Easter Weekend

At the end of the Spring Break week, the entire Meadows/McCulloch family gathered in Moulton to celebrate Easter together as well as to attend Sawyer's dedication at Hillsboro Baptist. On Saturday night, we all went out to eat at the steak house, which is a McCulloch family favorite.   



the entire family

After dinner, we all came back to our house to play games.  Thankfully, Michael brought his Bag O' Fun, so of course we broke out the Nintendo 64.  After a couple of hours of playing Mario Cart, we ended the night with a hilarious round of Taboo.  It was such a great time to spend with the whole family!

playing Mario Cart

The following morning, we celebrated Jesus' resurrection at Hillsboro Baptist with the entire family. We also invited everyone to come and be a part of Sawyer's dedication.  What an awesome responsibilty the Lord has blessed me and Steven with as parents.  We wanted to openly dedicate our son to the Lord and pray for God's blessings on his life.  It was extra special to have my dad, Sawyer's Big Papa, present him to the church.  After church, we had a big lunch for the entire family in the fellowship hall.

Sawyer with Big Papa and Nanna B

the guys

all the girls

the Meadows family

the McCulloch family

McCullochs (extended family)

Easter weekend was so beautiful and such a wonderful time spent with family!

Spring Break 2012

After spending the week with PawPaw and Mimi Meadows in North Carolina, Sawyer and I headed south to Alabama for Spring Break.  We had so much fun spending time with family! 

On our first night back in Alabama, Mom picked us up and we headed to Tuscaloosa to see Whitney and Chris.  It was my first time to see their new home.  It was sooo nice!  I really fell in love with all of the nice finishes and arched doorways.  I would love to show you pictures of our time there, but Sawyer had somewhat of a meltdown that night after the 12 hour drive, so needless to say, taking pictures was the last thing on my mind.

Below are a few of my favorite pictures from later that week.

Mom says that this is her favorite time with him :)

Sawyer LOVES his Uncle T!

Trying out Big Papa's motorcycle

Probably my favorite picture :)

Mrs. Tremble's 106th Birthday Party

snuggle time

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to visit Betsy and Michael at their new home in Huntsville. Wow...it was such a beautiful house, and it felt so warm and cozy.  I just fell in love with it!  We spent the night with them on Monday and then went to eat lunch and shop at baby stores the following day.  It was such a fun night!

visiting Aunt Betsy and Uncle Michael at their beautiful new home

 The next morning, Aunt Sherry and Kasey brought over Hampton, Sally, and Isla Kate to meet Sawyer for the first time.  They were all so cute together!  I couldn't stop laughing at the girls because they kept petting him and rubbing his head.  Afterward, we all went to Newk's for lunch and then did a little shopping around the Huntsville area. 

Doesn't he look excited?  (haha)

the whole gang at Newk's for lunch

On the way home from Huntsville, Mom and I stopped to visit Grandmaw and Grandpaw in Decatur.  Sawyer instantly fell in love with them. :)

Sawyer meeting his great grandparents, Grandpaw and Grandmaw McCulloch

I think they love him.

 Another highlight of the the trip for me was introducing Sawyer to Annie Lou.  She has been such a special woman in my life.  I could not begin to count the amount of time I spent sitting on that porch with her as a child.  It was great to bring Sawyer over to "sit a spell" with her too. 

sitting with Annie Lou on her front porch

 On Wednesday night, I took Sawyer over to Susanna and Jeff's new home in Muscle Shoals to meet them as well as little Abby. We had a great time eating dinner and catching up.  I can't wait to live closer so that we spend more time together!

meeting Aunt Susanna, Uncle Jeff, and cousin Abby

 The last weekend of the break was a wonderful whirlwind of family, Easter festivities, and Sawyer's dedication.  Post to follow soon...

4 Month Update

Doctor's Checkup: 15.3 lbs. and 26 inches!

Sawyer's fourth month was filled with lots of traveling and visits from family.  First, we were blessed with a visit from his PawPaw and Mimi (Mr. Steve and Mrs. Theo), who helped us out with him while Mrs. Myrtle was on vacation in Myrtle Beach.  During the day, they played and went on day-trips with him while me and Steven worked.  At night, we either cooked dinner together or went out for a bite.  One evening, we even got to take him out for his first ice cream run together(the Dairy Queen in New Bern had just reopened for the summer season).  Sawyer loves his grandparents, and was such a happy baby the whole time they visited! At the end of the week, we all said goodbye to Steven,who had to stay and work, and headed back to Alabama because I was off work for Spring Break (more on the Spring Break trip in a later post). 

Love :)

getting ice cream

Dinner on our last night in New Bern at Ribeyes

sweet smile

 After we returned from Spring Break in Moulton, we had a whirlwind of a month.  One of the fun events was being invited to Lauren Cannon's birthday party, so Sawyer went with us to celebrate. (We joked that it was his first college party).  It was really great to get to hang out with all of these guys again!  We miss them so much!

Celebrating with the birthday girl!

One of the best things about Sawyer's fouth month was when we found out the Whitney and Chris were expecting.  They told us by sending Sawyer this onesie that says, "Bodyguard for my new little cousin."  We are all so excited to meet him or her at the end of October.   

modeling his new onesie

lovin' on Dad

In month four, Sawyer's personality really started to come out.  He is such a happy baby and smiles all the time! Also, he has started to giggle and laugh at funny noises or silly faces.  He LOVES his daddy and apparently thinks that he is hilarious because Steven can make him laugh every time.  In other news, he is getting better at rolling over from his front to back, but he hasn't made it from back to front yet.  However, he loves laying on his back and kicking.  He has really strong legs and will really get you if you aren't paying attention.  He's still not a huge fan of laying on his stomach, but we are trying to make sure he spends time on his tummy so his back will continue to get stronger.   

Month 4 was a whirlwind of fun!  Looking forward to month 5!

3 Month Update

On March 22nd, Sawbaby celebrated his 3 month birthday!  This month has been so much fun, although I feel like I say that on every update.  He is starting to develop a personality, and smiles a lot.  I love it; seriously, I can't get enough!  I can usually be found acting really silly in the attempt to get him to laugh.  We haven't heard our first little giggle yet, but I know it is right around the corner.  Sawyer loves to stand up (with support, of course).  He is turning into a little wiggle worm.  The other night, I went to check on him in his crib and he had completely turned himself all the way around.  He didn't have a doctor's checkup this month, so I am not exactly sure how much he weighs as of right now, but I can tell you this...he is getting heavier.  My arms are starting to get a real workout, which I'm pretty happy about, since I have had absolutely no time to go to the gym while trying to balance being a momma and wife, working full time, and going to grad school. 

This month we were blessed to have my mom/ Sawyer's Nana come to stay with us for a week.  Since Mom is terrified of flying, she decided to take the train, which was a first for anyone in our family.  She got on the train late Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, after spending the night at Chris and Whitney's.  Steven and I picked her up the following afternoon in Raleigh (she had a layover in Greensboro, which is whole other story in itself). We were so excited to see her, and felt so blessed to have her come and keep Sawyer for the week because his sitter, Mrs. Myrtle, went to the mountains with her husband and friends. 

waiting on Nanna to get to NC

Mom spent the week getting in a lot of quality Nana/Sawyer time while me and Steven were at work during the day.  She was a welcomed guest, especially considering that I came home to a cooked meal, clean house, and folded laundry, not to mention a well cared for little baby every day!  She is great with him and I always learn so much from her every time she visits. 

Little man standing up!

Sawyer's first baseball game!  I think he loved it!!!

Visiting Dr. Joyner and Nurse Shelia, two of my favorite people in New Bern :)

Month 3 has been so much fun.  He grows more and more every day; it's crazy.  I am trying to stay in the moment and take in each development of his growth, instead of rushing him to the next thing.  I still can't believe he is mine!  God has blessed us so abundantly!