Tiny but Mighty

Sawyer

Sawyer has entered the phase of taking his toy(s) of the day with him to bed. He'll take a collection and ask, "Bring wis us? Bed?" and then he'll stuff everything under his pillow before laying down to be tucked in. It's especially funny when he takes things like his football, 49ers helmet, pumpkin decoration from Grandma Paula, etc. that don't really fit under a pillow and create a weird lump for him to lay on.

When we went for Dawson's checkup I decided to just get all three of us flu shots while we were there. I had them do mine first so Sawyer could see and then they did his. He was mad about it for a second but got over it pretty fast and when he talks about that doctor visit, he doesn't seem to mind that he got a shot. "Medicine in leg" is usually followed by, "Dinosaur sticker! Money go way... toy. Fun!" which is his version of the pediatrician finding a dinosaur sticker and sucker for him after he looked Dawson over and how he got a token to put into the machine so he could get a toy.

He's really into hot pink lately. It almost makes me wonder if Dillon is right and maybe Sawyer IS color blind. The chances are super slim but since I COULD be a carrier, Sawyer COULD be color blind and Dillon always reminds me of that fact. Sawyer is all over the place with his colors, sometimes he gets them right, sometimes he's not even close, but he consistently identifies pink so I just think it would be crazy if it's because he can actually see that color better compared to the other colors. (But, then again, maybe he just likes pink which is fine too.)

Sawyer has a couple of key phrases he says now because I have said them so often. When it's bedtime he scrunches up his little nose and says, "Gotta stay bed, gotta get rest" and then grins at me. That's usually our conversation when he gets out of his bed one too many times. And now, when Dawson is in his high chair, Sawyer says, "Little stinker, not funny" because Dawson likes to yank off his bib and make a mess of his clothes in addition to everything else. Dawson grins and just waits for my reaction which has resulted in our "little stinker, not funny" line.

And the biggest thing for Sawyer is that we made it ALL the way through church without ANY vomit. He was still plenty nervous and there was a little hyperventilating but I'll take that any day over puke. We sat out on the couch in the foyer during sacrament and he handled it so much better than when we sit in the chapel. I don't know why it worked but I'm sure glad it did.

Dawson

At his twelve month checkup, Dawson came in at a whopping 16 lb 7 oz (which is less than the 1st percentile, 0.11 to be exact) and 27.5 in (which is the 2nd percentile). He's healthy and meeting developmental milestones, he's just teeny tiny. I think (and the pediatrician thinks so too) that he just has a crazy high metabolism (you can thank your dad for that lucky gene, Daws). 

During a twelve month appointment they usually do a little finger poke to check the baby's iron levels (since they are usually getting weaned by then). Dawson didn't make a peep when they stabbed his finger. And then, when they milked it to get the big drops of blood to fill up a tiny tube, he just leaned over so he could see and watched with pure interest on his face. So weird and funny. The nurses and doctor were all, "Well, he handled that well".

He finished up the appointment by getting the rest of his twelve month shots and a flu shot. He ran a fever for a few hours after (so he got some Tylenol) but, other than that, was basically unaffected. Hallelujah for some things being easy.

Dawson has discovered how to open drawers and take out their contents. It sucks. Out of all the stages, that is one of my least favorite. It's literally a state of constant clutter. My house isn't put together on a consistent basis by any means, but I try. Emptied drawers just grate on my nerves. 

Dawson has started to throw some doozy tantrums. Like, whoa. Lately if he gets upset about something, all hope is lost and he WILL scream about it for at least twenty-five minutes and refuse to be consoled. If he's offered a binky, toy, sippy...he slaps it away and screams. If you try to hold him, he wriggles, arches his back, throws back his head, and screams. If you put him down, he screams. So, to save us both, I usually end up putting him in his crib out of desperation and let him run out of steam in there. It's insane. When he's not doing that, he is so lovey and fun. His good times are just so, so sweet but his not good moments are so, so not. 

Dillon

I hosted Bunco (bunko? I go back and forth guys, the internet is no help) this week. So Dillon had a whole evening with the boys by himself and I think it's safe to say they both loved alone time with Dad. He took them over to the playground by our house and then to Wal-mart for a good walk around (and a few necessities). Dillon brought them back home so they could do movie night in our room but before they headed back, Sawyer had to show me that Dillon had bought him some dinosaur eggs (basically Whoppers Robin's Eggs). He was delighted. They finished up the night watching Finding Nemo and eating treats in our bed. Sawyer hasn't stopped talking about it since.

DaNae

I had Bunco night at my house and, since it was in October, costumes it was. I always love seeing other peoples costumes but always feel stupid when I'm in costume. It makes no sense but that's how I feel every time. As always, it was a fun night with some of my favorite ladies and a nice battery recharge.

My Christmas shopping is about ninety-five percent done and I'm not even sad about it. I find it much less stressful to break up Christmas shopping rather than dropping a ton of money in one month. And it makes it so I can enjoy all the other parts of the holidays more.

I had the tiniest moment of being baby hungry after Dawson turned one (I don't know what that's about, the same thing happened with Sawyer ha) but then I reminded myself how nice it is to have my body be my own and how my poor body is just BARELY starting to feel normal. Plus, I went back and read my pregnancy and delivery posts for Dawson and I am very much so over that baby hunger. And Dawson is basically still the size of a six month baby anyway so, we're good.

I went to mark Dawson's one year height on our board and couldn't believe it when I discovered that Dawson is the same height now that Sawyer was at six months. Talk about two different ends of the spectrum.

Chose the pink and purple pumpkin water bottle for himself.

And the blue and green one for his brother.

Bunco girls. I'm the minion baha.

  

These two. They're starting to interact more and more. This particular morning Dawson was thrilled to walk around holding onto the back of Thomas while Sawyer sat and scooted around.

This lasted for a hot second. Sawyer insisted on being in the baby swing.

But quickly realized that sharing with his brother made him sit so that his toes basically touched the ground.

 Aunt Kristin, Uncle Mike, and the kids stopped by on their way to St. George and brought presents for the boys from them and from Papa Steve. It's pretty good when your little brother has a birthday and you get presents too. Those little boys are well loved for sure.

Play-Doh from the Jeffery family. He has played with it every single day for a minimum of an hour. He loves it and I love that he has an activity that will keep him that occupied.

"I coooking." (which I have now learned means he's cutting with that little butter knife)

Dawson's own Papa Steve toy from the Jeffery's.

Cow shirt from Papa Steve (and Sawyer plugging his ears while he talks because he likes how it makes things sound different).

Rocking the Carhartt from Papa Steve.

Caught these two as we were going into Costco after family pictures (which were an adventure but Julie is basically a magician and I'm looking forward to seeing what she captured).

I let Sawyer pick the colors he wanted to use to paint his pumpkin. He chose hot pink and black.

Helping Dillon cut the design for his pumpkin.

Dawson's spot for most of the pumpkin fun. 

All done with paint and stickers.

Dawson's pumpkin. We used his little foot and he didn't appreciate how applying the paint tickled his toes.

He loves to sit like this and use the hand broom to "sweep".

Just a little taste of his thirty-minute tantrum this morning. He seriously woke up like this. Completely inconsolable.

Festivities

Sawyer

Whenever Sawyer crawls his way into my bed in the early morning hours, he now asks to "look piiiictuures?" and then very specifically, "Pa Steve? Tratsher." He gets so excited when I show him and he tells me all about the picture, his dad, Papa Steve, the tractor and how the baby (Sawyer) is sad. Often when we watch a show together Sawyer will lay in front of me, or across my lap, on his belly and then reach around and point to his back and ask, "Be soft?" which means that he wants me to tickle and rub his back. I drove the boys by the Cedar City temple so I could see the progress that had been made and, ever since, Sawyer asks to "go find temple" every single day. So we go. Because his excitement is just so endearing. He squeals and points out the car window, "Temple!" with a big grin on his face and then asks to turn around so he can see it again. His excitement made me decide to get three open house tickets so that we can bring him along. Fingers crossed it goes relatively smoothly.

Dawson

Dawson got his last monthly post here because he hit the one year mark which is just so crazy. He's been a more willful, tough baby than Sawyer was and sometimes the days dragged, but then all of the sudden he's one and I'm over here like, "What?"

Dillon

Dillon wrapped up his fall softball with his men's team. I didn't make it to any of his games because they were usually at, or after, Dawson's self-determined bed time and it just wasn't worth it to me to drag an ornery baby to the ball fields. But Dillon and I were talking about the team one night and discovered that I know most of his teammates and/or their wives. In fact, there are a couple of the guys that would have no idea who I am..but I know who they are because I'm friends with their wives on social media. So funny. So awkward. 

Dillon is now fully immersed in all things football. He's in three fantasy football leagues, a weekly football pool at work, his Madden games, and watching the NFL. I'm going to admit here that football season is not my fave. Not that Dillon is one of those neglectful husbands during the season, not at all. I just find it exhausting that there about fifty games a week that, apparently, need to be scrutinized and discussed to the very last detail by seemingly everyone. It's just not my thing. So I'm glad Dillon has people that he can talk to about it.

Dillon is really digging his new work schedule and you can just tell that he physically feels better because he's able to rest more and isn't bone-tired all the time. Still so grateful for his work related changes and how they've blessed us.

DaNae

I was able to glean a surprising amount from General Conference considering our two children were conscious for most of it. I wrote down some things that stood out to me and need to put them somewhere besides for a page from Sawyer's coloring book so..1. Service is SO important. It doesn't always needs to be on a big scale or far reaching. Serve those close to us. 2. What makes you think you go...(to church, the temple, activities) for what YOU get out of it? Sometimes you are there to help OTHERS with what they need. 3. Families have eternal purpose 4. Gender has eternal purpose 5. We each have divine assignments in this life. We need to live in a way to be able to complete them. 6. Be consistent and persistent in following prophetic counsel. 7. Read the Book of Mormon.

After such an uplifting weekend it was terrible to wake up to the news of the Las Vegas shooting. Sometimes I think there's a disconnect even as we read about terrible tragedies. It's sad but, now what? One of the survivors had a video from the shooting she had taken on her phone. I decided to watch it and while there wasn't any graphic content directly in her video, she was clearly terrified. It hurt to watch and listen to her voice. And it was amazing how a group rallied around her to help her because she had been attending the concert alone and didn't have anyone to turn to. It brought me to tears and I absolutely wish everyone could watch that video. It makes it more real and personal and human.

Dillon and I decided that week that our date night would be attending a blood drive in our town that was only a couple days after the shooting. We weren't certain that our donations would go to Vegas, but knew they would help someone in need. While we were there, one of the workers told us that, in fact, all the donations from that drive were going straight to Las Vegas. That was a cool moment.

I finally bit the bullet and trimmed Dawson's hair. It was getting weirdly poofy and I kept bouncing back and forth because we have family pictures coming up, and I didn't want to botch his hair. But it turned out fine. That very first haircut is all I ever dare do myself because their hair is still so thin and fine that mistakes aren't very obvious. After that, I leave it to the professionals.

Sawyer's daily requested picture to view

Their position for most of conference.

Swinging between conference sessions.

Outside time in the pleasant fall weather.

Our latest FHE activity, a family craft. Tree by Dillon, Ghosts by the boys' feet, all the other basics by me.

We got invited to little Sam and Ellie's birthday party. The hats were a hit for Sawyer.

As was the frosting for both boys

Party favors!

This cute boy and his love for hats.

Some serious movie watching in the early, early morning before Dawson woke up.

He has worn that hat every day since the party. So funny!

On Dawson's actual birthday we did a sucker run to Boomer's because Dawson has a serious, deep-abiding love for suckers

My parents took Sawyer to a Cedar High football game and said that he had a blast running around, totally oblivious to the adults trying to walk around his craziness. And that he tried to play with all of the kids and, apparently, did a pretty good job of invading their personal space. Also, the hat.

We went to the "Haunted Homestead" which was a fun little family night put on at the local town museum. They had different stations with crafts, activities, and candy. Sawyer had a blast. And Dawson enjoyed being held for an hour straight.

His ghost that we made together.

Sitting in the BIG tractor.

Sucker, so he's happy.

We spent last Saturday hanging with our friends Dan and Amy and their cute kiddos. Our first stop was the Apple Fest in New Harmony...

He didn't get to actually ride the bull because he's too little but sitting on it was the next best thing until he had a meltdown because he got HANGRY, which is a very real thing for this boy.

Then we did Texas Roadhouse and ate way too much...

Cute baby friends Dawson and Ellie.

And we finished it off with a visit to the Staheli Family Farm...

We had to wake both boys up from their naps and Sawyer just needed some Dad cuddles to come out of his sleepiness.

I think if we had let him, he would have spent the entire time in this corn pit.

Rubber duck racing.

Some help from Sam.

Heaven for this jumping boy of mine.

He got TICKED when his group's time was up and he had to get off. In fact, he would get so immersed in every activity that he would get so mad when we would make him move on, until he discovered that the next thing was fun too.

The best swings.

Giant slide.

Hayride. Sawyer kept trying to get the driver to talk to him because he thought the guy was his Papa Steve. He kept saying, "Pa Steve! Hi buddy!" but would get no response since, you know, the guy's name wasn't Steve.

We threw a little party for Dawson's birthday and it had a monster theme. Because Dawson is our (favorite) little diva/monster baby. Kidding Daws! We love you. It just worked because his birthday is the same month as Halloween.

Monster cupcakes. Definitely hired out. I have no patience for baking.

Monster suckers.

All ready to party in his monster onesie.

He surprised me with how into opening presents he was. The gift bags were definitely his favorite. He liked to pull the paper out and chuck it behind him to get to the toy inside.

And then he got suckers..

And it was over after that.

His cute walker he got from my parents.

His birthday haul (too bad big brother doesn't let him play with it alone for longer than two seconds).

He really thought he should be able to touch that flame.

He wasn't sure until I had him try the frosting, then he dug right in.

But after a few tastes, he was over it and just wanted to get down and play.