EIGHT is Great!

Well at least I blog when the kids have a birthday, that's about all I'm good for these days.  But these are milestones and I must document, important.stuff.right.here. 

We celebrated Colby's birthday this past weekend.  My firstborn is growing up.  More and more I can see snidbits of both his dad and myself in him and I love the mixture that makes up this boy.  As old as it makes me feel to have an 8 year old, I'm enjoying watching him grow, we can have deep conversations and he understands hurt feelings, sadness and responsibility and still so innocent at heart.  I just want to bottle up our talks and his interests.  

This spring and summer Colby has been submerged in baseball and loves it. I love to watch him play.  He always makes me so proud by giving it his all.  He hit his first home run over the fence at practice on 7.26.13, yeah baby!  He had some amazing plays in All Stars, a double play to end one of the tournament games. The every day practice paid of as they ended their season as the Metro 7 U  Champtions! A commemorative sign will flank the fence with the players names at our local ballpark!   

His tournament team OM Select is gearing up, they won runner-up championship ring for 8U State tournament.  The players have worked so hard, we are doing a fun trip next to Gulfport, MS to end our little season then our summer can begin, but I sure have enjoyed every blazing hot game, I couldn't be prouder of my boy!

Clowning around!

 First week at camp ...camper of the week!

Loves anything with wheels.

He loves seeing his cousins and of course aunt Kayla!

For his birthday he wanted to go fishing and hang at the lake, so that's just what we did.  His cake request was just like last year - cookie cake, so as you can see it was made with love. Forget the cake...seriously...could this kid get any cuter?!

Like father, like son (my pawpaw sure would be proud).  We got him a real fishing pole and tackle box, equipped with a bobber with a light - he fished at night and woke up the next morning eager to go at it again - catching a total of 40+ fish! 

The rain didn't stop the boys from getting out on the lake.  Let's not forget little man joining in on the action. 

Colby's most recent interest is the discovery of the Rainbow Loom.  If you don't know what that is you should totally run to your nearest Learning Express and get your kiddo a kit.  Houston loves it too, heck I love it.  I guess it's the modern day version of a friendship bracelets.  The boys have made dozens of different patterns and styles and love to make them for friends too.

Happy Birthday Colby Owen!  We are so proud of the big boy you have become and can't wait to see what this 8th year has in store for you!   

Catching Up

Whew, I think this has been a record breaking fast year for us, I've probably mentioned that a few too many times on this ole blog, but it's so true. Wow that was a run on sentence, yay me. Let me recap the past few months, in true Hagood procrastination style.

FINALLY had some professional photos taken this year. Wow family photos are hard to come by and I'm so thankful for these. We will treasure those pics and am thrilled that the boys did smile and they boys did get their dollar tree prize afterwards, as promised. We've got some handsome boys, if I do say so myself... Files are so large, I'll share one of my faves, I simply photo shopped the Merry Christmas banner to the established year so it could be used in our house all year round :). Moving right along, we had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving, with only one house to eat at, that was a change, but so nice not to have to stuff our self twice. We've decided it's only fair to alternate years, so this year was the Krininger house. A day full of playing with cousins, eating, and a lot of sitting around digging through the sales ads planning the attach of black Friday. Did I mention it was a serious warm day, didn't even feel like November. Used the trusty tripod to capture a big family shot. Poor Colby....

We were so PROUD & SHOCKED that Houston learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels over the Thanksgiving weekend! What a big boy at only 3, but he's bound and determined to keep up with big brother.

Then we blinked and it was December.... Then came a magical night, with a visit to the North Pole, Polar Express style. They had a ball! Wished the "north pole" had some fake, snow it did confuse a certain 6 year old who has asked a lot of good questions this year. But you could see the magic and excitement in Houston's eyes, he loved every minute of it! Well, that's a wrap, be back soon with more Christmas festivities.

Halloween 2011

Lots of fun the week of Halloween! Houston was Dash from the Incredibles and Colby managed to only swap outfits twice, he was Batman and Wolverine. They had a ball trick or treating and have way too much sugar in the house!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Fun time at the patch again. Highlight of the day was the real Indian that was teaching the Indian sign language and dances. Colby was amazed, he's learning all about Indians in school right now. Did you know there are 500 Indian tribes in the U.S. ? He taught us how to sign "good day" in a universal sign language that all any Indian tribes would understand. Colby's favorite song from school is "...we are the red men feathers in our headband, down by the den man, mmm pow wow, mmm pow wow." So this Indian appearance was a real treat!

Go Giants!!

SIX!

Over a month ago, this handsome boy turned six! Wow it makes me feel old, he’s got to use his other hand to show his age, breaks my heart! He’s my little firecracker born just a few days after 4th of July, so we pulled a family Independence Day/Colby’s B'day party all in one at Mimi and Kiki’s lake house. We had bbq and all the fixings and no lake party is complete with out homemade ice cream! Yum! I made my first attempt at a chocolate chip cookie cake - baseball—and I’ll have to say it was pretty good and really easy!

Since I skimped on a true party I wanted to make his birthday memorable, I let him choose what he'd like to do. He chose to go skating rink - what fun! Little tough for 5 year olds but wow did my skating nights come back to mind, I even got out there and showed the boys my tricks, it was a fun time. Then we headed home his next request was to pick out a snack at the gas station and then we headed home to play kick ball and eat pizza!

For memory sake:

• Every afternoon this boy can be found in his favorite spot on the kitchen counter watching TV—all Disney shows he could watch over and over ~ i-carly, phineus and pherb, Good Luck Charlie, he never grows tired of sitting on that counter watching channel 50 or 51, LOL.
• Shy about certain things, don’t dare mention a girl’s name
• Between the TV, his DSi , the computer in his room and my phone, we’ve got us a tech boy.
• Summer camp was a new experience, it worked out ok, but for some reason he would not swim, embarrassed to change in front of the other kids, so he didn’t swim any in the 10 weeks he was there, as hot as it was—ironic thing was I picked this camp b/c of the pool, go figure.
• He recently discovered that everything is a $1 dollar at the dollar store, he said "mommy, why didn't you tell me everything was a $1 at this store".
• The boy loves spending his money wisely (wonder where he got that :), he chooses his "prizes" very carefully.
• He is starting his first season of flag football! Go Giants!
• He is reading, he's a sharp cookie!
• The toy rage—bey blades, he has about 7 and thinks he needs other colors—cause they are more powerful that certain colors, love this kid.
• He still wishes that his eyes were blue :) one day he’ll appreciate those chocolate chip eyes!
• Even though he may tackle and take toys away from his younger brother he sure does love being a big brother to Houston, it's neat to watch them grow up to be so different yet so close.
~I could go on and this special boy, but that'll do it for now.