Picking Time!

 Do you guys every get tired of us doing the same thing over and over again?  We are SO predictable.  I think these boys are going to look at this blog and wonder if we ever did anything out of the ordinary!  Well, since it's April we went to Porter's Farm to pick strawberries!  Last year Sutton was a sleep in his car seat.

 This year he not only can eat the strawberries he can pick them too.  He had a great time running up and down the rows helping us find strawberries!

 This big boy has been upgraded to expert picker.  He knows to push back the plants so you can find those hidden really red berries.  He got so excited every single time we found one to put in our bucket.

 Not too shabby!

Our favorite thing is to get a fresh squeezed lemonade.  They will put fresh strawberries or cherries in them too.  Sutton had discovered how to drink out of a straw recently and found out about sweet drinks when he got ahold of Brett's lemonade.  I didn't think he would get another sip!  Love my sweet boys and their sweet teeth!

Dear Sutton,

When I was a young girl, I prayed I would have at least two children.  Maybe because I was only child I idealized that relationships of siblings!  Sweet boy, you were an answer to that prayer.  I was a little more scared this pregnancy and you didn't help by hiding during an early check up, but you were there already playing games with your mommy!  The time seemed to fly by to the date we expected your arrival and I knew it was important I cherish every minute of your kicks and pokes in my belly.

 It's been a year since we met face to face.  We spent nearly forty weeks alone together and that day I got to peer at your little face for the first time I was just delighted!  I wanted to stare at that face and snuggle that sweet body for as long as could.  That seemed just fine by you too!  Those first few weeks were spent with you sleeping quietly on my chest or in my arms and I wouldn't change it for anything.

You personality came on strong in the beginning!  As soon as you learned how to smile, you hardly ever stopped!  That sweet grin is as genuine as they come.  With it you can be bashful, funny, sneaky or a million other things.  You seemed to be an easy baby to me and I relished in the fact that you seem to take your time in trying new things.  But when you did, that was it.  You seem to wait until you knew exactly how to do something and then would show off to the world.

We did have some bumps in the road those first few months.  For unknown reasons you just didn't want to go to the bathroom and your ears were a constant problem.  You took both problems in stride and barely made a peep about them.  Mommy was WAY more worried than you ever were!

From beach trips, the fair, zoo, pumpkin patches and then Christmas trees...things just seemed to fly by and you enjoyed it all.  We took you everywhere to experience as much as you could.  I know you wont remember these things but having you there was the most important thing.  

These past few months have been especially special.  I am really starting to get to know you even better.  You are starting to show your mischievous side!  If a door opens you run towards it hoping to be allowed outside or in a different room.  You want to climb stairs, stool, chairs and well just about anything!  You chase everyone around hoping for some fun.  You dance along to music and laugh when your brother does something silly.

When I look at that face, I see so many faces I love.  You seem to have gotten many of your features from my side of the family.  When you smile I see my mom and those eyes remind me of my dad.  I guess we got the name right!  I love that you also favor your daddy and brother.  You three are quite the team!

When we talked about adding to our family a couple of years ago, I knew something was missing and that was you!  You are a blessing to us in every way.  You add more laughter and love than we could ever imagine.  I am thankful that God saw fit to intrust you in our hearts and home.  I pray every day that you grow up to be a man of faith and carry a servant's heart.  I already know that God has a special plan for you even if we don't know exactly what the future holds.  He has already used you to make my life better!

I love you little bug!

Easter Weekend

 There are not many times when I have everything together.  It's always hard to get everything in place when you have kids.  But once in awhile, a miracle occurs and I get my act together.  Last Easter, I had  newborn and was still recovering from my c-section.  I hadn't bought a new dress and I felt a mess.  I had grand plans this year.  The boys had matching Easter outfits (or costumes as Moses says).  I had a new dress.  Brett was going to help carry the cross in during services at church.  We were going to have brunch afterwards.  We were going to take beautiful pictures around the flowers in the yard.  Wrong, wrong, wrong!

 Sutton woke up feeling worse than he did on his birthday.  His nose is a faucet and he is GRUMPY.  I have never had either one of my children be as clingy and generally unhappy has he was today.  No way were we going to church.  Brett's allergies were bothering him too so even he couldn't handle it.  So we did Easter baskets for the boys and I had hid eggs for Moses to find.  I made a big breakfast and then we proceeded to a lot of nothing all morning!  I snuck away for some quiet time with my Bible and enjoyed being in the word even if I couldn't be at church.  Easter is so sacred to me because Jesus paid a debt I can never repay.  The weight of it all is so amazing!  It was important to take time to remember that and have it in my heart the entire day.

We couldn't take Sutton out to lunch, so Brett insisted that Moses and I go with my parents for some lunch.  We had a nice lunch and came back home and took out the wagon.  The  ONLY thing that makes Sutton content is being outside and in that wagon.  It's his happy place when he feels puny.

 Moses must be working on combating his brothers sick cranky behavior.  He has been the sweetest thing all week.  His manners have been great and he is just angelic most of the time.  I don't have to worry about him much at all lately!

Can you tell Moses was jazzed about his Easter presents?  This little boy is so into Transformers it's not even funny.  It is a 24/7 thing.  It's all he wants to do and all he wants to talk about!

Here's hoping for a better spring!  We suffered greatly last year with mono and sinus/ear infections so I am REALLY REALLY hoping this brood gets well and stays well!

Sutton Turns One!

 Our sweet Sutton turned ONE on Saturday!  I had gone back and forth on whether or not to have his party on his actual birthday because I knew that a lot of people would be out of town or busy because it was Easter weekend, but I went ahead and decided to do it.  When ended up having a few friends and family and it was just fine with us!  Unfortunately, Sutton has been out of sorts all week.  He is suffering from some sort of cold/allergies/sinus infection/teething issues and was not his usual happy self.  He was such a trooper though!  He woke up and sang to him and gave him his first Krispy Kreme doughnut for breakfast!  Last year I was buying them for the nurses and now my sweet boy was eating them himself!  His brother gave him a little people airplane that he happily played with that morning!

 His other favorite thing about his birthday were the balloons.  We tied them to his jumper and they lasted about 15 minutes before they became untied and flew away.  Pretty much all of the party was spent playing in the back yard.  We have a great fenced in area and got a lot of big bouncy balls for the kids instead of goody bags.  They played with them and had a great time!  It was such a nice day and since Sutton loves to be outside that made it all the more better.

 By the time we got him his cake he was OVER it!  He just did not feel like pretending to be happy anymore (he gets that from me!).  He ate a few bites of icing but did not want his cake.  He has not felt like eating much with those teeth coming in.

We washed him off and put some comfy clothes on and let him back in yard.  The above picture is pretty much the only real smile I got from him.  This sweet boy just needs a birthday do over!  All of our friends and family had a great time, especially big brother!  Hopefully, he will be better next week and I can sneak him a little treat!  Happy Birthday Little Bug!

Moses Remembers...

Tonight I asked Moses what he remembers about meeting his brother for the first time.  He replied, "I put together a pirate puzzle with Papa."  Well, he did!  I guess something made an impression that day!  When reminded he talked about the cake and singing to him.  We talked about how small he was and then Moses said, "He didn't have any teeth or a tongue!"  Close buddy, but not quite!  So Sutton, this is what your brother remembers about the day you born!

Getting Ready

We've got a big week a head of us!  Sutton will be ONE on Saturday.  Um, what!  That little bug has grown up way too fast.  In true Barker fashion, we celebrate birthday week.  We had dinner with my parents in Emerald Isle this weekend and ate at Rucker Johns where Sutton had the waitstaff sing to him and bring him some dessert.  He had his first bite of cake and he loved it of course!  He will have a party on his actual birthday with some friends and we are excited to do all the first birthday fun again!

Birthday week overlaps Holy Week this year.  Probably the most important week in the year!  Even though Easter falls a little earlier this year, I love that all of the beautiful flowers and trees are in full bloom already.  Even the flowers seem to scream out, He is Risen!

Sutton at 11 months and Moses at 3.5

(Disclaimer: I wrote this with intentions of publishing it like two weeks ago.  Didn't happen.  So, here it is finally!)

A month away from one and six months away from four...what!  These boys are growing and changing every day.  I was talking to the sweet girl who watches Sutton in the nursery at bible study today and she said she couldn't believe how much he's changed the the last couple of months.  It's true for both of them!

Sutton at 11 Months

Sutton is a walking machine!  He toddles, well waddles, everywhere.  He has the cutest walk.  These last few days he has been standing un assisted in the middle of the floor.  Just call him Mr. Mobile.  I've even caught him climbing things recently.  He is constantly trying to scale something!

He and I have lots of grunting conversations.  He thinks it's SO funny.  He started doing it at meals when he wanted more food and now does it when I talk to him.  He can say the word "ball" and if you ask him to find it he will go to the toy box and get it!

Sutton is 100% a mama's boy.  He's starting to have a little separation anxiety when I leave him.  He quickly gets over it if I leave, but if I'm around he wants me.  We are going through that stage where he wants a lot of full attention which makings cooking dinner and doing other chores a lot harder than usual!

His appetite is in full force!  I love letting him try new foods.  He loves peas, bananas, cheerios, rice, and usually whatever I've cooked for dinner.  He is a pretty slow eater and meals tend to take forever after preparing and cleaning up.  He likes to feed himself a few things, but if something has a mushy texture he's too busy playing with it to eat it.  He still gets 3-4 bottles a day and I am going to introduce whole milk this week to try to start the process of weaning him from the bottle.

Sutton is still getting a solid 12 hours at night.  No matter what we do he wakes up around 6-6:30am so he goes to bed by 6:30pm so insure he gets plenty of rest.  Lately he has been waking up in the middle of the night once but goes back to sleep.  He is also still taking two naps a day averaging 1.5 to 2 hours.

Lately, he has been playing a lot of balls and cars.  He will also carry around Moses' Woody (from Toy Story) around by his pull string.  He thinks it's the most hilarious thing.  He is also super curious about the toilet.  I have to make sure all the bathroom doors are always closed.  Once, Moses was going the potty and I heard him yelling.  I ran in to find Sutton hanging on to the potty watching Moses go.  Um, YUCK!

Moses at 3.5 years

Oh, Moses is my wild man.  He absolutely keeps me on my toes.  He is full of energy all the time.  I am so ready for warmer weather so we can be outside more and he can burn it off!  I get the impression from his teacher that he is the same there.

Moses eats all.the.time.  We can't go an hour without him telling me that he is hungry.  If kept a tally on how much he eats during the day and it is staggering!  I have set up rules a long time ago about snacks which has helped.  He knows that the only time he gets a "pantry" snack is after his nap.  He can have a cookie, piece of candy or something like that then.  We went for a long time where he was eating almost three apples a day.  His teacher even asked me to pack extra food in his lunch because he was eating everything in it (sandwich, carrots, pretzels, and fruit)!  He is weighing in at around 36lbs and comes up to my rib cage.  He is so tall and skinny!  We are very lucky he is such a good eater.  We do have some struggles, usually at dinner, but we have learned to be firm with him.

I can't say enough how proud I am of him and potty training.  He is totally self sufficient!  I guess that is the only plus of it taking forever.  He just runs to the bathroom, does his business, washes his hands, and comes out.  Doesn't need or want me to do anything.  I am SO ok with that!

Moses has the cutest personality.  The things that come of out of his mouth are hysterical.  He's also started trying to bargain with us.  A lot of times when you ask him something he'll start by saying, "Well, actually...." followed by something completely crazy.

Moses LOVES his friends.  He is such a social butterfly.  Some of his favorite friends are Chesson, Connor, Reese, Cameron, Wally, and Hayden.  I am really proud of how nicely he plays with others.  He can walk into any room and feel right at home and enjoy everyone there.  Moses LOVES a birthday and is always asking me whose birthday is next!

Moses has lots of things he's "into" right now.  He loves playing with cars and balls.  He is also into legos and transformers (thanks to daddy).  He has mastered using the ipad and knows were his games are and how to access his shows on netflix (with permission).  He even showed my 88 year old grandmother how to play angry birds!  He still shows a lot of interest in outer space and I bought him a book about the solar system which he seems to like.  He also plays constantly with his pirate ship he got for Christmas.  He has finally gotten MUCH better about playing independently.  I love listening to him chatter and pretend.

Moses is still taking an afternoon nap about 75% of the time.  He sleeps with the covers over his head (which drives me nuts) and wants to leave his overhead light on with the door cracked.  I've tried turning out the light when I go to bed but he just wakes up and gets mad that it's off.  Oh, well!

Our one problem has been obedience.  Somedays I feel like all I do is discipline all day long.  One day he told me that Jesus was upset with me.  When I asked him why, he said because I put him in time out!  Oh, that boy!

Moses and Sutton are starting to play together pretty well.  Moses makes Sutton laugh more than anyone and loves him dearly.  Moses is usually pretty good with Sutton but he can be rough.  I don't think our problem is jealousy, but sometimes he feels Sutton is getting in the way or "bothering" his toys.

These boys are just the best.  I love them SO much!