Sawyer Update

You know how I mentioned that Sawyer was whiny.  Well that phase is over.  I hate to brag but I have the perfect two year old.  Ok, well most of the time.  He is in such a fun, cute stage right now.  He is obsessed with his daddy and does everything; I mean everything his daddy does.  He also repeats everything Clint says.  Unfortunately Clint still needs to clean up his language.  He talks all the time, but I am pretty sure I am the only one who understands everything he says.  He is a helper around the house always saying “Mommy Help” which means “I want to help Mommy.”  He also says “Hold you” for “Hold me” such a cute two year old thing. 

He is really into his blocks and action figures right now.   Clint brought home his large Tupperware of his old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sawyer loooooooves them.  When the turtles fight the bad guys Sawyer says “That’s mine.”  He also instinctively knew all the right “fighting sounds.”  He is all boy. 

We are having a blast with this kid.  Did I mention he was smart too?  He can count to ten perfectly and count objects up to 5.  He “fixes” all kinds of things around the house.  He is even starting to recall memories of things that happened several months ago.  I am always amazed.

I also had to include this shot.  This is what Sawyer does when he wants to chill-ax.  He runs his fingers over his blankie edge.  He does this with his toes too.  And puts the corners of his blankie in his eye.

 

Beau - Two Months

Beau turned two months on January 10th.  Beau still sleeps most of the time.  He smiles more and is starting to smile at some of Sawyer’s antics.  He loves bathtime and getting his diaper changed.  He also started sleeping through the night all on his own.  Sawyer moved to the big boy bed a few weeks ago thanks to the satin leopard skin sheets I put on it (I am sure I will pay for it later in some sort of therapy) but I don’t think they are ready to share a room just yet.  So Beau is still in our room.

Beau still smiles a lot and coos, but unfortunately is even more picky about only wanting his mommy.  He lets me put him in the swing or bouncy seat for short periods of time, but the rest of the time he gets worn.  I don’t mind because I know how fast this critter will grow up.   In fact he is a big boy.  He is already out of all the 0-3 months clothes and I don’t he will be in the 3-6 month clothes for much longer.  

Sawyer actually took this picture all by himself.  He amazes Clint and me.

New Years 2011

Clint and I spent a few weeks discussing our 2011 motto.  We finally decided on “PLAY.”  Simple enough.  Every morning I ask Sawyer what he wants to do and he sits there and thinks about it for a few seconds.  And every morning his answer is “Play.”  So there you have it.

We had our traditional New Year’s Eve sandwhich and a few friends over to enjoy it with us.  On New Years Day we took our traditional hike.  It was about 34 degrees so we decided we better do more driving than hiking and headed out to the Tall Grass Prairie.  It was a beautiful day and we did enjoy about 30 minutes of hiking. 

 

2010

This blog gets turned into our family yearbook, so I wanted to wrap up 2010.  Our motto was “It is better to be kind than right.”  This was the fastest year of our life.  We both agreed 2010 was an enjoyable year.  Clint and I both felt that our relationship grew positively and we are closer than ever.  We both made a conscious effort to be less argumentative and it created a lot more peace in our home. 

We achieved a lot of goals this year:  got pregnant, had a baby, paid off the truck, planted a garden, installed wood floors, finished remodeling the living area, spent our first night in our cabin, spent more time outdoors, Clint shot a deer, I quit my job, Sawyer’s first camping trip, 2 national parks, exercised more, found a church, and got in a small group. 

Here are a few end of year pictures of my boys.

My sister Dana made matching outfits for the boys.  They are adorable!

The fronts say "Big Bro" and "Lil Bro".  The backs say "Sawyer" and "Bebo".

Heidi loves both her boys.  Beau is pretty fascinated with Heidi.

Sawyer feels it is his personal role to keep Heidi in line.  He is pretty strict with her.

The Garage

Clint is pretty obsessed with his garage.  Now he has a little companion out there.  In fact, every time Clint goes out to the garage, Sawyer is on his heels.  Even though Clint denies it, Clint and Sawyer spend A LOT of time “piddling” out there.  They have successfully completed quite a few projects. Notice the matching work benches side by side.  

Clint even insisted on getting a dry erase board to “improve family communication.”  He wants Sawyer to learn how to draw and communicate through pictures.   

 

Oh and don’t forget about the “Freezer of Fame.”  It is a place for photos of our big adventures.

Our Angel

A friend of mind gave me a wise piece of parenting advice.  She said to give your child a pet name that sounded loving even when disciplining.  So shortly after Sawyer was born I started calling him “Angel” and have ever since.  Well Sawyer really is an angel, even his Mother’s Day Out teachers and the gals at the church nursery have told me so.  But most importantly Sawyer reminds us daily that he is an angel.  In fact he won’t let me call him anything but angel.  Clint tries to call him “Buckskin” but he insists on “Angel”.  Well you can imagine my surprise when this came home from school one day.  I swear he really thinks he is an angel even though this picture isn't convincing.

Christmas 2010

We celebrated Christmas with my family the weekend before in Arkansas.  Sawyer and Beau had all there cousins there (10 kids under the age of 6) and it was pure chaos.  I love my family.  I didn’t get many pictures, but here are a few attempts.

This is my newest nephew, Baby Carsen.

Beau and I having a moment of peace and quiet at my parents.

On Christmas Eve we had corn chowder and went to church.  Sawyer enjoyed holding the candle.  Sawyer totally got the whole Santa Claus thing because Christmas Eve was his first night he slept in his big boy bed.  With no cues from us he figured he could get out of bed at any time to see what Santa brought.  Sure enough he was up bright and early.  Clint and I stayed up late watching our old home videos.  We had a great time reminiscing.

Sawyer is reading Beau a Christmas devotion.

On Christmas Day we opened our stockings, ate breakfast casserole, played with all our new toys, realized it was nap time and hadn’t opened our gifts under the tree, ate venison tenderloin (from Clint’s deer), then finally got around to opening the gifts under the tree.  It was a fun lazy day. Sawyer’s favorite was his chainsaw.

Of course Beau slept through all the excitement.

On the 26^th we traveled to Stillwater for Christmas with Clint’s family.  We had a great time, played with lots of fabulous gifts, and ate great food.  Sawyer and Beau had fun hanging out with Grammy, Grandpa, GG, Uncle A, and Brooke.  

Grandpa got a T-shirt with the following pictures on it that said "A-Team".  It is all the Aichele boys.

But poor Beau, we did realize that the boy traveled four weekends out of his first 6 weekends of life. We had a great Christmas.