Our Family

I'm really bad at following through with some things-- getting family pictures taken is one of those things.  Sure I take lots of pics of the kids on instagram, but getting photos of all of us-- all dressed up and (somewhat) smiling-- that almost never happens.  But since Sawyer's joined our family I figured it was time.  I wanted some good pictures of the whole family that capture our kids at this stage of life-- those crazy, chaotic, fun, energetic moments when you've got a bunch of littles running around.  And... success!!!

Thankfully, I have an amazingly talented, beautiful, friend who takes such incredible photos.  Andrianne totally captured the personalities of my kids in these photos.  You are gifted my friend!  If you could only see the chaos that went down that afternoon trying to keep the kids happy and looking/smiling at the camera.  It was epic-- Sawyer was crying most of the time, Caleb couldn't help but be cheesy, and Eme (believe it or not) was so grumpy.  And yet Andrianne managed to pull it off-- she captured the kind of pictures I love-- the candid, fun, family pictures that offer a glimpse into our life with kids!  I love them!

And since there are SO many pictures that I love-- I can't choose just a few to post-- I've got to post a LOT... and on facebook and on instagram... prepare to be overloaded with pictures!

And there they are!  Now I have the impossible task of choosing just a few print and put up in our house!  The gallery wall will be getting an update I think... :)

Oh Sawyer Sauce

Brace yourselves folks.  Prepare yourself for an onslaught of Sawyer Sauce.

So... one of the things I like about this blogging thing, is that I can look back to remember all the crazy stuff my kids did way back when.  Unfortunately, Sawyer's been neglected on this blog of mine.  So today I intend to rectify the situation by giving you all a little recap of the last few months of Sawyer Sauce.

This little cutie has grown up over the summer.  It seems like just yesterday he looked like this...

Before I knew it he was all grown up sitting at the table with the rest of us starting to eat solids.

With Emerson I made ALL of my own baby food.  She loved it.  Sawyer, however, hates my homemade baby food.  I give him a spoonful and he scrunches up his face in disgust, gags, and screams his head off.  But, a spoonful of store bought baby food outta the jar?  Loves it. Will keep eating till I  have to cut him off.

So I've given in.   Who has time to fight a battle like that day after day?  I sure don't!  So I've resigned myself to buying jar after jar of PC Organics green bean/apple puree.  The kid can't get enough of it.

Over the past week he's also added books and stickers to his daily diet.  I keep finding him gagging up pages of the kid's books and Emerson's stickers.  Things like this happen when you've got other kids in the house...

Moving on.

He's done his time in the jolly jumper.  His older siblings have also done their time in timeouts due to the fact that they CANNOT keep their hands off of him.  "How high can we swing him?" has become the name of the game around here.

Gives me a heart attack to see this kid hurtling through the at high speeds...

Sawyer enjoyed plenty of beach time over the summer-- he enjoyed it much more than the picture may indicate.  The kid definitely got around-- we went to just about every lake/beach in the area multiple times.  A good summer was had by all...

Sleep?  What is is?  This kid rarely sleeps at nights.  My other two were sleeping through the night early on.  Sawyer however wakes up 3-4 times a night (and sometimes more) screaming at the top of his lungs until I feed him.  And let me tell you this kid can SCREAM... like ear drum shattering, headache inducing screams.  There is no volume control-- it's always LOUD.  When you've gotta be heard over two other kids, you do your best, right?

 Unfortunately, Sawyer will not nurse or drink from a bottle most of the day as he's so incredibly distracted by anything or anyone around him.  If I can find a completely dark, completely silent room-- there is a chance that he MIGHT nurse during day time hours.  But with the two older crazy kids running around that never happens... so we wake up at night... all night long.

One day I'll sleep for more than 2 hours at a time... one day.

And every so often this happens when we're out running errands during the day... when you're up all night sometimes you just gotta crash in the grocery store... right??  I wish.

Sawyer's been sitting on his own for a a few months now.. and is starting to flop onto his belly as he attempts to reach the older kid's toys (and stickers, and storybooks-- yummy.).  Caleb and Emerson were both late crawlers and didn't walk until after their first birthdays... so I'm thinking it could be a while before this kid is mobile.  Thank goodness!!!

By the end of the summer he was confidently sitting on the beach beside me... and was likely scheming to himself, "How can I get that sand into my mouth?  Surely it's gotta taste better than that food my mom makes for me..."

Seriously though, I cannot believe how fast the last 8.5 months have flown by... this kid is growing up fast!

Before I knew it he was 8 months old and in just over a week will be reaching the 9 month mark.

Sawyer's a handful-- much more so than my other kids-- with his night owl, homemade food hating, intense screaming tendencies.  But we sure do love him.  Couldn't imagine life without him.

I've made it this far on almost no sleep and extreme amounts of coffee... pretty sure I can make it a little while longer :)

Thankful

I interrupt the radio silence around here to say Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Life is busy as ever around here... and so full.  I love life with these three kiddos and am so incredibly grateful to be their mama.

Hope you all have a great weekend celebrating with family and reflecting on how blessed we are.

And eat some turkey why don't ya!!

Over the Weekend

Friday night.  Doug and I dropped the kids off (ALL the kids) and took off for the evening.  It was the first time since January that we had been away from the kids.  I pumped all week in preparation.  Maybe you can tell-- we weren't excited at all...

Kidding.  We were actually very excited.  Because we went to see Mumford and Sons!  So fun to see them perform live and outdoors in the park!  They definitely put on a good show.

We were feeling pretty youthful that night so we even bought t shirts.  I wore mine all weekend.

Friday was about us-- Saturday was all about the kids.  Doug and I have been talking about buying a trampoline for the backyard for a while now, since Doug had a rare Saturday at home we decided it would be the perfect day to buy the one we've been eyeing and set it up!

You cannot imagine how excited our older two kids were.  They have grown to love jumping on their cousin's trampoline, so the thought of having one of their own was pretty much the best thing ever!

Just look at the smile on Caleb's face.  Can it get any bigger?  I think not.

Since we have the trampoline now we've decided to retire our above ground pool (aka Gladys) for this year.  I was feeling a little apprehensive about setting it up this summer since I have to watch the kids like a hawk anytime they play in the backyard with the pool around and because it's a lot of work to maintain during the summer.  

This trampoline doesn't have any exposed springs or metal bars and has a huge cage to keep them on the trampoline as they're jumping-- so I feel like it is a much safer backyard activity for them.

It's pretty great to zip them in and let them jump their little hearts out.  I foresee many early bedtimes in the near future!  

I don't want to leave anyone out... so I'll just throw a quick picture of little S-dog up on the old blog today.  Just when I think he can't possibly get any cuter I wake up and bam-- he's 10 times cuter than the day before.

Melts my heart.  Especially when he sleeps through the night THREE nights in a row!

today I learned...

Today I learned that little boys who dress themselves will inevitably begin to choose outfits that their dad would select-- sweatpants and grey from head to toe.

I learned that grocery shopping takes twice as long as normal when you discover in the check out line that you forgot your wallet at home.  Eme thought the whole thing was hilarious and sang songs in the van about mommy forgetting her wallet all the way home and back to the store.  Made the decision to laugh and not cry.  And then I grabbed some chocolate and learned that...

The combination of chocolate, toasted coconut, and cashews really is quite amazing.

Today I was slightly horrified to learn that Eme isn't sad that Sawyer's going for his shots today-- she's actually quite excited about it.  Every 5 minutes she asks if it's time to go take Sawyer for his needle yet...  poor little guy.

I learned that I can eat a whole sandwich in 33 seconds-- which is the amount of time it took for me to warm up Eme's food in the microwave.  It is also the amount of free time I had available to eat my lunch.

Emerson learned how to sharpen pencil crayons today.  And I learned that her ability to trash my house is growing daily.  Apparently one must sharpen pencils in every room of the house...

And finally, I learned that my littlest man is becoming quite the chatterbox.  Cutie.

Wishing for...

Today I'm wishing for:

The end of this round of flu at our house (going on day 11)

Adult conversation... Doug was out of town for several days... talking to a 2 and 5 year old just isn't the same...

Uninterrupted sleep would be nice.  So would a shower.

Sunshine and spring-like weather!

In the meantime... Caleb (home from school sick) and I decided to craft up a pretend spring.

Mad cutting skills... I know.

Enough Said

How much coffee is too much??

Just some pictures...

Waking up early (of course).

Charming mama during diaper changes.

Picnic in the park two days in a row.

Boogers going rogue.

Sunbathing.

This week had its exhausting moments.  But in the end, these kids sure know how to make my day when...

... Emerson decides to call me "Hon" instead of Mom for most of a day.

... Caleb offers me $10 from his piggy bank so I can go to Red Robins for dinner and have a "break from the kids."  

... Sawyer not only smiles, but gives me a little chuckle when I tickle him under his arms.

Yay weekend.  Yay sun.  Yay flip flops.

Gonna need to book myself in for a pedicure pronto.

Just a bunch of randomness

Spring sprung today.

I felt energized so I went grocery shopping.  First time I was outnumbered in the grocery store 3-1... I shudder just thinking about how terribly that could have gone wrong.  But we survived.  

Then I went to the park.  Picture me attempting to teach Caleb how to pump on the swing, while trying to keep Eme going on another swing, while repeatedly running over to the stroller to pop Sawyer's soother in to stop the squawking.

We got home and the doorbell started ringing.  All the kids in the neighbourhood love playing hockey with Doug and Caleb.  At about 1:00 they start ringing the doorbell every 10-15 minutes asking if Doug's home so they can play street hockey.  This goes on ALL afternoon.  No joke, my doorbell rang about 300 times today.  And you can imagine how a 7 year old would ring it-- ding! ding! ding! ding! ding!-- as many times as fast as possible.

Evenings of street hockey are now becoming a regular occurrence around here.  Emerson likes to think she's one of the boys.

Smiles have also been springing up around here too... Caleb and I spent a solid chunk of the afternoon doing anything and everything necessary to keep this little guy grinning...  can you blame us?

Made a trip to Home Sense.  They are always my go-to for awesome baskets (I seem to collect them) and lately they have not been disappointing.

I don't really keep toys in the kid's shared room as it tends to make things a little too crazy in there... but  they needed a place for their bed time stuffies and a few special items.  This basket seemed like the perfect fit...

And over the weekend we hung up a picture above each kid's bed.  They look cute-- but are also strategic.  We put them right over the switches for their lights... now they can't easily turn them on and off and on and off when it's bedtime without parental intervention.

I found a funky little print at Ikea for Caleb's side.  I didn't have anything for Eme so Doug painted her a big pink heart.  Makes me smile.

In other important news... my washing machine broke.  Not good.

Doug was sure he could fix it.  Just needed to order a part.  After walking into the garage to discover my washing machine (at least that's what I think it was) in many many pieces... unrecognizable-- I was worried.

But.  The part came.  Doug put it back together.  It worked.  Doug saved a bunch of $$ fixing it himself.  My hero.

While it was nice to have a legitimate excuse to ignore my laundry pile for 9 DAYS... I am now BURIED under a pile of smelly laundry that needs to be done.  Not sure if I'll be able to dig myself outta this... seems like the kids can make things dirty a whole lot faster that I can clean.

Wish me luck.