Mr. Mom

Once a week Mr. Mom took on Sawyer solo, so I could attend my grad class in the evenings. Tonight was my women's small group bible study, so Mr. Mom would be flying solo again, after a very crazy day at work. All appeared to be well as I walked out the door at 7:00pm.



As I called home around 9:45pm to let Minor know I was on my way home, he didn't answer the home or cell phone. I wondered if all was okay, but figured maybe he'd gone to bed early after a very long day at work. When I walked through the door, I found Minor like this in our living room rocking chair with Sawyer.



Sawyer had decided to be extremely fussy and cry (or scream as Minor stated) for an hour while I was gone. We're not to sure what was up with Sawyer, as this is unusual for him. Perhaps, he was just really overtired. Needless to say, Minor could have phoned me (I had my cell) to come home, but he didn't. I am so thankful to have a full-time partner in this parenting adventure.

Besides loving to sleep on daddy, Sawyer loves checking all the scores, blogs, and news with daddy on the computer.



He's just as handsome as his daddy, too!



You are truly amazing, Mr. Mom! I am so grateful to have you by my side. You are the love and joy of my life!

Another Semester Complete

I'm done...well, at least for this semester! I just completed my twenty page action research paper, as well as my poster for my presentation. These two projects conclude this semester's class. I'm taking the summer off from class, although I think I'm going to try to get a jump on my fall semester's literature review, as it will need to be about triple the length of this semester's work.

At times it was a challenge to find time to read and write. It's really hard to compose complete thoughts when you're not sleeping through the night! Lucky for me, our little guy has been sleeping eight to twelve hour stretches at night the last two weeks. This is such a gift, as I was working on putting my semester long work together.

And what post would be complete without some pictures of our little comet! He had his first giggle yesterday! He had a few more today, when he was in the mood. It is too cute! It's so amazing to see the growth and changes that happen each and every day.


I love listening to my daddy read to me before bed.


I love to look up and talk at my friends when I'm in my swing.


Here's my crazy dog, Sabine. She likes to follow my momma and me EVERYWHERE around the house during the day. (Thanks again to my friends the Hutson's for my overalls. I love them!)


I really like to roll to my side when I'm playing on the floor.


Just hanging out in the kitchen while momma gets dinner ready. There's so much to hear, smell, and see!

A Special Baptism

Many of you may know that last weekend Sawyer was baptized at the 9:30am service at Redeemer Lutheran in Austin. All of our family and many of our friends were in town including Sawyer's Godparents, Jerry and Gretchen Hays.

Some of you may know, Jerry and Gretchen's son, Caleb, died in a helicopter crash, over the Christmas holiday break. Shortly after the accident we began to consider Caleb's middle name, Nathaniel, to use as a middle name, if we had a boy. When Sawyer was born, we knew Nathaniel was the perfect middle name for him. Nathaniel means Gift of God, which Sawyer most definitely is to us, but it would also be in memory of Sarah's godson, Caleb, who we love and miss!



The baptism and the whole weekend was an event where Caleb was really missed. We laughed about the fact that Sabine was safe from the hose (which Caleb always enjoyed to spray on her). We remembered how much Caleb loved swimming and jumping off the diving board at our neighborhood pool. As we all stood around the baptismal fount that morning we rejoiced that God claimed Sawyer as one of His own, just like He did for Caleb nine years ago. There were some feelings of sadness, as we just missed having Caleb standing there with us.

Following the baptism, we returned to our seats and continued to follow the order of worship. A couple of minutes later, Gretchen elbowed me and pointed over toward Jerry. Noah, Jerry and Gretchen's other son, had collected a kids worship bag (coloring books, pencils, puzzles, etc) when we entered the church. Noah had began coloring, using a Ziploc of crayons he had pulled from the worship bag, once we returned to our seats. When Jerry glanced down to look at Noah, he noticed a name was written on the bag.

The name written on the bag was Caleb. It was an immediate reminder that Caleb may not have been physically with us for the baptism, but he was with us in spirit.

I hate cars!!!!!!!! and just say no to the miniVAN.

The last couple of weeks have been a real whirlwind of events. We had Sawyer's baptism, all kinds of people in town to help us celebrate, and Sarah driving her car into the ground (well not quite - thanks to Jerry). Look to the next post for more tales from the baptism.

Last week Sarah called me on her way to grad class to tell me that she thought the car was overheating. As much as I wanted to run out and deal with that particular issue that night, I was home with Sawyer. Thankfully she was able to get the car pulled in a Dairy Queen parking lot, and then get a ride to class with a friend. Following class she had the car towed to a mechanic, so they could look at it the next morning.

The mechanic calls the next morning to report that the radiator was bad, and there were $3500 worth of other work he recommended we do as well. We spent the rest of the day debating whether to pay for the service or just have the car towed away for scrap. After much deliberation and Jerry taking a look at the car, we (Jerry and I) decided we should just try replacing the radiator ourselves and then if the car doesn't work we could have the darn thing towed away for parts. Replacing the radiator only cost us $300, which is a far cry from the $4000 the mechanic wanted.

So far, so good. The car has worked just fine, and we are beginning to wonder what we are going to do when Jerry isn't around to help fix all of the expensive things. (He has previously saved us the cost of a central air unit when he helped replace the motor.)

This also means that we are now faced with the very real possibility of having to purchase another car. I hate shopping for cars, or as I like to call it "performing the dance of deceit." The dealer lies to you about the car, you lie about what you are willing to pay, and then you go back and forth over and over.



OR


We have really narrowed our choices to the Toyota Highlander or the Honda Pilot (vehicle for our road-trip with the Huddleston's). I really don't care which one as long as the darn thing doesn't breakdown anytime soon. If you have an opinion on either, great. We need all the help we can get!

Spring in Texas

The spring weather has arrived in Austin! We have been enjoying warm (80 degrees or warmer) and sunny weather this week. This is the time of year when the weather is absolutely perfect in Austin. We send our love to our friends and family that are still experiencing snow in the north. :) Snowy weather is so hard for us to imagine in April, although we both experienced it when we lived in Minnesota. It's just been awhile for us. We are taking advantage of the warm weather by going on evening walks as a family, as well as the occasional visit to our favorite restaurants with outdoor seating.



A spring tradition in Texas is bluebonnet pictures. You know the bluebonnets have peeked when you see many cars pulled over on the roadside by a field. The field will be overflowing with bluebonnets, spotted with kids in white outfits, and parents making faces to capture the memory with their camera.



Minor and I have loved to take part in Texas traditions. We figure while we're living here, why not?! We've done bluebonnets pictures just the two of us or with our friends, the Hays, since our arrival in Texas. This year we took our little comet, Sawyer, out for his first bluebonnet photo session. We went in the evening, so we didn't capture any of his smiles. But, we had a great time!