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!   

FIVE

My baby boy turned five today 5.17.

He's pretty awesome.

He's tough.

He's smart.

Independent {until bedtime comes}.

Memory like a lion.

Sings the sweetest songs  in his own words "girly girly ayeyooya he reigns" or let me translate "glory glory Hallelujah He reigns" pretty adorable even if the words are wrong, even cuter when he raises his hand in praise.  
Still says "fremember" instead of remember, no need to correct him, I kind of think it's pure sweetness.

Favorite color is red.

Loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates, hence the birthday theme...

Best buddies at school: Blake, Ansley, Lyda, Kate, Paxton and Audrey.
The more different or crazy the look the more he likes something. 

Just wrapped up a great season of t-ball, he's a heck of a little ball player, this boy needs no tee! 

His little lefty swing is beautiful!

Speaking of lefty, he throws, hits and bowls with his left, eats and writes with his right, pretty interesting.

 

We celebrated his birthday a week early at Airwalk, he had a blast!  So the night of his real birthday we let him choose what he wanted to do.  He wanted to eat at Waffle House for breakfast and Shane's for dinner and then bowling.  We brought donut holes for his friends at school to celebrate with him. 

One thing is for sure, they are growing up way too fast...could somebody stop the clock!?
 

 

Happy Birthday lil' bushell, we sure do love you!

2012 LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD

Can't believe it's been 6 months since I blogged, 2012 was a great year, a lot of fun times, lots of memories made, learned a lot about myself and my kiddos, wouldn't change our crazy life for anything!

So glad to start a new year, it's a great time for a fresh start, a new chance for changes and improvements.  Here's a list of hopes and goals for 2013:

- Get in shape {I'm certainly not getting any younger}
- Plan a big trip with hubby to celebrate 10 years of wedded bliss :)
- Enjoy being home, relax more
- Simplify {my life and home}
- Spend more quiet time with God and dig deeper into His word
- Join a small group
- Take the boys to Disney {time seems to be ticking}
- Eat clean, cook more
- Adopt a pup {the boys still miss Rocky}

I could go on and on, but for now these are at the top of my list, wish me luck :). 

Christmas Eve a tragic accident took place, a guy I work with lost his precious 2 year old daughter.  Ever since I heard about it my heart has been so heavy for them.  I am on my knees even more these days, asking God to comfort this sweet young family, it's heart wrenching.  Through the tragedy, their faith is amazing, God is really working in their hearts and as they share their struggles and the peace they are finding could only come from our maker.  Through FB they are reaching thousands of folks, Amy (the strong mother) makes daily entries and talks about her strength can only come from God, her daughters death has really impacted the kingdom and is awakening the lost and remind us sinners how we need to get closer to Him.  What a precious legacy that her short life has left, it warms my heart and give me so much hope that God will wrap his arms around us if we just call his name.   

That's all for now, I hope take my own advice and learn to slow down, soak in all of life's goodness, enjoy the simple things, like sunsets and flowers blooming, enjoy my kids laughter, enjoy my spouses quirks, enjoy the simple beauties of this earth, for we never know what tomorrow holds.  When we think we've had the worst day ever, it's probably someone on the other side of the country's idea of great day.  Most days are better than we deserve. Guess I'm getting sappy with age, but it's true. 

Seven

I can’t even fathom that I’m old enough to have a seven year old, but the truth is, I am and he is. Yikes. It only seemed fair that Colby not have a big party, since Houston didn’t. So when I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said he wanted to go to camp (as he has done every day this summer and he loves it = one happy momma) and for me to pick him and his best buddy G up and take them to the pool after camp. Done. I can handle that. So that’s what we did.  We had cookie cake and pizza delivered to the pool, we stayed so long that we were the last ones there, that night the boys were worn out. His birthday celebration continued as we went to the lake Saturday to celebrate the belated Independence Day with Mimi & Kiki and Wade, Kelli and the girls. Aunt Kayla even came all the way from T-town. We enjoyed the wonderful firework show by boat and stayed the night and played again the next day.

Seven reasons I love this boy:

 

1. I love to hear him talk about how big and strong God is, it warms my heart to know he's getting closer to knowing Him!

 

2.  He's a wonderful baseball player, an amazing season of watching him play, lots of victories!  (cool side note, Colby also plays flag football where you have to be drafter,there were 105 boys who play, Colby was ranked 12th :) proud)

 

3.  He treats people that are "special" no different than anyone else and really makes a point to include them in activities.

 

4. He's nice and helpful to his brother (sometimes).

 

5. He secretly hugs me when no one is looking.

 

6.  His creativity is wonderful, he's a great little artist.

 

7. He's pretty darn handsome.

(could have sworn I posted this the day after his b'day, but there it sat in my drafts...backdating, lol)

Before and After - Hagood House & other ramblings

I’ve been wanting to document our biggest project to date at the Hagood house, but I’m just slightly a year and a half behind on this post. I am still thrilled with how it came out and am so thankful that my hubby is handy and that we could hire his handy friend to do the paint job. So here’s the before, a little overgrown jungle-y and yes an entire window is blocked by a tree.  Notice the columns & rails were had were very colonial very bland color pallet.

Well here she is with her new coat of paint, columns replaced, shuttered built by my handy hubby and painted a nice Homestead brown. Wood rails replaced with rod iron spindles, bushes removed (you might just be red neck if you remove bushes with your hubby's Jeep), large cedar cut down. Yay I couldn’t be happier with the results. We've been super busy, this past weekend, the handy hubby rented a super powered pressure washer and completely brought back to life our deck I swear it looks like it did when he built it. Those pressure washers are amazing, we even pressure washed cushions, wood bench, patio funiture, the outdoor rug, it'a amazing. There's still lots on the to do list: new roof $ yikes, paint the bench and rocking chairs, plant lots more flowers.

A side by side for good measure....

In more important news, this boy is loosing teeth like crazy, he's totally snaggle toothed and I love it :). 

We've also discovered Colby's an artist, very proud that his catepillar art was on exhibit at the Shelby County Art show, had no idea but apparently it's quite an honor to be selected.  I'm one proud momma!  Next week he will round out his kindergarten year, we're very please with his progress and can't wait to see what 1st grade has in store for us, he's reading at level E and there's nothing better than the sound of him reading!

 

That'll do it for now, more projects around the corner.

Houston is 4!

I can hardly believe this guy turned 4 yesterday.

He’s my sweet boy, he doesn’t mind giving mommy hugs and kisses, he still loves to snuggle and he’s full of deep thoughts and questions. I say it all the time, he's got a mature soul, I can’t describe it. We keep warning Colby, he’s going to catch up with him before long, he’s solid.

He loves his brother, sure they fuss and fight but deep down they are best buds.

  Opposites in every way, and we love it!

I wish I could say I planned a magical birthday party but I didn't, no party.   And you know what, it’s okay, he had bat man cupcakes with his buddies at school and doughnut birthday breakfast and then we lugged him to our home away from home aka the ballpark to watch big brother.  His wish was to go to the lake and the beach and before you know it we'll make that wish come true.  Until then, we’re going to spoil him rotten all weekend long, this weekend is all about him (aside from Colby’s 9 a.m. championship game tomorrow, fingers crossed they bring home the victory).  He goes with the flow and I love that about him. 

Here's to you birthday boy, your our little ray of sunshine and we are so blessed to have 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.