Lawrence Family

Summer Fun-Mommy and Mallory Day!

2010-07-31T20:40:00.000-07:00

For Mallory's special day, we started off at Kiddie Park! Mallory truly loves all rides and has no fear about riding any of them (not that there are any super thrill rides at Kiddie Park...) I had so much fun watching her face light up on each ride.

Giving me the thumbs up! This ride went the highest and fastest!

She called this one the "yee-haw ride".

Yes, her shirt says "My Mom's Cool", because...quite frankly...I am!

(Just kidding...I did not plan that, but it worked out for our date!)

After lunch and ice cream at McDonald's, we headed to the zoo to ride the train!

Mallory was all about competing with Jaedyn's day. Every time I tried to go home, she would tell me that Jaedyn stayed gone longer on her day, so she would add more things to our "to do" list. After the train ride, she talked me into going to the Witte museum to see the dinosaurs. We stayed there for quite a while exploring and playing in the tree house.

Summer Fun-Jaedyn and Mommy Day!

2010-07-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

One of our summer traditions is to have a "mommy and me" day. It's a day I get to do something special with each girl on her own. They really look forward to it and I treasure the time together. Jaedyn's day was a trip to Bandera. We started with breakfast at McDonald's!

Most of our day was spent at this nice little water park at the Flying L Ranch. It was neat to go back to a place where I used to work and see all the changes. This water park is small, but fun. We really enjoyed it!

They also have a mini-golf area. She INSISTED we do this and that she play with a pink club and pink ball. She lasted 3 holes before she was bored.

Last stop was to the General Store for ice cream!

I was explaining to her that this was a "cowboy town" and that quite possibly we could see a real cowboy on a horse going down main street. She was really interested in that and wanted to walk around and see if we could find any horses. After all, she says horses are her favorite farm animal. (For the record, she informed me that dogs are her favorite pet and turtles are her favorite sea creatures)

Unfortunately, we didn't see any horses around town, so I asked her if she wanted me to drive her out to a dude ranch. She said, "Nah, but do they have any ranches for girls?"

This led to a converstation about what a "dude" was and I'm not sure I got that right...

We did drive out to the Mayan Ranch, but all the horses were out on a trail ride. Maybe next year, we'll get in the saddle!

End of the School Year!

2010-06-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Well, another school year has come and gone! I finished my 7th year of teaching! I love it at Evers and had a great year. I was so blessed to have both of my girls with me this year. It was so nice to see them at lunch (they both had lunch at the same time, which happened to be during my conference time!) I think toward the end of the year, Jaedyn was reaching the point of embarassment. "Jaedyn, there's your mom again!" Here are some pictures from their award ceremonies:

Mallory finished her first year of ECC!

The best part of the awards ceremony is the cake!

Receiving her award from one of her teachers.

Shaking hands with the principal!

Jaedyn had a great year in kindergarten. We knew there would be some challenges (and there were!), but she had a wonderfully patient and loving teacher and we couldn't be prouder of the progress she made this year!

Daddy brought home a cookie cake and balloon!

Showing off her kinder memory book.

Jaedyn Melts My Heart!

2009-07-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging this so I don't forget it! Today we went to Sea World as a family. Yes, it was hot! Yes, it was VERY crowded! Yes, there was crying involved. But, I'm starting to realize how grown up Jaedyn has become and I enjoy hanging out with her. We were floating the "river" just talking. She was asking all about blood, the heart, the body, etc. She was asking how blood was made and if it helped you breathe. I was trying to explain as simply as possible about blood carrying oxygen, etc. She kept asking how it was made. I told her the God made it when he made our bodies. She contemplated that for a few seconds and then said, "When I get up there, I'm going to check out that factory!" Can't you just picture God on an assembly line? She said, "I bet he uses ketchup and then just adds some air."

This evening, she got on a kick about owls. She wanted to know all about them. She dug around on her book shelf until she found the book Owls by Gail Gibbons (awesome non-fiction author by the way!). We read it and she was just fascinated, although a little scared of them. When I got up to leave she told me I was her best friend and that she "loved me higher than the trees". I told her I loved her higher than the clouds. She finished with, "well then I love you higher than heaven." She's just an amazing 5 year old and I'm so blessed to be her mommy!

Here are a couple of recent pictures. One is of Jaedyn at her friend Amber's birthday party (at a farm) and the other is on the day of her preschool graduation at Walmart getting her new bike!

P.S. My little Mally is pretty special too!!!! :-)

New Additions to the Family (yard)!

2009-05-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

Check out our new trees! We're pretty excited, as you can tell. No one else would post six pictures of trees on their blog. They are both red oaks and they make the live oak the builder planted look pretty sad. I didn't get a picture comparing them to our puny live oak tree, but you can see some of its leaves in the second to last picture.

Jaedyn Writing!

2009-04-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know Jaedyn well, you know that she pretty much HATES to write. Her teachers say that she hardly ever chooses to go to Writing Center, and I can't ever get her to write much more than her name. If she can't do something perfectly, she doesn't want to do it at all and writing is something she has struggled with. Well lately, she has been writing a lot on her own. I try not to push her when she starts, because then she quits. It has to be HER idea, not mine. I caught her doing this in her classroom when I picked her up the other day. She spelled everything on her own. She first wrote "bus" wrong, but corrected herself once she saw it.

Here are some other recent "works". This is a picture of the Easter bunny (see the basket on his back) and the ECE which is "easter". Also, she drew Chuck E. Cheese and copied the letters from a lunch box that she has.

She had to make a "Me Bag" of things that were important to her. Here she drew a church and wrote the word. She is obsessed with finding steeples right now, so she made sure her church had a big one. She also drew her and her friend Sydney and a playground.

Here is the other picture that went in the "Me Bag". It's a picture of baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph with the angel above them. You can also see Jesus on the cross (upper center). When I asked her what the other things were, she laughed and said, "a hanging triangle and a hanging square." Makes sense to me!

Fiesta Fun!

2009-04-25T21:15:00.001-07:00

The girls had fun making their floats this year. Jaedyn did hers all by herself! She was DETERMINED to NOT have my help, even though I had big plans. :-) Jaedyn was a little overwhelmed by her parade, but said she enjoyed it. Mallory had a great time, too! We also celebrated fiesta this year by going to the King William Fair for the 2nd year in a row. Jaedyn kept up with tradition by having her roasted corn. Mallory went for the cotton candy this year!

Bluebonnet Pictures!

2009-04-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

"Bluebonnet patches....you know what that means??" Jaedyn said this to me one day and she knew exactly what it would mean...pictures!!! The girls actually enjoyed taking these for a change. Cookie bribery helped, but they also liked their new dresses and wanted to show them off. It was really windy and I had to get rid of some trash in the background, but overall I think they turned out nice. It's about time I updated this blog!!!!!!! Enjoy!

Our San Marcos Trip

2008-12-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

Monday we took a little "staycation" trip to San Marcos. Grant and I wanted to eat at a couple of our favorite restaraunts, so we decided to make a day of it. We ate lunch at Alvin Ord's, then headed to Wonder World. Some people say you "wonder why you went" when you leave. Actually the girls really enjoyed it. We walked through the cave, which was very difficult at times because the "ceiling" was low and the terrain was rough. Then you take an elevator out of the cave all the way to the top of the tower that overlooks San Marcos (and beyond). We also toured the Anti Gravity house and rode the train to the petting zoo to feed the deer, which the girls really enjoyed also. Since we wanted to stay for dinner, we spent some time on the Texas State campus. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and the girls enjoyed running around. Our dinner at Herbert's was wonderful and worth the trip! Here are a few pictures and here's a link to more if you're interested:

www.julielawrencephotography.com/sanmarcos/index.html

Jaedyn on top of the Wonder World tower, with the university in the background.

Girls in the cave!

Sharing our Christmas!

2008-12-26T01:15:00.000-08:00

Another Lawrence Christmas is in the books! Once again the girls were spoiled beyond belief. Grant and I sat on the floor tonight (after unloading bags and bags of gifts) and opened ALL the gifts and rescued the toys from their twistie-tie entrapments. Notice the Sara Grove lyrics about Toy Packaging...very funny, and so true. ALSO, who thought to make toys with SO MANY TINY parts??? Obviously someone who has never vacuumed up a Polly Pocket shoe because it looked like dust! To illustrate, I found the 4 smallest parts and laid them next to this quarter:

1. Ponyville shoe

(yep, each pony hoof has a teeny, tiny shoe. 6 total ponies this year, 24 teeny, tiny shoes)

2. Polly Pocket sunblock bottle

3. Polly Pocket shoe
(we have tons of these, because apparently Polly needs flip flops, boat shoes, and dress shoes on her boat)

4. A dot from the Pixio art thingy

(1500 of these!)

And here are the toys responsible for the tiny parts, now safely inside Ziploc bags (until morning when the girls wake up and the bags are never to be used again!)
Here are most of the gifts (couldn't get them all into one shot) after Grant and I opened all the boxes. Some favorites this year were:

Jaedyn-roller skates, Leapster, Geo Trax airport

Mallory-Yo Gabba Gabba dolls, Wonder Pets Flyboat, candy!

Mommy and Daddy-the silence of this night

Some of the toy carnage:

The girls did great this year and LOVED Santa's visit on Christmas Eve. Jaedyn broke down Christmas night about 7:30 and went into major meltdown mode, but when I tucked her into bed that night, with her eyes still closed she smiled and told me Merry Christmas. Then she sat straight up in bed and announced that it wasn't a school night and she could watch TV. So much for tired....

Last story...We took the girls to our church's children's Christmas service and they had these big camels "walk" in and the people "walking" the camels sprayed the audience with water like the camels were spitting. The service was beautiful and meaningful and I tried to explain each part to Jaedyn as it happened. Later that evening, I asked her what we celebrate on Christmas. According to her, "Baby Jesus was born, the wisemen came, and the camels spit".

I hope everyone had a wonderful day and stopped to think about the TRUE meaning of Christmas!

Now, go to the next post and enjoy our video. It's about 3 1/2 minutes, but worth it to see J's meltdown at the end!

The Christmas Video!

2008-12-25T23:09:00.001-08:00

O Christmas Tree!

2008-12-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

These are far from perfect, but I think they're beautiful for many reasons. I hope they make you feel the warmth and HOLINESS of the Christmas season.

Some Recents!

2008-11-28T20:29:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Mally being happy during our family photo shoot for our Christmas cards...coming soon to your mailbox!

Many of you know that Jaedyn's best friend in the whole world from school has moved to another town. The Friday before our Thanksgiving break was his last day. She has been taking it kind of hard and even cried when he left. This is the card she made for him. This is the first (and only) time I've seen her sit down and actually write something. She HATES to write, and she wrote the whole sentence "I will miss you, Jaedyn." She even picked a happy face sticker with glasses for Noah. I know it's kind of hard to see since it's a scanned copy, but it's pretty cute.

The beginning of the picture torturing season...isn't that every day for my kids?? I got new green paper and wanted to try it out. I like it!

Some pictures from Thanksgiving. This is my beautiful niece, Rachel.

J and M, trying to capture what little fall color we have in south Texas.

Air Show!

2008-11-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

We went to the air show with some friends today. The girls mostly had fun playing in the back of the van, but every once in a while they looked up and watched the jets. Mallory called them "rocket ships" because they were so loud and left vapor trails.

Halloween Happenings!

2008-10-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

Girls at the Lint's Halloween party!

Jaedyn and her friend, Amber, at Evers family night.

Carving the pumpkin!!!

Halloween fun!!!!

Late October Pics!

2008-10-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

Mallory digging into a pumpkin at Grace Place.

Jaedyn and friends digging into a pumpkin at Grace Place.

Jaedyn and her friends at school on pajama day.

Jaedyn and Mallory fishing at the zoo.

Go Spurs Go!

2008-10-10T20:28:00.000-07:00

Grant got free tickets from a vendor at work, so we decided to take the girls to a Spurs pre-season game. They actually lasted longer than I expected==almost to half time. Jaedyn would have stayed longer, but the little one was getting restless (and kicking the man next to me!) Jaedyn was way overstimulated, but she enjoyed it. She especially loved yelling DEFENSE and watching the Coyote.

Pumpkin Patch-First Trip!

2008-10-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

Fall is here and that means pumpkins were delivered to our church. The girls went crazy over them! Here are a few pictures that we took after church one Sunday. We'll visit several pumpkin patches this month. Jaedyn is especially into it!

Young Chef's Academy!

2008-10-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today was Jaedyn's trial class at Young Chef's Academy. If you don't already know, Jaedyn's FAVORITE thing to do is cook with me. One day (after a particularly bad day at school) she told me that she wished she could just go to a school where she could cook all day. So, I discovered this place and we signed up for a class. It's in Stone Oak and it took us about an hour and a half to get there in rush hour traffic after school. I thought we were going to miss it and she had been looking forward to it for a week. We ended up making it in time and she had a blast! They made apple tarts and a salad. She was so interested in everything and asked a lot of questions. Hopefully it will be something we continue to do.

Jaedyn Enjoys Drum Cafe!

2008-08-31T20:09:00.000-07:00

To end the first week of school, a group called Drum Cafe came to Evers. It was really cool because every kid got to play a drum. Here is Jaedyn enjoying herself with her class!

A New School Year Has Started!

2008-08-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

I started my 6th year of teaching this week. I have a great class of 18 students. I took a bunch of pics of my classroom and wanted to share. Here are some before and afters. The day I took these it was set up for our Meet the Teacher night (sports theme).

The week before school started!

Our rug area.

View from the door. Table in the corner will have 2 student computers next week! I'm so excited!

Classroom library.

My area.

Grace Place Kick-Off!

2008-08-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

Grace Place kicked off Sunday and we started off teaching Mallory's 2 year old class. Here are a few of our precious little ones. We had 5 more show up after I took this picture.

Our project was to glue little tiny beans to a terra-cotta pot. Not something a 2 year old can do very easily! Mr. Grant had a great time! :-)

Some really ominous rain clouds from the day before!

Our "Staycation"

2008-08-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

The weekend before school started we had a mini-staycation. We spent some time downtown. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe and took a horse carriage ride around downtown. The girls loved it (despite Mallory's reaction in the family picture!)

Jaedyn's First Day of School, Garrett's Baptism, and More...!

2008-08-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

Today was Jaedyn's first day of school. She will be going to Evers with me in the ECC (early childhood collaboration) program. It's a program for preschoolers of NISD staff. I know I'm going to love having her with me and she's super excited. She woke up at FIVE O'CLOCK this morning bouncing off the walls!

Mally getting in on the photo action as well. She's continuing at Country Home, but her "first day" in her new class is next Monday!

Jaedyn in front of Evers.

Mrs. Perez (her wonderful teacher) showing her where to put her stuff.

Another teacher, Mrs. Segovia playing with J in the kitchen area. She had a good day (although hard to leave mommy at first) and says she wants to go back tomorrow!!Here are some pictures of my nephew Garrett's baptism this Sunday.

The girls at the dentist!

My friend and co-teacher, Valli, and my awesome principal, Jessica, at our staff picnic.

Why I Never Shop With My Kids!

2008-08-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

So today was errand day. I usually try to avoid doing this with both kids but today I had stuff that just had to get done. I had to go to the mall (Dillard's) to exchange some shoes. I gave the usual speech about "good behavior inside" and we were on our way. J was very excited about riding the "moving stairs" so that was motivation. We rode the moving stairs up to the shoe department. I had to return some shoes that J said she's NEVER going to wear and exchange some that were too small. I bought them last week when I went to spend a gift card I had. By the time I used up the GC, the remaining balance was $58 which I put on my debit card. OK, so I made an even exchange with one pair (no problem). On the return, which was $31, I wanted it put back on my debit card. The sales person said there was absolutely no way she could put the money back on my debit card, it had to go on the gift card. I didn't like this and asked to see a manager. By now both girls are roaming freely around the shoes and Mallory is trying on various pairs of Crocs. A manager comes and tells me pretty much the same thing to which I reply with some choice (but polite) words. He goes to get another manager and Jaedyn starts to flip out. She starts ranting about how she can't possibly wait any longer and it's taking way too long and she's hungry and tired and her feet hurt and she hates this place, etc., etc., etc. It was like an episode of Super Nanny. But where is she when you need her? I calmly turn to the sales person and ask her to call the Dillard's Police. I've used this before at other stores and it works like a charm. The sales lady looks at me a little weird but I think she got it. Jaedyn immediately settles down (for about 2 minutes). Then she's at it again. All of the sudden, a security guard in full uniform with a big silver badge appears out of nowhere and he just stands there. Jaedyn is now terrified and clinging to my leg. I'm trying so hard not to laugh because I can't believe this guy's here. I ask him if he's the Dillard's Police and he looks at J and says he is. He stands there for about a minute and then just turns and leaves. I couldn't have planned it better! Finally the other manager comes back and puts $31 back on my debit card because I'm sure she's just ready for us to leave! As we make our way back to the moving stairs I'm thinking that I'm almost free and I'll never bring my kids to the mall again. We get to the top of the escalator and J gets scared. I ask her if she wants to go to the elevator (which M hates) but she says no, she just wants me to go first so she knows it's safe. So, M (in the stroller) and I step on and start going down. I look back and J is standing at the top screaming that she can't do it. I am stuck. I'm on my way down with the stroller with no way to climb back up. This nice lady offers to take J down but she won't do it. So the lady (and a small crowd that had now gathered) waited with J while I went all the way around and back up again. By now I am seriously doing the math in my head for how many seconds it is until school starts again. We start looking for an elevator and who shows up again but the Dillard's Police. He shows us the elevator and we're finally almost to the door when I turn around and see a mannequin on the verge of taking a spill. J has been high fiving, and I might add touching the private parts of all the "white men with daddy's clothes on" (they are painted bright white!) I quickly lead her out the door and she trips on the door mat. When J falls it's a big deal. She gets MAD. So I turn to check on her, let go of the stroller, not realizing we're on an incline, and there goes Mallory rolling out to the street. Luckily I catch her before the Dillard's Police shows back up again. 30 seconds later we're in the car headed for home to wait by the phone for the call announcing my award for Mother of the Year!

The Things They Say...

2008-08-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to blog tonight about the funny things my girls say and do. By the time the day ends and I sit down to relax, I never can quite remember everything, but here's a few samplings from today:

Jaedyn after watching a Wendy's commercial, "Mommy, I'm going to have a restaurant and call it Jaedyn's."
Me: Sounds like a great idea. What will you serve?
J: Hamburgers and ice cream. And you and daddy can visit anytime you want.
Me: Great, can I eat for free?
J: Yes. Hamburgers are a dollar.

Jaedyn (again) watching TV downstairs. We had been watching a re-run of the men's gymnastics trials. She yells upstairs to me: "Mommy those guys you like are on TV swinging on the onion rings."

At the pool this afternoon: I swim over to Mallory and ask her for a kiss. She refuses. I look at Jaedyn and I'm about to ask her for a kiss. She says, "Mom, sometimes NO ONE wants to kiss you." Ouch!

Mallory: Pretending to talk on the phone.
Me: Who's on the phone?
M: Papaw
Me: Oh, what's up with Papaw?
M: He's getting some tomatoes.
(no one else will get this except for my parents!)

Me: Mallory, do you want to take some pictures for mommy?
M: Yes
I'm completely shocked (they never want to do this for me) and I run up to find her an outfit. I put her in some jeans, a shirt, and then I wrapped a cute cardigan around her shoulders.
M: (gives me a very strange look) Oh my gosh, what is that?
I have never heard Mallory say anything like that so I thought it was pretty funny.

OK, even if no one else reads these or thinks they're funny, at least I have them written down for myself. And because I don't like posting without a pic, here are a few recent ones of the comedians:

Pop Go the Wiggles and Mallory Graduates Beds!

2008-08-01T18:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday we surprised the girls with Wiggles tickets. Jaedyn was super excited, while Mallory sat in a catatonic state for most of the concert. It could have been slight chocolate poisoning, as she ate almost an entire bag of M&M's.

The girls came prepared with roses for Dorothy the Dinosaur and dog bones for Wags the Dog! Here's J on the edge of her seat (where she was most of the time when she wasn't dancing!) She really got into it this year.

And here's Mallory.....

Here's J waving good-bye (or hello?) to Sam, Jeff, Anthony, and Murray.

And here's Mallory after the sugar high kicked in!!

This week Mallory moved to her big girl bed. The crib is still in her room and she's been taking naps in her crib, but at night she's in her toddler bed. Here's proof:

Our Fun Fourth!

2008-07-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

Just some fireworks shots I attempted tonight. Not the best, but fun anyway.

This is how Jaedyn watched the fireworks--safety of Papaw's arms!

Jaedyn loved meeting the police office. He was showing her his "magic wand".

We had a great day! We participated in our neighborhood's parade in the morning and then hung out at our house with my parents, sister and brother-in-law, and my grandparents. Oh, and by the way, our "float" won MOST ELABORATE!!! Go us! Hope your day was great as well!

Backyard fun this afternoon!