June

I'll take it as a good sign that I have felt like I didn't have a spare moment for blogging because this summer has been full of playing hard and resting hard (kind of). But I'm finally ready to take a breather and catch up our month of June. Lots of pictures coming your way.

Sawyer

Sawyer called a Cheeto.. "Cheeto" for the first time and I got a little sad that a phase of his life seemed to have ended but he called them dibbles again just last week so we get to hold on to that a little bit longer. He now exclaims his love for just about everything. "Look Mom, an ant! I love him!" "A cow baby? (a gift from cousin Allie) I love it!" "I love my peanut butter sandwich!" He caught a little girl off guard in the grocery checkout line by declaring that he loved her across the distance between their two carts. She just looked at me with wide eyes and then started to giggle.

He's definitely loving the plethora of bounce houses that are to be found during this summer season. Although he gets really frustrated when I won't let him play on every one he sees. Trying to explain that some of them are for parties that we weren't invited to because we don't know the people.. is a difficult process.

He's had some pretty heavy setbacks with his sleeping and anxiety during this month which is a bummer since we were making so much progress. His sleep was taking a hit first, to the point he was getting out of bed at least six times a night. In a moment of frustration I told him that if he didn't stay in bed we were going to close his bedroom door (which he likes to have open). You can probably figure out how much that helped. He reverted to having a meltdown at bedtime and puking everywhere. When that eased up a bit we had an unfortunate experience with a salesman visit. A salesman stopped by during nap time and I stepped onto our porch to talk to him but closed the front door so the cold air would stay in the house. Sawyer woke up, couldn't find me, and started screaming bloody murder and vomiting everywhere. He's now convinced that I'm a liar when I say that I won't leave him without giving him a heads up and that just because he can't see me doesn't mean I'm gone. We're making progress again, but we've definitely taken a few steps back.

Dawson

People are really starting to comment on Dawson's speech. He talks all the talk, that's for sure. He adds to his vocabulary daily and is generally pretty easy to understand. Some of his new stuff includes "burts" (hurts) which was cute and helpful the first couple of times he used it to let me know he was in fact hurt in some way. That then morphed into him screaming, "Burt!" at me over and over if he experiences something he finds mildly unpleasant.. like wearing his bib at mealtimes or putting on shoes. He says, "borry!" when he bumps into you or when he gets in trouble for doing something and then immediately asks for a hug (which is the best, he asks for a hug by leaning his head as far as possible onto his shoulder and then keeping it there while he walks toward you like a zombie while asking sweetly, "uugg?"). He's started to tell people, "Bop it!" (stop it...we've got a lot of b replacement sounds going on) when he's had enough of something. He'll playfully say it to me when I tickle him or he'll scream it at Sawyer if he gets closer to Dawson than Dawson deems appropriate (even though Sawyer is usually doing nothing to him and is oblivious to the fact that he seems to have popped Dawson's imaginary bubble). And he finally has caught on to the word, "yeah" instead of just saying no to everything. It's definitely one of my favorites of his right now. He gets especially excited when you understand exactly what he's trying to communicate to you. When you correctly identify the word he's saying to tell you what he wants, he gets a giant grin on his face and squeals, "Yeeeeaaaaaahh!!"

Dawson used up one of his nine lives a few weeks ago when he and Sawyer were outside with Dillon. They were playing on the lawn when Dillon noticed the water line to our air conditioner was leaking. So Dillon climbed onto the roof to check it out and then all of the sudden he heard little hands slap themselves onto the roof. He said he turned around and Dawson was right on the edge and flinging his little body up and over the ledge of the roof to join Dillon. Dillon calmly walked over to pick him up because he didn't want to startle him and make him fall (but he said on the inside he was fuh-reaking out). Guys... I don't even understand it. Dawson's entire height is barely long enough to span the space between ladder rungs. He seriously had a guardian angel keeping him afloat in the air or something. Dillon only shared this story with me after he made me promise to not get mad (which I don't think I really agreed to... but since our baby is alive and well, I only gave a quick wife-lecture instead of long one ;) )

Dillon

Dillon wrapped up his softball season and managed a couple of Delta farming trips. For Father's Day he wanted a new mug for work and found one on Amazon that he liked. It came in the mail and that bad boy could seriously knock someone out if you swung your arm too fast. It is ginormous. Dillon finds it delightful though so, win. I also ordered a surprise Father's Day present for Dillon that still.has.not.shipped. Boooooo. 

Dillon and I were excited to try out a new to us restaurant for our anniversary but the day of, he woke up and was so sick he called into work and went back to bed. I got up with the kids and was doing our normal morning routine when I suddenly got terribly sick (about two hours after Dillon). Based on how we were feeling we decided it was definitely food poisoning which suuuuucks. So we basically just took turns being sick and taking care of the kids while sarcastically saying to each other, "Happy Anniversary." After the kids went to bed, we stayed up for about seven minutes to order presents for each other online and then we went to bed too in hopes to sleep away our misery. Dillon was good after about 48 hours. My lame body took closer to a week to function normally anytime I ate. Those stomach cramps are no joke.

Dillon also got called to be a primary worker with me. The kids straight up worship him which is, of course, awesome but also, a little bit annoying ha. He doesn't even have to do anything. He already scores a ton of points in their eyes because he is the only male in junior nursery. I had him do the lesson for sunbeams the week after he was called and the kids were all about answering his questions and being on task. Nothing short of a miracle. I'm seriously so grateful he's in there with me.

DaNae

Cedar's Wal-Mart decided to revamp their store and also adopt the grocery pick up that the other stores have. I decided to try it out. It was a legit disaster. Their service never texted me to let me know when my order was ready so I just drove over toward the end of my time slot and called. The guy told me that they were experiencing glitches and that my order wasn't ready but I could come back later. After I tried to tell him that, for that day, I would rather just go in and get my groceries myself and that they could put the money back on my card so I could pay for my stuff at checkout.. he changed his tune and said that MOST of my order was ready if I was willing to wait. I was dumb and believed him. Forty-five minutes after my initial call I finally got my groceries but they were missing things that they had charged me for so I had to go back later to get them anyway. I'm telling you, chaos. The boys were seriously angels hanging in the car while we waited but I think I'll just continue to go in the store so we all get to have an outing.

I started going to Grifols  to donate plasma and discovered that my body consistently runs hot. Like, too hot to donate because they think I'm sick. Which I'm not. But I finally feel validated in feeling hot when I'm at anyone's house but mine. My body likes to hover at least a degree above what it should. So weird. After a few times of going and being turned away, but passing everything else with flying colors, one of the Grifols workers suggested I suck on an ice cube before my appointments. Works like a charm. And the donating part isn't too shabby. They hook me up, I get to read uninterrupted for forty-five minutes. They unhook me and I leave with a Powerade and a pre-paid card.

A friend of mine called me and asked if I would be willing to pose in some clothes for her friend's online clothing boutique. Let me tell you, it was a thousand kinds out of my comfort zone, but I said yes (mostly for the free clothes that were offered as incentive). It was actually really fun. Both the boutique owner and photographer were super nice and made it really easy. I definitely don't look like a professional model in the pictures but you can tell I was having fun. Plus, I left with some new clothes! So overall, a fun experience.

And lastly, I listened to my first ever podcast (I know.. I know..) called Dirty John. Sounds like an adult film title, but definitely wasn't ha. If you're looking for a good listen, that one's a winner. And then feel free to message me about how you just can't get over poor Debra's lack of basic intuition. It's just crazy.

Celebrating National Donut Day with early morning donut eating on the porch.

Playing in the ditch.

Megablocks with Dad.

My Aunt LeAnne brought over some books and toys for the boys and Sawyer took an immediate liking to this airplane, so much so that he thought it needed to take a nap with him.

Taking flowers to Uncle Dustin.

Disney's Coco actually came in really handy when I was trying to explain this tradition to Sawyer.

Time passes but I wouldn't say it ever gets easier. I miss him like crazy.

An early Father's Day painting the boys made.

Also, because I forgot to include a picture of them in May, here are the paintings both my mom and Dillon's mom got from the boys.

They also love this fireman's hat from LeAnne.

One morning Sawyer woke up so, so early and could not be convinced to go back to bed. So I told him to head to the TV room while I went to the bathroom and then we could watch a movie (so that he hopefully wouldn't wake Dawson up). In the three minutes it took me to fully wake up and make it into the TV room, Sawyer had fallen back asleep on the couch. Too bad I was wide awake at that point. Awake and sleep deprived.

I decided to be brave and take the boys to the pool by myself while Dillon was out of town.

This is pretty much the only moment Dawson smiled. He refused to get out of my arms to play in the water. So I held him for two hours while we tried to keep up with Sawyer.

Fell asleep right after the pool because, on occasion, he thinks he's too big for a nap. In case you were wondering, he's definitely not (based on how early he falls asleep/how ornery he gets if he misses it).

Cute brothers in matching jammies.

During his sleep regression phase. Woke up too early from a nap, fell asleep snuggling mom while we did quiet time so Dawson could nap.

Dillon helped Sawyer calm down to go to sleep in his own bed...and didn't make it back out.

Thanks to his older brother, Dawson thinks the PJ Masks are the best.

And he thought he really, really needed these sippy cups.

Dillon's nephew Mason was in the Summer Games playing soccer so they stayed at our house for a few days and played between games. We decided to hit up the block party that they put on for the event now and it was perfect for the kids.

A little face painting. We figured this mustache was about all the time Dawson would hold still for.

Dinosaur for Sawyer.

And fairy flowers for Allie

Sawyer would have lived on this inflatable obstacle course the whole night.

He totally surpassed my expectations and was able to do the whole thing without any help.

Cotton candy as big as your head!

Seriously hitting the sugar spot.

Another visit to the obstacle course.

He refused to nap this day and we knew he'd want to watch fireworks so I attempted to just have him take a  really late nap because he was definitely at his limit.

Buuuut...

He never woke up. Not while we transferred him outside and not while the fireworks were going. He just slept on Grandma Paula's lap the whole time.

Dawson was totally entranced by the fireworks.

Snuggled up with Grandma Paula at one of Braden's baseball games. Also during the Summer Games.

A Father's Day picture for Grandpa Dale.

In mom's shoes.

Still trying to resist the nap.

A picture I took with my iPhone and a telescope while doing some training for our star gazing that's going to happen at Girl's Camp.

So excited for our dinner.. hot dogs.

And a blooper for your enjoyment. 

We took the boys to Veyo and it was actually pretty successful for both of them. Sawyer loves all water but this was one of the first pools Dawson actually enjoyed being in. Probably because it's significantly warmer than most.

Trying to catch his little hug/zombie walk.

"Are you cute?" "Yeah!"

Dawson screaming the word fish..and then pushing his big brother because he dared to look at the fish too. Hard eye roll.

A toy at Grandma Paula's work.

Checking out Grandma's new truck bed liner and cover.

He loves baseball! He stopped eating a cupcake so that he could get down from the dinner table and watch the Braves game with Dillon in the other room.

One of his new favorite tricks.

Tipping over the laundry basket so that he can play inside.

Sawyer singing and dancing in the toy aisle at TJ Maxx. I'm really loving these parts of this stage.

And we left with a "skeleton shirt" because Sawyer thinks they're so cool. Especially since watching Coco. I've never been into skulls on clothing but I'll bend some of my fashion rules for that little three-year-old.

This sneaky was supposed to be sleeping in his room during nap time. When I went to check on him I discovered he had had a real good time with the soap in the bathroom and then crawled into our bed with Dillon's bat by his side, and THEN he went to sleep.

Playing at the park with Maddie's boys! (Totally stole this pic from Maddie. Hope that's alright, Maddie?)

The water festival is quickly becoming one of our favorites Cedar does. It's a small little thing right now and I kind of like it that way. Plus both our boys had a great time playing.

On the inflatable slip 'n slide.

Water balloon fight.

Look at that determination.

Decided to get the tree.

The tree fought back. Zoom in, it's worth it.

Bouncy castle!

Sawyer is pretty good at this big brother thing. He helped Dawson stay upright when he needed a hand. Hopefully Dawson appreciates it more at some point instead of screeching about it because he thinks he can be independent all the time.

Free donuts!

After the water festival and nap time, we took the boys to the aquatic center. Sawyer had a blast. Dawson started to freeze so we let him dip his toes in the hot tub. After a few seconds he desperately wanted his whole body in the hot water.