Visitors

Sawyer

Sawyer has started this habit of rubbing food on his face when he eats. Doesn't matter what it is. Rubs it right on his forehead and cheeks. Kids are strange. I'm sure there's logic to it in his mind but I have yet to figure out what it is. 

He likes to flip through books and "read" them to himself now. Sometimes he'll nicely read them to Dawson too. I try to act like I'm not listening so that he'll keep doing it and so I can catch the words of the story he's made up to go along with the pictures.

There's a particular fuzzy brown blanket that we have that Sawyer has now claimed for his. Dillon usually uses it when we're all hanging in the TV room together and one night Sawyer asked to take it with him to bed. Now it's his. He's quite impressed with himself for getting to sleep with "daddy's bown banket".

When Sawyer doesn't appreciate what I've told him (which he never does if the answer is no) he'll now let me know that he hates me. That lovely little phrase, "I hate you", came about thanks to the innocent Pixar film Finding Nemo. I can only take comfort in the fact that Sawyer doesn't really understand what it means yet (I don't think). Although, he clearly understands well enough that he uses it to voice his frustration. I didn't quite think that I'd hear that from one of my kids when they haven't even turned three. So we're trying to squash that one. 

Dawson

Dawson is super obsessed with toilets and toilet brushes lately. Another thing I never had to worry about with Sawyer so it hasn't been childproofed. All Sawyer wanted to do was flush the toilet over and over. But Dawson would love nothing more than to get IN the toilet and play in the water. This should be super interesting when we take on Sawyer's potty training.

Dawson's working on some teeth right now (four to be exact, one of those finally broke through the gum yesterday so now he's up to five visible teeth) and it is making him pretty miserable. I don't understand the connection between teething and messy diapers but there definitely is one. Poor Dawson had a wicked case of diaper rash (we're talking sloughing skin and bleeding) but guess what cleared it up really well? Lanolin. It worked some magic and healed his little bum. Unfortunately about five days later Dawson had some rough diapers again so it's back but that Lanolin seems to work better than Desitin for our little guy.

Dawson loooves all the Christmas decorations and lights. I put up our decorations earlier this week and after looking at everything for awhile Dawson surprised me with his new word "tree" (which sounds like chee). That's the third word for his vocab so far and I think it's so funny that we'll be able to tell him when he's older that one of the first words he learned to say was tree because he loved the Christmas decorations so much.

Dillon

Dillon had another round of laser hair removal on his neck this week. The poor guy has a skin type that causes him to get ingrown hairs really, really easily. And they will often turn into big cyst-like things that he has to go have a steroid shot for. A few years ago Dillon decided to try laser hair removal instead because a few payments for that would definitely be cheaper than having to pay for steroid shots all the time. It has helped his skin so much and this time was more of a touch-up that should have him set for years now. 

DaNae

There have been lots of visits from friends and family this week for me and my family and I loved every bit of it. Larissa and Maddie were both in town at the same time so we all got together for a quick hour with our kids. It was so fun and went by way too fast. We also had a too fast, but definitely enjoyed, surprise visit from the Brito family. How I never manage to document our visits with pictures is beyond me but we were so happy to spend some time with them in between their trip to the temple open house and visiting their family. And last of the visits was my sweet Aunt Shawnee. Thank goodness for social media that allows us to stay in touch with family and friends that are far away but nothing beats a face to face visit. Shawnee flew to Utah for a surprise party for her friend and then she made the rounds to visit everyone. The boys were in total show off mode when she came to our house. Sawyer twirled and ran and screeched and everything he could think of. Dawson gave snuggles and kisses and told Shawnee "hi" about 1.7 million times. There was a lot of love packed in that short visit and we are so glad we got to see her.

I got to spend some more time with Maddie later in the week which was really just good for my soul. We were able to hang out without the kiddos and it was so, so fun. I think I could talk and laugh with Maddie for hours and hours and never run out of things to say. There aren't too many people out there who are totally understanding of my listening to Taylor Swift's new album on repeat for a week (I put my Christmas decorations up while listening to Reputation..not Christmas music..it's fine) but Maddie is one of them. I'm so glad that we're able to visit each other more and look forward to next time.

We take hydration seriously over here.

Mine, Maddie's, and Larissa's kiddos.

Love these ladies and their littles.

I had to document the tree because I thought for sure Dawson would rip it apart but he's been surprisingly gentle with it.

Outside helping clean up leaves (which basically translates into Dillon doing all the work while I chase the kids around).

Downward doggin' it.

Talking to Dillon's friends Todd and John over the XBOX.

He was feeling pretty cool.

Sawyer was impressed with my freshly painted toes and sweetly asked for "shinies" on his toes too. He chose the green and red sparkles. Christmas spirit on point for that little man.

Cedar City Temple

Sawyer

After our fun Halloween activities (post here), we've spent some down time at, or close to, home. Sawyer daily asks to "play tae-to?" because Play Dough and potato sound the same to him, I think? He loooves his Play Dough set this he always reminds me Kristin brought, "Kissin' bought fo you!" (I think it's so funny that sometimes it's "me" and sometimes it's "you" when he refers to himself, depending on what he's talking about.)

Lately when people that he doesn't know try to talk to him, he growls and (much to my horror) sometimes spits at them. The reasoning has finally come to light as he has told me at home that he's being a purple minion just like the ones on Despicable Me 2. He thinks it's hilarious and I'm about to lose my mind at hearing purple minion noises all day. We've had a nice little talk about not being a purple minion, especially one who spits, when we leave the house.

We took him with us to the Cedar City Temple Open House and he loved riding the shuttle and was even more excited that we were finally taking him inside. He especially liked the baptismal font and asked, "Water? Get in?" After telling him no, he whispered, "No water. Get all wet." He did surprisingly well for the whole tour and only got really squirrelly towards the end. He asks to drive by the temple every day still and then tells me about how he got to go inside.

Dawson

Dawson finally said his first word a couple of weeks ago and it's just about the cutest "hi" you've ever heard. In the last couple of days he's also started saying "done" when I ask him if he's done eating or if I tell him we're all done brushing his teeth, changing his diaper, wiping his face, etc.

He's still as busy as ever ripping apart every drawer in the house. His favorite lately though is to go the drawer in our room that has my slipper socks in it and take them out one by one and rub them on his face. Then he gives them a quick snuggle and (most of the time) very nicely puts them back in the drawer.

The time change is rocking his world pretty hard. He's always been an early riser but with the time change he was waking up at about 5:15 in the morning. The worst. So we've been adjusting naps and bedtime and he's slowly switching over so that he sleeps until about 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning.

He loved the shuttle to the temple almost as much as Sawyer and he really loved all of the chandeliers inside the temple. He kept pointing and babbling each time we entered a new room with a new light. He was pretty chill in the carrier the whole time (hallelujah for him being on the lighter side so I could still pack his one-year-old self around without killing my back).

Dillon

Dillon's work had a tailgating party for one of SUU's football games and they also bought tickets for the employees to attend the game. We walked over and ate dinner and let Sawyer do some of the things that other people had set up like the free face painting and hand tracing. Sawyer also got his first taste of hot chocolate. He was thrown at first by a drink being warm and was hesitant to finish it but once we explained to him that it was hot chocolate, he was basically head over heels for his drink.

We knew the boys wouldn't make it through the whole game since it started after the sun went down and it was chilly. Sawyer was actually pretty interested in the game for as long as a three-year-old can be. They made it through about the first quarter before Dawson decided that was enough (that kid is definitely a warm weather baby, he's not a fan of the cold at all). I loaded both boys in the stroller and bundled them up and then we made a few laps around the stadium so that Dillon could watch more of the game. Just a little before half time we headed home. The boys got right in their pajamas and went to bed. They were all sorts of tuckered out from our outing.

DaNae

A couple of weeks ago I took our car to the dealership we bought it from because of a recall notice (which I forgot about until they emailed me AND sent a notice in the mail that I needed to bring it in to be fixed, like really, really). Once we got it back, the buttons on the drivers side door that controlled the locks didn't work. So I called them back and asked if it maybe had to do with the recall fix (that was related to door latches) and if they forgot to reconnect it. They let me know that was probably the case and that I could bring it back to be looked at.

They had made it sound like a quick fix so I didn't worry about taking the boys with me and hanging out. I put them in their stroller and we went for a walk to the nearby Family Dollar. After moseying through there (and leaving with unnecessary things) we had only killed thirty minutes or so. I didn't want to walk too far in case they called to let me know the car was done so the boys sat in their stroller and I sat on the parking lot curb while we all soaked up some sunshine and shared chips. I didn't think it was that weird until every person that drove by gave us a weird stare like, "That's not normal lady." Thankfully an old high school friend happened to pull in with her cute baby. We chatted for a little while before she went in the store. It was probably still another hour before the car was done but we got to be outside for awhile and walked by some horse corrals which the boys enjoyed and our car fix was free (after I reminded them that it was something they forgot to put back last time).

I've had lots of every day moments lately that have just left me so content. I look at my kids and I'm just so happy. Dillon and I snuggle up to watch a movie and I'm just so happy. We got to go to the temple as a family and that just makes me so happy. It's been too long since I've gone and I'm excited to be able to attend a temple five minutes from my house. I think about how blessed we are to be in a situation that allows me to stay home with our boys and that makes me so overwhelmingly happy. I'm grateful. I'm happy. Life is good.

He loves to walk this thing around so we decided to take it to the park with us so he could go more than ten steps without running into something.

This is how we started our November. Not even sorry.

Open house

Tailgating

Babies in beanies are my favorite.

Tracing and coloring his hand print.

We sat by Eric Adams, who also works at Metalcraft, during the game. He let Sawyer borrow his binoculars and I was dying at watching Sawyer use them to watch the game.

Hanging in the parking lot of the Family Dollar waiting for the car to be fixed.

All the hugs.

Halloween 2017

Halloween and the days leading up to it were so fun this year. Kids make holidays so, so great. We started out by going to our neighborhood trunk-or-treat. We got the boys costumes from my Aunt LeAnne. She conveniently held on to costumes that her kids had used and let us rummage through them. Little Dawson was the cutest cow and Sawyer got to be a dinosaur (which worked out since dinosaurs are probably in his top 5 obsessions at the moment). The kids loved the trunk-or-treat. Sawyer loved everyone else's costumes and going from car to car saying, "trickocheat". Dawson was mostly along for the ride but we did bring a bucket for him and once someone tossed a sucker in it, he was sold. He kept trying to cram his whole body in his candy bucket (as I was carrying both him and it) so that he could get to that sucker.

The one cute photo capture

Mixed in with a bunch of these

One of my cute friends was snapping pictures with her camera and I'm sure glad she got these. He was spinning and dancing and I just kept getting blurry Sawyer swirls with my phone.

Not Halloween related but the weekend before Halloween was the Sheep Parade. It was such a hit last year with Sawyer that we decided to go again. Dillon was able to come this time along with my parents and G. The cooler weather makes it one of the better parades to attend plus there were tractors and candy so the boys were happy. The sheep were much more docile this year. I'm thinking there must of been complaints last year but I thought the sheep were a riot with their sprinting and bounding and chaos. This year they were kept in a tight little bunch taking tiny sheep steps.

Dawson, Sawyer, and Giavonni with Grandpa Dale

G-money

Dawson got a squishy Wells Fargo stage coach and was happy.

The shops that line downtown Cedar City let kids come trick-or-treat the Saturday before Halloween. Sawyer and Dawson were down for round two of candy collecting but Sawyer was definitely not as impressed with having to walk a larger distance than a parking stall between locations. One of the businesses had a spook alley that we decided to go through. Sawyer was surprisingly entertained by the monster jumping out at us, laughing and exclaiming, "Monster! Monster!"

Subzero's treat was a favorite.

Followed by our last stop at Bulloch Drug for drinks.

On Halloween we decided to take the boys to treat-or-treat at the hospital. They have a walking trail that loops the hospital grounds with trick-or-treating at intermittent spots. I think that may be our go-to from now on. There were plenty of stops, lots of different treats and toys, and we didn't have to go house to house. After the hospital, we made the rounds to see family and ended the night at my parents. 

After seeing the insane load of candy that was collected from all of our outings, we helped Sawyer sort through his candy (ya know, to keep the good stuff) and took half of it over to our pediatric dentist to trade for money. Sawyer left with $3.75 and couldn't have been more pleased with himself and his "moneys".

Photo-op at the hospital.