7 days and a wake up

[our card for this Christmas. Mailed out today. That's right, 8 days before Christmas.]

Ah, Christmastime. Do you love it as much as I do?

Done with all my shopping. Even purchased all the food for the feast I'll be serving on Christmas day.
Almost all the gifts are wrapped.
Decorations are up.

Nothing left to do but wait. And I am terrible at waiting.

Having a child around for the holidays is proving to be pretty fun. Granted, at 14 months old, he doesn't understand any of what's going on, but it's still great to watch him point his finger and say "ooh" at our christmas tree and the lights.

I look forward to him getting older and writing letters to Santa and decorating cookies with me. All in due time. One day I'll wish for him to be this age again. Speaking of Santa, we are going to pay him a visit next week @ Town Square. That guy is the most legit Santa I've ever seen. And if you have to have a knock off, it better be a dang good one.

Today Sawyer and I drove out to Lake Las Vegas because it was a nice day and it's something I've been meaning to do. We walked around a bit and took some pictures. Sawyer loved the water fountains and the flowers. We might have to go back in the evening so he can "ooh" at the holiday decorations all lit up. He missed Spencer, and kept pointing to any man that walked by asking, "Dada?".

Dada is now a Dean and is working long and hard at getting in the groove of his new gig. We are very proud of him, but sure do miss his usual 3:30 arrival home during the week.

Here's my favorite shot of our adventure. Cause this is truly how he rolls...

mon favorites

Per Meleah's request, these are three of my favorite pictures.

Complaint department

Dear Old Navy,
Thank you for having affordable and somewhat cute clothes for little kids. And thanks for offering free shipping and having childrens coats on sale online on black Friday.

NO thank you, however, for sending said childrens coat in the wrong size and wrong color. And since exchanging items by mail with your company means the actual coat I ordered for my son would likely arrive in March, I am mailing back the wrong coat and just reordered the correct coat online. Hopefully you get it right this time.

And thanks for sending me a 20% off discount code for any online purchase the morning AFTER I reordered said coat.

Maybe I should stop buying from you. But it's likely I won't. And you probably knew that. Jerks.

give thanks

We had a good Thanksgiving. The usual dinner (at lunchtime) and games with Spencer's family, and dinner and games with my family later. The rest of the holiday weekend was spent doing serious vegging out, some Christmas shopping and movie watching.
All of Spencer's fam together for group picture.
Sadly, I didn't get a nice picture like that with my familia.
But here's Sawyer with Grandpa, post thanksgiving feast.

And here's Sawyer with Grandpa again. This was when Santa made his big arrival at Town Square before Thanksgiving. Obviously you can see how Sawyer felt about the big parade.

It's amazing how fast December arrives every year. This is my favorite season. And with a curious little dude in-tow, this year will be a Christmas to remember I'm sure.

let the wild rumpus start

Fall Festival with Grandma and Dad

be still, he would notrefreshment for the king
get it?...
King of the Wild Things

Halloween was fun. We didn't do trick or treating (cause the kid is one, honestly) but we had a good time at our ward party and hanging out with our nephews.

Halloween weekend did bring with it a nasty little cold for our household that we have still yet to shake entirely. Poor Sawyer still sounds congested but is surprisingly pretty happy. Good to know he didn't inherit my wussy genes.

adventures in babysitting

For the Nevada Day holiday off of work, we took a little trip down to the Shark Reef. Not sure what beats a free afternoon at an aquarium. It's free for teachers + a guest, and babies are free. I've decided we'll stop going places and doing things once Sawyer is over 4 years old and we have to start paying for him for everything, everywhere. Hope he doesn't mind seclusion.








Sawyer loved watching all the different creatures. Kept trying to reach at them through the glass.

It is fun to watch him grow and interact with the world.

baby birthday

We celebrated Sawyer's first birthday this past weekend (on the day of his father's birthday, per his request). It was a Where the Wild Things Are theme party, so the older kids had fun with the games and activities.

Really, first birthday parties are not about the child at all, and I'm ok with that. It was a great party. Sawyer was a trooper and stayed happy the whole time, even during the gift opening marathon. He got seriously spoiled.
pin the tail on max
our wild thing with papa jim
familia
sawyer with his friend, and costume designer, miguel. he made the wild thing costume for sawyer and we LOVE him.

more to come....