Welcome the newest "LITTLE LAWSON"

Reid Lawson

Six Weeks Old

About a month ago the John Lawson family ventured up to visit with the David Lawson family. Yes, they are brothers. John is #4 of 5 and David is #5 of 5. David's oldest son, Jared, and his wife, Cassie, just had their second child. We were anxious to meet the new little Lawson and Josh was home from Arkansas so we picked up Courtney and Lawson in Birmingham and headed to Priceville. The whole family wasn't able to schedule the trip ( Dave, Brady, Kim and kids ). We missed them. We were excited to be going to visit and got the added extra of a beautiful ride. Jared, Cassie and oldest son, Maclain just moved into a new home so we had a small glitch with the GPS but got there pretty easily. It appears that Berry isn't the only town that GPS has trouble with! I think the difference is that one is so small and one is growing so fast. Can you guess which is which?

We had such a wonderful visit. Reid was about two weeks old and we spent most of our time holding and loving on him. Is there anything better than smelling a sweet baby? Lawson and Maclain enjoyed some special cousin time. There are usually 14 little 2nd cousins around ( I think Reid makes 15 ) when these two are together so they got some one on one time. And boy did they bond. Maclain decided that Lawson was spending the night and he had it all planned.....he told me that he would sleep in the closet, Lawson could sleep in his bed and he proceeded to start pumping up his sleeping bag. Yes, I said pumping up. Maclain had the neatest sleeping bag....the top looks like a regular sleeping bag and the bottom pumps up like a blow up mattress. We had such a great family afternoon. Jared got home from work, David and Linda came over and our niece, David's oldest child, Jamie came after work. We also missed ( David's youngest son ) Justin. The boys played inside and outside while the adults visited and then we ate a great BarBQ supper.

Reid slept through most of the family time. He is a beautiful baby and Maclain is being an excellent big brother. Cassie had to have a c section, Reid came a month early, and she looked great.

Tennessee would be trying to presign Reid for football if he had gone another
month!

John and David are the two sons in their family, they each had two sons and now there are three great grandsons. John Brady III, Maclain and Reid. I think the Lawson name is safe for a another generation.

Thanks for welcoming us to your new home to visit our new great nephew.

Family is fun!

Cousins Maclain and Lawson. We put Lawson's PJ's on for the trip home so Maclain put his on also. Maclain was so disappointed when he figured out that Lawson wasn't staying. Law was still a little too young to realize that possibility.

Lawson finally realized there was a baby around when Linda put Reid in his bouncer for us to eat supper.

Reid's birth announcement. Notice his weight. He wasn't due for another month!

Congratulations Jared and Cassie!

THEY KEEP ME YOUNG

Just 4 days after I returned home from our Lawson family beach trip I got to return to the beach with the youth group from our church. These kids are a pleasure to be with. I love them. When I hear people say bad things about the young people today I want to tell them to take a trip with this group. They will touch your heart and they help keep me young. We spend the days on the beach, go out to eat that night and then have a devotional late each night. This group can do some singing also! We attract a lot of attention on the beach when they decide to sing. Now sometimes or really most of the time I have to leave the late devotional and go to bed. I lived with Big John for too long , who had to leave for work around 4:30 each morning, and just can't get used to late late nights. But this great group of kids don't kid me about it too much. Saturday night we go out to eat, usually go ride the go carts and then after 12:00 PM go to a secluded spot on the beach and have church. We have a devotional led by the kids, singing and then have Communion. It is very moving to do this under a big moon with the waves crashing around you. After communion the youth group does something that they have been doing for years.....letters to God. Every time the youth group goes on a trip together they write letters to God. That is about three times a year. The letters are really a written prayer of praise and laying out your cares and burdens. We adults do this also. These letters are sealed back up and put in a container that is strictly guarded so no one ever sees what you write. It is amazing to go back every 3-4 months and see what prayers have been answered and how they have been answered and it makes you so aware of all your blessings given by God. Also, parents...or husband....writes the person a letter about the things going on in their life at that time. The youth group treasures these letters and they also reread them every time. Another special thing is that when they are a senior every member of the group writes them a letter. This can take a while to read. We all go to a separate spot on the sand with a flashlight or beach lamp and it is quite a picture. When they have read all their letters and written their letter to God they come back to us and we put their packet safely in the special container for safe keeping until the next trip. We usually end the service on the beach by singing The Greatest Command. When this group sings this song it will give you chill bumps and make you cry. We then load up and go to the Waffle House for chocolate chip waffles and get back to the condo around 5:00 AM.

Central Church of Christ Youth Group 2009

Love these girls!!!


My buddies, Daphne and Melissa, the youth group leaders

PRAY FOR STELLAN

I have been keeping up with Stellan since he was born. I have never met him, his Mom or his family but I feel like I know him. My heart is heavy tonight as I keep going to his Mom's blog and also reading her tweets. He is a very sick little baby. I love the blog family and we can put up a lot of prayers.

A New Species of Fish

My Grandchildren have turned into fish this summer. Emma can jump off the diving board and swim all the way to the steps. It seems like only yesterday that her Daddy was doing the same thing. Abby can swim under water with a special grace that Pop mentions every time he watches her swim. John Brady has found his sport. He can swim under water and is very close to diving.

Thursday Emma and Abby learned to snorkel. Pop was beaming with pride. He began talking about how he had somebody to snorkel with him so he guessed we needed to go somewhere that had beautiful fish to look at. I am claustrophobic and have yet to even try to snorkel. Hope I get invited on this trip!

Pop also wants to go buy the girls their own snorkel. He was one proud Pop. You may notice that I didn't mention Abby diving. Every time Abby tried to dive she did a belly buster. We laughed as she told Emma that the water would hit your stomach hard if you didn't dive right. As usual with our Abby...she didn't care if she couldn't quite get the dive yet...she just jumped in with a flourish and a big dimpled smile and knew everyone would look!

The girls used Pop's snorkel but his fins were too big. Abby informed Pop that she needed some of those big shoes..aka fins..to fit her.

SEC Media Days

I LOVE THIS MAN!........just saying

The Summer of '80

I came across these pictures yesterday. They seemed appropriate since the whole Lawson family just returned from a week at the beach. Back then we usually went to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Our favorite place to eat, where you could take 3 small kids and not disturb anyone, was The Hogs Breath Saloon. Back then raw oysters were not bad for you and we could get a dozen for 99 cents. John, Josh and I loved them so we ate really cheap. Josh was 9 months old when we took this trip and he stayed home with Grandmother and Granddaddy Wood. Clarence and Shelba Pendley went with us.

THEN........ Brady was 5 years 6 months. Courtney was 2 years 6 months

The Year was 1918

Brady, Kim, Courtney, Dave and Josh call her Grandmother, Emma, Abby, John Brady and Lawson call her G-Mama, John calls her Mrs. Wood and I call her Mother. My Mother will be 91 years old tomorrow.. She was born July 15, 1918. I hope I inherited her long life gene!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TRESSIE KATHLEEN WOOD THEN- That is me with my Mother. We were on Skyline Drive in Virginia. I was around 3 years old.

The Beach Club 2009

John and I are blessed with a happy and healthy family. There is no better time spent than with our family at the beach. I treasure the family picture we make every year.

The Great Crab Hunt 09

A trip to the beach is not complete until you have a crab hunt. We had our annual crab hunt Thursday night before we headed home. There were lots of screams......not just from the kids! Uncle Josh, the resident crab wrangler, had already gone home so Pop, Uncle Dave and Uncle Brady stepped up and captured the deadliest catch. Be sure and look at our BIGGEST catch yet. We got lots of attention with that big fellow and scattered a lot of people when we turned him loose.

Beach Fun Tired

Both my boys fell asleep while they were trying to eat their supper this week. Beach and cousin fun just tires out a little man.

LIFE IS GOOD..........

AT THE BEACH!

BACK TO ARKANSAS.......Be Safe

Uncle Josh has to head back to work today. He has a long drive to Magnolia, Arkansas. We have loved our 10 days with you.

Hope to see you in a few months! Uncle Josh has always been a hands on Uncle. I believe we might need to give him a diaper lesson. Notice that the top part of Lawson's diaper is sticking out the bottom. That's okay.....big points for effort!

We love you, Josh

GO MULERIDERS!

Just try to imagine..... NOT being free!

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July.

WE DID!

BHS Class of 91 - 92 - 93

Okay......Berry High School graduates. I saw one of your fellow graduates about a week ago. This graduate always makes me smile and always has a hug for me. Can you look at the hand and guess who it is????

LOOK WHO'S HOME

Coach Lawson....AKA Uncle Josh

WAR OF THE WORLDS

Sorry.........I just couldn't resist. We were going to Tuggies for dinner and drove by the remains of the water tower. With the smoke in the background I immediately thought of one of the ending scenes in "War of the Worlds".