Grant County Spring Fair

For Easter, we were originally planning on visiting my parents in Bellevue. However, the day before we were suppose to leave, they all ended up getting really bad colds. Since my kids had been cold-free for about a month, I did not want to have them around a bunch of sickies, so we decided to stay home. As luck would have it, Weston ended up with a horrible cold regardless...should have known it was inevitable. Anyway, I think our decision to stay home ended up being a good one. My parents and sister's family didn't have to worry about us while they were sick, and since we didn't go we were able to go to the Grant County Spring Fair. It was so much fun! The best part about it was seeing how much fun Kallen had on all the rides. Plus, the other great thing about this fair was that it was crowd-free. We never had to wait in line once! This was probably due to the cold weather and winds, but hey, it was totally worth it.

Kallen loved the "horsey ride" and probably went on it 10 times. He actually went on most rides about 10 times, so we got our money's worth. I love his happy little face in this picture.

Kallen was also super brave and went on some bigger kid rides like the roller coaster and a ride called the Octopus. I must admit, I was fine going on every ride with him except for the Octopus. It freaked me out, but Kallen absolutely loved it! In fact, as soon as our little cart started spinning and going up and down, he started screaming with joy at the top of his lungs. The ride operator actually stopped the ride half-way through to see if he was okay and I assured him that he was fine and loving every moment of it. Kallen wanted to go back on it again later that day, but I quickly turned him down. He might have loved it but I on the other hand did not, so we did not go back for a second time.

Kallen's favorite ride by far was the giant slide. He thought it was the greatest and the lady who operated it always laughed at how many times the little guy went up and down on it.

Kallen loved everything about the fair and still talks about it. Can you tell from all the big smiles in these pictures?

Weston was such a little trouper while we were there. He had a cold and was probably not feeling good, but he was happy the whole time. Next year, it will be fun to take him on some of the rides too.

Oh, I almost forgot. The fair also had some animals there. Kallen loved the pigs the most, but we also got to see some cows and sheep. The fair was so much fun and I'm glad we got to go. They have another one here in August, so I'm sure we will definitely be going back for it. Kallen is already counting down the days.

A Glimpse of our Year

Surprise, I'm finally making a post! After a few people (who amazingly still check out our blog) kept complaining that our blog needed updated, I decided to make a quick post of what we've been up to for the past year. Here are some of the highlights:

We moved! Yep, we moved last August to wonderful Moses Lake, WA. Some of you might be wondering where that is...well, its in Eastern Washington in the middle of nowhere. Its a smaller city, with about 18,000 people and not much shopping or things to do. We've got a Walmart, a Safeway, and places like Lowes, but other than that, there isn't much else. Although it is small, it has been a good move for us because: 1. Tyson got a great job that he loves. He's a felony prosecutor for Grant County. 2. We bought our first house and I love it! 3. We have a great ward with lots of very friendly families and many of them live by us. 4. It's so sunny in the spring! Now that I've been here for about 8 months, I have learned how much I love being in a sunny place so the boys can go outside and play almost everyday. 5. No traffic! That is definitely a good thing. Here is a picture of our house.

We also Celebrated some birthdays. Kallen turned 3 in September and Weston turned 1 in December. Kallen loves Chocolate, so of course he had to have a chocolate cake for his birthday.

We celebrated Weston's birthday in Utah, where we had a Sutherland family reunion at Christmas.

We also spent some time with family. Tyson's family came up to visit in October and the boys loved showing them their new house.

As I mentioned before, we went to Utah for Christmas and hung out with my family in Midway. The boys loved the snow and playing with their cousins. We celebrated Christmas, played in the snow, visited the temple, and went to a Dairy Farm. We all had lots of fun.

Finally, here are some pictures of the holidays that we celebrated, including a second Christmas at home here in Moses Lake.

Well that was our year in a nutshell. More pictures will come soon.

Kallen makes me laugh

Here's a dialouge Kallen and I had a few weeks back while we were walking down our apartment's steps to our car.  I didn't want to forget about it, so I'm posting it.  Maybe you all will think its cute too.

Kallen:  "Look a rhine tree"

Mommy: "What?"

Kallen: "a rhine tree, see?"

Mommy: "Kallen I don't know what you are talking about.  What is a rhine tree?"

Kallen: "rhine tree"... then he points to some pine cones that are outside our neighbors apartment.

Mommy: "Oh, do you mean a pine cone?"

Kallen: "yes, a rhine tree" with a smile.

Mommy:  "Kallen its called a PINE CONE, not a rhine tree.  Say Pine...Cone." I'm emphasizing the P and C.

Kallen:  "okay, rhine tree."

Mommy: "Kallen you didn't say that correctly at all.  It's a Pine Cone..Pine Cone."

Kallen: "yep, a rhine tree...I so smart."

Kallen loves to tell us that he is "so smart" all the time.  Silly bug.

My Boys

Here are my Boys.  I love them all very much.  

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted anything.  I'm trying to catch up.  For now, enjoy the following posts.  More will come soon.

Weston and Daddy checking each other out.

Weston's Blessing

We gave Weston James his blessing on April 4th at home here in Olympia.  He got to wear the same outfit Kallen wore, which my Mom made for them.  It is so cute, I wish I had some better pictures of it to show it off.  I wasn't able to take many pictures because Weston was in a very, very bad mood.  In fact, he screamed at the top of his lungs the entire time while Tyson gave him his blessing. This was pretty shocking because Wes is such a mild kid.  

After the blessing, he was still in a cranky mood and didn't want to take any pictures...and I mean any!  Poor kid.  I think we just timed his blessing poorly because it fell right around his nap time.  However, we didn't have much of a choice, because we did it between conference sessions.  Oh well, at least I got a few pictures.

Even though he was grumpy, he did give a few smiles.  He is such a precious little boy.  He loves to give us these big open mouthed smiles. 

Of course, Grandpa Hill was able to make him smile.  No kid can resist smiling when Grandpa Hill is around.

Easter...Only 2 Months Late

For Easter we went down and visited Grandma and Grandpa Hill.  We started off decorating Easter Eggs.  I was surprised that Kallen really enjoyed this.  I didn't think he would, but he loved it and probably could have decorated dozens and dozens of eggs if we let him.  

Hi favorite color was blue...but if there had been a green dye, he probably would have loved that one even more.  Green is his favorite color.

Some of the finished product.

Besides dying eggs, what else is necessary at Easter?  To take pictures of your Easter clothes of course. Neither Kallen or Weston were very good models.  They didn't want to take pictures at all, which is why you see these sullen faces instead of happy smiling faces.  I think I might need to start bribing them to smile from now on.  I always thought it was funny when my sister-in-law Christy would bribe her kids with candy in order for them to smile in pictures.  Now i get it.  I'm not above bribing...nope.

The brothers regard each other.

We were lucky to have most of Tyson's family down there at Easter.  So the cousins all got to take a picture together.  Well,at least the cousins that are all babies.  This is Gavin, Emily and Weston (the used car salesman).  They are all a month apart--Emily being the oldest.  Don't they all look so cute?  I'm glad that at least Emily decided to smile.  I think this picture is so funny, Wes is so huge compared to the others.  I think he could eat the other two in a second. 

Ahhh...now the loot.  I got a little carried away with Easter this year and kept buying the boys stuff.  I couldn't help it.  Kallen loves play doh now, so I got him a set with a Mr. Potato Head. He also got some more Thomas the Train track...because you can never have enough.  Some more coloring paper and coloring books for his Magic Markers, a new puppy, Resurrection Eggs (These are pretty cool.  You should check them out for an Easter FHE), and some other random little stuff.  Weston got a monkey, some teething rings and some bubbles.  These boys scored!

Of course the first thing Kallen went for is the chocolate.  The kid absolutely loves chocolate now and asks for it all the time.  His favorite is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which is bad, because those are my favorite too.  Now I have to share them with him.

Kallen also got to do an Easter Egg hunt down there, but he didn't get into it that much.  He had more fun just playing outside.  I had to struggle to even get him to notice the multi-colored eggs lying around.  Oh well...maybe next year.

From Kallen's perspecitve:  "Okay Mom, I found some eggs...now take your silly picture.  Can I go play now?"

"Let's put all the eggs in a small pile on the grass.  Yep...that is fun."

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  We had a lot of fun!