Nine Months!

Weight: 19 lbs 7 oz

Height: 27 1/4 inches

 
Little explorer: He is becoming a little more mobile everyday. He scoots, he rolls, he sort of crawls in a forwards fashion and he's mastered cruising in reverse.   
 

Words: Sawyer is finding his voice! He now says momma and dadda (but not yet with recognition) and a whole host of other sounds.

 
Newest trick: This month has been a steep learning curve for Sawyer. Among his many new tricks comes the infamous raspberry. This new spitting trick makes for messy, messy dinner times!

Favourite toy: Sawyer loves his singing teddy. He dances, claps and squeals in time with the different songs. It's so cute!

Yum, yum: We have discovered that Sawyer loves pumpkin pie. And, if you're not careful, he'll finish off an entire piece in no time!


First: Our personal favorite memory from this month has been when our little man wakes himself in the morning singing. There is no better way to awaken than to the singing of an adorable little baby.

Finger Foods

Sawyer had recently really started to enjoy finger foods and as the pictures attest more than one member of our family are stoked about this new progress. Needless to say this is the beginning of a beautiful journey for Sawyer and his puppy! :)

Eight Months!

Words: Sawyer loves to make himself known especially in situations that call for peace and quiet. Take for example our visit to church on Sunday. While sitting in amongst 2000 fellow attendees the Pastor asks for everyone to take a quiet moment to reflect and connect with God. It was at the moment when the congregation was at its quietest when Sawyer bursts out in the loudest holler we've heard yet and not just one holler but a whole sentence of hollers!

Walking: No crawling or walking but he does stand very well.

Newest trick: Waving 'hello' and 'good bye'. And we almost think that he's starting to understand what a 'kiss' is. We've had a few slobbery cheeks to attest.

Favourite toy: Anything that he can bang together to make noise. He even loves to rub things back and forth across his soother making a clattering sound.

Little explorer: Our little man is getting frustrated with not being able to get where it is that he wants to go. He lays on his tummy and flaps like a seal trying to crawl... so far he's made it to mom's candelabra once and had a wonderful time tipping all of the candles on to the floor.

First: Sitting in the bathtub. Trevor says that we are now officially a family... we have toys and an alligator mat in the bathtub!

Likes: Sawyer loves to entertain! He already has his dad's charming ways.

Favorite moment: When he laughs so hard he snorts! There is nothing more adorable!

Seven Months!

Weight: 17 lbs

Height: 27 inches

Newest tricks: He's been going through phases.

First week - Shaking his head back and forth, back and forth and laughing. I couldn't figure out why he was doing this until Trev came home that night. Trev came in the door from work, walked across the living room bent over Sawyer and Trevor wiggled his head from side to side as he lowered his head to give Sawyer a big raspberry on his belly... It was then that I realized that the son is just copying his dad!

Second week - Scrunching up his nose and snorting.

Third week - Making a popping sound with his lips.

Fourth week - Gurgling and grunting.

During the week of the phase this action is all that Sawyer will do to get your attention. It seems that he LOVES to entertain but come to the end of that week and the beginning of a new phase and you won't catch so much a glimpse of the last action. What a funny little man!

Little explorer: What we affectionately call turtling... Sawyer would flip over from his tummy to his back and couldn't for the longest time figure out how to reverse this action. He would get stuck on his back and would lay flailing until someone would flip him back onto his frontside. Thank goodness he's figured out both rolling from his front and from his back now! It makes for a much less frustrated baby.

Little boy: Standing. He now supports all of his weight on his legs. Now to work on the stability...

New Smile: Two teeth are better than one. Sawyer now boasts two precious teeth, which he is very proud to show off!

Favourite food: It took a while to find a food he loves but we've finally found it... bananas.

Dislikes: Carrots! Prunes! Apples! Pears! Add Peas to that list! Plain old cereal or bananas for this boy.

Favourite moment: Ice Cream with Grandpa Olson!! He LOVED his first taste of Grandpa's frozen dairy treat! Sawyer is such a lucky little boy to have such wonderful grandparents that feed him sugar. He's going to grow up wishing that they lived a whole lot closer! :)

Dedication Day!

 -Father and son during the dedication.-

We believe that it is an awesome privilege to be raising Sawyer to be a devoted child of our awesome God and that we can't do this alone, we need a community of believers and a lifetime of prayers.

-Sawyer enjoying the day with his Grandma Olson.-

Sawyer's dedication was an important step in our parenthood and in our faith. We were overwhelmed and blessed as many came and stood by us as we took on this challenge of parenthood. Sawyer's dedication day was yet another example of how God has blessed us not only with a beautiful baby boy but also with each other and a community that stands behind us as a family.

-Trev safety testing the food.-

Thank you all for coming out! We were blessed that Sawyer could be surrounded that day by people that love the Lord and that love him.

-Sawyer showing Grandma and Grandpa Olson how we spend summer in Edmonton.-

-Great Grandma Andrus holding the newest addition, Nixon Peter Yates Andrus.-

-Auntie Becki showing Coop a thing or two about the art of face-making.-

-Trev and Dawson on a much needed break from tickle-wars.-

-Grandma Andrus enjoying her time with Cooper.-

-Kimchi's Mark... Becki beware.-

Welcoming Nixon Andrus!

-Safe in the arms of his Great Grandma Andrus.-

We are delighted to welcome our newest nephew, Nixon Peter Yates Andrus!!! The third in a family of precious boys, Nixon was born on August 5th just a few days before his parents 7th wedding anniversary and a few weeks before his next oldest brother's birthday! I'm not sure if Cooper would agree but I don't think that there could be a better birthday or anniversary present!

What a sweet little boy, Nixon. Not only are we are excited for Sawyer to have a cousin the same age but we are so looking forward to watching this new little Andrus grow and change and become who God intended for him to be.

A Little of What We've Been Up To....

We've been busy this summer, hasn't everyone? It seems that summers in Canada are crammed to the breaking point. We're all just trying to make the most of the short time we have under the sun and on the lush green grass. Usually we take at least one trip in the summer to get away from all of this busyness and enjoy some relaxing times on the water, but not this year.

This year we've been trying our hand at family photography and whether the shots have turned out or not, we've really enjoyed the whole process. Meeting the families, sharing, creating and capturing moments together has made for a lot of unexpected fun. 

Here are a few shots from some of the sessions that we've had. We're pleased with them but we are always striving to improve.