Merry Christmas...

From our most precious gift!

Hope you all have a very merry & blessed Christmas!!

xoxo - The Barnett's

Pictures with Santa

Some sweet, sweet friends of ours have a Christmas party every year that Santa comes to! Santa is so kind to let everyone take all of their family photos with him & talk to the kids about their Christmas wishes!

Here is Sawyer with Santa for his first Christmas pictures...

Just 10 days after Sawyer was born, our friends Amber & Franco welcomed another sweet baby girl into the world, Miss Bailey, so Sawyer got to meet her too!

I am so excited these two are going to get to grow up together & hopefully be great friends!!

Thank you "B" family for being such great friends!
A BIG thanks to you too Santa ;)
We love you all!!

Merry Christmas!!
xoxo - The Barnett's

What I'm loving...

...on this rainy morning...

 Have a great day!!



Blessing Rings

I borrowed the idea from another blog,Katie's Keepers, to make what she called a "blessing ring". It's a creative & cute way to keep up with all the cards & blessings you receive for different occasions - birthdays, weddings, babies, Christmas & such!

Here is what you need to make your blessing ring:

- a 5 inch neck ring which can be found @ Hobby Lobby or Michael's

-assorted ribbon

-scissors

-single hole punch

Punch a hole in the corner of your cards & slide them on to the neck ring.Then, tie a piece of ribbon onto the neck ring in between every 2-3 cards. That's it! Such a simple & inexpensive way to keep up with all your "blessings" & it makes it so easy to go back & look through them whenever you like with out digging them out of some shoe box you stashed in the top of your closet like me.

Here is the one I made with all the cards I received at my baby showers & when Sawyer was born...

I bought some blue ribbon & black ribbon to use on his so it would match his room, but I also used some of the ribbon from different gifts we received! This one is hanging on his closet door.

Our Christmas cards we've received this year...

I love having this hung on the front of our Christmas tree to look at whenever I want! The cards with family photos are my favorite & we have gotten some super cute ones this year!!

1 month

Sawyer is 1 month old today!! He was bright eyed for his mini photo shoot this morning :)

Now let's recap what has been happening during your first month...

You came home from the hospital on Tuesday November 22nd

Your first Thanksgiving when you were 4 days old

You watched your first Razorback game on your 5th day....it was a terrible game that we lost :(

Your first snow when you were 2 1/2 weeks old!

Daddy was able to stay home with us for the first 3 weeks which we really enjoyed! He was such a big help & took great care of you & mommy! Breastfeeding was not going well for us & your weight dropped down to 7lbs during the first 2 weeks, so we made lots of trips to the pediatrician for weight checks. At your check-up last Wednesday, you weighed 8lbs 4oz (1oz above your birth weight). You are taking a 3-4oz bottle of formula every 3 hours & doing well!

You love to be held & talked to, you will make the cutest faces like you really know what we are talking about & you love to sit in your bouncy seat & listen to music on our iPod :)

 You are not a fan of getting a bath or having your diaper changed. You usually get the hiccups once or twice a day & they make you really angry...gripe water is our friend :)

 You've spent the afternoon at the mall with your Aunt Jamie & I, & you've gone on several trips to Target & Kohl's with me & your daddy. You even went to dinner with us at Red Lobster after a long day of Christmas shopping! (the waiter loved you of course!)

Other things about you this month:

-You are still wearing newborn size diapers, we like Pampers the best

-When we first brought you home your sisters licked and sniffed all over you but you didn't fuss at all. We have this on video for you to watch later ;)

-Size 0-3month clothes didn't fit you at first so your dad & I & Jamie & Nana have had to buy you some Newborn size outfits to get you through. You are starting to wear some 0-3mo. outfits now that you are gaining weight.

-We started giving you the paci the day we left the hospital. You don't use it too much & when we do give it to you, you only suck on it for a few minutes before you pull it out of your mouth or spit it across the room.

-You are acting like such a strong baby! You really hold your head up well when we are burping you & during tummy time. You have been rolling yourself up onto your side when you're sleeping & this week you have really been stretching your legs & putting all your weight on them when we hold you up.

-You love to have your hands on your face. You keep them curled up around your chin when you sleep...so cute!!

-You also like to suck on your fingers alot, especially when we are trying to feed you a bottle.

-You have really long fingers & big feet.

-Your eyes have turned from bright blue when you were born to a more dark blue, almost gray, color.

-Your hair is very light colored & thin on top but its a little darker & thicker on the back. Mommy LOVES your hair!

-You sleep next to our bed in the bassinet part of your play yard. You have taken a couple naps in your crib with me watching on the baby monitor.

-Some nicknames you've picked up : Papaw Pete calls you "Strawberry" , daddy calls you "baby boy", you've been called "pretty boy" alot, & I usually just call you "momma's boy/baby" or "sweet boy/baby" 

 Happy 1 month sweet boy!! It is amazing to see how much you change & grow almost overnight! This month has gone by way too quickly!! We love you soooooo much!!!

Sawyer Blake...

Our sweet boy arrived at 4:50pm on November 20th! He weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and measured 21 inches long. He is absolutely perfect!!

We arrived at the hospital at 6am that day to be induced. Pitocin was started about 7:30am, my doctor came at 9:30am to break my water, my epidural was started at 10:30am & from there my labor slowly progressed.

 my parents & I

 what would we do without our phones to keep us entertained?!

 At 3:30pm, I was dilated to 5-6 according to my nurse. Blake asked her at that point how much longer she thought it would be and she told him probably a couple of hours, so my sisters left to go get something to eat & Blake's Papaw left to come home & take care of our dogs. Soon after that, I started having a lot of pain in my back that wasn't relieved by changing positions or by pressing my epidural button so I asked the nurse to have anesthesia come & give me more meds. Before she called the anesthesiologist, she checked me again & to every one's surprise I was fully dilated & effaced & ready to start pushing!

At 4:18pm we started pushing.

After about 3 pushes with my nurses, Sawyer was crowning & my doctor had not yet arrived! We had to hold off on pushing any more until he got there, but once he arrived I pushed probably another 2-3 times & Sawyer was here!

 I am so grateful to have had such an easy & pretty much pain free labor & delivery & even more grateful to finally have this perfectly healthy, beautiful baby boy here!

Sawyer, your daddy & I love you more than anyone could ever imagine! You are perfect in every way & have made our hearts so happy! I am so glad God chose us to be your parents!