Week 17 (12/9-12-15) - Santa Claus

It has been a quiet, but crazy week at our house this week. We have been trying to get ready for Christmas like everyone else. The highlight of the week was Santa Claus came to our house a little early! Clint and I did not get anything in our stocking, we assumed we were naughty, but he did bring Sawyer some goodies.

This Saturday Sawyer started to get much fussier. He has never cried much at all, but he has been fussier the past few days. He doesn't appear to be teething and he doesn't act sick. The upside of the situation is he is also much more giggly and interactive. He also is starting to actually play with toys. Do any moms out there have advice or had babies who went through a similar phase around 4 months?

Week 16 (12/2-12/7) - Back to Work

I started back to work on Monday, December 1st. I am only working in the mornings, but I started working on a different team so I am trying to get caught up. Work has been so busy so fortunately I haven't missed my Sawyer too much. I also know he is in loving, trusting hands with Mr. Mom (Clint) watching him. This is what I came home to one day this week. Notice that the pants, jacket, and shirt belong to 3 different outfits.

Actually Sawyer is never crying when I come home (but sometimes Clint is). He loves hanging out with his dad. We also got our Christmas decorations up this week. Because Clint and I are never at our house on Christmas, we always have a little celebration on the weekend we put up the Christmas decorations. We watch Christmas movies, bake cookies, eat breakfast casserole, get double doozie cookies, and try to turn it into a party. Sawyer enjoyed getting ready for the holidays too!

Sawyer is getting so strong. He is rolling over (though he lacks all motivation to) and playing a lot on his tummy. He coos all the time and seriously I mean all the time. He really likes to eat his hands and is starting to try and put other objects in his mouth. He also started giggling this week.

Week 13, 14, 15- Thanksgiving

November 11th - December 1st



It has been a few weeks since I have posted, but that is because I have been on the road. We left November 13th for Arkansas. On the 14th Clint flew to Pennsylvania to visit his brother and attend the AICHE conference where he gave two presentations. I stayed in Arkansas with my family. Clint returned on the 19th and we celebrated our 4 year anniversary on the 20th. We got to go out on two dates! We then celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and with his family. We returned to Houston on the 30th. We had a blast celebrating, I think Sawyer and I both gained about 5lbs each!

Sawyer is changing so much. Besides the fact that he is such a big boy, he is reaching for things and hitting at things, smiling and cooing constantly, rolling over a little, holding his head up, discovering how cool his hands are, trying to put whatever he can into his mouth (he still can’t grab very well so it is still hard) and just being absolutely precious. Of course I am completely biased. He is also such a good boy to sleep through the night.

Here is Sawyer with his favorite cousin Jackson.



Look how cute the boys are with their mommy’s.



Sawyer got to meet both of his great grandmothers. He is the twelfth great-grandchild for my grandmother Mammo and the first for Clint’s grandmother G.G.



We have a funny tradition in our family of dressing up like indians and pilgrims for Thanksgiving. Below is Julie and Taylor with my niece, nephew, and cousin. I had to put this picture up because Taylor put a picture on his myspace page once of Julie and me at thanksgiving when I was going through my awkward stage (that stage only lasted from 11-21). Sawyer, Clint and I didn’t get a chance to dress up this year because Clint went hunting all morning and Sawyer decided to be a pickle and I was just trying to keep him happy.



Here is Thanksgiving at the Aichele’s. Yummy!



Sawyer went on his first weenie roast at Grammy and Grandpa’s farm.



Clint and Sawyer are getting ready for the OSU vs. OU game. Clint got to go to the game, but Sawyer and I stayed back.

Week 12 (11/4-11/11) - Rice's Homecoming

We went to Rice's homecoming game this weekend. We learned why we have never been to a Rice football game before -- let's just say it is not OSU. Below is the homecoming king, yes it was Hurricane Ike. I am not kidding. Check out the hot dude in his shades. Clint and I decided to bale the game and took Sawyer to his first bar. I promise we are good parents.

We took Sawyer to the doctor today to get his hemoglobin checked. His numbers are up! Things are looking good. He still has to take his iron supplements which means I still have to get him to eat his prune juice. UGH! He is getting so big. He isn't even three months yet and he weighed 15 lbs 14 oz. I know almost 16 lbs! He gained over 2 lbs in just 3 weeks. He is also sleeping through the night. I didn't want to jinx myself by talking about it early, but he has been sleeping through the night for about two weeks now. He goes down at 9:00, I wake him up at 5:00 am to feed him (that is when I am going to have to feed him when I go back to work), and then he sleeps until about 8:30. I moved him from his bassinet to his crib last night. He slept great, but I hardly slept at all. I had to keep checking on him. Hopefully I will get over that.

Since he is almost 3 months I thought I would post some fun moments of hanging out with the little guy:

• One day I came in to Clint screaming. Clint was changing his diaper and he pooped all over Clint, the couch, the floor, the coffee table, . . . I still don't know how it got everywhere.
• Last week I was letting him hang out naked after a diaper change (one of his favorite things to do). I had briefly turned my head but turned around to catch him peeing in his eye. Crazy.
• I was at hobby lobby the other day and I had his prune juice bottle with me. A lady stopped me to ask what I was feeding my baby. I told her. She thought it was coke. What kind of mom did she think I was, yes he has been to a bar, but he is way to young for coke.
• He smiles at everyone, but extra big for the waitresses at House of Pies.
• When I am breastfeeding him I get the evil eye until I start rubbing his head and telling him how wonderful he is. That is definitely a Clint trait.
• It seems every time I am walking out the door in a hurry he poops through his entire outfit and sometimes on mine as well.
• It is precious when he talks to us in his language of aahs.
• I love it when he sucks his thumb. Reminds me of my own childhood and early adolescents. . .

There have been many many more moments that have made me smile and laugh in the past 3 months. Actually I have smiled more in the past three months than ever before in my life. Below is another picture of my beloved boys in their matching red henleys.

Week 11 (10/28-11/3) – Halloween

Happy Halloween! Sawyer was Heidi (our dog) for his first Halloween. I modified an elephant costume to get the right effect – the giant ears. Clint, Sawyer, Heidi and I had a great time trick-or-treating on Friday night. Unfortunately with a two month old baby who was asleep the entire time it was obvious the candy was for Clint and me. We had so many kids come by (and adults too) that we had to turn out our lights early. We then enjoyed an evening roasting hot dogs over the chiminea. It was Sawyer’s first “camp fire” which was a momentous event because one of Clint’s favorite things to do is sit around a camp fire.

Week 10 (10/21-10/27) – New Truck

So we finally bit the dust and did it. We bought a new truck this week. We have been talking about it for years, like 7 years, and have known for a long time exactly what we wanted. So we brought home Negra Modelo. Yes we named her after a beer, but have been calling her NegMo or Mo for short. You may think we are crazy, but it is an Aichele tradition to name your vehicles. NegMo is a 2009 black, 4 door, 4WD, TRD, SR5, Toyota Tacoma. We are still hanging on to the old vehicles, NegMo is just to look at.

Other than the new truck, cowboy football, and our weekly Sunday drive and hike, it has been quiet around here. Sawyer is smiling and cooing more and more. It just makes a mother’s heart melt. In addition to his iron supplements we also have to give him prune juice to keep things moving. I keep telling him he has skipped about 70 years of his life. I can’t handle the stuff, be he doesn’t seem to know any better. Below are just some random photos I have taken this week.

Some other big news around here is Julie and Taylor are expecting! Mango (baby Faught) is coming the beginning on June. We are really excited especially considering Sawyer, Jackson, Savannah, and Mango will all be in the same grade at school. The beautiful couple got pictures taken this week before Julie starts showing.

Week 9 (10/14-10/20) Two month check-up

The “less hot” weather in Houston combined with the impressive OSU football season have caused Clint and I to be very nostalgic of OSU homecoming this past week. In fact we got so jealous that we bought tickets to Rice’s homecoming to try and make ourselves feel better. We went to the park on Saturday to get our minds off things. You can see Sawyer and I sporting our orange.

Monday was Heidi’s two year adoption birthday. I can’t believe we have had her two whole years. Our lives have gotten a lot more complicated since then. I realized that Cesar Milan would be very disappointed with our dog rearing. His motto is exercise, discipline, love. Our motto is love, love, love. But I guess that explains her behavior. For her birthday she got a can of Alpo with a candle in it. She was in puppy heaven.

On Monday we also took Sawyer to his two month check-up. He weighed 13lbs 12 oz and was 24 inches long! He was in the 25 percentile at two weeks, he is now in the 90 percentile. I don’t know what that boy is eating – oh wait, he eats what I eat. But on a more somber note, they retested his hemoglobin and it was very very low. Our doctor put him on iron and they are going to recheck it in a month. If it doesn’t improve this could be a serious situation, so please keep the little guy in your prayers. You can see him smiling at me, but remember no picture is flattering at this angle.

Week 8 - Pumpkin Patch (10/7-10/13)

Life is a lot different as new parents, like your hobbies change. As most of you know, Clint and I have always been way into food. This is just getting to be a bigger problem. We went to brunch on Saturday then went in search of Houston’s best donut. After trying a few, we found a delicious old fashioned donut. On Sunday we both had an insatiable craving for a Dairy Queen Blizzard. We started out in a nicer part of town, but eventually had the epiphany that some might consider DQ lower class. We decided to drive into “the hood” and wah-lah. So yes we drove around until we got a blizzard. Now it appears that I am blowing my diet, but surprisingly I have still been able to stick with it.

We also went to a harvest carnival/pumpkin patch to get some fall pictures with my friend Kelli and her little man Karsten. It was very very hot and Sawyer was super grumpy so it made things a little challenging, but we got a few cute pics.

It seems like going to pumpkin patches was popular this weekend. Below are my niece and nephews at a pumpkin patch. Unfortunately Sawyer does not have Aunt Dana to plan his wardrobe.
I am also trying to make bath time a happy time in our nightly routine. Sawyer is starting to enjoy his bath more and more. Aren’t his little thighs cute!

One last thing -- GO COWBOYS!!!

Sawyer's Best Friends

A lot of babies were born this month in my family. My oldest and closest friend, Amy Mann (we were raised like we were family) had Savannah Grace on September 8th.

My sister Dana had Jackson David on September 19th.

From now on the holidays are going to be absolutely wild!

Week 7 (9/30-10/6) - First Hike

Sawyer is 6 weeks old! This also means I get to start working out again! Since I am cutting back on hours I had to let my gym membership go, so instead I went to Ross’s and bought all kinds of workout videos. I have been having a lot of fun trying new things like tai-bo, kickboxing, and belly dancing. I am just missing Richard Simmons.

All along I have felt Sawyer is a little bitty thing, I guess because he was born so early. This week he got to meet two of his friends who are 9 weeks and 10 weeks. Sawyer was bigger than both of them! He looks fat compared to the other babies. So his newest nickname is “Chunk”, which works out ok because Clint wanted to name him “Chuck” went I shot down “Buck”.

Sawyer (6 weeks) and Karsten Poppenhagen (9 weeks)

Sawyer (6 weeks) and Kaden Beene (10 weeks)


On Sunday we went on a little back roads drive and did some hiking. This was Sawyer’s first hike and he did great. Clint and I also enjoyed getting out of the city for the day.