She's sitting! - not for a long time but she's there!

Sitting with Santa was a disaster as you can see! They both freaked out when we got to him!

All four smiling!

James was crazy like this the whole time!

We had a great time at Big Cedar. James and I got in the hot tub in 30 degree weather, it felt so good and we got to watch the sunset over the hills. We also went on several hikes that included, mud baths, rock throwing, stick finding, great fun! The first night he slept in the floor in our room and woke us up three times. The next night we ordered a crib, it was metal bars and about 2/3 of his length. We said it was a lion's cage and we covered it with a blanket and he called it his lions den! It worked perfect. We drove back Monday morning on the thin layer of ice that fell. We got to drive 40-50mph a lot of the way. We had to stop to give spankings three times because James kept unbuckling his seat belt! Hopefully we've learned our lesson now?? We played bingo in the car for objects we would see on the road - daddy won the Butterfinger and James and I had Jolly Ranchers. Oh family vacations! We got more paperwork and a case worker assigned to us for foster care!

We had a long morning at the Dr office. James has had a rash on his torso and the Dr had to shave off the skin to test it. It ended up being some kind of fungus so we have to use two creams intensively for a week! Then it was Kinley's turn, I thought she might be getting another ear infection - she wasn't but they thought she might have a UTI so they did a catheter! (don't know how to spell that). It was terrible - they had a really hard time getting it in - finally after 15 minutes of her screaming and me holding her down they got it. The results showed that she has a yeast infection but the urinary tract is fine. Poor baby! So she has to have an antibiotic. We were at the Dr. for almost two hours then we had to wait on a prescription and we were starving so I took James for a rare treat to McDonalds - he calls it Old McDonalds - so cute. In the craziness of the day I didn't take a bottle to the Dr and we were there for so long and Kinley was tortured so much she was starving while we were waiting on results. Thankfully we were at a pediatrician and they have tons of formula samples so they brought us a two ounce bottle - I laughed and said it will be gone in two seconds - it was - she drained four of them! Then I talked to Josh, he had allergy testing today - he said that he had a bad reaction to all three kinds of grass they tested him for - they had to give him epinephrine. He said that he feels ok now and that they are going to have him back in a week or so to figure out how to help him. So far I haven't fallen apart - knock on wood!

I lost our camera! That is why I haven't updated this week - so sad, we are going to try to get a new one or hope for a new one for Christmas. Below are some Christmas pics we took at my parents house - so cute. I am going to type info between them so my paragraphs will be separated. Our meeting about foster care went well. The reality of the decision was disheartening but we still feel called by the Lord to take the next step. We turned in our application yesterday and will take the required classes. They said ideally you bring a child home 60-90 days after you apply - we'll see? The two things that were discouraging were that DHS is changing the face of foster care. They are wanting the foster parents and the bilogical parents to be involved with each other and they are wanting the foster parents to "teach" the biological parents how to improve their parenting. Scarry when you consider the number one reason for a child being placed in foster care in OK is abuse. The second thing that was discouraging was the inefficiency of DHS and how difficult they can be to work with. It reinforced that we cannot do this without it being God's best but that if He calls us to do it He has a reason! The morning of the meeting Josh was reading James 1 and the last verse (27) said the religion I accept is that of taking care of orphans and widows (something like that) then that night at the meeting the organization putting on the meeting shared that as their mission statement. Pretty cool confirmation for us.

We've hit a rough patch with James the past two weeks. Today he had me in uncontrollable tears. I got a toy staple gun to the temple. I wasn't crying out of pain as much as I was out of anger and despair. We feel we are doing all we know to do and it seems we are getting no where. I know it is a normal and healthy part of development but it doesn't make it any easier in the moment. Tonight I took a silver bell christmas ornament to the head. I just can't wait to get a foster kid that will hit me and throw things at me too! I really don't need any help decreasing my brain function! James also said he wants to send Kinley back because having a baby at his house is hard. We wanted to tell him that we want to send him back because having a three year old is hard - but we refrained.

Kinley is in the best stage, I am dreading the onset of discipline! She just smiles and talks all the time, eats great, sleeps pretty well, it's bliss!

We are going to Big Cedar tomorrow with Grandad and Nanna, we are so excited - we'll post when we get back.

We had a great Thanksgiving - we had Thanksgiving dinner here in Tulsa at my cousins house with my Mom's side of the family. We took James to see Madagascar 2 Thanksgiving day - it was hilarious - he liked it too. Then we went over to my cousins and James had a blast with all the kids. The older girls were really great with Kinley and everyone enjoyed her thighs. That night we went to my parents house and got up Friday to help them decorate for Christmas. That evening the Morris gang came up and we all had fun eating, talking and playing with the kids until Sunday night. I didn't get any pictures of Jason, Emily, Joe or Caren with the kids so I guess one of you will have to share some with us! James was in a really crazy mood and I have some silly stories below.

He watched Lion King and was a violent, aggressive lion the rest of the weekend so we had a LOT of wrestling sessions - Bob and Daddy were rode hard and put away wet.

This is Maggie Jo James' favorite cousin this holiday.

Kinley watching her hands as if they were aliens. Emily, Mom and I were playing cards and James was bugging us so we gave him some poker chips to play with, he held one up to his cheek and said "I'm going to poke somebody with this" and we said "why?" he said "because it's a poker chip" James was riding in the car with my mom (after an extensive conversation and imaginative play session about Jesus, God, and Heaven) and he asked "will God ask me to do mean things" my mom said "no" then he asked "when we go to heaven can we do mean things?" mom said "no" then he asked "well where can we go to do mean things?" then Gigi was laughing too hard to answer. Do you think we have some work to do? James was in my parents room and said "mommy come here" so I went and he pointed to a picture of when I was 16 and said "can you look pretty like this again?" I heard everyone in the living room die laughing - lets just say I feel old for the first time. Kinley is getting closer and closer to sitting up. She is such a good baby - all we got all weekend were compliments. We wanted to include all of you in something we are considering. We feel that God might want us to foster a child this next year. We are going to an informational meeting tonight and the next step would be taking the required classes for fostering. Pray with us, challenge us, and we'll keep you posted.