Merry Christmas Eve

'Tis the night before Christmas and "A-leaf-ala" made it to town, yippee!

Happy Sunday

Jack Attack

Doors are fascinating. Have you ever just sat there opening and closing one over and over and over? Jack is getting things figured out and LOVES doors these days...especially cupboard doors. The kitchen is his favorite area....so many doors to open and shut! He's only gotten a couple black eyes from them...that's not too bad right?

 This little hynie/hiney? (and cute rolly thighs!) get in to everything!

 Chair barricade obviously didn't work. It wouldn't be a problem for Jack to get a hold of the felt Christmas tree, except for the fact that we couldn't fasten it to the wall without him pulling it down. And that he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth - including feathers and googly eyes found on some of the felt ornaments. Oh Jackers! We finally moved it up out of his reach and when Sawyer wants to play with it he climbs up on a chair to reach.

The grin right before pulling it to the ground and moving on to his next clean/orderly target.

 Jack sandwich - so sweet and yummy!

Chef in Training

Sawyer has a lot of fun around the house (usually in the kitchen) when I'm putting his little brother down for a nap. I usually put on a show for him in hopes the house is still standing when I come out...sometimes it holds his attention, sometimes it doesn't :) Today I found him preparing the zucchini, even eating it raw! He did pretty good using the peeler...turns out zucchini is a toddler friendly vegetable to peel. He's just recently started to make pretend food for me in his little toy kitchen...I guess he thought it was time to move on to the real thing and that means we'll be making zucchini bread today!

Ho Ho Ho

Jack checking out the white beard.

Jack snuggles :)

Sawyer was unsure of Santa...but saw his baby brother sit on his lap and receive a gift so he decided it was worth it. Very serious and no smiles tho.

Our friends, the Klines, had this HUGE santa bear in their jewelry store so of course the boys had to get a picture with it.

Just 5 days to go.

Merry Christmas!

Wisdom Teeth

One of the many benefits of George's new job is dental coverage. We are naughty and rarely go to the dentist. George hasn't been in maybe 7 or 8 years (except a cleaning once a couple years ago)! He got all four of his wisdom teeth pulled about a month ago. The holes left behind were impressive! Now our family's teeth are pulled, filled, and cleaned so we should be set for another 10 years. (Just kidding Mair :)

My boyfriend's glamour shot. This is with his cheeks packed with gauze and shows about how swollen he got...not too bad really!

Squash Face

Look who is 8-months-old:

SQUASH FACE

 

Showing off his pearly whites - he's getting in all 4 of his top teeth right now. Other noteworthy events in this little guy's life is that he is now cruising along furniture. What a champ!

Oh my goodness. This face! We love him SO much.

Silhouette Winner!

Tonight I found out that I won a silhouette. I was SO excited because those machines are awesome but I would never spend the money on one. And then a few minutes after the exciting news (via email) I realized that I hadn't responded in time and therefore won't get a silhouette. I'm so sad! I kind of wish I would have never known. Darn :(

Gratitude Tree

Happy Thanksgiving! We got together with two other families, the Jensen's and the Bentley's. There was delicious food, lots of kiddos, and good company. The sweet potato dish had a new yummy twist this year by combining them with orange juice, delicious!

 Guess what's in the brown paper bag?

Apple Pie!
It works like a charm to bake it in a brown paper bag (tried it twice now). I found the recipe on King Arthur Flour's blog. 

Our morning activity (besides pie baking and potato mashing) was creating our huge gratitude tree. Our prophet, Thomas S. Monson gave a great talk in October entitled Consider the Blessings. To sum up, he suggested that we count our blessings, great and small and write them down. Our little family has been feeling so blessed. If you have a hard time thinking about your many blessings, use this 10 x 10 chart. Come up with ten items in the following ten categories: {1- Physical Abilities. 2-Material Possessions. 3-Living People 4-Deceased People. 5-Nature. 6-Today (as in ten things you are thankful for today). 7-Places. 8-Modern Inventions. 9-Foods. 10-Gospel/Spiritual.} You'll easily come up with 100 things you're thankful for. Here is what our gratitude tree looks like. We actually have a ton of leaves (aka everything we're thankful for) but still haven't hung them on our branches yet. It's a good thing gratitude can span through every month and every day, not just November :)  We'll keep plugging away at our tree, and post a photo when it doesn't look like the wind has blown all the leaves off :)

Since Thanksgiving this year fell on the 22nd - here is a quick list of 22 reasons we are grateful today:

1. Papa, Mama, Sawyer, & Jack - together and happy!
2. Comfortable Home
3. Reliable Vehicle (Sawyer has named it Rocket Ship in honor of Little Einsteins)
4. George's Job - being able to provide for our family AND do what he loves
5. Our Health
6. Our Freedom
7. Sunshine
8. Morning Bike Rides
9. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
10. Food
11. Happy Days
12. Baba & Dido
13. Grandma & Grandpa
14. Aunts, Uncles, & Cousins
15. Friends
16. Visitors 
17. Ocean
18. Mountains
19. God's Creations - Nature
20. Learning 
21. Comfortable Bed - especially when it is combined with sleep ;)
22. Books - reading to our boys

7-month-old Jack

Jack-a-Jack, Jackers, Jack Attack
(pic taken at 7.5 months, but stats are from 7-month appt)

Stats:

21.7 lbs.

29.5 " long

44.5 cm head circ.

This little dude is on the move - no more sitting still! He pulls himself up no problem and cruises slowly along furniture. He has super sensitive skin. Mosquito bites turn red, he gets a big welt, and his skin is warm to the touch. Poor guy got bitten on his forehead on our walk a couple nights ago and around his eyes/bridge of his nose were all swollen for a couple of days...he didn't look like himself :( He moans (loudly) right before he's about to fall asleep. It's hilarious. He loves to drink/chew on Sawyer's sippy cups, but not his bottles. I usually have to pack two now. I'm not sure how much he's actually drinking out of them...is that bad for him to drink out of a sippy cup so young? The professionals say so...  Unfortunately he has started to wake up in the night again. He loves to chase Sawyer around in his walker. Sawyer doesn't love it because his toes get run over sometimes. Diaper changing as become a hassle because he refuses to lay still. He is very smiley and happy. We love having Jack in our family.

I laid Jack down (he was awake) in this basket while I grabbed something for Sawyer to eat. When I came back a few minutes later this is what I found. Such a doll.

Love these boys!
Yes - it was 'cold' yesterday morning on our bike ride. We bundled up in sweatshirts and didn't even get too hot when we stopped to play at the park!

Kite Flying

My nephew, Kaden, was probably 2.5-years-old when he was visiting Grandma and Grandpa Lewis in Crescent City, California. They went out to the beach and were flying their kite. Kaden was so enthralled by the kite flying, he frolicked around exclaiming, "It's my Christmas! It's my Christmas!" I always thought that was such an adorable description of the excitement of flying a kite. We recently saw a brand new kite on craigslist and couldn't pass it up. On Friday we had a great (windy & chilly) afternoon at the beach flying our kite. The wind was so strong at times it was pulling George down the beach. It was a fun day. I love spending time with my family :)

And we are so excited because word on the street is that visitors will be trickling in starting the day after Christmas almost all the way through to Valentine's Day! Yes! Let the countdown chains begin. 

Sawyer as a 2-year-old

Wowza our baby boy is a big boy! This little guy is so much fun. I know everyone says this, but I can't believe these past two years have flown by so fast.

Stats:

36" tall - 3 whole feet!

32 lbs.

52 cm head circ. - to hold lots of brains of course.

This kid is smart. He can talk in full sentences, and has for quite a while now. We go to library story time every week - he loves it, but for the first 10 minutes he is strictly an observer. After watching/assessing the situation he joins in on the reading/singing/crafting. He has mastered the front roll. He can say/sing his ABC's and 123's through 10, although his favorite number combo is 2, 4, 2! When he watches Little Einsteins he totally gets into it and answers all their questions and claps/sings along. I'll usually hear him enthusiastically yell 'BLAST OFF' even when I'm in the far bedroom showering. I got a phone call from Aunt Sara earlier this week - apparently around 5 am (3 am her time) Sawyer snagged George's cell and gave her a call. She told me he was very happy and chatty. This daylight savings business isn't helping our household out in the sleep department. So just beware if you get a call from us in the middle of the night, it's not a prank, it's our energetic 2-year-old wanting to update you on his life. He likes to push his limits. At the pool a month or so back, he climbed in (not at the steps) while I was trying to get Jack situated. He loves cold cereal and bananas for breakfast. He continues to be a great eater and loves broccoli, turkey, asparagus, meatballs, pomegranate, apples, yogurt, cheese, silver dollar whole wheat pancakes, grapes, blueberries, and will always try whatever I make. He loves to play in vehicles. He loves to go for walks and is always urging us to do so. He is fantastic at saying 'please'. I'm sure his good looks and manners will get him far in life :) He is having a harder time listening these days. When I've finally resorted to time out after repeatedly telling him to listen or do something, he will frantically exclaim "I listen! I listen! I listen!" and do what I've been asking him to do. Lately he loves telling everyone to "Watch out! Watch out! Watch out!" It's not in a rude way...more like if I want to change his diaper he'll tell me to "Watch out!"  He loves helicopters and motorcycles (oh great). He can spot airplanes, helicopters, and birds in the sky better than his parents. When he wakes up in the morning (between 530 & 630 am) he will turn on every light in the house...enough to hurt your eyes first thing. He is so cheery tho it's hard to be grumpy about waking up early. He is starting to say prayers. It's about the only time he ever whispers. Quietly whispering he repeats, "Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father" and ends with a loud "Amen!" Sometimes he'll throw a thank you in there. He loves to laugh and he loves to make us laugh. He loves giving us all smooches. He's happy and healthy and we adore his fun personality.

Rescue Hero sporting papa's flight boots.

Falling asleep after lunch at the table. He was not amused that I took a picture.

Naughty napper - offering his bunny as a peace offering to his increasingly impatient mother. I think this picture was taken after an hour and a half of trying different methods to get the boy to nap.

He deliberately eats his chocolate chip cookie the same way every time. He'll poke out all the chocolate chips and lick his finger after each poke, and then take down the rest of the cookie. This boy loves chocolate, just like his mom.

Buds. So happy they have each other :)
On his own accord Sawyer started calling his baby brother 'Jackers'. 

He's definitely a 'papa's boy'.

Lately he's been getting items out of the fridge and leaving them around the house. Off the top of my head in the past day or two I've found heavy whipping cream, mustard, salad dressing, and tortillas. When he's hungry he'll bring me something out of the fridge and say, "I want this." Usually it's condiments or something else from the door. He insists on eating whatever he grabs. That's fine and I usually feed it to him, but today was his doozie. I was nursing Jack and putting him down for a nap and I came out to the lovely scene above. I had to take a picture first, and then scold him for wasting so many eggs. Notice how neatly he put all the cracked egg shells nicely on the counter. As I was hauling him off to the bath he exclaimed, "Oh my GOODNESS!"  I guess that's what I said when I found him. Now they are both napping and the house is quiet and peaceful. I'm reveling.

Happy Halloween

Aren't these the cutest THINGS you ever did see?!

If you need to a reminder who inspired these 'things' go read 'The Cat in the Hat' by Dr. Seuss.

Trick-or-Treat

He caught on quick, and was off for more candy!!

Happy Birthday TO YOU!

Sawyer is adorable. He turned 2-years-old on October 25th. It's hard to believe that 2 years ago this handsome little boy turned George and me into parents. All day he ran around the house saying 'Happy Birthday TO YOU!' 'Happy Birthday TO YOU!'. We celebrated by going to the zoo, and then on his actual birthday papa got to stay home from work because of Hurricane Sandy. We woke up to balloons and presents and played the day away. His 'big' present was the skuut bike. It has no pedals, but he can walk and glide along with his feet and supposedly learns how to balance better than using training wheels on a pedal bike. Time will tell. He already has ridden it more than he ever rode his pedal bike though.

This was the first time Sawyer got the concept of wrapping paper, although he was still moderately controlled about tearing into his presents.

Honestly I think his favorite present was the scissors we got him. Sawyer, and children in general, really understand how to enjoy the little simple things in life - good example for us old adults that have a hard time being satisfied it seems.

Kyson, Kaden, and Sadie mailed Sawyer a beach ball for his birthday - genius idea! Did you know you can mail them just like that? You just write the address on the ball. So fun!

Mom thought this would be a fun surprise for Sawyer after his nap - I guess I was wrong.

We planned on having pizza and cupcakes at the beach, but due to Hurricane Sandy we had a picnic in our living room instead. Still very fun :)

Happy Birthday Sawyer! 

(Excuse my freakishly large smile - this was about take 5 trying to get Sawyer to look towards the camera.)

Happy Birthday Song - Take 1

Happy Birthday Song - Take 7ish

Sawyer wanted to keep singing and blowing out candles. Adorable :)