In the buff...

I couldn't resist putting this up. Tonight after Bo's bath I was actually on the phone with my mom. Bo started to get restless and wanted out of my arms. This was all before I had a chance to get him dressed or even a diaper on him. Luckily we didn't have any accidents :) He just played away in his room, reading his books. I couldn't help but to run get the camera.

just doing a little reading before bed

is that not the cutest bum you've ever seen?

Still poses for the camera...naked and all!

Just being Bo

We had a great time having daddy home Thursday & Friday night. Bo was so excited to see daddy!! There were a few times Jarrod would hand Bo to me and he'd start crying...not exactly sure how to take that, but just shows how much he loves his daddy.

Bo has been busy trying to find ways to entertain himself. Thursday he was playing with the trucks in the kitchen (they go much better on the hard floor). I was in the family room and all the sudden I see this long white roll of something come my way. Bo had gotten into the cabinet under the sink, I know I'm a terrible mom for not watching him better. Since we have the house on the market there really isn't a point in child proofing the cabinets so we just watch him carefully (most of the time). He loves to unroll the toilet paper in the bathroom and now apparently paper towels. I let him have him fun, until I realized that was our last roll. I rolled up what I could and then folded the rest.

He had a blast!

Even Maddie got in on the fun.

The next thing he discovered was mommy's hiding spot for his toys. Most of his toys we have packed up, but I have been keeping some small ones in the ottoman and giving him one at a time. How much fun is that for a little boy? Like all little ones his age he loves to pull EVERYTHING out at once and then go off to another activity. Well I got caught putting up a toy and next thing I know there's a little man lifting up the top to the ottoman. His face just screamed "JACKPOT...Found my toys!!!!".

"Hmmm what do we have here?"

"So THIS is where you've been keeping my toys!"

"It's much easier to get to everything if you just climb inside"

We miss daddy very much and are already ready for him to come home. He did get to see Bo take a few steps which was very exciting. Looks like we might have a walker soon!

Party Time!

*You can turn the music off at the bottom of the page.

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Learning to entertain himself...

So I've been a little neurotic lately about the house. Since it has to be "show ready" within a matter of minutes I've been trying my absolute best to keep it clean. I literally had a lady call on Monday wanting to show it right then!! Bo was napping so I asked for 15 minutes to wake him up and get us out of the house (not to mention I have a dog to get out as well). Apparently she couldn't wait that long so we lost that visit. At night I do my best to have everything ready so all I have to do in the morning is get up and make our bed. It's very hard trying to do all of this with Jarrod out of town, a dog, and a toddler who keeps looking at me like "Mom, why are you letting me have only one toy to play with?" (and a small toy at that...one I can throw in the ottoman if I have to). So the other day I walked into the kitchen and little man had found some other "toys" so I let him have his fun! I've had to clear the counter tops so my utensils are now at his level. At least he's learning to entertain himself!!

trying to get into the pantry...guess he needed some ingredients

Bo's First Brithday Party

This past Saturday we celebrated bo's 1st Birthday with all of our friends here in Austin. It was a monkey theme party and we definitely had a house full of cute, adorable little monkeys!! The party started at 3:00pm and the last guest didn't leave until 10:30 so I guess you can say it was a success. Not sure who had more fun the kiddos or the parents. We will miss our friends so very much. Thank you for celebrating this exciting milestone!

Happy 1st Birthday!

My sweet, precious, baby. I simply cannot believe that you are a year old today. I think back to this very moment a year ago and remember daddy bringing you to me in recovery. You have brought so much love and joy to your father and I. You are our world!! I never knew I could ever love something as much as I love you, and every day I fall more and more in love with you! Thank you for being you and for being the most precious thing that has ever come into my life.

Happy 1st Birthday Angel. We love you!!!

Ready, Set, Stage

So the "staging" process has begun. The stager which our realtor hired came by yesterday and honestly it went much better than I thought it would. Guess we keep a pretty neat and clean house after all. She had a lot of good advice and then there were some things we nicely just nodded our heads and smiled.

Today we spent most of the day rearraning furniture, we had our kitchen painted a "neutral" color, we did minor things like touch up paint on all the walls, and we finally painted the horrible blood red wall in the master bedroom that we inherited from the previous owners. We also hung new hardware in the master bath and a few days ago I planted new flowers in our flower bed out front and on the back patio. I'll be honest our house is very bland now and it definitely doesn't feel like our home anymore, which makes me very sad. Not a lot of decorations, all of our personal pictures are down, boring colors, etc... However, I know in the end it will pay off once we are able to sell it.

Tomorrow Michelle is going to bring RJ over for a playdate with Bo. She is going to watch him for us so we can finish moving things to our storage unit. At this point most of the big things are done. We still have some things to move inside and smaller "decorative" touches to do. Saturday we are focusing on cleaning the inside and outside, including windows. Doesn't this just sound like so much fun?? Jarrod leaves Sunday afternoon to start his new job. I can't believe it's time for all of this to really happen.

We'll keep everyone posted as much as we can.

Here's some video of Bo's new tricks. He LOVES to dance, we found this out Christmas morning when he was playing with his new music table. He really is just like his mommy!! Next his new thing this week is to throw things in the air and squeal. It all started with the balls in the ball pit. It is now anything from his toys to his food in restaurants to nicely neat clothes I have just folded in the laundry basket!

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Funny pics

So I'm taking a break from "the house". Thought I'd put up some pictures from the past week. Bo LOVES his ball pit, he goes right to it when we put him down on the floor. Bo's new thing is he loves to try and stand on his head, this isn't just in the ball pit either. He'll do it on the floor, his crib, while we're holding him, etc...I think it all started because Jarrod will play with Bo and hold him upside down and of course Bo loves it so I think this is as close as he can get to it on his own. He puts his head down on the floor then straightens his legs to form an upside down "V". When he does it in the ball pit he gets crazy static electricity so of course I had to get some pictures. I'll try to get one of the "V" next time!

Just playing... big smile for the camera!

The Boys

I forgot to post this a while back. This was from a playdate we had at our house right before Christmas. Bo and RJ are best buds and they always have fun when they get together...they have even started their own "language". They went back and forth like this for the longest time! Such little boys!

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Storage

So at this point I'm really wondering what is going to be left for our movers to do. Today we rented a truck and loaded all of our "clutter" as they say in the real estate world, and delivered it to it's new home...a storage unit. We still have more to take, but Jarrod got most of the large items today. While Jarrod was unloading everything, I was at home with Bo trying to clean and pack up what I could. Basically if it's not a necessity it's off to storage. We need to try and make this house look as large as possible. We have no storage in our hous... 3 closets, 2 small linen closets, and a pantry...that's it. So we packed up a lot of things we had just shoved in the closets and kitchen cabinets.

By the end of the day bath things were in boxes with cookbooks, Bo's toys were in with winter clothes, shoes were in boxes with pictures...isn't that the way it always goes. I'm a pretty organized person, but after hours of this I tend to get very lazy. Don't we all do this...we start with nice, new cardboard boxes, a marker, and a tape gun, because we all swear to ourselves that THIS move we are going to do it right and have everything organized! All of the boxes are labeled...the contents and the room in which it belongs, I really get excited about this!! By box number 15 you're lucky if it even gets labeled, because you have such a hodge podge of stuff you don't even know what to call it! I just tell myself I'm keeping it fun...unpacking will be like Christmas...not knowing what's in each box til you open it!

Getting Ready...

So the fun has started (do you sense the sarcasm?)!! Cleaning, organizing, decluttering, donating, throwing away, trying to look at our house through the eyes of others. Normally this would be something I enjoy (I know I'm a very sick person and I like this kind of stuff), however...it's a little sad because I know this is the start of our move.

Yesterday Jarrod and I tackled the garage. Anyone who has seen our garage you know what a MESS it was, you couldn't walk in there without risking your life or at least a limb! This is the only place in our house that I never got around to organizing. We moved when I was pregnant and then a newborn...forget the garage! We pulled everything out and made piles in the yard and driveway of "keep, donate, garbage". We had to force ourselves to throw things away but at the end of the day (which I don't have a picture because it was time for Bo to eat dinner) we knew exactly what was staying and what was going. This weekend we will be renting a truck to move everything to a storage unit. I'm sure you are wondering what Bo did all day since we were busy...he did remarkably well in his pack and play outside. I think he was just happy to be outside! I promise to keep the blog updated as much as I can these next few weeks. Today...I am tackling the kitchen, while Jarrod handles a lot of the phone calls and emails that come along with beginning the relocation process!

Midway through pulling things out.

a close up of our mess

Having fun on a sunny day of about 70 degrees!

What is going on here?

Ummm, we need to talk those are MY things!!!

ALL Boy!!

So here is an example of how boys are just "born that way". Over Christmas Bo got a big Tonka dump truck from his Uncle Barney & Emily. This is by far his favorite toy. While we were in MS my dad taught Bo how to make "truck noises". I still can't do this, I've tried! Even since we've been home he goes around making these noises with the dump truck and all of his little trucks. I just love this video as it shows Pop and Bo just being boys! (you will want to pause the music at the bottom of the page first).

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Change!

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Big things are happening for the Lawson family these days! Jarrod has accepted a new job and we will soon be relocating to Atlanta, Ga.

We have known for some time that this was a possibility, as his current company just sold and while he does still have a job, his current position could eventually mean a move to Minneapolis, and this southern girl is NOT going up there!! So after many days, weeks, months of trying to make some difficult decisions and LOTS of prayer, God has opened a door for him. This will be a wonderful career opportunity for him. The bad news...it's 14 hours away!

I won't lie...when Jarrod called to tell me an offer was coming I swallowed a large lump in my throat and gave a secretly, tearful "congratulations, I'm so proud of you". Once he got home I wouldn't talk about it much, because I knew I would break down in tears. However, I knew as a wife I needed to show my support and encouragement. As soon as I opened my mouth the water works began...I tried hard to hold them back, but I am not someone who can put on a happy face when I'm upset. I have never been one to hide my emotions (this is not always a good thing). We were a little unsure what the offer would be...there were many parts that would have to fall into place for us to be able to make this move. We prayed very hard and agreed that if all things came together then we would know it was the right move.

He officially accepted the offer the day after Christmas. I was actually fine at the time, I think because we weren't in Austin. As soon as we got home from MS I went to put Bo to bed and it hit me all over again and once again Jarrod had to handle a wife full of tears. This is a very emotional move for me. For the first time since I have lived back home in MS, I feel "at home" and would be perfectly fine staying here forever. This was our very first house, where we brought our first child home from the hospital, we have made MANY wonderful friends, Bo has his friends, we have found a wonderful church, I'm involved in playgroups, MOPS (mothers of preschoolers), library babytime, I was about to start a new Bible study this month, not to mention what a great city Austin is. We love Austin dearly and hate to move, however Atlanta is apparently where we are supposed to be.

I could easily make Jarrod drag me there kicking and screaming, however I am his wife and it is my job to support, encourage, love, and lift him up. As hard as this is on me, I know it's just as hard if not harder on him. He has a family to support and he spent countless hours debating the best thing to do for Bo and I. We will soon be putting our house on the market, which means we will be VERY busy the next few weeks getting ready. Jarrod begins his new job January 19th (i know, only 2 weeks away). With that said, please pray for us as we embark on this long, emotional, and stressful journey!

Happy New Year!

I am finally getting a chance to get caught up on our blog. I could tell you that I've been busy organizing, cleaning, exercising, all the things you do at the first of the year, but I haven't done any of those things. Nope...I have been relaxing and spending time with Jarrod and Bo.

We had a wonderful Christmas, it couldn't have been more perfect! We spent a week in MS where Bo had his first Christmas. Santa didn't have to do much this year becaue between Pop, Bebe, Great-Grandmother Nini, Uncle Barney, and Emily, Bo racked up on gifts. He loved every second of it and actually paid more attention to opening gifts than I thought he would. Some of his favorite gifts include a large tonka dump truck from Barney and Emily, he pushes it around ALL day. He also loves the musical activity table which he stands at and bounces up and down when the music plays! Another favorite is his Little People Car Garage. The best part of his gifts was having Pop teach him how to make "truck noises" while pushing the dump truck around...I have video and will definitely post so you can see, it is absolutely adorable.

It was a very busy trip...in addition to just the busy holiday, we also took a day and drove up to Grenada to meet some of our friends from Memphis, Jarrod and I took a night and went down to New Orleans for some much needed time alone, we visited with old friends in Jackson, Bo had his first trip to a Fire Station to see Uncle Barney at work, and the most exciting thing that happened...my little brother got engaged!! It was fun, wonderful, exciting, and memorable.