Changes at the Martins

Since coming back from our Christmas Break Sawyer has changed SO much. She loves to play! She will sit on the floor with her toy box of toys and play all on her own with them. She also LOVES hanging out with Edgar. He is often laying beside her on her blanket while she plays. I do have to watch these two though because Edgar loves to share with her. He often brings her his toys to play with, and Sawyer loves to put everything in her mouth EWW! She enjoys sharing with him too and I will quite often find her feeding Edgar part of her rice cracker and then taking a bite herself. I know it sounds gross, but I do honestly watch these two, and try to catch them and teach them that this is not appropriate sharing. 

Sawyer has gotten two teeth! She is such a champ. No complaints at all. She is such a great kid. She has also leaned to pull herself up to standing position. She loves to stand. Lastly, and our newest achievement, she has learned to crawl FORWARD!!! She just started doing this and is only doing it a little bit but I am sure she will be crawling all over soon. 

That has been all for the new developments lately! 2 weeks until we are home for March Break!

 She loves crawling in her toy box, once she has pulled all her toys out.

 I'm 7 months old!

 Look at me I stand!

I stand using my buddy now too! She loves to play with Edgar and use him to pull herself up.

Update!

Well, we have all made it back safe and sound to Deer Lake after an awesome trip home. Sawyer and I flew home 8 days earlier then Greg in order for Edgar to be able to fly home too. We enjoyed our trip home and were able to spend sometime with friends, family and of course do some activities that we do not get to participate in with being up north (ie. going to the movies). Sawyer and I also stayed home 2 extra weeks after Greg went back. My dad turned 50 on January 16th and we wanted to be home to celebrate with him.

Our trip back was eventful. Our WestJet flight was maybe half full, Sawyer and I had a full row to ourselves so I was able to lay her down on the seat. One of the flight attendants had finger puppets and were playing with those with her. Once we made it to Thunder Bay we learned our flight was delayed and they were unsure if we were actually going to fly. Well we ended up waiting for four hours to find out our flight was flying. During our wait Edgar was allowed to be out of his cage and sit with us. A little native boy really liked him and was playing with him. At some points the boy was laying on the floor nose to nose with Ed. Sawyer also just wanted to play with Edgar during our layover and at one point she wouldn't stop fussing unless she was sitting on the floor beside Edgar. Those two really do LOVE each other. 

Once we boarded our plane we flew to Sioux Lookout. Our wait here was only about 15 minutes and then we boarded the plane again. This time though we got to the runway and sat there for 30 minutes to find out our plane was having maintenance problems. We had to turn back and completely unload the plane. We waited for another 45 minutes and they got us a new plane. We finally made it home by 7pm. Needless to say it had been a LONG day. We had been up since 5 am- Niagara time (4am Deer Lake time). 

Since we have been back everything has went back to normal. Sawyer has started on real food- I have made here sweet potatoes so far and she seems to be enjoying them. She is also teething, so she is a little fussier and clingy. School is going good for Greg- nothing new to report there. He has had a few mornings off school because it has been so cold, and the busses won't start. This morning our thermometer read -41. It was quite nippy. Yesterday when Sawyer and I walked to the school in the afternoon it was -35. It is tolerable, as long as you are dressed warm (everything covered) and there is no wind chill.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Below are some pictures of our trip home. 

 Our family Christmas picture.

 Sawyer's Christmas photo.

 Sawyer's first trip to the park with her friends Sadie and Lucas.

Sawyer and Sadie. 

Sawyer also turned 6 months old while we were home. 

Back up north, after Greg had just given her, her first taste of sweet potatoes.

Sawyer at School!

For the last few weeks Sawyer and I have been going to school about once a week. I am taking and AQ course while I am on maternity leave. One of the requirements for this AQ is to do 10 hours of observation. I have been fortunate enough to be able to bring Sawyer to the school with me while I am doing these observations. She is such a good baby and is generally quite while we are there. Plus, the kids love her. She gets lots of attention. I have been doing my observations in a grade four class. Today, I took a few pictures of Sawyer in class. 

 Sawyer hanging out on the floor during the math lesson on measurement.

 Sawyer was really interested in how to convert metres into centimetres. Hopefully, she is like her Dad and is good with numbers.

 One of the students took a special interest in Sawyer today. When the students had library time he choose a special book to read to Sawyer. She was really interested in it. Sawyer loves reading books already (she likes the pictures).

 Class picture with the class. Quite a few students were out today because we recently had lice checks.

Sawyer getting lots of attention.

More SNOW!

WOW! I can't believe it is already November 11. One month today, Sawyer, Edgar and I will be back in Niagara. We cannot wait. Although we are sad to leave Daddy behind in Deer Lake for 8 days :(. I am looking forward to going to stay at my parents house. I am sure it will be kind of weird living there again for 2 1/2 weeks (one week before Christmas and one 1/2 week after). I have not lived there obviously since I have been married. We are also very fortunate to be able to stay with Greg's family during the Christmas holidays when Greg is home. They have graciously given us a room at their house and allowed us to move our things in. They are currently our home base in Niagara.

We have had a lot of snow in Deer Lake this week. It has snowed non stop since yesterday. We currently have about 2 feet of snow. I have been told that Niagara had beautiful weather today. However, since it is before Christmas I am not really jealous. I expect snow right now. After Christmas, well, that may be a different story. Enjoy the pictures below of our adventures this week. 

 Greg thought it would be funny to put Sawyer in the pot we boil her bottles in. She took it like a champ and never complained at all.

 We decided we would take advantage of all the snow and go outside with Sawyer and "play" in it. Jon, kindly took a family picture of us. Edgar is "standing", that is how deep that snow drift is.

 Sawyer enjoying her first snow seat. My siblings and I would always go outside in the snow and jump in the drifts or piles and sit in the snow.

 Mommy and Daddy enjoying the snow with Sawyer.

 Sawyer then came inside for her "hot chocolate"... or hot formula.

This kid never stops moving. If you put her down on her back she always rolls over to her tummy. This afternoon I put her on the edge of this blanket (on the edge closest to me) and she moved herself backwards off the blanket and towards the coffee table. Greg thinks she is going to crawl soon, even if it is the army crawl. I think she may crawl early, although I like how I don't have to chase her right now.

I hope everyone has an excellent week.

Halloween!!!

Sorry these pictures are all out of order but when I loaded them they didn't load in the order I wanted them to. 

Well as you all know this week was Halloween. Everyone, including adults get into Halloween in Deer Lake. Unfortunately, someone died in Deer Lake earlier this week so school Halloween was postponed until this afternoon (regular trick or treating carried on as normal). Sawyer and I spent a good part of the day at the school, enjoying all the Halloween festivities.  This morning we had a cake auction. This is where people make a cake and it gets auctioned off. It is a great fundraiser, as the classes get to bid against each other and as you can imagine it gets quite loud. Today, they had about 15-20 cakes and racked in over $1000.00, on cakes alone. This afternoon their was the grade 8 haunted house and dance and they raised a few more hundred dollars. All in all it was a great fundraising day. 

Enjoy the pictures below. 

 Sawyer dressed up as a pirate. I really wanted to get Sawyer a costume this year (a really cute Strawberry from Old Navy) but Greg wasn't infavour of getting her a costume. So JOn and Jill got out Jill's costume from last year and we dressed her up. She is looking really cute in her adult sized clothing.

I made two cakes for the cake auction. One was a pull apart pumpkin cake and then a spider web cake. 

 Haunted House cake made by another staff member- this one went for $110.00

 Cake made by another staff member- this one went for $100.00

 Frankenstein Cake this one also went for $100.00

 Greg's frugal costume.... he was a Sugar Daddy (so not appropriate for down south)

Sawyer on the bus on the way to town. She looks so tiny in those big seats.

Update

So as my grandma and my sister, Alana has pointed out I have been slacking on updating the blog. There honestly, has just been nothing new and interesting to update on. Things have been going really well for Greg at school this year. His students are excellent and he really enjoys them. He has also got a lot of support this year with fundraising. It is a big job to do on your own and thankful others have stepped up and the principal is extremely supportive. 

Not much is new with me. Myself, along with Greg are taking an additional qualifications course (Special Education, part 1). A part of this course is to do a practicum and since I am not teaching I had to arrange to go into the school and watch a class. Thankfully Sawyer was allowed to come with me. She was awesome! Barely made a sound and just soaked in all that was going on around her. We are honestly blessed with such a good and happy baby.

Sawyer rolled over (tummy to back) last week. It was a big milestone and very exciting. Unfortunately, Greg was not home so he missed the first roll over but I videoed it and sent it to him to watch. 

The weather up here has not been nice lately. I think it has rained every day this week. It sucks because it keeps Sawyer and I in the house and when we are finally able to go out it is so muddy and there are puddles every where. The mud sucks for taking Edgar for a walk because he becomes so filthy. 

Anyways, I hope everyone has a great weekend. And a special happy birthday to my Grandpa Hotson and Rob!

 Sawyer playing with toys. Although she does not grab for the toy yet she will hold it in her hand and look at it.

 We recently got a package from my mom and sister. It was stuffed with lots of goodies for Sawyer and us. Sawyer got a nice new warm snowsuit and a cute little outfit from Nana and Papa. My mom also made me a sling for Sawyer. I love it and it is so easy to carry her around in it. Thanks Mom and Dad. It is so nice to get your packages and letter.

 Last Saturday Sawyer turned 3 months (wow, where does time go). This is her three month picture (with her new clothes from Auntie Jai). Isn't she so cute!

I put together this little collage of Sawyer's first, second and third month pictures. I can't believe how much she has changed already.

Just Some Pictures

Not much new going on here. Greg was off all week because of the traditional Hunting Week. We didn't do much. Greg went to the school... we went with him and helped him out. We played a Settler's of Catan tournament, went for a few walks and I had an X-Men marathon. Other than that nothing new. Here's some pictures from this week. 

 Sawyer hanging out with Edgar in HIS bed!

 "When you're the best of friends

                                                         Having so much fun together

You're not even aware, 

you're such a funny pair

You're the best of friends"

(for my family that is reading and who plays movie trivia... guess the movie this is from)

 Hanging out with Mommy!

 Family Photo down by the Point. We managed to get Edgar to look but we still have to work on Sawyer.

Love this picture! Don't I have the best looking family.