Heavenly Grandparent's Day!

Today is the feast day of Saints Joachim and Anne!! The parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary! How awesome that God gave them the great gift of being the grandparents of Jesus- the God-man.

A Dawson weekend!

 

Mommie and Mamere are David's grandmothers. What a gift to have them in our lives! They love love loved on Micah!

 Jacob (20 mnth) Therese (3 yrs 4 mnths) Liam (3 yrs 8 mnths) John Paul (4yrs 11 mnths) Patrick 

"Uncle Pat" - almost 14 and Luke (1 yr 7 mnths) i the "cool zone" at the Baton Rouge Zoo!

 This kid! I am so in love, y'all. Funny, compassionate, head strong, and LOVES
Baby Micah (he whispers "Buh Buh" and touches him every time he sees him... every time)

 Pete (Cecilia in the backpack) and David (Micah in the backpack- who could breathe, I swear) eating fruit snacks in the cool zone. These are two of the BEST Daddies on the planet, y'all!

 Grandaddy was politely refused a fruit snack.

 John Paul and Aunt Julia eating uncrustables.

 The crew in the cool zone!

 I feel like this picture (above) needs the theme to Chariots of Fire in the background)

 The "big kids" and the "little boys" as they were referred to all weekend.

 Therese held Micah and Cecilia at the same time! She was so proud.

And now we can see their faces! They are two weeks apart to the day!

What a fantastic weekend! What a fantastic family!

So much to tell you!

In the last two weeks, the Dawsons have been rockin' and rollin' (not just because Micah sleeps in a Rock-n-Play)...

• We had our first Domestic Church family retreat in St Francisville- 18 families- which added up to about 40ish kids- 4 days, talks, family time, Mass, playing, praying... all done with our families! (I don't have any pictures of this yet)
• The Green's came in town from Denver, and we were all together for a week. We met Isabelle and the Green's met Micah. That makes 7 grandchildren 6 and under at my parents.
• We had our first professional pictures taken with the Darbonne's, Green's, and Dawson's
• Micah was baptized!! A new child of God, Claimed for Christ! This Sacrament is so incredible- what a gift to witness it!
• Micah reaches 4 weeks old tomorrow... it's big deal!!

So here are some shots from those things:

Mom and Dad will celebrate their 40th anniversary later this month, and love to celebrate with cake!!

Madeline loves her Uncle Joseph

 Isabelle Reese... or Baby Belle as Daddy calls her. Just over 3 months old. I am so in love!

 Anna Kate (4) and Therese (3) are truly 2 peas in a pod! They walked everywhere holding hands. They took their naps together. They're sneaky together. So precious!

 Madeline (6) and John Paul (almost 5)

 She read lots of books to him.

 Isabelle and Micah are 10 weeks apart. Apparently it's merely a difference between size of cheeks.

 Meal time... where nothing was eaten because they were visiting.

 Jacob (20 months) "Cheese"

 Maria Lewis (of Lewisland) took our family pictures...

 And a few extras...

 Joseph and Dominique (his precious girlfriend) ... two peas in a pod.

 Oh and here's our family picture

 And our sweet little Micah Philip was baptized on Sunday (his godparents are dear friends of our Denis and Linda Husers). After we finished this part, Therese said, "Ok, it's my turn now!" I then informed her that she was already baptized.

 What a special day!

And now I need a nap...

Some old photos you will certainly enjoy!

David somehow retrieved pictures off my old computer I used from graduate school up until we moved to Lake Charles (so 2006 - 2009). Enjoy...

 Trying on the wedding dress

 David and I at Festival Internationale '07

 Engagement picture

 Minutes before our wedding. Sarah is holding Madeline (4 months)

 Madeline (15 months) meeting John Paul for the first time

And in celebration of Micah's upcoming baptism, here is a picture of John Paul's baptism...

And Therese Marie...

And like most things associated with Jacob that I cannot seem to get to/find... I cannot locate a picture from his baptism, and Micah is crying. Jacob you are loved and appreciated... just not in this post.

So let me introduce to you...

Micah Philip Dawson, ladies and gentlemen!

The play-by-play:
5am : woke up to some light contractions, which was typical of each day from week 38 to 40. I couldn't fall back asleep, so I woke up, had some prayer time, and went for a walk. Contractions were 7 minutes apart

8am: conceded to the fact that I was actually in labor, so we fed and dressed the kids and called my parents. Showered, vacuumed the house, did some dishes, packed the kids, breathed, timed, prayed.

10am: kids were packed up and went to Granny and Grandpa's for the day. This part is NEVER easy for me. I've cried each time, and wonder if we're making the right decision to have a baby(yes, I realize this last part is irrational. I mean, we're pretty much committed at this point). Contractions were 5 minutes apart or less.

       
11:30: headed out to the hospital by way of stopping at David's office to grab the laptop and drop off a Blockbuster movie. We also had the beautiful and moving privilege of stopping in front of the church while the hurst of a friend pulled into Queen of Heaven. Daniel Crochet was being commended to God's mercy at the same hour the God's mercy would bring new life to us.

Noon: Admitted to the hospital, needed antibiotics for group b strep otherwise they would have sent me home... because after 6 hours of labor I was 1 cm (this is child #4 people after weeks of false labor- so humbling)

Somewhere between then about 2pm- dilated to almost 4, but after trying to labor naturally while totally stopped up and lighted headed from breathing so hard I received an epidural. We had been doing prayer intentions for each contraction, when I received the epidural the prayer intention for the entire process just happened to be for Daniel's soul (and the soul of his brother). God is good to let us participate in prayer and suffering for others.

4ish- 7cm lying on one side. The nurse flipped me, and less than 5 minutes later I was complete!

5:09pm... and 3 pushes, he was on my chest, crying with his little lip out like someone had hurt his feelings. That was an incredible moment. Praise God!

 The traditional gel-in-the-eyes freshly born pic... and he's still so cute! P.S. That's my mother-in-law's hand on my leg, which I remember looking over and seeing that her hand was there... and that I couldn't feel a thing in that leg.

 Lots of time in a quiet hospital room, so we took pictures!

 Our first family-of-6 photo! I love that Jacob is on John Paul's lap- what a great big brother!

 These two are so great with Micah. They love him and ask to see his toes and kiss his head all the time... except they all have super nasty coughs/colds, so we don't let them do too much with him yet.

 Think 4 is overwhelming? Could be, but I have captured one of many moments when they were all three playing well together with the same toy. They were play "buy the pig/buy the turtle" and John Paul would say, "Have a nice day! Thanks for buying the turtle!"

 Granny helping John Paul hold Micah for the first time (I hadn't informed her that they weren't allowed to touch him with their snotty little hands)! Look how proud he is. My sweet sweet man! My loving mama!

Therese is a fantastic sister already, and she loves babies. She's been waiting for Micah since we told her we were going to have a baby and she said, "I want a pink baby." A pink baby's what she got. She tells me that he's so cute every time she looks at him, and she loves trying to take care of him; she'll say, "I got Micah, Mom." (In other words: you go do your thing, and I'll just be here insistently trying to stick a pass in his mouth)

 

 Jacob Joseph is doing as expected. He is very loving and compassionate baby, so he is NOTHING but sweet to Micah (so far), but is also a mama's boy, so he wants to be held a lot, thus forcing me to break the rules and hold him a lot! And occasionally, he hides in the corner behind our recliner with his pass (which is a no-no... except for this week. He can have it all he wants.) He is showing lots of behaviors that say, "Um, guys, my whole life just got turned upside down."

As my mom titled this picture: "How do you entertain three young children? Have a baby to entertain them!" This morning John Paul asked me, "Mom, may I please have some chocolate milk, so that I can drink it and sit in my red chair and watch Micah?" And that's exactly what he did... and the others followed suit.  A good note to end this post. See you soon (whatever "soon" is redefined to mean).
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Another note: Micah looks almost identical to John Paul at birth until he opens his mouth to cry/scream, then he looks/sounds like Jacob. Craziest thing...

John Paul's birth

 Week 4 or 5 I think.