Highland

Highland Learning Center. That's were Shad and I dropped off our 4 month old and where we have now watched L grow and complete his final year. It's nuts that it's over and this coming school year, I'll have a passenger the entire way to school. He has had the most amazing year under the instruction of an amazing teacher, Mrs. Reesa. I can not complement her enough. They didn't just to letters, and numbers- she had a bible story each week, scripture for them to memorize weekly, and science experiments to learn. We adore her.  

For graduation, their program was Eric Carle themed. They did an amazing job. The kids, sang, quoted scripture, did sign language, and retold the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

We have no clue what the picture above was about- every time they finished something, this is what he'd do. 

The Inventor

Inventions. That's what he likes to do. Constantly building, designing, talking about what he could make and reuse. I try to let him explore as much as possible, but sometimes he does ask for help. Today when he made a weather tracker, I told him cars don't ride upside down. He quickly responded, "In my world they do." And I'm glad they do- we shouldn't do something just because others do it that way. Otherwise, we might miss something new.

Weather Beamer

Checks weather and saws power lines. It has a tracking device. He built it on his remote control car which flips on its roof. This kept making the weather vane part fall off. So he build a stabilizer which won't let it flip- or at least that was his plan. 

The Crane

This was built on the first rainy morning of summer. It took him about 2 hours including the rebuild after Captain Destroyer got a hold of it.  It also has a grabber, like used to pick up trash with, on the side so it can clamp stuff. He designed it alone and cried and cried until I helped him make it work better. Video below- if you don't see it, sorry. It shows up on my computer not not on my iPhone. Pointers please. -I did post a video on Instagram 

 

 Did I mention that he built me a forklift complete with a vacuum system for Mother's Day? Yep. And incase your wondering, he still booby traps the house with masking tape. Five nights ago when his dad asked him who was he trying to catch, he said he was trying to slow us down- only he B could get through it easily. That was the truth. He had the dining room, foyer, and the hallway leading to the garage booby trapped. It really doesn't help that Lovie and Papa send him tape in the mail and gave him a couple of rolls for preschool graduation. 

Turtle Adventure

Lawson loves the PBS show Wild Kratts. It's really educational, and I have honestly learned a lot! For real. Well, the dogs had been barking and throwing themselves at the windows and after investigating we found what all the crazy barking was about..... And thankfully daddy pulled up a few minutes after our discovery. 

As you can see, the snapping turtle was very large! And Wild Kratt Lawson had to save it and release it back into the wild at a safer location that doesn't have 2 100 pound bulldogs. 

Fresh Start!

No excuses for the three year gap. I'm starting over, folks. And if I have time,  I might backtrack a little.  Or at least stay caught up!

Lawson is ONE!

I know...I know. Handsome turned one in September- BUT I've uploaded these dang photos two million times and something always goes wrong. So tonight, I went through compressed some of them- and BAM. They uploaded. So, I'm not going to go back and put them in order or even make sure my favorites are on here- because I've done it over and over it just wouldn't ever work! SO, here we go: Lawson's Safari Birthday Party.

Adults... doing adult things-

Opening gifts and being so silly.

The main cake

the food-

I made these animals to go along with the safari theme. On the backside of the invite a messaged warned the visitors that wild animals roamed the area. There was a rhino, a couple of giraffes and monkeys, a bear, and a tiger.

The kid meals- which were packed for a safari hunt. The kids got to take the bucket and a safari hat home.

We had such a fun day!

Handy Man

My dad can really do anything. He's some kind of self seeking superman or something. He is a hard worker who loves to learn new things and "do" stuff. He wakes up every morning with a mission to complete. He is NEVER satisfied with just doing nothing. He always has some type of project going on. For example, he liked the way stained glass look so... he took a class, bought a machine and can do it. He found some old furniture at my grandparents house and thought it could look like a gem, so, he took a class on refinishing furniture. He is always fixing something- somewhere. So when my mom told him that Lawson needed a swing for his birthday.......... he kinda went over board a bit.

Yeah, that's a fort complete with rock climbing wall and rope, slide (it's on the backside), glider, two swings, trapeze bar, steering wheel and beautiful blue tin roof. Lawson needed a swing... yeah. Poor little boy. So he started building this "swing" in Tupelo and word spread to my Papaw and of course he got involved. Mom and Mamaw would help, watch, or tell them how to build it every night. Two trailers later, it was brought three hours south for Lawson to enjoy! Which he does. I tell you what, everybody should have a loving, devoted, daddy and Papa like Lawson and I do. We are lucky.

Mitchell Farms

We went to Mitchell Farms this weekend. We had a great time. We met Shauna, William, Cait, and baby #2 there. We have always wanted to go....but kinda felt weird going without a kid. Shad has been tempted to "rent a kid" every year so that we could go and "fit in". So now that Lawson is here :) we can go and not feel out of place!

Walking in the maze.

Looking at the boy goats.
Farm tour

Picking out the best pumpkin.

Riding on the train.

11 MONTHS OLD

HOLY COW! Handsome is 11 months old. Unbelievable.

• loves to eat



• loves feed himself



• loves baths



• loves to splash-pool, puddle, tub, river, dog bowl....anywhere



• loves to dig in sand



• loves to walk fast down the hill in his walker



• loves to climb



• loves to try to fall off the couch



• loves to get inside the dishwasher



• loves to share his passy with Blue (i know..)



• loves ice cream sandwich



• loves Blue and Ivory



• loves to throw his passies out of the bed



• loves cords- we have some in his toy box



• loves to plug things in- and do it correctly.



• loves to make noises with tongue and blow bubbles



• can say mama, dada, nana (passy, we have never called it a nana), aduh (duck), iv (ivory), oo (blue)...and we are working on few others



• can shake his head no
  He is such a joy!

Car is Packed

Saturday morning, about 6 am, I woke up to Shad telling me that the car was pack and handing me my swimsuit. He decided to take us to the beach for the day- YAY! So we left... and had the best time.

Summer

It's over. I'm sad. But life goes on. I made a big change in my professional life- I moved up with my smart babies to fourth grade. Some days I wonder if I did the right thing... just because change is hard. I LOVED third grade, and it's always hard to learn something new. But it will challenge me... or consume my life. :) I do like my new classroom-it's cute. I basically have my same class of kiddies. Well, -3 (they moved), -3 (are in a different class), +5 (new to me) and 13 of them are stuck with me another year :). Bless them.

I did have a great summer. I spent it with handsome. We played, strolled, swam, and shopped. He spent a week at Papa and Lovie's house while I taught a couple of class at a conference. It was good for us. He adores his papa and lovie. He is back in daycare....and we are adjusting.