Daylight Savings

This post is out of order (oops) but I can't figure out how to re-order without deleting posts entirely and then having to re-write them..and I'm not doing that ha. So this is all stuff that happened before or close to the same time as my Thanksgiving post and maybe this will teach me to not fall months behind again (but probably not).

Sawyer

Sawyer got to go to a little practice preschool that some of the high school kids do at the same school where my dad teaches. He was so excited to get to go to "Grandpa's school" until he realized that we only got say hi to Grandpa, but then Grandpa had to teach his own class and Sawyer would be in a different room. Then he fuh-reaked out and I knew the puke was coming. So I hauled him to the nearest trash can lightening fast. He puked and screamed and puked some more while all the high school kids looked on in horror. I'm so used to it that I basically was like, "K, ya done? Let's wipe the tears and off you go. I'll have Grandpa come up and check on you in a minute." And the teacher of that class kindly took him and helped him get started. I think the high school kids were even more horrified that I would just leave him there after that ha. But after he calmed down (which only took a few minutes) they said he did great the rest of the time. And he handled it like a champ the rest of the days we went. Change and the unknown are definitely hard for him but only stressing the first day was a big step for him.

His little stutter has started to make a reappearance again. I'm pretty sure it's closely related to his anxiety. His nerves will sometimes make it hard for him to get the words out. And if I can predict the end of his sentences, he does not appreciate me saying the words. He'll start his sentence over. So I've learned to just patiently wait while he gathers his thoughts and expresses them.

Some funny things he's said lately: "I think it tumbled" pointing to his belly and combining tummy and rumbled. "This is so beautiful" referring to a tape measure. "Or-jin" for orange. 

Dawson

Dawson officially entered into the oh so delightful "mine do it" stage. So independent, so not-quite-capable of that independence. It's frustrating all around. Whenever he gets upset (which is a lot) he screeches and screams and it is literally earsplitting and there will be no calming him. He has a lot of "cool down" time in his room to get those feelings out and to save us from each other. Daylight savings is not helping with those meltdowns. Baby boy is taking the time change h.a.r.d.

He thinks having someone do "This little piggy.." on his toes is the funniest thing ever and will ask you to do it over and over again, making sure to switch feet each time. And then he'll sometimes want to do it to our feet by coming up and saying, "Piggy Market?" and grabbing our feet.

We got rid of his binky and it was a pretty darn smooth transition. I let him help me cut it off his wubbanub and throw it in the trash. I gave him the monkey part to keep which he kind of thought was a dirty trick at first but then decided he needs that monkey at all times, especially to sleep with. He enjoyed telling everyone, "Binky trash, big boy!" to let them know that we get rid of his bink because he was a big boy now.

Dillon

Dillon had to jump our van after the ward trunk-or-treat but we thought it was because we had forgotten that having our trunk open for that long would keep the lights on and suck down our battery juice. But then after a few cold mornings post trunk-or-treat, the battery was completely done-zo so Dillon kindly replaced it. 

He had to do extra time at work to complete some inventory so we didn't see him for a good chunk of that weekend. And we were kind of bummed because we thought his work was just making everybody help with the mandatory inventory as kind of a "because we said so" but then it turned out that they gave everybody a little bonus for working extra time. So that was a nice surprise. Plus Dillon actually got done early enough to come watch the Storybook Parade with the boys and me, and we were glad he was there to make memories with us.

DaNae

I did a few more pictures for the Ivie Lola clothing boutique. I'll probably never feel comfortable "modeling" clothes and my face never knows what it's doing as evidenced in the pictures. But the ladies are always so fun plus the clothes are super cute and it gives me a chance to try them on instead of just ordering them (extra plus, I got some free stuff again!).

I got called to be the Girls Camp director for my ward for next summer and I'm actually pretty excited about it. It's a ward year instead of a Stake year so I'll have a lot more time to fill which is new for me but I loved working with the girls last year and I'm excited to have another chance to do camp with them. (Plus we're staying in a cabin with beds this year. So technically glamping? But definitely a plus).

Little Giavonni came to hang at our house for a few hours a day for a couple a weeks. And I will just say, I'm glad it was during all the boys' naptime ha. Three little boys: a 2 year-old, almost 3 year-old and almost 4 year-old is a lot of busy-ness. But the cousins all enjoyed playing together and everyone survived, so win.

Hanging out at the park while Sawyer is at "Grandpa's preschool".

We'll just call this one "Boo to Daylight Savings"

Cute little dinosaur craft Sawyer made at Grandpa's preschool. Dawson quickly claimed it as his own.

Getting rid of the binky.

A fun little picture of Sawyer off of his teacher's preschool blog.

We took both boys to see the new Grinch movie. We all really liked it! I'll be adding it to our Christmas movie pile. Dawson did well for being two but.. we're not anxious to bring him back to a movie for a little while ha.

Sawyer's school picture. Turned out better than I was anticipating.

Little man all bundled cause it was starting to get cold in the mornings when we dropped Sawyer off.

Each day G came over, all three of them spent a good half hour walking the length of this little face over and over and over again. 

All day. Every day.

More park time!

Preschool picture.

At the Storybook Parade. It's the best one Cedar does, in my opinion.

Dawson wasn't really a fan of all the Storybook characters being life size and alive, especially the monkeys.

His little wave. Also Sawyer saw Spongebob and said, "Look! Talking cheese!" haha.

Surviving sunbeams by going for a walk after our lesson.

Thanksgiving

Even before I fell behind on journaling through this blog, November's post didn't have a lot of updating to it outside of pictures. It was a good month and we started on more holiday festivities. The boys were a little sad that Halloween was over and kept asking about it for a good while, but they quickly got into the next holiday celebrations.

Sawyer

Sawyer's teacher called me at the beginning of the month and said that she had some concerns about how his anxiety his affecting is attention span/how he absorbs his education. She said that behaviorally, he's really great. He'll sit nice in groups but his mind is somewhere else. Her theory is that his little mind is so anxious, it takes everything in him to sit nicely and not panic, but then he can't focus on what's being taught because his brain is too busy worrying. And I've seen that in him, and think that makes total sense. So, since his anxiety was "officially" impeding his education, she wanted to know if it was okay with us if they ran him through some testing to see if he would qualify for some extra help and an IEP (individualized education plan). They also ended up deciding to do some speech testing after one of the testers (that he doesn't know) sat down with him and felt like he might need it. I imagine he either didn't talk a lot, or resorted to gibberish, wish is (or was) usually his go to with people he's not familiar with. 

Dawson

Dawson really got into the Christmas songs once we started playing them. He would sweetly and randomly sing, "Froooosty SnowMAAAAN!" while rocking his head back and forth. Every day, until about now. So that lasted a few good months of his life. He picked up on a song that played on my Pandora station called, "Snowglobe" and would run up and ask me to dance with him anytime it came on. So I'd toss him into my arms and we'd bounce around the kitchen while he giggled and it is one of those memories that I want really imprinted in my mind. 

On a less sweet note, one night we were all sitting around the table and Dawson kept trying to yank the decorations off the wall. After asking him not to a few (dozen) times, I finally told him I'd have to spank his bum if he didn't stop (which really doesn't work, but sometimes the threat of it does ha). That little boy looked at me, turned so his back faced me, arched his back so his little bum poked out, looked over his shoulder and said, "Spank me." Well, what do you do then friends? So Dillon and I tried to hold in our laughs and I gave Dawson a half-hearted spank. Then he sat back down and told me, "Thank you!" Like, what? Ha. This kid. 

I didn't have anything in my notes that was special for Dillon or I. We just lived our day to day and enjoyed doing holiday activities with our boys and families.

Putting lights on the house with Dillon.

Old enough to really get in on the action this year.

Babies bundled up and, especially, in beanies are one of my favorite winter things.

Doing some family coloring with our Thanksgiving gratitude papers.

He got to have a tree in his room this year and loved decorating it himself.

Most of the ornaments ended up bundled together on the same branch like this. Love it.

Eating some snow that we scooped up in his little bowl.

Thanksgiving Day we spent in Cedar with my parents. Then we headed to Delta the next day to visit Dillon's family. Dawson's in his element getting to color with cousin Allie.

Helping Kim bake some treats in the kitchen.

Sawyer had to get in on the action.

Going to see Santa.

Sawyer wasn't shy at all. He happily sat on Santa's lap and told him he wanted a bike; which is not what he told me, so we had to make a deal that maybe Santa would help bring a bike for his birthday which was just a couple days after Christmas. He seemed pleased with the compromise.

As soon as we got close, Dawson was having none of it. So we got a quick picture and let him get his candy bar and then hustled him off the jolly guy's lap.

After we left and Dawson had recuperated he kept saying, "Santa give me big treat! I love him!" ha So he clearly wasn't too scarred by the experience.

Surprises we had for them in this year's December Box (I like the idea of this tradition to kick off December fun, we're still trying to fine tune it). New jammies, some shark slippers, and a new Christmas book.

Just sweetly sitting next to each other.

Oh Dawson.

We took Sawyer to see the new Wreck it Ralph movie. I think he mostly gets stoked about getting popcorn at the theater but he seemed to really enjoy the movie too even though it was a little long.

The boys started to ask to wear my kitchen aprons so that they could run around and be batman while chasing each other.

Playing (eating) in our first little snowfall that stuck around.

I just can't help but take a million pictures every time my babies are in the snow. Even though they only vary by tiny angles and slight expression changes, I can't bring myself to delete any of them.