Sutton Button Turns 2 !!!

As hard as it is for Nate and I to believe Sutton is already 2. We have enjoyed every minute of his 2 years. Well almost every minute!!!! We had a low key celebration at home with just the 4 of us. The boys were ready to party and decided to make their own party hats while we cooked Sutton's birthday dinner. I wish I could take credit for the cake, but I can't. The cake came from Maggie Moo's. Sutton had fun driving the messy tractor all over the table!!

MONSTER TRUCKS !!!!!!

It is becoming a yearly tradition to attend the monster trucks at Ford Field. This year Nate left with strict instructions to get a photo of Leland and Logan (Logan is the son of Nate's friend Flave). Last year Nate took only pictures of trucks, so I did get 1 photo of the boys this year. Leland was decked out in his monster truck gear, all the way down to his underwear!!!! It was a long night, but according to Nate well worth it. Grave Digger (one of Leland's favorites) was the last truck on the field and by that time Leland was asking if it was almost over, but at the first roll over Nate said he was right back into the action. Leland was so pumped up about the fact that Grave Digger crashed twice. Leland is already looking forward to going next year!!!

Kindermusik Take 2

Nathan and I were glad to see the end of our second Kindermusik class at the beginning of January. Not that the class wasn't fun, but it made a long start to the week. The class was on Monday nights at 6:00 pm. The kids enjoyed learning all the new songs. We also made some new friends who live nearby and have 2 boys who are within months of being the same age as Leland and Sutton, so we are looking forward to some play dates!!

The First Hot Chocolate

Nathan finally got his snowmobile out of the trailer. We had a hard time getting Leland and Sutton off after their turn around the yard. Once we came in Leland finally had his first cup of hot chocolate. I know, he is deprived!!

A Cure For The Grouchies

I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready when Leland approached me asking for a spoonful of peanut butter. Of course I needed to know why, his response "Lynne gives me a spoonful of peanut butter when I am grouchy". I am not sure that it really helps, but it did keep him quieter for a little bit!!

Sledding With The Big Kids

On New Years day we headed to Cascades to do some serious sledding. When we arrived we were the only car in the parking lot. Of course I pointed this out to Nate and his reply "Who else is silly enough to be out sledding at 10:00 am the day after New Years Eve?". I guess he had a point. We had a hard time getting Sutton to the top of the hill, he was more interested in playing on the playground equipment. I only experienced complete fear once, let me explain. The snow was really packed on the hill we were sledding on and we have a really fast sled, so I was not real happy when Nate decided he would send Leland down alone. The whole way down Leland was backwards and the seemed to be getting closer and closer to an approaching pine tree. Nate's response to my pleas to do something "he knows to bail", my response "he's going backwards and remember he is only 3. Well thankfully he made it past the tree, but by then he had gained a fair amount of speed and was then heading for the road. Thankfully he came to a stop before reaching the road. This trip made me realize that the hill on the walk out wasn't so bad after all!!

Leland is finally interested in playing board games. So we have busted out all the fun classics: Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Chutes and Ladders, and Candy Land. We played Hi-Ho Cherry-O so much on News Years Eve I thought I would dream about it. Leland didn't want to quit though because he won every game!!

Is That You Frosty?

Leland kept asking to build a snowman and we finally got some snow that was wet enough to pack. This was our pathetic rendition of a snowman. I meant to take another picture of the snowman because it had fallen over only hours after we finished it. Oh well we had fun making it anyway. Well Leland and I probably had the most fun. Sutton kept falling over and would just lay there until somebody would help him back up, poor kid!!!

Backyard Adventures

We have been enjoying every last snowflake lately!!!! The boys can't seem to get enough outside time. The snow was much better and coming much more often a couple of weeks ago, but we still have some even with our warming temperatures. We discovered that the small hills on either side of our walkout actually are the perfect sledding hills for the kids.

Hang Time

Sutton had lots of fun getting tossed about over the Christmas vacation. It was nice to have Nathan home for 2 weeks straight!!!! It was also nice to see Molly. Thanks Molly for the great books and stuffed animals that go with them. Sutton has taken over the moose and Leland has been sleeping with the pig.

The Real Deal

We had a wonderful Christmas morning at home with the boys. We did not buy many things (trying to teach the boys that Christmas is more than presents). We found this to be interesting with Leland this year. He quickly learned that each house we went to had gifts for him, so the more he got it seemed the more he wanted. He got to the point that before we would even arrive at the next house he was asking will there be presents for me? And better yet when we would get to the next house he was even brave enough to ask where his presents were. So this lesson is definitely a work in progress! The boys got lots of new tractor items, imagine that!!! They also got a really neat duplo building block barn set from our friends in Germany, Ina and Christoph.

Christmas Again

Our next Christmas was on Christmas Eve with my dad, step-mom, and brother's family. Again the boys got lots of good things: books, tractors, cars, money!!! We also had lots of good food to eat. My dad and Kathy also made the cool snowman bench that the boys are sitting on. For those who don't know, the boy in the middle is our nephew, Skyler.

Let Christmas Begin

Christmas was a blur as usual for us. Our first Christmas was suppose to happen the Sunday before Christmas with Nathan's mom, Dean, and siblings. We ended up staying home because Leland had pink eye, Sutton had an ear infection and Nathan was also coming down sick. So our next Christmas was with Pam and Al on Wednesday before Christmas. The boys got lots of cool John Deere things. The kids found it more interesting to watch Winston chew his new bone then to play with the new toys, imagine that!!! We were then going to eat at the Beach Bar, when we got there it was closed. So then we decided to go to Steaks. When we got there you couldn't even get in the door to put your name in. So we ended up at Wendy's and then we went to the local fairgrounds to do the drive through Christmas lights. This was ok, but the whole way through the lights we had to listen to poor Nathan cry about how bad his throat hurt. Needless to say when we left the lights we stopped at Meijer to pick up some numbing spray and cough drops!!