November Happenings

Trying out a different title for the November installment of random iPhone photos. :) I lost the photos from the first half of November when I had to reset my phone (trying not to think about it, trying not to think about it), so this month only has one post. :)

I was going to post a photo of Sutton on his new little potty, but figured maybe I shouldn't. Suffice it to say, he used it the first day and hasn't since. I'm to the point where I think I'm unequipped to potty-train a human.

Always hanging out in Mommy's bed. With his airplane.

Ginger Instagrammed a photo one day of her and Joe waaaaay back when they first started dating when they were kids. So I decided that was fun and I wanted to do it too. Here's Adam and I on my 18th birthday in 2003. We were so cool. We'd gone 4-wheeling down in Waynoka, Oklahoma that day.

Diesel's been staying in bed longer and longer on these cold mornings. I found him still up here at 11am one morning.

I was working in my office and Sutton was playing behind me. I wasn't really paying attention and when I turned around, he was playing the game of Life, lol.

We had a picnic lunch on the floor one day. Then Diesel came and stole Sutton's sandwich and the picnic was over.

Adam and I went to see the new Twilight movie on the 16th. We didn't go to the first midnight showing, we went the next day. I loved it! :)

Adam was just excited for theater food.

One Sunday morning, we went out for breakfast. Sutton is so big...he sits on his own big chair sometimes, and he knows how to hold his own cup without spilling.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, we had a Thanksgiving lunch in Newton with my parents, grandparents, and aunt + uncle + cousins. Sutton had fun playing with Faith and Hannah.

That evening, we went to Winfield for a fly-in for Adam. Sutton and I hung out in the bleachers.

Then we went and got dinner and brought it back and Sutton had a pretty sweet set-up for eating.

Our front room windows have always had curtains that were see-through, so Adam finally decided to buy some opaque ones. I love it! Not sure why it took us so long to cover our windows... :)

Have you ever had Cheesy Chicken Chowder? It's a soup my parents have always made and they passed down the recipe to me. I've made it twice now and it's always so good:

1. Make a roux
2. Add milk
3. Boil carrots, potatoes, and onions in broth til tender
4. Add cooked shredded chicken to veggies (I'd cooked the chicken in the crockpot that day)
5. Add cheese to milk mixture
6. Add milk and cheese mixture to veggies and chicken.

Ah-mazing! We ate it with some of those King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls. It was an awesome dinner.

Brand new stack of discs. Taking pleasure in the little things.

One cool dude.

Had to try out Mommy's sunglasses too.

One day, Sutton was playing night time. He went nigh night on his bedroom floor...

Then in his bed...



"Good morning, Mommy!"

We had to take lunch to Adam's class last week. I was sitting at his desk and thought it was cute that he had Sutton's school photo on his desk.

We had a nice afternoon last week, so I filled up the bird bath for Sutton play in.

My two children.

We put up the Christmas tree last week, as I posted about before. Sutton likes to hug the tree when we come home.

I found this project on Pinterest. Yarn wrapped around cones. Love them.

Sometimes when we're watching a show, Sutton will put his hand on my arm without really paying attention to what he's doing. He's so sweet.

And weird.

And the Thanksgiving Day 5K race results finally were posted. Our niece Bailey got 2nd in her age group out of 32!! Awesome!

I painted my toenails one night (which doesn't happen very often) and the next morning, Sutton saw them and had to inspect.

Sutton gets his very own special ornament every year, and this year was the first year he picked it out himself...surprise, surprise, it was an airplane. He plays with it constantly.

In efforts to make traditions, each year of his life, he's gotten a special ornament, and then we've always gotten him an "S" ornament, we've done handmade ornaments, and we've gotten a picture frame ornament that I put a photo of the three of us in on Christmas Day. I feel like my tree is going to get really full really fast, but I don't know which of these traditions to give up!

I updated my chalkboard in my living room to be Christmasy.

Last night, Sutton and I were watching a show, and I felt his hand slowly go into mine, so we sat there for awhile holding hands. Then Daddy wanted in on the moment, so he held Sutton's other hand. It was pretty sweet.

Things Sutton Says...

Sutton was in the bathroom this morning with Adam and I walked in:

Adam: "Sutton! Is that Mommy?"

Sutton: "No! Gina!"

I went to pick Sutton up from the Y daycare this morning after my workout:

Daycare Worker: "Sutton, Mommy's here!"

Sutton: "No, Gina! Gina here!"

Adam likes to call me Little Bina, and apparently Sutton as has picked up on that. I walked in the door from a photo shoot tonight:

Sutton: "Hi Wil' Nina!"

Don't they usually wait until they're teenagers to call you by your first name?

Thanksgiving {2012}

We have a tradition of camping every Thanksgiving, and it's been dubbed Thankscamping. Adam's brother Matt and his friends started the tradition awhile back, and now Adam and our friend Scott have taken the reigns. We counted it up and figured out that this was the 10th year of Thankscamping!

Wednesday morning, we went out to Scott's land to get everything set up. It's been unseasonably warm around here, and we ended up taking Sutton's shirt off for our picnic lunch here. (Photo was taken pre-disrobing.)

Adam stayed out there pretty much constantly, but I had to travel back and forth for Sutton's naps and bedtime. Sutton is in love with "Mommy's bed" and always wants to "get up der?" Here he is pre-nap on Wednesday, chilling with Diesel and watching Veggie Tales.

After his nap, we headed back out to the campsite for dinner. Scott made us some amazing campfire chili. Disregard the nasty camping hair. :) It sure got cold out there quick when the sun started going down.

We have a sort of shelter out there that we keep all the food in, so there's just this table of food that's open for constant snacking. We probably gain 10 pounds during Thankscamping. Sutton included...you can see the remnants on his face.

As I mentioned, Adam got a silk-screening set up for his birthday, so he made us all Thankscamping shirts. Sutton and I are in the minority with no beards. This is Scott, me, Adam, Sutton, and Adam's brother Matt.

Adam slept out there Wednesday night, and then came into town on Thanksgiving morning because it was our second annual Team Dreher 5K. We do the Say Grace Thanksgiving Day 5K each year (well, it's only been in existence for 2 years, but we've done it both years) as a family. This year, there was another family team there with shirts that said "Forced Family Fun." We thought that was pretty hilarious.

Here's our group. Niece Bailey, nephew Corbin, Adam's mom Janet, Adam, A's sister Jessica, niece Breegan, me, A's dad Ed, Sutton, Jessica's hubby Steve, niece Aubrynn. My parents also came out to support us and to watch Sutton while Adam and I ran. They took this photo for us.

Jessica and I pre-race, waiting at the starting line. I was SO nervous. I wanted so badly to run the entire 3.1 miles. This race was the goal several months ago when I started running. I'm really not a runner, and instead of upping my distances, I was just running my 1 mile faster. I got it up to about an 8 minute mile, which is pretty good, but doesn't help me with distance. So Tuesday I got up to 2 miles on the treadmill. But this 5K was a whole 1.1 miles more than that. Yikes.

And I did it!!!!!

I was so excited, but so dead. My legs felt like they were about to fall off during that last 3/4 mile. I just kept telling myself that I'd totally regret it if I walked at all. I think I got 350th-something place, out of 1500 or so, with a time of 27:11. My miles averaged out to 8:48/mile. Not bad, but maybe next year I'll try to go for a better time since this year's goal was just running the whole thing.

Adam did amazingly. He and Bailey ran together and got 170th-something place, with a 23:00-something time, doing 7 min 30 second miles. Crazy. Here's our post-race photo.

The had muffins and oranges for us after the race. I couldn't eat, but Sutton was obsessed with this giant Cinnamon Streusel muffin. There was a playground at the finish line, and he'd go up the playground, down the slide, come take a bite of muffin, then back up the playground, down the slide, and stop for another bite. It was pretty funny.

Adam's mom Janet pushed our niece Breegan in a stroller, so we all waited by the finish line for them to cross.

After the race, we showered and headed over to Adam's parents' house for lunch. Jessica made an amazing Thanksgiving meal that was so good. We played there for a bit, then Adam went back out to the campsite, and Sutton and I went home for a nap. After nap, we headed over to meet Adam. We had pork carnitas that evening. Mmmmm.

Sutton and I headed home when it started getting too cold, and Friday morning, we spent at home cleaning. Blurry photo, but I took this to send to Adam as proof that I was even sweeping UNDER the couches. :)

Thankful for this awesome dude that I get to be a mom too. Drool and all.

After Friday nap, we went out to the campsite and snacked a bunch before eating turkey chili and goose (wrapped in bacon) for dinner. The food is one of the best parts of Thankscamping.

Just before Sutton's bedtime, I took him back home, where Adam's mom met me and spent the night with Sutton so I could go back out to the campsite and spend the night in the tent with Adam. It WAS our 11 year anniversary (of dating) after all.

It was pretty cold, so we piled on a bunch of layers and took a long walk out in the moonlit country. It was so peaceful, no wind, and very quiet. We walked a couple miles all around Scott's family's land, and the walk definitely warmed us up. After our walk, we huddled back around the fire and our friend Brody would pour turkey grease on the fire any time we got too cold. The flames would shoot 6 feet in the air and be SO hot.

Our friend Weston stayed out with us Friday night, along with his dog Jade. Weston was the one who'd hunted and cooked the goose for us.

Adam and Bailey in the fire-light.

Bailey and I during a turkey-grease giant flame. I figured that was the time for photos since it was plenty bright. :)

We went to bed about midnight, and luckily Adam has a propane powered heater that we kept in our tent that was awesome. The heater + 5 quilts = a good nights sleep in 28 degree weather. It probably got even colder, but that's what my phone said when we went to bed. I got up Saturday morning to frost on the tent and zipper as I left the camp site to go home for the last time.

Adam got home around lunch time, and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together since we'd been apart so much while he was camping. We went to Chili's to eat last night, and halfway through my meal, I realized my chicken was semi-raw (gross!) so we got our whole meal for free (sweet!). We walked around Cabela's a bit afterwards, looking for items for next year's Thankscamping.

All in all, a great Thanksgiving break! Back to the real world tomorrow.