Sweet Reunions

What a weekend!  A cousin of mine got married which brought family in from afar for a great weekend!  People that I rarely see these days but love dearly just the same as I did back when we all lived within a five mile radius.  We had one night for a short and sweet cousin night.  We are missing four in this picture but here we are oldest to youngest.  (I always thought it was pretty cool to be the oldest.)  Such sweet memories with them over the years!  Looking at this picture gets me sappy on all kinds of levels.

I also had a chance to get together with a few old roommates which hasn't happened in about five or six years.  Again, some people who have left a huge imprint on my life were not able to be there but it was so good to catch up with the ones that were!

We also happened to have a family Christmas planned for the weekend.  One we would not had made it to if it hadn't been for the wedding.

Summer really wanted seconds on jello but she had a plate full of other food that needed to be eaten first.  So while the other kids finished and played she diligently sat and ate all by herself.  And eventually got distracted by something, never finished her food, and never got her jello. 

And then Santa came for a visit!  Our kids really had no clue about Santa up until now.  Sawyer is still obviously pretty clueless but Summer is a new fan!  Well, as long as she doesn't have to sit on his lap that is:)  We especially liked Santa's shoes.  He had a stroke awhile back which probably explains the new kicks:)

Saturday morning Danny and I went on a little morning date to my dear friend Katrina's new coffee shop!  It was quite delightful and now I have two places to go when we are there!

Saturday evening was spent helping with the rehearsal dinner.  I really enjoy preparing and serving food and so doing that along with some of my favorite people made for a great time!

After all the guests were served it was time for the rest of us to sit and eat.  We dished up our plates and went to a back room in the facility we were using and found my dad using a high chair for a table!  It got to job done I guess but it made the rest of us chuckle!

Sunday left us with some very tuckered out kids.  Sawyer was in no nap hyper mode.  We realized we had left his snuggly blankie thing in my mom's church bag so we made do with Summer's extra pair of pants from the diaper bag:)  It did the trick and he was out in about 2 seconds flat after that!

We made it home with just one minor traffic delay.  Very tired, but a good tired.  Now to rest up for all the other busyness this month has to offer...

Fall As Of Late

One beautiful fall day I thought Summer should experience and understand the joy that comes from playing in a pile of leaves.  But it has taken forEVER for the leaves to fall off the trees this year.  But I managed to scrape up a measly little pile and showed her how to play in it.  She liked throwing the leaves in the air but wasn't a huge fan of rolling around in them.  All my work for naught.

Sawyer's piano lessons

We didn't do costumes this year but Sawyer did get this cute little jack-o-lantern outfit from grandma that we wore to her fall party!

We also had his birthday party.  It was a puppy theme inspired by pinterest and this huge stuffed dog my mom gave us.  It was simple but cute!

Summer has been really into changing her clothes lately.  Unfortunately sometimes it's bad timing and we end up with a naked trick or treater greeter!  We quickly found her shirt though- we don't need the reputation of being "that" house!

Then a few days AFTER Halloween, Danny decided he wanted to carve one of our pumpkins.  So the timing was off but he and Summer still had fun with it and we roasted the seeds so it wasn't solely a Halloween thing I guess:)

When you tell Summer to go get her shoes on...

This past weekend I took a really quick trip to Illinois and left Danny and the kids behind.  It was only a 24 hour trip and just wasn't worth packing everything up, much to my mother's dismay.  

Danny put his awesome dad skills to good use while I was gone!  (He has lots of awesome dad skills.)  He redeemed my pathetic attempt at playing in the leaves!  Which reminded me that Sawyer still needs a coat for this winter lest he be stuck wearing his sister's hand me downs and his daddy's stocking cap!

Then I got this picture!!  Sawyer fell butt first into the trash can in the bathroom with the rest of his limbs sticking out.  He didn't think it was as funny as we did!

So that's been our fall thus far.  I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas with great anticipation!  I've had my Christmas music on since about the middle of October:)  I'm one of those...

An Ode To Sawyer Jacob

 Our sweet Sawyer Jacob is turning the big ONE tomorrow! (October 28)

It's hard to believe that we've been a family of four for a whole year now.

Of course, a first birthday means reflecting back on some of the different things I was feeling a year ago.  Excitement, apprehension, nervous, peaceful- God gifted me with a really easy birth with Sawyer.  I know things don't always go so smoothly so I was pretty thankful when it went about as good as it could have!

Those first moments when you see the little baby you've been carrying for (more than) nine months... I remember that the two first things I thought were "he's got a lot of hair and he has a huge mouth!".

I mean just look at that thing!

For the most part, he has been a pretty easy baby.  He would lay on the floor by himself and just hang out for a long time.

A lot of times after he ate I could just lay him down wherever and he would drift off peacefully into dreamland.  That was such a nice change after being used to Summer who did that a whopping two times in her life!

As per the usual, he became a lot more alert and interactive...

and got to be so much fun to play with!  He had and still has the best little giggle ever!

He and Summer have become quite the pals, spending most of their time together when they are both awake.

More recently I have given him the name "Sawyer the Destroyer.  This first picture is a great depiction of how he just quickly makes one mess and moves right on to the next.

He has become my exercise program- cleaning up his messes and chasing him around or rescuing him from somewhere has become my norm.

We just never know what kind of shenanigan he'll be pulling off next!

He's our snuggle bug, our handsome lil charmer, and he makes us laugh every day.

And he still has a big mouth!

Harvest And Birthdays And Family, Oh My!

I got to be in one of my happy places this weekend!

Last Thursday I loaded up the kids and headed off to my parents for a few days.  I love harvest and I want my kids to love it too.  Gotta teach 'em young, right?  Both of them were a little unsure about the combine at first.  It's just so big!  But it didn't take long until they decided it was an alright place to be.  We didn't get a trip to the elevator which was kinda sad but there's always next year.  I hope.

We also had a combined first birthday party for Sawyer and my niece who was born just four weeks before him.

He ate some frosting, but didn't really dig into the cake too much.  He just didn't know what to do with all that frosting so he wiped it all over the place!

He still smelled sugary the next day:)

Meanwhile, Summer was grandpa's little sidekick all weekend long.  She does not adjust well to the time change and wakes up extra early.  So grandpa gets her out of bed and takes her to do turkey chores before feeding her breakfast.  By that point Sawyer is waking up and I'm feeling a little more ready to get up myself.  Grandpa, Summer, and Mommy are all happy with that arrangement so it's a win-win-win!  One afternoon though, Summer had just had a bath and was playing in just her cute little undies.  My dad had come in for something and she saw him go back outside and slipped out the door behind him unnoticed.  He was almost all the way to the turkey house when he happened to turn around and see a tiny, barefoot, underwear clad girl following him, ready to go see the turkeys!  He promptly returned her to the house where her clothes were waiting:)

Sunday night we had a bunch of family in for supper because my aunt and several cousins were visiting from Colorado.  Twas a lovely evening!

Also happening over the weekend was a surprise birthday party for Katrina, who is one of my bestest friends ever.  It was probably my favorite event of the whole weekend!  Yet, as I pulled into the driveway that night I realized I did not capture one single moment on camera.  I guess I was too busy soaking up all the time with my friends that I rarely spend time with!  It was a beautiful night and was reminiscent of old times.  When people started leaving at 8:30 I was getting a little nervous that on my night out with no kids to worry about, I would be going home earlier than I wanted.  But there were a few of us that stuck around for awhile longer to just chat about life.  And we also got to cheer up the grumpy policeman who came to check out what was going on:)  He must have expected a drunken party but quickly realized it was not and he got a lot happier pretty fast.

By the time Monday morning rolled around, we were really missing daddy!  So we loaded up and headed back to see him, stopping for lunch at McDonald's where Summer had her first playplace experience.  She wasn't too impressed, really.  Maybe in another year or so when she's a little bigger!

And now, we resume life as normal.

Because Life Is Just Better When You're Wearing A Bike Helmet

Recently we spent a weekend camping and Summer had access to a couple of bike helmets that belong to her cousins.  You better believe that if she was awake, the bike helmet was on.

(The bike never actually moved while she was on it.  But the horn got honked over and over again!)

Helmets make food taste way better.

It makes watching people chop wood so much more exhilarating.

And footballs are much easier to handle while wearing a helmet.

Watching people chop wood, you ask?  Why yes, I did give it a try!  And it went about as good as you can possibly imagine by the looks of this picture:)

This guy didn't care about helmets or chopping wood.  He did, however, sample his first pudgy pie and he's a huge fan!

The following weekend we got to witness this gal get married.  It was a beautiful and God-honoring day and so good to catch up with some Alabama friends and other people we have connected with through them.

October is flying by and I'm still waiting for the real fall weather to arrive.  I keep thinking I'm going to switch out the kids' clothes but then I look at the upcoming weather and put it off just a little bit longer.  One of these days I'll need to, though, and pretty soon I'll be dreaming of sunshine.  But until then I will just keep burning my fall scented candles and imagine the air outside is just a little bit more crisp.

Ah, fall..... how I love you!

Whirlwind Wedding Weekend

We had a really fast and busy weekend- we piled the kiddos and a few bags in the van and off we went!

We celebrated Steeve and Sarah's wedding:)

Sawyer spent most of his time at the reception taking a nap under the stairs while Summer enjoyed the cupcakes and dancing.

And by dancing, of course, I mean taking giant steps around in a circle while flapping her arms.  She gets her moves from her mother, you know:)

She also participated in Sunday morning turkey chores with grandpa.  He's got her carrying dead ones already!  That saying of how you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl... I decided the country part of the girl gets passed on to her daughter, too:)

Then we left church right after lunch to get back in time for our Sunday evening Perspectives class.  We dropped off our two very sleep deprived children with child care, said "Good luck!" and sat for the next few hours listening to the speaker who thankfully was very dynamic.  Otherwise we might have settled in for a little involuntary nap:)

And now we just catch our breath before the next adventure starts.