sawyer has been obsessed with this huge card that he and scott gave me for my birthday. it is one of those music cards, and he just LOVES it!. he plays it constantly... we came home from a night of errands and were sitting down to eat some panda express when sawyer asked for his "big card." scott opened it and sawyer started dancing. it is so funny. he has got some moves!! it is fun to watch his dancing evolve from what it used to be a year ago.



after we got him out he still played with the card and we recorded some more dancing. just thought you might enjoy.

i know it has been way too long....so many excuses...too hard to list them all... all is well, we are getting ready for a big change in our lives...scott will be quitting work and focusing on school. we are hoping that if he goes straight through and gets all of the classes that he needs, he will be done in about 1 1/2 years. it will be hard, but worth it. these last few months have been busy. a few highlights are in the following pictures:


our 1st get together after sofia was born.



over fall break we went to the aquarium. sawyer loved the penguins! he had the whole room cracking up.






halloween at the westerlund's house. they were so gracious to let us invite friends and family to their home.



sawyers 1st encounter with nutella.


the cuteness that we deal with on a daily basis. gotta love it!

These are Sawyer's 2 year old pictures. I've only added a few of them because they take forever to load. Most of them are of him sitting because that's the only way we could get him to hold still. Enjoy!

he's 2!!! i'm not sure how to feel about this...what happened to my baby? he is at a fun stage right now though (when he isn't throwing a tantrum) and i love talking to him. he is already learning to tease and tell jokes.

grananna kris came over on sawyer's birthday and we opened a couple of little presents and then had some cake. it was delicious...coconut! afterward, scott and his 'uncle' mitch brought the armoire up from the garage and we cleaned it up and put it back together. we couldn't have done it without him, it was way too heavy for me to lift. (thanks SO much for the help, mitch.) sawyer went and got his handy manny toolbox from his room and helped. there was a lot of grunting and 'i got it' going on, but the best was when scott asked sawyer if he was strong and in a gruff voice he replied, 'yeah, i strong!' ( i have a really cute video, but can't get it to upload. aaahhh!!!)

sawyer likes to give buzz a ride. this is what we got him from aunt darrelyn and crew.
cake #1! (he wouldn't sit by it, so buzz sat in his place.)
during the week we put together his new toddler bed from pop-pop and grananna haynes. he 'wubs' it and the transition has been very easy for him. every time he wakes up he announces, 'big boy bed, all?' which means he slept in it all night or nap. we are all very proud.
on my birthday we went to scott's aunt kathy's house and opened more presents, had more cake, and uncle dustin lit some fireworks. sawyer was a little afraid of the fireworks, but loves to watch them anyway. he was really good at running away when uncle dustin told him to.

he got a pillow pet, which he has slept on since. it is so soft and now everyone else wants one. maybe for christmas...
his gigi and pop-pop (great grandparents) gave him a mr. potato head, although it was difficult to get it away from his aunt sue. she has always wanted one and has never played with one before.


cake #2!
we celebrated twice for his 2nd birthday...does that mean next year we will have to celebrate three times??

sawyer and i went to michigan for 16 days. it was a much needed break from the daily routines of home and a chance for the two of us to spend time together. every morning i heard, "wake up, mama...wake up, mama." to which i would groggily reply, "i'm awake." he would giggle and say, "ok, i coming" then climb out of the pack-n-play, come over to the bed, climb up, and snuggle for a bit. it was heaven! it didn't matter how little sleep i had gotten that night (too much talking and reading), i loved that we were building our relationship.

it had been almost a year since uncle chris has seen his favorite nephew. they were so cute together! sawyer LOVES uncle chris and chris' girlfriend, rachel. we were able to celebrate both of their birthdays with them while we were there, although you would have thought it was sawyer's birthday with how much he was spoiled by them. uncle chris went shopping before we got there and won big points with the toys he picked out. he definately knows what his nephew likes! one of the days they all went on a slip-n-slide. i don't know who had more fun...sawyer...chris...rachel...or me (watching the three of them goofing around.)
grananna took sawyer and me to marvelous marvin's which has a lot of antique and modern games. sawyer was very tired, but we made the most of it. i don't know how i feel about this picture though...he looks TOO old!!

pop-pop and grananna had a few flashbacks when sawyer got into the guest bathroom and unrolled the toilet paper into a huge pile, then got some powder and decided to shake it all over the floor, the chairs, and himself. of course, they thought it was hilarious (which it was) and took pictures instead of getting upset.
on our last day, we all went to a small farm at kensington park. sawyer was able to run around, see some animals, and find a cute little blond to flirt with.

before we left chris asked me to put sawyer in his gray cammo shorts and black tennis shoes so they could match. it was adorable to see them walking around all matching, even down to the sunglasses. they adore each other!!
this is the barn where the baby animals are kept when they are still really little. there were two HUGE pigs with about 10 piglets each, a few goat kids, a lamb, a couple of rabbits, and some newly hatched chicks.

there was a small herb garden with a path that was fun to run around. grananna found some mint, lavender, and a plant that smelled like lemon to share with sawyer.here are the boys! i love this picture.
sawyer has started singing. he sings songs he knows, but also makes up his own by combining songs. this video is a made up one which starts with something about a ball game. (yes, he is bouncing on me at the end of the video.)


we were also able to go to my dear friend karen's wedding, visit with paula and her twin boys (sawyer laughed the entire time we were there), spend an afternoon with dale, and lots more. it was amazing to watch sawyer with my family. i loved spending time with everyone and can't wait to go back.

last month i bought sawyer a star wars book. i'm not sure who was more excited, scott or sawyer. it has since become his favorite book, he calls it 'star-ers.' it is a simple board book with pictures of some of the main characters. sawyer knows all of their names and likes to point out the 'white babers' that a few of them hold. my favorite page is the picture of princess leia. sawyer calls her, 'mama princess.' who am i to correct him??

being a parent is a blast. i'm sure it helps that we have a stinkin' cute toddler. sawyer is growing so much in so many ways. he can recognize all of his letters and numbers up to 9. he can count to 12. (he goes higher, but all of the numbers are one-teen after that.) he loves books and tries his hand at reading, but only on the books he has memorized. :) (it's my blog, i can brag if i want to...right?) he also enjoys going outside to play at our park and loves to go bike riding, thanks to his pop-pop and gra-nana's generous christmas presents.

on our recent trip to las vegas, my aunt darrelyn gave sawyer his 1st 'big boy' bed. he loves it and has taken one nap and slept one night in it. we are planning on taking down the crib after i finish school in 2 1/2 weeks. for now though, it's another play area.

my favorite thing about being a mama right now is watching sawyer's personality grow. just the other day i was laying on my stomach and sawyer was sitting on my back. he slid down onto the floor and said, 'mama, fun! mama slide!' he does thing to make us laugh, like in this picture, he found 3 binks, gave me 1 and put the other 2 in his mouth. he pulled them out long enough to say, 'i funny.'

last sunday, we decided to watch america's funniest home videos. sawyer laughed so hard, scott and i were falling off of our chairs. it took us a good 2 minutes to calm down ourselves. we recorded it and rewatched it so that we could get sawyer on film. by the end of the video, sawyer is forcing his laugh, but you get the idea of the original hilarity. the part he is watching is a montage of people falling during gymnastics.


it is amazing how quickly time flies and how much babies change. sawyer talks more and more every day and continues to surprise us with the things he knows. it will be fun to be able to spend my days with him for the next few months.

i have been trying to post for the last month and have been 'denied' at every attempt. i had a really funny video that i wanted to post, but i can't seem to find a way to get it off of my phone and onto my computer. i can get the pictures off of my phone, but not the videos. any ideas?? then when i decided to post something else, our computer crashed. this has never happened to me before, and i was a little ticked, to say the least. well, scott has a very nice friend who came over and gave our computer an 'update.' he did an amazing job and now i am able to finally post a little something.

sawyer has a book called 'teeth are not for biting.' at the end of the book it says, 'teeth are not for biting. teeth are for smiling.' there is a picture of a family where everyone, even the dog and cat, are smiling. sawyer loves this book, especially the end. we always point out the people and their nice smiles. as a result, when we tell sawyer to smile, he smiles like the picture in the book. as you can see from the pics, it is hilarious. whenever we bring out the camera, he starts 'smiling' like this.

i know this isn't much, but it is all i have for now. hopefully, the next time i post it won't be such an ordeal!

our family present this christmas was a webcam. we also sent one to my parents. with the ability to see and speak with their grandchild, my parents aren't quite as demanding about my keeping up with the blog. even though it is over a month later, i figured that i would include the pics and a video from the holidays.



we changed our tree this year. we though we better make the decorations kid-proof, so we decided to have a candy tree. we made a lot of our ornaments and filled the tree with yummy treats.

scott was happy with his gifts...

sawyer got a lot (too many) gifts. he loves his books, clothes, kitchen, shopping cart, play food, etc.

we are excited to get our new bikes in the spring and can't wait until we get to use the helmets that my parents gave us.

one of my favorite activities this christmas was going shopping with scott's mom, aunt kathy, cousin jessica, sister mandy, and sister-in-law suelen. scott's grandparents decided to give to others this holiday, so all of the family members contributed to a general fund and we went shopping for a family shelter called 'the road home'. the girls all got together at smith's marketplace, during one of their big pre-christmas sale days and we went to town buying clothes, winter wear, and other necessities. between the sales and employee discount that 2 of us get, we filled over 10 carts with items! i don't think i have ever had so much fun shopping. it felt so great to spend money on those less fortunate that we are. i hope we have started a new tradition and do this every year.

one last picture...and i will try to post sooner than later next time.