Our Christmas Tree

So this is what our tree looks like. Embarrassing, but it is a product of love. We always plan on buying a fake tree after Christmas on sale, but we never get around to it. So once again we have a real tree, but our is a little droopy (and crooked). Also we have always had a small tree in the past, but this year we bought a 7’ tree. I went to Walmart after work one day to buy more lights, but I only have a 3 hours a day with my baby, saw the long lines in the Christmas section, and left. Now all the glass ornaments are on top of course. Well the glass ornaments that are left. It did fall over in the middle of the night breaking quite a few ornaments. Our little buddy is so precious and takes off the ornaments he can reach, then puts them back on. I am impressed because I would think a 16 month old boy would take the ornaments off then throw them on the floor. But no, he patiently works until he gets the ornaments back on. So there it is.

Sweet Baby - Dec 2009

See those big brown eyes? That’s what I see all day long. Aren’t they the most precious kind eyes. When I was young and naïve, I declared I only liked blue eyes. I would only date blue eyed men and so I could ensure all my offspring had blue eyes. The good Lord did a doozy on me. I am officially now the world’s biggest fan of big brown eyes. I even see a strange man on the elevator with kind brown eyes, and my hearts starts racing (don’t tell Clint). I am a total sucker, mainly because of Clint’s gentle light brown eyes and Sawyer dark (almost black) brown eyes. It probably only adds to it that my mother has the most sparkly brown eyes ever.

Now all babies are a gift from God, but I got lucky. He is so sweet natured. He is loving, gentle natured, kind. I could go on and on. He loves to read and try and figure everything out. He only sees something once and he has it figure out. He also has to have something in his hand at all times. His favorite things are wooden spoons and paint brushes. We get lots of comments when we go out in public. He does have his moments but a paci and blankie appear to solve all the worlds’ problems. Also he has to be within 10 feet of Clint or I at all times (so does Heidi lately and she is about to make me go crazy.) So I never have to worry about Sawyer getting into trouble. Ok enough of a mom bragging. He does cry, poop, and make lots of boogers so I guess he is not perfect.
Here he is with a paintbrush. Yes that is a little tie sticking out of his sweatshirt. We get so tickled by that outfit. I am looking for a faux tux t-shirt in his size.

Thanksgiving

I don’t have many pictures from Thanksgiving, but check out papoose Shepherd. Isn’t he the cutest baby ever? It is a weird family tradition to dress up as Indians and pilgrims at Thanksgiving. I wish I had taken a picture of Sawyer in his wig and head band; instead he was too busy playing on the four wheeler with his daddy.


Sawyer did get to go to the pumpkin patch with his cousins. He had a great time!

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We ate a lot and got to spend a lot of time with the family. Poor Sawyer had a rash and a cold and decided he didn’t want to eat. That is unusual for him. He normally eats as much as I do which everyone knows is a lot. I had a realization that I am not cursed with a slow metabolism like I always thought. Actually I have a great metabolism; I just eat like I should weigh 250 lbs. So bring on the egg nog and other Christmas goodies.

But speaking of big, Sawyer is now officially off the growth charts. He was born in the 25th percentile, quickly moved up to the 75th percentile, spent quite a while hanging out at the 95th percentile, and is now off the charts in height and weight. For some weird reason I am so proud of having such a big boy. With my family you can always pick out my kid from the crowd. All the other kids have light light skin and electric blue eyes. My beautiful baby is the brownie.

Halloween 2009

Ignore the quality of pictures please. Trying to get a walking one year old to sit still is almost impossible. It doesn’t help that every time he sees the camera he tries to grab it. Unfortunately we didn’t get in the Halloween spirit too much. We were in the middle of the kitchen remodel so we didn’t decorate. I did put out pumpkins, but they got stolen. Sawyer went to a carnival in town as a frog. It was actually Jack’s costume, but he was too afraid to put it on. Sawyer LOVED it. Clint and I got so tickled watching him in his costume. We still laugh about how cute he was. On Halloween night he went out with Grammy while we went to the OSU vs Texas game (in Clint’s parents’ club seats!) The game was tough, but we enjoyed the rum and cokes so much we didn’t notice. Sawyer wore his pumpkin outfit for an evening with Grammy.

These two are best friends. You would think Heidi would get tired of all the hugs and kisses she gets from Sawyer, but you give her an inch she takes a mile. We can't seem to get her need for affection met lately. She is about to drive me crazy. I really can't complain because she is gentle and loving with everyone in the family.

Fall 2009

This fall has been the craziest, most stressful time of our life. But don’t feel sorry for us, we brought it all on ourselves. Of course, Sawyer has been nothing but pure joy for us. I am serious. We have been so blessed by such an easy, happy baby. Of course he is easy for us, but not so much at daycare. I think that it is a sign he needs to be home with his mommy right?

One of our biggest stressors has been buying a fixer upper. Our house needs a lot of work. We have almost finished remodeling the kitchen. I can wait to reveal the photos. It looks great and I love cooking in it now. We need to paint in there, and then we are done. But part of the remodel was re-staining over 45 cabinet doors and 30 drawers (we have a lot of storage space). I didn’t think our marriage would survive. I will post a sneak preview of the horrible before. What were we thinking when we bought this house?



The cabin is also done for the year. We, as well as our pocketbooks, are happy. We made the 16 hour road trip up there over Labor Day. Sawyer did great! The trip wasn’t too bad because we were captivated by Louis Lamoure books on tape. Perfect for a trip out west. We also had a great time hanging out with the Blomquists. Clint installed the stove in the cabin. Everything looks phenomenal.

Sawyer helped us drive to Colorado. He actually loves to "drive".



The guy who did most of the cabin building is 60+ year old Joel Blomquist. This is the tub he bathed in when he was a baby.

Another stress was season football tickets. We enjoy OSU football, but it has been too much for us. The games have mostly been nighttime games which don’t bode well with a 1 year old. I think we learned our lesson, the money would have been better spent on cable.


We had my 10 year reunion (uneventful) and the U2 concert in Norman (awesome) on the same weekend. It was like being in college again, not sleeping for multiple days straight. Staying up late and consuming adult beverages isn’t too hard unless you have a toddler waking you up at 6:00 a.m.


We also had the unfortunate stress of going to Europe for our 5 year anniversary. J/K it was awesome! The trip was so perfect and everything went so smoothly we thought surely our luck would run dry. But it didn’t. It was just a short trip where we spent 2 days in London and 2 days in Paris. We hit all the major sights, drank a lot of coffee, beer and wine, ate, slept (part of the time in an amazing 5 star hotel I snagged on Priceline) and just enjoyed the oasis of being a couple in love. We don’t get many of those moments these days.
This is our sweet sweet baby waving goodbye as we left for our trip. It was hard to leave him but . . .






In between we squeezed in the zoo, some time at the farm, some shopping and dinner dates, and a lot of stressing out because we had overcommitted. Now that we are entering the holiday season Clint and I have a new motto. Instead of “ho,ho,ho” this season we are saying “no, no, no.” If you want to find us we will be hanging out at home!