rellenitos de platano

micaiah and i tried a new guatemalan recipe today!

Micaiah stirring the refried beans (which we made from scratch! thanks shelley)

here it is plantains with refried black beans in the middle

"OOOOOOOOOO" Micaiah said when she peaked over into the pan!

taaaadaaaa! they were delicious!

despite the temperatures...

bailey has been enjoying the snow...

and caleb too!

music to my ears...

there are a few phrases every mother dreams of hearing...

i love you

can i help

whatever you say mom


sound great right? well, i heard one even better than that yesterday from Elijah (my 3 1/2+ year old)

mommy, i want to be superman today.

i bet your thinking, what's so great about that? well here it is...

after that he said, and i can't wear a diaper. just socks and the superman costume. to that i said, well you do you want to wear big boy underwear? and he said....

YES!!!!!!!!!

i informed him that if he wore them he would have to go in the potty.

today is day 2 and he wants to keep at!!!!!

could this finally be it?????

weather update

today at 12:00 it was 52 degrees, by morning it will be -20 degrees!!!!!!!!!

more fun than anyone could have...in just 28 hours!

the kids and i took a quick trip to South Bend Indiana to see some of our bestest friends, the Walatka's! Shelley is one of my closest friends, as are Keith and Peter and our kids love each other to death and get along better than the best of kids. Tommy, Hunter, and Caleb have known each other since they were just 6 months old. they have spent up to 2 1/2 days living together before and they never fight, argue, complain, or get bored. The Walatka's and the Sutton's dream of planting a church one day and living in a duplex with one very large kitchen and one large living space with everything else being seperated for each family. oh what a blast it would be! enjoy the pics tommy, hunter, ben, joseph, and anna!

joseph, ben, tommy, caleb, hunter

ben and micaiah

ben and elijah (they really became good buddies this trip)

joseph was posing for me

the village people

joseph and micaiah, i think there is a crush going on here!

don't you think?

ben, tommy, caleb, hunter

just the girls

all smiles, micaiah and anna

aren't they all so adorable


elijah and ben, saying good bye

our gingerbread house

isn't this what the candy is for???

check this out!!

this is a snow drift on our back deck!

this is a picture taken on the ground of our back patio door, look at all that snow!

here is the damage, all of these pics were taken inside our house!!





thank GOD we have received a grant from the city of elgin for home improvements and will be replacing our windows at no cost to us!!! yeah GOD!!

new year's day

watching the bowl games...