food frenzy

We have struggled so much lately with getting Kinley to eat "people food." She just did not want to give up the baby food. And now that she has given up the baby food...she still won't eat much table food. Her variety consists of goldfish, cheerios, mac & cheese and yogurt. No fruits, no veggies, no protien. We finally figured out that french toast is a possibility because she might like the syrup and get her some eggs and bread at the same time. I am sure this is a common problem for all parents. But, it is just so stressful! We went to Kinley's 1 year checkup today and are even getting sent to a speech therapist...for food issues only....to try to increase the variety of food she will eat. I know she will eventualy eat normally.

If you have any advice about table food that your kids love, let me know!

a wagon walk

Kinley got a new wagon at Honey's house and it is her new favorite thing! She was apparently entertained for over an hour going in and out of the door, putting things in the seat compartment, puting her juice in the cupholder and of course...bringing Kai-Lan in and out. I can see lots of fun walks ahead in this wagon!



That is a serious juice drinker!

Hope you guys can get outside and have a walk of your own too!

the hidden golf ball

Monday we went over to hang out with Momma Gay and Pepa. It is so fun to see Kinley interact with her great-grandparents! How blessed she is to have some of her great-grandparents so close!

Kinley played in Momma Gay's grandmother's rocking chair! So, that is Kinley's Great-Great-Great Grandmother's rocking chair! It is so cute and antique white and totally reminds me of Ella's Granny's Chair.


Then we played outside with Momma Gay's box of balls. Yep, I said it. Kinley loves them. She could not get enough. It was so cute to see them play together.


While we were playing on the porch. Pepa was walking the yard. I have memories of Pepa walking the yard as long as I can remember. He looks at the flowers, plants, the fence, picks weeds, etc. It is so sweet and familiar to me. Then he came over to play with Kinley too. He helped her up to the porch and patted her on the bottom. So cute.


Then Pepa decided to hide a golf ball in Kinley's shirt. She was very confused at first and it was hilarious watching her try to get it out.


We treasure the times we have with Momma Gay and Pepa. We don't take a minute for granted and we are so thankful for every moment. We can't wait till next time!

play dates

We had to keep the last week fun and interesting for Kinley because it was so tedious and busy for me! The week of April 15th for an accountant is always crazy and mine was definitely filled with too many taxes! Ugh! So, to keep it exciting we had a couple of really fun playdates! The Barstads were in town and we had a fun night with them...but, we did not get any pictures...crazy! But, we did get pics from the other couple play dates.

One day Eden came over to play when Jen had some errands to run and the girls played and played and had so much fun together. They did pretty much everything fun we have to offer....played in the tunnel, played with the felt playhouse, played on the new slide outside, played with all Kinley's toys in her toybox, and...of course...watched some Kai-Lan. It was so cute to see them laugh together and play with the same things.



I love how Eden is doing the 'L for Loser' sign. What is she trying to say?




Then later in the week cousin Natalie and baby Luke came over to play. He is just so cute and so big! He is 7 months old and we stood Luke and Kinley up next to each other and he is definitely as tall as her. It is so cute! We have got to get together for another play date soon!

Easter and a week of fun

This last week has been a whirl-wind and it is time for a catch up post! Last Sunday was Easter and I was too busy catching up on Kinley's Birthday posts that I did not even get a chance to post about Easter yet! It was such a great day. It was also Ben's Birthday! We went to Church at Compass and it was fantastic. Allison, Bob and Ella were there and we had all our matching elastic waist skirts that I had to make the night of Kinley's party! They turned out so cute though!

Then we went to Aunt Jan's to celebrate Easter and hunt eggs, which Kinley wanted to chew on constantly. It was a blast.






That night we went over to Ben's parents house to celebrate this guy! Even though he kinda got trumped this year with Kinley's first birthday and Easter all the same weekend....he was so wonderful. He never complained or was upset about it. He just loved celebrating it all. Happy Birthday honey! I love you!


Also, last week we went to the Zoo with a bunch of cute girls in matching dresses. Is it obvious we love the zoo around here? You can see more pics on lullaby lubbock. It was fantastic!



Finally we had went to a great suprise birthday party for Bryce Pool (who's 60th birthday it is today). It was so fun to hang with Allison, Bob and Ella again. I miss them already! No need to go back to Lubbock!



What a fun week! Let's see what this week has in store!

Kinley's Felt Playhouse

I am SO excited to finally get to post Kinley's felt playhouse! I got the idea around Christmastime from my cousin Natalie to make Kinley a felt playhouse. At that time, I had never seen any before. Natalie showed me these on Etsy and soon after I started seeing them all over the blogworld! My friend, Allison, showed me this one on Homemade by Jill. I really wanted to use my new-found love of sewing to make one for Kinley for her first birthday.

It was so fun for me to create this. I just looked at a few felt houses online and started cutting, stuffing, and sewing. This is definitely a love project and takes a lot of time but, I think it turned out pretty great!

Kinley's felt playhouse is basically a slipcover over a card table. It is great because it can all fold up and be put away whenever she is not playing with it.




This project definitely takes just as much time to cut out all the felt and think about how to place all the pieces as it does to sew together. Here are a couple pics of the sides of the house with just cut felt while still in the brainstorming phase before any sewing.


Here are the finished sides.





It also has over 40 stuffed, removeable pieces that she can pull off and put back on and play with! I hope she has a blast over the years looking through the windows, watering her flowers, putting mail in the mailbox, playing tea, etc.




I hope all of Kinley's friends will love playing with it too! It definitely got some use at Kinley's party :-)

P is for Presents

Kinley got some fantastic homemade presents at her party this weekend and I just had to do a blogpost to showcase them. I have such incredibly creative and talented friends. She had so much fun opening them with all her friends!




Mendy and Alex made Kinley this fabulous toy box / dres-up trunk. They bought just a brown wooden stained trunk from Hobby Lobby and then distressed it with black paint and hand painted the letters on top, the flowers and the scripture on the back. And yes, Mendy did hand draw those letters, not stencil! It is amazing and everyone at the party was envious that they did not have one for themselves!

Kristen made a these fantastic alphabet blocks that are SO cute...and so PERFECT for the theme! I loved the colors she picked for Kinley's blocks and the beautiful box that she had Jeff stain. I know Kinley will use them for years to come!

Allison made these incredible Russian dolls for Kinley. They are so special because she made each doll look like one of Kinley's best friends (Kristen and Allison's kids). She made them in age order and each one had something unique about them that represents that kid. She also put their initial and name on the back of each doll to go with the theme.


Lauryn also made Kinley one of her famous one-year birthday party tutu's. She makes the most beautiful tutu's that everyone wants them and she can't ever stray from that gift! (well, for girls that is :-) It is so beautiful and I know Kinley will wear it and love to dress up in it!

I bet you all wish you had all these amazingly creative friends too!