Hissyfits Photography Blog

These days this little guy is going on all sorts of amazing adventures. Back in time with the dinosaurs, on canoe trips down the Amazon and even spending time with polar bears. The world of fiction is so fun and full of opportunity!

I’ve mentioned before that he reads. Like read reads. I don’t want to sound like I am bragging, because that is not my intention. I can assure you it is NOTHING we did – it is simply Huntler. We are so, so proud of him and I want to document all of this. Anyway, it started back in November with the little books – the beginning to read ones with numbers. He received a whole bunch for Christmas and just sailed right through them. After that I decided that it was time to move him up to something more challenging. The next step was chapter books.

So he got his first chapter book for Valentine’s Day. He would have read all day and finished it then if we would have let him, but instead it took two days! I insisted that he read to one of us because I wanted to make sure he was comprehending what he was reading! He was – no problem there!

The boy LOVES to read. Loves it. He’ll tote his book around with him wherever! Once he gets going, he just can’t stop!

I hope he always find wonder in the pages of a book. I hope this fuels his love of learning and takes him far in life. I hope. I hope. I hope. It is amazing how many hopes and dreams we have for our kids. I spend so much time thinking of who they will grow up to be, what they will grow up to be. When we had Huntler and told the nurses his name, one of them made a comment that has stuck with me. She said, “With a name like that, he can do anything. He could be a pro football player or President.” Her words exactly. I will never forget that. As we turn the page of  yet another phase in life with our sweet boy, my mind continues to roam, to wander to his future.

Maybe he’ll study dinosaurs. Maybe he’ll fall in love with creepy crawly critters and set off on journeys around the world discovering new species of fish and beetles. Maybe he’ll be a college professor. Or backpack across Europe.

It doesn’t really matter what he does, so long as he is happy. I learned a long time ago that money doesn’t bring happiness. That comes from within. And although my mind wanders and dreams of what his future holds, the only thing I REALLY care about is that he finds true happiness…for that will bring him all the riches in the world.

Much love to you my little bookworm!

HELLO!! Wow, so it is the LAST Tuesday in February already! I am telling ya, the rate at which life is speeding by me, this baby is going to be here in no time!

So here we go…this week’s edition of Ten on Tuesday.

1. I prefer crushed ice to cubed. Ten times out of ten I will choose crushed if given a choice!

2. I can not stand for lights, radios, fans, televisions – anything of that nature – to be on if it isn’t being used. Our house is super dark at night because the only lights that are ever on are the ones we are using!

3. I can NOT go to sleep to a radio. The TV yes, the radio no. I think my mind tries to follow along with the songs or something and can’t shut off when the radio is on!! I actually prefer to have total silence, but Chris is always up long past me so the TV is always on!

4. Does anyone out there have a Cricut? My mom just got one this past weekend and is having issues getting it to cut felt. Cutting felt is a MUST!! She has to be able to make fab hair creations for her two adorable granddaughters of course! Anyway, any tips from anyone that has one? And yes, I am totally jealous!! I can’t wait to get back to Kansas and help her get her money’s worth out of it!

5. I don’t like pulp in my orange juice. Totally random, yes, but I am having a glass right now.

6. I have a thing for red and turquoise together. LOVE that combo! A lot. So much so that I had a moment of weakness and bought Gentry this pair of pants on Etsy this weekend. I sooo wanted the bird shirt that coordinates with them, but I am going to get her a little red tank and jazz it up instead! I am TOTALLY hooked on these ruffle bottom pants. Like seriously! I am soooo glad that my mom can sew since I can’t!! These and dresses are all she is going to be wearing this summer!

7. Speaking of dresses, I wanted to get this one for her SOOO bad I could taste it! Imagine the photos. She doesn’t like it – at all. I had her with me at Kohl’s twice and tried to talk it up and encourage her and for some reason she just flat doesn’t like it. Believe me, she tells you if she likes and wants something! So, twice I left Kohl’s empty handed! I am still a bit sad, can you tell? But the red and turquoise pants totally cheer me up! {And on a totally hilarious note – Gentry just walked over to the computer to see what I was doing and said, “I don’t want that dress. I don’t.”} Point taken. She is NOT getting the dress, but someone please go get it and then take pictures of your daughter in it and show me!! Or book an appointment and let ME take pictures of your sweet daughter in the fun dress!!

8. I went on a font downloading spree yesterday. It happens from time to time! It all started when I came across this Pea Gentry font. For obvious reasons, I HAD to have it. And then I started looking at others and HAD to have them as well. FABULOUS SITE!! Chris won’t be thrilled. We already had to go through the computer once and delete a bunch of them because they take up so much space!! Luckily, we deleted a bunch of the duds that came on the computer and not my fun ones!!

9. A sweet friend shared with me a blog this past weekend. It breaks my heart and inspires me all at the same time. This is the first post I read. I cried my way through it and found myself going back in time and reading, reading, reading. The photos. The story. The writing. Writing so real and so raw it rocks you to the core. The kind of writing I wish I made time to do more often. The kind of writing that will forever leave an impression.

10. I realized this morning that we are two months away from living in this house the same amount of time we lived in our house in Kansas City for. Crazy.

And that’s it for today!! Happy Tuesday!!

There is never enough. Never enough time in the day to do everything I want to do. Never enough sleep at night to wake feeling fully rested. Never enough food in the fridge. Never enough money in the bank account. There is simply never enough.

I wish there was more….ohhh how I wish there was more. Instead of ending each day feeling exhausted and defeated, I dream of the day I close my eyes and my mind wanders to all the things I DID accomplish. All the things I finished instead of all those left undone.

I have been looking at these images on my desktop for five and a half weeks now. Begging me to sift through the other 317 images from our Polar Express trip and edit more. But the fact of the matter is there just isn’t enough of me to go around. SOOO many things I dream of doing each and every day, yet there is just never enough time. By the time the kids are tucked away in bed for the night, I myself am crawling into bed ready to close my eyes and drift off to la-la land.

So I will share these. I will look at them and smile and remember what fun we had. Our Polar Express trip this past December was by far the best one ever. EVER. And considering it was probably our last one, it was an amazing one to end on. The kids absolutely loved it. The drank in the magic and danced in the snow. These my friends, are the moments I love. The moments I am blessed beyond measure to capture with my camera and will forever cherish…long after the sun sets and the snow melts.

{I HAVE to have Chris fix my blog so my photos are centered again! It is driving me crazy!! }

I am posting this photo for no other reason than it makes me laugh. Out loud. We were out back last week playing sidewalk chalk when I decided to go in and grab my camera because the kids looked so cute all sprawled out on their tummies drawing and coloring away. Well, I snapped a few and noticed the sun was sinking just low enough to attempt something I have been dreaming of learning forever, sunflare. Let me just say that working with two small, fidgety children on your own and trying to tell them where to sit and how to move just a smidge and all of that is darn near impossible. And then would I would get said child just where I needed him or her to be, the faces they flashed me were less than desirable! But that’s okay, it was practice anyway!

So, Huntler’s face of choice is opening his mouth and rolling his eyes off to the side. Super not cute. So here I was telling him to just close his mouth. Mother Hen stepped in and came to my rescue, as she often does.

“Hunt-loor, come on.” “Hunt-loor, close your mouth.” “Hunt-loor, hurry up.” “Hunt-loor brush your teeth.” “Hunt-loor, get your backpack.” The list goes on. And on. We have quite the bossy one on our hands!

So, on the bright side, I did manage to capture a super hilarious moment AND a little flare to boot!

First things first – the baby update! I fully intended to get on here Tuesday and share a sonogram picture and fill you in on our appointment, but quite obviously, I did not. And then yesterday came and went and once again, no update! OOPS! My good intentions of updating daily are LONG gone! I just simply cannot keep up with everything these days!

So here is the update for anyone who might have been wondering! The baby looks great. It was crazy wild once again during our sonogram and we got several sweet peeks at its little face and hands. And no, no peeks at “what” it is! The tech knew we did not want to know and I told him if he was checking things out to be sure to let us know so we could turn our heads. Well, he never told us to turn our heads and I never saw anything that would give it away, so when it was all said and done, I asked him if he knew what we are having. He does not. So…there is nothing written in my chart to give it away! And no, I have no gut feeling. Even if I did, I couldn’t share it because Chris does not want to be influenced by my random thoughts! But I don’t have any anyway! The one prediction I am making is that it is going to be a feisty little red head!! Red hair runs in both my mom’s and my dad’s family and while Huntler and I have a lot of red in our hair, it isn’t actually “red.” I would so love to have a little red headed child! I am sure it will have pasty white skin because that is just how we roll in this fam, but hey, there is nothing wrong with that!

So there is that. Monday night I didn’t sleep well at all. The anxiety. I am six years older and wiser than the first time we went through this and I know so much more than I did then. Back when we had Huntler it was all about finding out what we were having, not checking the health of the baby. Now that is ALL it was about. I think I woke up seven or eight times Monday night to go to the bathroom compared to my normal five or six. And then I had a terrible time getting back to sleep. While we don’t take one day of our children’s health {any of the three of them!!} for granted, I of course breathed a sigh of relief once I knew that everything looked okay.

I think that is it as far as the baby goes? The tech did say it was showing that it weighed a pound already, but I am taking that with a grain of salt! Those measurements and such aren’t the most accurate! Although my five pound weight gain in the last month might be partially explained by a chunky babe!! I did find out that we can be induced at 39 weeks. So, it will be a June baby. While I dream {all day long} of having this baby in Kansas, I am not so lost in my little fairy tale that I have lost all touch with reality. As much as I hate to think about it, there is a good chance we will still be here. There is also a good chance that the baby could come early on its own and all my scheduling of its birth will be for nothing, but at least I feel like I am getting things in order! Anyway, since our family is not here, it definitely works to our benefit if we can schedule an induction and have someone here with the kids.

And now for a few photos of my sassy fashionista! We took these several weeks ago for her Valentines. She was so determined that she was having those darn bird Valentines that she happily cooperated for her pictures – something she no longer does consistently!

If the card would have had a vertical picture, I would have loved to have used this one!! It is one of my current faves of her! I LOVE how I edited it and tried and tried to create a similar look on others but couldn’t! I did it last week and I have slept {a lot} since then and for the life of me could not seem to get the right combination!

{Because I am sure someone will email me wondering, I bought the hat a couple of years ago from Pumpkin Patch USA. The little fur cuffs are from here. And the scarf is from here. Happy shopping!!}

And this one? OH MY GOSH. Most definitely another fave! This is the face she now gives me ALL the time when I try to take her picture!

And another random one I liked!

And on that happy little note, I am out of here! Happy Thursday to all!

Did you notice I skipped this last week? I was feeling slightly overwhelmed by the massive amount of photos of my kids to sift through, edit and blog that I just nixed it in favor of posting photos of sweet Huntler! But I’m back this week and ready to roll!

So let’s get this party started, shall we?

1. Today is our sonogram. Or sonic-gram as Huntler says! I absolutely cannot wait to see our little babe! And I better not get a peek at what we are having either! After buying all of this gender neutral stuff and TWO baby blankets {which are soooo darn cute I want to scream!}, we do NOT want to know!! The kids, especially Huntler, are thrilled. He is so excited about having a baby around the house he can hardly stand it! I KNOW he is going to be such a great helper and a wonderful big brother to this little one!

2. While I was in Barnes and Noble this weekend I decided to take just a little peek into a baby name book to see if our names are in there. Surprisingly, the boy name is not. And the girl name {which I totally thought I was being super original on and created myself but have now seen TWICE in the blog world} was. Hmmm…

3. Huntler saw the luge accident on the news Friday night. Super sensitive, very aware, caring Huntler. I had NO idea it was going to be shown and had no time to react. Now, how do you explain that to a five year old?

4. If you have a daughter, I highly suggest you avoid the girls clothing section at Target at ALL costs. Seriously. Don’t even tempt yourself. There is an insane amount of cuteness there right now! Now their boy selection? I wasn’t so impressed. However, the boy department at Gap Kids is calling my name!

5. Remember Kamee’s workshop that I blogged about a few days ago? Yep – still SUPER stoked to be going and totally thrilled that a friend I made through my blog is flying out to stay with us a couple of nights and come too! Seriously, this is better than Christmas Eve for a child! I am on cloud nine and cannot wait for that weekend!!

6. I have this sneaking suspicion that our washing machine is about to go out on us. Something about the HORRID noise it makes when the clothes are spinning tells me that things are not good.

7. The Bachelor. Did you watch it last night? Crossing my fingers Tenley is his final choice!

8. My sister just enrolled my niece in soccer. It really has me thinking that we have got to get Huntler involved in SOMETHING. I am very much not a fan of organized sports at an early age, but he is FIVE now. As social as can be but not so coordinated! It would be VERY good for him! And if you are thinking that Gentry is in dance and she is only three, you are correct. She is. Our main goal with that was to get her into something for socialization because she is so very clingy to me. However…when I think of cute little knee socks and headbands, I could totally see her as a little soccer girl too!

9. I think we have FINALLY made some headway with Gentry and the dentist. Ever since Huntler’s four cavity experience a few weeks ago, we have been AVID brushers and flossers with the kids. As in we haven’t missed a beat!! It only took four cavities and a screaming Gentry to get us there, but hey, we made it. Chris is in charge of brushing and flossing at night. I get the kids up, fed, bathed, dressed, teeth brushed and hair fixed every.single.day. That’s fine. That’s my job. But by 7:30 at night, I am done. I am tired beyond belief and just don’t have it in me. So we just didn’t brush their teeth at night. Simple as that. Am I proud of that? No, of course not. But I am keeping it real. Anyway, the new rule is that Chris brushes and flosses them each night. Gentry is getting used to it and doing great with the flossing. {We should have bought those little things they make especially for kids LONG ago!!} So we brought up the dentist again over the weekend and she says she is fine with going…so long as we don’t go back to the same one she has been to already. Deal. We can so work with that. However, I am slightly freaking out because we can see cavities in her teeth. Not good. And I got even more freaked out when a friend emailed me and said that her daughter had to have a crown put on one of her baby teeth because they waited too long to take her in. But I was also somewhat relieved to know that we are not the only parents who have a screaming child who hates the dentist and therefore put off going and ended up with issues! Crossing my fingers Gentry’s can be dealt with easily but I am also aware of the fact that it could ALWAYS be worse! Plus, we are doing everything right now so at least we are getting on track – better late than never!!

10. That’s all I’ve got for now! Chat later my friends!!

So the weekend TOTALLY escaped me! We spent HOURS out in the yard working. As in mowing, trimming trees and pulling weeds. Did I mention pulling weeds? Because that was MY job…and I hated it. I griped. I whined. I complained. A lot. I’ll be the first one to admit it. It was so not how I wanted to or envisioned spending our weekend, but it desperately needed done and the yard looks 500 times better because of it. So, hopefully all of the spray and pellets and everything else Chris put on it will keep the weeds at bay because I can assure you I will not be seven months pregnant and out in April in the 100 degree heat pulling weeds!!

Anyway, I did very little on the computer all weekend and forgot to post the kids’ Valentines! I was waiting until the big day and then I spaced it off! Jeepers!

So…here they are!! We went with bookmarks for our little bookworm!! I wish I could say I designed them, but I didn’t. While I am DESPERATE to learn design and SOON, the fabulous Jolene whipped those up for me – total last minute. Jolene, they look fab!! Thank you! Be sure to shoot her an email if you have anything you need designed!!

And then there is Gentry girl and her bird Valentines!

Love love love this photo of her on the back. It is so very Gentry. SO.VERY.GENTRY!

Hope everyone had a fabbity fab fabulous weekend!

Wow!! So I can honestly say that I cannot believe that we are halfway through this pregnancy already! I guess when you aren’t actually “trying” to get pregnant and have two busy kids to chase around, time flies and you just don’t have time to sit and think about the days!! Not to mention I am SUPER lucky and haven’t had one day of sickness in three pregnancies – I am sure that helps!!

So here we are…20 weeks today. Our ultrasound is Tuesday and I cannot wait to see the little bean!! Since last Friday I have been feeling it move and kick consistently…so much so that Chris can feel it as well. I don’t remember feeling Huntler or Gentry this early? I DO know that on our eight week ultrasound the baby was wiggling all over! The heartbeat was super prominent at that appointment but the baby was ALL over the place! I shouldn’t be surprised that we are both feeling it without any troubles!!

I feel huge. I broke down and bought a maternity shirt {shown here!} and skirt over the weekend but that is it so far! While my “skinny” jeans have been hung up for weeks, I can still cram myself into this one pair so that is nice!! I decided to spare you all the velour pants and too tight tees I have been sporting for the last four weeks and actually put on some real clothes for the day!

Alright…I am signing off the computer for the day at noon and have a couple more things to get done!! I have REALLY been struggling with balance and am trying hard to gain some control back…so as of noon I am turning it off and the rest of the day is all about the kids!!

Hope everyone is doing well! Happy Thursday!

Ahhhh Huntler. This little guy keeps us on our toes for sure!! We had plans to attend a birthday party on Saturday but because the flu decided to hit the birthday girl and her family the week of, it was postponed. Since the kids were totally excited and thought we were going, we decided we still needed to do something fun! Bowling? A movie? The play place at the mall? Yeah, well, so the mall play place isn’t really all that amazing, but considering we RARELY venture to the mall, it is still a big deal to the kids! And since we needed a couple of things anyway, we decided to brave it. Plus, the kids have already been sick anyway – being exposed to a few more germs surely wouldn’t hurt!!

So while we were on our way, the kids were talking incessantly like they do. I love to just sit and listen to them converse – they say some pretty hilarious stuff!! Something triggered a thought in Huntler’s little mind and he went off on a tangent {to all of us} about his friends Andrew and McKenna from school and Louisiana Jonas. They apparently know all about it. Having an idea of what he meant, I said to him, “What is Louisiana Jonas?” Huntler’s reply, “A movie.” Ohhhh yes, that would be Indiana Jones!! Chris and I LOST it!! We were cracking up!!

So here he is, our little Louisiana Jonas! I snapped these several weeks ago for his Valentines and am only just now getting around to editing a few!! Where does the time go? Well, I guess I can’t blame it on the time, it is me!! I need sleep!! So as soon as the kidlets are tucked into bed, I myself am in bed and fast asleep!!

And I totally mixed it up for this next one!! There are SOOO many options in editing yet I seem to get stuck in a rut!! And since I really haven’t edited much lately, I thought I would try to change things up and see what I could come up with!!