Sutton is 13!

 We officially have a teenager! Happy 13th birthday, Sutton!

You are just the coolest kid ever and so responsible. If I ask you to do something, or not do something, I can count on you obey. At least 9 times out of 10, haha. Your brother is a different story! I love that we can have real conversations about real things and that we have the kind of relationship where we talk about everything. 

At your doctor's appointment wee just had, we found out you are now 5'4"! You're only a half inch below me now. 

You are a pet lover and insisted on getting some of your photos with Riddick. He isn't great at posing...notice how he's getting ready to bolt in that last photo.

You also love allllllllll our cats. Currently we have just Blueberry who lives inside. But then outside, we have Luna and her 5 kittens (OJ, Smoky, Snowball, and the math twins - Times and Divide), Oreo and her 2 kittens (Cici and Preston), and then Coconut and Kyle. You and your brother are trying to convince me and Daddy to let Snowball live inside too. 

Our school is K - 6, so you graduated from elementary school this year! It was pretty emotional for me and I can't believe you are now going to junior high. You started weights class with your friends this summer, which also sounds like such a teenager thing to do. 

You are still loving soccer! Last year, you played mostly defender and some goalie on your club team, the VC Fusion. This year the main goalie won't play in the fall season, so you get to be goalie! Very exciting but nerve-racking for your mother. Daddy will be coaching this year, so that will be fun as well. You also do goalie lessons with your hero - Steven Hamersky - who used to be the goalie for the Wichita Wings. We go to all the Wings games together, and we LOVE it. It's so cool to have that special time with you since Daddy is down on the sidelines filming the games, and Ren doesn't enjoy them so he usually stays with Grandma.

You guys can argue like crazy people (and it drives me INSANE), but you and your brother are seriously the best together. You love each other and do everything together. He sleeps downstairs in your room on the weekends and in the summer for "brother sleepovers." He rarely uses his real bed because he just wants to be with you. You also include him when you have friends over, which is very admirable, and I appreciate that so much about you.

You're obsessed with spicy Cheetos, Lipton green tea with citrus, and anything with buffalo sauce. You love Chic-fil-a (for their Mac n cheese), McDonald's (for their spicy chicken sandwich), Noodles and Co (for their Mac n cheese), and Chili's (for their chips and salsa). You either order a bacon cheeseburger with ranch or something buffalo when we go to most other restaurants. You haven't ordered off the kids menu for quite awhile, but now you're too old for most of them!

When we go to the pool, you like to get a Twix at the break. You also love plain Hershey's chocolate bars, Milk Duds, Juicy Fruit gum (you just recently taught yourself how to blow bubbles).

During the school year, you usually eat toast with peanut butter for breakfast. On the weekends and the summer, I leet you have whatever. Usually I make chocolate chip banana bread (which you're obsessed with) or chocolate chip muffins. If I haven't made any of those, you'll do a bowl of cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, dry), or an egg sandwich.

Your best friend right now is Brayden. You guys are always asking for play dates and sleepovers - which we have done quite a bit of this summer! You had your first sleepover at his house this May (other than a random one when you were 4, and aside from staying at grandparents houses). It went well and you didn't get homesick! You and Brayden are constantly texting each other, and playing video games together (while online, at your separate houses).

You love to play Gorilla Tag (GT) on the VR with your friends. Once again, online while at your own houses. You get such a workout and get so sweaty from it. You also do a lot of Minecraft. You have a YouTube channel with your brother - the Rad Redheads - and you love posting short videos of our cats there.

We did the inflatables at Splash Aqua Park for your birthday party with a bunch of your school friends and two soccer buddies. It was a blast and everyone loved it. 

You still love swimming, we go to the pool as much as we can, but you decided you didn't want to do swim team this year.

Daddy had given you his old phone a year or two ago but it wasn't hooked up to a number. If you were at home, it was connected to our Wifi so you could text or FaceTime us if you were home but we weren't. We let you have only us, grandparents, and Brayden on there to contact. But for your 13th birthday, our big gift was that we turned it into a REAL phone. So now you have a number, you can be online even when you're not connected to Wifi, and you are in the process of gathering more of your friends' numbers. You also have been added to our "stalking app" (Life360) so we can all always see where each other is.

We have been leaving you home alone, or alone with you brother a lot more often this year. It's so weird. SO WEIRD. But you seem to love it...I think it makes you feel more "adult." If I'm gone too long, you always text me to ask where I am though and when I'll be back. So you DO love me. 

You have the best sense of humor and are actually funny. Even your main teacher last year (Mrs. Ferguson) pointed that out. I love that you are positive, you don't try too hard to be cool, you are kind, you care about people and animals, you love your grandparents well, you still get excited about things like a little kid, but you're able to understand more complex things like a grown up. 

You still have some OCD-type tendencies which has always been the case with you. But I think you might be loosening up on them a bit. We always have to do the same bedtime routine (brush teeth, hold hands to pray, you always have to hold my right hand while Ren holds my left), then I have to kiss you both on the forehead and say the EXACT SAME PHRASE every night. Yours is "Love you, goodnight, see you tomorrow." I always have to say "Good morning," as the first thing to you when you come up from your bedroom. I also am always supposed to make you aware of the plan for the next day and if I don't, you get a bit upset and say "WHY DIDN"T YOU TELL ME?!" You like to keep a lot of things that I would prefer to throw away. And (as evidenced in these photos), you always wear entrance bracelets until they fall off. This one was from your birthday party. 

You got braces! You've had them just over 10 months now. You got them in August last year. Your teeth look SO STRAIGHT, especially when you compare them to last year. You are supposed to have them for a total of 24 months but I don't know why, when your teeth are already looking perfect. Wishful thinking that maybe wee'll get them off sooner? You've done really well with them, the worst was when you first got them on and then had to go to school, and ended up crying at school from the pain. Some of your adjustments since then have left you a bit sore, but nothing like that first time. You do pretty well with your elastics too.

We weren't consistently going to church for awhile because we couldn't really find one that felt right. But recently, we started going to Riverlawn mostly for you and your brother. At the beginning of June, your age group was promoted to the youth group and you have been loving it! A couple of your soccer friends go there, and it's a pretty big group that holds some fun events. You love Jesus and love learning about him, you are outgoing and like meeting new people. You make new friends easily. So it has been really good for you and I am thrilled that we seem to have found your place.

(Please notice Luna and Coconut photobombing in the photo above.)

You love to wear your Crocs constantly. With socks. You also prefer to wear those dry-fit type of shirts but will pretty much wear any t-shirt. You still don't love jeans. You have like 2 hoodies you rotate in the winter.

You're a smartie! You got pretty much all A's...ended each semester with all A's but had a B or two on your quarterly grade cards.

You play the trumpet in school and have the most amazing natural talent for it! You are doing "Sweet Dreams" and "Feliz Navidad" and "the Can Can" while the other kids are doing "Hot Cross Buns" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb." You also took the skill you now have of reading music, and taught yourself to play piano on a little keyboard that my mom gave you from when I was a kid. You Google the notes for songs you like or you figure them out yourself. So cool.

All in all, you're the best son a mom could want, and you love your family and friends so well! We are so beyond proud of you and LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

(We found Kyle lounging in the woods as we were taking these photos.)

And here's the birthday video:

Ever Had Kittens!

I had been suspecting for awhile that Ever was pregnant. When I picked her up, I felt her nipples which I never had before (at first I thought just had a bunch of burrs stuck in her fur but eventually realized what it was), and she just started staying inside and sleeping all the time. Like ALL the time. But then a little over a week ago, my parents were over and we were petting Ever. I laid my hand on her belly and felt movement!

My mom felt it too, and then I even captured it on video. So from then on, we at least were SURE and I was able to start doing some research. Things I read said that if you can feel or see movement, they they are probably in the last 2 weeks of pregnancy. I was worried she would deliver while we were gone on vacation, so every day whenever we would leave the house and come back, we'd always check for kittens.

We made Ever a box with a cat bed and towels and I started putting her in there frequently so she would know it was there. I would also feel her tummy a LOT to make sure I could still feel them in there. She would tolerate it sometimes. Other times she would make me stop.

The morning of July 5th, I noticed just how clingy she was being. When I was eating breakfast, she laid down on the table and slept right next to me. When I sat down on the couch to work, she cuddled up on my legs, and then decided that wasn't good enough and she crawled up onto my chest and laid down. Which NEVER happens. She cuddles with Sutton, but usually not me.

That evening, I asked Sutton before he went to bed "If Ever goes into labor during the night, do you want me to wake you up?" He said YES! As I got ready for bed that night, she was following me everywhere so I picked her up and took her up to bed with me, which I don't often do.  She immediately started purring and would not stop. I turned out the lights about 1am. Adam came to bed about 1:30 and she moved from sleeping on my legs, to sleeping on his. Still purring.

At 3:06am, Adam heard a little squeaking that woke him up. All I heard was still the purring. Adam turned the flashlight on his phone on, and pointed it at Ever, who was on his legs. He couldn't quite see, so he got up and got a closer look. THERE WAS A BABY KITTEN!

Yep, Ever had given birth ON Adam's legs (there was a quilt between) without us even noticing. How does that even happen? And the kitten was relatively dry, which makes me think she had been out for awhile. Ever was just laying there like nothing, letting the kitten crawl around her looking for food. She didn't seem to be making it easy for the kitten to nurse, but she also wasn't leaving it.

We freaked out. A kitten was just born on our bed in the middle of the night without us noticing! As soon as we calmed down, I tried to feel Ever's belly. She didn't act like she was in labor anymore, but I also was weirded out that she would only have 1 kitten. I googled it and it said it can happen but it's very rare. So I finally was able to feel on her belly that there was at least one more. I could feel movement and a head.

I was so excited that I wasn't going to be sleeping, but Adam wanted to. So he went downstairs to sleep on the couch and put the baby gate up at the base of the stairs so that Riddick couldn't come up and mess with the kitten. Ever laid there for a minute after he left, then grabbed the kitten (which looked like she was trying to eat its head) and jumped off the bed. I ran after her yelling, but she just flew down the stairs and jumped the baby gate, all with the kitten in her mouth. I'm not sure if she was following Adam or trying to get to the box we'd made her.

So now we were down in the living room and she set the baby down outside the box, then jumped in the box and just looked at her baby. So I got a paper towel (cause I didn't know if I was supposed to touch it or not) and moved the baby into the box with her. She laid down and the kitten proceeded to try to nurse. Adam moved back upstairs to bed (to my side where there was no kitten birth mess haha), and I laid down on the couch.

After awhile, Ever started making noises and looking to me as if she needed something. I had no idea what she needed so I got her some food and water. She ate and drank a bunch. Then I laid back down. Suddenly, she was on the ottoman that was right next to the couch, meowing. I realized that she was leaking some sort of fluid from her bottom and then cleaning it all up after herself. She was also licking her bottom a ton, which I'd read is what they do during labor. So this all made me think that the next kitten was coming. She laid down on the ottoman and I felt her belly. I could feel her contractions and noticed she'd started pushing. Her back legs seemed almost paralyzed but the back half of her body would tense when she pushed, almost like she was pushing off with her legs but also trying not to use them. It was weird. She would do like 2 pushes, then stop for awhile. She moved back to her box to be with her baby, but it seemed like she wanted me near so I went and sat with her.

Ever was exhausted, so she would fall asleep between contractions, while the baby nursed. Then every few minutes, she would do the weird pushing, then go back to sleep. This went on for awhile, so I went back to the couch and laid down. I think I maybe dozed off for a bit, but then I heard a squeak and a bunch of licking.

I went over to the box and Ever was almost sitting folded in half, licking this dark black glob that was laying on her butt/tail area. I was grossed out, wondering if she'd just delivered the placenta or something, but then I realized that part of the glob was moving up and down like it was breathing, so I searched for a face and found one! It was a tiny black kitten, completely soaked because it had JUST come out. Ever was licking it a ton. And she kept licking it forever. I read that they have to lick off the nose and mouth so the babies can breathe. Kitty #2 was born around 5:45am, probably 3 hours after kitty #1!

I felt her belly again after she was done licking, and I didn't feel anymore movement. I thought she was probably only having these 2, but I wasn't sure. Since I'd told Sutton I would wake him up, I went into his room around 6 or a little after and told him we had kittens! He was so excited! He got right up without waking Ren and came out to see the 2 babies. We petted Ever and told her she was a good momma and looked at the babies for awhile. Then he said he wanted to go back to bed.

He went back in his room and shut the door. A few minutes later, I heard him talking to Ren. He had been too excited to go back to sleep and had woken Ren to tell him the good news! So I opened the door and had them both come out. We sat and watched Ever and her babies for awhile and Ren kept saying "It's a miracle! It's a miracle!"

Too bad our towel was black, you can hardly see the black one, but she's there:

Ever has really taken to being a mommy, which we were worried she wouldn't! She spends almost all her time in the box, but takes breaks to come out and lay on the cool kitchen floor sometimes. She lets the kittens crawl all over her, and tries to make her nipples more easily accessible to them by rolling on her back. We've caught her completely curled around them with her paws over them, all sleeping. She also constantly purrs when they're nursing, I'm assuming that's so the babies hear her since they can't see her. If she hears them cry, she immediately runs to them. If she sees that we're holding one, she grabs it away from us and takes it to the box. So we've decided not to hold them much for the next few days.

Yesterday afternoon, we decided on names for the kittens. We had always said that when she had her babies, we would probably keep 2. Well, she only had 2 so it worked out that we didn't have to choose which ones to keep! I have discovered that they are both girls. We decided on Luna for the black kitty. Luna = moon = night sky = black. Maple came about because when we were talking about names for the black kitty, we said Black Widow (from Avengers), that morphed into Willow (cause willow kinda sounds like widow), then that morphed into Maple (because we have a book about 2 sisters named Willow and Maple). We decided Maple would be perfect for the lighter kitty. Ren's name suggestions were Lungsie and Firekitten (since they were born near 4th of July I guess?). So we have decided that their middle names can both be Firekitten.

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UPDATE! I had to update this with a couple of the "newborn" photos I did of them. I couldn't resist! These first ones were taken when they were about 3 days old. Eyes still closed and they were NOT sleeping, it was hard to get them facing the right way + in focus + posed!

And then I did another set when they were almost a month old. Maple (left) loved being swaddled after she got used to it, and started to fall asleep! Luna hated it and struggled against it the whole time, so I tried to be quick. You can see that she got her paws out during her individual photos.