Mom's Little Monster

That's what Mikey's shirt says. We got him this shirt, a monster truck shirt that simply says "Monster" and some monster p.j.s. Are we noticing a pattern?



He's the cutest thing.

Trampoline!

Christmas Trampoline clip #1 from Phillip Hintze on Vimeo.

Hintze Christmas - 2nd batch of pictures

So here are a few more pictures from today. We might have some video up eventually. The first two pictures were taken with my new (used) Canon G7. I'm not sure if she will stick around just yet. We might decide to send her back and just get a little video camera. The jury is still out.

There are a couple of interesting Phillip faces. He's very photogenic.

The last two of are of my new cool ring. It's from Nelle & Lizzy. I really like it!

Hintze Christmas morning - 1st batch of pictures

I don't have time to caption all of these. I'm sure you can figure out what's going on anyway.

First picture, Mikey about to hit Scott with a tambourine...Scott cowering in anticipation.

My new (used) camera, a Canon G7. For the times I don't want to haul my real camera around.











Last picture, Mikey throwing the ball at my camera.

My favorite Christmas picture from last year

Mikey with spots

Way back in February of 2008 (before Mikey's adoption) Mikey had a really bad reaction to penicillin. I posted a couple of pictures of his belly and back but I couldn't post any of his face yet. I came across this a little while ago and thought it was pretty funny. Jackson was looking at the picture and he said it was making him all itchy just looking at it.



You may be wondering why I'm putting dated Mikey stuff on here. I couldn't post any pictures of him before his adoption and I have been meaning to post lots of pre-adoption pictures and just haven't gotten around to it.

Just an old Mikey picture

This is what Mikey's hair used to do all the time. It started sticking up when he was about 5 months old or so and stuck up until he was a little over a year old. He's always had great hair. I'm trying to put a couple more videos on here from when he was a baby but I'm not having much luck.

Star Wars Lullaby Video

I've been trying to post this video and I'm not sure if it's going to work. The quality of this video is pretty bad but it's really cute. This was taken when Mikey was a few weeks old. Jackson was holding him and humming Star Wars music to him. It looks like Jackson almost falls asleep there at the end. I don't think I've posted this before.

Don't go to jail.

Jackson and I got out this evening and did a little shopping. We were both pretty moody and on edge by the time we were finished. Actually I was probably moody and on edge before we even went but that's beside the point. We were leaving the Office Max parking lot and I could tell that the exit I was attempting to use was going to take forever so I decided to back up....way up....back to the parking lot. Anyway, I told Jackson that I was probably going to get pulled over by a cop for doing that. And I told Jackson that I would just have to tell that cop to back off and get back in his car and leave me alone because I am in a bad mood!...or something along those lines. Jackson said that I would get arrested if I did that. So that led into our conversation about going to jail.

I basically told him that jail isn't a cool place to hang out. I told him about the bad food, bad beds, mean people, no video games, etc, etc. And then I told him that he should plan on never going to jail. He said he was too young to go jail and that you have to be legally 10 to go to jail. I said, "Yeah, you're right."

Where does he come up with this stuff? Legally 10? Is 10 an adult to him?

The day we got Mikey

Other people talk about when they "had" their babies or possibly "having" more babies. We have to use the words "got" and "get" when we're talking about adding kids to our family. It's kind of funny to me now. When I say, "When we got Mikey....." or "If we get more children...." to someone who doesn't know he's adopted, I get some confused looks.

For some reason I've been thinking a lot lately about when we first got Mikey. Phillip and I are still in awe of him. Maybe not daily but at least weekly one of says something about how we can't believe he's really ours. It just still seems too good to be true. He was given to us almost 2 years ago. That's just so hard to believe.

We received the call at about 2:30 on January 11, 2007 that they would be bringing a newborn boy to our house. I called a friend and asked if she would pick up some newborn diapers, wipes, and pacifiers. I told her I would pay her back. She showed with half of Wal-Mart's baby department and wouldn't hear of letting me pay her anything. She brought about 4 different kind of pacifiers because "we don't know which kind he'll like."

At about 5:15 he was here. A young, handsome black man brought Mikey to our house. We sometimes joke that "the stork" is a young black man. His name was Brandon. I'll never forget his name or his face. I wanted to hug him but I didn't.

When Brandon brought him to our house, the baby was in a carrier covered with a blanket. We couldn't see him right away. We were both terrified to lift the blanket. The worker went outside to get some paperwork and when he stepped out we took a peek. All of our fears of having to love a child who wasn't as cute as we were went right out the window. We could tell right away that he was beautiful beyond measure. More beautiful than any baby had a right to be. We were amazed by his eyelashes. They just looked too long to even be real. My mom was already at our house hanging out with Jackson while Brandon was making his delivery. As soon as he left, we called Phillip's parents and they came right over. I wouldn't be surprised if they were pacing by the phone when we called.

Our parents were there when we undressed him to take a look at him and change his diaper for the firsts time. I was so moved by how they loved him instantly with a reckless abandon that we were unable to muster right away. I was scared to kiss him at first, scared to say the words "I love you" to him. It felt wrong doing those things to someone else's baby. Phillip's dad was the first one I heard say those words to him. And that just opened the flood gates for him to be our son.

Against strict foster parent guidelines, Mikey slept in our bed that first night right next to me. I tried to get him to sleep in the bassinet and he wouldn't. I don't know if I slept much but he slept perfectly.

Here are some pictures of the night we got Mikey. I was noticeable fatter then.

Does your doggie need treats?

Our friend, Anna, who is 9 (I think) is making home made doggie treats to sell. She is using this money to help her older brother and sister go to Kenya on a mission trip. If you would like to help out Anna and her brother and sister by buying some special Anna's Secret Recipe doggie treats, visit.....

The Stunz Family Blog

She might even be able to get you some made before Christmas if you act quickly. Tell your friends.

Nana & Granddad

We tried to get a picture of Donald and Debbie and the boys for their Christmas card. I bought cute shirts for the boys that they'll never wear again. We managed to get one or two in their "formal wear" that are okay. Here's one. Notice the sucker in Mikey's mouth as a deterrent to freaking out.



Then after that ordeal was over (aka, we gave up), the boys stripped and started to play. I got the camera out again and took some pictures. I just love these. This is the real relationship between these four people. No tucked in shirts and sweater vests. No sitting still saying "cheese" for the camera. Just playing. Notice Donald's Underdog t-shirt. Also, very typical.








This is the card. I think it's pretty cute.

Ummm...okay

Jackson is home "sick." He has strep throat but he's acting like he feels totally fine. When he's home sick we let him play a lot of video games. I know that's probably not the best thing for him to be doing with his time but whatever. Anyway, he has conned me in to playing some Wii sports stuff with him. I just killed him in bowling and now he's wanting to take me on in tennis. I told him I was going to wipe the floor with him. And he said, "Oh, yeah, I'm gonna clean your head with a mop!"

Okay....

So, now I'm going to go crush him in tennis.

BTW, his tennis "technique" is awesome. He just waves his hand as fast as he can without stopping. And he kind of dances around all crazy while he's doing this. He totally wears himself out.

Away

We are away. We are away from our kids and our jobs. We are away from our somewhat disheveled home. We are away from laundry. We are away from road construction. We won't be away for long and we aren't very far away. But we are very glad to be away from everything else.

Just stuff

Phillip and I are running away this weekend. I wish it was today. I'm ready to go right now. We're just going to Houston Friday afternoon and coming home (maybe) Sunday afternoon. We'll be doing some Christmas shopping, eating, relaxing, and other stuff. I got a cheap hotel on priceline several weeks ago. It's a 4 star in a junkie neighborhood. Hopefully we don't get mugged or whatever.

Our driveway is done and it's so nice to have not only a driveway but a double driveway at that. This feels like such a luxury to us right now now. Weird. We're going to look into getting the house painted soon. I'll probably call a few people out for estimates once the Christmas craziness is over. We need to get some rotting boards replaced before the painting happens. I told Jackson we might be getting the house painted and asked him if he had any suggestions about the color. Without skipping a beat, he said, "Maybe palm tree green. Like the leaves of the palm tree, not the stem." I'll have to see if they have that color at Lowes.

Last night I totally freaked Jackson out. We were driving home from Philllip's parents house at about 8:30 and I told Jackson I was really tired. I told him that I thought I would just take a nap. I started fake snoring while I was driving. At first he was laughing and thought it was a joke. But then he started to get a little worried and started telling me to wake up. I ignored him and kept snoring. This went on until he finally screamed in terror for me to WAKE UP!!! Oh man, it was really funny.

We still have no Christmas decorations up. I've been too busy to push the issue and Phillip is kind of a scrooge. He will be getting the stuff down on Thursday. We'll see how that goes with Mikey. We kind of need a new tree anyway.

And the driveway was happy.

There once was a driveway and the driveway loved two little boys. And everyday they would come and draw on the driveway and eat the chalk. They would run and dance and bounce balls. And the boys loved the driveway very much. And the driveway was happy.











Inspired by The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

'Tis the Season

This is a really busy time of year in the photography business. I think I'm almost past my busiest time of the year. It's been fun but I'm tired. We still haven't gotten out any Christmas decorations. We need to get that done this week. I second shot a wedding last night. I've been doing a few of those here and there. It's really good experience and kind of fun. I'm not sure if the wedding thing is growing on me or not. I'm proud to say that I got hit on last night at the wedding by a less than attractive man. If he had actually been cute, I might have been flattered....still unwilling and uncomfortable, but flattered none the less. Instead I was annoyed. He started calling me "Ice Queen." Nice.

So, that's what's been going on in my life lately. Not a whole lot to write home about.

Today is new driveway day!!

I'm so excited! We're finally getting a new double driveway. We've been wanting to do this since we bought this old house. Jackson liked our old cracked driveway for some reason. I'll totally post pictures once they're done. I know you can't wait for that. It will be a huge canvas for the kids to color on....just what a driveway is meant for.