The Big Apple

Last Thursday I got a strange email from Delta about my upcoming trip to LaGuardia... I was confused because I had no idea that we had plans to go to New York any time soon. David had to spill the beans that we were leaving on Friday for a weekend jaunt up north! I was SOOO excited and surprised. About every other day for a month now I've been talking about wanting to go visit my brother, and David jumped on it. He actually had this trip planned weeks ago (before he became jobless), but it worked out just fine for us to have the day free on Friday :). I was glad to know about it a couple days in advance because it was my first time to ever leave Crawford over night (14.5 months). D had arranged for him to stay with Ash and Chase (and for Heather to babysit during the day on Friday), so I wasn't worried about him at all. I missed him a ton, but it was such a fun time to getaway just the two of us. And... New York City is no place for a Crawford-aged child in my mind. It would have been nightmarish to have him with us.

Soooo... we left Friday morning and got to NY in time to meet up with Greg in Harlem around 5:30.

We snagged bit of the south (aka- a Chick-Fil-A sandwich) for him in the airport.

Greg told me we had dinner reservations at 7, and I was so surprised he had made plans! We got the restaurant and my cousin and his wife were there to meet us! It's almost just as exciting as I replay it right now as it was that night. I had hoped to see them, but I knew it was a long shot since our trip was SO short and they live in Brooklyn (a good hour from Greg). Seriously. It was awesome. So we ate some authentic Italian food in this fabulous courtyard on a beautiful night, and we chatted away for hours. We could've stayed all night. What a treat!

We went to bed way later than I'm used to (which is like 8:30, so "late" isn't hard to come by...), but slept in Saturday morning. Sleeping in= glory! We slowly got started on our day, and made our way to eat breakfast at Greg's favorite little place. I have no idea what it is called or where it was because as it turns out\, I have no sense of direction in that city. The shocking thing is that David (who sort of regularly gets turned around in Chattanooga) totally does. Anyway, the food was marvelous and the company even better. Derek Jeter was sitting at the table next to us and he almost got in a fight with David because he was trying to slyly take his picture.

FaceTiming with my baby. He couldn't have cared less that we were gone.

After breakfast we just walked. And walked and walked and walked. Seriously we covered a ton of mileage over the course of our one full day in the city. We didn't waste any time! We decided to go to Central Park and get some ice cream since it was such a gorgeous day, but little did I know Greg (and David who had arranged for Greg to make all these plans) was coordinating with my other nearby cousin! We literally bumped into Kelly and her boys (Ben and Leo) while walking down the sidewalk. I was SOO happy and surprised! They live in New Jersey, so again, I had thought about wanting to see them, but knew it wasn't really feasible to squeeze it in. I couldn't believe they all drove so far (the Buckleys too) to see us for a short while. We hung out for a few hours in Central Park with a few zillion of our closest friends. I'd never been to the park before, but I can't imagine it is always that packed. Greg said it was really the first pretty spring day, so everyone was out enjoying it. It was so fun to talk to Kelly about life with two boys and catch up all sorts of things. It's not often that we get one-on-one time with any cousins (I am one of 14 first cousins on my mom's side), so when we do I cherish it!

Greg, being an awesome cousin.

adorable boy. again, not caring his parents left him and ran away to the big city.

I've been wanting to see the Newsies since it went to Broadway, but again, I didn't think there was any way we would be able to squeeze it into our short trip. We stopped by the box office Saturday morning, but the cheapest tickets they had were $160 and we just weren't willing to fork that out. We decided to try for lottery tickets, and lo and behold- David won! So, we got two tickets for $30 a piece!! I was PUMPED. In addition to Newsies being an amazing show all around, one of my brother's roommate's from his freshman year of college (when we visited him in Boston) has been in the show since it's beginning. It was SO fun to watch someone we know perform on Broadway! Jack doesn't have a set part, but he is on the swing team so he has 14 different parts he fills in for. Nuts. He performs in about 5 of the 8 shows they put on a week - but almost always in a different part! I cannot imagine the stress he is under. The night we saw it he played the part of Race, which was such a fun role to see him in. He had tons of lines and songs, and obviously danced a ton. We made eye contact at the beginning of the show (oh, and our $30 seats were in the 7th row) so he really played to us the whole time. It was so fun.

After the show we met up with Jack and his family that was visiting from Ohio, and he took us backstage! I know I'm using tons of exclamation points, but seriously, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend. Backstage on Broadway! 

Jack is in the very center of the grid.

When we left the theater, we walked to Junior's Cheesecake (my only must-do for the weekend) and got some to take with us back to Greg's. We were out and about for roughly 15 hours, so when we crashed at Greg's around 12:30 it was BEDTIME. We got up at 4:50 Sunday morning to begin our journey home, and we were pooped. 

I know I've written a ton, but I still can't really convey how awesome of a weekend we had. It was so fun to just hang out with my brother on his turf - to see where he gets his haircut and goes to the grocery store and meets his friends to hangout. Seeing two of my cousins, going to Newsies and exploring the city on a gorgeous spring day were all really just icing on the cake. Thank you, my sweet David for the best Mother's Day gift ever!! 

14, 16 and 27.5

at 14 months (and a few weeks) old, Crawford:

• is a walker about 90% of the time! It's been adorable to watch him discover his mobility. He walks like a zombie with his arms out in front of him. Again, adorable.
• isn't much of a climber. He's pretty content firmly on the ground.
• loves to dunk the basketball in the hoop by himself.
• sticks his tongue out on command (we're so proud).

• has some attachment issues... only with me. He goes from being totally happy to complete meltdown mode when he sees me. It's so weird. 
• loves fruit (grapes, pears, peaches, mangoes, bananas), but is all of a sudden over blueberries! won't touch 'em!
• would watch this video and this video for all of his waking hours if we would let him (obviously, we don't. We limit his video time to about 10 minutes 2x/day.)
• thinks it is really fun to put things inside other things. For example: all the magnets off the fridge into the trash or recycling can or all the items from my makeup bag into the laundry hamper. I found the monitor receiver in the bottom drawer in my bathroom. I've never been so thankful that David has always insisted we keep our toilet lids closed. 

at 16 weeks pregnant, I:

• mostly don't feel pregnant.
• ...except when I randomly (and infrequently) run to the bathroom to vomit up the food I JUST ate.
• have a tiny little bump.

• am super excited about having a baby boy.
• go to bed really early. We had a DVR box installed in our room so David could go to bed when I do but have stuff he wants to watch on tv. When I was pregnant with Crawford we had Netflix, so this is our solution this go 'round.
• am probably going to go bald. But seriously, my hair is falling out like crazy! When I was pregnant with C my hair almost immediately stopped falling out... weird.
• have a good bit of tailbone pain. It was bad last time, but this time it is way worse. Last time I spent the majority of my day sitting at a desk (on my donut pillow, with a heating pad). This time I'm up and down off the floor and carrying a 22 pound tornado off and on all day. 
• feel the baby kick!! It's only at night when I'm on my back and totally still, but it is such a special, magical thing! I can't wait until David can feel him too.

at 27.5 years old, David:

• very unexpectedly lost his job last Thursday (morning. before our gender reveal party. nice.). Mohawk had recently announced that they were letting 300 people go, and even though David's department was told they were safe, David's position is being eliminated. The greatest PRAISE in the situation is that the Werner house is under contract! They listed it last Monday, had six showings in about 30 hours and an offer by Wednesday night (the night before his job was eliminated. talk about timing!!). The Lord totally provided us with a sense of peace because of His hand being so clearly at work on our behalf. We're also excited to spend time together as a family while we wait to see what the Lord has next for David. He's already had a meeting and several good contacts, and we know God has an exciting plan for his next job. We're hope it's in Chattanooga not Dalton :). All in all, we're doing really well. David's attitude is SO God-honoring, and I couldn't be more proud of him. We've already had a really sweet week of productivity, long walks, fun outings and a few afternoon naps :). He got a severance, and the Werner house selling (for more than they had originally planned on listing it!) helps us feel quite secure financially. Our prayer now is for quality time as a family and obviously a new job! 

gender reveal take TWO

We had so much fun finding out that Crawford was going to be a boy that we knew we wanted to do the same thing with this baby. Not to mention, I don't want this poor kid to have more of a complex than he'll already have about being loved less, etc. because he's the second born... So, we planned a party for the day after my doctor's appointment. Again, I was SURE he wouldn't be able to determine the gender, but again, I was wrong. I was 15 weeks on Wednesday when we went to see Dr. Brody, and I was SO thankful that we got a good report all around. I had gained a few pounds, baby was right on track, everything looked perfect! We even saw his tiny fingers (joints and all) waving around. I'm so thankful for an ultrasound at every visit for lots of reasons, but a big one is just because of the reminder it is that this is a MIRACLE living inside of me! Dr. B had us close our eyes when he looked for the boy parts, and he said he was 99% certain of the gender (David recalls that he was only 98% with Crawford). We took that as a good sign and moved ahead with our party!

We knew it would be hard to do the party at our house this time because, well, our friends have a lot of kids. There were more than 40 people that showed up to love on us and be excited with us for our new addition. I am still overwhelmed by that. Want to feel loved? Throw yourself a party!

My sister and Heather helped a ton (Ash loaned me lots of stuff, came over during lunch to help and came early to set up!). We didn't do anything fancy, just pizza, fruit, salad and cookies (pink and blue ones). Everyone wore pink or blue to show what they thought it was. I only wore pink because I had these cute pants that won't fit for much longer :). After the ultrasound, David and I both thought it was a boy (how else could he have been able to tell??), but I really vacillated back and forth a good deal. We all ate and hung out, then decided to do this thing! We revealed the gender and the name with a pennant banner I had made.

sorry for the way off-centered video... makes me sad! I set the camera up on the tripod though, so it's totally my fault :(

I was sort of surprised, but really it sort of felt like an out of body experience. I knew it would take a few days of letting it sink in that we'll have TWO BOYS. Wow. I really couldn't be more excited to be outnumbered in a house full of boys! I've always said I'd love to be a boy mom, and I feel so blessed that the Lord is entrusting me with these two.

The baby's name is Lawson Andrew Geyer. Yes, we will call him Lawson. It's a name we have both always loved, and it happens to be the name of our street (the first/only street we've lived on as a family) :). Andrew is my dad's name and my brother's middle name, and we are so pleased to honor both of them with this baby's name.

Again, we are overwhelmed by God's goodness to us in giving us this sweet gift and by the love and support we feel from our family and friends. This Matt Redman song is the echo of my heart:

You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

Thank you, Jesus!

Lots of pictures HERE.

Werner Street- after

Some of the photo angles are way different, but you get the gist! David and Dan are listing the house for sale tomorrow, and it looks fabulous! I'm so proud of all of their hard work. Now... let's pray it sells quickly!

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*The wall next to the doorway came down, so it is now open from the kitchen to the front living room.

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(another "before" of the same wall, though initially the blue wall was between the kitchen & living room)

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