Sutton's 5th Birthday {the Party}

Sutton's 5th birthday party was an absolute blast. Everyone had so much fun and it took surprisingly minimal planning. This was also the first year that we mostly just invited Sutton's friends instead of OUR friends. :) I figured we had to make that transition at some point.

This was the only decoration I made. Whoops.

We set up a bunch of water activities in the backyard. Here it is before everyone came over. We had the big slide we borrowed from Adam's sister's friend, a little inflatable pool we borrowed from my parents, a slip n slide, and a tiny baby pool for the babies.

I was taking these pictures from inside the house, through the window and Sutton saw me and had to pose.

Once the kids arrived, it was a free-for-all, and everyone just ran around for hours and played.

Apparently Ren smiles on command now? The front two teeth kill me. He loves his cousin Aubrynn.

Adam was the only adult to get in on the action. Of course. :)

Mr. Greyson was getting sleepy in the swing.

The process of getting all the kids ready for a group photo...

We had cousins and neighbor friends and school friends and church friends!

Then back to playing!

Had to check on his rolly pollys.

Adam helped Ren try out the slip n slide.

Papa Ed was helping the kiddos slide better.

A rare moment of getting along between this bro and sis.

Didn't last long. :)

We grilled hot dogs and everyone came inside to eat.

Then Sutton got to open his presents.

He had asked me to make a strawberry cake with green frosting. And spiderman. Adam drew the spiderman.

Then they went back outside and played in the water a little while longer. Once it started getting dark, we moved the festivities to the front yard. Adam made a bunch of popcorn in his old-fashioned popcorn machine and we projected a movie (Rise of the Guardians) onto the garage door.

Sutton was up until 11pm ish, and was begging me to put him to bed. He slept until 10am the next morning!

Definitely an epic party that we will remember for years!

Ren {16 Months Old}

This is a little late, but better late than never, right? Ren, you are 16 months old!

You are so hilarious and so handsome and it's so much fun being your momma.

*You eat like a garbage disposal. You will pretty much eat anything we give you, with a few exceptions. You even eat salad, which is like unheard of for a baby! You still love baby food the best, especially your squeezie pouches.

*You are still in size 3 diapers and 12-18 month clothes. You are getting a lot skinnier and taller.

*You never stop moving. You are always walking around, exploring, and playing.

*You walk with your hands clasped behind your back a lot. It's so funny.

*You are a cuddler. I love this so much. One day this past weekend you weren't feeling great because of teeth and all you wanted to do was lay with me and cuddle or have me hold you. It was super sweet.

*You have only had your front top two and bottom two teeth for the longest time. But I finally see at least 2 more coming in on the bottom, which is I think why you haven't been feeling good.

*You have some tricks. You say "Oh yeah!"...you do this scrunchy face and blink your eyes...you say "woo woo" when we ask what a puppy dog says.

*Your words are still limited. You say dada to everyone you love (i.e., daddy, mommy, Sutton, grandma, papa, etc.). You say "guh?" to ask if something is all gone. I think your "Sutton" sounds a little different from your "dada" but they are similar.

*When we ask if you're hungry, you walk over to the cabinet we keep the snacks in and try to open it. When we ask if you're thirsty, you go to the fridge and try to open it. When we ask if you're ready to go bye bye, you walk to the front door. When we ask if you're ready for nigh night or if you need to change your diaper, you toddle over to your bedroom.

*You are still napping twice a day. Once about 2 hours after you wake up in the morning, and once in the afternoon. You wake up between 6:30 and 7:30am. You go to bed around 8pm.

*You hate being dropped off at any sort of childcare, such as the nursery at church or the KidZone at the Y. On the flip side, you LOVE being dropped off at Grandma's and couldn't care less when we leave.

*You have started trying to do things to make people laugh. You fit right in this family.

*You love your blankie and cuddle with it when you're tired.

*I left you overnight for the first time this month. Daddy and I had a wedding in Arkansas, so Grandma Janet and Papa Ed stayed here at the house with you and Sutton.

You're just the best Ren!

Sutton {5 Years Old}

I took Sutton's 5 year photos last night. It was about 101 degrees outside, and Adam wasn't home, so I made the decision to just do them in our backyard instead of going through the hassle of packing everyone up by myself and sweating 10 times more by going to a park. :) Bonus was that I had a sprinkler going, so afterwards, the boys stripped down to underwear and had some fun.

Without further ado, Sutton at 5 years old:

I also did a few photos of Ren since he turned 16 months a few days ago and I'll post those in a later post, but we did a few brother photos too.

This was what he did when I said to do a "not smiling, serious face." Haha.

So, at 5 years old, Sutton:

*You are really into Power Rangers, Wild Kratts, fighting moves, Legos, monster trucks, 4-wheelers, cars, books, and movies.

*You love to watch TV and would probably do that all day long if we would let you. Favorite shows and movies are Power Rangers and Wild Kratts, Inspector Gadget, Robots, Planes.

*You go to bed around 9pm and wake up between 7:30 and 8am usually. You have finally stopped napping for the most part. That took place a few months ago. You will still sometimes get tired in the evening and fall asleep in the car if we're going somewhere. If we're having a long day or know it will be a late night, we will still have you take a nap sometimes.

*Instead of napping, most days you have "room time" during Ren's afternoon nap. You watch a movie and play in your room. Since we're on summer break and Daddy is home, we've been a little less consistent with this. You'll either watch a show out in the living room or play outside with the neighbor kids.

*You're kinda a picky eater. You don't like anything healthy except bananas. You eat a lot of bananas, goldfish, peanut butter crackers, and drink chocolate milk and water. You love getting "slooshies
 at Sonic or Quik Trip. You like meat, cheese, and mayo sandwiches, mac n cheese, and pizza. We got you to eat a salad the other day and you said it was good, but you wouldn't eat it again. I feel like you snack a lot on goldfish and bananas and then don't eat a lot at meals. Or maybe you just don't eat a lot in general. Unlike your brother, who is a garbage disposal. :)

*You love school (most days) and are very social. You love going to situations where there will be lots of people, especially kids, even if you don't know anyone. We visited a new church and you went to VBS at a church we hadn't been to and had a great time.

*You are kind of a control freak...you always need to know what is going on and what the plan is for everything. If things don't go just the way you want, you will have a hard time.

*The last month or so has been a lot better for us, with a lot less tantrums and fit-throwing. We were having a very hard time there for awhile. I don't know if it's because Daddy is home more now, or if it's just that we struck some sort of balance in how we communicate, but I feel like we aren't clashing as much.

*You are a really sweet kid. You help your brother all the time with different things. You like to share things (sometimes) and are very affectionate. We cuddle a lot which I love.

*You remember everything. You know all kinds of song lyrics, you remember things that happened 2 years ago. You will randomly bring up things I don't even remember.

*You love water. Bath time is always fun and you love to play in there with your toys for like 30 minutes. You like swimming and running through sprinklers.

*You like to ride your bike, play on your play set or at the playground, and hang out with your friends. You've struck up a sweet friendship with our neighbor kids in the last month or so and it's been really neat for you to just be able to go outside and play with them.

*We switched you to a booster seat in the car a few months ago and gave your carseat to Ren.

*You are so smart and so loved and an awesome kid. I can't remember life without you!

Sutton's 5th Birthday {Video}

Our little buddy turned FIVE yesterday. I can't believe it. Wasn't I just doing his 1st year monthly posts like 2 seconds ago? Gah, I love that crazy kid. 

This will be the first of a few birthday posts. We had an amazing party last night that will be hard to ever top. And then I took some 5-year-old pictures of him this evening. But to start out, here's the question video I've done with him for the past few years on his birthday.

And here's the dialogue in case you can't understand:

1.    How old are you? Five

2.    What is your favorite color? Green

3.    What is your favorite toy? I don't know...Spiderman

4.    What is your favorite fruit? Strawberry

5.    What is your favorite movie? Power Rangers

6.    What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Meat cheese and mayo sandwich

7.    What is your favorite outfit? Shorts. Avengers t-shirt

8.    What is your favorite game to play? Tag

(The leg thing also happened the exact same way in last year's video!

9.    What is your favorite snack? Goldfish, goldfish, goldfish

10. What is your favorite animal? A zebra

11. What is your favorite song? New made-up songs...like ones just about stuff

12. What is your favorite book? Um um um um um, If I Built a Car

13. Who is your best friend? My bestest friend in the world? Zane

14. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? If I said toast, you would say 'Why did you say that?' because...yeah (donuts) are my favorite.

15. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play on my play set and be with my friends.

16. What is your favorite drink? Fruit punch

17. What is your favorite holiday? My birthday...is that a holiday?

18. What do you like to take to bed at night? My blue puppy and blankie

19. What do you want to be when you get big? Teacher

20. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? I don't know...donuts?

11. What's your favorite thing to do with your brother? Play...play with him.

 

So then here's the link to last year's 4-year-old video, which has a lot of the same answers.

And here's the link to the 3-year-old video, which was the first year we did it.

And when I posted this to YouTube, I happened to look through some old videos and I found some ridiculously cute videos of Sutton talking when he was like barely 2-years-old. So cute I cried:

Weird Baby

One of Sutton's favorite books that we read almost daily is called Weird Parents.

I have no idea why he loves this book so much...I mean...he has completely normal parents so it makes no sense. ;)

Anyway, we have taken to calling Ren the weird baby because he is actually a very strange and funny child. We came up with the idea to write a book about him called "Weird Baby." So here it is:

Weird Baby
by Sutton Ricky John Jones (he asked to be called that for the book) & Mommy

There once was a family that had a weird baby.
Whenever his big brother told the weird baby something, he would do it.

The weird baby always loved to climb on the big brother's bunk bed ladder,
even though he told the weird baby not to.

At lunch time when the weird baby was eating, he would say "Achoo!" and spit his food out on his mommy.

In the afternoon when the weird baby was supposed to be napping, he would stand up and look close into the video monitor.

When they would go on walks, the weird baby would stand up and turn around in his stroller to look at who was pushing him.

Outside when his mommy tried to chase him, the weird baby would run away with an evil giggle.

The weird baby liked to lay on top of pillows on the floor.
He also liked to sit on top of his daddy to read books.

The weird baby liked to dig in the trash and find old food to eat.
He also ate dog food.
And drank out of puddles.
He was so weird.

Whenever the family had ice cream, the weird baby would yell if they didn't feed him fast enough.

The weird baby loved whistles and walked around blowing on one.
He even tried to blow on toys that weren't whistles to make a whistley noise.

If the weird baby heard music, he would clasp his hands and move them around in a weird way.

The weird baby always messed up the family's games. Didn't he know that a board game is NOT a good place to sit?

When the mommy told the weird baby that it was time for nigh night, the weird baby would toddle down the hall to his room and lay on the floor in the dark.

The big brother wished that the weird baby wasn't weird anymore.
But then he realized he actually loved him being weird.

The weird baby always made things more fun.

After all...the weird baby was his little brother, weird or not.

Sutton's Preschool Program

The second to last day of school, Sutton's preschool class had a program and it was the cutest thing ever. I was smiling and almost crying throughout the entire thing. Adam took an early lunch break so he could come too, and he brought the video camera! I'm so glad because I want to remember this forever.

A few notes:
*Apparently Sutton has a nervous tic of scratching his face?? Weird.
*My absolute favorite part starts at about 1:49. So darn cute with the sleeping/singing. :)
*At the end, he is saying "party party" (not potty potty) because his class had a party right after the program and he was very much looking forward to that. :)

Ren at 15 Months {Video}

This video is nothing special, but it captures part of Ren's personality at 15 months and I know I love looking back at ordinary videos like this of Sutton when he was little.

Ren is always so busy and so happy. He just walks around the house, always finding interesting things. I'm not sure what all the growling was about. :) And maybe, just maybe, one day my house will not be messy. (Riiiiight...)