Sawyer's Crawling

On your mark......

Get set....

Go!!!!

Watch out world.

Here I Come.

Dirtbike Party

We had been telling Landon that his birthday was coming up.  He would look out the window, down the driveway and say, "my birthday's coming?"  as if it was going to drive up the driveway.  The morning of his birthday he ran into the kitchen and I said, "Landon, your birthday is here!"  He started running around the house looking around corners saying, "where?  My birthday is here!"  He would look around another corner and say, "Is my birthday here?" "No!  It's not here!"  "Is it here?" He was giggling the whole time!  Silly boy.
We just had a family birthday celebration.  It was a no brainer what to decorate with....

Dirtbikes of course!

Landon was taking a nap while I decorated the table.  He woke up and came running into the kitchen.  He was so excited when he saw the table.

He yelled, "My birthday is here!"  Then he started saying, very quickly, "daddy's hemet, daddy's goggles, daddy's goves!"  He loved it!

When he saw the dirtbiker on top of his cake, he had no desire to eat the cake.

We sang happy birthday.
He blew out the candle.
He snatched that dirtbiker off the cake.

And he rolled it all over.  His cake set there, until daddy ate it!

He asked for his birthday cake at 8:30, right before he went to bed. 

We love this little guy!  We can't wait to see what his 3 year old personality will bring!

Landon turns 3!

Our sweet boy...

turned 3!

Happy Birthday, Landon! 
Isn't it ironic.  He came into this world naked.  And that is his clothing of choice at three.
We love this boy.
What excitement and adventure he has brought to our lives.

Summer Playdates

One of our favorite activities in the summer, is a playdate with friends.  We love getting together with friends that we don't get to see much during the school year.  And I'm always amazed at how much they have grown since the last time.

We got together with the Wright family a few weeks ago.  They just moved into a new house that is closer to us.  They have a pool in their backyard!!  We were so excited to go swimming.

It's just a requirement to have popsicles at a playdate!

Sawyer waiting for me to put on his swimsuit.  He loves to splash in the water!

Audry, Savannah and Landon.  Laurel and Savannah started swim lessons today.  They are swimming like fish!

Landon playing Mason's drums.  Mason is 11 now and he was so good with Landon.  Landon is such a man's man!

Early Riser

Just Sawyer and I.

Awake at 5:00 in the morning.  On a Saturday.

Guess who bought black poster board and taped it to his windows?

Me!

Guess who slept until 7:30?

He!

surprise....

Guess what I did a few weeks ago!  When mommy came to get me from my morning nap.  I was sitting up!  That's right.  I went from laying down to sitting up all by myself.

My mommy said, "oh my goodness!  Look at you.  You sat up all by yourself.  Let me go get the camera!"
She took a picture of me and turned her back for a minute.
Look at what I did next!

I had pulled up all by myself!  I was so excited that I had done something new.  I started squealing and giggling!

Mommy got another surprise that day.

My big brother came in the front door.  Popped around the corner, with his hands behind his back and said, "Surprise!"
Then he pulled out a flower.  Mommy said, "Oh Landon!  It is beautiful!  This is the first flower you have ever brought me!" 
Then that silly boy smelled it.  Because he smells everything, I've noticed.  And threw it across the kitchen floor!

Hancock/Part 2

Part 2

We all went outside to see if the kitten was still there.  We didn't see him anywhere.  We were all saying, "here kitty, here kitty!" 
The children were so disappointed.  Seth told them before he left for work that the kitten was probably hiding somewhere and would come out eventually.

At 8 that morning, Seth's dad called and said that he and granny wanted to come up for the day.  He said that Helen (granny) and I could go shopping or do whatever I needed to do and he would stay with the children.  I love that man!

So I left Laurel, Savannah, and Landon with him.  I took Sawyer.  We want papa to be around for many more years, so I thought it wouldn't be too wise to leave him with all four!

He walked in, saw me sweeping, took the broom from me and swept the floor.

He brought a coconut, pineapple, and mango.  He cracked open the coconut and let the kids try the coconut juice.  Savannah was the only one who liked it. 

{Love, love this man!}

Granny, Sawyer and I left to go shopping.  Sawyer fell asleep on the way to Hancocks fabric store so Helen said that she would stay in the van with him. {Love her too!}

I go into the store.  It takes about 10 minutes.  When I come out, I see granny and a couple of women staring at the front of the van.  I walk up and the lady says....

"you have a kitten under your hood."

and I say,

"No Way!"

She tells me that I might want to turn off the car because the kitty could get in the motor. 

{several other women have walked up}

I say, "oh, he is probably stuck in the same hole he was in last night in my husband's car."  She says, "no, I saw him pop his head up right here," as she points to behind the grill.

I say, "oh well maybe it is not the same kitten.  Maybe there is a kitten running around here."  She says, "he was orange."  I say, "your are kidding me!  It is the same kitten!"  "How in the world did I just drive 20 minutes with a kitten hanging on underneath!"

I roll the windows down and turn off the van. 

One lady, an employee from Hancocks, says, "you need to call 911 and tell them this is not an emergency, but you have a cat under your hood and you need a fire truck." 

The lady wearing scrubs, was on the phone with a friend who was a cat rescuer.  "Yes, she has a cat under her hood."  "Can you come get it out?"

The lady with gray hair and a really long braid said, "honey, you need to turn that car back on.  That baby is more important than a cat!" 

The Hancock lady, "mam, you just bring the baby to me and I will watch him.  I work right in the middle of the store."

Two women in front of car, "here kitty, kitty!"

 Two more women...

"She needs to drive to express oil change. They will jack it up and will be able to see under there."

"No, she can't drive anywhere.  She will kill the cat!"

I'm standing there thinking, wow, we should have had all of this on camera! 

A man drives by.

"Mam, do you need some help?"

"Yes sir, I do!"

He is briefed.  He gets out and him and the lady start calling for kitty.  The Kitten pops his head up and the man pulls the grill out, while the lady pulls the kitty out. 

I say, "now what do I do with him?"

The lady in the scrubs tells me that she works at an animal clinic and would love to take him with her.  Did you know that all orange cats are males?  She told us that too.

She said that he was too young to be adopted but that he would be taken care of until he could be.

I think that this will be a much better life for the kitten!

The lady in the scrubs names the kitten Hancock and off they go!

And the gray haired lady with the long braided hair says, "now turn that car on before that baby gets too hot!"

 

The night Seth birthed an animal

Part one....

The door flew open as Laurel, Savannah and Landon went running out screaming, "daddy's home!"
A few minutes later Laurel came into the kitchen, "I think daddy is having car trouble."  "His hood is up."  I thought to myself, the maxima has finally died.  We got the car in our second year of marriage.

Seth comes in and says, "you need to see this."  "I hear an animal sound coming from the car."

I went out and you could hear this,  mmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm sound.
We were all standing their in amazement because Seth had just driven 30 minutes home from work.
How in the world was an animal under the hood of his car, still alive?
Questions started. 
"Did you go anywhere today?"
"No, I was at the office all day."
"Is it a cat?"
"Is it a squirrel?"
"I wonder how long it's been there?"

Then we started to investigate.

We couldn't see anything from the top.

Seth bent down and looked at the very front of the car and said, "Here it is. I see fur!"
So on either end of this casing there are two cut out squares that are pretty tiny.  I don't know how an animal could fit through the tiny opening.  So Seth goes down to get his high powered flashlight and discovered that there was water in the basement garage. 
So seth switches gears and goes down to figure out where the water is coming from.

Laurel, Savannah and Landon kept an eye on this crazy animal that crawled into a small hole, of a car,  and rode home for 30 minutes!  We still were not sure what it was.
We thought we could make out a "meow," but then it would make another sound that made us think it was something else.
Savannah said, "I think it is Sunny's brother because it is the same color." "Or it could be a fox!"

Seth and I got the kids in the bed.
Laurel prayed that the animal would live.
Seth backed the van out of the garage and pulled the car in.
He had gathered up some supplies.  He had a little saw, a long screwdriver and some gloves.
He took the fog light out and started sawing away part of the car, so that he would be able to stick his hand in there and hopefully be able to pull the animal out of the same small hole he climbed into.

The animal was taking very shallow breaths.  We just knew he was going to die before Seth got him out.  Seth kept saying he didn't even know how to get him out.
I said, "should we call the fire department?"  "Well, they get cats out of trees."
When we looked at the front of the car, we could now see the animals little eye.  It was so pitiful.
Seth said, "Is it a ferret?"
I said, "don't you have to go buy a ferret at the pet store?"  "They aren't just running around the city, are they?"
Seth said, "Out of all the cars parked in the parking lot, why did it have to pick mine!"
Back to the rescue.
Seth is sticking the long screwdriver in the hole and lifting the animal up.  The animal is making no sound.  I'm getting nauseous.  Seth is afraid if he tries to pull him out he is going to break his back and cause it more trauma.
He says, "if I could just grab its tail, maybe I could pull it out."
He keeps poking and prodding.
He finds a foot. 

Then finally a tail.  Please note the picture is blurry because I was trying to hold the flashlight and take a picture at the same time. 
At this point the animal is making a moaning sound.  Seth says, "you may want to go in."  "I don't know how this is going to go."
I thought about going in, but I didn't.  I was too curious by this point.
Seth is pulling the tail.  Then he says, "there's the foot. It's coming out." 
The animal gets both feet through the hole and then the rest of its body comes out.

There are lots and lots of meow cries!  I run inside to get the kitten some water and food.  Seth puts him on the porch.  The kitten is so scared, with good reason! 
Seth is trying to tie up Molly, the dog.  We wanted the kitten to have a chance!
The kitten runs over to a wall of rocks we have in the yard.  We put the food and water down in front of him and Seth and I call it a night.  It was going on 11p.m.

The next morning.....

I did It!

{my sweet friend Dana, called me up and asked me to run this race with her.  She just ran a half marathon this past October and is in great shape.  She told me that we could go at my pace and she would not leave my side.  And she didn't!  She was such a great motivator and has always been so encouraging!  I am blessed to have her as a friend.}

I ran my first 5K!  I guess I should say, I ran and walked up part of the FIVE, did you hear me, FIVE hills.  I need some training on running hills.  Anyway, it was awesome and a great accomplishment.  I am 7 months post baby and if you had asked me a few months ago if I was ready to run a 5K, I would have said, "no way!"  Anyone who knows me well, knows that the adjustment from 3 to 4 children was not easy for me.  I will not even try to sugar coat it.  I was worn out all the time and had no energy or motivation to do anything.  I know Seth was praying everyday that I could find joy in motherhood and have enough energy to do the things I needed to do.

One day, I was talking to my friend Wendy.  Wendy has a sister, Lisa, who I am also good friends with. 
You following me?
Lisa loves to exercise, was once an instructor at the Y.
I said, "Wendy, why don't we start working out with Lisa?"  You see Wendy needed some motivation also.  We were both in a slump.
Wendy texted Lisa right then on that Friday afternoon.
We were working out Monday morning at Lisa's house!  Landon played with her little girl Taylor while we did what Lisa told us to do!
Seriously, I think this was an answer to a prayer.  Every morning Lisa would text me, telling me to get ready because she was going to make us hurt!
Now, I love to workout!  Lisa has taught me that you don't have to put in an exercise video or go to a gym class to burn calories.  We are outside most days, in the driveway, while the children are playing.  She is so creative with bands and balls, even a walker!  She comes up with the most interesting exercises.   I know that working out with Lisa, who has basically been a personal trainer, will not happen everyday. But I have learned that taking time to exercise is so important and I will never go back.
Why do I say all of this?
I want my children to know that good physical health is directly related to good mental health!
I feel so much better, mentally, when I exercise.
Now, I make it a priority.  I make time for me.  Because a happy Lori, equals a happy mommy!


So back to the race....

{Sawyer was asleep in the car with Seth's mom}

Of course, Seth was so proud I was going to do this race.  He loaded the kids up and popped up at different spots during the race.  Thank goodness they never caught me walking! :)
They would roll the windows down and say, "go mommy, go!"  So cute.
They were waiting for me at the finish line, which Dana and I sprinted to!
I can't wait to do another one!

{Seth and the kids with his mom}

Memorial Day

First, I am so thankful to live in this country!  I am so thankful for the men and women who sacrifice and serve to protect our freedoms. 
Seth was home from work on Memorial Day.  We asked the children what they would like to do.  They said, play water games and be together all day long.  So, that is what we did.  The slip and slide came out.

Landon ran around naked all day.  Oh yeah, we already had that discussion in a previous post.

Laurel and Savannah entertained us with their gymnastic skills.

We played tag and dodge the sponges!

We cooled off with popsicles!!

We came inside, took showers, took a nap, woke up and played

TWISTER!

And Landon finally put on some clothes!  Hee, hee!  What are we going to do with him?!

Around 5 O'clock, I started trying to figure out dinner. 

Seth said, "let's just go to Sonic!"

So we did.

We ate at the picnic tables outside and the children played on the playground.

On the way home, Laurel said, "this has been the best day ever!"