Birthday Boy

For Sutton's Very First Ever Birthday Party we had a cookout in our backyard with friends. Water, lots of kids running around and food. He loved it.

We got one shot of our family of four. What did we do before Sutton?!

He may not be walking, but he's sure pulling up and getting bigger and bigger.

Trying to get to his new toys. He was good at sharing with his bigger friends though! :)

First remote control car....straight to the mouth.

Rotten.

Cake.

His buddy, Luke.

Gotta wear the hat.

Happy about the hot dogs.

A little love from sister.

The cutest kids you'll see!

I'm so glad he loves the water.

Party complete with slip-n-slide.

Adorable. We only invite the cutest babies to our parties! :)

My favorite decorations are ones with his face on them.

Hard to believe 365 days have passed. I've loved every moment of this amazing boy.

Party Prep

For me, most of the fun of the party happens long before the party guests ever arrive. I revel in planning, shopping, stuffing balloons in my car, decorating and "baking." It's especially fun for me when I get to do these things with a friend. This year, Aunt Kassa helped a ton and I can't think of anyone I'd rather spend the day with. Thanks Aunt Kass!

The party was a backyard bbq, so we had cupcakes with little burgers and hot dogs on them. It turned out too adorable, if I say so myself!

Familyfun.com is the genius behind most of my ideas.

Luke helping decorate the cupcakes.

Kassa is quite the worker and amazing at applying mustard, I might add.

The party invitations.

Nana's Girls

Natalie adores Olivia and Grace. It makes it tons more fun at Nana's pool when the girls are there to play with Natalie. They're just so much cooler than Mom, I guess.

A NEW VIEW

for sutton & mommy

I love it when the baby gets old enough to turn around. I think Sutton likes it too.

First 1st Birthday Party

Our first of 3 celebrations of Sutton's very 1st ever birthday was with Mimi, Pops and the Davenports in Branson over Memorial Day weekend.

MiMi made her famous Pina Colada cake.

There were noise makers...

Party guests...

Gifts from those who ADORE him...

Tooting his own horn...

giggles...

decorations....

home made ice cream...

and a dump truck balloon!

A perfect first 1st.

Eye 2 Eye

My heart is full.

Only the toes can truly tell when it's time to get out and go home.

Memorial Weekend

Summer is officially here. We spent the weekend in the pool in Branson. Sutton wasn't too sure about the chilly water, but Natalie got right in. Since then, Sutton has taken on a liking for Nana's pool that has a heater! Smart boy.

I think I will start a collection of summer photos of Nate and Natalie in this same position. I know I have at least 1 for every summer of her life.

First time in his trunks.

It's at least do-able with Dad nearby.

Eight I-Phones at One Table

As we played real Scrabble, everyone with an I-phone played virtual Scrabble with each other. Quietest game I've ever played with this bunch. I do not have an I phone and neither does Pops, so at least the two of us got to talk trash to each other! :)

Caleb and Sutton, playing a game of their own.

Peek-a-booer

I love how excited babies get when we play peekaboo with them. However, it seems to have the same effect on adults. I'm sure we were all smiling and laughing every bit as much at Sutton as he does at us.

This first video is of him entertaining us while we waited for our food to come.

This video is of him just entertaining himself. I heard him laughing intermittently across the room. When I looked to see what was so funny, he was laughing at himself with a dish towel. :)

And yes, when we run out of space in our pantry, we just keep snacks on the floor.

Mr. Brandon

We got to spend a night and day with our friends in Springfield over Memorial Day weekend. At one point, we had 3 families worth of children napping at once. It must have been due to the amazing pre-nap story reading of Mr. Brandon. Thanks for letting us visit guys! It was short, but fun.

The Orange Car

Who knew a Mom could love an enormous race car shopping cart so much? It really does make the shopping go a little better. That, and the free cookies, drinks, cheese, band-aids, balloons and horse rides. HyVee is the place to be.

Mr. Joe, Our friend, our Instructor

Going out after church on sunday nights as a kid is one of my fondest childhood memories. It was always the same families, with the same friends and it was a blast. We've sort of started this tradition with our own family, although many nights our babies are still babies and we need to get home to bed. Well, the night these photos were taken, our babies weren't only big enough to stay out, they were apparently big enough for some serious lessons on warfare.

I am always happy when someone jumps at the chance to supervise my child, thereby allowing me to "go on break" so to speak. Well, when I went over to make sure everything was going okay with our little ladies, I overheard the instruction they were being given. It went a little something like this:

"Yep, that's right Isabel. That's the grenade button. That way when the terrorists come up and try to attack you, you can blow them up before they get to you." Oh that Joe. He is always cracking us up. Natalie was also handling a machine gun with great precision, by the way.

While this may look to you like just another picture of one precious girl in a white halter dress and another in her sweet pink romper handling machine guns, to me it is much more. It's the blessing of friends. Not just Natalie with her BFF, and Sutton with his pal, Gabe (not pictured). But, those friends God has given us. We laughed, not just at Mr. Joe and his interactions with preschoolers, but at so many other things that night. I know I've said it before, but we are so blessed and I'd be remiss not to Thank God for those blessings right here and now. It was just before lunch time of that same day, when I thought about these and other blessings in our lives. Natalie and I were riding the little train, just she and I. The blue sky, sunny warm breeze, her little hand on my leg and smiles on our faces at just how great a train ride can be. We were a few minutes late for the lunch that would take place at our house with friends from in and out of town, but I wasn't worried. Again, more friends God has placed in our lives. I couldn't help but think of how great that day was going to be as I rode the train. And that was even before I knew my daughter would be getting free land mine lessons that night! Let's not miss those everyday blessings: Trains and tanks.