Valentine's Day {2011}

I'd usually be at work today (a Thursday), but unfortunately I'm home with a sick baby. I've caught a little of it too, so maybe it's a good thing for us to both lay low today. Our studio is having a booth in the Women's Fair this weekend (come visit us!), so I need to be 100% for that.

Anyways...

Monday was our first Valentine's as a family of three! We are one of those silly couples who tries to go all out on Valentine's Day to do something fun and sweet to celebrate our love. Some of our past Valentine's include a slow dance at the top of a silo on our very first (click on the category to the right called 'love story' to find out more about that), and spending an entire day in bed cuddling, eating, watching movies, etc. :) which was amazing.

This time of year, we are on a tight budget since it's my slow season. 2011 has especially hit us hard with the addition of a kiddo. SO we did Valentine's super cheap this year. Adam and I each had ideas that we didn't tell each other, and luckily they didn't conflict with each other. My part was free, and his cost about $20. Sweet!

To start out, when Adam got home from work, the house was dark and I'd made a trail of rose petals (I used the silk ones that we had in storage from our wedding) and candles from the front door where he walked in, to the kitchen where I was standing holding Sutton. Both Sutton and I were all dressed up (I had on a dress and even heels!) just for our husband and Daddy. I had an iTunes playlist of "our" songs playing and a wedding photo up on our giant iMac screen that he could see.

Since we were all dressed nice, I decided a Valentine's family photo was in order.

Then Adam made me take Sutton downstairs because he was cooking me dinner. Woohoo! He wanted it to be a surprise, so the baby and I went and cuddled on the couch downstairs in our nice clothes. After awhile, the smell from the kitchen started wafting down there, and it was wonderful. Finally, it was ready, so we headed up. Adam had found a recipe and had made ravioli (one of my faves that we've never made ourselves!), asparagus (another first), and a box of chocolates. He'd also poured our favorite sodas in wine glasses (we don't drink, so this is as good as it gets for us). YUM!

After dinner, the boys played while I cleaned up a bit. Then we headed downstairs and....

finished off the night with some Redbox. :) Happy Valentine's!

Weekend Trip

This weekend, we drove up to Kansas City to visit Rachael and Matt. I SO wish that they lived closer because we always have such a fun time together! They're one of those couples where all four of us get along really well, but then the girls can hang out alone and the guys can hang out alone and everyone's happy. I feel blessed to have friends like that!

Sutton did really well in the car. On the way there, we drove 3 hours with no stops, and he didn't cry at all. On the way home, we had one stop where I got him out of his seat for about 5 minutes, but he still didn't cry ever. I think it helped that both ways we were driving at night, and no one was sitting in the back seat with him. If one of us would've been back there, he probably would've been whining to be held.

We arrived Friday night and stayed up late talking. Saturday morning, we got up early (thanks, Sutton), and had TWO amazing breakfasts! Rachael was intent on making these homemade cinnamon rolls that took quite awhile because you made the dough from scratch (totally out of my realm of expertise), so meanwhile, we had breakfast #1 of scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, sourdough bread, strawberries, oranges, and orange juice.

Sutton playing on the floor, waiting patiently for breakfast.

Matt and Rachael working diligently in the kitchen.

Adam took this one. He's such a good little photographer...I've even taught him to shoot on manual!

Breakfast #1. Isn't it pretty? And the gorgeous morning light streaming in...yum.

That's normal.

Rachael found some goo in his ear. I love picking at his ears, so I went and took care of it right away, don't worry. :)

Breakfast #2 a couple hours later. Homemade cinnamon rolls with homemade cream cheese frosting. I can't describe the amazingness. I want another five one right now.

The above photo + this one = heaven. Rachael and I are both huge milk drinkers...she buys two gallons at a time, which I've been thinking about starting to do even though I'm the only one who drinks it at our house. Ever since I was pregnant, I just crave milk....at least it's a healthy thing to crave!

After the second breakfast, the boys headed to a monster truck rally at the Sprint Center. Rachael, Sutton, and I hung out on the couch all day napping, playing, talking, and watching tv. Good times.

Sutton and Rachael playing. They love each other. :)

The guys came home and we hung out awhile longer at the house, Matt and Rachael tried to get in a bunch of Sutton-schnuggling since they don't see him a ton.

Matt wore Sutton out, so he got to hold him during nap time. Matt really perfected the butt-pat. He'll be a good dad.

"I gotta take a picture of my husband cuddling with my best friend."

I was about to say "All four of us," but there's FIVE of us now! Weird. Rachael really wanted Sutton to be a part of the group photo even though he was sleeping.

After that photo, we headed to the always wonderful Chic-fil-A for supper (where Sutton destroyed their centerpiece) and then after hugs, we headed home. Love you guys, thanks for everything!

Big Kid

Sutton got really hot after a nap in his fleece jammies, so I stripped him down and he sprawled out on our bed. For some reason when he's naked, he seems so huge.

I can't believe how sweet my boy baby is! :) So blessed.

Snow Tracks

I find it funny that this little guy:

Can't take a direct route out in the backyard to pee. He likes to meander:

He's pretty cute and good at posing for me.

He's also good at stretching.

And Sutton's good at napping. Notice the dog hair by his eyebrow? That's how we do it here at the Dreher house.

 

 

Doctor Visit

On Monday morning, Sutton and I paid a little visit to his doctor. I just wanted to get the bruises around his eyes looked at, and we also ended up having some blood drawn just to make sure everything was normal. Here's my big man before his exam...he was in heaven surrounded by all that paper.

I ended up taking him off the table as soon as I was done taking these photos because he was crumpling it and squealing so loud that I figured everyone wondered what was going on in there.

After doing a full exam, she said he looked very healthy (and he weighed an even 22 lbs with his clothes on). The blood draw was a little traumatic. I had to sit holding him in the chair that has the padded arm that comes down and I distracted him with a toy while one nurse held his arm down and another poked him with the needle. His face screwed up and he let out a cry when it happened...he calmed down pretty fast, but then it was like he kept remembering what just happened and he would let out random cries for the next couple minutes. They wrapped his arm in a bandage and I left it on til Adam got home that evening so he could see how pathetic looking it was.

I got the results the next day...everything was normal except a platelet count was elevated which just pointed to him having something viral. He's been a bit congested for the past few weeks, but it's been barely noticeable. I'm hoping that's all it is. We're going back in two weeks to have more blood drawn just to make sure everything's going back to normal.

Baby Food, Beatles, Bruises, BFFs, and a Baby Shower.

Daddy makes eating fun. Lots of noises and watching the spoon fly around are involved, but...

We also get a lot more messy when Daddy is feeding us.

This is a super cute Beatles hoodie that I found at a consignment sale when Sutton was a newborn. He wears it a lot, but I'm sad for the day it doesn't fit anymore, I love it so much!

You may or may not have noticed in the last few photos that Sutton baby has some bruising around his eyes. It was a bit worse than even this photo above shows. There's a darker one on his right eyelid and the purple dots under his left eye were a lot darker. Long story short, we're not sure what happened to cause the bruises and I'm completely freaked out about them. I'm also frustrated because I tried to get into the doctor on Friday and they wouldn't return my call (don't do that to a paranoid new mom), so I will try again on Monday. My poor little man.

Friday night we had our small group at our house. These are some lovely ladies who are some of my best friends. Melinda, Risa, and Val (who didn't realize a photo was being taken...).

Meanwhile, Sutton was having a fun time in his exersaucer.

Yesterday I threw a baby shower for Audra at her house. Here was our amazing yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It was yummy.

In lieu of regular baby shower games, we played Apples to Apples. Such a fun alternative! Side note...I didn't see this at the time, but my little stinker (who's being held by Risa on the right), is grinning at the camera in this photo! Ha!

We were looking for a knife to cut the cake, and all we could find was Audra and Justin's wedding cake knife. So I made Audra and Val (who helped me out with the shower, thanks friend!) cut the cake like at a wedding. :) Check out how great Audra looks for just having had a baby 2 weeks ago! I unfortunately didn't get any new photos of the little boy baby, but refer to my photography blog because I took his newborn photos last week.

Baking, Etc.

We put those chocolate chips to good use today and baked chocolate chip cookies! Sutton helped.

Since he likes playing with paper, and since we had some extra Christmas cards laying around, he was excited to play with a photo of himself.

 

This has nothing to do with the photos, but...our baby food saga continues. He eats pretty good now, but he likes what he likes and hates what he hates. I never thought peas could cause a temper tantrum this early, but he takes after his Daddy in hating them. Pears are freaking good apparently and he lets you know if you don't feed them to him fast enough.

 Sutton is kind of in love with Diesel. He laughs at him all the time, even if he's just walking past. Diesel's oblivious. Sometimes he acknowledges the baby, sometimes not. When they play together, it's super cute. Diesel tries to get Sutton to throw his toys. :)

Diesel went to the vet today for his yearly checkup and shots. He's severely overweight, so now I have to stop feeding him my cereal milk every morning. He's in for a lot of disappointment. He can hear us finishing a bowl of cereal from a mile away.

Adam's team of 5th grade teachers made a donation to the Kansas Humane Society in memory of Axl, and I wanted to just say a big thank you. Meg, Kathy, Martha, Christine, and Brad...it means so much that you care enough to make such a gesture. I know you all realize how ridiculously in love we were with Axl and recognize how huge this loss is. Thanks again.

(And obviously...I was unsuccessful in my attempt to upload a video. Well, not so much unsuccessful as impatient. It was going to take an hour to upload and I ain't got that kinda time. Maybe another day.)