Merry Christmas!

We had a fun Christmas- we hope you did too!

We made this handprint wreath for the grandparents. I loved them so much I'm going to make one for us!

The best present of the year.

The stockings were hung... We have used that tiny one for all the boy's first Christmas.

The train table was a HUGE hit. They played on it all day and are going strong today.

Collin loves to bang so this was perfect for him to bang away and make music.

Scotty was extremely excited to get his Trio building blocks and to make the castle.

Grant could only use one hand to open presents because he wouldn't put the train down!

Collin loved the paper.

Buttermilk scones and homemade honey butter- a perfect ending to the morning.

Christmas excitement

We're very excited for Christmas in our house! Scotty just moved the snowflake in our advent calendar and yelled out that there is only one more spot until Christmas and then he danced around excitedly. It is so fun. The kids had so much fun decorating our tree. The bottom is very heavy with ornaments! And as we put presents underneath it is almost too much for Scotty to wait to open them. Luckily Grant hasn't tried to open any of them. Collin has gotten over there a few times to play with presents, the power strip, pull on the lights, eat some needles and pull down an ornament or two. We got a Little People Nativity set and I have attempted to recreate Jesus' birth story with them....it ends with the wise men being abducted by aliens and the animals running away to the robot's castle. At least I try, right?

Trying to be just like Daddy.

Scotty thought this was hilarious!

We had a few picnic lunches in front of the tree.

Scotty didn't look directly at Santa, but he wasn't shy about listing the things he wants!

Grant just stared at him. The next time we tried to get him to sit on Santa's lap, he just shook his head adamantly and ran away. Although he didn't have any problem going up to Mrs. Claus to get some candy!

Collin stared and stared and stared. So cute!

PS: My sister in law is still in the ICU and on the respirator. She had surgery yesterday and they removed 4 liters of pancreatic fluid and part of her pancreas that had died. They will be leaving the wound open and going in a few more times to see what is going on in there. Hopefully with all that pressure from the fluid gone she will be able to breathe better and her kidneys will start working again. Thanks everyone for your prayers.

Lissa update

Lissa is still in the ICU and still on the respirator. She is off of her blood pressure meds and maintaining her blood pressure and it appears her pneumonia has cleared up. She has had dialysis three times and they have gotten a lot of fluid off of her. Now they are working on getting her off of the respirator. Hopefully she will be off of that soon. She had a very scary day with some heart problems which resulted in CPR and her heart being shocked, but no more episodes since then. She still isn't out of the woods but she has been taking some baby steps forward and we're hoping she'll just continue moving forward. Her boys are really missing her. They haven't seen her for over a week and it's very hard for them. I am so sad for them. Mark is being very strong for both Lissa and the boys. He is by Lissa's side everyday and also is sure to be there for the boys. He is a wonderful husband and father. Mark and Lissa will be celebrating their 10th anniversary this Friday.

This is an old picture- Brady is 2. But I love it because it really says a lot about Lissa and how much she loves her boys. They are very lucky to have her as their mom.

I am missing Logan, Brady and Brock! Grant and Collin are sick so I'm not watching Logan until they get better. I loved being able to watch him and the twins because it is the one thing I could do for Lissa, so I'm sad that I can't. Plus I have really come to enjoy having them around. They are cute, good, sweet boys. We'll continue to pray for Lissa.

Lissa

We have had a few scary days in the Lawrence family. My sister-in-law Melissa, or Lissa since we have two Melissa's, is in critical condition at the University of Utah hospital. She was taken to the Tooele hospital Sunday night with severe back pain and difficulty breathing. After finding that she had gall stones they were waiting to schedule gall bladder surgery when her blood pressure dropped causing her to pass out and she was taken to the ICU and it has gotten worse from there. She was flown to the UofU hospital Monday night. She now has an infected pancreas, Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome- which is very, very bad pneumonia, her lungs and kidneys have shut down, infection has spread to her blood. She is on a respirator and has a feeding tube in. They have said that the next 24hrs are very critical for her. They are going to wean her off of the blood pressure meds and if she can keep her blood pressure up that is great, if not then that is bad. We are all so scared for her. She is married to Miles' brother Mark and they have 7yr old twin boys Brock and Brady and 2yr old Logan. Brock is autistic. We are all doing what we can to support Mark and take care of the boys. Lissa is a wonderful person. Very easy going and kind. She is a wonderful mother to her boys. She is also a great friend and is always willing to help others. We are having a fast for her tomorrow and will be praying that she will be able to keep her blood pressure up. Lissa is also a very strong person and will do anything for her family. I know that she will fight as hard as she can to be able to go back home with her husband and boys. I don't know if I've ever met anyone that is as devoted to her family as she is.

Lissa loves babies. Here she is snuggling Collin. We love you Lissa!

Muffin Tin Monday

Today's theme for MTM is Christmas morning. All growing up we would get together with my Dad's family for a Christmas brunch. The food was always so good and included my Great Grandma Thompson's (Grandma T!) homemade scones and honey butter. Last year Miles and I did our own brunch here at home and it was really fun- and yummy! So for MTM this morning we did a version of our Christmas brunch. And then we watched Bambi II- because Scotty insists that Bambi's dad is a reindeer!

We have eggs, ham, oranges, Christmas tree shaped toast, Hershey kiss and hot chocolate. We did the toast instead of scones and the Hershey kiss is because we always eat a ton of candy on Christmas morning!

I wasn't surprised by the item that Grant went for first!

Scotty was almost as excited as if it were really Christmas morning!

Be sure to stop by Her Cup Overfloweth to see more fun MTM tins.

Happy Holidays!

I know we might be overdoing these a bit, but Scotty wanted to watch the Halloween video the other day and was so disappointed when it was gone and he begged me to do a Christmas one. So to make him happy and listen to him and Grant laugh over and over I'm putting it on here for easy access. This one is actually pretty funny, so you might want to watch even if it's getting old!

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Happy Birthday Grant!

Today Grant turns 2!! We are so blessed to have Grant in our family. He is a very special little guy and we love him so much. Grant is very sweet, affectionate and cuddly. We love the cuddle time we get every morning and after his nap. He loves to give kisses and hugs- especially to Collin and it's so cute! Grant is also very fun and funny. He does the funniest things and makes us laugh all day long. He has a fun sense of humor that we are excited to watch grow. He is also a bit mischievous. He gets into things he shouldn't and has also recently started to experiment with putting things into the toilet! He likes to be a big boy like Scotty. He's still not talking but he is great at communicating with us. So great that he doesn't see a need to talk to us! We love Grant very much and we are honored to be his parents.

Here are some pictures of him from the last year.

Thankful

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. I hope that you did too! I have a lot to be thankful for this year. A wonderful husband, 3 great boys, awesome extended family, good health, Miles' job, and Cadbury Christmas chocolate ornament candy! This year we are especially thankful for Collin's good health despite being born early. And for all the help and support we received at that time. We also got to have two Thanksgiving dinners with both Miles' and my families- does it get any better than that?!

Urban, Brady and Scotty.

Saying cheese!

Collin was very happy to be fed yummy sweet and mashed potatoes by Aunt Mel. She's his favorite now.

7 of the 9 Lawrence grandchildren. Collin, Logan, Scotty, Brady, Urban, Brock and Grant. We missed Vivi and Reed this year. Neil and Michelle too!

Do you like the new contemporary construction zone decor? Steve and Geri are right in the middle of remodeling their kitchen. The fun destruction will happen soon!

We are so lucky!

Scotty, Grant and I got our hair cut today. I have been having Brenda cut my hair since I was 12 and now she does my boy's hair also. Scotty and Grant love to get their hair cut. When I called for an appointment last week and found that Brenda was on vacation I told Scotty that we might take them somewhere else to get their hair cut- because I had procrastinated and they reeeaally needed a haircut! When I told him that he burst into tears! Really sad crying and I felt so bad. I asked him why he was crying and he said through tears that if we go somewhere else his hair won't be the same. He was really upset! I explained that we can tell someone else how to cut his hair and it will still look the same. That made him feel better. But, he was happy that I waited for Brenda to come home to make appointments. As we were driving to her house this morning he said "Brenda is the greatest hair cutter in the whole world!" Later he said our family prayer and he thanked Heavenly Father for Brenda and what a great hair cutter she is. Don't you wish you had the greatest hair cutter to cut your hair??

Firsts

As I typed the title of this post I questioned the word first. It seems so weird! But we are having some firsts around here and they are fun. Grant has started to say ma ma! Yippee!! He doesn't say it spontaneously, but he does say it when I ask him who I am. Most of the time I also have to tell him to say ma ma, but he is saying it!!! Before ma ma the only sounds he made were ummmm, ohhhh etc, so we are excited to hear something new. He has been doing speech therapy for a few months now and has done some occasional babbling since starting. Our therapist is going to have Grant do a consult with the speech pathologist. We already do most of the things she shows us with him, so we're going to look into some doing something different. Hopefully it will help. He's a super smart little guy and doesn't have much trouble communicating his wants and needs to us. He's so funny now that I can't wait to hear what he is thinking. I'm sure we will be laughing our heads off at the stuff he says. Scotty's speech really took off when he turned 2, so we're wondering if Grant will be the same. He'll be 2 in 2 weeks- hard to believe!

Another first in our house is a rolling baby! Collin is rolling all over the place now. I say that this is a first because neither Scotty or Grant did any rolling. They would roll from their back to their stomach and that was it. Until they started crawling they didn't move anywhere. So it's fun to watch Collin move all over the room just by rolling. We are realizing that we're going to need to get the baby gate up because he has rolled over toward the stairs. We are not looking forward to the gate coming back. Not with two little boys that go up and down the stairs a lot. But after we waited one day too long to put it up when Grant started crawling and he fell down the stairs, we're not going to take any chances. Collin is also really close to sitting up. He can stay up for about a minute before he falls over. He's 8 months old- our babies take their time doing new things! But they sure are cute!!

Muffin Tin Monday

The theme for MTM today is food your child is thankful for. This was an easy and fun theme to do after missing a few weeks. Scotty was very excited to choose all the food for lunch and he did a great job. I was proud that he chose mostly healthy food because we happened to have some Cheetos, cookies and Fresca in the house, which doesn't happen very often. He loves to talk about what food is good for us.

Grant's tin on the top had grapes, ice cream sandwich, milk, mixed veggies (frozen- my kids love them that way and it's easier for me, yeah!), Cheez-Its and a pb&j sandwich. Scotty's tin had grape kabobs, ice cream sandwich, water, carrots and Ranch for dipping and a pb&j sandwich. I couldn't believe that Scotty chose water over Fresca or chocolate milk!!

Scotty wanted me to take a picture of him eating a huge grape. I've realized that on most MTM days he isn't wearing a shirt! I promise that he does wear clothes!!!

Grant then wanted me to take his picture and posed like this. He's a funny boy!

Collin had peas for lunch, which he ate but I don't think he was very thankful for.

And here is the food that I'm most thankful for!

Stop on over at Her Cup Overfloweth to see more fun MTM posts.

Just because they are so cute that I have to share.

Did you see the Curious George episode where George makes his own really cool yellow hat? Well we did and so Scotty wanted to make his own really cool hat. And he did!

Do you think this is Collin's way of telling us he wants a baby sister or brother?

Scotty has been jumping into the picture taking action a lot recently- even when he's in his underwear!

I bet you didn't know it was this much fun to be under the coffee table looking at Daddy, did you?

Scotty and Grant have a really fun, and REALLY noisy game, where they both run as fast as they can while pushing their respective push toys from the kitchen to the family room. There is lots of screaming, laughing and reminders not to bang into walls and furniture. It's fun for us to see them playing together nicely, which is happening more and more and we love it.

Stinker!!!

I look over into the family room and see Grant laying on Collin and Collin was laughing! It was so cute and I got tons of cute pictures. Grant just kept laying on him, then falling off, then getting back on. Collin loved every minute of it. Even when Grant would try to lay on his head! Grant loved it too, except when I would make him get off of Collin's head.

This really was so cute and fun to watch.

Collin is saying "Ohhh...that feels so good!" And, yes, that is an empty Rice Krispie cereal box taped into another box. That is Scotty's computer that he uses to send us hilarious and heart warming emails!

This is Grant helping to clean the spit up puddle. And, yes, that is a wad of napkins taped to the underside of the hippo push toy. Scotty is very creative and has lots of good ideas!