Season Of Thanksgiving

Again this year we made it through the holiday without many pictures.  We started the holiday season by having another Yardley/Bevan Thanksgiving dinner at Courtney's house.  It is a lot of fun to get together with everybody.  We don't do it too often but when we do there are always a lot of laughs, great food, and great conversations.
This year for Thanksgiving we spent the holiday in Circleville.  I love that little town.  It holds so many great memories.  We got to Circleville a couple of days before Thanksgiving, thanks USU for letting us out early.  Travis took advantage of the extra time to go fishing with Dan, while the women folk stayed and got things prepared for the big feast.  I forget all the preparation for the big day.  I hate that about cooking sometimes, don't get me wrong I love cooking, I just hate how long it takes to prepare sometimes and then it is over in and hour at the most.
Thursday Mom and I went running to burn some extra calories, hahaha, before the big feast.  This year I was allowed to cook in the kitchen with the adults. This is always funny to me because I still feel like a little kid when I go to Grandmas, like I am too little to do anything but hello I cook all the time for my family.  Anyways, cooking was well........quite the experience.  It is hard to not cook like I am used to and make things like I am used to them and instead make them how Grandma makes them.  I could use more cooking lessons from Grandma and my mom for sure.  Thanksgiving dinner was good and was complimented by amazing pie afterwards, well a while afterwards.  In my family we usually wait an hour or two to have pie so we actually enjoy the pie.
Friday Travis helped around the farm in the morning.  In the afternoon we collected some sage brush seed.  We decided when it was too windy to get the seed in our buckets we should probably go back to the house and see how Grandma was fairing with the little man.  It is a good thing Sawyer loves his Great-Grandparents.  He was pretty good for them.  We decided to go for a ride to put him to sleep, we ended up putting Grandma to sleep too. Vanessa came up in the evening to join in the fun.  That evening we played Pit.  I love that game but apparently I am just too good at it.  My opponents, I won't mention names, were not very excited I was winning and refused to trade with me.  It was quite the lively game to say the least.  I think we woke up half the block.
Saturday was a full day of seed picking.  Travis and I were very pungent but in a good way.  I love the way sage smells.  Sawyer got to spend time with his Aunt and Grandma again.  Grandma has some kind of magic because she just told Sawyer it is time to go to sleep and cuddled him and he went right to sleep.  I wish I could do that.
Sunday was a sad day, we had to come back home.  It was nice to sleep in our own beds again but we sure did miss everybody when we left.  Until next time.

18 months

Sawyer has survived 18 months in my care. I know, I can barely keep a fish alive for 1 month but I have managed to keep Sawyer alive, healthy, and happy for 18 months. My odds are improving.  He is such a joy to have in our family, I know that is so cliche, but he is such an amazing kiddo.  I may complain sometimes about him but honestly we really lucked out with this one.  He is a pretty good eater.  He loves bath time, in fact if you even mention a bath he repeats "bath, bath, bath," and runs to the bathroom until he gets a bath or you distract him with something else.  He is an excellent sleeper most of the time except when we visit other people.  He has so much personality for such a little feller.  He copies everything we do so we really have to watch ourselves and what we show him.  He follows me around all day long and "helps" me.  He loves to play and read books.  In fact if you just let him be he will open up books and pretend to read them.  He will do the "Hey Give me 5, other side, cut the pickle, tickle, tickle" but he really likes to cut to the end and just tickle, tickle.  He loves to throw stuff in the garbage.  He is a great help when loading and unloading the washer and dryer.  He would sweep the floor all day if you would let him.  He loves to push buttons and when ever he sees a button he says "butt, butt, butt".  He likes to turn the lights on and off, but honestly what child doesn't. He amazes us each day with how smart he is.  He says quite a few words now but his favorites are: Fish- by far the word he says the most often, woof-woof  for dog (and sometimes horse we are working on that), buck, duck, book, broke, eat, light, bath, ball, football, cow, bird (this refers to anything from a penguin to tweety bird) shoes (which is actually shoes and socks), hot (this refers to any temperature change, lately he has been telling us it is hot outside when we go to the car when it is about 20 degrees). 

We are just so grateful to have this little one in our lives.  We learn something new from him everyday.

Cluck, Cluck

Unfortunately, this year for Sawyer Halloween was not so Happy.  He came down with a fever.  I thought it would be like his other fevers that last a few hours and then go away.  I was so wrong.  His fever just would not break.  We originally had some plans with some friends, Tom and Sam, but had to cancel.  I felt awful for canceling at the last minute but I would hate to be the Typhoid Mary and bring whatever Sawyer had to their house.  

As you can see Sawyer dressed as a chicken, Thanks Aunt Mariah.  This costume just cracks me up, it is so cute and warm.  I wanted to get some pictures all dressed up since last year we didn't really celebrate Sawyers 1st Halloween on account of the weather.  Travis and I were originally going to be eggs to go with the chicken but because of some wardrobe malfunctions we ended up being farmers, well as close to farmers as we could get.  

Here is to next year being a better Halloween. 

Deer Hunt, Pumpkin Walk

October always seems to fly right on by with all the outdoor activities we enjoy.  Travis went fishing and camping a few times this month.  I decided it was way too cold for me to sleep outside so Sawyer and I stayed home unless it was a day fishing trip.  

The main event of the month, well if you ask Travis, is the deer hunt.  This year they extended the deer hunt to be a whole week instead of just 5 days.  Utah State actually gives the students Friday off as Fall Holiday we had an extra day to spend down South. We traveled down to Southern Utah for this annual event which took forever since the roads were packed with not only hunters but UEA-some school holiday- travelers.  The trip that normally takes us 4 hours took us 6 hours, thanks road construction. 

Friday we spent playing with the Nephews and then we headed down to Minersville for Travis to get things ready for the big hunt.  

Saturday I had the opportunity to stay home with Sam and Sawyer.  I was so productive for being home by myself in the morning, we got ready, fed, and went to a garage sale, we went to the grocery store, played outside, and started a movie to let the boys rest.  My mom joined us about noon, and not too much later my amazing grandparents came over to Beaver as well to visit with us.  We ate lunch outside and watched the kiddos play.  We even put dinner in the crock pot for the hungry hunters, chicken taco soup.  All in all it was great day but no deer.  I guess better luck next year, or weekend for us.  Yep, that is right we headed back down to hunt the next weekend, to make a long story short, it was unsuccessful as well.   

The infamous gigantic rocking chair at the Chevron in Beaver.  Sawyer thought it was pretty cool to sit there.  

During the week in between the hunting we had to take advantage of the Famous Pumpkin Walk in North Logan.  It was so much fun to go and see the pumpkins.  It was not so much fun to wait in line forever with all of the other family night families with a restless one year old but we got through it.  I can't believe how many people were there but again I did say it was famous.  

I just thought this picture was funny/cute

For the pumpkin walk they make displays based on a theme.  

Sawyer had to hold on to this pole like all of the other people on the bus were doing.  He is so silly.  It is amazing how much they learn just by looking at other people.  Sometimes it is almost scary. 

Oh sad note for the eventful week.  Sawyer caught a sickness sometime in all the excitement. Poor little guy has been battle a fever and sores in his mouth all week.  It makes for a pretty exhausted mom but a lot of snuggle time.  Hope he gets better soon.  

Fall Leaves

I think Fall is one of my favorite seasons.  It is so gorgeous, the leaves, the smell, the activities, I just love it.  (I think I mentioned this in a previous post) We decided to take the opportunity to take some family photos with the leaves.  We headed to a park near our old house that I absolutely love and apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea.  There were at least 6 photographers with clients that arrived just after we parked.  I guess I chose a great place.  We didn't get many great pictures.  Sawyer was not in the best of moods and it was a little cold.  We had to give him his fishing pole and bear to be happy.  Silly kiddo.  I tried to play around with the photos and edit them a bit.  I think they turned out okay. 

Sawyer did not want to smile

We were jumping up and down, it is our favorite activity

I love taking my bear for a ride 

Conference Weekend

BYU or USU, who to cheer for? That is a difficult question. We recently went to the BYU v USU football game. It was a toss up of who to cheer for. I almost felt sacrilegious not cheering for BYU even though we are true blue Aggies through and through.  As you can see in the pictures we were all decked out in our Aggie Gear, I was a little worried walking through the streets of Provo that we might get Jello thrown on us or something.  People kept giving us the evil eye everywhere we went, and they say we have mean fans.  

We went out to eat with my Aunt Phyllis, Greg, Leanne, their kids, Vanessa, and Spencer before the game, all BYU fans dressed in BYU gear.  While we were waiting for a table this guy came up to us and said "Looks like you guys come from a mixed family."  Some people in our party looked at the guy like "did you honestly just ask that?  So Travis has dark skin, he is standing right there idiot."  For the other half of our party that knew what this guy meant - USU and BYU fans,  it was hilarious to see the reaction of the other half of our party.  

The game was packed and we had such high hopes for our Aggies.  We made it down to the last 15 seconds beating the Cougars, but in the end the Aggies lost.  It was depressing but such a miraculous catch by the Cougars it was hard to not be a little excited for them too.  After the game we headed down to my moms house to spend Conference Weekend. 

We always have such big plans for Conference weekend but by the time you listen to Conference make lunch, etc. we only had time for a drive up the canyon.  My sweet Grandparents came up and visited for Saturday.  They are seriously the best!!  We rode up to some spectacular scenic view points.  Vanessa and I enjoyed our ride in the back.  We kept getting forgotten about though.  We got locked in the car a few times which just lead to more laughing.  People were probably getting a little fed up with the constant giggles. On the way down the mountain we stopped and fished.  It was fun to cast a few worms out there before the rain came in. 

We really enjoyed our visit down there.  It is always fun to go to Ephraim and reminisce of my days at Snow College.  There are so many good memories from there.  We left on Sunday after a delicious turkey dinner, which made me so excited for Thanksgiving.   

Homecoming Week

For most years of my life Homecoming always lands on or around my birthday.  This year was no exception.  I love the festivities that go with homecoming, a football game, usually a 5k race, a parade, dances (I just pretend they are all for me).  My parents, well my mom, was here for most of the week to visit with us.  I really enjoy when there is somebody else around to entertain Sawyer throughout the day so I can get ready without a helper or actually use the bathroom in peace.  Nobody lets you in on that little tidbit of becoming a mom.  

For my birthday we played miniature golf and went out to eat.  I tried to make this dessert I found on pinterest.  The recipe looked awesome and the pictures on pinterest did too but the end result disappointed me to be honest.  I will have to try again.  We did endulge in some awesome Caramel Cashew Aggie Ice Cream though.  The best. 

My mom and I were cleaning up the kitchen and this is what we found when we looked in the living room.  I thought it was so adorable.  Sawyer wants to be just like the big guys. 

On Friday Travis decided we should go look at the Kokanee Salmon that swim up from Porcupine Reservoir.  I miss the salmon runs that I enjoyed while living on the Klamath River.  It is amazing to see the fish at the end of the long journey.  I was a little surprised by the size of these fish compared to the salmon in the Klamath.  Don't get me wrong, I knew they wouldn't be as big as the ones on the Klamath but these fish were like fish you would find in a big fish tank.  They were pretty cool though . The river was so packed.  We enjoyed walking up the river and for Sawyers enjoyment throwing rocks, it never gets old does it? 

Saturday was the Homecoming Parade.  It was fun to go out and see the support from the community for the University.  The parade was full of bands and dance academy's.  Sawyer really enjoyed the parade.  He especially like the flags that were handed out.  Who needs candy when you can get a flag?  The candy that people threw Sawyer took it upon himself to throw it back.  He thought it was a game apparently. 

After the parade we headed over to the Farmers Market. I love that place.  I am so glad Logan has a community that supports the local growers and artisans.  

We went to the game later that evening.  Sawyer did so much better this game than his last one.  The team was fun to watch.  The game actually went into double overtime.  We were sad to see the loss for our Aggies.  Maybe next time.  

Still has his flag from the parade.