Family Weekend :)

This weekend, both of my sisters, their husbands, my niece, and my parents all came to Thomasville to stay with us for the weekend.  Chris, Whitney, and baby Amelia arrived late Thursday evening.  I could not get over how cute Amelia looked.  I just wanted to cuddle with her the whole time! 

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The following night, we all went out to eat at Old Mexico while we waited on the others to arrive. We let the babies take a late nap, so that they could stay up to hang out with everybody.  We had so much fun talking and playing with the babies that evening!

On Saturday, I had to go to class and give my final project presentation for School Law.  I hated missing out on all the action at the house, but it is just not the type of class you can skip and get away with it.  However, we weren't there for the full day, so I was back at the house by 2:00 that afternoon.  We took everyone on a tour of the "Success Story of Southwest Alabama" also known as Thomasville.  The tour did not take very long... Later we grilled out, talked, and watched a movie before calling it a night.

Reading time with Nana

the boys doing what they do best

doing a little engineering with Uncle Michael

Reading with Aunt Whitney

The nurses had to study and do paperwork...nerds.

Grilling out on a REALLY cold afternoon!

After church and lunch on Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to everyone.  I am always so sad to see everyone go because I love the excitement and the action of having family around.  I wish that we could all live in the same town and that our kids could grow up together...who knows what the future holds.

 

Sawyer at 14 Months

Sawyer will be 14 months old in a couple of days.  He is learning so much everyday.  I love to see all of his new developments and study him as he grows!

14 Month Highlights:

- Lots and lots of language development took place this month.  He is starting to understand more and more about language being powerful, mostly because it is easier for him to get what he wants if he can tell me what it is.   For example, when he is thirsty he says "baba" (meaning his sippy cup).  When he is hungry he walks over to the refrigerator or pantry and says "ca-cuh" or "mmm" to let me know that he wants food. It's just so incredible to see him develop.  Other fun words this month include "rawh" (to answer the question, "How does a tiger sound?"), cack-cack (to answer the question "What sound does a duck make?"), mow (to answer "What sound does a cat make?"), bah (for ball), dada (for everything, including his Daddy), and mama (to melt me heart).

- I always heard people refer to their children as little monkeys, but I never knew quite what they meant until now.  Sawyer truly is a little monkey.  He is climbing and crawling on everything, which has meant lots of falls, bumps, and bruises this month.  I cannot turn my head for one second because he will be on the top of the couch  and trying to climb up the window or perched on top of the coffee table ready for flight (both of these circumstances took place this month). 

- Sawyer experienced his first burn this month.  On our engagement day anniversary, I decided that I was going to do something special and grill out steaks for dinner.  Steven was supposed to be home any minute, so I put the steaks on while Sawyer and I played in the yard.  He had not paid a bit of attention to the grill the whole time we were outside until the worst possible time.  While he was playing on his playplace, I walked over to the grill to get the steaks off.  I was holding my plate in one hand and the tongs in the other as I lifted the lid.  Just as I was putting the last steak on the plate, Sawyer ran over to me, lept up, and grabbed the grill. I immediately dropped everything, and got him inside.  At first, I thought that he must not have touched very hard because he wasn't crying, but I'm pretty sure he was just in shock because the tears came out in a fury after a couple of minutes.  After a trip the pharmacy and lots of love, he calmed down and never really seemed bothered by it.  Although, he still blows on his completely heeled hand all the time (I guess he formed a habit after watching mommy do it so often). 

- Another day, another ear infection.  This month he experienced his sixth one in about six months.  We have made an appointment to see an ENT about tubes.  Steven had to have them as a child, so I think this might be the best thing for our little man.  I HATE to see him so down and out, and an ear infection seems to suck the life right out of him.  The only good part was that his infection gave us an excuse to have Mr. Steve and Mrs. Theo in town to take care of him while we were at work.  We are so thankful to be a part of such a loving family. 


so sick :(

- Sawyer still LOVES animals, although every animal he encounters is called "doh" (for dog).  Our neighbors have three huge cats that nap on our front sidewalk every afternoon, and Sawyer loves them, although I'm pretty sure they do not feel the same way about him.  However, one of them is pretty friendly, and tolerates his "petting" (which looks a lot more like hitting; we are trying to teach him to be gentle, but that is easier said than done).  The others immediately run away as soon as they see him get out of the car...

- Last but not least, Sawyer has a lot of new teeth.  He cut six teeth this month, so there were quite a few moments of irritability.  Steven (endearingly) calls him gap-tooth because of his gappy smile, but this momma loves it!

Mom's 50th Birthday!

 Ain't it nifty?  Look who's fifty!!!

My beautiful mother turned the big 5-0 on February 7th, so of course we had to throw her a party!  Aunt Sherry, Betsy, Whitney, and I all wanted to do something special for mom because it was such an important birthday.  We decided that she probably wouldn't come if she knew about it because she has never liked to be the center of attention.  The only problem was that my mother may have missed her true calling as a detective.  She has a keen ear and can usually spot a lie in a second. 

In order to make her less suspicious, we set the date for January 26th, which was almost two weeks before her actual birthday.  I sent out the invitations to everyone but Mom.  Meanwhile, Aunt Sherry made a fake invitation to a party being thrown for my dear Aunt Annie Lou (we knew that Mom would never miss a party thrown in Annie Lou's honor).  Sherry even got my cousin Chris (who it said was hosting on the fake invitation) to address the envelope because we were scared mom would recognize Sherry's handwriting (I'm telling you, she is a detective).

After talking with Aunt Sherry, I decided that mom would have her radar on if she thought I had mysteriously decided to make the trip to Moulton for the weekend on a whim, so we made up a little fib. One evening, I called mom and told her that Steven had surprised me with an early Valentine's trip to Nashville, but we needed someone to watch Sawyer for the weekend.  Of course, she was quick to agree. 

On the Friday night before the party, Steven and I met mom in Priceville to give her Sawyer and head on up to "Nashville".  We parted ways quickly because I was so scared that if I said anything she would know something was up.  That night, Steven and I spent the night at Michael and Betsy's house where we were going to prepare all the food the next morning.  

After a long but fun day of preparation, we headed over to Aunt Sherry's church, who graciously allowed us to use their fellowship hall for the party.  All of our family and friends arrived a little before five o'clock, but we had instructed Taylor and Dad to make sure mom didn't arrive before 5:20.  

When mom walked through the door and everyone yelled, "Surprise", she was truly surprised!  I think that everyone had a fun night and mom was able to show off her two grand babies to all of her friends and family members.  I was so happy to be able to celebrate the beautiful, Christ-filled, complicated, fun-loving, and gracious life of my mother.  She is someone that I have and will always look up to in so many ways.  I am so blessed to be her daughter.  I love you, Momma!  Happy 50th Birthday!

Hanging out at the party with my cute little date :)

Sawyer and Big Papa doing what they do best!

the McCulloch Girls

Buttrams + McCullochs

13 Month Update

On January 22nd, Sawyer turned 13 months old.  This month has been a lot of fun because his personality becomes more and more pronounced every day.  He is a little character and loves to laugh and play outside.  His language skills have also increased dramatically over the past month. It is so incredible to watch him grow and learn new things!

13 Month Milestones:

- Sawyer is now in the one-year-old class at school.  He seems to really love it, especially because they get to go outside and play on the playground every afternoon.  It is so fun to get to the school and watch him play from inside with all the other little babies.  His teacher says that he is doing fine and has transitioned well. 

- New words: "cacuh"= cracker, "baba"= sippy cup; My favorite new thing is that he learned that a cow makes the "moo" sound.  We practice this in the car on the way to school every morning.  I guess I would clap and say "yay" in response to Sawyer making the correct sound, so now when I ask the question, "How does a cow sound?"  he says, "moooo" then immediately claps and says "yay".  We will have to work on correcting that later.  For now, it is just so cute!

- He loves to be O-U-T-S-I-D-E.  We literally have to spell it because if he hears the word he starts beating on the backdoor.  Rainy days are really hard at our house because this kid is already an outdoorsman at heart. 

- Sawyer LOVES his daddy!  When we get home in the afternoon, he constantly runs into the living room, points at the back door, and says "dada" over and over again.  When Steven finally gets home, Sawyer will take off running towards him in an all out sprint.  It is precious to see them together. 

- Sawyer has transitioned into only taking one nap a day.  This has been one of the hardest transitions that he has made.  He goes down at 11:30 every day at daycare and the goal is for him to sleep a solid two hours.  When he does, I can tell a difference than those times when he only had a short nap.  For the first few weeks, he would come home tired and would give me all the signs that he was ready for an afternoon nap, but when I would put him down he would just cry until I came and got him.  This was not like him at all because he usually LOVES and afternoon nap.  We are finally getting more used to staying up in the afternoon and going to bed a little earlier at night. 

Our Engagement Story

Since today is the eve of the four-year anniversary of our engagement, I decided to get the whole story down on paper (uhh...cyber paper, I guess).  If your interested, take a look!

Steven asked me to be his wife on Saturday, January 24, 2009.  It was a magical night in so many ways, mostly because it was so unexpected.  Steven and I had talked about marriage, of course, but it was always seemed to be lingering somewhere far away from reality.  I had already graduated from college and was in the middle of my second year at OHS, but Steven was still in school working on his Master's degree.  I assumed that if he didn't ask me at Christmas, then we would wait until he finished school the following May. I am glad I was wrong!

Our trip to Madison that weekend seemed like any other.  Steven's family usually takes a trip down there once a month, so nothing seemed strange or out of the ordinary about going on this particular weekend.  On Saturday morning, the boys went hunting and stayed out a little longer than usual doing some "work" on the farm.  I assumed they were just clearing roads, running the dogs, or working on one of the dove fields.  Later that night, Steven and I went to town to pick up some pizza for the family.  While we were waiting, Steven said, "Hey, do you want to go out to the farm later tonight with Conner and Katie?"  I answered, "It's pretty cold outside, but okay."

While we were all sitting around eating, I noticed that Steven barely touched his food. He said that he was still full from lunch, so I didn't think anything about it. As soon as I took my last bite, he said, "You ready?"  Before we left, I went upstairs to change clothes because it was cold outside and I wanted to stay as warm as possible (Back story: Earlier that afternoon, Katie got dressed up, which we don't usually do at the farm, so I followed suit. She later told me she did this on purpose because she knew I would want to look nice in pictures.  Well, that all went out the window when I changed into my Lawrence County hoody sweatshirt, jeans, and New Balances to go out for a ride on the farm).  Since Conner and Katie were coming out to the farm with us, I hadn't the least bit of a clue what was about to happen...

Right as we were all walking out the door, Conner acted like he felt a little sick.  He said for us to go on and they would follow us out to the farm in a little bit.  Again, since Conner is prone to stomach issues, I thought nothing of the situation.  When Steven and I arrived at the farm, we got on the golf cart and started driving around.  I told him that I would like to go down to the lane because it my absolute favorite spot on the farm (the lane is full of massive Live Oaks that line both sides and Spanish moss hangs off of each branch into the middle.  It is literally like something you would see on a postcard).  Steven agreed, but I noticed he seemed a little distant.  After we passed through the lane, I began to notice his mood change even more.  He didn't talk or even respond in some cases during our conversation, so I told him I was cold and wanted to go back to the house.  As we turned the corner to go back to the gate, I saw one of the old tobacco barns in the distance; the doors were closed, but light was shining through all the cracks in the sides. Steven stopped the golf cart right outside and opened the door to the most beautiful thing I had ever seen... 

Inside the barn, Steven (with the help of his brother and dad) had hung over 2,000 twinkle lights and anybody who knows me well knows that I am obsessed with twinkle lights.  He had also hung white sheets along the inside of the barn with rose petals that led to a table at the back.  On the table sat a dozen roses and a ring box.  It was like a dream!

After Steven opened the barn doors,  he took my hand and led me down the petaled pathway to the table, got down on one knee, and asked me to be his wife.  It was the most magical night of my life, and is something I will never forget.  Every girl deserves at least one fairy tale experience in her life, and this one will always top the cake for me.  


This is a picture Steven took from the table during the afternoon of our engagement day. 




Katie and Conner were there to take pictures.  They were also responsible for turning on all the lights and getting everything started. 



right after he asked me!

 

My fairytale!



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My friend and fellow blogger, Rebekah McGee wrote a beautiful testimony to Dr. King and what his life has meant for her and her family.  I thought I would share it with you because it was so beautiful and spoke to me deeply!  Click on the link and enjoy!  What I owe to Dr. MLK Jr.

Sawyer's First Birthday

He's one! I still can't believe it sometimes!

As a new mom, I have both longed for this day to come as well as dreaded its arrival.  I love that Sawyer is becoming more and more independent and learning new things, but at the same time, I miss my little cuddle bug so much sometimes.  Since the time Sawyer could pull-up and crawl, he started wiggling his way out of my arms to his newly discovered independence.  Now, he is practically running everywhere he goes! 

Because Sawyer's birthday is just three days before Christmas, we opted for an early birthday party to avoid interfering with family get togethers and Christmas parties.  We invited both of our families and a few friends to a small birthday party for Saw at our house in Thomasville.  We had a great time getting everyone together, eating, and celebrating our little man's first year. 

Needless to say, he LOVED the cake!

Happy birthday, Baby!