California, Outside Fun, and a 1 Year Old!

We had such a great trip to California a couple of weeks ago! Of course the highlight for us was seeing our family. The kids had such a great time with their cousins. It definitely made me wish we lived closer.

The kids had a blast with Mema and Poppi and enjoyed lots of time in the nice California weather.And it was wonderful to spend time with my sister's sweet family...I miss them so much!Sawyer and Suzie both adored Shelby!
Suzie and Ashley were "thick as thieves" and could be usually found together.
So fun to see Sawyer and Caleb together. Just about the same size. We had a great time visiting with Auntie Debra!Kyle played 36 holes of golf in one day while catching up with two of his best friends
We had such a great time catching up with some of our best friends, the Callaways!
It was a little difficult to get a picture of all the kiddos so we have to settle for these:)
Sadie was a little scared of Suzie at first, but by the end of the trip they were great friends!
Sawyer still adores his big sis!
Suzie looks for every chance to get all dressed up.
While in California, we celebrated Sawyer's first birthday! His favorite part was the balloons...
...and of course the cake!
Here are some more pictures of our big one year old! He started taking a few steps just before his first birthday. Now he will take between 6-10 steps at various times, but he is so fast at crawling that it is definitely his preferred method of travel. He continues to be such a joy to us and has become quite a little cuddle bug. He still only has two teeth and doesn't really say any words consistently. I hear that boys are slower:)The kids had a great time playing outside the other day and are enjoying the warm weather!
And finally, here is what our kids looked like for "Crazy Hair" night at Awana. Suzie went all natural while Sawyer was sporting the Mohawk.Whew....that was a lot of photos:)

February

As usual the months just fly by and I can hardly believe it is already February and my baby is going to be 1 next month! We will be in California for his birthday and we are very excited for our much needed vacation and time with family!

Sawyer is getting to be such a big boy! He finally got 2 teeth around 10 months and still has only those two. But this doesn't stop him from eating everything in sight...except fruits and vegetables:) He is a very happy boy but is starting to experience a little bit of separation anxiety when we drop him off at the nursery. Nothing compared to Suzie though! He loves his big sister and his Daddy. Mommy's ok too. We think he says "Dada" and "Ba Ba" for bottle. He might say "Hi!" and "Mama." He can take one step by himself and just loves to stand. Here is a video of him laughing and being the sweet boy we have come to love and another one of him taking a few steps...while I drag him along.


Suzie is also doing wonderfully. She is quite the precocious little 3 1/2 year old and loves to dance, sing, play catch, and I think she could pretty much do puzzles all day long! Her therapists are SO pleased with the progress she has made. In fact, her PT recently did her annual standardized testing on her and said that she has never seen a child with CP make so much progress in just one year. Praise God! The eye doctor is also pleased with how the patching is going and want to continue to patch rather than prescribe glasses for now. Her shunt seems to be doing well, but I am always reminded how quickly she could develop an obstruction and how much I need to be praying for her and praising God for how well she is doing. We are so blessed to have these two little darlings in our lives and we gives thanks to our Mighty Creator who has given us these wonderful gifts. Here are a few more photos:

We got three inches of snow last week and we sure enjoyed it!

Suzie got this castle for Christmas and the kids had a ball playing in it...and destroying it:)
Enjoying time with Nana.
Big girl braids.
Suzie will play dress up with just about anything. This is a basket liner.
Big Boy!!
This is our youth staff! From the left Robin & Timothy (couple) and Blaine (solo...hehe). We praise God for these three folks who not only serve in our youth ministry, but have also become wonderful friends!