the kids

Anyone else want a Sawyer kiss?

Kate's school presentation

Last week Kate had a little presentation at her school. They call it the "morning meeting" and the pre-k classes through 2nd grade take turns doing it. For their turn, Mrs Bradley's class said hello to all the classes and then introduced themselves. They drew pictures of what they liked about being in Kindergarten. After that they taught and then sang "Boom Chicka Rocka" with everyone there. It was short but fun.

Here is a video of Kate saying her part. She amazes me how much she has come out of her shell since starting school. You can tell she's shy, but she did it! And I'm so proud!

They are supposed to say, "My name is ______ and I like to _________"

best friends

The day I had my ultrasound and found out that baby #2 was a boy I cried. I think I cried because I like pink and flowers. I know all about girls seeing as that I am one. I was picturing dressing up two little girls in matching dresses with bows in their hair. I had a sister just younger than me and, even though we weren't best friends all the time, we went through stuff together. We were sisters and sisters can be best friends sometimes. And hate each other sometimes and that's okay too.

Now Sawyer is 3 1/2. Kate and Sawyer share a room, Kate in a big queen size bed and Sawyer in a twin. Every night I put the kids in their beds, give them kisses and squeezes and tell them goodnight and then I shut the door. And every night Sawyer crawls out of his bed and into Kate's.

We always have a large pile of library books at our house and I very often find my kids together on the couch or sitting on a blanket on the floor together with a book, Kate reading to Sawyer. Even before she could really read, she would make up the story and Sawyer would listen attentively.

My kids have always, always played together with very little disagreements. They play cars and they play dress up and with babies. They are always make a ginormous mess of my craft room with all their craft projects, they both love art.

Sawyer misses Kate so much when she is at school and still asks almost daily when she is coming home.

My kids are best friends and I love it.

a few of my favorite things...

We have seen several advertisements and posters for the Chipmunks movie and Sawyer, more than once, has referred to Alvin as "the super one." (Because of the yellow A on his shirt like superman)

Kate is in a phase of spelling everything. She will say something like, "M-O-M I hear C-L-A-R-A." Or, "I want M-I-L-K." Little smarty pants

Clara was raising one of her hands above her head and Sawyer said, "Mom, it looks like she's going, 'Boomer Sooner!'"

Sawyer has a hard time saying some words but one of his favorite books is "The Lorax". He says it like "the wowax" and it is adorable. When I try and correct him I say, "no, it is an L....la la la Lorax." He'll get his cute little tongue going and say, "la la la wowax!"

slip and zip sound the same when sawyer says them. it sounds like "swip". I love it when he asks me to "swip" his coat. and here, with the cold and a clumsy boy, we zip and slip several times a day.

I made kate and sawyer super hero capes and they love them. yesterday morning kate asked me if she could wear it to school and I literally stared at her for a few minutes debating. finally I couldn't think of a reason not to so I said yes. when I told my sister, her first question was if the kids are young enough to not make fun of each each other, haha. when I picked her up that afternoon her teacher told me she loved it and wanted to make one for herself. kate told me her friends called her super kate all day and she was so happy about it. she asked to wear it again this morning and I kind of tried to talk her out of it....but she went to school as super kate again!

One night the kids were getting ready for bed. Kate has a princess tank top she loves to wear but to make it warmer she wore a shirt under it. I was getting Clara ready for bed and when I walked out of her room and Sawyer was wearing striped bottoms from one pj set, his orange lion shirt from a different pj set and on top of it was an animals shirt from yet another pj set. I asked him why he was wearing 2 shirts and he said, "because Kate is!"

This is day two of waking up after a full nights sleep! 8-9 hours!

I bring clara into bed with me for her first feeding when she wakes up the morning and after I unswaddle her I love how her arms are right by her side for a second and then she ssssttttrrrrettches! so adorable!

turning blue

Just like her brother and her sister, Clara's eyes are turning a lighter shade of blue every day! She also has found her hands and uses her cute blue eyes to follow their every move. (and usually every move is towards her cute, slobbery mouth!)

ski lessons

Kate had her second day of after school ski lessons today. It was must colder, windier and snowier than the first day but she still had lots of fun. I was so proud to see her coming down the hill! It made me wish I could go skiing with her someday. (She promised to teach me everything she knows!)

We got there a little early to pick her up so we could watch her. I bundled Clara and Sawyer both up but it was too cold so once we found her and took this picture we got back in the car to wait. We sat in the back so we could still watch her go down the hill.

When the lessons were over we found Kate and headed into the lodge to gather her things. By this time, Clara had fallen asleep and looked pretty snug.

Then we came home and warmed up with hot chocolate!

hello, my name is Clara....

And I'm so cute, my mommy can't stop taking pictures of me!

a product of laziness

Kate traded in her dancing class for a gymnastics class at the beginning of the year and she loves it. Like leaves the class glowing loves it. And they have a preschool class so we decided Sawyer might love it too. The only problem was what to wear. The girls all wear leotards, which Kate has tons of, but I don't ever buy sweats of gym type shorts for Sawyer. Everything is either pjs or jeans/kahkis. You aren't allowed to have anything with buckles or zippers and his pjs would have just looked funny so I had to find something.
I went into town on Saturday and totally forgot of this need and I'm too lazy to go into town again with my kids in tow. So I decided to make some out of an old shirt. And it took me less than 10 minutes (not counting the baby break I took in the middle of it). And they turned out just fine. Not super fun, adorable, girly cute...but just fine. Sewing for boys is so not as fun!


I'll update you on how he likes the class!

Clara - 2 months old

stats:
weight - 12 lb 5 oz
height - 23"

cutest baby ever!

New Year's Eve 2011

We had some friends tell us they were heading to the roller rink on New Year's Eve and we thought it sounded like fun. As we were walking in I was totally taken back to my childhood with roller rink memories and Ryan told me he didn't think he had ever been to a roller rink! He said he spent a lot of time roller skating outside his house but that was it. Crazy.
This was the kid's first time (besides on the carpet in our house in their little skates) and they were very brave. Sawyer is a pro at falling and getting back up (because he does it about 100 times a day anyway) and Kate had a great attitude also.

After a few songs the DJ told all the adults to get off the floor, it was a kid's skate song. We asked the kids if they wanted to stay on and they said yes. They held hands the entire time and I couldn't get over how adorable they looked!

Afterwards Kate was tired...and she said next time she wanted knee pads!

Did I mention Sawyer's skates were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

After we were done skating we headed home and partied in the New Year. We made an appetizer dinner. The kids were excited because I let them make the mini bagel pizzas all by themselves while I made the spinach artichoke dip. Yum!

Then we declared it close enough to midnight (at 8) and counted down, yelled "Happy New Year!", blew our little horns, and listened to Auld Lang Syne.

I bought these little poppers a few days before and Sawyer saw them and said, "Can I have some of this candy?" I explained it wasn't candy and told him it was for New Year's Eve. Not long after he again asked if he could have some of the candy and I explained again. On the morning of New Year's Eve he brought them to me again and said, "Its New Year's Eve, can I have this candy now?" sigh.
That night we finally proved to him that they were not candy but were, in fact, really loud and fun poppers to help ring in the new year. He loved them! And I loved his faces he made while setting them off.

Are you wondering where Kate was during all this? She was hiding in the next room. She didn't think they looked very fun...and maybe even slightly dangerous.

My accident prone Sawyer proved her right when I little spark landed on his finger. Here he is getting it iced.

Don't you love his belly in these jammies? I do.

Happy New Year!

A New Year's Eve Tradition

Remember this owie from last year? Last year, as in, to the very day?

The morning of New Year's Eve we were getting ready to go roller skating...and I was a little worried how my accident prone boy would do. Broken bones? Sprained ankles? Cracked skull? And then, when we were still in the comfort of our own home, BANG! Sawyer ran right into the door and got a huge owie on his forehead! Kate was the only witness, so the details are a little sketchy. But I will say it is not he first time he has ran into a door. Or a door knob. Or a wall. But this was a little bigger than his average owie and he took a little longer to calm down.


We gave him some ice and he sat on the couch with it on it for a few minutes and then he was all better.

Today it looks much better. Not like the time he ran into the wall and was a rhinoceros for a week...remember that?

Anyway...

As I reminisced on our ER trip last year I remember that I didn't blog the pictures from it. My dad thought they might be a little too sad. Or graphic. So turn away if you don't want to see.

I'm warning you....


consider yourself warned...

here he is on Jen and Micheal's counter with the paramedics bandaging his head. See those hands with the red and purple sweater? Don't worry, that is me. I was actually trying to care for him while someone else took the pictures!

Here he is after our ambulance ride...when he was so mad at us he wouldn't make eye contact

And here he is while we were waiting for the anesthesia to wear off

I sure love my accident prone boy!

Sawyer the Sunbeam

I kept teasing Sawyer that he was going to Nursery this Sunday at church, just like he has ever since he was 18 months old. But he is a Sunbeam. A great big, 3 1/2 year old Sunbeam. And he was so excited about it! I got a little teary eyed when I watched him sit down in the front row of the Primary room with his friends, without any hesitation at all. When Sharing Time was over and he was heading into his classroom, I watched him, with his arms folded very reverently, follow his teacher to his classroom. I excitedly called out, "Hi Sawyer! How was Primary! Did you love it?" and he just looked at me, never unfolding his arms even a little, with a big smile...but he didn't say a word. I think he was afraid it would be irreverent if he did. I sure love my Sunbeam boy!
(and luckily I took this picture at church with my phone. Before church was too hectic and after church he had taken off his Sunday best before I remembered I wanted a picture.)