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!