Ode to Chad Mirr - My Hunting Husband

"Please tell me hunting season is almost over!" Said every hunter's wife that ever lived.

Ode to My Hunting Husband

For the first 39 years of my life, the phrase "hunting season" was nonexistent in my vocabulary. I have absolutely nothing against hunting, it just wasn't something anyone in my family ever did. At age 28 I met and later married a Midwest charmer that spent as many hours hunting in his adolescent years as I did shopping at Wet Seal and Contempo. However, it wasn't until we moved to Kansas 2 years ago and purchased hunting land that I learned that my husband actually BLEEDS camouflage. I had no idea just how much my husband loves hunting. Nor was I aware that he actually CAN be a morning person under the right circumstances (running is not one). By golly, when the opportunity arises to sit in a tree stand and freeze his a@@ off in 20° weather at 4am in hopes to come in contact with an 8 point buck, you'd think he was a 7 year-old kid on Christmas morning!

Now that deer hunting season is coming to an end (Thank You Jesus), I have a confession to make: aside from the fact that I have never once been to the hunting property we own, I'm not the greatest hunter's wife. It's the cold hard truth. I try really hard to be selfless and let him enjoy his hunts. I honestly do LOVE how happy it makes him to be in his heaven on earth. But I know for a fact that I want him to come home with a dang buck far more than he does!!!! 1 buck puts an end to hunting season 🙏🙌...at least temporarily. 

I'm not gonna lie, the jealousy starts to kick in a bit by the end of the first month of deer season. 

-If you could see the way his eyes light up when he scrolls through all of those pictures from his trail cam on a daily basis😍. I'm not sure if even wearing my sexiest lingerie could make his mouth water the way those buck eating from his feeder do 🤔. 

-The number of goodbye hugs diminish during deer season as well. What can I say? I like my hugs, physical touch is my #2 love language 🤷‍♀️. If he happens to dress before leaving the house, he mustn't risk picking up any scent on his clothing. Afterall, he took the time to thoroughly wash everything in scent free detergent and then store it in the scent crusher ozone gear bag overnight. 

-And let's not forget about all of the giddy text messages he sends back and forth with his hunting buddies. The cute little jokes and dates they plan 🤗. I remember once being on the receiving end of those "flirty" messages. The text messages I get during hunting season go something like, "So honey, what do you have planned tomorrow?" Let's be real clear, he's not asking me on a date. That's code for, "Can I please go hunting?"🙄

I do REALLY REALLY love my hunting husband even though I can get a little testy and irritated at times. And since I do try to find the bright side in all situations, here is a list of the benefits of his hunting addiction.

-It keeps him of the streets. 😉

-I love the things my kids learn while hunting with their dad. Hunting teaches my boys about hard work, patience, respect for guns (and bows for that matter), respect for nature, about self-sustainability, and that there is more to life than just video games. For my husband, it isn’t about getting to kill something, it’s about spending time with the boys while passing down a legacy of an intense love of the outdoors.

-It’s kinda super hot that my husband can feed our family with his keen hunting skills. Now I personally don't stray from cows, chickens, turkey and tuna in a can, but there is something undeniably irresistible about the mountain man in him. And I will gladly allow ONE trophy to hang on a wall in our home.

-The alone time when all 3 boys are out hunting is pretty hard to beat. I certainly love having them here, but pure silence is quite exhilarating.

I am officially a Hunter's wife. It's a fact that I will happily live with...most of the time. But I sure would love to have a date penciled in on the calendar in the very near future ❤. Thinking this might also be a good time to remind you that our anniversary is in 3 days. Try to avoid looking at your weather app. I don't want to feel guilty for the wind blowing in the perfect direction while you are sitting at dinner with me. And a picnic in the tree stand is out of the question! I do love you Chad Mirr! 😘

Brixton Stone Mirr

Our little man is here and he is such a doll! I went in for an induction on my due date...I couldn't take it another minute. We went in at 7am and after I was all set up with pitocin I was contracting and dilating just as I was supposed to. After the doctor broke my water we had a little scare. Brixton's heart rate kept dropping with my contractions and would not come back up. I then had to have a shot of terbutaline to stop my contractions all together (which I was all too familiar with from my pregnancy with Greyson). The doctor decided to fill me back up with a synthetic amniotic fluid before starting the pitocin again. This seemed to make Brixton happy. I continued to dilate and got to a 9 1/2, but Brixton never dropped down. The doctor had me push for about 45 minutes and there was no progress...the kid didn't budge. My doctor proposed the idea of a C-section and I jumped all over it. They wheeled me in, prepped me and Brixton was out in minutes...well technically 13 hours and 50 minutes later. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times. They said once was common, twice on occasion, but three times was unheard of. This was the reason he wasn't handling the labor after my water broke and also why he wasn't dropping down. We are just glad that he is finally here and that he is healthy.

Welcome to the world sweet boy!

3 Weeks Left And It Feels Like An Eternity!

9 months is an extremely long time to be pregnant and the final 3 weeks is just pure torture! Technically at this point any day could be the day...and 15 minutes ago wouldn't have been soon enough! We all know that I am NOT one of those happy go lucky annoying pregnant ladies that just LOVES to be pregnant! Now don't get me wrong, I have been so blessed to be able to get pregnant and to have two healthy pregnancies, but the reality is that pregnancy is just not fun for me...at all! Here is a list of reasons why:

1. I get FAT...REALLY FAT!

2. Morning sickness is just plain awful!

3. The smell of my husband and everything else around me makes me wish I only had 4 senses.

4. The veins in my legs look like I gave Greyson purple and green markers and let him go to town...and those support hose are extremely sexy, especially in the middle of the summer with shorts and flip flops.

5. My chest and butt are the same size as my stomach...GROSS!

6. Hot water on my face annoys the heck out of me. I have to adjust the shower temp if I plan on getting my face wet.

7. I go from angry hormonal woman to an emotional wreck in less time than a Bugatti Veyron goes from 0-60mph (That's less than 2.6 seconds for those of you wondering.)

8. I have nothing to wear because NOTHING looks cute on me!

9. Between the "mask of pregnancy" and the lovely pimples, my skin is disgusting.

10. My hair is greasy and frizzy.

11. I can't breathe, sleep, or bend over past 28 weeks.

12. My feet...just chop them off.

13. Can you say HEARTBURN?!!

14. I have actually resorted to peeing in a cup when I am out and about because I refuse to stop every 15 minutes and get Greyson out of his carseat to do the whole bathroom thing.

~

I could easily go on and on, but this is more than enough to remind me (and Chad) that 2 kids is just the perfect number for us!

Greyson's 2nd Birthday

I can't believe my baby is 2 years old! This year's birthday theme was "Party Like A Rockstar". Greyson's love for music and instruments was my inspiration.


The Invitation


"Hollywood Walk of Fame" which included all of the kid's names.


The trick here was to keep Greyson off the back of the couch so I wouldn't have to hang the stars a hundred times before the party started.


Each party favor bag contained a microphone, a kazoo, star stickers, guitar bubbles, a rockstar tattoo, yogurt covered pretzel rods made to look like drum sticks, and a CD which included Greyson's favorite songs.


Auntie Whitney made cupcakes with music notes on them. We also had star-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.


Here is the birthday boy sitting in the birthday chair! He is very excited about blowing out his birthday candle!


Please keep your eyes on Greyson and not the fat pregnant lady!

He tried to blow out the candle a few times but I couldn't seem to get the candle in the line of fire...I had to help a little.


What kid doesn't love cupcakes?!

Carter

Brayden


Ella, Julia, and Isabel or Julia, Ella and Isabel :-)


Greyson sharing a bite of his cupcake with Auntie Whitney.


Birthday Hug


Diego & Regan


Auntie Whitney tattooed all of the kiddos.


Griffin apparently doesn't have a very high pain tolerance.


Daddy and Greyson were found in the laundry room taking a little breather from all of the chaos. I find it very hard to believe that they may actually have been doing laundry!


For some reason I never got a picture of Charlie! This was actually taken at Diego's birthday party a few days later, but I had to include him!!! That look he is giving you says it all!!!

We had a HUGE hail storm toward the end of Greyson's birthday party...it had to be a record breaker for Arizona, especially in October. The smallest piece of hail was the size of a golf ball. There were a ton of dents in all of our cars along with a little house damage too. This is a picture of Greyson and Diego watching the hail come down.

We waited until after the party to open Greyson's presents. 2 year olds just don't have it in them to sit and watch another 2 year old open presents. This gift was a big hit with Greyson, but not so much with Chad. He thinks it's just an accident waiting to happen...time will tell.

Greyson had a great time at his party and he is so proud to say that he is 2 now. I am having a difficult time accepting the fact that 2 years went by so quickly. My baby boy turned into a kid overnight! Daddy and I are so proud of you Greyson. You amaze us daily. We love you more than you will ever know.

Uh Oh...He Regressed!

Update...We did great with the potty training for just about 3 months and then we hit a brick wall. Greyson lost interest completely and started having way too many accidents! Since he started so young, we decided to just take a little break until after the new year. The baby will be here within the next month and I'm sure that probably won't help the situation. For now he is back in diapers. It would be nice if I actually got to enjoy this little break from visiting the bathroom umpteen times wherever we go! Unfortunately, I'm 35 weeks pregnant and that is just not going to happen :-)

Potty Piggy Bank

We started potty training Greyson at 20 months. I know that's a little young to start, but he was showing an interest so we went for it. We tried the sticker chart thing, but that was only exciting the first 6 times. I decided to can the whole idea and start again when he was really ready.

Fast forward two weeks. That's when we fell upon the "potty piggy bank"...by mistake of course. I was at Target and came across a cute piggy bank. I figured he would enjoy filling up his bank with coins and possibly even learn the names and amounts of the different coins in the process. When I brought it home and showed him how it worked, his only goal was to "get money". After he cleaned out my wallet and Chad's pocket, he hit up Ta Ta and auntie Whitney. That's when the little bright bulb appeared over my head, "I bet we could bribe him with money to go potty!" I pulled down a huge cup of change that Chad had on top of the closet and I showed it to Greyson. "Greyson, when you go pee pee in your big boy potty you can pick 1 coin out of this cup to put into your piggy bank."

Believe it or not, from that point on Greyson consistently began peeing in the potty! Now I must tell you, it wasn't "Mommy, I have to go potty!", it was "Mommy, I gotta get money!" I was entirely ok with the fact that money was his motive. Afterall, it was getting the job done and I figured he wasn't always going to ask for money to go potty. I mean really, my 16 year-old son, "Hey mom, can I borrow the car? Oh, and I just went pee so can I get a quarter?!"

Now the poop thing is an entirely different story, we're working on it.



This is how he does it... just like daddy! Well, kind of.


Sportin' his BIG BOY underwear.


My little Calvin Klein underwear model.

Greyson Showing off His Geography Skills to Tata

Greyson is quite the little scholar. I hung a map of the United States in his playroom and he has been learning a state a day. At 19 months (when this video was taken) he knew the western half of the U.S. At 21 months he now knows all 50 states! I have to admit that I was learning right along with him...geography has never been my strong point!