenly our Summer is almost over so we are scrambling a bit to do all the things we had on our list...zoo (check), Lakeside Amusement Park (check), Waterworld (coming soon), you get the idea.

At this point I'm not even gonna pretend that I can keep up on documenting our family life here.  I'll check in when I can...   

Luke is 1 month!

Well actually 6 weeks to be exact, but oh well.

Here is the run down of our sweet little man to date. He is such an easy baby, loves to go in the front infant carrier, nurses every two hours, sleeps great (in our bed still of course), smiles regularly, loves the shower, and even laughed once for Daddy already.

Warren, Jack and Nolan are the best big brothers Luke could ever hope for. They are so gently and caring for him, it constantly blows me away. I am getting better at being able to pick up snippets of personality traits early on and I predict a very hard worker in Luke (you should see how hard he works on his pacifier!) and another boy who really needs his sleep like Warren. Luke is focused and intent when he lays still to check things out. He rarely cries but doesn't especially love riding in the car in his carseat to date. We have all taken to calling him Luke-Duke and love him immenseley. How did we ever not have this beautiful baby in our family??

Something Fierce

I love these little rascals...somthing fierce. And I can scarcley believe this little man is turning 3 next month:

Nolan's Birthday Mailer

White Border 5x7 folded card

Click here to browse Shutterfly's modern graduation invitations.

View the entire collection of cards.

Been working away on this...can't believe this little man is turning 3!

A Cheap Thrill

During the few hours a day that Luke is actually awake, his favorite activities (other than eating and making messes in his diapers) are staring intently at the paper plate mobiles I make for him with simple black and white graphics and simply laying on the floor -- he is a chill kid so far.



{ooohhhh...}

{aaahhhh...}

Luke is SUCH a good baby I have taken to calling him Dream Baby.  He has slipped right into our lives and our hearts as if he has been here all along.  Almost 4 weeks old! 

These two..

...can drive me nuts bickering most of the day, reveling in all their differences, and just generally rubbing each other the wrong way.

But.

{pardon the crappy cell phone picture, but I was in a hurry to capture this scene before it evaporated before my eyes}

It turns out, they can work together beautifully, as they did for nearly two hours today constructing this "lego city" and proudly showing off the results to me.

Good to know.

Dirtbikes are still all the rage.

Bryan took the boys to a real live Motocross race the other day at Thunder Valley just west of us. They loved it, of course. All three are still working hard to earn money for their own dirtbikes, including doing their Summer school work each week. It's kinda like bribery...or maybe it exactly is bribery. I call it a win/win either way.

Warren is 8!

{Inside the game truck} {Everyone jammed into our cozy house} {The happy boy after blowing out his candle!} There was a game truck and LOTS of friends, good food, and a mountain of presents for our special little/big 8 year old boy!

Sleeping Baby...

...wakes up! I am going to try to get this blog up and going again. It is very hard and low on the priority list right now with breastfeeding, baseball, and summer homeschooling...not to mention the usual daily grind of dishes, laundry, and food. So expect a lot of straight out of the camera pictures like these (from a mini photo shoot I did to capture itty baby pieces of Luke) and even less articulate writing than ever before (not that that is saying much!). Next up...Warren's birthday party, which was on June 1st.

Luke Garrison Lawson

Welcome, little man! And don't go growing up too fast.

May 18, 2012 at 9:22 pm {We rushed from dinner downtown on 16th Street Mall to the hospital at 7:30} 7lb 12 oz and 21 inches of perfection!