silly boy

We spent Christmas with my brother, Jeffrey, sister-in-law Lynette, their son, Benton, and my parents. Jeffrey, Lynette, and Benton live in Arkansas. Benton and Hutson took a bath together on Christmas Eve and this is a pic of Hutson being silly. Not sure why he did this but thought it was cute. Notice that Benton is "shaving." :) I'll post more about our Christmas later. We're moving into our new house tomorrow.

Like Father, Like Son

Mike (on the right) Dec. 1973 about 15 months old.



Hutson, December 17, 2008

One for Mawmaw

Here's one of all the grandkids together.  This one made me laugh because Hutson just wasn't into it.  Notice the pouting lip!  :)

One for Patti

This weekend we celebrated Christmas early with Mike's parents, Mike's brother Joe, my wonderful sister-in-law Patti, and our cool nephew and niece, Grant and Megan. (I'll post pics later of the fun times.)  One of Patti's friends came over with her little girl, Grace. Grace is just beautiful and I had to take her picture! Isn't she the cutest?

Coloring

Hutson enjoys coloring and I enjoy having him in one place for a couple of minutes.  :)  I read yesterday that scribbling and coloring at this age helps promote writing and reading eventually.  Yay for doing something right!  

new shoes...new house

This weekend we went shopping and we found these shoes. Hutson immediately fell in love with them. He's been wearing them nonstop. I suspect one of the reasons he loves them so much is because he can put them on by himself. He also enjoys this mower that makes the loudest noise and sings ABCs. It is so loud! Thanks MawMaw for the gift last Christmas. :)




We close on our new house on December 19th! We're excited to be out of the apartment soon. We took Hutson to take some pictures today on the front stoop.




On another note, this morning Hutson and I met someone at Starbucks. We drank our coffee outside and we were sweating. Tonight we heard it raining and Mike and I looked outside. It's snowing and sleeting and COLD! The weather in Texas...

new camera!

I'm so excited! My entire family (my parents and Mike's parents and Mike) got me a camera for Christmas and it came in the mail today. For those that might be the slightest bit interested it's a very cool Canon 40d! Here are some of my first pictures with it. I'm having a little trouble with one of my lenses. The focus seems to be off. I thought for a while maybe it was me but with my other lens my focus is usually great. So some of these might be a tad bit off.

O Christmas tree!

We wanted to show off our Christmas tree! Here is Hutson sitting in front of the tree.

Here he is sitting with it in his lap.

Since we're in an apartment this year, all of our Christmas stuff is in storage except this tree. Thanks to Patti (Aunt Ti) for the tree.

One of my cool sisters-in-law

A couple of weekends ago, Mike, Hutson and I went to San Antonio to meet Jeffrey (my brother) and Lynette.  Lynette was running her 6th (or 5th) marathon!  Yep...she's Super Woman.  She has a 3 year old and still has time to have a full-time job, run marathons, be an aerobics instructor, AND my brother is living in Virginia because he's in the Army.  So she's essentially been a single mom recently and was while my brother was stationed overseas when Benton was a baby.  Jeffrey was in San Antonio and ran the half-marathon.  

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Jeffrey or Lynette, but did get some of Hutson and Benton together.  Benton is great with Hutson and they really enjoy each other.  

My little helper

Hutson is developing quite a personality.  He loves to help.  Help put laundry in the washing machine, help clear the table, and help vacuum.  He's a great at vacuuming...at least in the same spot.  

Vacuuming at Mawmaw and Pop's house.


And at our apartment.  Excuse the mess on the counters.  (It's hard to go from a house to an apartment and we have stuff everywhere!)

His speech is really taking off too.  He talks constantly in complete sentences.  Today I found him having a conversation with his Curious George stuffed animal.  He fed him and then told him, "I change you."  He tells Mike and I to "Come on!" and he likes to talk on the phone.  He calls Mawmaw, Pops, or Grandma and asks "How are you doing?"  Then he answers for them.  :)  He also tells them, "I miss you."  When he can't find me in the apartment he yells, "Mommy, where are you?" He's counting from 1-10 but sometimes misses 7.  He's also saying a lot of his ABCs.  And he definitely keeps us laughing.  

More updates

Last week was a big week for us. We found out Mike passed the bar, so he's an official attorney now! Then we received an offer on our Houston home! For the weekend, we went to Mike's parents camp. Mike got a deer while there.

Pics from the camp:


This one makes me laugh.

Updates

I haven't been the best blogger of late. Over the next few days I'll attempt to update our life since Halloween.

I took pictures of Isaac, Rachel and Garin Hill's boy, during Baylor's Homecoming weekend. Rachel is one of my dearest friends and lives in North Carolina unfortunately. Isaac was born in July 2007 so he and Hutson are pretty close in age.



We stayed with Clay and Lauren Polson while in Waco for Baylor's Homecoming. Hutson LOVES Clay and Lauren. I think he's partial to Clay because of the red hair. He was just smitten with Lauren.

BU Homecoming

Hutson enjoyed the parade with Uncle Russy (or Russ).



Hutson and Mike also enjoyed the parade.


Ice cream!

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween in Waco this year. Baylor's Homecoming was the weekend of Halloween so we trick or treated with our good friends Clay and Lauren Polson.

Hutson was a skeleton (the costume doubles as pajamas!)
Depending on how you looked at him he could have also been a robber.  :)

Regardless, he's definitely a boy!  Notice the hand.  


Lauren and Clay with Mike and Hutson.  
Poor kid.  No bag and no treats just his mom taking pesky pictures.  He doesn't like my point and shoot camera because of the flash.  Notice the squinting.  

Two faves from the day

Yay for eye contact! This has been elusive lately. :)

Our day

Hutson and I visited a great park this morning. While Hutson played I practiced with my camera.

Here he is closing his eyes...a new fascination. He's learned it doesn't work very well while walking. :)

Playing with the steering wheel. He now loves cars, trucks, trains, planes, and any other mode of transportation.


We have a pants problem now. I can't find any that fit him correctly. These are sized 12 months! He's 20 months now. He's getting taller and his waist seems to be shrinking.
Again with the waist problem.  I think he is waving at a passerby here and showing her the rocks he collected.  :)
cool playground!  They call them playscapes here in Austin.  

Harper boys

Pops (Mike's dad) is retiring. We all got together this weekend to celebrate. I took some groups pictures and this one is of the Harper boys. I have no idea why Hutson is being so cheesy. I've never asked him to say cheese. However he has this new fascination with closing his eyes...maybe that's what he's doing.

two from tonight

sticks

Hutson has a new love...sticks. This was taken by a park near out apartment. The lake is great and Hutson enjoys the ducks there.

help

Last week Hutson ate everything I put in front of him (broccoli, carrots, apples, cheese, bread, chicken, rice, lots of milk). This week all he wants is cereal for EVERY meal, then to top it off he wants some cheese. I've tried to get him to eat something else but all he will eat is cereal and milk. He doesn't appear to be teething. Any suggestions? I'm so frustrated. Mainly because cereal and milk is SO messy. :) I figure eventually he'll eat something else.

Hutson and his cereal.

Pumpkin Patch

Mike, Hutson, and I invited our good friends Allie and Robert to go pumpkin picking on Saturday. Unfortunately there were no pumpkins to pick. They were just out to pick from. Mike, Allie, Robert, and I were a little disappointed we couldn't pick a pumpkin but Hutson had a blast exploring the farm. He really just loved running around. They also had some goats he loved.