Sawyer James you are almost TWO!

It doesn't even seem real when I say it. Sawyer is almost TWO! I heard this would happen :) I recall lots and lots of warnings from momma's telling me it would come in the blink of an eye! Well, congrats, you were correct!  In the last four months we've watched our little baby grow into a little toddler! As I lay our sweet boy down at night, he looks at me and smiles with those big blue eyes and says, "nigh night momma"...I am reminded of the beauty of God's incredible creation.  

This has been such a growing season for our whole family. I'm in school full time pursuing my Master's in Speech Language Pathology, Clay is working and is also in school working on his 2nd Master's and SJ is working on winning the spelling bee in 3rd grade :)  

There is alot of studying happening in this house right now. We've came up with some pretty strategic studying habits at home. I sneak off into our office while SJ and daddy do dinner, bath and bedtime together! However, if I even sneeze I'll be caught!! If I need to go to the bathroom I text Clay and he takes SJ outside for a couple of minutes...we have it down! If even once we mess up though...my cover will be blown! Clay and I may be a little nerdy...but we are super strategic :) 

A few of Sawyer's favorites:

• He LOVES Bubble Guppies but Mickey Mouse comes in at a close second
• He says "hold you mama" and reaches for me to lift him up
• Every morning when I get him out of the crib he wants to hold my hand as we walk to the living room, and every morning I hold his hand!
• No is not "no." It's "no way." 
• Occasionally, SJ will feel the need to do some moves so he repeats "hot dig dog" (Hot Diggity Dog from Micky Mouse) over and over again as he dances through the house (with no actual music)
• Everyday we check the mail together...twice! We really love to get the mail!
• He loves to name the color of everything we see! Everything!!!!
• My FAVORITE thing in the entire world that SJ does is respond with "okay." Almost any question he is asked, do you want your milk? "Okay." Do you want to eat dinner? "Okay." Do you want to take a bath? "Okay." It's the sweetest thing in the world (a video below). 
• We say bye to anything and everything. When we walk out of the room, "bye chair, bye couch, bye carpet, bye wall." When we get out of the car, "bye car, bye light, bye door." When we are finished with our dinner, "bye bread, bye milk, bye cookie, bye chicken." When Bubble Guppies is over, we say, "bye bye Gill, bye bye Molly, bye bye Gruper, bye bye Nani." And of course, we cannot go to bed without reading Goodnight Moon! (and then goodnight to every possible item in the room). 

Sawyer can mimic and pretty much put into context every word we say. He loves loves loves to talk! Shocker, right? We talk all day long! It's unbelievable how much kiddos learn in one short day. I've never realized how important my words are until now. I can fill his heart with joy or crush it in a million pieces in a simple second. What a blessing it is to train these sweet babies! I love his giggles, his smiles, his simple conversations, his joy for life and his is excitement for just about anything! I never would have noticed the little flowers that grow in the weeds, the adventure of checking the mail, the horses we pass on our way to church, the airplanes the fly all the time, the colors on every stop light, building, and car that we pass! There is so much joy in the simplest things. Thanks for the reminder SJ that there is always a reason to be thankful! We love you sweet SJ! 

So proud of all his colors...22 months...good job little man!

Pretending to be asleep...story of my life

And the famous side to side dance

far left, next to last...awesome dance moves! Good job Addie Jane for your big big smiles!

This is SJ's "okay" It's so funny! 

Just a normal everyday conversation...20 months

These kiddos melt my heart!

Our favorite thing in the entire world...choo choos!!

Best little buds

Sweet faces

First adventure to the airport (19 months)

inseparable! 

Nothing sweeter (19 months)

Daddy, you are his hero! (19 months)

Oh goodness, this could be dangerous! 

With Gpa at the science museum (20 months)

Facetime with daddy when he was gone to school for a few weeks (20 months)

Just because I love to watch him sleep! 

Oops mom...I colored on the grill! 

First trip to the fair! (21 months)

We love the science museum 

Welcome to your world SJ...following behind :) 

Sweet little smile

Family pictures by Neely! Incredible!!! 

That giggle! 

Sweet blue eyes!

We call our rocking horse a reindeer...tis the season! 

Someone really liked the snow!!!

Joy in those sweet eyes! 

Sj's first little school performance! 

Snow days! 

Yes, this is how he wakes up every morning! Why can't I do the same??? 

Love love love! 

Why I LOVE Melaleuca! I MAKE money and SAVE money and YOU can be apart of it!

Why Melaleuca?

#1.    I LOVE the products!

#2.    I’m making money and saving money!

Many of you have probably heard of Melaleuca:The Wellness Company or used some of the products before. I’ve been using and selling Melaleuca for a little over a year and love every part of it! After having Sawyer and realizing how often I pour bleach and other hazard products on everything I clean, I started wondering what else I could use that would be safer. I was introduced to Melaleuca and fell in love with it! ALL of the products are better than I ever would have bought at Wal-mart. I have a really long list of my top favorite products (if you want to sample any of them!). Melaleuca sells cleaning supplies, lotion, make-up, health foods, laundry detergent, acne prevention kits, men’s products, fragrances and so much more! Not only are most of the products all natural, they are also concentrated so they last months longer than store brands. I was never a crazy person about using all natural products, but once I discovered I could spend the same, if not less, MAKE money….and have top of the notch products…I was totally sold! Since I’ve starting selling the products, I haven’t spent any money on dish soap, laundry detergent, lotion, cleaning supplies, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, soap, acne treatment, chapstick (my favorite) in over a year!!! Plus, I make extra after that’s paid for! I’ve never been a sales woman, not quite my strength…but I do know I have loved doing this and it has been nothing but a positive experience for our family! Items are shipped to people’s homes, so there is no inventory or keeping up with products. No parties, weekly emails, etc. Basically, Melaleuca replaces a typical Walmart trip with better products, better deals, and ships right to your front door!

A few cool things about Melaleuca:

•  It is a 100% debt free company that has been in business since 1985.
• Everything is online and SO easy to order.
• There are some incredible products for eczema and acne. I have lots of success stories I would love to share with you!
• 850,000 households shop with Melaleuca each month.
• Melaleuca makes over 1.8 billion dollars in sales each year.
• There are over 350 products to choose from.
• Products are concentrated and last longer than the typical “store brand.”
• The cleaning supplies actually smell good AND work!!!

A little bit about the CEO: Frank Vandersloot

Well for one, he is great friends with Dave Ramsey…that’s always a good sign! Dave Ramsey has a column in Melaleuca’s monthly magazine.

In 1985, VanderSloot founded Melaleuca, Inc., a multi-level marketing company that sells environmentally friendly, nutritional supplements, cleaning supplies, and personal-care products and he has been president and chief executive officer ever since his vision was of bringing healthy, natural, environmentally safe products to consumers via word of mouth as opposed to conventional radio and television advertising and has paid off quite well. Melaleuca operates internationally, with U.S. operations centered in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Customers buy directly from Melaleuca's website and "independent marketing executives" receive commissions from Melaleuca for each purchase made by people they refer. The company refers to this arrangement as “Consumer Direct Marketing," a term it has trademarked. Inc. magazine included Melaleuca on its Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States every year from 1990 to 1994 before inducting the company into its Hall of Fame in 1994.VanderSloot says that the company has a "business model for those people who want to supplement their income.” VanderSloot estimates that roughly 190,000 marketing executives "earn a check from Melaleuca each month," 20,000 of whom "make their primary living through the company." As executives recruit, their titles change and they make more money.

Below is a link about Melaleuca from the CEO:

http://www.frankvandersloot.info/professional-life/an-introduction-to-melaleuca/

Want to know more?

If you are interested in learning more about the products, or becoming a “marketing executive” you can e-mail me tillanie@gmail.com. I would LOVE for you to join our team. There are zero risks! Melaleuca customers can cancel at anytime. There is a $29 one time sign up fee, and after that, ordering online is easy and fun! There are lots of options to save, get $100 worth of free products, access to discounts from all kinds of other retailers online (Target, Kohls, Dillards, etc.). During the month of July Melaleuca is offering a special for a $1 sign up fee instead of $29. (This come around often…every other month or so.) I love love love Melaleuca and would love to share more about it with you! 

Sawyer James you are ONE AND A HALF!!! Happy 18 Months!

We have a ONE AND A HALF YEAR OLD! I can't believe it! We are having such a wonderful summer together! Mommy and SJ might be getting a little too attached to each other! We spend all of are days together...and for the most part :)...we love every second of it! We've been to the zoo, the library, the pool, the park, the splash park, Ft. Worth, Arkansas, and watched many episodes of Bubble Guppies! 

Sawyer is turing into a big boy so quickly! He can say lots and lots of words and runs around like he owns every place we go.  Every month he still continues to have the same goal in mind everyday...to RUN until bedtime! And he only gets faster everyday! Life with this little guy went from nurturing and providing to teaching and training in a flash! We use every opportunity we get to train SJ up to be a strong man of God, however, most of our training right now is just for a nonbiting, nonhitting, nongrunting, nontoilet paper unrolling little boy :) Life sure is way more exciting with this sweet kiddo around. I've read lots of books and listened to lots of mentors explain the highs and lows of parenting. There's no understanding it all until that little boy sits right in front of you and says, "no mama." Sawyer, say, "yes mama!" That little boy looks in my eyes and says, "nope." Well, how about ya! All three of us are sure learning alot during this season! What we hear over and over from parents that we want to model our life after is CONSISTENCY is the key! So consistency we try to do all the time, but this kid did not come with an owner's manual. And if you know the Franks at all...we really really like manuals! 

Sawyer James we love you so much! Happy 18 months little man! 

You can mimic most of our words, but your favorite words are:

Mama

Dada

Jobie (hobe)

Car

Moo

Neh Neh (a horse)

Nice

Uh Oh

Yeah

Bye Bye

Deedee

Poppa

Pig (Peeeg)

Color (lalure)

Banana (nana)

Go Go Go

Your favorite toys are:

Cars

Blocks

Golf Clubs

Basketball Goal

Your favorite foods are:

Avocado

Banana

Twizzlers

Fruit Snacks

Cheese

(no judging please :)

One of your faces...usually when we run out of fruit snacks

Finger painting is fun! Say it again...finger painting is fun...fun to do, fun to clean up, fun to dry, fun to clean up :) 

His favorite place to watch TV at Poppa and Lolli's house

Big boy!

Gpa and Deedee, we LOVE our chair!

There have only been a few morning in his life when he didn't wake up just like this. My favorite part of the day is getting him out of bed in the morning! 

Mommy doesn't love sand so much...but this kid sure does!

Gpa bought you your very first race car! Oh how fast that will look alot like a 16 year old!

Sunbathing best friends!

No one can make him giggle like Jobie can!

We love bath time!

If they don't get married, what will we do with this picture? Arranged marriage please!

Cousins!!!! We got to spend a few days in Arkansas with our favorites! Sawyer loves his great grandma!

Zoo day! SJ calls the monkeys "mama"...well that's close...I guess :)

Finger painting outside with friends! 

That's a big piece little man!

He didn't love this...neither did I :) 

I love them with everything in me!!!!

Sweet family! 

Nothing better!

Lolli loves SJ! SJ loves Lolli! 

I love you cutie face!

4th of July

Angel!

This is my favorite picture of Sawyer! Blue eyed baby!!!!

Daddy did this for a long time!

Who needs clothes!

Deedee, SJ is saying, "go, go, go"

Oh how I love them! 

He kinda looks like a bully in this picture...sometimes he is. :)

I love it when he matches daddy! 

Poor little dancing puppy! 

They are a pair! 

I felt like one of those girls that gets to ride on top of the car at parades! 

He makes so many funny faces and noises! 

If Sawyer could talk in sentences, he would say this is his favorite thing to do! 

Oh how fun this is...until we break something!

Running, running and running running! 

Good job little golfer!