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.