One Decade

A decade ago this summer, I had my first date with Josh Daws. Here are a couple pictures from the Summer of 1999. More in love today than I was 10 years ago. Blessed.

A Summer of Firsts

We took a vacation to Florida at the beginning of June to visit family. Grant did so well, even on the 10 hour car trip home.First time on an airplane. He loved it and did so well! Everyone on the plane was pleasantly surprised and told me so. :-)
First time to Tribble Mill Park in Grayson, GA. We went 6 miles that day. What a trooper!

First taste of Josh's favorite ice cream, a pineapple dole whip from Disney's Polynesian ResortFirst time at Disney's Grand Floridian. LaLa was able to get him to sleep in her arms.First time on the Monorail at Disney World. First time of many!

First time in his new float in the pool.
First time in a bubble bath.

And just because this is the cutest picture ever.

7.5 Months

I really do believe those that told me that the time flies with our babies, so enjoy it. Time has flown! I try my best to soak up every last second with my baby boy, but it still doesn't seem to be enough at the end of the day.

Each night I go in and stare at him for several minutes before I go to bed. The other night, several hours after he'd been put to bed, I swooped him up and rocked him while he was still sleeping. I couldn't help but think of the book, "Love You Forever."

Here's what Grant is up to at 7.5 months:

- Has 2 bottom teeth
- Sits up all by himself
- Rolls around in his crib
- Babbles "dada", "baba", "ghee", "hey", and "mmmm" when he's eating something he likes
- Gets up on his knees sometimes - crawling is just around the corner!
- Can put his pacifier back in by himself
- Loves food. Really anything I give him, but especially peas!
- Loves books, especially the plastic or cloth kinds
- Sits in the grocery cart and restaurant high chairs
- Plays independently with his toys
- Drinks from a sippy cup or my cup

Here are some pictures. He wouldn't let me see his teeth or show me how he gets up on his knees, but I did get some pictures this morning of him hoarding his pacis! He interchanges them all throughout the night - even while he is asleep!

And lastly, this is my very favorite part of him to kiss - the nape of his neck! Pure sugar, I tell ya!

First Mother's Day

Today was a momentous day in the Daws home. Grant was dedicated to God, he turned 6 months old and it was my first Mother's Day.

Today Grant is 6 months old. I can hardly believe that my boy is half a year old and that he's both been with us for 6 months and at the same time I can't believe I've lived 29 years without him. He is my greatest joy.


This boy is worth it.

Every doctor's appointment over the 2.5 years we spent struggling for him. Each surgery I had. Every needle stick in my stomach and arms. Every painful procedure. Every tear. The countless fertility drugs that didn't work. Every single-no-every-single-month. The humiliation. The heartache. The hopelessness.

He is worth it.

Every single no and every single tear lead me to this baby. God had him waiting for me all along. It was he that I was supposed to have.

Sometimes I just look at Grant while doing something mundane like changing his diaper on any regular day and I'll just start crying. I longed for him so long that not one single day goes by that I take for granted what a miracle he is.

Today I celebrated my first Mother's Day. I got to hold my son in front of the church and dedicate him to the Lord. I didn't want to dissapear like in years past and I didn't have to fight back tears when unknowing strangers wished me a Happy Mother's Day.

I am Grant's mama.

At last, I'm someone's mom on Mother's Day.

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This touching entry was written by my mother-in-love, Sheilah Daws. She truly is the best mother I have ever known AND she is Grant's "La La".

I can’t believe our little girl has graduated college. Where did the last 22 yrs go. For that matter the last 32 years since God first made me a mom.

Deuteronomy 6 says we are to teach our children “at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again.” This indicates that we are to spend much time with our children. Don’t waste one moment with them because they don’t stop growing while we are busy doing other things.

I am so thankful for all the tea parties, for bedtime prayers and tucking in, for snuggle times we had, books we read and Bible stories we talked about.

I am thankful for all the tents we made inside with sheets and the huts we built outside, for nerf wars and sock wars.

I am thankful for the picnics and the lazy summer days swinging together as we pretended to take some sunglasses to the sun.

I am thankful for the pretending with dolls and GI Joes, for the hours watching Mister Rogers and eating peanut butter sandwiches...

To read the rest, click here:

Happy Easter!

Well, we got our first Easter family photo together. I hope to make it a tradition that we take one every year at Easter. It will be fun to see how Grant grows each year. It was such a beautiful day in the ATL. Do you know how hard it was to get him to look at the camera? Really hard.We had a great Easter serving in our church nursery called, "Waumba Land" and then went out to lunch at Cracker Barrel with a good friend.

And, Grant is still more interested in looking at the designs on his bib then eating the cereal, but I'm okay with that. Oh and have you tried these Bumkins bibs? They are fabulous! They are waterproof, rinse right off and dry in no time and they have this great velcro adjustable collar. AND you can just throw them in the washer. They are like a fabric material -- not that plastic, so you can even fold them up real easily. And they come is super cute designs. I am in LOVE with them!

5 Months Old

Grant is 5 months old today. As a celebration, we gave him rice cereal for the first time. After spitting it out at first, he seemed to love it. I used the Earth's Best Rice kind. I was really struggling giving it to him at first, because it meant he was growing up, but it turned out to not be too big of a deal.

We took video, but forgot to take a picture! So, these photos of his 5 month birthday will have to do. Happy five months, sweet baby.

Learning, Learning, Learning!

As a new mom, I am learning more each day as I try and teach Grant different things. It's all trial and error!

Right now, I am reading him four books about Easter I got in a bundle set from the Arch Books series - Jesus Enters Jerusalem - Arch Books, A Surprise in Disguise - Arch Books, Good Friday - Arch Booksand He's Risen! He's Alive - Arch Books

If you haven't heard of this book series, you must check it out. They are separate little books, each containing a Bible story. They rhyme and are short and he seems to love hearing me read them. I must confess, even I am learning the Bible stories better with the simple way they tell the stories.

I find it's best to read them when I am rocking him before his naps. It's a special time between us and is so much fun.