The last few months

Sierra 

The past few months have been crazy busy.  Student teaching is hard, but rewarding work. I am enjoying teaching more then I ever thought I would. It has been a challenge getting everything done for school, planning lessons, grading papers, completing my teacher work sample, and at the same time being a wife and mother.  Sam has been wonderful through the whole thing and has jumped right in doing things around the house that I just did not have time to do.  But I am on the downward slope. I finished my teacher work sample about a week ago and then it was spring break. I haven't had spring break in four years. It has been so nice to get caught up on things around the house and spending more time with Sawyer. We also got to go on a quick trip to Goblin Valley with Sam's side of the family. Last time we went to goblin valley, I was eight and half months pregnant. I have two more weeks of student teaching and then graduation! Yay! My family is coming for graduation and to pick up Rachel for the summer. I am looking forward to spending some time with them. And especially for them to see Sawyer! He has changed so much since they saw him at Christmas.

Sam

It has been competition season for Sam at the gym. So Sawyer and I had some weekends alone as he traveled out a town for a few meets. Luckily, Rachel was able to come stay with me for some of them. It was been so fun having her in Utah. The boys team have had a successful season, especially the level 5 boys.  They easily took first place at state. The second place team was fifteen points behind them! As always Sam is working long hours at the gym to support our family. He does the bus classes in the morning and does his manager duties and coaches the boys team in the afternoons and evenings. With his busy schedule he still makes time to help around the house and be a wonderful father for our sweet boy. Sawyer is one lucky kid to have Sam as his dad! And I am lucky to have him as my husband! I couldn't not have gotten through these last few months without him.

Sawyer 

I do not know how Sawyer does it, but he gets cuter and cuter all the time. He is 10 months old as of four days ago! I can't believe he will be a year old in two months!  He does not crawl, but he he gets around in his own unique way with a combination of rolling and scooting on his belly. It is really hard to explain... But his method of transportation allows him to get into plenty of mischief . He pulls himself to standing and can move along the couch. He has the cutest laugh and babbles all the time. We spend the majority of church in the foyer because he is just so loud and talkative. He loves to clap and click his tongue  He constantly brings us so much joy and happiness. I love coming home to him after school. He always gets a huge grin on his face and kicks is legs with excitement  When I have a hard day at school, he can instantly make a bad day become so much better. He is such a blessing in our lives.

 Crazy  hair!

Goblin Valley April 2013

Goblin Valley May 2012

7 months

Sawyer is seven months! He is just loving life. He is a curious little boy and wants to grab everything in sight. He has become very "talkative"  during the last few weeks. We spend a lot of time in the halls during church because he is just so loud! But it is so fun hearing all the silly noises that he makes. He absolutely loves playing peek-a -boo. He laughs and squeals with delight.  We love this little boy of ours! 

Christmas

We enjoyed the holidays spending time with family. We celebrated Christmas early with Sam's side of the family and then headed to Oregon to spend Christmas  with my side of the family. Sawyer got to experience his first plane ride. Everything went smoothly until the landing. He was busy sucking his thumb during take off and then he quickly fell asleep. Sawyer takes short naps so he didn't stay asleep for long. Then we played with toys and made silly faces to keep him entertained. He started to get bored and fussy, so daddy and Sawyer went on a trip to the bathroom for a change of scenery. Shortly after the seat belt night came back on indicating it was getting close to landing. I tried to get him to nurse to help him with his ears, but of course he refused. That boy has a mind of his own and only eats if he wants to. Then came the tears. To me is seemed like he was crying for FOREVER...but Sam says it was only five minutes. And of course there was a "helpful" lady across the aisle offering all kinds of advice...I know she meant well, but all it did was to help increase my stress level. Finally, he stopped crying and we landed shortly after.

We had a wonderful time with my side of the family. Sawyer was spoiled with attention 24/7. Between Grandparents, Great Grandparents, and his aunt and uncle he was always being entertained. Sam and I were able to just sit back and relax. 

Our week there went by way to fast even with our bonus days. We left Klamath Falls in plenty of time to make it to the airport in Medford...but unforeseen circumstances (a car accident blocking traffic) caused us to miss our flight.  Anyway, we got to stay for two extra days. The flight home went much better. Sawyer cooperated and drank some apple juice during landing, so no tears.
We had a wonderful holiday season and sad to see them come to an end.

Sawyer got a snowsuit for Christmas. He seemed to enjoy being pulled in the sled.

Rach got the three of us matching shirts :)

Six Months and the End of the Semester

        Sawyer is now six months! I cannot believe he is half a year old! He is doing a pretty good job at sitting up on his own. Sawyer is getting better and better at eating solids.  His favorites are apples and carrots. Sawyer loves, laptops, cell phones, my kindle....when ever he sees any electronics he wants to get his hands on it. He  has also become very ticklish. He just laughs and laughs. It is basically the cutest thing ever! I love being his mom!  

       Some updates about what is going on in my life besides being a mom for the cutest baby boy. I am officially done with my last class at BYU! All that is between me and graduation are two finals and student teaching  next semester.  I am getting more and more nervous to student teach. It is going to be a crazy next few months...but worth it in the end.  I am so excited to graduate in April, but I think I will kind of miss school and BYU. So many wonderful things have happened in my life because I chose to go to BYU almost five years ago. Graduation also means I have to get a  grown up job! Getting a job scares me much more then having a baby ever did. 

         Anyway, I am looking forward to having almost a month off just to spend with Sam and Sawyer. We  are looking forward to Christmas and spending time with family. 

 Here a few pictures from the last month.

He was playing on this blanket and somehow found his way to the laptop

Daddy and Sawyer's favorite trick 

Bath Time 

Getting ready for Christmas 

5 Months!

As of yesterday Sawyer is now five months! He is growing and changing all the time.

The darling boy started sleeping through the night not to long after he turned three months. It was a blessing so I could be a little more alert in my classes. Then he hit four months and stopped...it was a little frustrating since I knew he could sleep through the night. Now it is hit and miss. If he does wake up it is only once so its not to bad.

He is getting so big! About three weeks ago, he was 27 inches and one once shy of 16 lbs. Last week, he started to get his first two teeth! They are pretty adorable. He hasn't gotten to cranky from teething so hopefully it stays that way!

We started him on rice cereal about two weeks ago. He seems to like it well enough. We feed it to him pretty close to bed time and it seems  to help him sleep through the night most of the time.

Sawyer loves to stand and be stiff as a board. When ever we are holding him, he prefers we hold  him in the standing position. He is really strong! He supports his own weight, we just have to keep him form falling over.   He only likes to cuddle when he is sleepy and sometimes not even then. I miss his snuggling days, but watching him play and laugh while he is playing in his walker makes  up for it. He loves, loves, loves is walker. He can push himself around and when he does he gets a huge smile. I can just tell he is so proud of himself. It is the cutest thing! Sawyer loves playing with Daddy. He loves being thrown in the air and going upside down. Sam can always get him laughing!  Sawyer does so many things each day that just melt my heart! We just can't get enough of our cute little boy!

The day he was born

To now. He has grown so much 

He found his toes

His Halloween costume

Crazy Baby! 

He rolls over all the time

So happy playing in his walker 

Playing with Daddy 

I just love Sawyer's expression 

Sleepy boys with bed head. They had just woken up. 

School and Football

School 

I am once again back in school. This will be my last year at BYU. I am taking classes this semester and then will be student teaching this winter. I am getting my degree in Biology Education. It is going to be a challenging year being a wife, mother, and full time student, but it will be worth it in the end. It is hard leaving Sawyer when I go off to school. I loved my lazy summer days just hanging out with my little boy. On the plus side, Sam will get to spend more one on one time with Sawyer. We are also very fortunate to have Sam's mom who is willing to watch Sawyer when Sam is working and I am at school.

Sawyer was helping me with my homework. We took a break to take some pictures.

Sawyer thought homework was boring and decided to take a nap instead

 Football 

We were able to go to the opening season BYU football game against Washington State with Sam's parents. Sam grew up in Pullman, the home of WSU. They funny thing is that both schools mascots are cougars. Sam was routing for WSU, he insists that they are the "true cougars". I wanted BYU to win and win they did! Sawyer was not a huge fan of the football game. It was far too loud. He eventually adjusted and then seemed to enjoy looking around at all the bright lights and the wind blowing in his face.

Sawyer was going for both teams 

Grandma and Grandpa Hotchkiss 

Daddy and Sawyer enjoyed watching some more football on Saturday while I did some homework.

3 Months!

Our little boy is 3 months today! We have loved everything about these last 3 months. Her are a few updates about him.

• We weighed him yesterday, and he was 15.2 lbs! 
• He smiles all the time, loves to coo and make all kinds of cute little noises. 
• When we talk to him, he responds. 
• He loves playing with his daddy and me. 
• He is sooo close to rolling over from is back to his tummy. He makes it to his tummy, but just can't quiet get his arm out from under him. 
• He has started to suck his thumb. It is pretty adorable! 
• He likes spending time on the floor so he can kick and move his arms as much as he wants. 
• He still wakes up two or three times during the night.  I am looking forward to when he starts sleeping longer than 2 or 3 hours! 

Here are some pictures we took today and look they even match!