Happy Birthday Kinley and Party Planning

Happy 2nd Birthday Kinley! I cannot believe you are 2 years old today. The last 2 years have been the absolute best of my life. You are such a joy and such a blessing. I cannot even imagine my life before you were in it. I am so proud of you and am having so much fun with you everyday. I can't wait to celebrate with you this weekend for your party!

We have had a lot of help getting ready for the party. Aunt Mendy has helped with making ties for your little boy friends and a birthday banner. I am thrilled with how the ties turned out. Tutorial coming soon!

Ashley and my little sweat shop of D group girls have helped make some tissue paper bunting, water bottle labels and treats for your friends at school.

And here is a little video of us singing happy birthday to you this morning. (Please ignore my scratchy sick voice).

I love you angel!

Inie-Bull and Cows

This weekend we went to East Texas to visit Inie & Bull and when we were talking to Kinley about it this week...she kept saying all in one breath..."Inie, Bull and Cows" like it was all one word. Yes, I would say, we are going to see Inie and Bull and see the cows too. She was very excited. It was so great to spend a couple days there and immediately Kinley felt comfortable in their house and explored around everywhere she could.

Saturday we spent the day at the Ranch and saw the cows. Kinley had to hold both Inie and Honey's hands in the car on the way to the ranch. It was very cute.

She couldn't quite hold her excitement in about the tractors, the trailers that my cousins have out there or the golf cart.

But, of course, she was MOST excited about the cows. She got to ride in the front seat with her head out the window.

She is yelling "Cows!" in this picture

We watched Bull's Ranch dog, Trey, work the cows and it was pretty impressive. For some reason Kinley could not get "Trey" down and kept calling him "Terri"... "Oh Terri"...or..."There's Terri!" It was pretty funny.

It was really fun to watch Bull call the cows in to eat. As soon as he yells at them, they come running. Kinley loved seeing that up close.

How cute is this nursing baby cow?

This is a good pic of Bull's "Flying H" brand on some cows.

As quick as she could she wanted to climb in the feeding trough. Some cows didn't really like her playing where they eat...but, she was not afraid. Ben had to hold her back.

She was so pooped from the Ranch that she fell asleep on the way to the Beer Joint for lunch. (The Beer Joint is really just a gas station across the Oklahoma state line that Bull eats lunch at all the time...you can buy beer there...so they call it the Beer Joint. Really...the burgers are amazing and Ben says the chicken fried steak sandwich is the best he's ever had.)

Saturday night Inie was so sweet to get a '2' candle and so we celebrated Kinley's upcoming birthday with candles, the birthday song and some strawberries and angel food cake.

Sunday we went to church with Inie and Bull and she was so pooped from fun, she fell asleep again in the service. It definitely made for a quiet baby.

After church Kinley went back to the house to continue playing with her favorite toys of Inie's. A sweet baby with a bottle that Kinley was very carefully feeding all weekend while rocking her in Bull's rocking chair. This chair is literally Bull's chair from when he was a baby...so probably around 86 years old.

After some family and generational pics, we had to hit the road. We were sad to leave and can't wait to go back again soon! We love you Inie & Bull...and Cows!

Time Out

I know...you can't believe it....but, this sweet angel got put in time out today at school!

That is always a fun thing to hear as a parent. But, apparently Kinley was loving dancing/standing on some plastic red table at school and her teachers told her to stop. If they tell you to stop 3 times and you don't then you get put in time out...1 minute for your age. So, I guess she just pretended not to hear them because she got put in time out.

Things going through my head:

1) Hahahahahaha! I don't want to laugh but, I just can't help it.

2) Was standing on that table really that fun??

3) Since she is almost 2...did they put her in time out for 1 minute or 2 already....I have a hard time believing 2 since she never stays put anywhere that long.

4) I am glad it was just for having too much fun and not for kicking or biting some kid or stealing a toy repeatedly.

5) Oh no, I hope those don't become a problem soon because I just said that.

6) I hope she listens better tomorrow.

Harrison/Read Lake Weekend and Kinley's Swingset

We spent the second weekend of Spring Break at the lake with the Reads. I just can't tell you how much fun we have with the Reads. They are very close family friends with the Harrisons and grew up next door to each other. They are also super special to me because Martin is my doctor and delivered Kinley (i can't believe almost 2 years ago!).

Everyone is just like family. Each time we hang out there are stories upon stories of the kids when they were young and everyone laughs until they can't breathe. There are hilarious stories about Ben being so paranoid about going to bed at 8:00pm no matter where they were because his teacher told him to...Alex being totally naked and uninhibited anywhere they went....Ben and Alex sneaking out at night when Gary and Cheryl were out of town to see his 5th grade girlfriend and putting pillows under their sheets so they wouldn't get caught and Martin putting them in their place when they were....Cheryl bringing Diana home from the hospital after she had Andrew because Martin was on call and couldn't drive her home....Christine being a tomboy and only wearing shorts with no shirts because there were no other girls around to play with...the stories are unending and hilarious.

It is just so fun to be together. We talked and laughed and ate amazing food until we couldn't eat anymore. Overall we had 14 people and 4 dogs and it was a blast!

The weekend was full of projects...the BIG one being putting together Kinley's swingset that Gary and Cheryl bought her for the lake. It was a HUGE undertaking and it took 7 people about 10 hours to put this thing together. Mendy was the instruction reader and materials gatherer for each phase..but, she also got in there and did her fair share of building and drilling as well. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for the dedication it took everyone on their spring break weekend to do this! Kinley will love it and I know it will be there for years to come for everyone else's children too.

Each phase they would finish Kinley could hardly wait to play with

The first time on the slide

We all could not be a part of the building action and were much more productive cheering from the sideline and entertaining Kinley :-) Even though most everyone was hard at work...we still managed to have SO much fun and did our best to relax and enjoy the SUN!

While everyone was putting together the swingset...kinley found other ways to amuse herself...mainly by playing in a bowl full of sand and pretending to get in her swing that was on the ground.

This is probably the best finished product picture I have:

and Kinley LOVES it!

As if the swing set was not enough, the boys decided to detail a car and hang up outdoor decorations around the house also. Kinley kept saying "Be caful Dada"

All in all, it was a blast and we just want to say THANK YOU to our builders!