O Christmas Tree!

On Friday, after Thanksgiving, we went and picked out our Christmas tree! We have a great little place in town that has wonderful trees to choose from and there are always several great ones that we have to debate about. At first Sawyer wasn't to thrilled about the tree, but after it was in the house he decided it wasn't too bad.

Testing the Christmas tree lights was definitely the favorite part for Sawyer! As soon as the lights would light up he would just laugh and giggle!

Touching the tree for the first time, and then deciding that he didn't really like the feel of it too much! He's over that now. : ) He loves to touch it now and run, and then do it all again.

Turkey Day!

We spent Thanksgiving this year with Ian's family at his parent's house. I was so proud of myself because I remembered to bring my camera and my video camera, but that is where my sense of pride ends. I was terrible at taking pictures! It was Sawyer's first Thanksgiving and I wanted to document it all, but this is all I got. Sawyer loved all the food and ate plenty! He also loved Aunt Shannon's dog, Laramie! Poor Laramie was a little tired by the time Sawyer left. : ) What can I say? The boy loves dogs! He also loved the train set that Ian's dad had set up. It didn't go around the track very often before Sawyer would knock it off, but Grandpa didn't mind setting it back up. We were so glad to spend time with family and have a wonderful, restful day!

Cool Man, Cool

So the other day, Ian was talking to a guy that he works with, and he was telling Ian how he had told our story to his mom. He was describing Sawyer, and his description of Sawyer was just about the best I've heard. He said Sawyer was one of those cute kids that was just looking for an excuse to laugh and smile. I thought it was so sweet and so accurate! Here are a couple pictures of us playing with Daddy's sunglasses. : )

There's always something new

As is always the case with a growing toddler, Sawyer is constantly discovering new things, gaining new skills, and finding new games that he loves. Lately one of his favorite things to do is dump anything that has something in it. This includes, the box of diapers, cabinet where the DVDs are kept, all kitchen cabinets that he can get open, the toy box, you get the picture, right? So my day is spent wandering from one mess to the other putting stuff back. The great part is that he moves onto another toy so I move to clean up the latest mess, which he of course notices, and then comes back and begins destroying while I'm cleaning up. : ) He also loves to look under stuff, which I have to say, is the cutest thing you've ever seen. He just looks so curious and cute! As for his favorite game, it has to do with something he's loved for a while. For some reason, Sawyer has always loved to have his face covered. He loves when you pull a shirt on, but leave it on his head, or if you throw a towel over his head. He gets so excited and flaps his little arms and you can hear him breathing hard underneath whatever it is on his head. If you look under the clothing or blanket you can see the look of utter joy on his face. When you finally take it off, he gets this look of disappointment that the game is over. Well, the other day, for some reason, all three of us ended up in the bed together, and we put the sheet over Sawyer's head. After a few minutes we both got under the sheet and you would've thought someone had just handed Sawyer the moon. He got so excited! So now his almost daily game with Daddy is getting under a blanket and making noises at one another. It is particularly hilarious to watch from outside the blanket as they are both moving all over creation and look hysterical. I haven't gotten it on video that I can upload, yet, but I will soon so you can all see what I see. : ) I also have pictures to upload, but they're on Ian's camera, which he has to download using a special cord. Check back in a few days and I'll have it all up for you.

Pumpkins and Presidents

So my mom had a day off this week and since I needed to get some work done, she kept him for the day. She decided that they needed to get a pumpkin and have a photo shoot in the front yard. : ) From what she says it was quite the experience trying to get him to sit still and not eat leaves (which you'll see she was not so successful at stopping). She then took a few pictures for Daddy. I'll let you figure out which one that might be.

Laying in the grass. Can you tell he's not scared of it anymore??


Sitting politely with his pumpkin.


Studying his pumpkin. He's such an intense little boy.

Notice the leaf in his mouth.

Well, even though my hubby says this won't be our next president, it's still Sawyer's first election, so it needs to be documented. : )

Patiently waiting . . .

So, if our front door is open we have to be sure to lock the storm door, or Sawyer will be pushing the door open trying to get out. : ) His favorite is to stand at the door and watch people come into the house or leave. Here are some pictures of Sawyer waiting for Ian to come home from work. Usually, you would find Whit sitting beside him, but I think he was outside at the moment.

Swing, Swing

On the day that Kaitlyn Dean and Karis came to play this week, we went to see Aunt Carla and play on the playground in her neighborhood. It was Sawyer's first time swinging, and as you can tell he LOVED it!
Kaitlyn Dean thought it was great fun that they were swinging together. She kept wanting him to look at her, but he was too busy trying to reach his feet! : )
If you enlarge this picture you can see his top two teeth that have just come in!


Riding home so we can take a nap! Oh what fun we had! Sawyer and Karis rode in the double stroller and Kaitlyn Dean walked beside like a big girl!

Go, Sawyer. Go!

Now that Sawyer is crawling we are busier than ever! I don't get much work done unless he's sleeping, so one day a week he gets to go play with Aunt Erica, Kaitlyn Dean and baby Karis. Then one day a week they come to our house to play! It's a lot of work, but it's fun to have kids for him to interact with and learn how to play gently! : ) Here are a few pictures of our comings and goings lately.


This is Sawyer's favorite place to play these days! He loves to pull himself over the bars on the bottom of the chairs. It scared the mess out of me the first time he did it, but now it's just a part of his play.















We had our first trip to the zoo this past week and Sawyer had a pretty good time. He actually looked at a lot of the animals and had fun watching his friends that joined us. We tried to get a picture of all the children, but we were not successful. : ) Here's the best try.





























We saw the cow and had to take a picture with her! My Papa used to raise cows, so we thought it would be fun to send him that picture.














Kyrstin loves Sawyer! She likes to talk to him everytime he is around.















Sawyer discovered a new love for blueberries! He thought making a mess was grand fun!

And away he goes . . .

That's right, crawling has started! It began with a lunge of sorts where Sawyer would rock, throw himself forward, and then get up and do it all over again. Now, he has graduated to full fledged crawling. There's still a small amount of lunging, but the majority is real crawling. It's so fun to have him crawl over and grab my leg, or come to me when I'm sitting on the floor, but it makes me a little sad to see my baby grow up. I also realize that the days of leaving him in a room alone while I take a shower, or cook dinner, are over! : )
One of Sawyer's newest tricks is clapping. He's so proud of himself, especially if you cheer for him while he's doing it. Ian swears he's trying to play patti cake with himself, since that's one of his favorite games. It's very cute to watch him sit on the floor and clap his hands over and over.
My sweet baby boy will be 8 months at the end of this week. My how time flies! There are days when I feel like we've never been without Sawyer, and then there are days when I feel like we just got him. I swear he is one of the sweetest children God ever put on this earth and I feel so blessed to be his mom. Ok, I'll stop being mushy now, and I'll post some pictures soon.

First REAL Haircut

So Sawyer's hair, if you haven't seen it recently, was a little crazy. He would wake up from his naps and I would have to redo his hair everytime, so we decided it was time to get a little trim. Obviously, mommy had not had her hair done yet, but Sawyer was a very good boy and sat still for the most part while he got his hair cut. My camera actually died before Misty was done, so I didn't get a finished cut picture, but I will post one later.
Sawyer takes up a new skill every week or so and likes to show it off over and over, once he's mastered it. Well, much to Daddy's delight, his newest skill is saying "Dadadada". Ian can't get enough of it and I hear it all day long. : ) It is really cute! The other morning, he layed in bed and would say it and then giggle, and then say it again.
He's still not mastered the crawling. He rocks and goes backwards, but forward is not quite there yet. He has started trying some finger foods, which makes for interesting meal times. It only makes it into the mouth every 12th try, so I end up sticking it in his mouth, but he loves it. He wasn't so sure at first, but he loves puffs and bananas!

grassophobia

So we discovered something new about our sweet little boy . . . he hates grass. I'm sure several of you have probalby been through this but I just didn't think about it until this week. We were in the mountains with Ian's parents for a family reunion and I wanted to take some pictures of Sawyer sitting on the ground with the mountains in the background. Well, I put him down, and this is what he did. I couldn't help but turn my camera to video and capture it the second time we tried. : )

Here are a few other pictures from vacation and other random stuff

Granna introduced him to vanilla wafers . . . can you tell he liked it?Sitting up like a big boy. This is his new favorite thing to do.

The little lion playing in the den.

Driving with Daddy . . . at a rest stop.

Our family photo

Fun at Grandma's House

So this weekend we went to Grandma and Grandpa Headley's (Ian's parents) house for dinner. Grandma got Sawyer a Johnny Jumper to play in and it was hilarious watching him try to maneuver the thing. He's been in an exersaucer for weeks, but never tried something that moved so much. Once he figured out that he could touch the floor, he would swing himself around and turn every which way to watch people in the kitchen and the dining room. He's not quite tall enough yet to stick his arms out (if you look at the pictures, you'll see what I mean) but he enjoyed it for a while. : )

I love this face! It's as though he's saying, "Mom, please help me!!!"

And just because I think they're cute, here are a few more pictures of Sawyer. Here's one of him looking quite cute in his high chair. He got messy after a meal fed by daddy, so we took a few pictures of the cleaned up, naked Sawyer. : )

Reading his Sesame Street book. He loves all the characters that move and make noise. Don't worry, he's not a genius yet, his book is upside down. : )

A Week of Firsts

So this has been a week (or two) of new things for us and for Sawyer. I made my first Jon Jon suit, actually I made two, but I think they are both cute, if I do say so myself. : ) Sawyer has crawled his first crawl, or however you say that. He has his first two teeth, and to round out the week, his first ear infection. That's definitely the low part of the week. He has been cranky with a capital "C". That's actually how I knew that something just was not right, so I took him back in to see the doctor, and sure enough that pesky ear infection had not been taken care of by the first round of antibiotics so we've moved on to the second one. WhooHoo! He is acting more like the sweet little boy we all know and love, so I have hope that it's finally going away!


His new teeth, which I have yet to be able to get a picture of, are very cute. Whenever you try to look at them he grins and sticks his tongue out, so right now I just get glimpses. Trust me though, if he chews on your finger, you know they're there. : )


I think he might have actually gotten the hang of the crawling thing last week sometime if he hadn't been sick. He's getting on all fours and rocking back and forth and then he'll pick up one little leg and inch it forward. It's quite cute. The funniest though, has been this week while he hasn't felt very good. He's been trying to get on all fours, even when he doesn't feel his best, but instead of sitting and rocking, like he normally does, he would kind of fall over like a little drunk man. It was so sad, but yet hilarious at the same time! : )

Here are a few pictures of the Jon Jon suit process.

I love the expression on his face in this picture. He's looking as though he's concerned that he may not look so good in these suits his mother is attempting. This one was before we hemmed the legs and put in snaps.

I love this picture! You can't really see the Jon Jon suit, but he looks cute all the same. This was at Bethy's wedding and as Aunt Jenn says, he was the most handsome man in the room! I'm sure he got asked to dance more than any other guy!

Daddy Time

So, with a few days off Ian and Sawyer have been enjoying some extra time together. One of my favorite things to do is try and sneak up on the two of them so they don't know that I'm there. Several of my friends and I joke that Ian became a different person when he became a dad, but sometimes I think it's true. He does some of the craziest things with Sawyer, but it's just so cute that you can't help but laugh and smile. A few days after we got Sawyer, we left him with my parents so that we could go vote (if you don't know my hubby, he would crawl off his death bed to exercise his right to vote for a republican : ). I asked him about how he felt things were going and what he was most surprised about. His response was that he didn't realize he could love someone that he didn't know in an instant. He certainly loves our sweet boy and I thought I'd share a few pictures and a video so you can get a glimpse of what makes him a great daddy.

Ian trying to get Sawyer to open his mouth : )

playing

with the crackberry

nightime fun

So I had to share this slightly funny story, even if it's at my own expense. Sawyer had his circumcision surgery on Tuesday, which went well, but he was way more fussy than usual (considering he very rarely cries : ). If you don't do circumcision when the baby is born then you have to wait until 6 months and they have to do general anesthesia. Even though it's a simple surgery, it's still a little nerve racking to have your baby put under. Well, anyway, that is all in my mind, as we went to bed the night after the surgery, when the baby monitor went off at about 3 am. (We have the angel monitor, which monitors the baby's movements and goes off if there is no movement after 20 seconds.) It will go off sometimes, but it is usually very short and goes off after few seconds. Well, it went off and it didn't turn off like it usually does, which made me a little nervous. In my sleep deprived state, I got up and tried to turn the monitor in our room off, which of course didn't do anything to stop the beeping. Have you ever gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or get a drink and you turned the light on, and then turned it off and you couldn't see anything? Well, I had the lights from the monitor going off in my face which kind of had the same affect. I started walking very quickly towards the doorway to go check on Sawyer, but I was unaware of the fact that the door was slightly ajar. I ran smack dab into the corner of the door with my forehead. It knocked me back a little and, surprisingly, hurt quite a bit. Finally, at this point, I called Ian's name, who was oblivious to what was going on. He got up out of bed, upset to be disturbed from his peaceful sleep, and roughly told me to "go get back in bed". With a huff, I managed to get back into bed, but I could feel a lump starting to form on my forehead right above my eye, so when he got back I asked him to get me some ice. He was none to happy about that either. : ) After all of that, we went back to sleep and I explained it all to him in the morning. He was very sorry he had been so oblivious to my need for help, but if any of you know Ian, you know that this is not uncommon. He's not exactly known for his coherency in the middle of the night. : ) So I hope that gives you a little laugh for the day.

The "Super Saw"

So, like all children, Sawyer has a few quirks. : ) One of them, which he doesn't really do anymore, was face planting. When Sawyer first started rolling over he would sit up on his arms and look around, but when he saw someone looking at him he would get so excited that he would just slam his face into the floor! People used to get a huge kick out of watching him because he never cried, but would just pick his head up and do it again. Well, I didn't catch that on camera, unfortunately, but I did catch wht that has morphed into, which we term the "Super Saw". Check out the video below to see what he does when people talk to him and he gets excited.

How we became three

For those of you that don't know much about us, Ian and I were high school sweethearts. We didn't go to the same high school or even the same college, but we met through a mutual friend and spent quite a few hours on the phone every week. After much planning and scheming we were finally able to get married in June of 2004. We lived in Winnsboro, SC for the first year of our marriage so that I could finish my degree at Winthrop University. While I finished school, Ian worked in Columbia for the Republican Party. After graduation, we moved to Lexington and we both changed jobs; Ian went to work for Senator DeMint and I began teaching 3rd grade resource in Gilbert. After a year of teaching, we were ready to start a family and I was offered a job at our church that would allow me to work from home when we had kids. After much prayer, we decided to make the switch and I took a job as the Children's Director for our church. After a little over a year of trying to get pregnant with no success, we started the long road of visiting doctors, running tests, and taking medication. We have never been given a reason for our infertility, but it is no longer something we morn over. We both have a complete peace with every one of our children being "heart babies", as we like to call them. The Lord led us down this road and used it to shape us and mold us in ways we couldn't begin to imagine, and in the end he gave us the most precious gift of all, Sawyer. We felt the Lord leading us to adopt and in August of 2007 we began the process. By the beginning of December everything was complete and we were preparing to wait; however, the Lord had other plans. On January 15th, we got our baby phone call saying that there was a 2 1/2 week old baby ready for us if we wanted him, but we had to pick him up the next day. On January 16th we brought William Sawyer Headley home! He has been a delight from the first day and we thank the Lord daily for bringing him into our lives.