Family time and new traditions

So once again it's been a while, but I'm not going to stress about it! : ) We've been having tons of fun in our house as the boys are both growing and changing almost everyday! Sawyer is always adding a new word to his vocabulary and Jack has learned to sit up by himself. Before you know it, he'll be crawling! I just can't believe how quickly it's gone by this time! It feels like we just brought him home a few days ago. As a result, I'm trying to enjoy every minute with my babies since I can't get this time back. While, they won't remember these days, I know I will never forget the joy of getting to stay home with them! Anyway . . . I started this post to show you what we've been doing lately!
We had a birthday part this past week for Sawyer's friend, Sophie! We "decorated" cupcakes, which turned into the kids eating the sprinkles and m&m's while mom put on the icing : ), and then went to the playground. Jack sat and played with one of the other little babies, while the big kids had cupcakes. All in all it was a fun morning!

Our little chef!

Jack in the exersaucer. Someone found himself in the mirror!

This past weekend we had my dad's side of the family over for an early Thanksgiving brunch. It was a short visit, but we had a lot of fun seeing everyone. While the boys enjoyed seeing everyone and had fun playing and being loved on, there were two people who were still being talked about come Monday morning, Jo Jo (my cousin Joanna) and Grandpa, or as Sawyer has decided to call him, Papa. Monday morning I was changing Jack's diaper and Sawyer walked in and said "Jo Jo, go?" and then followed it with "Papa, are you?" : ) You are both loved in our house!!

Also, this year, we decided to start a new family tradition. Instead of buying each other stuff that we don't really need we decided to put all of our money together and do something for people who are really in need. Every year a different family will decide what we spend it on, but this year it will be for Samaritan's Purse. If your family is like mine, and you don't really need the gifts, why don't you try something new and help change the next generations way of doing Christmas! I want my boys to think of Christmas as a time to celebrate Christ's birth, but also his ultimate gift! Giving to others who truly need it is a good way to remind us of that. Just to give you something to think about. : )

Apparently something that Jack was doing was very funny to Aunt Hannah. : )

Jack and Aunt Elizabeth!

looking at Jo Jo's computer and helping with her homework, I'm sure!

sitting with Grandpa. Not the best picture, but I had to put it up since he was one of the highlights of the weekend for a certain little boy.

Gran loves the grandbabies and they love her!

Sawyer will try to talk anyone into reading a book with him, especially if it's Thomas the Train.

He still likes reading to brother, too.

Some evidence that Jack can sit up.

Baby dedication, we started in Daddy's arms and then fell asleep in Mommy's : )

We all went to lunch after baby dedication

The Keesey's

They Headley's

The boys dressed up for Halloween. There is a story behind this. I had grand plans of dressing us all up as characters from the Wizard of Oz (Dorothy, Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow). I knew I couldn't make the tin man costume so I bought that one, and then I was going to make the other ones. Well, that was before we all got sick with the flu!! So, I went through Sawyer's closet and found what I needed to make him a "classic golfer" and just put the tin man costume on Jack anyway. : )

At Harmon's Tree Farm to get a pumpkin and see a few animals! Sharing stuff with friends is always fun!

This little horse was a better attraction for the kids than the pumpkins or the animals. : )

sitting on the pumpkins with Bella and Sophie. This wasn't the whole group, but that was a little too hard to capture in a picture. : )

So I'm working backwards here, and I'm going to end with our trip to the zoo for Josh's birthday (yes folks, that was in September : )

Someone please tell me why my brother and soon to be sister in law can take a better picture with my boys than we can?? : )

The whole crew, and yes, Jack is there. He was asleep at the time, and I was NOT going to wake him up just to take a picture!

Twice the fun

Well, I thought I was doing so good about updating the blog and then I let a month go by without a post! Well, I guess that's what happens when you're trying to keep up with two busy, little people. : ) So for my own personal recollection, here's a little bit of what both boys are doing these days.
Sawyer can still loves books and playing with anything "boy" . . . balls, trucks, dirt, etc. He can say more words than I can count, but the stuff I love right now are: "wuv oo" (there's not really a "yuh" sound to his "you"), "are oo" (where are you?) and "tank oo" (thank you). He knows almost all of his animals and their sounds. He is sleeping in a big boy bed and we've yet to have any problems!!! WooHoo!!!
Jack can roll over both ways and LOVES to roll over onto his tummy. He coos and giggles when you tickle him. He still loves his feet and his hands now. He has the biggest smile ever, which makes me think he's going to smile like his momma and his Uncle Josh. He especially lights up whenever his brother is in view. He LOVES his brother! He loves to sit up in the exersaucer or the bumbo so he can see what's going on.

Well, that's all I can think of for now, so here's a picture walk, in no particular order, of what we've been doing recently!

Trying rice cereal! That's right, folks, our baby is 4 months old!!

As you can tell from the picture, he's not a fan yet, but I'm sure he will be soon!

Like mother, like son! He loves to play the piano! He doesn't bang on it, but sits and plays!

A prodigy in the making. : )

No, that is not a funny angle, he is actually sucking/chewing on the toy that is on his playmat! I left him there the other day and came back to find him doing this. So funny!

The littlest one has discovered his hands and loves to suck on them, look at them, and occasionally scratch himself. : ( He's even started sucking his middle two fingers, just like Sawyer! We'll see what his final decision is later.

Our BIG boy! Right now he is the same size that Sawyer was when he was 6 months old! Looks like he got the Keesey genes. : )

Sawyer has gotten really into "helping" with everything! He love to help make the bed, put the dirty clothes in the hamper (my personal favorite), vacuum (not exactly my favorite, but sweet nonetheless), and cook. The other day I temporarily lost my mind and thought it would be fun to let him help make biscuits! Doesn't that SOUND like fun??

This is how we met daddy at the door when he got home! He had dough ALL over his hands, flour in his hair, and all over the floor, but he loved it!! I think we'll stick with helping to stir the pancakes!

Sawyer loves books and now he tries to "read" to himself as well as Jack. I walked into the living room one day to find this on the couch. : )

Sawyer was watching baseball and copying the outfielders when they would catch a ball.

Jack in the lion towel from Aunt D!

So we've worked on doing things by our self, but pudding was a little too difficult when we first started. I am proud to report, however, that he can now do it without spilling a drop! I'd say that's progress from where we started. : )

More reading!

Both being extra, special cute!

Ok this last one is a video that I have been trying to catch for forever. Sawyer loves Curious George and he dances like a crazy person to the intro song, so now you can all see a little bit of the energy that my child has. : ) Notice he had to go swing brother when the song talked about swinging!

Vacation . . . or something like it!

So this year, once again, we went on vacation with some friends from church. We had double the children from last year (6 and two pregnant ladies), so we brought my mom and cousin to help with the kids. Overall, I have to say it was a great vacation and we had a lot of fun, BUT there were a few less than wonderful moments! Monday started with Sawyer running a fever so Ian and I took turns staying in our room with him, so that we didn't spread germs to anyone else in the house. His fever was gone by the evening, so we thought it was just a little cold. The next morning he woke up with a 103.2 fever, so we decided to find a pediatrician to take him to in Myrtle Beach. Thankfully, enough it turned out to be a bacterial infection so he wasn't contagious and after a day of meds he was back to normal. Well, the day that he was back to normal (Wednesday) we discovered that our house was infested with bed bugs! That's right folks, bed bugs! My poor mom was covered in bites, and Joanna had some as well, but no one else did. Well, after a day of packing our stuff in plastic bags and doing ALL of our laundry, we got moved to another place and settled in. We were able to enjoy the rest of our vacation and will hopefully have a less eventful vacation next year!

Ian and Sawyer walking around waiting for our table.

Sweet kisses for little brother.

Cutie pie!

A little snack before dinner!

A family picture . . . the best we could get!

Napping on the beach! It's the life!

Strong boy carrying his water bucket all by himself.

Knocking down sand castles.

Playing with friends!

Playing bocce ball with the "big kids".

Getting a better view.

Sitting with Granna.

Jack in his tent.

Hanging out with Mommy.

A little pool time with Daddy and our friends.

Playing in the shade.

Reading with Daddy.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

So my grandfather turned 80 this year and we went down to Georgia to celebrate. It was a bit of an ordeal traveling with a newborn and a toddler, but we all made it there and back in one piece and even managed to enjoy ourselves! We went to the lake for the day on Saturday, which was great. They have a house on their property that has one bedroom and then a big kitchen/dining room/living room where we can set up lots of tables and chairs. It was the perfect place to put Jack so he didn't get too hot, and of course there were plenty of hands to hold him. Sawyer loves swimming so he thought it was the perfect day, and he got to ride on a boat for the first time!

Sitting with Uncle Josh and being sweet!

Our family : )


All of Grandpa's grandchildren and great grands.

Unfortunately, Sawyer hadn't had a nap all afternoon, so about 5 minutes into the boat ride, this is what he looked like!

Here he is in the first 5 minutes with Granna, Grandaddy and Dandy.

Helping Grandpa blow out the candles.

Riding the kayak with Uncle Josh was definitely a highlight for Sawyer!

Swimming with Jo Jo!

Cuddling with Uncle Doug.

This wasn't at the lake, but it's so cute I had to put it up just so you could see his sweet smile!

6 weeks

So, I can't believe my baby's 6 weeks old! Sometimes I feel like we've always been a family of four and other days I just can't believe he's actually here! Sawyer is still adjusting, but doing better than I could have dreamed! He has become such a little helper boy as though he just knows that he's the big brother. He likes to try and give Jack his pacy and cover him up, which of course I have to pay attention to or he tends to smother him a little. He also likes to help with take the dirty clothes to the laundry room. This usually ends with mommy retracing our steps to pick up everything that got dropped! : ) He's gotten really good at following directions and understands so much. I must say it's so fun to ask him to go get something or tell him to do something and watch him process what I'm saying and then run off to do it! It doesn't happen everytime, but more often than not! We're getting tubes put in Sawyer's ears on July 20th, so if you think about it just say a little prayer that everything goes well. I'm really hoping that this provides some relief for him and has the effect that so many people have told us about. So I accidently uploaded pictures incorrectly and don't feel like changing it. Take a look at these pictures and then find out about Jack at the bottom of the blog. : )

Visiting Nana and Papa in Darlington for the first time

Reading with Nana

meeting Papa for the first time

Sawyer is in love with this backpack. He likes walking around the house with it on and feeling it hit his legs.

What is summer without corn on the cob? Sawyer has discovered a love for corn especially when he gets to use the corn holders.

Playing with daddy!

A bubble mower from Grandpa and Gran. He loves being like daddy and "mowing" the grass.

Jack is growing like a weed! He's somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 lbs now. Let's just say he's a good eater! He still hasn't lost any hair, and it's still dark brown. I think he's looking more like Ian, but he's definitely got some features that look like my side of the family as well. He has been sleeping so great at night, from 10:30 until 6:00 in the morning! I definitely did not expect to be blessed with another good sleeper, so I'm counting my lucky stars for that one. Overall, this transition has been so much easier than I thought it would be and I can't complain about anything!

Pictures as promised

Just a few minutes old!

One week old!

Our first family picture. . . not the greatest, but one to cherish anyway!


Sawyer loving on Jack the first time he saw him. Just makes you want to cry . . . in a good way!

One month old already! Cuddling with mom after being away for the first time.

Another try at a family picture. This time Sawyer was too busy looking for planes. : )

This boy is so attentive and full of smiles!

grinning and talking!

sleepy boy

Jack Hamilton Headley

Well, I thought I would post this blog much earlier than I have, but as you might imagine, I've been a little busy. : ) Jack was born at 10:15 on May 26th. He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. On Memorial Day (May 25th) Ian decided we should go walk around the mall with Sawyer and go to lunch to try and jump start labor. Well, according to Ian, it worked and I started having contractions at 4 o'clock that afternoon. We finally headed for the hospital at about 8:30 and found out that things hadn't moved along quite as quickly as we had hoped. It took a couple of hours, but I finally made some progress so they decided to keep me and I finally got my drugs at midnight (happy birthday to me!). Again, we thought I would deliver earlier than I did, but thankfully enough, he came just in time. Jenn, my childhood best friend, was in town for a job interview for her husband. She was able to come to the hospital and even see Jack make his grand entrance. She had to leave by 10:30, so we just barely made it. : ) Seeing that head full of dark hair and that big boy for the first time was so special and hard to explain. Ian and I talked about it later and we both felt that it was such a different experience from seeing Sawyer for the first time, but the same emotions were there. One of my favorite things was seeing Sawyer with Jack for the first time. No one told him what to do, but he immediately leaned over and gave him a hug and a kiss! It was so sweet I wanted to cry!

Since coming home we've done pretty well! Sawyer has had some adjustments, as I knew he would, but he loves Jack and still gives him kisses and hugs most of the time. He loves to try and give him his passy and occasionally gives him a little "love pat". Jack does not appreciate these pats and we're trying to learn how to be gentle with our baby. : ) Jack sleeps and eats better than I could have imagined! He will be a month old tomorrow and he sleeps 6 hours at night and goes 3 hours between feedings during the day. He is smiling up a storm now, but I haven't been able to capture it on camera yet. As soon as I do I'll post some pictures. Well, I've got a big boy getting up from a nap, so I better stop here, but I'll come back and post pictures soon. Hopefully, I won't wait to long before posting again! : )