Answer Key

Okay, by request, here are the answers for the last two week's trivia quotes.
-Last week's movie was "TommyBoy" and the quote was... "I have what doctors call a little bit of a weight problem. I used to grab bear claws (or cheerios) as a kid, two at a time, and I'd get them lodged right in this region here..." Tommy (Chris Farley)
-Yesterday's movie was "Old School" and the quote was... "Saturday we're going to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed Bath and Beyond, I don't know if we'll have enough time."(Will Farrell)

I agree with you Gabe, that there are much better movies to choose from. Although I have to admit those two have some pretty funny quotes in them. I really didn't like the movie "Old School", but Will Farrell does come up with some of the funniest lines in any movie he's in. He cracks me up.


It is so HOT!!!
I guess the heat wave everyone else in the country has had is finally here in Michigan. Only did everyone else get the 90% humidity with the 100 degree temps? Did I mention we have no air conditioning? And twice as many people in the house as usual? It's going to be a long week!
Ryan's soccer game he was supposed to play got rescheduled due to the heat advisory issued today. That's good because I really didn't want to watch him play when it feels like 107 degrees outside. I didn't want to watch, and I didn't want him to play with it that warm. Warm.... who am I kidding? I meant HOT.



p.s. **Happy Anniversary Michael and Erin!**

Laughlins are good!!

Last week's movie quote was guessed by Kasey and this week's was correctly guessed (within an hour of the post, can anyone beat that?!) by the other half of the Laughlin couple; Mike. Apparently the Laughlins know their movies.
I didn't even know where the quote was in the post, let alone from which movie.
*Will Farrell in "Old School", by the way*
Good luck to everyone next Sunday! Ryan will be planning it all week.

Glory Days? (by Ryan)

Everyone seems to talk about the glory days as high school or college. For me, when I get together with the guys from college (specifically Mike, Mike and Don) we talk about our senior year of college as our glory days. But moving to Michigan recently has made me start to wonder if these days really are my glory days.

So lets examine each time period to help me decide.

Senior year at Greenville College

1. Kings of the campus (or so we thought)
2. SLIAC soccer champions
3. Lots of free time
4. No real jobs to worry about
5. Two-week vacation to Hawaii…for school credit
6. Took a golf class
7. Golfed 99 holes in one week
8. Stayed up late and slept in late
9. Hit the bars with my friends
10. On Saturday we would watch enough college football that we wouldn’t have time to get dressed until after dinner
11. Girlfriends provided too much drama

Present Day in Jackson, Michigan

1. King of the house (or at least so I think)
2. Jackson Recreation Soccer Champions (after tomorrow’s game)
3. No free time
4. A real job, and I leave the house at 6:30 am
5. What’s Hawaii?
6. Need golf lessons
7. Have golfed 9 holes since I have been in Michigan
8. One day I slept in till 8 am
9. Bars are too expensive
10. On Saturday we go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know if we'll have enough time
11. Wife and kids provide too much drama

So which are my glory days? You can help me decide, vote on it and let me know!

Response to "Dan from Salem"

Comment in response to the July 23rd comment:
Dear Abbie "Ryan",
While your struggles deal with a child who will not stop eating, I have a child who doesnt want to eat. I think she might be anorexic (sp). What do you suggest?
Dan from Salem

Dear Dan from Salem,
I bet you have a girl don't you? And if I may go out on a limb, your daughter probably has a very controlling mother too, am I right? I have seen this many times. She probably doesn't even let her watch TV, does she?
Here's what I would do. First, start drinking heavily, preferably a nice amber ale. Second, take your daughter to the store and let her pick out any carbohydrate she would like (I would start in the doughnut section, but chip are also acceptable). And then finally, sit down in front of ESPN with your daughter and don't let her leave until she has gained 15 to 20 pounds. I don't think that she will want to leave anyway. (If you are desparate you can start her on bon bons and Oprah, but make the switch to ESPN within a week).
Good luck, and godspeed.
Ryan

It's early

and I'm actually awake before the kids, which is rare. So I thought I'd jot down some stuff that would be fun to share before we get into the busyness of the day.
We're thinking about going to the zoo today. Ever since we went the first time Savannah has been talking about taking Daddy there and Gramma and Grandpa. So if they're all feeling up to it we may head over there this morning. They got in pretty late last night. First their flight into Chicago was delayed and then they spent pretty much the whole drive in the middle of a storm. They have a tripometer thing in their rental car and it showed their average speed of the trip from Chicago to Jackson last night at 38mph. That's a long trip. It took them just about 6 hours, pretty much double what it should take.
Anyway, so there here and we may head to the zoo today, we may just hang out and relax.

I forgot to mention the other day that when I came home from going out with the girls, I was confused because when I walked in the house I could hear Ryan downstairs talking to someone, but I could also hear the crack of pool ball shots. Who was here playing with him? I wondered because I knew Don was home with the baby. Well, turned out Ryan was playing a game of pool by himself with his headset on, talking on the phone. This is how dedicated he is. It was kind of funny... I've never seen him use that outside of the car, but now he's found a new use for it.


Sawyer just learned how to climb up the stairs yesterday. So now we have to be diligent about using the gate at the bottom when we're downstairs. While the kids were awake yesterday we spent just about all the time down there to keep cool. We put the gate up on the third step so he can practice climbing a little without getting hurt. So after he figured out just about first thing in the morning, that he could climb the steps but he can't get very far, he just climbs up onto the first one and kneels there on his knees and bounces and sings or yells or makes some sort of fun noise and just hangs out there. That's where he spent most of his day honestly, just perched on the bottom step. Probably partly too because he hasn't figured out how to get down gracefully yet. But it was pretty funny.
He also started this new thing (which makes me think his foul mood has really been because of his teething) where he constantly makes this smacking noise with his tongue. It's almost like clicking his tongue, but he starts with his tongue sticking out between his lips. He's been rubbing his tongue over his teeth and gums all the time and he apparently figured out how to make this cool sound that way. That's seriously how I keep track of him all day with him crawling all over the house. If he's out of sight, I just stop for a minute and listen and I can hear him smacking away and I just zone in on that to find him. I need to remember to get some video of that.

Well speak of the devil, I can hear him awake now. No smacking yet, but it's early.
Enjoy your Friday!!

One more picture

Here's Sawyer after a little snack yesterday. He got a bit messy.

And I guess to be fair (can't play favorites now, can I) here are a couple more of Savannah out playing in the rain splashing in the puddles.

Ugh! Today is not going well at all. I got almost absolutely nothing done yesterday. Sawyer was in the worst mood and wanted to be held or on my lap pretty much all day. I don't know what's going on with him, if it's his teeth or just a weird phase of super attachment he's going through.
Anyway, I just decided to humor him yesterday and kept saying to myself, 'I still have tomorrow' (to get all this cleaning and stuff done). Well now today, I got some laundry put away, sheets in the wash, and toys picked up because Sawyer actually slept in a little -till 8. But since then I've wasted most of the morning at the grocery store (have no idea why that seemed to take FOREVER!), I got the kids fed and Sawyer down for a nap, and got started on the rest of my to-do list but it is just so gosh darned hot and humid I just don't want to do anything!!! But I got the groceries put away and the kitchen cleaned up, threw the sheets in the dryer, swept off the driveway and patio from all the dirt and leaves and stuff from the wind and storms we've been having, and then came in to hear Savannah yelling for me downstairs because the "dryer is being really loud and breaking!". Now our dryer has been acting up for quite awhile now, but it actually seemed better lately. But as I come down the stairs the noise I hear is unlike any I've heard come out of a dryer. I'm surprised I didn't hear it outside! So I run in and turn it off and sit there wondering what to do. I try a couple of different things, but whenever I turn it on it sounds horrendous. I'm afraid to let it run, because it'll probably just make it worse (if it's even salvagable at this point) plus we never got around to buying new fire exstinguishers since we've moved and what would I do if the stupid dryer like blew up? But we have guests coming this evening and now the sheets that go on both the beds are washed and not dried. So I went and hung them outside, even though it's like 200% humidity out there, what else can I do? Pray it doesn't rain and hope that the sun might break through for just an hour or so?!
I probably should have stayed home last night and not procrastinated my chores. I went out to dinner with Katie and Nicole. We had fun and it was a nice and much needed break for all of us moms.
Well, I must get back to work...
At least this was a nice breather and I've cooled off for the moment.
I'm really not complaining, just venting! I am glad my parents and my grandma are coming, and it'll be fun to visit and let them experience a little bit of our life here in Michigan. Whe knows, maybe they'll want to move out here...

We have a winner...

I was so busy with posting the pictures I almost forgot...
We have our first winner for Ryan's Movie Quote Trivia! Congratulations to a Ms. K. Laughlin for being the first (and only) to guess the correct answer of "Tommyboy". Thanks for playing K. (were you trying to be anonymous?)

I knew I would get someone else to make a comment if I pointed out the movie quote "game".
Please guys, make all the comments on any of the posts you want so that I know I'm not just talking into thin air...

These kids are being cute again

so I thought I'd share some pics.

First of all, Savannah wanted to say "hi!"

She made a cute little sign and it took a few shots, but she definitely wanted to say hi!

We were at Ella Sharp Park this week and here's a couple of pics of the kids on the swings.



























And here's the SawMan in Ryan's favorite shirt.
It reads
"I'm Definitely Up To Something!"

"Sometimes I wish I didn't have a nose."

This is your SJ quote of the Day
"mommy, sometimes I wish I didn't have a nose."
This was out of the blue... I was coming upstairs from doing laundry and she meets me in the hallway with this comment.
"why?" I ask, wondering what made her think of that.
"because then I couldn't smell Sawyer's stink."
and as I walk into the playroom to check on him I smell it. It was definitely time for a diaper change!

So I hope you all were pleasantly amused by Ryan's hijacking of the blog last post. When I asked him if he wanted any input in this page and ever wanted to add anything, little did I know what I was in for. Apparently now he thinks he gets to be Mr. FunnyMan once a week.
Did anyone catch his movie quote? He's decided to throw a movie quote within his normal "conversation" each time and see who gets it. I told him he needs to let everyone know that so they can look for it and the first one to comment with the quote and what movie it's from gets... um... gets to be the winner each week I guess. So be sure and comment if you know the movie. Then at least we'll know that more than just our mothers read our blog.

Speaking of mothers, my parents are going to be here in less than 48 hours and our house is pretty much trashed. I have laundry everywhere, and Savannah has been on this huge toy spree through the house lately; there is play food or coloring books or puzzles or a baby doll and accesories in every room, I swear. And we've been spending alot of time cleaning up between activities or at least some before bed each night, but somehow she makes three new messes in the time it takes to clean one up. I don't know how she spreads things out so fast. And it doesn't help that Sawyer's getting the hang of that too now.
So I have a lot to do the next two days. There are still two boxes to unpack in our bedroom, I need to finish the laundry, clean out the fridge, and clean the bathrooms, to name a few. All the while trying to stay caught up with cleaning up after the kids.
Sawyer's been especially clingy and whiny the last few days, so we'll see how that all works tomorrow. Oh the joys of a stay at home mom!! Ryan, can I go to work the next couple days instead?

The Truth (or at least as Ryan tells it)

Since I get the priviledge of giving Heather a break from writing every Sunday, I thought that I would provide some clarity for everyone and give you my version of the truth.

Sawyer may not be doing as well as Heather may want you to think. She might say that he is a little "big" for his age, but the truth is that he has a bit of a weight problem. I have seen him grab Cheerios six at a time and they can get lodged right inbetween two of his chins. You should recognize this picture from our trip to the beach, but now I want to show you the angle that Heather would like to keep hidden. Notice the extra large mid-section.

Sometimes I get nervous while feeding him because of the way that he looks at my fingers like they are vienna sausages. Also it is tough to tell him that meal time is over, I would advise anyone doing so to covering their ears...and watch their fingers.
Not to bring up another problem but you should see the way that Sawyer hits the bottle. I would estimate that he downs 3 or 4 bottles a day and he never goes to bed without one. I have even seen him have one in the car. I am thinking about getting him into a 12 step program, as soon as he can count to 12 that is.

If you are as concerned as I am please make comments to open Heather's eyes to the elephant in the room...before we have another elephant in the room.

Thank you! I will be here every Sunday, and remember to tip your bloggers.

I asked Ryan last night if he would ever post anything on this blog and he said he would write a bit every Sunday. We'll see about that.

I went to a few garage sales this morning. I got a great stroller for just $7, and a Little Tykes basketball hoop for Savannah she's been wanting for awhile for $2. Our friend Nicole found one at a garage sale a few weeks ago that SJ plays with when we're over there and she asks all the time if we can get one "just like Porter's". So she was pretty excited when she saw one out in our driveway. But then she ended up just pushing her Lammy up and down the driveway in the new stroller for like an hour while Ryan played basketball by himself.

We were thinking about having some people over for dessert and games tonight. By some people I mean the only four people we know in Jackson. Don and Katie and their friends Nicole and Ryan. But we haven't gotten ahold of anyone yet this afternoon and it's already after three, so it'll probably just be the two of us hanging out here. The kids'll be in bed early... Savannah doesn't take naps anymore- but she needs the sleep- so by the end of the week she's packing some bags under her eyes and pretty much needs to be in bed by 7pm.
Maybe we'll rent a movie. Maybe we'll clean the house. Way to spend a Saturday evening, huh?!

Can't forget Ryan

No, I won't forget to update you on everything Ryan's been up to, living the life in Jackson.
First, to update on my med. stuff...
Went in for the ESWL (extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy) on Wednesday evening. Was in the hospital for a total of about five and a half hours, actually in the "operating room" for just 45 minutes. FYI, it is considered day surgery, but they don't actually cut or anything. You just lay on this bed maching thing with a balloon thing up against your back that generates strong sound waves directed at the kidney stone to break it up into the consisitency of sand. I remember nothing, they sedated me and I was out for the whole thing. But I got sick afterwards. Probably mostly from all the meds and not having been able to eat since the night before. So they gave me more meds and let me sleep it off awhile. I barely remember coming home or anything. Was pretty groggy and sore most of the next day, but all is well now. Hopefully that took care of everything... I go back for a follow up appointment in a couple of weeks.

So what's the news of Ryan?
He's playing pool right now as we speak; he does this every night. It's a goal of his, I think, to play at least one game every single day. The table didn't get set up till after the 4th of July, so we were here awhile without it, but ever since then I think he's only missed one day.
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa M!Ryan is just finishing up his first session of outdoor soccer here in Jackson. His team is in second place right now and the next two weeks are tournament matches (Mom and Dad, you'll be here for the final game if they make it through). He hurt his ankle and ended up having to take a couple of weeks off, but other than that we've watched most of the early evening games. It's been fun watching him play outdoor, and I know he's had fun playing with Don again. (They played together for four years at Greenville)

Ryan is enjoying his job more now that most of the orientation and training days are behind him and he's got some of his own projects to work on. He seems to like most everyone he works with and the commute doesn't seem to bother him. *Except that the couple of big storms we've had have hit during his evening drive so he's been stuck in the middle of it, has to wait it out, or "race" it home.* The only thing he does complain about is having his alarm set for 5:50am. He tries to leave the house before 6:30, so that usually means an earlier bedtime than we're used to. We have to make ourselves go to bed by 10 or he's pretty crabby the next day. At the end of the day, he's still usually home by 5 or 5:30 though, even with the commute, so that's nice. I don't really know what else I can say as far as job stuff goes. Ryan may have to jump in here himself if he has anything to add. He's going to some classes for a few days in Boston in August. Here's a picture we took on our way through Kalamazoo to Holland last weekend.
This is where Ryan spends his days.







Another new hobby of his is yard work. He got himself a riding lawnmower and has been using it regularly. Savannah likes to ride along with him. We haven't got much further than the basic mantenence of the yard so far, but we have plans for some lanscaping changes in the works.

Don't really know what else to say. Maybe Ryan will have some input at some point along these posts.
Now that you've caught up a little on all of us the last couple months, you can tune in regularly to hear the ordinary, everyday, simple life we lead.

I did get a few new pictures uploaded to the Shutterfly albums. Click here to see the albums, or the link is always in the side bar. Just some pictures from the beach last weekend, a couple of the kids around here, and I added a few of the basement now that we have the pool table set up.

p.s. *Happy Anniversary Debbie and Andy!*

Like the outfit?

I just had to share with you Savannah's outfit today...

















SJ quote of the day:
Sawyer watched a Teletubbies video for the 1st time today...
Savannah: Mom, why do Teletubbies have the squares on their tummies?
Me: I don't know, isn't that how they see their special videos?
Savannah: No mom, I think actually they have those squares because
that's just how God made them.

Progress

Not much going on today, just a lazy Friday around here.
We made some progress last night on going through the laundry room. I say the laundry room because that's where the washer and dryer are, but that's only in one little corner of the room. Really it's a whole big room, bigger than our family room. It's kind of been our catch-all for everything we haven't unpacked or don't know what to do with. There's a huge table down there (it's something like 4'x8') and we'll put some shelves in there, so that it's basically just an extra large storage room. For now that's where we'll have our holiday stuff and unpacked boxes (mostly books from school) as well as all the little kitchen appliances we don't have room to store in the kitchen till we remodel.
And my crafts. I finally got all my craft stuff unpacked today and somewhat organized. Yea!! I'm going to use the big table for that for now. After my parents visit and we have a couple more house projects done, I'm looking forward to working on some of my own projects... maybe get some Christmas presents out of the way. And hopefully get some more scrapbooking done too.

I'm going to try and get some more pictures put in the Shutterfly albums later today. I'll let you know when I do.

Maybe My Kids Need Helmets...

...or mouth guards. Or both.

Dr. Robertson, where can I get one of those Life Helmets you are always talking about?

Sawyer just knocked his mouth on my forehead (HARD) and cut his other top tooth through the gum. It was about ready to come through anyway, you could see it clearly under there. But I guesss he has decided this is how he chooses to cut teeth now... to literally cut them! So we both ended up with a little blood all over us. It's amazing how much more blood there seems to be when they're crying and drooling and sniffling all over you!
And this is after Sawyer fell against a doorway yesterday and bruised his cheek pretty good. Plus he has a new bruise on his forehead I have no idea what from.
Savannah's still got a swollen face and her chin is turning that lovely green/yellow shade of bruise.
I promise I don't abuse my kids!

My Turn

Where do I start with recapping Heather's world over the last two months? It's been pretty crazy. I think I've had more visits to doctors and dentists since we've lived here for 8 weeks, than I have in the last 10 years. First, as soon as we moved here, while we still had an empty house and Ryan hadn't started work, I had to make an emergency dental appointment. I had lost a filling a year or so ago and sort of forgot about it because it never bothered me... but of course the week we're packing up to move across the country, the pain decides to rear it's ugly head. I tried to hold off till Ryan started work and we had insurance, but no dice. I found a dentist who then sent me to some other dentist who specializes in root canals and now, three appoinments later, I am finally pain free but still awaiting a crown to finish it off.
And just as that was wrapping up and getting all taken care of, two weeks ago I ended up in the ER all night and was diagnosed with kidney stones. Now after a CAT scan, three xrays, and two urologist appoinments later, I have outpatient surgery scheduled tomorrow at the hospital where they will break up the biggest stone with soundwaves (I don't remember what they call the proceedure). I'm really not looking forward to that. Sidenote: it's not so easy to navigate through all these dental and doctor appointments figuring out what to do with the kids when your husband works an hour's drive away and you know practically no one in town! That's just the icing on the cake of an already stressful situation.
Aside from all the fun medical stuff, I've had plenty to keep myself busy around the house. It's nice to finally start getting settled into a normal household routine of cleaning and laundry and really playing with the kids, taking walks and visiting parks and such. These first two months have been so full of unpacking and painting and organizing -in between the needs of the kids and taking time out for friends and family coming into town. It's finally starting to feel like things are slowing down and my day doesn't have to consist of more than doing a few dishes, cooking a meal or two, maybe a load of laundry, and make sure my kids are happy and healthy. That's a nice change from feeling like I have a million things to get done to get settled and not enough time in the day to do even a handful of them.
Anyway, I like living here; I love our house (there's so much room!!), I love having a yard (even though right now it seems like it's nothing more than a half acre of mosquitos), I like the small town feel (except that the closest Old Navy is 40 minutes away), and I love the weather (except for the thunderstorms that decide to roll in right at bedtime and keep me from sleeping all night).
That's basically my story since we've been here. Between mosquito bites, sunburns, root canals and kidney stones, physically I'm falling apart, but at least the house and the kids are getting put together. Next step is to get involved in a church, meet more of our neighbors, have some barbeques to get to know more people, and set up some play dates for the kids. And we have the whole rest of the summer to do it. Then I'm hoping on getting involved in a MOPS or BSF group in the fall and possibly put Savannah in preschool a couple of mornings a week or something. We'll see how it goes.

You can pray for me tomorrow as I go in for my procedure. I am not excited about it. I'll keep you posted.

Savannah Joy

Today was a true Monday.
I wanted to start the day over about twenty times today. The biggest bummer was that Savannah fell and bit through her lip and scraped up her chin. She's been on Tylenol all day since it happened (bright and early at nine this morning) and she was still whining/whimpering/crying all day "mommy, why does my lip still hurt?" She can hardly eat, and barely talk, and I just feel so bad for her. It's been a long day!!

SJ quote of the day...
I asked Savannah if she wanted to go to Target with me. She answered, "No thanks, I'll stay here with daddy and Sawyer.
You need to go by yourself and meet some new friends."


So other than her traumatic morning, what has Savannah been up to?
Well, she's a busy girl these days, as full of energy and questions and obnoxious giggles as any three year old.
She loves our house and especially her new room, even more so now that we got the stripes painted in there. She tells everyone that the different colors of paint smell like different things- the blue stripes smell like blueberries and the pink smell like strawberry. In fact all the different rooms have different smells according to their colors, and I can't remember what they are, but she'll rattle them off for anyone.


Savannah has loved having the visitors we've had stay with us this summer. I forget how "social" we were back home and how often we visited with friends and family on a regular basis. She was in heaven with more people here than just us to talk to and play with. I think she's pretty lonely here spending everyday with just me and Sawyer. We went to a couple's house for a barbeque last weekend and they had a friend there who had a 4 year old little girl. Savannah got hurt numerous times playing with her, some accidentally, some not so accidentally (like being smacked with a plastic baseball bat for just one example!). Well, most of you know that Savannah can be kind of a baby when it comes to getting hurt; she likes to let everyone know and it takes her awhile to get over it. Well, we barely heard a peep out of her when she was playing with this child... I think she was so desperate to have a friend her age to play with, she didn't want to complain about anything! She talks to everyone now, every child we see in the grocery store is a potential friend, and she's more than willing to initiate a conversation or even just a wave. I'm glad she's taking the more outgoing route than becoming more shy not knowing very many people here.
But she talks about all her friends back in Oregon all the time. We saw a blonde haired little boy today in the store and she said "look mom, that boy looks like my friend Cade. Do you remember Cade mommy? He's my friend and he's going to come visit me." She wants anyone and everyone to come visit her.
And she thinks everything happened "last night". "Remember just last night when we..." even though it was last week or last month. But she does remember EVERYTHING. Everyday there's something she remembers that we are just amazed with.
The other fun thing (usually fun anyway) about Savannah lately is that she is very into picking out her own outfits. It's almost always a dress or skirt or some combination of both. To top it off, she does her own hair with her own hairspray (detangler), water, and about two dozen hair accessories. She also puts lotion on like she's pretending to put make up on at least twice a day. It's pretty funny. But she always asks before she starts..."mom, can I put on some lotion and do my hair by myself in my bathroom?"
Is this girl three or thirteen?

The Saw-Man

Yes, it's time for the post all about Sawyer.
Well, it'll be all about Sawyer in a minute.
First I just want to say thanks to any and all of you who have been praying for us regarding our "church shopping". We went to Jackson Free Methodist this morning and FINALLY felt like we found a church we could go to. We've been to five other churches since we've moved out here and I think were starting to feel a little frustrated with the whole experience. Maybe we have too high of expectations of what we're looking for in a church?! I guess we were spoiled with River West having such great worship, awesome pastors, a wonderfully involved ministry of small community groups, and a good children's program. All wrapped up in a great sized church... not too big, not too small. Those are hard shoes to fill. I know it took a little while for me to find a good church I felt at home in when I had left the church I grew up in and found River West, so I know it'll take some time. Having kids adds a whole other aspect of looking for a church, because you can't just find someplace you like, where you feel comfortable and you like their worship styles and the pastor, but you have to feel comfortable with the children's programs and know your kids will enjoy being there and be able to learn what it means to be a part of God's family.
Anyway, at least we found a good church today. Ryan and I both liked it pretty well. Not so much that we walked in and thought,"this is where we're supposed to be", but I'm sure we'll go back a few times and see how it goes. Keep praying that we do end up where God wants us and we can get plugged in and involved in a church and meet some new families.


So on to the new news of the SawMan...
Sawyer is now about eight and a half months old and he is awfully stinkin' cute, if I do say so myself. He just got his third tooth (although it would probably still be sitting nicely under his gums if he hadn't hit his mouth and cut the tooth thru), and he's crawling and climbing everywhere! He won't stay in one room for more than what seems like two minutes, and thinks he needs to be standing upright all the time. He went from barely scooting around to full-on crawling and then since he's been a "crawler" he's really wasted no time getting moving. From the day he was up on his hands and knees, he's super fast and will climb on anything more than a foot high.
He loves playing with Savannah, (and her favorite job is entertaining her brother) and he follows her around the house everywhere. His favorite things right now are balls, measuring cups, and taking all the magnets off the fridge. He's suddenly loving books and he's just started "dancing" this past week. It's pretty cute- he just sits in one spot and bounces a little with this big grin on his face.
What else can I say? Sawyer's got a little friend named Donny. Donny is small for his age, he's 6 months old and he might weigh about 14 lbs. It's pretty funny to see them together becuase Donny's so little and Sawyer's so big. Donny could pass for a three month old and people always think Sawyer should be toddling around. No one has any idea how old they are or that they are only 8 weeks apart when they see them, because you're looking at one extreme end of the spectrum compared to the other end. Donny is in the 5th percentile on the height and weight charts, while Sawyer is in the 95th percentile. And I don't think he's slowing down anytime soon in the growth department. I thought maybe he would thin out a little one he started moving around, but now he just eats more. I swear, this kid would eat forever if we let him. I've never seen anyone get excited about food like him.
Sawyer just had his first haircut last weekend. We stripped him down and took the clippers out on the front step. He thought it was a game... the clippers tickled him. It was pretty cute. So now he looks even older with his big boy haircut. Where did my baby go?



p.s. Also, I'm going to try and figure out how to put some video bits on here for you, so hopefully one of these days you'll be able to see some of the real life action of these kids.

A Day at the Beach

What a beautiful day! We went out to Holland, Michigan which is just about two hours northwest of us. The weather was gorgeous- 95 degrees outside, the water temperature was 74. We got out there just after noon and spent a good 4 hours or so out on the beach. It was crowded, but we found a cozy spot in the sand, Savannah had a blast, Sawyer loved the sand ...and he even took a really good nap on the blanket under a little makeshift sun shade.

It was so nice and hot out, the kind of day where the sand burns your feet, and the water was unbelievable. It was so perfectly cool and refreshing and clear and beautiful! Savannah wanted to be in the water pretty much the whole time, jumping over the waves.
Very different from the Oregon Coast!!
Oregon beaches: 45 degree water
Michigan beaches: 75 degree water
Oregon beaches: salt water
Michigan beaches: fresh (and clear) water
Oregon beaches: empty beaches
Michigan beaches: no empty spaces near the water
Oregon beaches: people in sweaters
Michigan beaches: people in swimsuits
Oregon beaches: always windy
Michigan beaches: barely a breeze
Oregon beaches: no one in the water
Michigan beaches: too hot to not be in the water

As much as we loved visiting the beach back home, spending as many weekends at the coast as we could, it's nice to know we have a decent replacement here. We will definitely be visiting the Michigan coast as often as we have the chance!

p.s.
*Happy Anniversary Dan and Holly*

Daddy's got hairy armpits?!

Savannah is just full of the most hilarious one-liners these days, so to share a small portion of her tidbits of wisdom, we've decided -for your enjoyment- to start including an SJ (savannah joy) quote of the day.
This was today's random thought, as Ryan (shirtless) had Sawyer on his lap getting him into his pajamas:
"Daddy, under your armpits matches Sawyer's hair!"

So glad it's Friday!!!
Ryan has half days on Fridays during the summer and that makes Fridays even better!
We're planning on heading out to visit the beach tomorrow. No, it's not really the beach, but that's what they call it here, and it really does look like the ocean beaches. And compared to the real beaches back home in Oregon, it's warmer weather and the water is actually swimmable, so that'll be nice. We're headed to Michigan's "west coast" (otherwise known as Lake Michigan) which is just about two hours from us.
Even though we have some more work we want to do on house stuff before my (Heather's) parents come, we decided we need to get out and see a little of this great new state we live in. We've heard of tons of supposedly great camping places, hikes, lakes, beaches, and other wonderful places to visit. So we thought we'd take off this weekend and get away from our house. We've had plenty of projects and plenty of visitors to keep us busy so far this summer and I can't stand the fact that it seems like the summer is slipping by too fast. So we're packing up the car and going out to see what we will see tomorrow. Plus it's supposed to be in the 90's tomorrow and it's been real humid the last two days so it'll be nice to spend the day in the air conditioned car and at the lake beaches instead of our hot house. Also there is a Chick-fil-A in Grand Rapids that Ryan is dying to get to, his Michigan mecca has been calling him.

By the way, as a little bit of an agenda; I was thinking I should update everyone (or those we haven't been so in touch with) a little bit about the goings-on of us Morrisons over the last month or so and what I was thinking was I would just kind of do a quick run down of the latest on each one of us but just do it one at a time every few days or so. Don't worry, I'll do the kids first cuz I know that's what the families want to know. So I'll start with Sawyer and what he's been up to and busy with in the next installment. Stay tuned.

Let get this party started!

Testing, testing... can anyone hear me?

how about a picture?
I'm telling you, as long as this kid's got food in his mouth, he's probably the happiest kid you've ever seen.



So, I guess we'll give this blog thing a try. I suppose it may be easier than trying to remember who I've told what. Now I'll expect you all to know EVERYTHING about us. Just kidding.

Ryan still says we're going to get our own website with our own domain name and everything one of these days. We'll see. If you ask me, this is probably just as easy. It looks like we can do pictures and videos and links and mostly all the stuff we'd want to do anyway. And it's free. So I'm in charge of this for now. We'll see if I can figure it out.

p.s.
*Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!*