We like to Party!

It's always great to share in friends' birthdays, and Jake is definitely one to enjoy a birthday celebration.  We got to celebrate his best school buddy's 4th birthday and it turns out Jake and Nicolas were coordinating in their UT gear...

I think it's pretty hilarious to watch young kids at birthday parties.  They swarm the cake and especially the presents.  Everyone is so happy and excited you can hardly tell whose birthday it is.  Here's Nicolas about to blow out his candles.  You can see Jake's head next to him on the right...

To be perfectly honest, it took Jake about 15-20 minutes to warm up and socialize at the party.  He tends to get overwhelmed when there's lots of people, especially when he doesn't know everyone.  He clung to my side for awhile and wouldn't say a word.  Fortunately, Nicolas is a sweet, sweet friend and came over to him to talk and helped him over to the bounce house.  There were also several other school friends there Jake had fun with.  Here's Jake and Audrey showing off their icing faces...

And finally, here's Jake showing off his big blue mouth smile.  Happy Birthday, Nicolas!

Thanksgiving fun

 Each year, we spend some time with each of our families.  Jake and I went a little early to visit my family while Kevin was working.  It's become a tradition for us to head to Grapevine for the Gaylord Texan's ICE!  Every year, it's been amazing to see the artistry of the exhibit and the wonderful Christmas decor all throughout the hotel.  Here's Jake bundled up.  It's the first year his hands actually come out through the sleeves...

It's a little hard to capture good pictures inside of Ice because of the temperatures, but I did my best.  Here are Papa, Grandmama and Jake...

 Jake didn't seem to like being so cold, so we kind of hurried through some parts.  I managed to capture one decent picture of him.  Instead of a smile, I think he's showing his cold face...

 This year's theme was Merry Madagascar, so here's the main characters from the movie series all in ice!!!...

 Jake loves to look at the many toy trains throughout the hotel.  Here he is in front of one village...

 Jake and his new buddy, Marty...

Jake and Mommy in front of the life-sized gingerbread house...

Thanksgiving Day arrived and Jake was a great helper once again as Papa prepared the turkey...

 Jake with the spread...

 We also headed to Gainesville for a quick trip.  A tradition that has developed on the Lawson side is a family soccer game.  Cohen and Jake especially love this game.  Here's the Pirates team...

 and here's the Big T'ers.  It was a close game, but in the end, the Pirates ended up with the 2012 victory!  All in all, lots of fun, family, Thanksgiving fun!

No more hiding it...

If you read this blog, I think there's a 99% chance you already know the biggest news in our household.  We're expecting a new baby boy April 17, 2013!  I think I've held off so long in posting about the pregnancy because I tend to get very emotional (and long-winded) when thinking and sharing about the gift God has given us in this pregnancy.  I know we are blessed, and I know there are so many other families who hope, pray and dream of this blessing with seemingly no answer.  There are also those who feel their hope is answered to only have their sweet child taken from them before even meeting them face-to-face.  I'm sensitive and empathetic to those hopes, desires and hurts, especially to those I know and love personally.  To keep on track, I think I'll just share an excerpt from an e-mail we sent to close friends announcing our news several months ago...

 

"All I know for certain is that God is in control of our family and that He has a plan for us. The journey we have been on these last two years has been an emotional one, but one that has been bathed in such prayer: by us, our friends, family, and our church family. I know God has been listening, and I know He answers prayer. Although I don’t understand this timing, I feel honored and humbled to once again be a part of the miracle of a child."

 

Since that e-mail we've learned we're having a boy and we couldn't be happier!  I'm so excited for Jake and can't wait to see him grow and develop in new ways as a big brother.  We unveiled the news to him with a couple presents and a cupcake with blue frosting.  Here's his big brother blue cupcake face...

Rockin' it Out to 3!

Another fun November memory was celebrating Channing's 3rd birthday.  She had a rock 'n roll theme and everyone was supposed to dress like rock stars!  Here's the host family rockin' it out...

Here's our family rockin' it out...

Jake and Cohen's cool glasses and mohawks...

and finally the birthday girl!  I hoped to get a picture of Channing with our present to her, an Ariel princess doll, but Ariel is a little blurry because she was dancing around.  She seemed to love the doll and we definitely loved celebrating with her!  Happy 3rd, Channing!

One Little Indian

Jake's been learning about the Pilgrims and Indians at school in preparation for Thanksgiving.  He LOVES learning about Indians.  In fact, I don't think I've seen him this excited about anything other than sports and presents!  His teacher even commented that we might have a history buff on our hands!  At school, all the kids got Indian names and made an Indian vest, headband and necklace in preparation for their Thanksgiving feast.  Jake was Gray Wolf, and for a few days insisted on us calling him that.  I couldn't wait for the feast b/c I knew Jake would be really happy to wear his homemade Indian outfit.  Finally the day arrived.  Introducing Gray Wolf...

All the classes sit on blankets in the gym for the feast.  Here are Jake's fellow Indians...

and a full body shot...

Finally, I'm happy to share a picture of Jake and his friend, Nicolas.  These boys formed a fast friendship the very first day of school!  It's been fun hearing Jake talk about him and the things they do together.  We've had the chance to do a playdate with Nicolas away from school, and his mom told me Nicolas says Jake is his, "BFFFFFF."  How cute is that! 

The two most handsome Indians I've ever seen!

Halloween 2012

We had a lot of fun celebrating Halloween this year.  Jake decided to be Spiderman early on and stuck with his decision with only a brief thought of wanting to be a policeman.  His idea was fine by me b/c we had everything we needed in his dress up box, so we were good to go!  His preschool lets the kids dress up and has a brief parade around the gym.  Here are some shots at school...

 

Our handsome Spiderman!

The whole penguin class

another shot alongside his more muscular female counterpart

We also did a little trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.  This time, Spiderman was complete with his mask...

Here's our family shot.  I'm a tiger (complete with a tail!) and Kevin's the bad guy nemesis of Spiderman...

Here's Jake with a cute Halloween witch at one of our neighbor's houses...

It seems to have become a tradition to drive over to the Dishmans' house on Halloween night.  It's a lot of fun to spend time with friends who live so close.  Here are our cutie ladybug and Spidey...

This year, the Luksys family also joined us on their bikes!  Ruby, who recently turned 1 was an adorable strawberry...

It wasn't too long before Jake had enough and was ready to go home.  I think he equally likes passing out the candy from our driveway just as much as he likes trick-or-treating for his own candy.  Here are the guys waiting for trick-or treaters...

A glimpse of October

We did lots of fun things leading up to Halloween this year.  We visited Red Barn Nursery for some Halloween festivities and for some cute pics...

They had a small petting zoo there which Jake really enjoyed.  He wanted to hold a mouse!!  Definitely not like his Mommy in this area...

 I love this fall pic...

 There was also a fall festival at our neighborhood elementary school.  They had lots of free carnival-type game you could play, but Jake didn't want to play a single one.  Sometimes he freezes up a little when there's a large crowd in a new environment.  The one thing he did want to do, however, was paint a pumpkin.  Here's his masterpiece...

 We picked out a pumpkin to carve the weekend before Halloween.  Jake picked how he wanted the face and Daddy carved it.  Here are the guys getting the pumpkin prepped...

 When it came time to clean out the pumpkin guts, Jake was not too thrilled about the idea.  He put his hand in once (which I actually caught on camera), then decided his hands were too dirty...

 He then became the trash holder for all the pumpkin guts...a much cleaner job...

 Jake and I also made some special cupcakes for the season.  I showed him a few different decor options and he chose a cat, so we bought all the supplies to make lots of Halloween black cats.  here's Jake with one of his finished cat cupcakes...

Turns out, neither one of us had a long enough attention span to make all the cupcakes into cats, so we started our own creative decorating.  I think they all turned out beautifully!