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!

Cousin Hang Out

We hope everyone is having a fun spring break week! We have had a very full week with lots of visitors and play dates and it has been a blast. We got to have a really fun cousin get together last weekend and Kinley had so much fun with Luke and Aubrey playing like crazy. It was so cute. It is hard to get everyone together and we really miss those who can't be there but, it is nice to be able to see who we can. Here are a few fun pics.

Handsome Boys

Cute Daddies

How amazing does this preggo look!? Yay for big baby Knowles #2! We can't wait to meet you!

What cute little following stair-climbers...i could just eat them up!

The girls were excited about bathtime...Luke not so much.

And we could not leave without Kinley oohing and aaahing over Aubrey's dollhouse. So cute!

We had SO much fun and can't wait to play again!

Two-Two Birthday Invite

I can't believe that Kinley turns 2 this month! It is crazy to me that two years have gone by already. In some ways it feels like she was born yesterday and in others I feel like I don't know what my life was like without her. I am so excited to celebrate with her! She knows she is turning 2 and we are working on the fingers but, we aren't quite there yet.

I decided on a theme of Tutu's and ties...but, I am calling it "Two-Twos and Ties"...because I am so totally clever like that I got the idea from a friend. I am excited about the theme because of the dress-up opportunity for guests and giveaways, etc. But, I was not getting too motivated to start planning! It is crazy...by this time last year I had already been making kinley's felt house for her 1 year birthday present, painting cardboard letter cutouts and cutting out tons of paper alphabets for her K is for Kinley party. So, I knew I had to get going and I started with the invitation.

This year I decided to make my own invite to save a little money and because it is something I have really loved doing for some other events. The idea of the party is to have the little girls of the party wear tutus and the little boys of the party wear ties. We may even get some adult tutus and ties also...who knows!

I wanted to include a picture or an image of a tutu and a tie on the invite but, I couldn't find one that I really liked online. So, I printed off some pics that I kind of liked but, didn't like the colors. Then I traced them in a thin sharpie on plain printer paper and scanned them back into my computer as pictures. Then I could manipulate them and size them as I wanted to. I also added the number 2 on the tutu image and decided on green and pink the color scheme.

For a little something extra, I printed the two-two image surrounded by pink and green polka dots onto sticker paper and cut them out to use as envelope sealers for the invites.

I am pretty happy with how they turned out and it has put me in the party planning mood! More posts to come!

kinley this week thru another lens

My posts lately have been a ton of pics and video about kinley and nothing really creative mainly because that is what we have been up to lately. (but, get excited for some 2nd birthday planning coming up soon) This stage with kinley has been my fav so far. She cracks me up. Everyday she is learning something new and saying something funny and something I had no idea she even knew or picked up on and I love it. I just never want to forget it and am super sentimental about capturing every detail. This week I had a little help in capturing her personality.

Kinley's new favorite "headband" is an old lime green scrunchie that she found on an old baby doll at my moms house. This cracks me up because she will NOT wear any bow or headband at all. But, we embrace the inner flower child.

Mom took these pics for me. I am so, so thankful for her and for her relationship with Kinley. It is sweet and honest and they just have an unspoken connection. I cannot say enough how thankful I am that she keeps kinley while I work 2 days a week. I don't think I can ever repay her.

Then, for my amazing mom's birthday this weekend so that we could go out and celebrate...her amazing sister, Aunt Jan (and Uncle Jimmy), came over to babysit Kinley. Aunt Jan is truly Kinley's favorite "babysitter." I would say she was my favorite babysitter too but, she plays mean tricks and texts me to tell me that kinley won't stop crying and screaming and she doesn't know what to do...only to text me right back and say JK!!!!! How mean is that!? But, seriously, kinley loves to be babysat by Aunt Jan because she always brings her presents and M&M's. This time she brought her 4 beanie baby zoo animals from her house that Kinley immediately was in LOVE with. We have been playing with them for days and she carries all 4 of them around at a time...not just 1...all 4. I made Aunt Jan send me her pics of Kinley from their night together. Aunt Jan also brought some special low-to-the-ground chairs for Kinley to sit in (and for us to take to the lake :-). Isn't she the best!?

This is Kinley "talking" on Aunt Jan's phone to Honey. She just wants to call mom all the time. So cute.

Kinley is newly obsessed with her helmet that Pops and Gram gave her for Christmas with her tricycle. She puts it on forward and backward and tries to put it on everyone else always wants to buckle and unbuckle it.

She also carries her baby around 24/7. Seriously, she sleeps with this baby, sits in her high chair with it, carries it in the car, to school, to church, everywhere we go. We joke that her arm is going to become paralyzed from keeping it in one position all the time holding this baby. But, really this is pretty much what she looks like all the time...perma-smile with a baby under her arm.

You are the light of my life precious girl!

sweet friends

This week has been a busy one for Kinley! She has 3 days of school this week instead of 2 because of a make-up snow day. She LOVES school so much and I know she loves seeing her friends there. She talks about her teachers Denise ("Neese") Billy Jean ("Beej") and her friends Addy and Connor ("Nonnor.") I love hearing about it. Kinley is definitely getting better at names and we practice a lot but, I always love hearing her say them. Here she is saying everyone in our immediate family. Pops ("Pips") Gram ("MMM") and Olivia ("yaya") are pretty much my fav.

Today we hung out with 2 more friends that we see a lot on days off from school. We went for a walk with Annabelle Grace down the street...who Kinley just calls "Gwace." We walk at least 3 times a week and the girls just love it. They lean up all the time and look at each other and it is just so cute. We also cleaned out Kinley's closet this morning (she is hurting for some new spring/summer clothes now!) and took 2 huge bags down to Annabelle Grace. She is exactly 1 year younger than Kinley so she is prime position for hand-me-downs!

After the walk I told Kinley that Eden was coming over to play. She was SO excited. She just loves Eden. They play so well together. They talk and laugh non-stop and just have the best time. They love bath time and just splash and giggle and stay in like 30 minutes. Tonight they went in my room and closed the door and we could just hear them running and laughing and playing. It was so cute. The BEST part for sure is when they first greet each other. They are SO excited and SO loud and it is just hilarious. It happens every time so, I told Jen to call me when she was pulling on my street. I whipped out the video camera and this is what I got. So cute.

Here's to you getting just as excited about spending some time with your friends!