Busy, Busy, Busy

From Puerto Rico to planting our first round of vegetables seeds to one-year check ups to chickens to softball to learning to use a spoon to a successful women's retreat and all those things in between, life at the Lawrence's has been busy and full of life!


Keesha and I in sunny Puerto Rico (very beautiful and fun place if you've never been!).


So far we've planted seeds for onions, shallots, leeks, turnips, radishes, beets, spinach, mustard greens, carrots, kale, collard greens, sugar snap peas, regular shelled peas and probably some other things I can't remember!


At her one-year check-up Mary-Michael weighed 19 lbs, 14.5 oz. and was 29 inches long.


They are getting SO big!


Mary-Michael and her buddy, Paden, at the first softball tournament of the year.


On a whim Geoff thought he'd see how M&M did feeding herself, and she did great for the first time though she didn't quite get the scooping concept, so eating this entire bowl of applesauce with just dipping the spoon would take quite a long time!


The women's council I'm blessed to be a part of put on a very sucessful women's retreat this past weekend. We served about 130 women, and had a table decorating contest. Emily and I joined up to decorate this table, and we won thanks to her creativity - notice the real goldfish in the vases!

And now it's off to Alexandria to prepare, feast and celebrate Aunt Keesha and Uncle Brian's wedding!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May God grant you always...
A sunbeam to warm you,
A moonbeam to charm you,
A sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you.

Baby Chicks Round 2

Here's the lowdown on our baby chicks:

-sadly, we have lost 2, but we were warned so this was not too unexpected
-we didn't actually receive our full 55 that we ordered last week, so a second group was sent and received yesterday - 12 more red stars and 7 leghorns (remember the cartoon with Froghorn Leghorn?! yea, they're kind of like that!)
-we now have 60+ chicks - I'm not sure we'll ever know the number as they race around too much for us to try and count
-we had to separate the new group from the "old" group because amazingly the ones that are a week older are twice as big

And a brief update on the "farm":

-seedlings are growing like crazy, and I need to separate them so they have more room
-plot has been tilled and is ready for planting, which I plan to do as soon as I return from Puerto Rico
-the fields where Geoff hopes to eventually have cows have been seeded with, well, seed!
-bee hives have been painted
-Geoff is still persuading (aka pestering with love) me to be on board with the cattle idea

Signing off - Farmer Geoff and Farmer Terra (in training)

Happy First Birthday M&M!

My sweet cheeks,

It is so hard to believe one year has passed. It feels like just yesterday your daddy and I were in the hospital room showing you off to all our friends and family. We had so many visitors, and on your birthday celebration this weekend we were blessed to have many of those same visitors present. You are so incredibly loved, and we know why. You are sweet, full of laughs, energetic and such a happy baby. And not only are we grateful for you, but also grateful for all of those who have loved, prayed for and supported us in our first year of parenthood. It is incredible when I think about all the support we have had. Below are some pictures from your birthday weekend.

Mary-Michael - we love you.
Momma and Daddy


Sporting your Baby Gap jeggings and birthday party top.


The theme was daisies! Here are your birthday cupcakes - one of which you thoroughly enjoyed.


And the birthday cake made by me! Your Nonnie and Grandma always made your Daddy and I's birthday cakes when we were young, so I want to continue the tradition.


Mary-Michael and Christian.


Aunt Keesha resting after pushing you around the house - you were going so fast you lost a sock!


Happy Birthday to you!


Enjoying some yummy birthday cake! (notice all the flashes - I think the papparazzi were there in disguise...)


Thanks to all of the generous donations we are going to bless some shelter animals in our county!


We ended your birthday with one of your favorite activities - a bath! And thanks to a few of momma's generous coworkers you now have a new toy, which makes bath time even longer and more fun! How can you resist this face?