six months old

i know. i can't believe it either. sweet sawyer, you're already half a year old. even though we've begged for time to slow down, it hasn't listened and keeps flying by. but that's ok. seeing you grow and watching you learn is well worth it.

you celebrated your first christmas this month. and while you didn't really understand what was going on, you most definitely got a kick out of watching big brother play with all the new toys – both his and yours! you also experienced your first real sickness this month. you developed a nasty cough and mama and daddy thought we should have it checked out. seems as though you're following in big brother's footsteps – double ear infection! ugh. but with some antibiotics, your cough cleared up. you're a trooper though; never once did you act like you felt bad. you looked pretty pitiful, but that's a whole other story!

while you were on your antibiotics, mama felt the syringe hit something pretty hard on your lower gum. and sure enough, we discovered your first tooth the week before christmas. not to be out shown, your second tooth popped through just days before christmas. so two teefs for you so far!

you've found your love for sitting up this month. you're managing pretty well with sitting without support. no worries though, mama and daddy are always close to catch you if you start to fall. your interest in big brother has grown substantially this month. just this morning, the two of you were "playing" together.

while you're still exclusively breastfed, we have tried a couple of solids. first was oatmeal. you didn't much care for it and shoved it all back out with your tongue. we tried applesauce next (suggested by dr. c to help the antibiotics be easier on your tummy). and well, that went about as well as the oatmeal. during christmas we tried itty bitty chunks of banana. and score! you didn't want a ton of it, but you did mash it all up in your mouth and swallow it. so this mama considers that success. maybe we'll try out sweet potatoes tonight to celebrate your six months!

sawyer, this next month is sure to be full of all sorts of surprises. we can't wait to discover them with you.

merry christmas, y'all!

teacher's gifts

when i talked about getting crafty earlier this month, i had no idea what i was really getting myself into. i finished up our tree skirt; it turned out quite lovely.

::reminds self to take final photos so that i can post them at some point::

and i got the grandmother's scarves made. they loved them! so that was fun. then, at some point this weekend, i decided that i needed to craft up cayden & sawyer's teachers a little something. by the time i added up all the teachers/helpers/directors/chefs, it equaled 12 gifts. no big deal. i can do this! and i did do it. and, of course, it took me a lot longer to finish them than i thought it would.

but guess what? those teachers? they love the handmade items too. it all pays off in the end. and you know what's awesome? i was able to make myself a little coffee cuff too. and my coffee? it looks happier than it's ever looked before!

candy cane cookies

as soon as we received the calendar for cayden's class for december, i told jeremy to be on the look-out for holiday party sign-ups. i'm all about signing up for the special treat line now that we had a successful go at halloween. and oh, baby, we snagged it again. (and now that i think about it, i wonder if we're really snagging it? most likely, all the other parents are like, "whew! that cayden kid took that again. i don't have to worry about making something special...")

but i digress. of course i turned to the one place that knows all things about making special treats: pinterest! in particular, i used this recipe. and you know, we bought the extra large bag of the candy cane kisses. those things are so good.

the cookies turned out fabulous. we weren't super-patient when we plopped the kisses onto the second batch that came out of the oven. sure, they looked fine, but as i snagged a cookie for us to test out, the second i tilted it, the kiss melted and ran all over the place. and while it looked a mess, OMG, candy cane icing spread across the whole cookie? to die for good. seriously.

so my suggestion, should you decide to try these out... let the kisses melt some. so. good.

look what we did last night!

oh, no big deal. sawyer's just sitting up. ON HIS OWN. sure, the curve of the changing pad helped him out a bit. but i promise that i put him on the floor a little bit later and he did several sittings of 15-30 seconds at a time before wobbling over. so exciting! i bet the world looks much more interesting from a sitting position. right, kiddo?

holiday photo fun

we ordered a new lens for our camera a couple of weeks ago. it came in last thursday and we've pretty much been shooting with it non-stop. it's a 50mm for our nikon that we've talked about getting for-ev-er. and now that we have it, we're not entirely sure what took us so long to finally just do it. but we did, and we're just so excited.

and now that we've declared ourselves PHOTOGRAPHERS (ha!) and that we must shoot ALL THE THINGS (ha, again!), we had a little photoshoot on saturday morning. since we have two cuties now, we absolutely have to send out cards this year. (we did it when cayden was a baby too. last year? not so much!) you know, and since christmas is um, less than two weeks away, why not just now order the prints? last minute, i tell ya.

the photo that made the cut for the card is cute! but you won't see it in the this mix. instead, here are some other very cute options that we'll cherish forever. and we'd like to thank our whisper kitty for being the model while we got everything set up. also? many thanks to sawyer. he put up with a lot while big brother joked around. it was actually pretty funny. these two? they are most definitely going to be the best of friends. oh, and trouble. they're definitely going to be trouble.

poor fella

i suppose we knew it was only a matter of time before sawyer had his first real sickness. sure, about a week after he started daycare, he got a bit of a runny nose. but that was super easy. this past weekend, he developed a cough that sounded like he'd been smoking for years. his eyes were so watery that he'd just keep them closed rather than open them at all...

so this morning, we made a trip to see his pediatrician. i was about 90% sure that we were dealing with an ear infection. (and oh, how i had hoped that maybe we wouldn't have to deal with ear infections with sawyer.) got him in the room and bam! he was running a fever. um, jeremy and i hadn't even thought to check that. doh. anyway, his doctor took a peek in his left ear and in a matter of seconds said, "yep, there's a mess in there. let me check the other one." and, sure enough, a double ear infection. ugh.

i'm glad we went in and got it checked out. antibiotics have been prescribed, so we're already on our way to getting better. even though i hate that the nugget has been so pitiful, i'll admit that i didn't mind staying home today and squeezing in as much snuggle time as i could. i mean, the snuggles can only make him better that much faster, right?

getting crafty

with the holiday season coming up quickly (um, two weeks away people. TWO WEEKS!), i've decided that i should just make ALL THE THINGS right now. and by ALL THE THINGS, i mean a tree skirt, christmas presents for all the grandmother's, stockings (that one is SO not happening this year) and other odds and ends that might come up. i have gotten the fabric for the tree skirt and i'm really excited to start on it this weekend. we'll see how that goes...

and then, there are precious moments that spring up that require some things to be made quickly. precious moments like the birth of a baby boy to one of our very dear friends. and if you knew our friends, you'd really understand how precious sweet baby lowen's (cool name, right?) birth was yesterday. i cannot wait to go meet him tonight! with that being said, last night, i whipped up a pretty cool diaper clutch for lowen's mama to carry around.

i think if i could live with chevron-printed everything around me, i might. of course then, i'd probably get really tired of the design and end up hating it all. so that's a bad idea. i'll just relish in the moments that i can create with it. and the blues and greens in this chevron get me every time. (after all, this babe looked really cute wearing it!)

i also grabbed some newborn diapers. (and oh my goodness, even though it was only five months ago, i forgot how good those itty bitty diapers smell!) and picked up some long-sleeved sleepers. i remember going through at least two sleepers a day when sawyer was brand-spanking new. oh, and wipes to fit in the clutch of course. but the cool part? i could fit one of the sleepers, the wipes, and SIX newborn diapers in the clutch. grab a blanket and you're set for at least a few hours with a newborn, right?

santa! i KNOW him!

oh, santa photos. they're always a gamble, aren't they? last year we were blessed with an epic screaming photo (and the introduction to the fact that santa has a cell phone). our very first year is most likely the best. and while sawyer IS smiling (somewhat) in the photo this year, i'm not much of a fan of cayden's deer-in-the-headlights look. ha! plusalso? the quality of this year's photos was a little lacking. a too-hot flash and lackluster prints have me a little grumbly... but, i am excited to add it to our growing santa photo collection...

on being "home"

why yes, we do wear halloween jammies in december! and since they're sized for 6-12 months, i'm guessing we might be wearing them in march too. ha!

we attempted to give sawyer oatmeal this weekend. and he seemed like he wanted to like it. but his tongue thrust is still really strong; he doesn't quite get how to keep it in his mouth and swallow. that's all good though. we'll try again in a couple of weeks. with him only being a little over five months old, i'm happy to keep him exclusively breastfed for a while longer.

sunday afternoon was met with both of us holding a sleeping boy in our arms. sprawled across the couch, there were pillows thrown in all directions for us to try and get comfortable. there was a cat somewhere draped across one of my legs. and our sweet, sweet boys... sawyer in my arms and cayden sprawling across his daddy's lap.

that little moment? it took my breath away. and i whispered to jeremy, "these are the moments i want to remember. i wish we had a photographer standing in the corner to freeze this moment in time for us." he just looked at me with a look that said, "yep, i agree."

eventually the sleeping babes woke and chaos ensued. that's just the normal for us these days though. and i think if it had stayed quiet for much longer, jeremy and i wouldn't have known what to do with ourselves. but oh, being with my little family... it's just home.