Mr. Kindergartener

Kindergarten started for this little man today... I can't believe it.  Several people have asked me if I cried... I didn't.  Although I can get why some do.  I mean he is officially a kid now, not a toddler, not a preschooler but a grade school kid, things are changing around here.

He woke right up this morning and was excited to get dressed and head out to school.  He even mentioned to me that maybe he should eat his breakfast before he got dressed as he didn't want to spill any yogurt on his new uniform.  He choose the red over the white shirt, he thought it looked better... it was a good choice by him as every other little boy in his class were all wearing their red polos too.  

He seems excited about school and seems to like his new teacher, and we are super excited for this new adventure for him.  He has been to three different preschools in the last couple of years, due to some closings, and due to where we live- on the border of a couple of cities, so we have switched sports associations several times as well.  So he hasn't made any lasting friends... we are all excited that he will be at this school for the foreseeable future and will have opportunity to make some great friends.

Top Golf for Hutson

For Hutson's actual birthday, not his party, we went to Top Golf and hit golf balls into the targets.  Grammy and Papa were there and Alex, Tiff and Evee joined us as well.  The boys have shown a real interest in playing golf, but maybe it is just because they like to hit things.  

I can't believe my Little Man is 5 years old.  We weighed him the morning he turned 5, he hit 50.5 lbs.  He was so excited to see the 5's on the scale.  He said "see mama- I am a big kid now"... yes, yes you are.  

We talked about the day he was born and the crazy snowstorm we had on that day that we drove through to get to the hospital at 2am.  In Texas it is a bit odd to have snow in March. 

We talked about all the people that were at the hospital waiting for him to arrive and all the people that came to visit him after he was born.

We talked about that both daddy and GrAndi managed to run out for haircuts while I was in labor- that is how long it took for him to make his entrance.  

We talked about that he didn't come home to this house we live in now, we lived in a rent house, and then at the ranch while this house was being built.  

I showed him how little he was and that he used to sleep on mommy's chest all night.

We both laughed that his first word was 'cookie', he thought that was pretty funny.

We talked about that he will be in big boy school next year, and will be gone all day.  (they have full day kindergarten here in texas, 7:50am to 2:50pm)  

We discussed what it means to be the oldest kid, he needs to lead by example and be a nice and kind older brother and to help his little brother when he needs help.

I always thought those parents crying on the first day of kindergarten were a bit ridiculous... but I get it now.  Will I cry in public while dropping him off...?  um, no.  I will not let myself do that... might I shed a tear when I get home from dropping him off?  probably.  He is no longer a baby, or a toddler, and he is leaving the preschool stage behind quickly as well.  He is becoming more and more independent, and grown-up and I am not sure I am fully ready for that.... and more than likely I won't ever be.

neglected...

yes.. this poor little blog of mine has been severely neglected, like if they had a CPS to protect blogs, say a BPS, this blog would have been taken away a long time ago... thank goodness there isn't one.  I'm not gonna say we have been busy, because I'm pretty sure everyone I know is 'crazy busy', so lets just say nothing and get to the pictures that everyone comes here for anyway...

sunset

our sunset walks now have to happen an hour earlier... I'm totally okay with it too.  :)

Hope everyone out there is doing well- sorry we have been somewhat absent from the blog world lately.  Lots happening around here.

H.U.T.

That is usually what we call this one... Not Hut, but actually H-U-T.  Now if you call him that he will come back with "H-U-T, that's me!" in this adorable sing-song voice.  He is getting so big.  He loves school and his new friends and teachers.  We have been working very hard on his handwriting skills, thank goodness for the ipad and all the great apps out there to help us practice.  His teacher has them learning all the countries in Africa, he came home from school one day talking about Djibouti and Burundi, yeah- I had to look them up.  I'm sure it won't be the last time I have to look up something he is learning about at school.

He loves baseball, and golf, although he has never really played golf, he tells us it is one of his favorite things to do.  He wants a guitar for Christmas, and plays this small one we have all the time.  Maybe a guitar and some lessons will come from Santa... hmmm.  He changes his mind daily about what he wants to dress up as for Halloween- sometimes it is Darth Vadar and other times he wants to dress up as a football player or super hero. 

He loves to take pictures with my phone, which makes me happy.  We talk about that it is important to take pictures so that we can remember certain moments in time.

He is such a sweet boy and is always looking out for others smaller than him, well besides his brother.

Brothers... They can be so good together or such a mess.  They play, for the most part, extremely well together, whether they are getting in trouble or not.  Although Hut always gets to be the boss, dad, good guy, etc... and Wheeler is whatever he wants him to be.

 we have been playing rodeo cowboys a lot lately...  this day he was an Outlaw.

 this is the look he always gives me...

 this is the terrible smile he gives me if I tell him to smile...

then this is the look I ultimately get as he is speeding away from me, whether in his gator, or on foot...

Happy Monday.

We are off to our first dentist visits today.  Wish us luck.

practicing...

I've been doing a lot of practicing lately... practicing behind the camera, practicing on the computer, practicing trying to set up good shots.  I'm not gonna lie- it is exhausting.... but oh so fun.

Yeah- I know,  my kid is cute, and a total ham.

Hutson's threads...

shirt|Lacoste

jeans|Peek

shades|GapKids

color or b&w...

sometimes I just can't decide what I like best...

but either is better than the original...  It took me a long time to want to use a digital camera- I always felt like it was cheating.  Plus I really like the act of developing film... but now I wouldn't go back.  With film if you wanted black and white you had to shoot with black and white film, but now I can change everything with just a few clicks on the computer, and as someone who likes efficiency- this is it.

the before and after panel in lightroom.... I like my photos on the warm side so things are brightened and warmed while editing...

April...

Every couple of months I try to get some just plain, clean, head shots of the boys.  Since we just got haircuts I thought it was the perfect time to set them down and snap a few...

I also have been trying to go fully manual with the camera, and I have to say I think these turned out alright.  The last couple of posts- the pics have been taken in Manual mode.  There are definitely times when it is easier to shoot in Auto or even in a priority setting, but manual is definitely more satisfying knowing that you manhandled that camera and pushed it to do what you wanted it to do.

 

Mr. Hutson

He has turned into such a little man.  On Monday I went to his Spring Showcase at school.  His class did a whole 30 minute program of singing and dancing and story telling.  He had a little stage fright at first and then about half way through eased into it and went full force.  Afterwards they had a little art show- I love the art projects his school does.  He has two canvases that he painted and a pot that he painted and planted lima beans in and has been watering them and helping them grow at school.

Now just to find some wall space at home.  I am thinking the upstairs hallway is soon to be the kids art gallery....

Hutson and his amazing teacher....

 kid can finger paint...

 flowers are stamped and the grass and stems are finger painted...

 we have a slight obsession with Crocodiles around here...

 Hutson and his best buddy at school... these two are glued at the hip at school

Mr. Blue Eyes himself...

Threads...

I would by no means call myself a fashionista... those who know me can attest to this.  I probably spend about 75% of my time in workout clothes, with my hair pulled in a pony tail and I am usually wearing a baseball hat.  However, I do enjoy clothes, looking at them, putting together outfits, and of course shopping.  I probably know the contents of all of my friends and families closets better than themselves.  So when I was pregnant with Hutson, when we first found out it was going to be a boy, I was of course ecstatic, but everyone kept asking me if I was bummed because I wouldn't be able to buy any little girl clothes... um no.  I wasn't bummed.  Frankly, Disney princesses and pink and glitter make me want to vomit.  I LOVE dressing the Little Men.  It drives me crazy when people say that there isn't any cute boy clothes out there... there are plenty, more than plenty.

The Jerbear and I frequently get asked where we buy the Little Men's clothes.  We have a few favorite go-to spots where we can always find something for them, and then we hit up some hit or miss places as well.  Hutson is lucky he is the oldest, his clothes are usually all new.  Wheeler gets the hand-me-downs.  I generally don't mind spending a little bit more money on Hut's clothes because I know they are gonna get a good amount of wear and tear on them between the two boys and I want them to hold up.  The only thing Wheeler gets new on a regular basis is shoes, poor guy has a super wide foot and can't wear any of Hut's shoes.

I am gonna try this out... if the boys cooperate.  We are going to try to do a couple of posts a month on boys clothes and shoes.  Yesterday I was able to get Hut to stand still for a few minutes so I could take some pictures of his outfit.

 We always try to layer clothes around here because it will be 50 in the morning and by afternoon it is 80 degrees.  By summer it will just be our shorts and tees, or just our swim trunks.

1. hand-me-down denim pearl snap from BabyGAP

2. 2-in-1 long sleeve t-shirt from PEEK

3. straight leg brown cords from CrewCuts Outlet

4. Navy Chucks from Converse

Hut doesn't like having his picture taken so it will be interesting to see how these posts happen.  We are supposed to be having some great weather this weekend so we are going to try to enjoy it...

Happy Friday!

for GrAndi...

a one finger shooter...

First Broken Bone

Three days before his fourth birthday... his first broken bone.  He has a bubble fracture in his wrist, we just barely missed the growth plate so we got lucky.  Little man has been a champ and is sporting a new blue cast for the next four weeks.

He was playing at the park and he flipped out over the edge of a slide.  It's funny because my heart has always beat a little faster when they play on the twisty slides that aren't tunnels... you know the ones that are just a little too shallow, the edges just aren't quite high enough for me.  Well he flipped over the side of one and broke his landing with his face and wrist.  I wasn't there- which was ok because I probably would have had a heart attack at the thought of watching my kid fall like that.  Thank goodness for wood chips.  His face has some bruising and a few scratches but nothing serious.  When he got home, we just thought his wrist was sprained and gave him some ice and tylenol and put him to bed early.  He seemed fine before school this morning and I sent him on his way with a note to his teacher to call me if things didn't seem normal with him, and explained the situation.  She called by 11am, saying he just wasn't himself and he refused to use the potty because he couldn't get his pants down because his wrist hurt... mom of the year award right here.  Jer and I immediately picked him up and took him to the Pediatrician who referred us to a Pediatric Orthopedic.  He had an xray and was promptly cast up in about 30 min.  He was a little wary of the cast, but we wanted to thank GrAndi for having a broken wrist a few months ago because he knew exactly what to do, and what it would look like.

Here is our brave little guy getting his cast 2 days before his fourth birthday...

Here is what Wheeler was doing while we were at the Dr.  Hanging out with Jacky and her girls eating ice cream...

These were taken last week when Wheeler refused to take a nap, but just wanted to snuggle with mommy in her bed.