Sleeping Bags and Hot Cheetos...

The first sleep over...the first of many I hope! Sawyer has only had sleepovers at Nana & Papa's house so far. No friend sleepovers yet. So we decided to get his feet wet a bit by having a friend over here first! His little buddy Dane was no surprise, his first choice! 

So, last Saturday evening Dane arrived with sleeping bag in hand and ready for their first sleepover! I knew that they would have such a blast together before it was actually time to go to bed, but I had a little feeling that we would be making a 2 a.m. drive over to Dane's house....anyway, they started off by playing the Wii and bossing each other all the way through the levels. 

We had pizza for dinner (Sawyer's request) and then the boys sat down to watch 'The Avengers' with Bill. And what movie is complete without snacks? Instead of popcorn, they opted for spicy Cheetos and chocolate chip cookies...and then lots of cups of water because their mouths were burning! lol

After the movie, they headed down stairs to 'set up camp'. They wanted to pretend they were camping. Sawyer decided to pack a backpack just like Dane had brought over and they got all situated on the floor. They played games, read books, ran around with nerf guns and just did boy stuff! 

After turning off the lights and saying goodnight, there was lots of giggling and whispering. Signs of a good sleepover. And wonder of wonders, they slept all the way through the night! Normally I have to peel Sawyer out of bed at 7:20 a.m. for school in the mornings, but wouldn't you know, that 6:30 a.m. rolls around and they are both up and at em! 

(So much for sleeping in a bit before church!)  

Sawyer was super excited to take Dane to church with us in the morning and show him around. 

I would say it was a successful first sleepover for them both! 

Love Bug

Valentine's Day kind of crept up on our household last week which resulted in scrambling to make valentines for kindergarten, early-morning-before-work trips to the grocery store for more candy, searching the highways and byways for a babysitter and last minute dinner reservations! Phew! 

These were the little Love Bug Valentine's that Sawyer ended up taking to Kindergarten for his little buddies. I think they turned out SO CUTE!

Working VERY hard at addressing each and every one!

 Total horrible mom moment: I only planned out Valentine's for Sawyer-I TOTALLY forgot about Raylan! How awful is that??? So Sawyer helped me out by addressing ones for Raylan to pass out at our Day Care party later on that day. I have two kids now. TWO kids. Remember that Carrie, two kids. 

We started out the morning with a yummy Valentine's Day breakfast along with cards and gifts*

It makes Bill and I so incredibly happy to see how much Sawyer and Raylan love each other already! Sawyer just can't keep his hands off of him-he's always hugging and kissing him and man handling him a bit too! Raylan's eyes just light up when Sawyer walks in and he squeals in delight! I just hope and pray that his brotherly bond lasts forever*

After breakfast Sawyer bounded off to school with his bag of Love Bugs, plates and napkins for his school party and Valentine bags for both his teachers. Miracle of miracles, it all ended up making it to the classroom in one piece! 

Meanwhile back at home, the kiddos and I spent a good part of the day making sugar cookies and cupcakes for our party. While they went down for their afternoon naps, I made some cute little favors for our friends who came over for dinner on Valentine's evening. 

It was called Love Potion no. 9. WARNING: Consuming may result in hot, passionate romance. :)

In the afternoon, we had our Day Care party and the kiddos tanked up on lots of pink and red sugary treats! They passed out their Valentines and and did a little 'love' craft too. 

Raylan pretends to be single but we all know he's got girlfriends coming outta the woodwork. 

All's well that ends well! So thankful for the wonderful family and friends that God has given me and it was a great day to remember to how much I really love them. And as full as my heart feels towards them it pales in compassion to the never-changing perfect love that God has for us. Wow.

Brand New

Thanks to all of you who sent Sawyer LEGOS for Christmas! He has been totally in love with them! Of course that also means that we have LEGO sets spread all over the table a lot of the time and when I go in to check on him at night, I'm sure to step on a few 'lost' pieces :) I was never very into LEGOS growing up, but now when Sawyer gets frustrated building one of his big sets, I have found myself sitting here for hours on end trying to finish it. It's such a sense of accomplishment seeing it all done! (Until you look down and realize there is still a pile of pieces that somehow didn't quite make it on the battleship.....) 

The other night before bed, I was reading Sawyer the book called, "The First Rule of Little Brothers". It's a cute story of how little brothers want to be just like you and that you need to be very patient with them. Luckily Sawyer has never had any squabbles or annoyances with Raylan (Maybe because of the huge age gap!) He is always very loving towards him and just wants to play with him all the time. OK back to my story....we finished the book and Sawyer says, 

"Raylan is so cute...He just looks brand-new everyday!" 

The other night when we were at Starbucks, Sawyer was up being a ham and doing different posses and I said, "Pretend you are Daddy getting his picture taken." and he pretty much nailed it! Buahahaaaaa!

Hold On Tight...Here we go!

Yes, it's been a l-o-n-g time since I updated the blog, so we are going to do a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-high-speed-recap of all the Christmas and New Year's highlights! 

It snowed! Sawyer and his neighborhood buddies had a blast sledding down the huge hill behind our house! They would be out there for hours and then come in as little icicles!

We had our Day Care Christmas party~That's always a very fun filled afternoon. We made some Christmas cards, stuffed ourselves with treats and then they got to open their Christmas bags. All the parents come for the end of the year party so we have a pretty full house!

 My sister-in-law Danielle and her fiance came in from New York to spend Christmas with us and while they were here, she was invited to do a book signing here at one of the book stores in town! If you are looking for a GREAT book for your daughter, ZIP by Ellie Rollins is sure to be a hit!

Since I work for myself, I'm not usually able to take a whole lot of time off during the day to go to Sawyer's school...but I Raylan and I were able to escape for the afternoon and attend the Kindergarten Winter Party! (We can't even call it a 'Holiday Party anymore! Good Grief!) Sawyer LOVED showing Raylan off to all his friends and showing us all his art work that was displayed in the room!

Every year we all pile in the car and go look at the Christmas lights and then cap off the evening at Starbucks. It was fun just relaxing and enjoying the kiddos until Uncle Ron spilled his coffee all over the floor :)

The celebrating continued with Danielle and Ron's engagement party with all the cousins. We all enjoyed dinner together down in the Old Passageway in the Old Market. It isn't very often that most of the cousins are in the same city at the same time so we had a blast!

Grandpa Rick turned 82!! (I just LOVE how Raylan and Grandpa are looking at each other!)

We celebrated his Birthday with two cakes and all the trimmings! 

 Meanwhile, this one just kept getting cuter and cuter with everyday that passed.

Sawyer was VERY excited to show Raylan how this whole Christmas thing worked! Decked out in our jammies, we had a wonderful time eating, opening gifts and just enjoying each others company at Nana and Papa's house!

Bill got a long board. God help us all.

The traditional guys-with-bows-on-their-heads picture. Yes, Ron is holding a lemon juicer like it's a machete and yes, Bill is holding a nose hair trimmer. 

Raylan caught on to the whole gift opening thing REALLY quickly :) 

We headed to Lincoln to celebrate with Nana Kathy's side of the family which is always a rip roaring good time! Chili bar and cinnamon rolls (I know...it's a super weird combo but it's a Nebraska thing. They even sell them together in restaurants!) 

Thanks Aunt Lynn for setting the kids up at their own table! Even if you did supply them with their own stash of candy canes! 

Over the river and through the woods we came to have our last Christmas gathering with Papa Steve's family! What fun that was! New games, homemade apple pie moonshine, a soup bar that would put Olive Garden to shame and TERRIFIC company!

When all was said and done, Bill and Sawyer dragged the tree out back into the empty field....leaving most of the pine needles on my carpet.

The End. 

Merry Christmas!

Let it snow...

Yesterday was our Day Care Christmas party! Out of all the parties that we have all year, the Christmas one is always my favorite. Most of the parents are able to come and the kids are just giddy with excitement! 

 The kiddos made some Christmas cards and then we had some treats! Christmas cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, strawberries, party mix....yummy! I had gift bags for each of them and then all the kiddos brought little gifts for their friends to go in the bags. They had so much fun unwrapping their stuff! THen of course everyone's stuff got mixed up and there were tears and gnashing of teeth....but what's a party without tears?

We tried getting a group picture...believe it or not, this was the best we got.

It started snowing yesterday about two in the afternoon and didn't stop till the wee hours of the morning! So as soon as the party was over, Sawyer bolted outside to make snow angles. We haven't gotten him boots yet this year (bad Mom of the year award-right here!) but he was bound and determined to still go out in his little Chuck Taylors!

He also said, "Mom, I'm gonna shovel the driveway so Daddy won't get stuck when he comes home." He got bored with that in about five seconds....Thanks for the thought buddy!

I'm related to a FAMOUS person!!!!!!!!! 

For those of you who don't know, Bill's sister Dani is now a published author! Her first book, Zip just hit the shelves a few weeks ago!!! We are so proud of her and so excited for the upcoming books that are coming out next fall! 

Last night, she was invited to do a book signing at a shop here in town. Even in the blizzard, her adoring fans came out of the woodwork to see her! She also did a short reading from the book (which we missed because we were late....story of my life).

 If you are looking for your next book to hunker down with, 'Zip' is the obvious choice! It's full of adventure, mystery and magic! 

Everyone ready for their daily dose of Raylan?

Last night we while none of us were paying attention, Raylan reached over, got into Liz's purse, pulled out a baggie of peanut butter cups, smushed them up in those chubby little hands of his and had himself a little dessert! 

He has been such a little stinker with baby food too. He still just hates it. As soon as I put him in the high chair and he figures out what is going on, he just shakes his head 'no' the ENTIRE time! Last night we had mashed potatoes, so I put some in a bowl and tried feeding them to him. He would eat them off of my finger but not off of his spoon! If he thinks he is eating big people food, he loves it, but if it's coming off of his spoon he thinks it's baby food and hates it......oh Raylan Raylan.....what are we going to do with you?

Raylan hates eating....

For those of you who would like to watch Raylan gag down some baby food for the first time, here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPIc6ICRRe0