Christmas with the Keeleys

Christmas 2012 was another successful holiday.  This year we did it a little different and celebrated a day early.  We treated Christmas Eve as our Christmas day that way everyone was able to make it to all of the different Christmas they had.  I don't know about everyone else, but it worked very well for us.  I loved being able to see all of my sisters and brother and not have to rush from one thing to another.  We got some great family time of playing games and just catching up on what was going on with everyone.  Although that usually didn't happen until late hours of the night since all the little munchkins take quite a bit of attention when they are still awake.  Lukas and Cade were once again very entertaining and loved getting to play with all of the toys that were opened.  It worked out well for the two of them since Reese and Lawson are still a little young to really understand what was going on.  Lawson enjoyed just hanging out and napping through some of the festivities.  He came away with some great gifts though for his first Christmas.  We shared many stories, a lot of smiles, and tons of laughs!

Soup Supper

Growing up my family participated in an annual soup supper with some family friends.  It is a tradition that we look forward to every year to get together, catch up with everyone, and eat some great food.  This year I thought it would be fun to try it out with some of our friends.  It was a great way to get everyone in the Christmas spirit and get a chance to hang out in the middle of all the holiday chaos.

It was a huge success and enjoyed by all, atleast they said they had a good time :)  I'm not sure we escaped the holiday chaos when you have a house full of 9 children under the age of 5, but they were sure having a good time.  Each family brought a different soup and then we had a couple of snacks and finger foods to go along with it.  The food was delicious and kept everyone picking at it for most of the evening.  Hopefully this will be a tradition we can look forward to each year as well.

All the kiddos eating some soup

Jordan was very proud that he got Kate to sleep like this.

I didn't get many pictures (my son was really excited that all of his friends were here and was requiring a little extra attention to keep him in control) but the two I got were pretty funny atleast. 

Lawson's Baptism

This weekend we got to celebrate Lawson becoming a member of the church and being baptized.  It was a very special day to share with our family.  God has blessed us in so many ways, and we look forward to teaching Lawson more about him as he grows.

We asked Matt and Jana to be Lawson's Godparents to help him grow in the Christian faith.  Matt had a game on Saturday so he made the quick trip all the way to Great Bend late Saturday night. It was a short stay in town, but we really appreciated him being there.

2 Months

Lawson is two months old today and his personality is really starting to come out.  I love it!  He is growing like a weed and changing everyday. 

2 months pics:

Things from this month:

• Smiling has become a normal.  We can talk to him and he will look back at you with the biggest smile.
• He is such a happy baby and will just lay kicking and cooing, especially on his changing pad.
• Lawson loves to look at all of the lights on the trees.  He will lay in his swing and just stare at them.  He has started to notice things around him.
• His blocked tear duct has cleared up so no more gooey eyes.
• Sleeping is going MUCH better.  He usually gets up 2 times a night, but will eat and go back to sleep.  The last couple of nights it has only been once and hopefully he keeps that up :)
• Lawson eats about every 3 to 3 1/2 hours.  If he takes a bottle he eats 4 oz. 
• Loves his pacifier, but it trying very hard to find a finger.  He sucks on his fist a lot trying to get a finger, but has not figured out how to open his hand yet.  I think we will have another finger/thumb sucker on our hands.
• He is wearing size 1 diapers and growing out of newborn clothes.  He wears 0-3 clothes.  They are a little big, but look better than the skin tight newborns.
• His neck is getting much stronger.  He will hold his head up for awhile but you have to watch out, he tends to head butt you if you aren't careful.
• Lawson adores his big brother.  He just lights up when he plays with him.  Lukas really likes to lay in Lawson's crib with him and play "peek-a-boo".  Lukas is getting better at understanding how he can play with him.  It is adorable and I love watching them!

More pictures from the month:

Cheesy Grin

Lawson has hit his first big mile stone..... SMILING!!  It is adorable.  We all love to sit and talk to him and see if we can get him going.  Once they start, he lays there smiling and cooing for awhile.  He started the big smiles about a week ago, but I finally caught it on camera.  I think Lukas wins for getting the most smiles out of him so far.  Lawson just adores his big brother :)