4th of July in Eugene

Last 4th of July we went to Eugene to visit with Tyson's family.  The 4th is one of their favorite holidays and so we couldn't miss seeing them this year.

Kallen got to visit with his cousins Daniel and Nathan and all of his Aunts and Uncles.  One of his favorite friends down there was Salem, their black lab.  He even took some time out of his busy cart pushing activities to play with ol' Salem.

One tradition that the Hill family does every 4th is go to the Eugene Rodeo.  It is always a lot of fun, but Kallen had never gone before.  Honestly, he wasn't that interested in it at all.  Kind of sad.  However, Papa Hill took good care of him during the event and let him eat things like Elephant Ears, Popcorn (which is one of his favorites) and anything he wanted to drink.  After all, Papa Hill is the Pepsi guy.  Here, Kallen is playing with his aqua fina water.

Before the rodeo, we got to eat in the rodeo's barn.  Kallen once again wasn't interested in eating, but enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with Grandpa.

While we were down there, Tyson's family also surprised him with a little graduation party.  This was their impromptu getup for a graduation gown.  For his present, he got new golf clubs, a golf bag, and golf shoes.  Needless to Tyson was ecstatic.  I think it was one of his favorite gifts ever.  
Here Kallen is playing with his cousin Daniel.  Kallen is popping Daniels cheeks.  This is one of his favorite games.

Sutherland Family Reunion

In June, we went to my family's reunion which was up at Leavenworth.  I had never been to Leavenworth before, and it was fun to see this little mountain town which had a Bavarian theme.  It is totally fake, not a real Bavarian town, but it was still fun to go explore all the shops and the mountains.  I actually only took pictures of the time we went to a petting farm, so all of our other activities weren't recorded.  So sad.  However, we did go minature golfing, shopped at the Bavarian stores (the Christmas and Fudge store were my favorite), explored the mountains and went on lots of walks.  It was a lot of fun.  I would love to see this town at Christmas. Supposedly it is all decked out for the holidays.  Maybe next year we'll have to take a little road trip.

Here is a picture of Kallen at the petting farm.  They had goats, horses, ponies, rabbits, chickens, llamas and a bunch of other animals.  It was a lot of fun.

One of Kallen's favorite things is grass...he also loves pointing out grass and saying "grass" whenever he spots it...which is very often.

Kallen even got brave enough to feed this goat.  We bought lots of bags of carrots to feed the animals, which only lasted for about 5 min.  The kids just had so much fun feeding all the animals.  Once the carrots were out, the animals resorted to nibbling on little fingers.  Kallen didn't mind though.

Kallen also loves flowers.  He thinks they are the coolest things and will point all of them out to us as well.  In fact, while I was creating this post, he was sitting by me and as soon as I got to this picture he yelled, "yellow" and "flower".  He is starting to get all of his colors down now, so he loves to point out colors to us.

Kallen might like flowers and grass, however, is absolute favorite thing are swings!  He could stay in them for hours if we let him.  In fact, whenever we go to a park, he won't want to play on anything else except the swings.  So he was in Heaven at the petting farm when he spotted some swings.  He even got to swing next to his smallest cousin Dalton.

I couldn't help but put this picture in.  I just thought it was super cute of our little guy.

Mariners Game...Way Back in April

I know, it's amazing to see a new post.  Pinch yourself...go ahead.  It's real. Can you believe it? Let's see, when did I post last?...April 15th.  Huh...that is a pretty long time.  1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... wow, over 6 months ago.  Oops.  That is a long time.  I mean, 6 months is pretty much a quarter of Kallen's life.  Sorry guys.  I guess all the pestering I've been getting from family and friends is well deserved.  For instance, my brother-in-law, Aaron, said that he officially "terminated" me from the blogging world.  Now I can't have that, so here are some posts for all of you out there who care.

These are from a Mariners game way back in April!  Here he is with Daddy, waiting for the game to begin.  Isn't he cute in his Mariner's jersey?

This was only the second time we took Kallen with us to a game.  The first time, the little squirt was only 7 months old, so taking him wasn't a big deal at all.  In fact, he fell asleep while at the game...even with all the shouting, music, and noise.  This time was a little different.  He still was a good kid, but he definitely did not want to sit still or stay in his seat.  Instead, he wanted to explore and walk everywhere.

In order for him to stay in his seat we had to resort to feeding him lots and lots of snacks, and we had to entertain him with every toy I had in our diaper bag.  Even then, he only lasted until about the 6th inning.  Hey, that isn't so bad for a 1 1/2 year old.  

Stay tuned for more posts.  I have 6 months of pictures to post.  So I'll take it one day at a time.

Taking a Walk to See the Ducks

Kallen loves to get outside and walk all around. In fact, exploring is one of his favorite things to do, which we just don't do enough of. So when Uncle Aaron and Aunt April wanted to visit the duck pond near Grandma and Grandpa's house, everyone was up for it... especially Kallen.

Kallen liked walking on the trail by himself, but eventually he got a lift from Grandpa.


Daddy couldn't help but start to chase the little guy while he was on Grandpa's shoulders. Being chased by Daddy is one of Kallen's favorite games.

Hurray we made it to the ducks! When we first got there, I had to hold onto Kallen tight because he wanted to tromp right into the water to get those ducks. He wasn't happy that I wouldn't let him. I tried to explain to him that the ducks were in water and he couldn't go in there...especially with all of his clothes on. He didn't like my explanation and still wanted in the water. All he knew was that those ducks were inches away and they needed to be caught.


Yeah for Ducks. On the walk back, Kallen often stopped and clapped for himself. And of course, we all would stop and clap for him as well. I love Kallen's face every time he starts clapping. He always looks like he is so proud of himself.

What's better than Easter Eggs...Shopping Carts!

Okay, okay. I know that Easter was over 3 weeks ago, but hey, better late than never right?

For the week of Easter, we visited Kallen's Grandpa and Grandma Hill in Eugene Oregon. The Easter Bunny dropped off his basket full of eggs a day early this year, so Kallen and his cousin Daniel got to enjoy their easter candy a little earlier than usual. He was even nice enough to hide Kallen's eggs a little easier for the little guy to find since he is so young. They were all just laying on the grass in plain site. We thought that as soon as he saw the eggs on the grass that he'd get excited to pick them up, but no luck. He looked, no I should say glanced at them for one second, and then ignored them completely.


He wanted to walk around the yard rather than searching for eggs. What's the deal? Is this kid not the spawn of me? I mean, what kind of kid of mine enjoys exploring the great outdoors rather than eating chocolate? I don't know....hmmm. If I hadn't actually given birth to the little guy I would wonder.

While searching Grandpa's yard, he discovered many things. First, he met Salem, their mild mannered puppy dog. He loved petting him with Grandpa and Uncle Aaron.


He also discovered a basketball, which he tried to pick up and carry everywhere. Maybe he thought it was a really big egg.


The eggs the Easter Bunny left might not have been a hit, but the other gift he left definitely was. A Shopping Cart! Kallen loved it. The Easter Bunny hit a home run with this gift. Kallen would drive the cart all around the yard and then when we forced him to come in, he continued to drive it all around the house. Kallen is funny with his shopping cart though. He doesn't like anything in it. If you put anything in the cart he will take it out immediately. Maybe we'll need to work with him on that. After all, a shopping cart is not that useful unless things are in it.

Caution!! Construction in Progress

I'm attempting to redo my blog and make it as cute as all of yours...however, my task isn't going so well. I need help. I figured out how to create a different heading, but it's not centered...ahhhh, this is driving me insane. I hate it when things aren't centered. Call me anal, but it really does drive me nuts. Also, I want to add cute prints for the background of my other elements, but I can't figure out how to do this. Do any of you know how? My friend Cameron tried to help me, but I still can't figure it out. She said something about saving digital scrapbooking prints to a website on the internet and then pasting the html code to your blogging site, but I'm just not smart enough to figure this out. I don't know where to paste it on Blogger. Do any of you know? If so, please help! Please don't let me go insane because I can't figure out this html stuff.

It's a Twister, It's a Twister!

Don't worry, we haven't had any foul weather up here in Washington. But we have been hit by something...something terrible. If I didn't know any better I would think the Tazmanian Devil paid us a visit...but he didn't...it was someone else.





Who was it you ask? It was none other than the Kallen Baby! Yep...the Kallen Baby. Some might say he is just as bad as the Tazmanian Devil. Other's might believe he is far worse.

He actually isn't bad at all. We think he is the sweetest thing in the world, however, he does know how to make quite the mess...just like the Tazmanian Devil. It is amazing how quickly our little tyke can destroy our house. I honestly think he might be related to Taz at times. After looking at the following pictures, I think you all would agree.

He accomplished all of this in less than 10 minutes. Wow...our boy has some serious skills.

My Special V-Day Surprise

Valentines Day turned out to be very different for me than I had originally imagined. I made Tyson promise me that he wouldn't spend any money this year, and for once, he actually kept his promise (he usually cheats and buys me stuff anyway). All we had planned for our romantic V-Day was to drop off the squirt at my parents for a few hours and go out to lunch together. That was it...which some of you might think is a horrible way to spend Valentines Day, but it sounded great to me. Plus, I can't even remember the last time we ate a meal alone together.

The day started off pretty normal, Tyson being the wonderful husband that he is, got up with Kallen in the morning, fed him, and allowed me to sleep in. This all by itself is the best gift my husband can give to me...and he does it often...I'm so lucky. I finally crawled out of bed around 9:30, showered and got ready for the day. Then I got Kallen dressed and ready to go, which wasn't until about 11:30. That's pretty good for him, considering that he usually stays in his pajamas for most of the day. Some days, neither one of us get out of our pajamas at all. (Did I ever mention that PJ's are some of my favorite things to wear?) Anyway, around noon we were ready to hit the road.

We were on our way to my parents, when Tyson suddenly mentioned that he was shocked that I hadn't turned on the radio. I hadn't really thought about it, but then he proceeded to turn it on. It wasn't a surprise that the the CD kicked in, because I had previously been listening to one of my Josh Groban CD's the day before (and no Tyson and Toby, he is not gay). However, I was surprised when it wasn't Josh that I heard on the CD but someone else. It took me only a second to recognize that I was listening to our song, our Biscuits and Honey song. Many of you probably do not know this, but one of the first dates Tyson ever took me on was going up to the mountains together and cooking Biscuits and Honey over a campfire. Sounds kind of silly, but it really is one of the best dates I have ever been on. Afterwards, some of Tyson's roommates (Jeff and Brian) thought it was a funny date and decided to write a song about it. Then they had the chance to record it using a neighbors sound equipment and the Biscuits and Honey song was born. It truly is our personal song and I think that is awesome! So it might have been a really small thing, but to have Tyson sneak into my car beforehand so he could surprise me with our song on Valentine's Day was a very great surprise. I loved it. (If I knew how to post this song on here, I would let you all listen to it, but I don't know how to. Sorry.)

After this, our day again proceeded much as I thought it would. We dropped off Kallen at my Mom's and then we drove towards one of the three restaurants that Tyson had picked out beforehand...Thai, Japanese, or Indian. But as usual, I vetoed them all and we ended up going to Red Robin...my favorite restaurant of all time (can I get a big cheer from Meg?). It was so tasty and I didn't regret my decision.

Afterwards, we went around the mall and hung out, enjoying the squirt free time that we had. Then we decided to go back to my parents and hang out there for awhile. For the rest of the afternoon, we just hung out and I thought our fun Valentine's adventure was over. However, around dinnertime, Tyson asked if I wanted to do our activity? I was confused and asked him what he was talking about. He left the room, went outside, and when he returned, he had two long sticks in his hand, a jar of honey and a can of biscuits. With a smile, He asked me if I wanted to have some biscuits and honey with him. How cute is that. So the rest of the evening, we sat around my parents fire and cooked some biscuits with honey.

Now that is a great Valentines Day if I do say so myself.