Valentine's

Sawyer

About the time I finished my last post, Sawyer was going through a super pleasant phase using phrases like "get away from me" and "I don't care". It's seems to have passed for now, though there is still plenty of three-year-old sass going around. I'll tell you what, "terrible twos" have got nothing on this "threenager" experience.

During one of our all too frequent trips to Walmart, Sawyer managed to dart away while we were checking out so that he could push all of the buttons on the key copying machine...while the door was open and the maintenance guy was inside. I chased after him and was quick to scold him about not touching things when the worker stepped out, smiled, and said, "Kids are just curious. It doesn't bother me at all." Then he gave Sawyer a card that had a coupon code and told him that he could use it to make his very own key for free. Sawyer could pick the design on the key and everything. We used it on our next visit and Sawyer is now the proud owner of a "puppy key" that he loves. That guy is the real MVP of our Walmart trips so far. I always appreciate it so much when other people have patience with my children and show them kindness. 

When the weather was still playing nice I took the boys outside for walks. For one of our walks Sawyer decided he wanted to bring his scooter. He uses it correctly but goes at a snail's pace. It makes me laugh so hard. We decided to do a loop around the church and it took us 20 minutes with his little scootering self. But the whole time he was grinning and would turn to me and say, "'Mazing, scooter! 'Mmmmazing!" Things that really impress him have been deemed amazing and it's the best.

He has started to sing his little heart out in sacrament and I have to keep from laughing because I don't want to make him self conscious. He doesn't know the words to a lot of the hymns they pick, so he just makes what he thinks are singing noises, and he makes them LOUDLY. Dawson has started to pick up on it and will join in so they duet gibberish songs. It's definitely at the top of my favorites right now in their little lives.

Dawson

Dawson is picking up words all the time, trying to parrot what we say. Two of his top most used words are "stinky" and "bum". There's a lot of diaper changing with that one. The way he says bum is so funny- juts his chin out and holds the "m" for a long time.

We decided it was time to wean some of his binky usage so that he was only using it to fall asleep with for naps and bedtime. He had developed quite the attachment rather suddenly that I could see being a real problem in the future. The first morning I had him leave his binky in the crib he was FULL of baby rage. He screamed by the crib and tried to stretch his little arms to reach it. After that went on for too long, I decided to bring him out and just close the door to his room to see if I could distract him. Instead, he literally pounded on the door with his fists and yelled, "Bink-bee! BINK-BEE!!" Soooo that was rough, but it really only took that first day, and now he thinks it's a great game to toss his binky back in the crib himself after he's woken up.

Dawson is at that cute little helper stage. He'll walk his own diapers to the trash after being changed, hands plates to me one by one out of the dish washer so I can put them away, and delights in getting to put the bounce sheet in the dryer when I switch over loads of laundry. I'm loving it.

Dawson also got a new car seat since he was approaching the height limit for his infant seat. He likes it as much as he liked the other one- very minimally. I don't know why he's so fussy about being in the car, even for five minute rides. Good thing we keep a special stash of dum-dums in our vehicle. They provide a few minutes of quiet.

Dillon

Dillon's been working on fixing the few odds and ends on our van that we knew needed to be fixed when we got it. One of the things it needed was a new hubcap. We found out it was actually cheaper to buy a set of four new hubcaps with a new design than it would have been to buy just the one hubcap that matched the other three already on there. Dillon changed them out and it was all fine until he got to the last tire and discovered that two of the lug nuts hadn't been tightened completely so they had gotten all warped and wouldn't come off. He bought a couple of parts at an auto store and then called Dan (our super handy and helpful friend) to see if he had the tools to get the job done. They got it all sorted and now we have matching hubcaps.

We took the van down to St. George a few weekends ago to watch Braden's ball games and stop at Costco. It was doing totally fine and then decided not to start back up after one of our stops. Thankfully, my parents had also traveled down to St. George so they came to help out. After some trial and error, my dad and Dillon got it started back up and we cut our day short to head back to Cedar. Dillon called Dan (again...we seriously owe him) to see what he thought. They hooked the van up to some special reader thing I don't understand and it gave them a code for the problem. We looked it up and it had a few suggestions as to what needed to be fixed. We decided to start with the cheapest one - the MAF sensor - and go from there. Dillon cleaned the sensor and the van seems to be fine now. We even took it back on the freeway and it didn't have any problems so, we'll see if that solved it for the long term or not. 

DaNae

Dillon and I had decided to do a low-key valentines this year and hit up Ross to find some finds worth our time. We both left with socks and grooming stuff- him: a hair trimmer, me: makeup brushes. Neither of us were sad about our practical gifts this year (and he still surprised me with flowers later so he wins all the romance points). 

I did our taxes which, if I'm being honest, often feels like a guessing game. I try to be as careful and thorough as possible but sometimes TurboTax throws stuff at me and I'm not entirely sure what I'm reading ha. But they're all done and we were pleasantly surprised with the outcome. We decided this year to use some of our refund that results from having dependents to start savings accounts for the boys. It's nice to have those set up for them so that we can contribute to it and hopefully give them something worthwhile for their future.

One of our walks.

This baby needed a real haircut in a bad way.

Catching some zzz's at the table..obviously pre-binky weaning.

Haircut time.

He actually did really good for his age. He was definitely confused when he noticed the hair fall down onto the cape and was trying to figure out what in the world was going on.

The salon gave him two suckers for doing so good and he was set.

Visiting Delta family for Allie's baptism. Dawson is trying his hardest to talk to the "kitty, kitty" through the door in this picture.

Allie and Dawson.

Kristin caught a video of Dawson saying "bummm" and I'm so glad she did.

Drink thief.

He LOVES the snow.

Especially eating it.

As does his big brother.

Those lip smacks.

Dropped off Valentine's flowers to grandma. It wouldn't be a trip to visit Grandma Paula's work without these boys thieving her Triscuits.

We stopped by the high school to give Grandpa Dale a Valentine's treat too. Sawyer used this row of desks as a jungle gym for a good twenty minutes.

"Minion heart!" He was even more impressed when he discovered there was chocolate inside.

And this boy was all about his tube of Valentine's mini M&M's.

My beautiful Valentine's flowers.