Big Boy

How can my baby be 10-months old already? Sawyer has been crawling for a while now and is in to absolutely everything. He still has a super-sweet disposition ( as long as he is not teething ) but he is definitely all boy and has a bit of a naughty streak. He like cars, balls and blocks, LOVES taking baths and always makes a bee-line to the thing he isn't supposed to touch. He has a sweet tooth, although there isn't much he doesn't like to eat. Most of all he loves Snow. I try very hard not to be offended when he screams if I try to remove him from his Father's arms. I can't really blame him...I like Snow quite a bit myself!

Best Buddies

I am happy to report that the warm fuzzies have not worn off for Saylor yet. She still LOVES her little brother and is an excellent helper. She often prays that "Sawyer can grow up to be a kid to play with me" .

Slacking on my Posting...Here is Easter

I have no excuse for the fact that it has been over 2 months since my lasts posts. I can only say that I caught coupon fever and have been to occupied with snagging deals to blog! We had a great Easter. Since it was conference weekend I never had my kids dressed in their finery for a picture. Here is Saylor dyeing Easter Eggs, she chose a "monster making" egg set of course.

Both of my kiddos had good luck finding eggs full of goodies. Much to my waist-line's regret I think I finished off the last of the chocolate eggs yesterday.

We tried to spend the appropriate time discussing the Resurrection but Saylor became so obsessed and then freaked out by the thought of death. We will have to take a new approach next year!

Tricking the Tooth Fairy

Saylor's cousin Gabbi recently lost a tooth and Saylor was in awe when she learned from Gabs about a sneaky visitor called the tooth fairy. You may have heard of her--she is the crazy lady that trades cash for chompers. Saylor came up with an ingenious plan to trick the tooth fairy using a cotton ball. In Saylor's estimation a cotton ball looks very much like a tooth if you tie it into a small ball with some string. She thought the best way to overcome the texture issue (pillow-soft vs very hard) was to coat the ball with a little Elmer's glue and let it dry. It really is too bad that the tooth fairy doesn't reward ingenuity but sadly the fake tooth is still under the purple pumpkin pillow.

Family Swim Night

As I have posted before, Snow has decided it is part of his fatherly duties to teach our kids how to swim. Saylor has made great progress under her daddy's tutelage but on this night Sawyer wanted to get in on the action.

Sleepy Saylor

There is a problem with Saylor's current stage--it is her refusal to nap. I know, I have little room to complain since she is now 4 and napped without complaint up to this point. But, as you can tell from this photo, her little body isn't really up to the challenge of staying awake until bedtime (not to mention the crank-fest we have from 4 o'clock on!). I made her dinner (yes it is Kraft mac n cheese...but I did add broccoli, much to her dismay) and went downstairs to do something (OK, OK, I was checking my e-mail, not doing laundry or anything legit). When I came back up this is how I found her. And BTW, there is an unchewed bite of broccoli in her mouth. Apparently this dinner was a snooze!

Sweet Little Sitter

I cannot believe that Sawyer is creeping up on 8 months already. I don't know where the time goes...well actually most of my time goes into keeping this little man's tummy full and diaper dry. He is now an accomplished sitter. He is really the most good-natured baby with a smile that, pardon the cliche, lights up a room. He eats like a champ which is how he has gotten his tank-like physique. While his belly gets bigger, his hair gets blonder and yes, I do love a baby faux-hawk! He now sleeps from 7-7 which is AMAZING and those chunky cheeks are just as delicious to smooch as they look. I love this little man!

Family Pictures

I truly believe that three is no greater torture than trying to get a descent family picture. It gives me migranes every year, but I am dedicated to the cause of documenting our family growing up. I must have made 95 shopping trips to try to figure out what to where. Snow's helpful suggestion was that we match but not be too matchy. Yes, not vague at all. We waited too late in the year to get the job done so we had to cancel once because of a snowstorm and the day we actually took the pics it was FREEZING. Not at all conducive to happy child (or hubby) faces. The end result was that we all look a little tired and haggard, but we did it. You can find our photographer at mo-dream.blogspot.com she was super reasonable and easy to work with.

My Little Turkey

Innocent Aren't They?!

Looking at these pictures almost makes me forget the spilt milk, tantrum throwing, refusal to share, spit up, poopy, hypersensitive behavior that is real life...almost.

Has it Really Been Two Months?

I mean seriously--Can it have been that long since my last post? Like many of you, I have been busy trying to get through the Holidays and make it a memorable and enjoyable time for my family. We did a lot of fun things including: The Festival of Trees, lights at temple square, caroling at the lifecare center, making goodies for neighbors, reading stories, attending concerts...lots of fun stuff. We spent Christmas in AZ with Snow's family. We had a great time.

We introduced a new tradition in our family called The Elf on the Shelf. It is a book and Elf figurine that you can get online or at bookstores. The gist of it is that the elf helps Santa know who is naughty and nice by hiding in a new spot each day to keep an eye on the kids and then reporting to Santa at night. Saylor named our elf Grisby and, I am not going to lie, I got a lot of mileage out of the phrase "Grisby is watching..." It was a huge hit at our house!

Happy Halloween

Wow what a beautiful Halloween we had! I loved that it was a Saturday. We hadn't had time to carve our pumpkins so we did that in the morning--mine is the really good one! Then we had a little neighborhood soup potluck before we went trick-or-treating. Saylor was loving it and Sawyer is not one to complain about a stroller ride, even if he is forced to wear a dog costume. We ended the evening by playing some games with friends. It was a ghoulish good time! Oh, and in an effort to be more like my friend Tara I got my craft on and made both Saylor's "stylish"kitty costume (her name not mine) and my witch hat.

As is tradition we made our way to the Black Island Farms Pumpkin Patch. Sadly it was a REALLY cold day to go, but neither of my kids seemed to mind. Another sad note is that my power went off half-way through drying my hair and didn't come on before time to go so I have some serious hair issues in the pics. I know I shouldn't have mentioned it and now you are all just staring at the pictures and agreeing with me! Anyway, the hayride and pumpkin picking were great, as were the slides, cow train, jumping castle, cornbox, and animals.


This BTW is Saylor's best friend Hyrum.

Halloween Party

Saylor really wanted to throw a Halloween Party, and being a sucker for the scary myself I relented and we had quite the bash with the neighborhood 3 yr olds. We played find the skeleton bones in the backyard, pin the face on the pumpkin, and throw the candy corn in the jack-o-lantern. The kids also made a foamy pumpkin craft and I served monster face pizzas and pumpkin rice crispy treats for lunch. We finished with a photo shoot by Scary Gary our super cute scarecrow and a spooky story time. Sadly I hardly took any pictures because there were 10 3 yr olds and even though a couple of mom friends stayed to help, I was too busy wrangling kiddies to take photos. It was frightfully fun!