Sawyer's First Halloween!

Today was Sawyers first Halloween, last year he and I went together as a "mummy"- which was zachs idea and of course he thought that was hilarious.  Sawyer had two costumes this year, he was a dog and a gorilla.  He didnt really seem to mind wearing either costume- he is so good natured.  We didnt take him trick or treating- he is def. too little for candy.  We did put him in his costume and take his to my grandparents house though and he got to see my parents and some of my aunts and uncles as well.  We had some family in town from michigan so they got to see him too and we all had dinner together tonight and yesterday.  I also got sawyer a glow in the dark skeleton shirt that he work today and I forgot untill this afternoon that cooper had a matching costume!  Sawyer loves cooper so of course I had to try to get a picture of them together!

Hay Baby Hay

huge pelicans all flocked togethertons of birds

look momma- I can walk Cooper all by myself!

Im all bundled up in my stroller

In the hayloft- so neat but so dusty!

Sawyers first hayrack ride! Grandpa drove the tractor

Buddies

It was a wonderful weekend in our household. We spent a nice relaxing weekend together. Saturday afternoon was nice enough that all four of us (cooper counts too) got out for a lovely long walk by the lake. There were literally hundered of birds flocked and flying about below the dam and it was quite a funny sight- i suppose they were going after the fish down there. There were tons of segulls and a big group of HUGE pelicans as well. We walked my favorite path and stood on the bridge across the river and watched all the birds swirl around. Sunday was a busy day- we had family pictures taken with Zachs family and Sawyer got a halloween present from nanna after the pictures- he did very well this time and we got a few cute shots of just him for his nine month pictures! we spent the evening at a fall bonfire cookout with Zachs family- it was a blast- we roasted hotdogs over the fire,had a potluck and hot apple cider and Sawyer got to go on his first hayrack ride- I think he liked it too- except I made him wear his mittens and he wouldnt move his arms- I guess he though if he couldnt use his hands, he couldnt use his arms at all- it took him a few hours to get over it but he was still cheerful- just didnt move his arms and hands much lol. We even went up in the hayloft of a 100 year old barn- which was so neat, but so so dusty- I couldnt stay up for very long. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the fall season!

9 Months Old

if you click on this it pulls up bigger and not fuzzy

its hard to believe sawyer is 9 months old today- it seems to have flown by! it sure seemed like the nine months i was pregnant didnt go this fast! seems like it is time for an update so.. at nine months sawyer is def. one of the happiest kids ever and seems to be pretty laid back. his favorite things are animals, cars/trucks/tractors, eating what mommy is eating (and still loves nursing), and being outside. he is getting to be a better napper and ussually takes at least one good long nap everyday- we are still working on making the second a good nap too. he prob weighs between 22 and 23 lbs and is very tall- he is mostly wearing 12 month clothes now and some 18 month jammies. he is pulling himself up more and more but still refuses to crawl in favor of scooting on his butt. he will eat anything but especially loves to feed himself and drink from a cup. his favorite toys are balls- especially a purple ball he picked out himself- his favorite game is to play catch and he can both throw and catch very well already with good accuracy- maybe he will grow up to be a football player. he also loves to talk and seems to sat a few things pretty consistently- mama dada ball dog night night hi are a few i can think of... he can wave and loves to show off that he is soooooooo big as well. he likes to stand holding onto the furniture and occasionally take little steps. and he seems to just get more adorable every second!

Southern Sawyer

enjoying nice weather!

Farmers Market Pumpkins were "sooooo big"

How Sawyer spent each plane ride

This is neat!

Visiting Uncle Marcus at Davidson

Aunt Anna

Sawyer and I headed south this past week to spend fall break with my siblings in North Carolina. Daddy stayed home so it was just the two of us flying together- and it was Sawyer's first plane trip. I guess I wasnt really too nervous because sawyer tends to be such a good natured little guy. Turn out I really didnt need to be nervous- Sawyer slept the entire time on each of our flights! We layed over in Chicago and he woke up as we were landing and looked out the window and laughed and laughed and looked at me as if to say "whoa mom are you SEEING this, this is crazy!" We got our own row on each flight- except for one, which was nice because we needed the extra space. And of course Sawyer made friends with everyone sitting around us each time before he fell asleep - it think the engine noise would just knock him out because as soon as we would start moving- he was out. He loved the airport too- we would walk and look in the shops and he made friends with anyone who would look his way.

North Carolina was so nice and WARM! We even wore shorts a few times and took walks, and got to play outside! It was not fun to get off the plane in Iowa and feel the FREEZING cold air!

We got to see where uncle marcus goes to college which was fun. I think sawyer liked college :) We did lots of shopping everyday and went to the farmers market, trader joes, dean and deluca ect. and went out to eat a lot- including probably the best sushi I can remember- yum! We even got some of our christmas shoppind done- and bought sawyer a winter coat- which is pretty funny actually because it makes him look so puffy.

It was so nice to get to see my brother and sister and sawyer was so happy and had so much fun with everyone. It was nice to get home to daddy after a week though- Zach and I realized that we hadnt been apart for more than a few days since I graduated from college- and we def. missed eachother.

Worth It

So working in the ER can get pretty wild at times. I worked on Friday and I had a very interesting patient to put it mildly. I had a guy somewhere between 50 and 60 years old- not super old but not super young. He had been having some chest pressure for a week but was pretty stable. He had been in the ER with us for a while and I was getting ready to admitt him to the hospital for observation- no big deal right? He and I had even been joking around together the whole time he was there. So I go out to get another patient who had showed up and as Im talking with my other patient suddenly I hear- "code blue ER, code blue in ER" and my other patient was the only one there....needless to say I am SHOCKED and dash out of the room Im in and into my other patients room where there are already about 10 other nurses and the Dr. givving my patient CPR- and honestly all I can think is WTF and then I just start working- and then suddenly he is alive and fine again. As he told me "It was like I was waking up from a dream" He had died for 7 seconds.... it was wild. After that I sat and talked with him as we got things ready for him to be transfered. Well we transfer him to Des Moines and he did fine and was released pretty quickly.
Yesterday I worked and I was running all day long. It was a pretty bad shift. I wasnt probably in the best mood. Im being pulled in 12 different directions when our receptioninst calls back to the ER and tells me I need to come out the desk. I go out to the desk and my patient from friday is there- He was visiting a patient in the hospital and heard I was working and came to say hello, and thank you! I gave him the biggest hug-it was so wonderful to see him completly fine and walking around like nothing had happend. He told me this "I just wanted to see you and say thank you and to tell you that the only thing I remember is you sitting with me and that you had the most beautiful blue eyes"
Sometimes you just need someone to tell you that you made a difference to make a whole shift better :) What an amazing story the two of us now share!

Two weddings after a funeral

this weekend we headed up to CR where zach and i both went to college for the wedding of two of our good friends. i met leeann in college and as coincidence would have it- she and her boyfriend caleb started dating on the same day, same year as zach and i! coming up on 8 years! leeann also ended up joining my sorority and we shared an apartment our senior year. not long after leeann and caleb got engaged her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and has been fighting it ever since. leeann and her momma are extra close because her dad died before she was even born. leeanns mom cathy raised keeann and her older brother mark on her own. about a week ago leeanns mother was rushed to the ER at st. lukes and admitted to the ICU with a blood clot in her leg, a blood clot in her lung, and pneumonia. with everything planned and the invites sent out long ago arrangements were made by the ICU staff for the wedding to take place- in an ICU room! It was such an amazing and powerful thing to be apart of it all- and it took on so much more meaning. They set up a backdrop to hid all the hospital equipment and you could barely even tell we were in a hospital room. The ICU staff even had cake and punch for us and there were two news crews and the newspaper there! We were there at about 130 and were on the news by 6 and again at 10- we even made the front page of the life section of the paper on sunday. It was pretty neat actually- I tell Leeann that she is famous now! After the first wedding we headed back to the church for an affirmation of vows with all of the guests. The ceremony and reception were broadcast to Cathy in her ICU room via skype- which was pretty neat too because people could talk to her as if she were there. It was all pretty unbelievable- and we had so much fun! I can't believe it is already over!

Mimosas and hair at 7am!

Make up! The hubby and me

yay!

With Cathy after the first wedding

Sad News

Zach's grandpa van wyk passed away unexpectedly last night. He wasn't sick and had been feeling fine the entire day so we are still in shock. He was a wonderful man and he loved Sawyer so much. Just a few weeks ago he was holding sawyer and sawyer was so amazed by grandpas feed hat- sawyer was grabbing the hat right off grandpas head! Then grandpa let sawyer wear the hat but he just wanted it in his mouth. I just thought I would write that down so that I can always remember the two of them in that moment- so sweet and just happy to be together. Its still just so shocking- dosent seem real.
Grandpa loved coming over to see sawyer and get him all excited and worked up before bed