The Drehers

Whoa. How is this kid 11?!

This birthday was the "Year of the 4-Wheeler." Adam surprised Sutton big time with it. He drove down to Oklahoma one weekend and we just told Sutton it was for work. He test drove it, bought it, and stored it at a buddy's house for weeks. Then we went over to said buddy's house to drive his 4-wheelers one Saturday, and after a couple hours of that, Adam told him that the 4-wheeler he'd been driving was HIS and we were going to take it home. He didn't believe us. It was awesome.

It has turned into one of his favorite things to do, and he often rides around our homestead, or there are some trails nearby that he will drive through our little town to get to. Adam has a matching red 4-wheeler so it's a really cool thing for them to do together.

Sutton turned 11 about a month ago, but I had given him a bad haircut so I was waiting for that to grow out before we took his photos. Mom fail! I'm glad we got it done though!

Sutton, Sutton...where to start? You are a classic first born. You like to have control of all situations and you need people to follow the rules. I often have to tell you to just chill out because you can be a bit high strung. Along with that though, come all kinds of good things. You are so trustworthy and know how to treat people well.

You are SO SMART. Your grades fell a bit last year, and we realized it wasn't for a lack of knowledge or understanding, but because your competitiveness drove you to hurry and be the first one done with your assignments. Once we gave you consequences (no video games for the whole semester), you focused better and got yourself back to all A's. It's a good thing you have the strictness of your father to recognize what it sometimes takes to get you to focus on what matters...I'm too much of a pushover - it was hard for me to take that away for so long!

Currently, your loves are: Space, Soccer, the Wichita Wings, Swimming, Minecraft, YouTube, Legos, Star Wars, Harry Potter, reading, Doritos, pepperoni pizza, citrus green tea, your 4-wheeler, and our kittens.

You tell us you're going to be a scientist for NASA when you grow up. You said today (when explaining that job to Ren) that it will take "extreme college" to be able to work for NASA.

You and Ren have the coolest relationship. I never had a sister, so I don't know if it's normal to be like this with a sibling of the same gender, but you two love each other fiercely and are best friends. Especially with it being summer, you literally spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week together (you even sleep in the same bed!)...so obviously there is fighting but you two are amazing and I sure hope your closeness continues for your whole lives.

Where you are meticulous, Ren is a free spirit. Where you are science- and math-oriented, Ren is an artist. Where you eat everything in sight, Ren is picky. You are right-handed and Ren is left-handed. But you just go together so well! And he sure wants to be EXACTLY like you!

Last year, I read you all the Harry Potter series, and then you turned around and read them all yourself. I feel like that really cemented your love of reading. Along with a couple other series like Dog Man and the Wingfeather Saga. You are currently in the middle of a 600-some page book in the Eragon series, you are reading such huge books! You are the top reader in your class.

You have become super athletic, which I wasn't sure would happen for you when you were younger. We didn't ever really push sports, but nearly always had you in soccer. Your love for the sport really sprouted this past year, and you have become an awesome goalie! Me and you are outside many evenings with you in goal, and me shooting on you. We used to use two trees that were a bit too far apart as the goal posts (we named them Big Rhonda and Skinny Rhonda), but then Daddy bought you a real, collapsible goal. You got goalie gloves. With all our practicing, you had an awesome spring season as goalie for your soccer team.

Watching you makes Ren want to be goalie too. But his attention span is so short, and he's really not a sporty kid. So he wants me to shoot on him a few times before he loses interest and goes off playing on his own while you and I keep practicing.

I think part of your love for being a goalie stemmed from watching your favorite Wichita Wings player - Steven Hamersky - in goal this year. We went to all the home games, and even an away game in Texas. Since Daddy does video for them, you have gotten to meet them several times, Steven came out to our house to film part of a video for the Wings, and he even gave you two pairs of his old goalie gloves.

Going to Wings games with you is SO precious to me. Daddy has to film them, so he's down on the sidelines, and Ren hates them so he stays home with Grandma and Papa. So it's just you and me (or sometimes we have a friend or grandparent join) and we "stress eat" a big bucket of popcorn at every game. You always do "negotiations" to try to get me to buy you Dippin Dots at halftime. If Papa comes along, he ALWAYS caves and buys you Dippin Dots. Food aside, we love bonding over our knowledge of the players and being the loudest when our Wings score. There are very few things just you and I do alone together, and so I absolutely love this time with you. Their season just ended last weekend and I'm super bummed we have to wait til the winter to go to more games.

You have always been a good swimmer, so we decided to put you on the swim team last summer. But then Covid happened and they didn't have swim team. So this summer was finally the time! You were a little nervous, but man...you have become quite the fish! You love breaststroke and freestyle and you won your very first race at your very first meet, winning at breaststroke. You haven't lost a breaststroke race at a meet yet! Swim team is something completely foreign to me, so it has been interesting learning how the meets work and all that goes into it.

If we're not playing soccer, you and I also love to play football catch. You have gotten so good at throwing, you can definitely throw farther than me now. We won't allow you to play football, but you also haven't really asked, so it all works out.

You have a very evident soft side. You will randomly say "I looooove you," or just come up and put your arms around me. It's almost like hugging an adult because you're getting so tall these days! You are always quick to tell us that you love God first, then you say Ren is second (because you two are the MOST related...obviously), and then me and Daddy. I hope it stays that way.

You are such an animal lover...though being in our family, how could you not be? Riddick is obviously a favorite, but you also get so annoyed at him because he chases you on your 4-wheeler and dashes right in front of you and so we always have to lock him inside so he doesn't get run over. Or run himself to death (he does NOT KNOW WHEN TO STOP). But you have a super soft spot for the cats and kittens.

Luna (our black cat) and MJ (our black and white one) were your favorites. We had to put MJ down 2 weeks ago because he was super sick and that was really hard. We all said goodbye but we let you be the last one to talk to him before Daddy dealt with him because he was YOURS. So now Luna is your favorite. And you are her favorite. She loves you and it's so sweet. Her last litter of babies she had 5 kittens - Toothless, Apollo, Toast, Oreo, and Skyler (acronym TATOS), and you decided that Oreo was your favorite, because she's the prettiest. But she's a bit skittish, while Apollo is obsessed with us and with purring, so now Apollo is a fave as well.

Here's you with Apollo. They were born around April 25th, so they are about 3 months old now and they live in our garage. We love going out there to play with them or feed them. They all scatter when they first hear the door and then they slowly make their way out of their hiding spots to come see us.

We just had your doctor's appointment this week. You are 4'11" so you almost hit 5 feet! She thinks you haven't had your growth spurt yet and you will probably end up around 6 feet tall. I'll be interested to see how old you are when you finally pass me in height.

You eat peanut butter toast for breakfast each morning, and Cocoa Puffs on random days when I allow it. You like citrus green tea, water, Glacier Freeze Gatorade (blue), blue Powerade, and Arnold Palmers. You prefer pizza, cheeseburgers, chips and salsa over most other foods and your favorite restaurants are Chili's, Chic fil a, and Pizza Hut. You will usually eat anything we give you (because you're a rule follower and we tell you that you have to), but you don't love fruits or vegetables. Your favorites of those would probably be bananas and broccoli. You don't like cake and so we did a cookie cake for your birthday this year. You don't like oreos. You prefer plain chocolate ice cream to anything added in.

You sweat a TON and are always wanting a drink. We have learned that you need to take a water bottle most places. For our hiking trips, we bought you a Camelback so you can always have plenty of water.

You know all kinds of facts about space, and somehow you keep mostly up to date on all the goings on with the latest news about space. You can spout off all these tidbits about the different shuttles that have gone to space, and always ask us to wake you up if there's an early morning launch. We just went to the Cosmosphere last week and that inspired you to watch the movie Apollo 13 for the first time with Daddy.

You are very silly and love to be funny. I love your sense of humor, all of our inside jokes, and that you are starting to be sarcastic like your daddy and I.

You usually wake up anywhere between 7:30 and 9am right now during the summer. You always wrap up in a blanket and veg out on the couch and watch TV until I come make you breakfast. We have been having swim practice each morning, where you do 15-30 laps! Then we come home and do lunch. Afternoons are usually TV or play time while I get editing done. We sometimes go to the pool or to the library. We usually do supper out or on the go since I work a lot of evenings. We spend most evenings outside playing soccer, riding 4-wheelers, or jumping on the trampoline. We spend a lot of evenings inside watching TV too honestly. Our bedtime routine is that you brush your teeth, then I read you a book and pray with you. You make me say the exact-same-phrase-word-for-word each night as I kiss you before I leave your room. You prefer I say it multiple times. You used to cry if I didn't and now you are a little more lenient, but not much. I say to Ren: "Love you Renny, see you in the morning," and to you: "Love you, goodnight, see you tomorrow." You go to bed around 9pm.

During the school year, you wake up at 7:10am and go to bed at 8pm. Although you and Ren stay up and play, read, and wrestle in bed for hours. It both annoys us and is super endearing - we know those brother memories will be special for your whole life.

This year for your party, you really wanted to go to Aviate (the trampoline park). So we took a few school friends and Ren, and you got to jump for 2 hours and have cookie cake and presents on their flight deck!

Here's Luna, your favorite cat (she's still nursing her babies, so disregard the obvious nipples lol):

Sutton, we just love you so much and the years are going so fast. I literally cannot believe we are so much PAST halfway to you being a legal adult. What is happening. I'm not old enough for that and you shouldn't be either.

Just because it's nice to have these all together, here is a photo of you each year for your birthday:

NEWBORN