Happy Daddy's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a great time celebrating Matt, our Daddy Extraordinaire, on his special day! First, Sawyer and I let Matt sleep in a little and then Quinton and I presented him with breakfast in bed! Then Quinton and Sawyer gave Matt his candygram card (which he kindly shared with all of us later in the day) and Father's Day presents: two ties and a picture collage of the boys.

After church, Quinton helped me make our yummy build-your-own crepes with nutella, strawberries, bananas, turkey, gouda, swiss and avocados! Not all of that goes into ONE crepe but you get the idea, I hope. Once our bellies were full, I took both boys for a nap so Matt could enjoy watching World Cup Soccer. Not a bad day!

We also want to say Happy Father's Day to our wonderful Grandpas, GREAT Grandpas, Uncles and all the other cool Dads we know!

Love you all!

Aunt J Was in Da House!

How lucky am I that my sister chose to come to Chicago for a visit as her birthday present?

Pretty DANG lucky, I'd say!

She was so awesome to come and hang out with us and be only the SECOND family member to see Sawyer! She was happy to hang out with us and go to the park and we even had a chance to get out a little.

Doesn't she ooze squishy love for Sawyer?

On one of our girl's only adventures, we were supposed to go on a Segway tour but my GPS sent us to the OTHER side of Chicago - I mean WAY out of the way for our desired destination!

We ended up missing our tour time so we took the opportunity to do some sightseeing in Chicago. Jessi always asks about Oprah tickets when she comes to town but they are VERY hard to come by and the Oprah show tapings are done for the season. I did take her to Harpo Studios and apparently, there is an Oprah store right next to the studios. EVERYTHING in there has a big "O" on it! From workout wear to doggy sweaters to baby clothes and even clothes for sale from Oprah's closet (well-worn Chanel shoes for $250!).

After Oprah, I rushed Jessi over to Ghiradelli's for this DECADENT cookie sundae.
Um yeah, it TASTED as good as it LOOKS!

On Jessi's last day, we surprised her with a birthday cake complete with LOTS of candles!

Quinton spent the entire morning BEGGING us to set the cake ablaze and dig in...lucky for him, Jessi and I had to leave early in the day to catch our re-scheduled Segway tour.

Wonder what she's wishing for!

And here she is on our famed Segway tour. I've done one before so I knew the ropes, but Jessi's horseback riding background made her a natural at riding this mechanical pony on her first time!

This tour was around a local beach at Foster Avenue. It wasn't as cool as the downtown tour but it was still a lot of fun.

Here is Jessi at our break with helmet hair!

Alas, Jessi had to get back to her 3 little yahoos in Utah and we miss her sooo much! I don't think Sawyer knew what to do with all of the attention she showered on him!

Aunt Jessi, we love you and miss you lots!

--Da Boyz

Time Flies...

Seriously, time flies when you aren't feeling well for the third week in a row - especially when Matt spent a couple of days in ALASKA for interviews this week. It'll be a hard adjustment when he goes back to work since we've had him to ourselves since the end of January! For now, we love to enjoy our time together, especially with Sawyer in the mix!

Quinton LOVES to LOVE on his baby brother as illustrated below...doesn't Sawyer look like he's having a blast, too?

Today, we enjoyed a glorious Chicago day at the beach. Awesome days seem to happen at irregular intervals these days so I was all for taking advantage of today's sun & warmth!
Sawyer enjoyed himself, too.

You wanna squish him, huh?

You know you do!

Gratuitious Pictures of the Newest Harker

I was once accused of having "First -Time Parent Syndrome" because I had sooooo many pictures of Quinton to email to friends and family but here, with the blog, I can still be a shutterbug with my baby but not bore friends and family with so many pictures in their email inboxes! They are here, waiting for you to view at your leisure (and as many times as you want)and I can snap away to my heart's content.

So without further ado, here is precious Sawyer, or as Quinton likes to call him, Squirt. Use your imagination to figure out where Quinton derives that name for him!

This was Sawyer's fashion faux pas from Thursday. He went the majority of the day still wearing his tag! I know I should have washed the outfit before he wore it but I never got around to it and realized at the end of the day that Sawyer's tag was still on his outfit!

Silly mommy!!!
This final picture was taken today while Sawyer took his Sunday siesta on daddy's lap. I thought it was cute he looked like he was giving me the thumb's up to take a picture!
On Friday, Sawyer turned 1 month old. So crazy to think he's been here a month already! He is such a sweet baby and lets us sleep a little bit, which is very nice of him!
At his 1 month appointment with his pediatrician, Sawyer weighed a whopping 10 pounds 3 ounces! Talk about chubster! He also grew 1 entire inch for a grand total of 21.5 inches now!

Matt and I are still pretty sleep-deprived but it's worth every moment of fatigue for how adorable this little boy is to us!

What a difference a week (or two) makes!

Introducing...

Sawyer Matthew Harker

Born April 23rd at 1:09 am

7 pounds 11 ounces

20.5 inches

I know he's almost 2 weeks old as I'm finally getting around to posting this but it's been a busy time!

My wonderful friend, Sarah S., who is also a photographer, took pictures at Sawyer's birth. Plus, she did an awesome recap on her blog, so go here for some great pictures and details:

Sarah's Blog

Bed Rest Musings

Friday, I unexpectedly went into the hospital for tests and monitoring and was finally released on Sunday afternoon with instructions for strict bed rest. I have "bathroom and meal privileges." Fun, huh?

So today, Matt took Quinton to the sibling tour of the hospital that I set up a couple of weeks ago. Matt said the tour guide was surprised to see a daddy accompanying their child on the tour during the middle of the week...just one of the perks (and blessings) of being unemployed right now!

Matt sent me this cute picture of Quinton during part of the tour. The siblings even had the opportunity to change the pretend baby's diaper.

I have to say this picture was a birght spot in my otherwise S-L-O-W day on the couch!

When Quinton came home, he was all cuddly with my tummy, talking to his baby brother and telling him how excited he is for his baby brother to come out. This has been such a great experience for our family and makes bed rest bearable!

Our Budding Artiste!

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed in our library's newsletter that there was a call for art submissions from the 12 and under crowd to be showcased in a children's art show. It could be just about anything...a collage, drawing, painting, sculpture, photo...whatever your kid desired to enter. I thought this would be great for Quinton since he loves to draw, sculpt and paint!

After reviewing Quinton's portfolio, however, I realized he's actually an accomplished photographer, you know, for a 4 year-old, I mean. I'm not too shy about letting Quinton use my digital camera here and there and he's actually taken some really interesting pictures. It's kind of fun, too, to see the world from the lens angle of a 4 year-old.

Quinton and I spent a little time one afternoon just wandering around the backyard and neighborhood taking pictures and I really loved on of his shots and submitted it to the art show. Yesterday was the "reception" for the art show artists, complete with apple juice, donut holes and chocolate crayons. Talk about kid-swanky!

Here is Quinton accepting his art certificate.

When we arrived at the reception, there were several members of the volunteer group that made the show possible and a couple of parents of fellow artists. When we arrived, we told them Quinton's name and asked where we could find his photo. This was the cute part because once the volunteers realized that it was Quinton who submitted the only photo in the art show, they all complimented him on his photo. Even the other parents commented on how great the lighting and composition of his picture turned out.

For Quinton's part, he really played it cool...until he noticed the chocolate crayons!

Here is Quinton's photo amongst the other art work:

The close-up of Quinton's photo:
It was such a fun experience and the volunteers were so encouraging, I think we might enter the art show every year!

Matt and Quinton riding home from the library.
I took the picture from the car...have I mentioned I am 35 and a half weeks pregnant and walking home several blocks sounds like an act of torture at this point?