fall day

We have had the most beautiful weather here! The girls had fun playing in a pile of leaves. Newman had fun barking at them! I cannot believe Thanksgiving is next week. Our friend Max will be here from Italy this weekend...yeah!!

Evan and Haley are out of school today for Veteran's Day. E is still sleeping as I write this. Anything after 8:00 am for Evan is like the rest of us sleeping in until noon. He went to a birthday party on Sat. night where they stayed up all night. He got home at 9:30 on Sun. morning and went straight to bed and slept until 3:30pm. Then went to bed at 10 last night. He was a pooped little guy!

Have a great week!!

Stay away from staying out too late....and run to warm fall days and piles of leaves!

school pics

I know they're my kids...but you gotta admit they are gorgeous!! I guess they weren't lying when they said they took good pictures this year.

We all had a blast on Sophie's birthday. Sophie was the little socialite and just flitted around the house. Evan played the piano for all of us to sing "Happy Birthday". Haley helped Sophie with her cake. It was just a wonderful day. God has truly blessed us with amazing family and friends.

Stay away from wind (it's windy here)....and run to beautiful school pictures!

weekend

Saturday was full throttle day here. Evan had a football game, which they won. He scored one touchdown from a beautiful reception and run. Haley had volleyball. They both had soccer games in the afternoon. Haley's soccer team has practiced several times. Evan had his first practice Sat. at 12:30 and his first game at 1:00. As fate would have it....Haley's team lost...Evan's team won. He scored 2 goals. I cannot get into soccer. It is a sport lost on me. But good exercise for the kids and they enjoy it.

Saturday night was block party night. Different areas of town hosted block parties. Jon's grandma was a host of one so we went to that. Haley and Jon's grandma...ie..her great-grandma Mimi entered the talent contest with a baton routine. They got 1st place...don't cheer too fast...EVERYONE got 1st place!! Apparently the school system sent out a memo to the whole town that all must be winners! I know, I know...I'm being mean...it was just a little block party...no need to make kids cry over their karaoke not getting 1st. Haley did a wonderful job...even though she was scared out of her britches. She tried to get out of it at the last minute, but we all told her she had to do it. I can already see the therapy bill coming! "Well, Dr., I have this vivid memory of my mom making me perform a baton routine....."

After church on Sunday we headed straight to Great Bend so Evan could participate in punt, pass and kick. Let's just say E didn't fare so well, but he did have a somewhat decent time. And his grandad took him out for icecream afterward. Can't beat a deal like that.

This week is full of soccer and football practice, piano lessons, kids club at church, and oh yeah and that pesky thing called school. But the biggest event of all is Sophie's 1st birthday on Sunday!! She's so excited!?!? Anyway, we are!

Have a great week. Stay away from pushy moms....and run to block parties.

sisters

Haley and Sophie are so cute when they're together. Haley is more than a little mommy to Sophie. It's a special bond that only sisters must have. I'm a sister, but I have brothers. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my brothers. I used to dress them up in girl clothes, but they didn't appreciate it like Sophie seems to when Haley does it. Now that I think about it, I'm really thankful they didn't appreciate it...that could have been really bad! haha

It's just been really fun to watch Haley and Sophie create this special thing.

Sophie woke up with a little cold yesterday. Took her to the Dr. today to make sure it wasn't anything....and it's not anything. You know that deal. If I wouldn't have taken her it would end up being pneumonia. I don't need to relive Evan over again with Sophie!

Stay away from colds...and run to sisters!

field day

Field day finally arrived on Friday! Oh what glorious fun was had by all. Because in today's field day every ribbon says "we're all winners". thbbttpphh (that's me blowing my tongue!) Come on. Is it really possible to say we are all winners? Don't you have to have a loser to have a winner? Why even have ribbons? The kids don't really care anyway....all the kids except Evan. He was all about getting the blue ribbon. Jon insists that comes from the Sutton side. I take that as a compliment!!

The first pic is of Evan in the wheel barrow race. He lost...no tears though. The 2nd pic is Haley in the dribbling contest...they didn't give out any 1st, 2nd, 3rd ribbons in 2nd grade. Even when "everyone's a winner" the colors are too traumatic for the kids!?!? The 2nd graders get an orange ribbon that says.....you got it..... "everyone's a winner'. The 3rd pic is Haley dominating in the gunnysack race!! The girl's got hopping skills! The 4th pic is Evan losing the 200 by a few steps....and yes there were a few tears. Mostly because he was having trouble breathing. He didn't believe me when I told him he'd have to sprint the whole time. He was planning on jogging the first 100....it seemed logical prior to the race!?!? E did end up getting a blue in the football throw (don't think Peyton Manning yet, they threw it about 8 feet into a trash can, E got the most in the hole). He also got a blue in dribbling...he's got his mama's skills! And he got a blue in the long jump...who knew? No idea where he got that from! The last pic is of the "rob and big" of Haley's class. Those two cats are bestfriends and quite the odd couple. PS. "rob and big" is a show on mtv (I know mom, mtv is the threshold to hell...99% of the time I agree w/her on that!). One of my brothers got me to watching it and the show cracks me up!! So anyway...just threw that last pic in because they make me smile whenever I see them together.

We went to my cousin Kara's graduation in Greensburg today. It was a beautiful ceremony. Lots of speakers, but really, they were all great. So proud of all those kids. They've already been through more than most people will go through and they all had smiles on their faces.

We drove the kids around Greensburg a little bit. By the old family house, Grandad and Sharon's house, my aunt and uncle's house and a few other places. I thought I'd be just fine with it, but immediately the tears came again. Even I was surprised by that. Made my heart hurt for all those who call Greensburg their home town...I can't imagine how hard it is for them. They'll make it though!

The big play at church is tomorrow...say a little prayer for E! I'll let you know how it goes.

Stay away from stupid ribbons.....and run to crazy kids, best friends and amazing graduates!

"run, forrest, run"

Haley ran the mile in a whopping 9 minutes 14 seconds today! She came in either 7th or 8th overall (sorry I lost track) and was 2nd in the girls. She is in the lime green shirt in the top picture. (She beat all of those kids that were ahead of her in the pic!) She was even able to smile and hold her baby sister after the race! She ran the entire time and never stopped. I KNOW I could not do that! One other amazing thing....the weather was actually nice. I do not remember one time in the last 8 times I've watched them run that it has ever been a nice day. Usually it's blowing or freezing. So yeah for that too!

The kids came home with their final school calendar for the year. The last day is May 23rd and I kid you not only 3 of those days do they NOT have a party or awards assembly or a movie or something. 3!!! I want to go back to school!! CRAZY!

Stay away from running the mile (I know I said that once before, but I think it warrants repeating!)....and run to basically partying for a month!

new pics

Big excitment here. Evan read enough books that he gets to go to a swimming party in Great Bend tomorrow at Barton County Community College. The kids get so many points for every book they read and take a test on. Most books are worth around 1 point each. BUT you have to take a test on the book you read and if you get 100% right then you get the whole point and if you miss any of the questions then you get deducted too. Evan started accumulating points around the first of October. He has 77.1 points right now. He is 3rd highest reader in all of 3rd grade. The kids had to read atleast 50 points to go to the party. Less than half of Evan's class gets to go, so it's not easy. Anyway, he's super excited and we're really proud of him.

Not much else going on. Sophie is bound and determined to walk before she crawls. Looks like she might be like her dad, as he did that too. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks around but won't go anywhere. She then will scoot herself to wherever you are and wants you to help her stand up.

Cold and rainy here today...boo. But the forecast looks great for this weekend!

Stay away from doing laundry....and run to reading good books.

running and laughing

Haley ran the 1/2 mile this week. She came in 4th overall and was the first girl by a good 50 yards. She was right with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers. In the picture up above she is between the 2 white posts of the scoreboard. She is so funny when she runs. Most kids are head down and all serious. When she runs past someone she smiles and waves at them as she goes by. She looks around to see where everyone is at. Cracks me up. She has to run the mile in a couple of weeks. She's nervous about that. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Do you like Sophie's hat? She does! I think she looks like the grand-poo-baa of ducks. Do you remember the Flintstones? And Fred and Barney were in that club where they wore those funny hats and one guy was the grand-poo-baa, or something like that.

Not much else going on around here. I know I've talked about Emmaus, but don't think I've mentioned that I'm the women's lay director for the women's Emmaus walk in the fall. (Kind of scary isn't it....a leader who likes to recall the flintstones!) We have our first meeting tomorrow. I'm really excited.

Have a super weekend!

Stay away from duck hats....and run to watching the Flintstones.

paper hats

Haley is always making things out of paper. As you can see she made Sophie and herself a paper hat. Haley has made an exact replica of a laptop computer with a mouse, the door to her bedroom is covered with a life size picture of herself, and her paper products are three dimensional too. I keep telling her she should be an architect. She's very artistic and expresses her feelings through drawings. I"ll have to try and scan the picture she drew of the three crosses at Easter. It is beautiful. Her artistic side must come from Jon, because I'm not artistic at all.

Sophie wore that crazy hat all night. She is so funny about things like that. She wore a pair of sunglasses for 2 hours one day. Most babies would yank things off, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Sophie and Haley are quite the pair. Haley drags Sophie everywhere, and Sophie just loves it. Haley really is patient with her and will entertain her forever.

Raining here today...boohoo! Evan has a mile run tomorrow at 1:00. He's all pumped about that. The last couple of years he's ran a mile under 8 minutes. So we'll see how he does this year. He's grown A LOT since November. See if his muscles can keep up with the new mass.

Have an awesome day! Stay away from running the mile ;)......and run to crazy hats.

a half a year old

Sophia Paige is 6 months old today!! I cannot believe it. Time has gone way too fast. As you can see she is sitting up all by herself. Although she occasionally falls backwards and gives us "the lip" as if to say, "I can't believe you let that happen to me!" She is a truly happy baby. I'm afraid we're really going to have to pay for it when she hits the 2's....actually I kind of hope it's during the 2's and not the 15's! You all know she's horribley spoiled. What with a sister, a brother and all her grandparents, aunts and uncles fussing over her she just knows she is the center of the universe. We'll let her believe it a while longer! Of all God's blessings a baby is the best.

Evan survived the big concert last night. We were beginning to wonder though when he bent over and grabbed his knees at one point. He was rubbing his eyes and forehead. This is all before his solo. The entire 3rd grade had to sing 5 songs before Evan's solo. I don't think there were 500 people there, but maybe 300. The music instructor introduced Evan. Evan then had to walk from onstage in the middle of all the 3rd and 4th graders (they put them all up on risers on the stage) to the lone piano. I know I'm his mother, but he played his solo perfectly. Not one flaw, he kept perfect time, and even used dynamics. So proud of him. I could not have done it at his age. So sweet. And no, I didn't take any pictures, because I wanted to live in the moment and not be stuck behind a lense. We won't soon forget the image of him at that piano.

Only one more week until Easter. I LOVE Easter. It is my favorite holiday. Last Easter we told the kids and all our family that a baby was on the way. No big surprise like that from us this year. I can't wait to hunt Easter eggs and have our big Easter lunch. Most of all I can't wait to celebrate the Risen Christ.

Have an awesome day!

Stay away from nearly fainting at concerts.....and run to turning 6 months old and EASTER!!