Happy News

A non-Sutton, non-dog post, can you believe it?

My good friend Natalie got engaged last week! Hip hip hooray!

Natalie and Rachael (from KC) worked together when we all lived in Manhattan and went to K-State about 8 years ago (gasp). I met Natalie through Rachael, and we've all been great friends ever since. We don't see each other nearly as often as we should, but she's one of those friends with whom you just pick up where you left off.

Natalie's fiance Steve is moving up to Michigan next week for school, so we had to hurry and do a quick engagement session last night. Look for their full post on my photo blog, but in the mean time here's a fun photo of us during the humid, tick-filled shoot. :)

And we got to see a group of baby ducklings, their parents, and a bunch of turtles hanging out in the pond, eating bread that people were feeding them. So fun! There were dozens of turtle heads poking out of the water and about 8 baby ducks.

Missing Axl

Today would've been Axl's 5th birthday. We miss him so much around here.

Running

We've recently gotten into running.

By "we" I mean Sutton and I.

Because Adam's been doing it for awhile now. He's training for a half Ironman triathlon in October.

Crazy? I think so.

The other day, he just went out and ran 12 miles. 12 MILES!

I'm starting from scratch. Minus a month of 10-Minute Trainer workout videos that I did in March, I haven't done much exercising since baby boy came along. With his 1 year birthday coming up (sob), it's time for me to be done with the baby body.

Adam found a jogging stroller for $50 on Craigslist. A great deal, as they can be pretty pricey. The combo of the jogging stroller and this book Adam read and described to me in great detail called Born to Run (which I've started reading, very interesting), I've become convinced that I need to learn to love running.

I've always hated running.

But Adam tells me to learn to love the pain and what it's doing for my body.

So I'm trying. Doing okay so far.

This morning, Sutton and I went for a little jog. I think he likes the new stroller.

Notice how he's always holding trash of some sort? Weird kid.

It was pretty chilly when we got out there, so we came back in and bundled up.

We've also made an effort to start being a lot healthier with our eating. It's hard. Food is my downfall. I LOVE sweets and pop. But if I know I have to run in the evening, it helps me to stay on track with what I eat during the day because my run will be easier without all the crap in my body.

And here's a running plan I found...I'm not following it really, but if the method I'm using doesn't work, I may try this.

So now that I've put it out there in internet-land, I have to stick to it, right?

Camping...Kinda

We can't really count this as Sutton's first camping trip because we didn't end up spending the night in a tent. We'd planned to...but when Saturday rolled around and the temps only got into the low 60s, we decided it was just too cold for the baby. Only in Kansas can you have 101* one day, and in the same week, you have to wear layers and hats in the mid afternoon!

Scott lives out in the country and he has a pond that we've had lots of campfires at. Since this was my one weekend off til mid-June, we decided we should spend the day camping. So we loaded up in the afternoon and headed out.

Adam and Scott wanted to shoot Adam's guns right when we got there, so Sutton and I decided to have a little photo shoot. 

My empty sandwich container was keeping him quite happy.

There was a tractor out there, so Sutton spent some time sitting in the wheel.

Then he discovered dirt. He doesn't often sit in the grass/dirt without a blanket, so this was new and fun.

Then Adam stole my camera because he wanted to try to capture their targets in mid-explosion. This is a Mountain Dew bottle.

Scott shooting a watermelon.

Back to the interesting photos. Look at this cutie sitting in the tractor. He thought he was so big.

Who's that guy?

Oh, hi.

After target practice, Scott got to cooking. He's great in the kitchen, and on a campfire. Our appetizer was campfire queso.

Then the boys did a little fishin.

Sutton thought the fish was so cool. He kept sticking his fingers in its mouth. GROSS.

Then he played with some clay pigeons.

And chilled by the fire.

For dessert, Scott found this fun idea. We hollowed out oranges, put a refridgerated cinnamon roll in the orange peel, wrapped the whole thing in foil, and threw them in the fire.

While those were cooking, we ate our main course, campfire stew. SO GOOD. It had pretty much everything in it: ground beef, corn, potatoes, kale, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, garlic, jalapenos, beans and more.

This was one of our cinnamon rolls. Wasn't quite done, so we threw it back in the fire for awhile. They were yummy.

Hopefully we'll find a time this summer to actually camp and sleep outside. We want Sutton to love playing and being outdoors, gotta start 'em young!

Sutton's Dedication

This afternoon, we dedicated Sutton in a beautiful ceremony held at our church. For those of you who aren't familiar with baby dedication, it's just a time where we get up in front of our family and friends and vow as parents to raise our child to love Jesus.

Adam and I wanted to say a big thank you to our family who came to share in the celebration, and also to Sutton's godparents Matt and Rachael who spent many hours on the road to come and support us.

Before we left for church, we took a few photos.

Our fun little family.

Sutton with Rachael and Matt.

 Rachael was such an amazing and supportive friend through all our fertility struggles and I feel so blessed for her to be a part of Sutton's life!

Hanging out before the ceremony began.

After a video and message from our children's pastor, they played a slideshow with a picture and name for each baby who was being dedicated. When our baby's name was played, we got up and went to stand on stage for a song, vows, and a prayer.

We had over 60 babies who were dedicated today, and since our last name falls towards the beginning of the alphabet, we were among the first to be called, so we were in the back on stage. Here's a picture where you can just make out Adam's head.

Thanks to Adam's sister Jessica for taking these.

Our cute little niece Aubrynn was excited all week about "Sutton's Event" and here she is praying.

Afterwards there was a reception with cookies and lemonade. Our friends Audra and Justin dedicated their baby Austin as well, so it was fun to share this with them. We finished off the evening with Rachael and Matt at Chili's and Orange Leaf before they headed back up to KC.

Adam and I feel so undeservedly blessed to be Sutton's parents. He is already such an amazing little man and the light of our lives. I pray that we can be the example of godly, loving people that he needs to raise him right. We want our baby son to grow up to be an honest, accepting, forgiving, and righteous man who loves the Lord! It was so awesome to stand up and share our commitment with our family, friends, and fellow parents today.

Baby Ninja

As I mentioned after Adam's ninja post, we had to go to the grocery store that evening, and Sutton went in full ninja attire.

Then it was over to Adam's parents house for his Dad's birthday.

Sutton with Papa Ed and three of his cousins!