Picking Strawberries with the Strawberry Monster

We had a relaxing morning celebrating Evan for Father's Day - and then we decided to hit the strawberry fields and do some serious strawberry picking. Last year, Carter and I picked berries 3 days before Blake was born - and it will always be one of my most treasured memories. Carter is passionate about picking berries for some reason...maybe it's the tractor ride, maybe it's the wide open fields, maybe it's just spending time with people he loves. Whatever it is, it's a tradition now! It was fun to add our little Strawberry Monster this year. Wow, does he love berries!! The signs at the fields say "One free sample - all other picked fruit must be paid for." Oops - we broke the rules - to keep the Strawberry Monster happy!

Here we are (minus me taking the picture) on the tractor ride back to the strawberry fields

Carter was very good at picking only the ones that were BIG, RED, and WITHOUT HOLES.
This is the one he chose for his free sample.

He spotted a strawberry and it was all over...we took turns giving the Strawberry Monster berries to keep him happy. He reaches and says "Meeeeee!" - his way of saying "more."

A VERY happy, and VERY berry stained baby boy!

Seriously impossible to get a photo of everyone looking at the camera.

Picking ONE MORE BERRY

The end result. YUM!

Carter is very interested in knowing what words say - "Straw-berry. Strawberry."

Daddy's Day

Here he is...THE WORLD'S GREATEST DADDY!!

I love Carter's face in this picture (even though he's glancing at the TV - you can see the love he has for his Daddy)

I love them!

Mr. Blake and his obsession with tags :)

The "All About my Daddy" project from school - very cute :)

Goofball - he climbs all over Mya's bed and wants us to laugh. This is his shy silly face.

Practicing his stethoscope technique - future doctor???

This is why...

Carly is BACK from South Africa! And we're so happy...especially Carter. He told me the other day that "me and Carwee have a name that match." Hmmm...sorta. He makes it very clear that he loves Carly more than anyone - Carter, how much do you love me?? "This much...but I wove Car THIS much." Gotcha. So this was Carly's first day back with us - and this is how she entertained Blake. This is why they love her so much!

Life and Love

Evan was gone for a weekend in June participating in a triathlon, so I had a weekend with just me and the boys (and work...BOO!) If you know anything about us, you know that our kids are NOT "natural sleepers." We struggle, to stay the least, in that department. With just me, both kids, and 30 hours of work in 3 days, I didn't bother struggling to make Carter or Blake sleep in their own beds. Shame on me. However, the time we spend snuggling together is priceless. While I was getting ready for work, this was my view. It doesn't get any sweeter than this. Well...maybe except for when they both woke up, smiled, and laid back down to snuggle with each other. Life (and love) is good in the Sutton House. These are the days that I'll remember.

Spray Park Kind of Day

Every morning, Carter wakes up and says, "So, Mom, what you wanna do today?" It was a HOT one...so I suggested THE SPRAY PARK! And that's what we did. I packed a picnic lunch, and we headed out for an afternoon of fun.

After the spray park, we had some corn on the cob with dinner - YUM!

OREOs :)

Blake's knees hurt from crawling around on them, so he does this cute little bear crawl everywhere outside.

LOVE!

The Zoo

Well, i've uploaded additional photos 3 times now and they just won't upload. I'll try again another day. I'm annoyed. In the meantime, enjoy these photos of our trip to the zoo with my dear friend, Stephanie, and her little guy, Owen.

Summer. Is. Here.

So these pictures are from early/mid-May and I am just now blogging them. Oops. I've been planning Blake's first birthday party and things have been crazy around here! But, mostly, we're trying to enjoy the days with warm weather and play outside as much as we can. Here are a few photos from our very first sprinkler day of the year. Blake was hesitant only for about 30 seconds - and then he went head first into the water and had a blast. Carter's excitement definitely sets the mood, and Blake just follows right along with him. It is so cute to watch. We had a lot of fun :)

Happy Mother's Day!!

I just wanted a few pictures of me with my boys on Mother's Day. Oh, we took a "few" pictures, alright... But these are the "best of the best" - and they're no where near great - no where near what I was hoping for. Which means that I ended up giving up and pouting for 15 minutes afterwards. But as I look through them and over-analyze (as I tend to do with every photo I take), I notice one thing, and it's the ONE thing that really matters...there is visible LOVE in these photos. Carter loves Blake (sometimes a little too hard). Blake loves Carter. I love them both. And they love me. (Ok, the first one of me and Blake doesn't exactly help prove that point...) So the photos aren't perfectly posed, and Carter NEVER looks at the camera. But today, that 4 year old sweetie pie said "Happy Mother's Day" to me several times out of the blue. He wanted me to open his card immediately when I woke up in the morning. He proudly leaned over his adorable project from school as I read it aloud and laughed so hard that I cried. He helped me and Evan plant our garden and use my new mini-rototiller. Then he helped water everything, and helped me make dinner...which later he referred to as "the best dinner EVER." As much as I love nice pictures, I love the memories even more. And these pictures will always remind me of the LOVE we all felt for each other on this day and always. These two boys are amazing and I couldn't be more in love with them!!

Baby's First Oreo

Blake already had shredded cheese in his hair, so I thought we might as well just add to the mess and mark another "first" off the list...Baby's First Oreo :)

Trying to get the last little bit of Oreo off of his hands! So funny :)