Christmas Day

Christmas day spent with family eating delicious food, laughing, talking, eating more food and playing:

The game that never ends,
it just goes on and on my friends.

Some people started playing it (Penny, Rosie, Steve, Matt and I)
Not knowing what it was,

and they'll continue playing it forever just because.....

It is the game that never ends,
It just goes on and on my friends.
Some people started playing it not knowing what it was
And they'll continue playing it forever just because....

It is the game that never ends,
It just goes on and on my friends.
Some people started playing it not knowing what it was
And they'll continue playing it forever just because....

The Bird

I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas...

Mommy and Daddy are mad.

I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas.

'Cause I ain't been nuttin' but bad.

Back to Bethlehem

Last night we went to Rocky Peak church where they had this christmas event called "Back to Bethlehem". They set up this field to look like Bethlehem and gave you sheckles to spend around town on goat cheese, bread, spices. The little kids could get "jobs"at the different huts weaving baskets, dying yarn, making clay pots. It was a huge family event! The night before we went they had almost 5,000 people show up.

You had to watch out for the tax collectors and centurions that were walking around who would take your money. The first thing we did was wait in line to be led into the stable to see Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus (who was actually a real baby). My most favorite part was the little shepherd boy herding his flock of sheep. All the people in costume were really good about staying in character, even the kids who were participating.

The guy in the picture at the top of the collage to the left of me had scrolls he was handing out. To get one though you had to answer a biblical question correctly that he would ask you. He said the level of hardness of his questions were porportional to height. Since I was wearing heels I let Sawyer answer. He got us a scroll!

On the way out they had hot chocolate with marshmallows. And what's even better, it was actually cold outside! So much so that we had to button up our coats while we were there. All in all it was a fun night and one that we look forward to doing again next year.

Surprise Ending

I've Become One of *Them*

So before I had a kid I would always judge other parents. Pretty harshly too I might add. You know like the ones you see in the grocery store with the screaming toddler and you watch the parents give them a candy to make them be quiet. I would say to Matt with disgust, oh we're never doing that. If our kid throws a tantrum in public we are marching them right back out the car and taking them home! That's just example number one of all the "mom rules" I made for myself.....

 I swore I'd never use a leash on my offspring (even if the ones attached to animal backpacks are kind of cute), promised myself that I would never feed our kid crappy McDonalds food, take them to Toys R' Us since that just seems like a parents worst nightmare, or let them be seen with a runny nose since I've seen plenty of kids with those and that's just gross. I swore that I would never get all mushy and sappy either. Well I can check that off as broken rule number one already. ( Refer to my last post to see what I mean. But I was being honest, that is the best part of my day.)  Also I never thought I would be the person who gushes about their child like "look how beautiful their eyes are" or "aren't they absolutely adorable?" No offense to those who do, but really that just seems totally and completely narcissistic! I mean after all they are a product of your genes.  But I too am guilty as charged. Although in my defense Sawyer looks nothing like me so when I say how cute he is I am 100% inferring that Matt is good looking himself, which is the whole reason I married him. :)

All in all I have prepared myself that I am inevitably going to become the parent I never said I'd be, at least occassionally. Hey nobody's perfect!  But that's okay because I wasn't at all prepared for what being a mom is like until it happened. I wasn't even sure if I would be a good one or even enjoy motherhood. It definitely suits some people like the ones who dreamed of being a mom since they were a kid themselves.  I just wasn't sure if I was the mom type.  I'm glad and also relieved to say that it fits me like a glove. I've got the protective mother bear thing going on already where if you say something even slightly rude about my kid, I'll punch you in the neck. Okay, I won't really, but that doesn't mean I won't want too really bad. Not to mention if you hurt my kid what I would do, we won't go there, but serious bodily harm does come to mind. Sooooooo now that I've frightened everyone away from ever interracting with our little family again :) Anyway the bottom line is,  I'm more enamored with this little guy then I ever thought was possible. I know I'm gonna break most if not all of my mom rules along the way, but as long as I never get caught wearing mom jeans or getting a mom haircut then I'm okay with that.

Sleepy Santa

THE BEST

PART

OF MY DAY.

Candy!!!!!!

Dressed up the little man in his festive attire since cousin Christine was coming over to make candy tonight.

I soon realized that a little nibble here and a little nibble there soon equals a whole LOT and my tummy was eventually maxed out in the sugar department.

We made toffee with chocolate and pecans, fudge, peanut brittle, rice krispy treats, and oreo balls covered in white and milk chocolate. The whole house smelled like Willy Wonka's factory.

Cousin Chad and Grandma Faye pouring the peanut brittle into the pan. Looks like somebody isn't a fan of peanut brittle. I wonder who?

All the candy makers. Take a bow.

More Sawyer, what else.

Showing Sawyer the ropes of doing graphic design on the computer.

Dancing a Christmas jig on Dad's belly.

We had to get him a bumbo because he's always trying to sit up and see what's going on around him. This way he is upright on his own and totally content to just sit there. I wish I would have invented this seat. It's genius.

Christmas Mail

My cousin Leisy who lives in Ohio blogged about this recently:

I couldn't think of a better way to reach more people to ask this favor.  We have some friends here in Toledo whose eight year old son was diagnosed this week with an extremely rare form of cancer.  The prognosis is not good and the family just wants to enjoy the last bit of time they have together.  The little boy LOVES mail and Christmas.  His grandmother is also a close friend and when I asked her what we could do- she said we could send his brother and him mail of any sort.  I know he'd love to get mail from places besides Toledo so I thought I'd ask friends to send him some.  Christmas cards or letters or anything would be wonderful.  He loves spongebob, cooking, and all other normal eight year old stuff.


I'm making some cards for those boys today to mail out this week and I thought I would forward the message onto our blog. How cool would that be if that family got more mail then ever thought possible!  I'm sure it would touch the parents tremendously to see that so many people all over the country who don't even know them personally, care about their family.  I have their address so if you leave me a comment with your email I can get back to you with their info. 

Thanks Leisy for posting about them. There's nothing I'd rather be doing today then making fun things to mail for those two little boys. 

Blog Lock Down

That's right folks. I've caved in to making our bloggy blog private. For those of you who would like to follow along with our blog (now fittingly titled the Sawyer Show because who am I kidding, that's really what it's become) just leave a comment to this post with your email. I won't approve the comments (scouts honor) but that way I can add you as a follower so you have access to view our blog to your hearts content.  Even if you are my brother's neighbor's cousin's cousin and like to check our blog once a year, I'll add you. Just leave your email..... come on, don't be shy!

Santa Baby

Saturday night we went to a holiday party that our friend Stacy threw. There was lot of yummy food, friends, and children!

I couldn't pass up taking a photo of all the men sitting on the couch holding the two babies that were there. Sawyer had eyes only for the older woman sitting across from him.

This was the first time Sawyer got to wear his Christmas get up that his aunt Megan and uncle Kevin got him. He was so cute I could have eaten him up! He looks like he's thinking "Come on mom, no kisses! You're embarrassing me in front of the girl!"

Got to show off the reindeer booty!

At one point during the evening something pulled into the nieghborhood... And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer! 

 Father Christmas himself  came in on a float accompanied by Dasher,Vixen, Comet, Cupid plus four more whose names I don't recall. Sawyer was fascinated with Santa's long facial hair. He got his paws in there tight and wouldn't let go.

 I was a little worried that Sawyer might rip his beard right off and we would have lots of crying devastated children. You can tell here that even Santa was fearing his true identity may be exposed.

It actually felt a little chilly that night. Cold enough even that we got to wear our coats for the first time.

Then Sunday night we went and watched Matt's brother Greg play in Tuba Christmas. We went and had dinner nearby afterwards where our waitress laughed at how warmly I was dressed. I'm from Idaho! I've got lots of beanies, hats and coats that are begging to be worn, so if its below 55 degrees outside you can bet your bottom dollar I'm busting them out.

For the Grandparents

I can't figure out how to shrink my videos down small enough to be able to email them so any that I want to share with grandma and grandpa get pasted on our blog. But who am I kidding this is really Sawyer's blog now anyway.

Tonight he rolled over from his tummy onto his back while on our bed. If it was just the once I would have thought it was a fluke thing since he's just barely two months, but he did it five times in a row! (This kid's gonna think he is famous growing up since I've always got the camera nearby to document his every move.) Now that he's a roly poly guess I have to be careful where I put him down!

*if you must hear my dorky laugh or what we are saying in the vids' just pause the music that's playing on the bottom of our page.

Our Silly Boy

Toodle loo!

Happy Birthday Grandpa....er, Dad.

Friday we took family photos, but I'm skipping that day for now until I can post the pics. On to Saturday....and not just any Saturday, it was my dad's 50th birthday!!! My mom planned a trip to some awesome hot pools and then dinner at a yummy Thai restaurant.

We found Sawyer a swimmy with a built in diaper at Babies R Us for $1.50 on the clearance rack. It was for 12 months, but surprisingly fit him fine. He must get his big booty from me. He LOVES bath time, so we figured he would love the hot pool (it was bath tub temp) even more! And he did.

The birthday boy and his grandson playing in the pool.

All warm and cozy after swimming laps.

At dinner there were almost as many people there as there was for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was delish! Luckily none of us are germaphobes (I'm a retired one) so we all picked off each other's plate and got to try all sorts of new Thai dishes.

We were really happy we got to be there to celebrate the big 5-o with my dad!

Here's two videos of the little fish we call Sawyer.

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving in the church gymnasium. Why, there? Because it was the only place big enough to house all of us! There was:

Grandpa Howell, Grandpa Hansen, Grandma Hansen, Uncle Bob, Aunt Chele, Aubrey, Taylor, Emily, Jake, Sara, Bridger, Carson, Mike, Bryson, Megan, Kevin, Ben, Chantal, Marilyn, Mom, Dad, Aunt Linda, Uncle John, Aunt Annie, Uncle Phil, Daysa, Aunt Rosemary (am I forgetting anyone?) oh yeah and Matt and I = 29 people

+ 2 babies.

Ben and Matt checking out the spread. There was a variety of thanksgiving foods to choose from with some especially made for vegetarians, lactose free and gluten free eaters. Just to give you an idea there was 3 different kinds of stuffing, regular turkey and free range turkey, vegetarian gravy and regular gravy, mashed potatoes with milk and some with soy milk. And my fav, Aunt Linda's famous sweet potatoes. I don't know if they're actually famous, but they're so good I dream about them when the leaves start changing and my taste buds know they are in the near future.

Sawyer got to wear his pumpkin hat and thanksgiving bib.

And of course after the meal, out came the cards! This is Matt's best p-p-p-poker face.

Okay just kidding, they weren't really playing poker. But maybe they should have been betting slices of peanut butter pie since that pie was the first to go!

Instead of playing games I joined the crazy kids at the craft table and made ornaments. Bryson's angel of death ornament with the bling won for "most unique". You can tell how excited he is by his face.

Grandma Hansen feeding Sawyer for me. Unfortunately for her while milk was being put in that end something stinky was coming out the other end and got all over Grandma's lap. Sawyer likes to leave a good first impression.

And now I present you with an awesome video of the double duty grandma featuring Squeaker Squeakerton and the Fake Sleeper.

17 Hour Roadtrip

**when we got back from out trip to Idaho I had 95 pictures on my camera to upload. Pretty impressive considering we were only there for 2 and 3/4 days. So rather then have a super long post, I'm chronicling our Thanksgiving trip in smaller bits and pieces. 

It all began last Tuesday after Matt got off work, we (Matt, myself, baby Sawyer and our dog Moxie) hit the road around 3pm to start our journey to Idaho. Not 10 minutes after we left did we have to pull over to remedy a big diaper blow out. Sawyer's timing is impeccable.

After five hours in the car he was already giving me the "are we there yet?" eyes. Not even close, buddy! We made it to Cedar City, Utah by midnight and found a bunch of cheap motels there. After driving past them all a few times we settled on the one that was somewhat less creepy. No animals were allowed so we wrapped Moxie up hot dog style in a blanket and snuck her in.  If anyone had seen us we would have got busted for having a dog...

and a bear.

After about 5 hours of sleep we packed up and got on the road again. Around noon I started getting calls from my family asking when our estimated time of arrival was. My mom sent me this pic from her phone with everyone anxiously awaiting to hold the baby!

Finally we pulled in the driveway and next thing I knew everyone (who must have been peeking out the window and spotted us the second we pulled up) ran outside to greet us. Oh wait, did I say to greet US? What I meant was they ran out, snatched Sawyer and ran back inside and left Matt and I standing there bewildered. Actually it was hilarious and at least we know our baby is loved by a lot!

Sawyer is looking at my mom here like hey I remember you! Grandpa Hansen was one of the first ones in line to hold him.

And Aunt Linda got him to smile a lot. I've never seen him smile or coo as much as I did on this trip, we even got to hear his first laugh! I'm sure he is thinking here that the drive was worth it to see all these new faces and get so much attention. Great, his own mom and dad must bore him already!