our little reader...

Addie Grace has always LOVED to read... And she has loved "reading" to Sawyer over the last two years...

She has been a real reader for a while now and she (and we) couldn't be prouder! She is loving reading to Sawyer even more now that she's not pretending anymore! This picture was taken in the summer, I don't have any recent ones since I DON'T HAVE A CAMERA!! (Have I mentioned that it is KILLING me?!??)

Our only gripe is that we have to be careful spelling now! We were talking about one of her Christmas presents a few weeks ago, and I spelled d-o-l-l...bad move! Oh well...

HOORAY, Addie Grace!!

my boy...(spoken through gritted teeth)

This was the day that I broke my friend Debbie's camera...
(I was changing Sawyer's swimmy and I didn't want to put my bag on the floor, so I put it up on the changing table with Sawyer...HE knocked it off (accidentally), and Debbie's camera fell out of the bag onto the concrete floor.

This was the day that I broke my camera...less than one week after breaking Debbie's camera. We were at our friend Anisse's pool party and HE liked to sit here...

I sat where that lady is behind him pretty much the whole time. When he decided that he wanted to venture onto that first step, I put floaties on him just in case...
He was thrilled that they were pink...and Sydney was thrilled to have him cramping her style in his pink floaties.

Well, just in case happened. I was watching him and saw him slip and just as quickly, his head went under. I jumped in...shoes on and camera around my neck. He still looked like this afterwards...

My camera and my nerves were a little worse for the wear.

This blurry picture was taken the day that I THOUGHT I broke my friend, Jill's camera...can't remember exactly how long it was after the incident with my camera, but not long! This was at Sawyer's dentist appointment. I kept snapping and snapping and they were all coming out blurry. I started panicking because I knew that I was about to have to call my husband and tell him that I had broken camera #3!! I knew Jill would forgive me and besides...she let me borrow it knowing my recent track record. Anyway, after fighting with it all during the appointment, I figured out that the lens was off a little bit, so I was able to get clear pictures at the end of the visit, AND I didn't have to pack my bags while enduring being forced out of my home by my husband!! So, all in all, a good day!
I refuse to take the blame for any of these situations...the common factor in each incident was Mr. Sawyer McDonald...and he's pretty good at taking blame. Besides, he's too cute for me to stay mad at for long!

And they call her Addie...

Well, I'm happy to say that we survived our first day of Kindergarten!!! Barely...but we survived! Besides them losing Addie Grace at dismissal time and eating all of her snacks that I sent for the days that she couldn't have the class snack (because of her nut allergy), it went great!
The whole losing her at dismissal about sent me over the edge!! I don't guess they technically lost her, but when I got there, it was a HUGE mix-up. I was in the lobby with the rest of the car rider parents, and her teacher's aide came and told me that Addie Grace was in the gym, to go and get her there...so I went to the gym to get her. I got to the gym, asked for Addie Grace and the man said that they didn't have her. Assuming that he was confused, I told him that the aide said she was there and he said, "sorry, but no, she's in the library". Okay, sounded like he knew what he was talking about. People were leaving the school at this point, and kids were getting on buses, and I didn't want Addie Grace to be sitting in there by herself thinking I had forgotten to come get her on the first day of kindergarten, so I hoofed it to the library. The aide sees me while she's coming out of the library..."did you get Addie Grace?", ARGH...I told her that NO, they said she was not in the gym! Her response was, "Well, she's not in here, she HAS to be in there"...can I tell you that I am having a heart attack at this point?? I ran back to the other end of the school to the gym and the man told me again...we DON'T have her! I decided at this point I wasn't listening to either of them...I was going to find her. I went into the gym and saw her in a line to go and get on a bus!! Thankfully, I didn't cry, scream, or punch anyone in their head, but I sure wanted to! Addie Grace said that she kept telling them that she wasn't supposed to ride the bus and they just kept saying, "okay, we'll double-check"...but apparently, they never double checked. That was almost enough to make me not want to send her back today! IF they would have gotten her on that bus, it doesn't even stop at my house!!! The stop is somewhere else in the neighborhood!! It truly makes me sick to think about all of the what ifs!
Anyway, we made it, but this morning, I sent a note to the teacher, talked to the office, and to two car rider assistants. I told Addie Grace NOT to let them put her on the bus NO MATTER WHAT, so hopefully, I will be able to find my child today when I go to pick her up. If not, I'm going to start chewing some people out!
Yesterday morning went fine...I was able to hold it together until I got back to the car. There were a couple of times in the classroom that I could feel myself about to lose it, but I would just hide behind my camera until I could pull it together! Clever, huh?? She loves her teachers and seems to be pretty excited, so I'm looking forward to her hopefully enjoying going EVERY DAY...FOR 7 HOURS!!!
After school, we went to Baskin Robbins to celebrate...here are pictures from our day!

This one was taken the night before...(I'm sure you figured that out, but for some of my less intelligent friends, I just wanted to clarify!)...








Addie Grace arranged Brian and herself in this picture...




Addie Grace insisted on taking her teacher an apple EVERY day (HOW DOES SHE EVEN KNOW THAT???), I told her she could only on the first day! I felt kind of goofy, but she was so proud!! I love that girl!!














oh yeah, and they call her Addie...
: (

Oh, baby Sawyer, please don't go! I could eat you up, I love you so!!

Every day my little baby boy is slipping through my fingers. It makes me sick. I think he looks so old in these pictures, and every one on this post were taken a month ago! Ugh. There have been lots of changes going on...mostly good, one notably bad. The bad one is that I think he's done with naps. Done. Zippo. Yuck.
Yesterday, I forced him to take one, and he was awake (in bed) until 10:00. No fun. So, for the most part, I don't guess we'll be doing naps anymore.

Here he is helping Daddy put his big boy bed together...


And here he is loving the finished product...


dancing in his big boy underwear...so sad!!

And at the playground...
There's this baby (a cute, giant baby), that comes to our playground. For whatever reason, Sawyer is terrified of him. Whenever cute, giant baby shows up, Sawyer high-tails it to me and clings to my neck...making me feel once again like I have my baby back (unlike Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights when I just have possessed toddler-boy clinging to my neck!).

Maybe I'll volunteer to babysit cute, giant baby so I can hold onto mine just a little bit longer.

A Day Out With Thomas...

Last weekend, we took the kids (mainly, Sawyer) to see Thomas the train. Sawyer loves Thomas and Addie Grace has been begging for a train ride for the last year, so we were able to kill two birds with one stone! We all had such a great time...It really was a perfect way to spend our day!!

Ready to go and see Thomas!


Sawyer kept yelling, "I see him, I see him!!"

Getting ready to yell, "All aboard!" with the conductor...

with Thomas...

and Sir Topham Hatt...

and the nice little conductor man...

and there were lots of other fun things to do!!



We could hardly get Sawyer away from the putt putt course! Once we got there, he didn't want to go anywhere else. We asked him if he wanted to go see the firetruck...nope. If he wanted to go ride in the barrel cars...nope. If he wanted to get ice cream...nope. He just wanted to play golf...it made his Daddy very proud.

Addie Grace was very impressed with the firetruck.

And the barrel cars...she rode three times. Sawyer? Nope...he was still playing golf.

And my favorite part of the day...Sawyer feeding the goat! He was so tickled when it took the cup out of his hands...he had tears in his eyes!! It was so funny!
After Thomas, we rushed home to get ready for a visit from my cousins! Tim, Corley and Cameron came and spent the night with us, and we had such a great time visiting. Unfortunately, I was too busy talking and didn't take any pictures! Hopefully they'll come back soon, and I'll have a chance to redeem myself!
Next post...Nashville!!

Twinkle Toes

Last week, we had internet connection issues on our PC, so I've been unable to blog. We are FINALLY up and running again, so my mother will finally be able to sleep again tonight. She has been anxiously awaiting this post!
Anyway, last Sunday was Addie Grace's dance recital. I am one proud momma!! At home, when I was able to force her to practice, she would just kind of do the dance half-heartedly, so that's what I expected her to do at the recital, too. However, when Addie Grace's group was up, she marched out there on a mission!! I was sitting in my seat, and when I saw her getting into it, I COULD NOT stay back...I was the obnoxious mother climbing over people to get down front to take pictures. Unfortunately, I was so tickled at her, that I still didn't get any great shots! Here are the videos followed by some pictures. Please excuse her PG rated costume...I was scared her daddy was going to make her wear a turtle neck and sweat pants underneath!!
We were so proud of her despite her risque' attire!!




And lastly, a few of my 4,016 pictures...

Here are some of her adoring fans!! Sorry I didn't get you in the shot Kim, Morganne, Kristy, Jennifer and Benjamin!! You are getting your honorable mention here! Since we had never done a recital before and didn't know what to expect, we didn't invite anyone, so it really meant alot to us, especially Addie Grace, that she had such a great turnout from people just asking if they could come!!!


And one more video...whenever Addie Grace would practice, Sawyer would usually end up joining in. This isn't a great video because I couldn't get him to put down his golf club long enough to perform. I wish I could have gotten some of the times that he was really getting into it. He was probably trying to avoid giving me evidence so that he could maintain at least a tiny bit of dignity in 11 or so years! Anyway...here he is halfway doing it...

Thanks for enduring such a long post!

Happy, Happy Birthday, Sawyer!!!

On Thursday, Sawyer turned TWO!! My little boy is growing up! We had his birthday party last Saturday. We had a great time despite the fact that we were missing several cousins due to a mission trip and camps.
Here are some pictures of our day...

On Sawyer's actual birthday we went to the Children's Museum. We were going to go to the Canal and ride pedal boats, but it kind of looked like it was going to rain, so we decided against it. Even though we go to the Children's Museum pretty regularly with friends, Brian doesn't usually get to tag along, so it was a special treat anyway! We had a great day celebrating our sweet Sawyer!

Oh yeah, one last thing...Sawyer's absolute favorite thing to eat is donuts, so we brought him Krispy Kreme for his birthday breakfast...
For a split second, there was a "two" on top of that donut...do you think he enjoyed it??