Sawyer, Six months and Sittin' Pretty!

Sawyer was 6 months on Sunday 4.17.11, and on 4.11.11 she descovered she could sit! When I showed Erik he wasn't too impressed and said "she sits just like that on my lap".... Well anyway I thought it was quite the acomplishment!
 She is an amazing little girl, and is very much a momma's girl. In ways I like it and in ways I don't! For example she will be sitting on someones lap and I walk through the door - she starts to fuss and make lots of noise; and at church when someone else is holding her while I teach she fusses and acts likes she is hungry and as soon as they give her back to me... she is fine! But we roll with it and it all works out!

She still has all that fabulous curly hair, and everyday it turns lighter and lighter!

She still does not enjoy car rides!

She gets more rolls on her legs and belly daily! Erik told me today "why don't you drink more water so she can have some skim milk." haha.. can do dear! What would we do without husbands!

Sawyer loves her sister and Lauren loves her back! There is nothing that makes me feel happier when I see Sawyer's eyes light up when she see's Lauren and laughs at everything Lauren does! It is such a great blessing to have these two girls in my life, and they make me think about the simple things and how blessed we are as a family to have each other!

 It is so much fun doing her hair!

 Sitting outside on the bumbo :)

 Getting some sugars from Grandpa Steve!

My Grandma Jolley

On Sunday I had a feeling that I should go see my Grandma Jolley, I thought it was just because it was fast Sunday and that if I didn't get out of the house I might eat everything in sight! But I am glad I listened to that promting because when I got there, I saw a bunch of peope by her room. Sigh. That is never a good sign. My Aunt Barbara was walking down the hall and I asked her how Grandma was doing. She said she was on a lot of morphine because she was in so much pain, and was having trouble breathing. Her pain had been getting worse and worse and they were having to give her more and more medication which made her more and more loopy. (on a positive note, it gave us something to laugh about!)

I was grateful for the family that was there because they were able to make us laugh, and laughter is the best medicine! They were telling me of how my Grandma told my Aunt Cindy to go find her dad (my Grandpa Jolley has been gone for quite a few years) and also told her to come back in 10 minutes and to not talk to anyone because she talks to much! Well my Aunt Cindy left the room and came back to report that she sent my Uncle Don to go find my Grandpa!

As I was thinking about ways I could explain my Grandma and to help me remember her a lot of thoughts have run through my head. My Grandma was about tough love! She would say what she thought, but you always new she loved you! My Grandma loved company and would let you (or your mom and dad) know when you hadn't been to see her in a while! My dad would always tease us and say you better go see Grandma Jolley, she is sitting up at the Care Center feeling sorry for herself! However; when anyone would come to visit her, it truley made her day and you couldn't help but feel good knowing that she was so happy to see you!

Some fun memories of my Grandma Jolley

Her chocolate chip cookies! YUM! When we were growing up she was sure to have chocolate chip cookies, and they were AMAZING! And if she didn't have any her excuse was "well no body was here to eat them so I just had to get rid of them!" Once again one of those, why haven't you been to see me!

Going to see her almost every Sunday evening when I was younger, and most of the time seeing other Aunts, Uncles, and cousins there!

Playing ghost in the graveyard, and hide and seek with all my cousins!

Divinity! Oh. my. goodness. My grandma's divinity was DIVINE! I looked forward to divinity more than I did Santa Clause! I remember she would keep it in her store room and it was cold in there and I would have no shoes on and freezing feet, but it didn't stop me from finding the divinity!

My Grandma does not like unique or origional baby names. Luckily for her, my family provided her with plenty of unique, origional, and different names! Whenever some one would have a baby I would always ask "what does grandma think of that!" Most of the time she would say something along the lines of "where the hell did they come up with that!" So you can imagine when she heard Saywer's name! She told me that she would not like her name growing up, and were did you come up with a name like that! I would say oh Grandma it's not that bad (and then I would sometimes blame it on Lila because she suggested the name! It got me off the hook for a minute!) So my Grandma said she was going to call her Faye! My Grandma has never really liked her name (Alma), so it's her way of sticking up for these poor kids with wierd names!

I can still hear my grandma yelling at my grandpa "GERALD".

As I said my Grandma loved her family, and loved their company. I remember my Grandma would always try to make it to sport events, piano recitals, dance recitals, talks at church, baby blessings and more.

Her laugh! I can't explain it, but it was always fun to see my Grandma laugh!

My cousin Max likes loud trucks, and my Grandma does not! So he would make it a point to go as fast as he could and rev up his engine while passing Grandma's house! And Grandma would always have something to say about that Max!

She was the Grandma with the blocks!

She had a green thumb, and loved her flowers and garden! But hated the dogs and cats that got into them! She made the best homemade pickles.

She was an amazing cook!

I am sure I there are many other things that I am forgeting, but thats all I can think of right now. They have taken her oxygen off and she probably will not be with us much longer. I hope that she doesn't have to suffer much longer because the poor thing has been in lots of pain. She will be greated by my Grandpa Jolley, her son Barry and his wife Brenda, her great granddaughter Kristin and many more people who will be excited to see her. I know that my Grandma has fulfilled her life here and is ready to go! I will miss her dearly, but know that she is in a better place.

I am so grateful for the family that she raised and all of the good times I have had with her.

Sawyer @ 5 months

Yesterday 3.17.11 Sawyer hit her 5 month mark, and also rolled over for the first time! It only took her 5 months, but she did it! Lately Sawyer has been quite a talker. She really must like the way she sounds because she will coo, ohh and gurgle for sometimes a half an hour at a time! She will probably be a talker like her sister, I dont' know if this household can handle another chatter like Lady Lauren but bring it on!

Some things about our Sawyer:

She weighs about 15-16 pounds

She likes to watch Lauren jump ( I can see how the tramp will be a friend to us all this summer!) Sawyer just starts to giggle whenever she see's kiddos jump! I don't know what is so funny, but we love to hear her laugh!

She likes talking, and being talked too!

She is a fairly good sleeper waking up 1 to 2 times a night to eat and goes right back to bed.

She is happy to just lay on the floor or in her bouncer! Last night I had to take her to dance with me, which is 2 1/2 hours long and full of crazy kiddos surrounding her at.all.times. but she was happy to just chill and didn't make a peep!

It's not that she never cry's, because she does; but she is very laid back and goes with the flow. I am so grateful that!

She still doesn't care much for strangers, and is kind of a momma's girl!

Her hair is getting lighter and is growing and growing! Erik keeps threatening that he is going to trim her side burns but I hate to cut a babies hair!
She is starting to grab for things more and more. If I have some food in my hand or if I am taking a drink she likes to help me get it to my mouth! It is so cute because when she see's something she wants to touch she gets very still and slowly reaches for it! It is crazy how they can go from not caring about what is in front of them to all the sudden wanting to hold it! I love watching kids grow and watching them reach new milestones!

These are just some pictures of the little miss!

Our precious Sawyer, 5 months old and showing off her stuff!

I'm Ready

I'm ready for spring! Just when you think that winter is going to last forever, a glimps of spring shines down on us! I love the change in seasons. I love it when the leaves start to turn to beautiful colors of orange, red, and yellow; the first snowfall, and my most favorite when the sun starts to shine, the snow is melting and our play area extends as far as we want it too because WE CAN PLAY OUTSIDE! I love that feeling that you get when the seasons are changing because it is new, and exciting! I even like the smell of kids who have been playing outside (except when they stink)! Anyways I just love when the season changes to Spring! Sunshine can do so much for me!

We were over at my mom's and in this warm weather we couldn't help but jump on the tramp. Lauren absolutly LOVES to jump on the tramp. It has been a long winter with her asking to jump on the tramp and me saying sorry it's too cold. Not any more though!

These guys and gals were with us joining our tramp party!

This season also is a fun one for Erik too. Erik actually found all these shed horns in the snow and freezing cold, but I don't doubt that he will continue to look for more horns in this nice weather. 

      Lauren always request's that dad finds her a "wittle horn"

Lauren is such a goof ball! But oh, how I love her :) I just have to write down some of the funny things she says.

Honey Bunches of Boats (with a lisp)

Morngin - Morning

cuburds - covers

bitem - vitamin

wast night - last night, for some reason everything that happens, happens last night. Even if it was just a few minutes ago she will say "did you fall wast night" or whatever has happend in the past!

Like I said she is a goof ball and says lots of silly things, but I will think of them later!

These next few pictures were just too funny not to post!

 

This next picture is Lauren's hair, yes her hair. It was before her nap and I was sitting on the couch with Sawyer trying to get her to take a nap and Lauren was on the other couch. She was telling me she was going to take out her bow, and I said that was ok. I got Sawyer to sleep and was relaxing, and after Lauren woke up from her nap this is what I found! She didn't say or act like she had just ripped a chunk of hair out of her head, but she sure did!



Last but not least, our baby Sawyer! She will be 5 months soon and I can't believe it! She is such a good little girl and I am so grateful to have her! More to come on Sawyer when I post her 5 month post!

Sawyer @ 4 months

Our Sawyer Faye was 4 months old last Thursday! She has been such a fun little girl to get to know! Some things we have learned about our baby Sawyer.

Weight: 14 lbs. 14 oz.

She does NOT like to ride in the car any more. She can sit in her carseat in the house or where ever for as long as you need her too, but once I put her in the car and start to move, she starts to cry. It makes for long, long trips but we do it anyway.

She is a pretty good sleeper, she takes a cat nap in the morning around 9 and a cat nap at about 7 and then gives me a long break taking a nap from about 1 to about 4 (on a good day!) She sleeps good at night too, getting up about once a night.

She likes to talk, but it's more like a gurgle and sometimes sounds like a plane taking off!

She doesn't like basketball games, wrestling meets, or places w/ lots of noise.

She is not a fan of strangers, and is very much a momma's girl.

She likes her bouncy chair and will sit and bounce when mom needs to get stuff done!

She gets compliments on her hair where ever we go!

She will not take a bottle with formula. I am grateful that she is still nursing and is doing well with that because Lauren didn't nurse for only about 3 or 4 months. It makes me happy because I know she is getting everything she needs, and it is SO much cheaper too. It does make me nervous because I am camp director for the Young Womens this year and thought that I would put her on formula after 6 months or so, but I might have to re-evaluate the situation.

She is an all natural girl. Prefers nursing over a bottle, her fingers over a pacifer (she will take a pacifer once in a while) and she likes my fingers to suck on too.

She likes tummy time and I think she is thinking about rolling over her soon!

She likes to look at herself in the mirror!

Her smiles can make my heart melt.

It is such a blessing to have this girl in our family!

Here are a few pictures of our Sawyer over the last month!

Dancin' Girl

Lauren has a new found love, DANCE! She has always been a dancin' girl, but lately she has been taken over by the power of dance! When I brought my DVD home of the recital of my "dancing girls" that I teach she could not get enough of it. She wanted to have all the props like they did, i.e. dancin' shoes, tu-tu, gloves, umbrella, football, wands, towels and much more. Luckily we had some of the stuff, and luckily she had her moves to add in with it!  I am so excited that this September Lauren will be able to be in dance!! All we have to decide is whether it is going to be tap, or jazz? Both teachers are awesome, so maybe Lauren will have to decide!

 This is Lauren's interpretation of gloves, and an umbrella (the hat is what she came up with to be her umbrella)

 Lauren also loves to dance with ties! Grandpa Jolley had them hanging on his closet door and Lauren found them and thought they were pretty cool! Lauren's version of "Thia Dancing" (Thia sounds like tie)! My mom was able to travel pretty much around the world with my grandparents and one of the things my mom learn to do was Thia Dance. It is a special dance done in Thialand, and my mom taught us girls and would want us to do it at family parties (and I would be so shy and not want too.) But Lauren came up with her own "Thia Dancing" and grandma didn't even have to teach her!

 Lauren just dancing away!!

Lauren has many styles of dance! She does this silly little shoulder shrug, and she can really wiggle her hips! In this video she looks like she is river dancing!

For Kynlee, Kaya and Kysar

I know Valentines Day isn't for a couple weeks, but we decided to start making our valentines early so that we could make a valentine for everyone that we love! We started with Kynlee, Kaya and Kysar who have moved over the mountain and who we miss VERY much! Lauren was thinking that we were going to see the KKK's and give them their valentine but I told her the mail man would have to give it to them. She wanted to give them a sneak peak of the valentine!




Sawyer wanted to say something too...