Cozy Jacket

I left Karys in the bathroom alone one afternoon, for a very short period of time. When I came back, as soon as I came into the bathroom, I heard, "Jacket, Mommy! Cozy!" She had taken the rest of the toilet paper that was on the roll and proceeded to wrap it around her neck and body while she was sitting on the toilet supposedly going poopy. I laughed so hard, and like any other time, told her not to move til I came back with the camera! It was so funny and she was so serious about it til I started laughing, like she really thought the toilet paper was going to keep her warm! I love the way she is so carefree, and this little girl really truly is hilarious! One of the last picture is of her "silly eyes". One day in the kitchen she started doing this with her eyes to us...at first when she did it one of her eyes would cross to the middle...she must have been trying to hard to do it or something, so Rob started calling them silly eyes. On this day, after we were done laughing about the TP...she just says "Hey Mom...picture of silly eyes!" Then of course wanted to look at it and see what this silly eyes thing is all about! Oh, it is priceless!

Baby Jaydon

I never really blogged when Jaydon was born, and he and Amy were at our house all last weasekend so I thought I would do that now. Jaydon David Sawatzky entered the world on August 20, 2008 at 12:15pm. I had the honor of being there when he took his first breaths and shared his first cries. Rob and the girls also came up to the hospital to meet Jaydon on his firt day. Since then he has been doing so well! Amy has shared with me that he nurses like a champ, hardly ever cries, has his days and nights mixed up, and loves to cuddle and bounce! She is doing an amazing job as a mom, and it has been a blessing to watch her truly embrace this role and naturally begin on the adventurous journey called motherhood.

This past weekend, it was also so fun to watch the girls love on Jaydon. They both always had to have thier turns holding him. Especially Karys, she would walk around the house following Amy, or whoever for that matter was holding Jaydon crying "me hold him". Gracie demonstrated her little mommy characteristics by successfully feeding Jaydon his entire bottle! She is so fun to watch!Gracie feeding Baby Jaydon his bottle. "He is such a good eater!"

"Me, Hold him plz!" "Smile, Baby Jaydon!" "Hi, Baby, Hi..."

Grant was also around for some of that and we got to see him give Jay a bath and change a couple diapers ;) He as well is changing some as he has begun fatherhood. Look at those big eyes! And the lips....gotta love the lips! Wish we could see you more often Jaydon!

Karys turns 2!!!!

Karys turned 2 this last Thursday, and we had a bunch of family and friends in town to celebrate on Friday night. It was so fun just to have everyone gathered together to celebrate our daughter. What a blessing it was for Rob and I to be able to look around the patio at the ppl who were gathered as well as to think of all the ppl not present and just truly be thankful for the number of ppl that truly care for and invest in the lives of our girls and/or in us. I think that is how you survive as a parent! Through your family, friends, community who walk the journey with you! So thank you all for being a part of that!
Anyway, Karys decided this year that she wanted Snow White on her birthday cake. Because mommy did not really want to do another princess party I convinced her, with some help of key library materials, that maybe she would like Veggie Tales. In the end i decided to put both on her cake....after all who ever said that the dwarfs couln't really be talking vegetables!

We celebrated on a beautiful evening, a little cool for the first days of September, on our back patio. Shared a meal, conversations, amazing cake, and then watched our little lady open gifts. That night we also shared our home with Doreen, Heather, Seth, Nathan, Amy and Jaydon...so fun to be full! I love it! Enough said though, enjoy the pics!
Uncle Seth and the cousins were folding thier hands for the pre-dinner meal...So cute to look out at the swingset and see this ;)
Rob and Justin in deep conversation...always a good conversation going on between these two
Sarah and Leah going through the line of yummy food! None of which I had to make ;) Gotta love a servant hearted husband and family!
The kiddie table...it wasn't very successful for any of them to sit together and eat, they all had to work on that.
Everyone on the patio enjoying the YUMMY food! rob did a great job with the chicken and had a whole crew to help with the rest ;)
Karys saying cheese with Bob, Larry, and Snow White

"How does it taste Karys?"

A birthday kiss from her big sister!

She blew out her candles all on her own! YAY!Grandma, Gracie, and Karys were all practicing thier butt busters! It was Karys' turn to go... Enjoying the evening with good company (Heather&Seth) and good coffee!Both of my grandmas made it to the party! That was SO special to me to have them there!Jeremy was telling my Dad all about his bear hunting trip he just got back from at 5am Friday!Karys had LOTS so helpers when it was time to open her presents!
Jeremy and Sarah tied a balloon to Leah's binki! So hilarious to watch her try to figure it out!Leah was walking all over the living room with this little cart...fun to see if she will be walking in a couple months in time for her 1st birthday!Tough little guy on a fuzzy pink horse! He loved playing on this! This pic is for you Chad!"Smile for Mommy, Baby!" Karys loved this little dolly from Auntie Sarah, Jeremy and LeahThe GREAT Grandmas with the GREAT Grandaughters...should have tried for this pic earlier in the evening I think...the b-day girl was all partied out!

What a Day!

So today was a very special day for both our girls. First of all it was Karys' 2nd birthday! She was so fun to watch today, because she just loved telling ppl it was her birthday and her face just lit up when ppl called to talk to her. Especially the calls she got from all three aunties ;) I really think she felt special today; however, her day got off to a rough start when we left Gracie at preschool (the other reason it was such a big day for us!) I have really been worried, not like upset stomach worried just like questioning worried, about how Gracie's first day of preschool would go. I was pretty convinced she and I would both part ways this morning and tears would be shed on both of our behalfs. That wasn't the case though. She was very tenative, kept asking "Mommy can you come with me" "No Gracie I can't, but Mrs. Kinney and Mrs Stoll will both be there with you." "Mommy, can Karys come with me?" "Sure she can come with us to drop you off and then she will come home with Mommy." "Mommy, I asked Karys and she said that she wanted to stay."So this questioning went on until we were walking into school. Once she knew that neither of us were staying I think she just resigned the idea in her head that maybe we would, and got a little frustrated. She hung up her bag, washed her hands, gave me and AWESOME hug and kiss and just said, "Bye mom" in a very defeated voice...like fine you are making me stay, I guess I will do it. ANd then walked over to join the other kids making necklaces. Here is where the surprise came, neither Gracie or I cried, but as we were leaving Karys ran back to the room 2x crying "Stay with Gracie!" She cried in the car, and even patted her car seat and said, "Mommy, Gracie not here." It was so sad to watch her miss her sister. They have just become such good friends in the past couple weeks, the fighting has really lessened and I can actually leave the room and work on things for periods of time and they play so well! Especially with thier babies ;)
So to celebrate Karys, and to distract her for a little while, we headed off on an adventure. We bought her a special Care Bear cookie...she said "I care bear" b/c we call her that sometimes ;), we brought Doughnuts to church to share, we played at the park and had the whole thing all to ourselves, and we went to the store to pick out a special present for Gracie to celebrate her doing so well her 1st day of school (a pencil and stickers).
Then it was off to pick up Gracie! She smiled coming out of the classroom and Mrs. Kinney said she had a GREAT day! She said she was very quiet, but that she was sure it would come the more Gracie warmed up to it. Karys was able to give Gracie her present before we got in the van and we took some more pictures. Gracie was so greatful for the present. She kept telling Karys how nice that was of her to do that and "Thank you!" It was so cute, and you would think so even more if you could hear her say it, but Karys would just say "your welcome, Gracie...good job at school." Amidst all of that, I asked Gracie if she liked it and wanted to go back. I got two affirmitave answers to the questions so that was exciting....but that was the most I got...she talked about that pencil and stickers all the way home! She didn't dispose much of anything else about her day...a couple things to Rob when we got home, but that was about it! I think it will be so fun to watch and see how she changes and grows just by learning to follow instructions in a group and just getting the chance to interact and be around other kids ;)
Grandma Doreen also came for the day and we were able to celebrate both hers and Karys birthday at Pizza Ranch tonight! Every kids fav place to eat right?!?! I think we are all looking forward to tomorrow night when lots of family and friends will be getting together over at our house to CELEBRATE Karys and just have some good fellowship together! More to come on that!

Kindermusik

Well the business of fall is starting and activities are working on getting into full swing! This morning we went to Kendermusik for the first time this year. Gracie got to go for the spring part of last year and just loved it! All of the songs, actions, instruments, and interactions were so good for her and really started the process of getting her to open up a little bit and develop her personality.

She was a little hesitant this morning when I told her we were going...she is a little anxious about starting pre-school tomorrow and thought at first I was going to bring her to Kindermusik too and just drop her off. But when she heard that not only I was giong but that Karys was also old enough to go too she was so pumped! "Karys, you are going to love it! Are you so excited you are old enough to go?"

It was great watching them sing songs together and interacting. I am so excited that we are all going to have this to do together! Now for all of you reading just pray that tomorrow goes well! Pre-school is from 9-11:30 tomorrow morning, so we will see how Gracie does with that!