Ren is 7!!

 Our little guy turned 7 on Friday!

We took these photos on his actual birthday, which had been a school day. I let him choose what to wear to school, and he picked his favorite shirt and his cowboy boots so I decided - why not let him wear all that for his photos too. It had snowed a few days prior, so we wanted to get that snow in his photos too.

Ren has been and continues to be the most hilarious kid. He pulls out the funniest one-liners, and is clever beyond his age. A new phenomenon is that he has started quoting movies in situations where it totally applies. Two recent examples:

1 - he was eating a meal and as he ate, I kept placing more food on his plate as I finished making it. He goes "Food just keeps appearing on my plate...'You're a wizard, Harry!'" Which is what Hagrid says to Harry in the first Harry Potter movie the first time they meet.

2 - Our dog likes to make overexaggerated sniffing noises at the door when he wants to go out. I asked Ren to let him out when he was doing this one time and made the comment about how weird our dog is and how I had just let him in and he wanted back out. Ren goes "Who knows the ways of dogs." Which, if you have seen Frozen II, you know that Olaf at one point says "Who knows the ways of men."

Ren usually sleeps from 8:30 or 9 (though we put the boys to bed at 8) until 7 or 7:30. He gets up at 7:10 on school days, and as it goes...I struggle to wake him up on school days, but on non-school days he is usually out of bed by 7. But on school days when I wake him up, usually the only way I can get him to actually get out of bed and to the breakfast table is I say, "Ren, do you want me to carry you?" Then he'll crawl out from under the covers and into my arms and I (struggle bus) carry him to the table. He's heavy so it's getting harder for me, but I feel like these are the last days he'll allow me to do this!

He always has oatmeal and chocolate milk before school. He likes me to pack his lunch most days because he's picky and doesn't like many of the school lunches. Which is annoying because school lunches are free this year. I always pack a meat-cheese-and-mayo sandwich, applesauce, chips, and a Capri Sun.

School has been going pretty well this year. He likes his teacher and his friends. He seems to be more shy than his big brother in social situations, so we wonder what he is actually like at school. He says he talks and participates, but I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall.

Ren is very artistic and feelings-oriented. Which makes me think he's an enneagram 4. ;) He loves to draw and color, do play do, and create things out of cardboard or hot glue + popsicle sticks. He likes crafting and building. He gets sad when I draw with him and he sees that my drawings are better. I always tell him: "Ren. I am 35 and you are 7. I have been drawing way longer than you have, you will get there."

His favorite things to do currently are legos (he LOVES getting new lego sets), snap ships, plus plus blocks, playing with sound guns (toy guns that make sounds), playing "zombie apocalypse," building foam forts with his brother in the basement, playing Minecraft, jumping on the trampoline, being artsy, and watching movies/shows.

His favorite foods are cheese pizza, mac n cheese (from Doc Greens or Chic fil a), creamed corn, cottage cheese, meat and cheese rollups, Cream Cheese + Chive sandwich crackers, Ritz cheese sandwich crackers, cereal (fruity cereals like his dad or Cocoa Puffs), and Braum's cheeseburgers...so you know, nothing healthy.

He has lost quite a few teeth including that front top one you can see missing in some of these photos. The other front top one he has been saying has been loose for months but I'm not sure I believe him. I still brush his teeth for the most part (I'm sure Sutton was doing his own by this age...first kid problems).

Ren is very interesting...he is just a loosey goosey, by-the-seat-of-his-pants personality. He forgets what he is doing if something else catches his attention. He doesn't eat meals as one solid event unless we make him...he will eat, then go play, then randomly show back up at the table. He throws his whole body into whatever he is doing. Like if he's whining, he just throws himself on the floor. Or if he's being silly, he "clatches" (he invented that word - a combo of clutch and attach, I think) onto me with his arms and legs all around me like a koala. His mood definitely is ever-changing and unpredictable. It's just interesting going from Sutton (by the rules, type A, things need to be a certain way), to Ren (wears PJs all day, has to be told something 5 times before he'll listen, marches to the beat of his own drum).

Ren is obsessed with Dog Man books. There are 9 of them and we have them all and he reads them constantly. He always reads one before bed. He always brings one when we go in the car. Sutton is a big reader and always brings a book along wherever we go, so I think Ren is just copying that. But while we're driving in the car, sometimes he'll ask if we want him to read to us. He has read them so many times that he is able to get through a lot of it, but he will often still spell words to us that he can't sound out. He got a Dog Man stuffed animal for his birthday and he loves it so much. He's a stuffed animal type of kid.

When I pick him up from school, he runs to me every day with a big hug and usually has some piece of exciting news to share. We walk over to the area where we wait for Sutton and he asks "Can I tackle him?" and depending on my answer, he loves to tackle Sutton to the ground when he gets close us. Sutton's friend Kelby has taken to "defending" Sutton, so often Ren will tackle Kelby instead of Sutton. Ohhhhh boys.

Ren makes pretty good grades and seems to do well in school. He is still graded by I, S, M (insufficient, satisfactory, mastered) and not regular letter grades in 1st grade. He pulled out the concept of polytheism one day...using that word and I was like, "Ren, did you just say polytheism?" He then proceeded to define the word. Turns out they'd been learning about ancient cultures in history and they'd learned that some had "many gods." He also got 100% on his very first spelling test, which we hadn't ever studied for!

Ren loves dancing and wrestling. And "tickle torture time" with Daddy, where Adam sits on top of him so he can't move and tickles him. 

Ren loves all our pets (currently one dog - Riddick, and 4 cats - Sammie, Luna, Kyle, MJ) but he is not their favorite because he can still be a bit too much for them sometimes.

Ren is the type to use my return address stamp on the walls, and draw vampire teeth on printed photos, which are things Sutton would have never done. So he keeps us on our toes. But he is hilarious and smart, and the baby of the family so he gets away with a lot.

He is becoming more independent. We are able to sleep in on the weekends now, cause the boys will just get up and get something to eat and watch TV. It's so nice. But every now and then he still seems like

And here's his birthday video, I broke it up into 2 videos.

Sutton is 10! Part 2

Make sure to read the last post first! This is a continuation.

Another of Sutton's loves is his go kart! It's been great because he's already become a super good driver. Adam has taught him to be cautious but also to have fun, and when I ride with him, I'm always impressed by how well he does. With reversing too! He loves driving this thing around our trails, and Ren got his own go kart last month - Sutton kinda loves driving that one more because it's smaller and more maneuverable.

We always have to lock Riddick in the house when Sutton drives the go kart because that dog is insane. He literally does not know how to stop so he will run with that thing until his heart gives out. He is a fast dog, and he keeps up with it, but he has worn holes through his own paw pads because he just can't stop! And he barks incessantly while he's doing it, and darts right in front of it too.

Sutton's other main love is his Nintendo Switch. He mostly uses it for Minecraft (as shown on the screen in the second photo) and also some Mario Odyssey, Mario Party, and Mario Kart. We use a behavior chart at home, where the boys clip up and down as punishment or reward for how they are acting and treating others. They can only have the Switch and iPad if they're at the top. If they're in the 4 slots below that, they can have TV but no Switch or iPad. If they're below that (there are about 20 slots), they can't have any type of screen. We've tried to help them be at the top for most of the summer since Adam and I are working so much. :)

And now for the birthday video!

Sutton is 10!

Sutton turned 10 on June 24th. A whole decade old! That seriously blows my mind.

We decided this year to do his photos with all the things that he loves: his hoverboard, his pets, his Nintendo Switch, and his go kart. And his brother. The only "loves" of his that we didn't showcase are his friends and swimming!

His hoverboard was a gift for his birthday and at first he was wobbly, but he is extremely proficient at it now. Adam got him one that can be "off-road" so he can drive it around in our yard. Which is nice since we have no concrete or pavement at our house, and our road is 55mph!

I seriously LOVE this photo of him:

We love having this big field next to our house! When it's not planted, the boys will drive their go karts around there. With the overcast skies the night we took these, the green field made for the perfect spot for a few photos.

Sutton is an animal lover to the max, and that makes me so happy! He wanted to do photos with most of our pets. On the left we have Ever, who he was obsessed with when she first showed up at our house. However, she is cranky and doesn't like to be petted even though she is obsessed with always being near us. She is the momma to Luna and Maple (who died), Tally (who disappeared) and Kyle and MJ.

Luna, the black kitty, is Sutton's current favorite. When we allowed her in the house, she would curl up with him in the basement for hours while he played Minecraft. Even now, any time she sees us, she purrs up a storm and won't let us walk without stepping on her. She doesn't bite or scratch, she really is the best kitty! Funny story - she had had a litter of her own when we took these photos, but we didn't know it! She's the momma to Padme and Nova (who I haven't introduced on here yet).

MJ is the baby clear on the right. He is the second favorite. He is super sweet and chill, but sometimes doesn't let us pick him up. He's definitely our favorite out of Ever's last litter and such a beautiful cat!

Not pictured are Sammie, Kyle, and babies Padme and Nova who we didn't know about at this point!

Riddick is currently our only indoor pet. He's SUCH a good dog and Sutton loves him - just in a different way than the cats.

These brothers. At school, Ren gets called Mini Sutton or Sutton Jr. Ren also told me yesterday that he wants to be like Sutton when he grows up. Mostly so he can swim in the deep end of the pool, but I think in most aspects. Ren looks up to Sutton so much! They have their fair share of fights but I just think they are the best of friends and I'm so grateful for their relationship.

Since the pandemic, these two literally spend ALL of their time together. They sleep in the same bed at night, they play Minecraft together for a lot of the day (video games are raising my children since I have no daycare and work is CRAZY), they swim together out in our stock tank pool - spending HOURS out there making up games and building submarines out of Legos.

I told Ren to go throw on some nice shorts with the tshirt he was wearing, but instead, he completely changed his outfit to this and was very proud of himself for putting this together. Gym shorts with a white tee and button-down. Can't go wrong. Lol. And note the matching shoes!

One new thing I've noticed about Sutton is how sentimental he is. He has a paper hanging on his bedroom wall that has "Year 2018, Year 2019, Year 2020" written on it. He says he's going to keep the paper and write every year on it during that year. Another example is this stick he's holding in these next photos. He found it when we were camping with friends over Spring Break and brought it home. He never uses it, but stowed it away on our back deck. He recently noticed that it was broken and it was a huge deal, complete with sobbing tears. Daddy fixed it for him and painted it, unfortunately it broke again.

Had to post this picture of Daddy with Luna:

We took a few more brother pictures because I could tell Ren was wishing he could be in more. They are so goofy.

Things have been weird with the pandemic, but Sutton has been resilient. He loves school and loves his friends, but he has been doing so well with not having those things. Maybe even his deeply buried introvert side is coming out. There were a few times during quarantine where I said we had to get in the car to do grocery pickup or something, and he was like "I just want to stay home!" That sentiment has come up pretty often lately. I guess he's happy to stay home and play with Ren!

Sutton has many sides. He can be sneaky to try to get away with things, but I can always tell when he's lying. He is extremely caring and loving. He randomly says "Mommy? I love you" and I expect him to want something, but he doesn't. He has a very tender heart - at his birthday party, he accidentally kicked one of his friends in the face and he cried way more than the kid who got hurt because he felt so bad. He's quick to love, quick to show emotion, quick to shed tears.

He's been very into reading, which has been awesome! I just finished reading him the whole Harry Potter series and he has started over again reading them himself. He's currently halfway through the second book. He has a few new books to try once he finishes that series, which he's excited about. His favorite subject in school was math. He was doing fractions and finding the area of rectangles in math, which is crazy!

We've kind of settled into a new routine with pandemic + summer break. The boys get up around 8ish, and they are on their own which is nice because it means I can sleep in! I'm so happy to be out of the baby stage because sleeping in is just amazing. They play Minecraft most of the morning while I work. In the afternoons, we clean the house, they play out in the little pool, or sometimes we watch movies while I work on the couch. On the evenings I shoot, they hang with Daddy. When I'm home, we usually do dinner and lots of outside time once it's not as hot. They go to bed around 8 or 8:30 and I think they stay awake in their room for an hour or two playing legos, reading, or who knows what. We'll have to squash that staying up once school starts!

We did our traditional birthday video that I will share in the next post and he covers a lot of 'favorites' in that, so I will leave these few photos here and finish up the birthday post in Part 2!