Tuesday, November 16, 2010

what's in a (nick)name

My husband is the king of nick-names. He loves to dole out nick-names to unsuspecting teenagers in the youth group. He's so talented when it comes to nick-naming that once he starts calling a teenager by a funny name he has made up, it becomes that person's name for years. Not only will he continue to call that teenager by that name, everyone else will too. What can I say? He's powerfully affective in his nick-naming abilities. It's a gift.

For more than two and a half years, he's been exercising and perfecting his gift on his favorite little girl in the whole world- his daughter. Not to be outdone, I've thrown around a few nicknames of my own here and there.

Behold, a list of names we call our daughter on a regular basis:
(Some have phased out, but the majority are still in use. And yes, she responds to every one of them.)

*Beanie
*Love Bug
*Doodle
*Chica
*Bubba
*Bubba Bear
*Bugaboo
*Zerugabel
*Zerubbabel
*Bumpo
*Buppo
*Bungalow
*Bungy
*Bingo
*Bungle Bear
*Big Goyle
*Buggy Bungo
*Bumpalo
*Baby
*Baby Girl
*Big Girl
*Bear Cub
*Bubs
*Cub Scout
*Cub Scout Buggo
*BooBoo
*Bungalie
*Bunco
*Bubbly
*Buggo
*Bigems
*Lovey
*Lovey Smith
*Rolly Polly
*Doll Baby
*Sister Bear
*Girlfriend
*Honey
*Jay Bird Baby
*Reesie
*ReesiePeesie
*Reester
*Reester Peester

If the poor thing ends up having an identity crisis, I think we'll know why. :)

Saturday, November 13, 2010

fall hodge-podge

While scrolling through an entire autumn's worth of pictures, I found some that never made it to our little blog. They're as sporadic and unique as the leaves that are still falling in our southern state. Enjoy!
In October, Danny took a trip to Colorado to attend the wedding of a friend from high school. Originally, Danny was the only Hinton slated to go. I was going to stay in Kansas City and wait for Danny to come back so we could go to another wedding, also of a friend from high school. (Confused? To summarize: two friends from high school got married on back to back nights. One wedding was in Colorado, the other in Missouri.)

When a flight to Colorado popped up that was too good of a deal to miss, I joined Danny at the last minute. We left Chica with the grandparents in Missouri. I'm so grateful it worked out, because it was a fabulous little trip (our first in more than a year) and it couldn't have come at a better time for our marriage. God knew just what we needed.

The day before the wedding we drove through part of Rocky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful and had all kinds of lookouts. We stopped a couple of times to get out and explore.




This is Estes Park. We had to drive through here to get to the entrance of the park. We had lunch here too at a local restaurant.
The wedding was in Boulder, Colorado. This picture was from Pearl Street, a really cool part of town. (I have no clue why this font is underlined, nor how to fix it. Sorry!)
Here are the high school friends the night of the rehearsal dinner. Jason, the groom is in the middle. And that guy on the far right is Shawn, a devoted reader of the Hinton Home. Hi Shawn!! :)
We're not the only people who've procreated! Here's Adam with his sweet baby girl. She had those kind of striking eyes that can overpower grown-ups. We should pray for Adam. :) Her mama was really sweet too, I'm glad I got to meet her.

I'm a total mountains girl. I couldn't stop taking pictures of them.
The morning of the wedding we went to breakfast at a local hot spot.
Here the boys are just before the ceremony started.
The very next night at Jen's wedding. All of us girls went to high school together. It's hard to believe we have real jobs, husbands, children, etc. When did we grow up???
Last week, Chica and I took a trip to visit Megsy, one of our favorite college girls.
We had a fun lunch and toured her house. Chica was a sight to be seen in the sorority house. The sisters were ready to initiate her.
The rest of the fall was sprinkled with "photo shoots" of any kid whose mama would let me. :)




How's that for random? I can't believe how many pictures I took that didn't have my daughter as the subject. I'm off to hunt her down with my camera- can't have her feeling neglected now. :)

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

pumpkin patch take III

A couple of weeks ago, we took Chica to the pumpkin patch. It's become an annual tradition. You can click here to see our visit from last year and here for our adventure the year before that. I cannot believe how much difference a year makes!

I love the fact that Danny has Fridays off of work, especially when it comes to visiting places like the pumpkin patch. We get to avoid the masses that migrate to popular attractions when the weekend rolls around. This year we were the first ones there. We had the petting zoo and train ride all to ourselves. But we really felt like celebrities once we started walking around with the only plastic cup of feed in sight.







Here she is waiting for a pony ride. By this point, several bus loads of school kids had joined us at the patch.
Pony Ride 2010
Pony Ride 2009

Before ending our morning with a ride on the "hay wagon" we played in the hay mazes and sandbox.


A lovely fall morning indeed.

Friday, November 5, 2010

attention internet!

My baby can drink from a water fountain (or as she likes to call it, a "drink sink") without assistance.
We are so proud of her. But not nearly as proud as she is.
I just had to share. Thank you for listening. :)
P.S.- I hope she calls them "drink sinks" for the rest of her life.