Trick-or-Treat!

Just as she was starting to get a little jealous of S' two weeks of birthday festivities, E discovered the miracle of Halloween... a holiday just for 'big girls' ("No, Daddy... Sawyer can't have that candy... she's just a little baby").

Thanks to Nana for the adorable handmade costumes!

Holy Baptism

On October 29, 2011, Sawyer Rose Backer was baptized by Pastor Youngdahl at Mount Olivet Church in Minneapolis, MN.  


Pictured above are S, E and the Backer family baptismal gown worn by the girls' great-great grandmother, Irene "Mongha" Esser, in 1900... and worn by nearly each of the next five generations of Backers (50+ children over 111 years!). 

The Backwells

Sawyer's baptism and birthday weekend brought nearly the whole crew together*... as these moments are few and far between, this shot was definitely blog-worthy!


*We missed you, Ash!

1 year

Today, our little Sawyer Rose turned one year old!  My how time flies.  A bigger birthday bash to follow, but for now, here's the monthly update...


A few of Sawyer's latest tricks include:

• Climbing (leave this one unattended for 5 seconds and she'll be a few feet higher than where you last saw her)
• Animal sounds (especially "baa", "moo" and "cluck, cluck, cluck")
• Throwing a ball (with surprisingly good distance and accuracy)

A few of Sawyer's latest favorite things include:

• Redecorating (more than playing with toys, S likes to grab objects and shuffle them off to different parts of the room)
• Ice Cream Truck rides curtesy of her big sis' 
• Feeding Griff and Maya from her high chair

Afton Apple Orchard

As berries of any kind are by far both E and S' favorite food, when we heard Afton offered strawberry and raspberry picking in addition to the traditional apple/pumpkin offering, we looked no further for our fall family tradition.


While slightly out of season, word on the street was that these berries were incredibly sweet. Unfortunately, we'll have to take the street's word for it as E & S ate faster than Linds, Nana and I could pick!

Happy 5th, Griffin!

Big G celebrated his fifth birthday on 9/20 by destroying his little sis' in a game of fetch at the MSP dog park, showing M the old man's still got it.