There's a celebrity amongst us!

Sutton is officially a celebrity! Well... sort of. A few months ago People.come asked for submissions for babies with their first birthday cakes. And I knew I had the BEST picture EVER for Sutton. So I submitted it and kept checking and checking on nothing. Then yesterday someone emailed me and said they saw Sutton www.people.com and sure enough they picked his picture! I will include the link so you can go straight there. I submitted a write up and they chose parts of it for the caption. What they didn't include is that he was definitely the "save the best for last baby." The other 2 had very little interest in their birthday cakes and made only a minimal mess. And Sutton took it to the next level and destroyed his cake and had such a blast. This is one of my fave pics of all time! Enjoy!

http://www.people.com/people/package/gallery/0,,20242009_20247372_20545014,00.html

Out of the mouth of Mason

Mason and I just had a very casual conversation that I have to document. He was picking up markers and nonchalantly says, " I wish Taylor Swift was my mom." To which I replied, "why?" And he says, "well because she's such a good singer." (apparently he doesn't think so highly of my singing). Then he justified it by saying, "Well mom I will still love you. You could be my grandma." I guess it could be worse, but seriously my kid wishes an 18 year old was his mom!

Kick back and relax... a month's worth of blogs in one!

Wow... I say this frequently on here but life is NUTS and it goes by so fast! We have had a bout of walking pneumonia sweep through our house and so life has been on hold for the past month. I needed to get on here and update but didn't know where to start because there is just so much to post but here goes... be forewarned I am sure this will be lengthy but then I promise to make a better attempt at getting back to my once a week (er... every other week) updates!

So first came Halloween. We of course had to have a theme (handpicked by me with no input from the boys... last year it was the 3 little pigs). I figure this is probably the last year I can get away with this so I did. This year we had the 3 blind mice! They loved the idea and Mason actually likes dressing like his brothers still. We went trick or treating with our neighbors, and we ended up with a sort of progressive trick or treat. Because everyone in our neighborhood has small kids we all go at the same time, so we left early and started going from house to house and our group grew as we picked up candy and more kids at each house. It was fun. Here's a pic of the boys (Easton looks a bit peaked as he had a fever... who knew this was the beginning of the pneumonia plague!)

A few more pics from the pumpkin patch (that lasted a whole 15 minutes, it was FREEZING that day so we grabbed pumpkins and left promptly) and carving pumpkins:

Then came the Annual Slessor Halloween Bash. Usually we crash the party and bring our kids but this year we left them home and lived it up (well til at least like 10:30... ha ha.) I was my favorite food (sushi) and Jake was Joe the Plumber.

And then all of a sudden it was November. We started out with random off and on fevers for Easton, and then me, and then Mason, and finally Sutton. Eventually we figured out what was wrong with us and we all had a good dose of antibiotics and are on the mend... daddy thought he avoided the plague but as I write this he's in a NyQuil induced coma in bed... sorry daddy.

We had a banana incident... which deserves a post of it's own so I will save that. And so next came Hawkeye Saturdays, here are a few pics of the boys eating their "at home tailgate food" in their jerseys. And then Daddy turned 31!!! So we had our tradition of getting him his own cake and presents of course. I had a hard time buying him something this year because it had to top last year which he still talks about. For his 30th birthday I couldn't think of a great commemorative gift, so I gave him 30 gifts starting 29 days before his birthday and the 30th one on his birthday. This year in October he kept talking about he was unloved since he didn't get 31 gifts. Geez... pressure to top that one. So I decided on tickets to a Bears game that he, I, Mary, and Ian could all go to. Finding one we could work in the schedule was nearly impossible... but low and behold on Dec. 23rd they play on Monday Night Football... so I thought "SCORE"... little did I realize it is against the Packer's and so tickets weren't real easy to come by. But Ian and I worked our magic and Jake was surprised and I think excited about his gift... I will provide the freezing details in a blog post to come! Here is Jake and boys with the birthday cake! And that brings us to Thanksgiving. We had a great time! We started out on Wednesday leaving early from work to take the boys to Lana and Papa's for some fun on their Gator and four wheeler since it was so nice.

We stayed the night and got up and went to my aunt's house for dinner and it was a nice small group as most of the kids are now married and split time between our family and their spouse's family. (I didn't take any pics at Thanksgiving just some from the night before and that next morning)
We then headed to Bob and Patty's house that evening where the boys ran wild up and down the hall of their new condo. Sutton had a great time discovering Sterzings and dip!

And that brings us to today... December already. The next two weeks are busy busy for me at work with finals next week and then a month off... should be lots of blog posts! OH but I can't forget to mention that we made the decision that one family should only have so much fun... and we have reached our limit of "fun" with 3 boys... so Jake is heading to get "neutered" as he keeps referring to it on Friday... wish him luck.

Jake's Alumni Game

The Old Gang!

It seems like just yesterday I spent many nice days sitting outside watching Jake play baseball for Western Illinois University... it was actually like 9 years ago! GASP, I feel old. We got a letter in the mail inviting Jake to come back for homecoming and play in an alumni game. So we figured what the heck, and decided we would pack up the kids and head to our old stomping ground for a fun filled Sunday.

I always tell people that I went to WIU to get a degree and left with a future husband and a best friend. The "trip down memory lane" wouldn't have been complete without Amber there, so I called and didn't even have to beg or plead, she was in. Well I did have to promise her we would have a "horseshoe" (a popular entree served at most restaurants in Macomb, a.k.a. heart attack on a plate!), and the way to Amber's heart is through her mouth. Here we are after eating lunch:

Amber and her girls met us at the game, and although we didn't watch most of it we had a blast chasing around kids and catching up. They had so much fun playing and running around. It's never a complete success unless the kids do something they aren't supposed to, at one point the announcer said, "can we please keep the kids off the inflatable Rocky? Thank you." Yah my boys were trying to use this HUGE blow up mascot as a trampoline. They all act like Jake... it's really not my fault and slightly unfair that I have to put up with it. ha ha ha.

It was fun to see some of Jake's old teammates and to look at campus. We drove by all the places we both lived and drove around town a bit just to see how things had changed. It's amazing how time flies because it seems like yesterday we were there! We ate lunch at Rocky's, the restaurant where Amber and I waited tables. It hasn't changed a bit, and the hand rolled mozzerella sticks were as good as we remembered (we used to have to make them at the end of our shifts!) Here are several pictures from our fun day, we are looking forward to doing it again hopefully soon!

My boys and her girls:

A few pics of Jake batting and scoring a run.

Bye bye baby and hello environmentalists

2 short topics in one post :)

So the last remaining bit of our baby is now gone (well besides the diapers). Sutton is happily sleeping in his big boy bed. It was only a matter of time as he was ready to be out of his crib. I was hoping for a smooth transition as we have had with the other 2 and I got it! He loves to sleep so much that when it is time for bed he goes right to sleep and same with nap. It's kind of funny because when he is ready to get up he just opens his door and comes on down the stairs. He even has done this a few times in the middle of the night. It kind of makes me laugh to think that our 18 month old can just wander around the house at night all by himself (no worries we have an alarm so if he goes out EVERYONE will know). He's not afraid of the dark just comes down to my side of the bed and says, "mommy." He's so grown up for his age... guess that happens when you have 2 older brothers.

This weekend we took advantage of what I keep saying is the last nice day of the year and we did some yard work. We are preparing for family pictures this Thursday at our house.

Caution side comment ahead: for the record I said that no matter what happened I promised myself I would never let Sutton have third child syndrome where we never get his picture taken... and well I did. I didn't mean to, I really didn't... in fact I had good intentions, even made an appt when he was 13 months for his year pics and then he got a huge goose egg so I cancelled them and well then the flood happened... and yah I have no good excuse that it is actually going to be a whole year since he has had his pictures taken. GASP.

Ok back to the story about yardwork. Slowly but surely we have been planting trees this year and getting the yard how we want it. We planted 8 arborvitae at the beginning of the summer and then an Aspen, or vice versa. So we decided to plant a tree or two this fall. We went to the nursery and everything was 30% off but there was little to choose from, we almost settled for a tulip tree but I decided we might check Lowe's instead. JACKPOT. We ended up wtih 6 trees for $52.. yep $52. Granted they aren't big by any means but they aren't that small either and for less than $10 a tree if they die who cares? We'll buy more. So here are a few pics of Sutton and Easton helping plant the trees. Sutton wasn't much of a help but he was really interested, Easton actually was a big help. I was no help with the planting, I did however work in the front yard. Where was Mason? Playing with friends... yah that's another post in itself.

Until next week...have a good one!

Easton's birthday party

I didn't get around to blogging last week so will update with 2 this week. First off we had Easton's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. He had a construction theme and many of our friends and family showed up for a fun time.

He of course got lots of presents and has been having a hard time figuring out which to play with. His favorite part of the day was probably cake. He gets that from his mom.

Here are a few pictures of the party! Hard to believe he is 3, the time went too fast between 2 and 3 years old.

Jekyll and Hyde

Mason loves school and teachers love Mason. Ever since he has been 18 months old I have been told over and over how well behaved he is, how he is helpful and if all the kids were as good as him their jobs would be much easier. I must say it sort of makes me mad. Mad because the child they describe to me sounds nothing like the child I see at home, he talks back, he doesn't listen, he hates picking up, he whines... he's 4.

A few months ago Mason started attending a new preschool. His new teacher Miss Mary sends home a daily sheet that tells how his day was. It has a bunch of adjectives on it and she circles the ones that reflect how he acted. Everyday his sheet says: cooperative, good listener, respectful, happy, helpful, nice to my friends. And everyday Jake and I look at each other say... "there must be another Mason in that room."

Yesterday I got Mason's daily sheet and all the positive adjectives were circled but there was a 1/2 by the good listener. And she wrote comments that said "Mason was asked to stop talking during circle time but was not being a good listener. Otherwise a good day." It was kind of shocking at first and refreshing at the same time to know that it is my kid that she send notes home about... now if only he would act at home like he does at school we would all be happy. But Jake and I both agree it's better he act like that at school and bad at home than vice versa!