Thanksgiving Pictures

Proud Pics

Stephen put some old pictures on my computer for me. Funny how ever time I look at these pictures, I see something different now. I love this newborn picture of Adler. He was so little, and red, and loud! I had no idea what to do with him!

I love the family picture of the three of us. Look how proud Stephen looks! I love that expression on him. I love when he looks at me that way and it's so cool to see him look at our son that way too. I think I'm almost laughing..like...again, what the heck to I do with this?

Good Morning...

This morning I needed to stay at the house to watch Adler while Kristine was out. Adler even slept all the way to around 8:40, which is pretty unheard of for him. The best part was walkin in to give him a little b'fast and he was just standing there in his crib, pretty quiet, and just smiled at me. Those are great moments. Now he's rockin the high-chair, eatin a little Cheerio/Fruit/Bread action and watchin some Sesame Street with me. Big Bird is the man!

Anyway, hope you're all having a good morning too!

Camera Hog: A Rebuttal

So...I've been called to the floor? Kristine's fiery temper is evidently on display for the blog world to see. Scary isn't it. :) J/K...so I hog the camera just a little bit. I have a bit of a perfectionist attitude to the photos I shoot, so knowing that a picture can get so much better once edited makes me flinch when thinking about just putting "unfinished work" out there. I guess I'll have to come up with some kind of solution (ie - Kristine changes the camera settings when she's snapping pics, so that the camera shoots JPEGs instead of RAW...then I just put the JPEGs on her computer and she's off and running?)

You got any suggestions out there?

Thanksgiving, Camera Hog and Christmas Traditions

Hey there!
We are back from spending Thanksgiving in Texas. We had a great time with both families. The special treat was getting to spend time with Jean and Wally Hunton (Stephen's grandparents) and Retha Deyoe (my grandmother). Both sets of grandparents were visiting from out of town. The weather was pretty cold and rainy, perfect lazy weather!

I have titled this blog "Camera Hog" because Stephen is hogging the camera so I can't post any pics. He is editing them all right now on his computer and then will let me post/send them out. He says editing a picture is the only way to do it. I guess from an artist's standpoint this must be true, but I'm not very patient about this one.

Okay, wow! So Christmas is here. I got down the Christmas stockings today. Kinda concerned Adler may be able to pull them off, so may need to find a way to secure them. Also deciding what to do about a tree. I really want a tree in the house, but also wondering if my little monkey might try to climb it? On a deeper note, Stephen and I have been kicking around different ideas of what we want Christmas to be like in our house. Stuff like - what traditions will we do? - what will we teach? -what will we focus on? - what will we down play?

One tradition we have already started is that each family member must write a note to each other and put them in each other's Christmas stocking. I think this is a fun idea because families are sometimes not good about expressing verbally the way they feel about each other - and a letter is a perfect opportunity. I think it will also be fun to keep them over the years. Maybe Adler's first letter to me will be a crayon marks, but how fun will that be to have?

Another tradition we plan to implement is adopt a child in need for Christmas. I think this will be a good way to have our children think of others in a time that can be very self centered and "more" focused. It will also be a fun family outing to pick out gifts for the individual. Not sure what this will look like down the road (maybe become a year round thing?), but definitely something we will do.

Adler is too young for "Santa", so I still have some time to figure this one out. I have mixed thoughts on the Santa character. Yes, it's fun, silly, imaginative, etc. And I'm definitely not one of those that thinks Santa=Satan in any shape or form. However, I do think that the world around us can use the "Characteristics" of Christmas to distract from the real reason we are celebrating this season. I really want to keep the birth of Christ as the center of Christmas in our home, while keeping it a fun atmosphere. But I also don't want our kids to say "Santa Claus what's that? Who's he?" (any body know what movie quote that was from? my money is rylie will be the first to respond) I'm also not sure how you go from "pretending" about Santa to "Santa is not real" with your kids. I guess we all did it, but I wouldn't pretend about other stuff or tell Adler something and then a couple years later tell him that all that stuff I told him wasn't real. I don't know, maybe I'm taking this too seriously? Thoughts? Any family traditions in your home you enjoy?

Bath Time

Bath Time, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

Adler sure does love bath time. And I sure do love is faux hawk! It's so funny how much he continues to change. Now, if he stands up, we say "sit on your bottom" and he actually listens and sits down, whereas before he acted as though we'd asked him to kill a kitty cat or something and would just go into his impersonation of a FIRE TRUCK SIREN! I don't really miss that.

Adler also loves to play with his "ball" in the tub. NO...not those...he has these two mini basket balls and a goal in the tub which he will "make baskets" and drop them into the net. Pretty cute, and we have Adidas coming over next week to scout him. I'm hoping for a signing bonus close to $5 mil. One can dream right???

Anyway, we're headed to H-town for Thanksgiving where we'll see both families + some great grandparents, so it should be a great week of family time with the A-man showing off all his skills.

S Hunton Photography - The Presleys

This weekend I had the priviledge of shooting with our friends The Presleys. They made my job really easy and we had a blast with a few cool locations. The light outside was pretty great, but it got cloudy at the end. Thankfully, the lens that Kristine bought me for Father's Day is so rockin that we still had some great shots come out.

We spent a lot of the shoot up @ Marrietta Square. It's such a neat part of town because they've allowed the history of Marrietta to stay infused in the square. There were some great little alley ways and colorful walls that we found to use as backdrops. All in all, it was a fun day and just adds to my enthusiasm for photography. Here are a couple of my favs from the afternoon:

Please vote...

You can click on the link to go and vote for this image to be included in an upcoming issue of JPG Magazine. I'd love it if you took a minute to cast a vote for me. THX!

My little baby backpack

backpack, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

Well..."little' might not be the right word. Carrying Adler around SharpTop for the entire day on my back brought back memories of another Young Life camp I've been to. WILDERNESS!!! Where my pack was around 50-60lbs, only now I'm not in the shape I was in then, so Adler's 30lb frame was about all I could handle. I was so sore on Sunday, but let me tell you that Adler loved riding in the little pack. He loved being in there, so I'd totally recommend that anyone with a little one go out and buy one. I saw a couple other adults with their kids strollering their baby around and it was clear to me that Adler was having much more fun than their kids were. The best part was that it was just another way to be close to Adler. I definitely can't explain how bonding the weekend was, but with the little guy on my back I could tell that we were chillin like villians together.

We've got a pretty good week ahead of us, I think...tomorrow we'll be rocking Young Life and then Thursday is Community Group. We're finishing up a marriage book called "Love & Respect"...it's been a bit controversial, but there have been some great "nuggets" to take away and put in our pockets for a rainy day when conflict arises. (wait? Married people don't have conflicts???) We should probably do a post to talk about the book, but if you're married and are looking to work on giving your spouse what they need (Women crave Love, while Men crave Respect), then it'd be a good book to seek out.

Then, over the weekend I'll have my 3rd shoot as S Hunton Photography. Some great friends of ours, the Presleys are having their second child in a few months, so we're going to go out and capture Bonnie's belly, so hopefully we'll have some great photos to share soon. If you're so inclined, you can click on the Flickr link to the right to check out some of my recent work...and if you know anyone who needs any holiday, baby, engagement, etc etc pics, then let me know.

SharpTopCove-8735.jpg

SharpTopCove-8735.jpg, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

"Jus the three of us....we can make it if we try-iay jus da 3 of us U-Adler-and I"

Adler was licking the window for some reason on Saturday as we were getting ready to head back to Atlanta...I tried to catch him in the act, but this is what came out instead.

Kristine's back @ the house with Adler, so the routine has sorta come back to normal, but I can tell that Adler and I are closer because of the weekend we had together. From the laughing and wrestling to the complete blow out of his diaper that left us both covered in doo. It was all fun, but I'm so glad Kristine's back with us now because the only thing more fun that being with Adler is being with Adler and Kristine!

We crashed so early last night...I'm usually a late person, but I guess all this parenting (even though it wasn't as hard as I might have though) was pretty tiring. And, Kristine was obviously worn out from 2 nights of going to bed at 2am...we fell asleep at 9:30 on the couch and made our way to bed at 10, so let's hear it for 9 full hours of sleep!!!

Fall Stroll

Fall Stroll, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

Adler's full on walking now! It was pretty chilly at Sharp Top Cove so we busted out Adler's new jacket. He was like the younger brother in Christmas Story..."ARRRGGGHHHH...I can't put my arms down"

So cute though. It's been such a great weekend hanging out with him. So much time to just play and have fun. We wrestled this morning, watched Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder, with a little Elmo to top it all off.... and then drove up to camp. I took the baby-pack (back pack that Adler can sit in) and he and I just walked around camp all day having a blast. He loved it...just laughed and smiled at everybody...he's the best.

I love my boy!

Fall Drive

Fall Drive, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

Took this on the drive home from Sharp Top Cove. Kristine is spending the whole weekend there, so Adler and I drove out today to spend time with her and the YL kids. It was a blast!

The Portrait - Adler

The Portrait - Adler, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

Here's a picture of Adler that I put a little effect on to make it look almost like a painting. Photography has been so much fun recently with the new softward I got. It's made the process so much more creative and has given me even more passion for trying to learn more about this fun little hobby.

Happy Friday

"The Record" & "Man Mommy"

Just to clear the air...I'm pretty stoked that my 5 comments (let's keep 'em coming people) have broken a record on the blog. What Kristine is forgetting is that I have been blogging longer, and thus have in some ways earned the high praise I received.

JUST KIDDING.

She is forgetting that there is also a blog called http://stevohunton.blogspot.com with all kinds of fun information, insightful commentary, videos, randomness, and other tasty treats which NOT ONLY do not get the level of comments that a typical blogger would hope to receive, but the number of visitors is MUCH lower than that of people gracing us with their presence at http://thehuntons.blospot.com . Besides...although I'm posting the video to the blog, Kristine is the one shooting most of Adler's cute moments, so she is responsible and thus deserves the glory. I love you boo.

NOW...on to "Man Mommy"
Everyone stop for a moment to pray for my weekend with Adler. I'm actually really excited about getting a whole weekend to hang out with the "little big man". On the other hand, I'm actually a bit anxious about getting a whole weekend to hang out with the "little big man"... it's going to be a blast, but thank God that he's feeling better than he was a week ago!

In a lot of ways, I think I sorta get the best of Adler, most of the time. Unfortunately, I don't get the joys of cleaning up Adler's sweet smelling doodie each and every day, all day. That's certainly one thing I'm pumped about for the weekend. Also, I don't get to lay his sweet sleepy head down to rest for each nap, after he's cuddled on my shoulder and we've bonded for a few memorable moments, only to immediately hear him wake and cry for 10 minutes at the top of his lungs (insert Daddy increased heart rate here) before resting peacefully again.

The reality is that just even thinking about Kristine doing this stuff DAY AFTER DAY and loving most every minute of it, blows my mind. She has a patience and caring about her that only a mother is possessed with. I appreciate her effort so much more than I can ever express to her, and beyond just getting to play and laugh, tickle and laugh, cuddle and laugh, etc etc etc, I think I'll come away with added respect & admiration for Kristine.

So wish me luck on my journey as a Man Mommy this weekend.

Blog Stalkers!

I think KT just coined the word, but I have to say to all you Blog Stalkers, I'm bummed! I've been keeping up with this blog, sharing the good, the bad, the ugly. I've asked for your thoughts, your opinions....posting pics, posting video (okay Stephen does that for me, but only because I bug him until he does it). After all this time, how do you show me love?? You don't. You don't leave comments. You just click to my site, read what you want...then leave me here hanging in cyber space. Then, Stephen makes a post and what do you do? You leave comments, encouraging ones. Showering him with all the love. You even set a site record for comments (yeah it was 5, but this is what I'm talking about). Dude, where's the love??

S Hunton Photography

So, over the weekend I got the chance to do two shoots with friends of mine. Let's call it the kick-off of my actually getting paid for some of the shots I'm taking. I had such a blast. From driving around to find locations to shoot before the actual shoot, to scrambling to get something decent shot with kids that may or may not look at the camera at any given moment.

In the past I've taken some great pics for friends, just randomly, and in most cases by sheer luck at parties or get togethers where there is no pressure whatsoever to take a good pic. Now I definitely feel the heat a bit more when I'm shooting because I know that there is an expectation for something that's actually print worthy. Overall, it was such a fun weekend and I can't wait to see how these families react to their photos.

Here are just a couple of my favorites from the over 750 pics I snapped in 3 hours over two days time:

Saturday Things I Don't Miss a Bit....

Our lives are pretty different having a one year old in the house. Just a year ago, on a typical Saturday morning, Stephen and I would sleep in as long as possible. We probably wouldn't even think about getting out of bed until at least 10am. We would probably then lay on the couch, relaxing, drinking coffee and watching tivoed shows (like 24, The Office, Lost-so annoyed we have to wait until Feb) we missed during the week. After lunch we might think about actually doing something, but then decide to watch a movie instead. A typical Saturday morning/afternoon was pretty lazy at the Hunton house.

Things are really different now and I honestly don't miss it a bit. I mean, sure it would be nice to do that again every once in a while, but couldn't imagine life without Adler. Adler is still recovering from his ear infection, so he was a bit cranky when he woke up at 7am this morning. (I actually started hearing him at 6, but he went back to sleep until 7) After a little while, Stephen and the dogs got up to join us. Around 8am, all 3 of us were cuddled on the couch watching Adler's new favorite show, Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin. (tivoed on Halloween) Adler loves Snoopy and says "Dog!" when ever Snoopy makes an appearance. Stephen and I look at each other and just laugh at how cute he is and what an awesome blessing we get to experience together.

We are watching Thomas the Train now. Stephen and Adler just got done dancing to the theme song. Yup, life is different, but I wouldn't trade in the old for the world!

First Fever Turns to First ER Experience

Well if you read the last post, you saw that Adler came down with a fever on Wednesday. By Thursday morning he was doing better, but as the day progressed, so did his fever. When he woke up from his afternoon nap it was 104.7!! We quickly got into the car and headed to the emergency room.

Holding down our son while nurses tried to find a vein to hook him up to an IV was the worst part. He felt so horrible! The fever had gotten to 105.6 by the time we got to the hospital. The ER doctor concluded he had a bad ear infection that had flared up over night. I was relieved to have a solution. He was given a shot for the infection. They also took Xrays of his chest to make sure there was nothing in his lungs.

Needless to say it has been a pretty stressful past three days. Wednesday we were at our Pediatrician's. Thursday we were in the ER. Friday we were back at the Pediatrician's. I also haven't slept well worring about the little man.

Adler is doing so much better tonight. I think I'll sleep better too. Thanks for your prayers for the coolest kid on the block!
xoxo
kh

First Fever

Adler has his first "real" fever. This is not fun for anybody. It was up to 102.9 yesterday. Funny thing I learned about fevers...well at least for Adler...he wasn't hot on his cheeks or forehead. (what you would think) It was his body that was so hot that clued me into the fact that something was different. Fortunately, yesterday morning was his first year check up, so his ears, throat, etc. have all been checked, so it's probably viral.

He was sleeping good through the night, but about 4am I was wide awake wondering if I should give him another dose of meds or let him sleep. I got up twice to feel his temp- he felt really hot, but I also knew sleep was good for him. I did a bunch of google searches, woke up Stephen for his sleepy opinion, and decided to lay back down. However, I laid there for the next hour worrying and praying. Finally, I heard a bit of stirring and decided to get him up. Well, we've been up since then...watching baby Einstein. He seems to be doing a bit better...very cuddly which is kinda nice. Yesterday he watched Charlie Brown's "The Great Pumpkin" twice while laying on my chest.

Thanks for your prayers!
xoxo