Sawyer's 1st Birthday

 I can't believe my little baby is 1 already! It was not an exciting birthday for him. I left the boys with Gina to go to a kindergarten graduation for our little Camille, which was adorable and I loved every minute. They sang a few songs that they'd been learning all year, and then we went back to her classroom with all her classmates. 

The only decoration I put up for Sawyer was balloons -- a few floating balloons and a bunch of balloons lying on the family room floor. The kids and I made cupcakes during Sawyer's afternoon nap, and we put together a very hodge-podge dinner, considering of all kinds of things that Sawyer seems to like to eat. It was hard to figure out what to make him, because he seems to eat and enjoy almost everything equally. 

He loved his cupcake and went right for it. Very little hesitation in grabbing it and eating it. It was very cute. 

Sawyer is such a sweet and serious little dude. Sawyer Boy turned 1. He barely likes being held -- he's a little adventurer, preferring to be crawling around and playing with things. He's developed a newfound love of playing with balls (rolling them away and chasing after them) and trucks (rolling them back and forth and putting toys inside them), which I find adorable. He just this week started getting himself down the stairs by himself. He claps his hands and giggles when I look at him and talk to him. He's the best eater we've had at this age -- he trusts me with food, and he usually eats anything I give him. But he won't allow me to feed him anymore, preferring to feed himself. He's a joy to have in our home, and I'm so glad we have him. We all love our Sawyer Boy. He's my little handsome dude. 💙💙💙

Joy is:

• Watching Camille, in a skirt and sandals and a backpack that's still too big for her, skipping off to the bus stop, stopping to smell and admire some flowers, and then continuing to skip to the bus stop. 😍

Mother's Day

My mother's day this year was wonderful. Daniel and the kids showered me with balloons and presents and drawings. Brooke made the cutest little box at school and filled it with coupons. And she also made me pancakes and strawberries for breakfast. 🥰 

We had church and I did a little mini singing time, focusing on mothers from the scriptures, which I thought very fun. It was mom's idea. 

Daniel made dinner while I just relaxed and painted with the kids. We had a little Pie-Pie focused painting session, because Brooke was feeling really sad. 

I love being a mother. Even on the days when I'm tired and frustrated. Especially on the days when things go right. Even on days when all the kids are grumpy and demanding. Especially on days when I can savor the good little moments. It's a fun and crazy ride with my kids. But I wouldn't trade it! Life would feel bleak and empty without my kids in it. 

Picture: all 4 kids crowding and climbing all over Daniel in sacrament meeting. As it should be. 😂 It was only like that for about 5 minutes, though. 

Sawyer's First Haircut 😭

 A week ago Saturday, Daniel gave Sawyer his first haircut. Normally at about this age, Daniel will give our baby's hair a little trim. But he went way past trim this time! He gave Sawyer a real, little-boy haircut! 😭 He really hated it. And Daniel ended up strapping him into his high chair for almost the entirety of it. But Sawyer kept pushing his hands away and whipping his head around and screaming at the top of his lungs. The screaming was progressive, starting out lesser and eventually getting to a point where I was worried Sawyer might pass out. At which point, thankfully, Daniel finished. 

He looks so cute and handsome with his haircut, so I really can't be too mad about it. Even if it does make him look less like a baby and more like a little boy. 

 Daniel took the girls camping this weekend. They planned a trip with Chris and Brooklyn and Bailey to go camping near Goblin Valley. They left around noon on Friday and found a spot to camp (not at a designated camp site... the girls were not a fan of peeing in the wilderness 😂), and went to see Goblin Valley that afternoon. He said the girls loved it and had so much fun together! And, of course, one of the things that stuck out for Brooke was the bum rock. 🙄

The next day, they did Little Wild Horse Canyon together after packing up camp. Apparently, they all did really well on the hike, and had a good time. Even Camille. Daniel was worried about taking her, thinking it would be hard for her to hike so much. But she loved it, along with the bigger girls. I'm glad they could go on such a fun trip.

Having them gone meant I was home with the two cute little boys. Friday was mainly spent cleaning up the entire house to near perfection. I spent hours cleaning up, and the kids helped a little. But the result was so good. I do love being in a clean and tidy house! Jack watched some TV while I was busy with things, and after Sawyer woke up from his nap, we ran a couple of errands and picked up dinner and Swig on the way home. The boys were so good when we were running errands. They were patient and calm and didn't complain too much. It was hard at one point keeping Jack from falling asleep in the car... that almost always happens in the late afternoons. But I mostly successfully kept him awake. I really wanted them to sleep early and well that night. 😬

And after I got them to bed, I relaxed a little bit, ate some dinner, and then finished up with a few of the things I still wanted to get done. 

Since Friday was mostly spent cleaning up and running errands, Saturday was mostly fun! I asked Jack to think of some things he wanted to do, and he came up with a list. We didn't get everything done that he wanted to do; we missed a couple of things. But I think we did pretty well! Here's what we did, after breakfast and me working out: watched TV; went for a bike ride (me towing both boys. It was hard!); hit the park for 20 minutes; lunch of their choice; more TV time; did mommy time in the basement; took a picnic dinner to Thanksgiving Point Farm, where we saw many animals and got a tractor wagon ride; did baths for both boys -- they were SUPER dirty and stinky! And then bedtime. We had a full day, and it was fun! 

Sawyer was so adorable at the farm. I think he's a little animal lover. He loves anytime we see dogs when we're out and about, he makes little "awwww!" sounds and does this cute little fussy giggle, like he just can't handle how cute they are. And he's never been very afraid of Sammy, when we've had her staying at our house. He was like that just about every time he saw a new animal at the farm. That is, until a goat bleeted too loudly and scared him. And then he was always a little bit nervous. 😂 

Jack's been doing this funny little "thumbs up" sign lately that is just killing me, it's so cute. He gets this cute little smile on his face, and sticks his thumb out whenever he likes something or when I tell him what's going on and he agrees. I love it. He's not making the right face in this picture; I couldn't get him to give me the right face. He usually pinches his eyebrows together and gives me a tight-lipped smile, with that little dimple showing. But this is as good as I could get. He said this was the only face he could make. 😂

I got my hair cut and colored on Thursday! I never get it colored, but Daniel always says I should, so I did it to surprise him, as part of my anniversary gift to him. It turns out he didn't love what I ended up getting, but maybe I'll try to do what he likes in the fall. 

Camille didn't have school this past week for kindergarten testing. It was kinda nice having her home. Although she did get bored sometimes, when Jack and Brooke were both gone for school. We did have a fun play date one morning at Sarah Frei's house. 

These last few weeks of school are going to be busy!

 The week after Jack's birthday was a flurry of activity in this household, cleaning up the house really nice, in preparation for mom and dad coming for a visit. They arrived in the afternoon of Thursday, the 30th of April, and dad was waiting on the porch when we drove up after running some errands. (I got some gardening things to do with the preschool kids this week - little clay pots, dirt and flowers. Also the kids each picked out seeds to plant in our garden.) But most of the first part of that week was our regular stuff (school, preschool, gymnastics, etc) and getting the house all cleaned up. 

They came to visit us as part of a larger trip which started in Idaho, visiting the Fernandez side aunts. We spent Friday just hanging out at home, mainly. Brian and Sammy brought Cap over in the late afternoon for us to watch him while they went to an event for Brian's work. We took all the kids to the park for a picnic dinner and playtime, and we had a great time! My thought was that the kids just needed to get out of the house. And it was a beautiful day for a picnic at the park. 

Saturday was a special day: Brian and Sammy were blessing their cute little baby, Summer. The event was held at a double baptism for the nieces on Sammy's side of the family. It felt a little weird, going to their family's baptism. But it was nice to be there for the blessing. Afterwards, there was a luncheon for everyone at Denise's house.

That night, Brian, Scott and Melanie came for pizza and movie night (after the kids were abed). Scott has been wanting to watch "Junior" for over a year -- since I was pregnant with Sawyer -- so we all watched it together. It was a fun night! 

We went on a family walk and to the park to play on Sunday after church. We had watched stake conference from home, streamed live. And then Brian and Sammy's family came for dinner and games. 

I had preschool this week. Our topic was gardening, and my plan was for them to plant seeds in cups, to watch them grow, and to paint little terracotta pots to plant a flower in. Mom and dad planned to be out for Monday morning, which worked out perfectly. My little kids LOVED painting their little pots. They all worked so hard on them, and I love how earnest they were in their creativity. They also loved learning how to plant seeds in soil. Overall, I'd say it was a very successful preschool day (those don't always happen).

Dad came home partway through our preschool time, and immediately started doing work around my house, which was so sweet of him. Over the next few hours, he mowed front and back lawns, tidied up the backyard, and cleaned all the main floor windows and screens, inside and out! And the house is so much happier and bright and shiny and pleasant with the windows clean. 

That evening, we went to Thanksgiving Point gardens for the tulip festival, which was delightful. Daniel couldn't get away from work to join us, which was a bummer.  But the kids and mom and dad and I had a lot of fun. The gardens were beautiful.

Mom and dad took Brian out to lunch Tuesday, and then Brian dropped Sammy and the kids off at my house to hang out while he went back to work. Mom and dad did a little grocery shopping for me, and then we all sat around together, talking about trips to Hawaii and road trips around the country. 

Brian came back to our house, and Sammy and I picked up burgers for everyone for dinner. We ate together, Brian and Sammy went home, and, after putting the kids to bed, the parents and I watched a cute movie together -- This Beautiful Fantastic. 

Yesterday was crazy: we had a painter come in the morning to start work in our upstairs, I had preschool kids again (they were super restless that day... we planted flowers in our pots, but mainly they just played), and mom and dad were getting ready to leave. All at the same time. Mom and dad left about halfway through preschool, and I paused to say goodbye. 

After kids were all home from school, we had gymnastics, and the boys and I ran a couple of errands. We had leftovers for dinner, I bathed kids and put them to bed, and the house was an absolute disaster!! After nearly a week of having people staying with us, it was cluttered and floors were sticky and dirty, things were put away wrong and I was in the middle of laundry. I needed to workout still, and I needed to get at least some cleaning done. So I focused all my efforts into the basement, getting all things put away, game closet put back together, and vacuumed before I did a 30 minute workout. The rest of the house? Still a disaster. But I felt better after getting at least one area totally cleaned up and getting in a workout. 

And today has been nothing but cleaning up the main floor to near perfection -- sweep and mop floors; dust and vacuum; tidy up toys and throw away trash; do dishes and wipe down table and counters; put all laundry away and sort into baskets; clean the bathroom; water the plants. It took hours. But the house feels so good now. And I had a chance to spend a little time with my little boys when it was all done. 

Tomorrow is office day -- I take care of bills and budgets, read emails, make appointments... that kind of thing. Then Saturday, when the painter is done, I'll tackle the upstairs and the yard. After that, I'll feel well put back together after a week of mostly fun and not much work. 😂😬