Happy Turkey Day!

Like all of my posts, this one is late...but, that's just becoming the story of my life!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Andy's family and mine.  We started our day at Grandma Queenie's house (Andy's grandma) and enjoyed lunch with all of the Sutherlin side.  It was nice to catch up with everyone and Ben and Kyran had so much fun playing with all the kiddos.

Just in time for naps, we loaded up and headed north to my parents.  Both boys were out within 10 minutes of being on the road (maybe there is some truth to that whole "turkey makes you tired" thing).  We got to Mom and Dad's just in time for appetizers.  Mom decided to try a nontraditional approach to Thanksgiving, and I have to say, it was great!  Instead of turkey, mashed potatoes, and dressing, we had soups, homemade breads, and lots of desserts!  It was a great way to end the day.

After a night of sleeping off the food coma, Stacey, Mom and I (a.k.a. the Ugly Shirt Brigade) headed to Holland, Michigan for some shopping.  It was a great trip...we had lunch at our favorite restaurant, shopped all of the cute little boutiques, hit the big stores on the way home, and made it back before midnight!

Unfortunately, I didn't take hardly ANY pictures.  I was too busy catching up with everyone that I forgot to get my camera out.  But, I did manage to get a few.

 This picture cracks me up.  It sums Kyran up perfectly...standing on top of something he shouldn't be, clothes are a mess, holding something that he's preparing to launch across the room, and giving me that look of "what? you talking to me?"  Yes, just for your information, he proceeded to launch this toy across the garage!

 Not quite sure what Kyran's doing in the picture, but of course, he's on top of a piece of furniture and look...why yes, that's another toy I'm sure he's preparing to launch!

 Lucy saying "cheese"!

 and...Lucy giving me a look that says "why do you keep taking my picture?"

 Spike (a.k.a. demon cat) found a perfect spot!  He is smart enough to stick close to Mom or Andy since they're the only two that actually tolerate him!

The "Ugly Shirt Brigade" is ready to go!

***Just a little side note (mainly for my boys who get copies each year of the blog...my version of scrapbooking), the "Ugly Shirt Brigade" came about on a trip to Iowa with my family and Andy's family.  Stacey and I came upon a booth that sold bedazzled shirts and we thought it would be funny to buy some matching ones to wear Black Friday shopping (some people wear antlers and santa hats...we wear bedazzled shirts).  Of course, we picked the ugliest ones (pink with sequin flower bouquets) and wrapped Mom's up for her.  When she opened it up, she went on and on about how pretty it was, UNTIL we told her why we had gotten it.  Then, she admitted that she wasn't too fond of it, lol.  Funny thing is, when we're out shopping each year, we usually have at least one person tell us how pretty our shirts our...I guess our humor is lost on some, ha ha!

Ben and Katie were up bright and early on Black Friday...thankfully Grandpa Jim was manning the kitchen since the ladies were manning the shopping carts!

Fall Fun

We've had a very crazy fall this year.  It started out unseasonably warm, which was very nice.  Then, we entered a monsoon period that was frustrating, to say the least!  It seemed like when we just got in a rhythm with the crops, it would rain for days and set us back for a week or more.  Finally, we got a nice stretch of "somewhat dry" weather, and we were able to finish up in the fields.  When we could finally breath a sigh of relief and sit back to enjoy what was left of fall, it quickly turned to winter!  Today started out at a balmy 24 degrees and we've had snow...yes, you heard right, snow!!!

Yet, regardless of all the crazy weather, we've still managed to have a fun and busy fall so far.  Here's a look at what we've been filling our time with...

The boys and I managed to escape to Ben's favorite place "pizza with the train", a.k.a. Pizza King, for a lunch date while Andy was working in the field.  I have to say, the TV's in the booth and the fact that the train brings your drinks to the table is an absolute plus when it comes to taking both boys out alone!

We celebrated a very special day, which was the wedding of our great friends, Elise and Zach!  I was so honored to be asked to be in the wedding, and we enjoyed every moment of the weekend!  Elise was a gorgeous bride, of course, and she and Zach planned a perfect wedding...so much fun!  We were lucky to have my Mom and Dad watch the boys for the weekend so that we could go to all of the pre-wedding and wedding events.  Since the wedding was the 1st, Mom and Dad offered to take the boys trick-or-treating, which was so nice...Ben was sick on Halloween last year, so this was Kyran's first time trick-or-treating, and from the looks of the pictures, he had a blast.  Of course, this was during one of the freezing cold, rainy days, which just added to the fun, ha ha.

 Ben, our Bumblebee Transformer and Kyran the dinosaur!

Ben and Kyran also had a good time helping Grandma Debbie rake leaves and clean out her flowerbeds.

This picture doesn't look like fun, but it's a special one to me.  "Jim, the barber" has been cutting hair for 50+ years and has cut my Grandpa's hair, my Dad's hair, my brothers' hair, and he even cut Ben's hair.  I'm not 100% sure, but I actually think he might have cut my hair once when I was a little girl.  Regardless, I have many memories of going uptown and sitting in his barbershop with Grandpa or Grandma while my brothers got a trim.  Jim was so nice to us and always had a sucker or a piece of candy to pass out to all of us kids when we were leaving.

Since he has "retired", he only takes appointments on Fridays and I asked Mom if she would take Kyran to him.  I wanted to make sure the Kyran got to have his hair cut by "Jim, the barber" too, so that he could be part of that special group.  Mom said Kyran was so good and then he just let loose with the waterworks.  Poor Jim, I'm sure Kyran was not his easiest customer, but I'm so glad that he agreed to cut his hair...it's such a special memory for me!

The boys and I enjoyed the last few days of half-way decent weather last weekend by playing outside, raking leaves, and having Ben's friend over to play.  As you can see from the videos, all three boys had a great time.  Andy finished up in the field, so that was an added bonus!

Now, we're heading into our hibernation mode, turning on the heaters, digging out the hats, gloves, and winter coats, and dealing with darkness at 5:30 (blah...we really, really, really don't like daylight savings time)!  But, despite the cold, as we bid farewell to fall and head into the holiday season, our hearts are warm.  There is no time of the year like the holidays.  I know people get frustrated, busy, upset, and darn right rude with all the hustle and bustle, but people also give to those less fortunate, take time to count their blessings, spend extra time with their families, take a few minutes to send a Christmas card, switch the TV over to a holiday movie, or maybe they just put on their jammies and snuggle on the couch with their kiddos.  Whatever it may be, the holidays are coming and I for one can't wait.  As they say, it's the most wonderful time of the year!

18 month photos

As with most everything, these pictures are a bit late.  I'm counting them as Kyran's 18 month photos, but he's actually 19 months in them.  But, is there really a law that says they HAVE to be 18 month pics???  I think not, so we're just gonna go with it!  I ran home from school last Monday, threw outfits on the boys, grabbed the camera, grabbed Andy, and headed over to the farm.  By the time we got there, we were working with less than an hour or so of daylight, so we had to work fast.  You might be wondering why I just didn't do it another day, but for those of you that live anywhere near us, you know that we've had rain EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. so, I was taking the sunshine while I had it!  Of course, everyday since then has been beautiful, but hey, who knew?!?!?

Without further ado, here are some of the 300+ pics I took (they weren't all keepers, ha ha)!

Of course, we had to put pictures of Ben in too!

Pumpkin Carving 2014

Ben and I found some time on Sunday to carve a few pumpkins.  We love to do this each fall and each year Ben is able to do more and more of the actual carving.  This year, he helped cut out the eyes and the nose.  He was a little afraid to try the scary mouth, but he did like running the drill to put holes in one of the pumpkins.

 This was the pumpkin he picked on his field trip...it made a nice "scary" pumpkin, according to Ben.

 We needed a little brighter light in the one, but they all looked pretty cool in the dark.

My proud pumpkin carver (looking super cute in his Christmas jammies, if you ask me)!

Another first

Kyran had another first on Friday night.  Andy was gone for the week at a conference in Minnesota, so I loaded up the boys and went out to dinner with friends and their new baby twins.  We were having a great time just catching up and visiting, and Kyran was just walking around the table, and then he found the bar stool Ben was sitting on.  He thought it would be fun to climb in and out of the bar stool because he could stand up underneath it (I know, exciting stuff, huh!).  So, I'm watching him, visiting with our friends, keeping an eye on Ben, and trying to finish up dinner when I hear Kyran crying.  Now, let me just say that I have learned to not become too excited when Kyran cries.  1, he cries a lot.  2, his cries are usually pretty loud.  3, he is a huge climber, so he falls often and almost always cries when he falls down. And 4, did I mention that he cries a lot!

Ben and Reece enjoying some wings and corn dogs before the accident

So, I go over and pick him up.  He had caught his foot on the bar stool and had fallen down.  I'm hugging him, patting his back, and telling him he'll be ok, when I notice that I have blood on my hand.  I turn his head and see that his ear is covered in blood and it's running down his face.  Oh boy...this is a first!  We've had lots of scraped knees, bruises, a couple busted lips, and even a few stubbed toes.  But, we've never had a deep cut.  I looked at his ear and sure enough, it was busted open.  Poor baby...I knew that it had to have hurt like heck.  I could lift his ear up a bit and see that it was a pretty deep cut, so I figured a trip to urgent care wouldn't hurt.  Thank goodness for good friends (remember, my husband is about 10 hours away at this point).  So, my friend and I loaded up Kyran in the car.  She sat in the back to keep pressure on his ear.  Her husband and brother (who unexpectedly showed up at the very same restaurant...a blessing in disguise) took Ben and the twins back to their house.  I'm not sure Ben even knew what happened; he was just excited to get to go play with Reece for a while.

Kyran's ear before it was cleaned up.  This was after several napkins and a few wet ones.  Poor buddy.

Off to urgent care we go.  Of course, my absolute favorite doctor was working (my mother-in-law works for urgent care, so we know several of the docs) and he took such great care of Kyran.  After cleaning it up, he saw that it wasn't that deep and that stitches or glue would only hurt more and Kyran would most likely mess with the stitches anyway.  So, after a good cleaning and some antibiotic cream, we were on our way to go pick up Ben.

All cleaned up and ready for bed.  It definitely bruised quite a bit, but it looks so much better now!

It was a wild and crazy evening, and I absolutely hated to see Kyran get hurt.  I was very happy though that our night didn't end with stitches.  A little headache for Kyran, I'm sure, but nothing that some Tylenol couldn't take care of.  It's been four days and his ear is looking great.  It's healing nicely and hopefully there won't be much of a scar.  As for the climbing, this unfortunately did not slow him down.  He is definitely my little monkey!

Field trip fun

Last Wednesday, Ben went on his first field trip.  We headed to the corn maze and pumpkin patch with his preschool, and he had so much fun!  We are so lucky to have a local pumpkin patch that offers so many kid attractions.  They had a straw tunnel, tricycle races, water table, straw mountain, corn box, playground, a gem mine, plus the huge corn maze and pumpkin patch.  It was a little muddy from all the rain, but that didn't stop us from having a good time!

 One of the 100+ times Ben went through the straw tunnel...I even ventured through once myself.  It was pretty fun!

 Getting his dig on in the sandbox

Taking a lap around the tricycle track

Ma and Pa Kettle

Milestones

The boys had their 5 year and 18 month check up a week or so ago, and they are right on schedule!  It was timed perfectly to also serve as an ear recheck for both of them.  The week before their appointments, both boys came down with high fevers...off to the doctor to find out they both had double ear infections.  Fast forward to their check ups and both boys were infection clear!  So, here's the stats:

Ben:
Weight - 47 lbs (83%)
Height - 42.4" (35%)

Kyran:
Weight - 26 lb 12.8 oz (83%)
Height - 35.04" (95%)

Poor Ben needs to hit a growth spurt soon.  I'm afraid he may have inherited some of his height from Andy's side of the family, but maybe my side's genes will kick in and give him a boost.  Of course, no matter how tall or short he is, he's as perfect as can be!  Kyran seems to be right on track, so we'll see if he continues to grow at this rate.  He is definitely taller than Ben was at this age, but not by much, so it remains to be seen if he'll keep going or slow down a bit. 

Both boys are absolutely perfect in every possible way, and the doctor had no concerns.  She did say that Kyran is most likely going to need tubes for his ear infections.  She did not think there has been any damage done, but he just has such a tendency to get them that she anticipates another rough fall and winter.  So, let the consultations begin!  Thankfully, my sister has been through this more than a couple times with her girls, so we have a great resource right in the family.