Kinley is pulling up! She had done it about 5 times. But I think she has a little fairy that sneaks in and helps her. I haven't seen her do it once!

Oh girl!

Isn't my cowboy adorable! He put on Bop's boots and said he was like Bop - I hope Bop wears pants with his boots!

Kinley had her 9 month check up today. She has lost a little weight she is 21.6 and 28 1/2 inces long. Everything looks great!

We went to Duncan last weekend for a Morris family reunion, we got to see cousins we haven't see in years. It was great fun. We also got to see plans and progress on the new house Grandad and Nana are building on the farm.

James spent half the day fishing next to grandad. He caught the most fish out of everyone, he caught five! In the bottom picture he is showing Pop one of his prize fish. He is really growing up and getting brave. He held fish and worms with enthusiasm!

He spent the rest of the day riding the four wheeler with uncle Jason.

He got to enjoy a couple of machines up close that are there for building the house. He also loved Charlie and Maggie the two labs that own the land.

Josh caught Kinley in mid laugh, she loved eating leaves and red dirt!

James got to take his favorite animal to school today. He chose polar bear (who is really Linley's - they share custody) he put him in his back pack and put it over his chest and called it a "bear bjorne" This happened while they were watching Praise Baby together

Then she fell over further - SOO CUTE! They stayed this way for 30 minutes! The black thing around James' neck is his collar, he is Wilber the pig from Charlotte's Web

Isn't he handsome!

James said that he was cutting the grass with scissors because it works better than the lawnmower! He was also telling me to mow and I said "I don't know how, Daddy does it" and he proceeded to tell me in detail with a lot of hand motions how to start it. He has watched enough times to know!

This is Kinley in solitary confinement while we do yard work.

This is Kinley trying to escape solitary confinement. This week Kinley has moved to her big girl car seat because she weighs 22 pounds now and today while we were going to the park she said "MaMa" I looked back then she waved at me!! It was so sweet. She began waving over Easter weekend but I still can't get a video of her doing it. She also got her first sunburn at the park today - I'm a bad mommy. It didn't even cross my mind.

We had a great Easter/birthday weekend.

Naked egg dying!

Naked dog chasing!

We played deal or no deal for my birthday. I had eliminated most of the big money envelopes and James was getting sad for me he said "I want you to get the money...Bop give her the money!" It was sweet. We hunted eggs and Josh had Kinley in the baby bjorne and the eggs were hidden on a rocky hill and he still won. James came in second and I lost by a large margin but they are sharing their candy with me. We got to see Nana and Grandad for breakfast and egg hunting too - it was great family time.

Tuesday James went to play in the back yard and our 13 year old neighbor boys and their friends were in their back yard. James started talking to them. They said "hey little kid" and he said "I'm not little, I'm a big boy" they laughed. Later he told them "Dirty Al is my bestest friend" they laughed. He came in and told me that they think he is funny because they laugh at him. Bless his little heart, so innocent! He said, those guys are big, do you think they are in the 3 year old room at their school? He gets to move to the three year old room next year and we've been talking about how that is the big boy room.

Josh is enjoying his new camera!

I was making her hand touch the goats tail and she was laughing histerically This used to be James' favorite petting zoo game

Wednesday was my 27th birthday. I was awakened by James bringing me coffee and a new heating pad - I love heating pads - he told me to drink my coffee and read a book and wait for a surprise. The brought me breakfast in bed and James sat with me and shared off my plate. It was so sweet. Then Josh said he was taking the day off and we were going to go to the zoo. The weather was PERFECT and we had the best time at the zoo. It was wonderful to have Josh with us, James go to look at everything he never gets to when I have to take care of he and Kinley. We had a picnic and soaked up the sun. Then for dinner we grilled homeade pizza and ate it on the deck by a chiminea fire. It was DELICIOUS! Then we put the kids to bed, had deep conversation by the fire, then watched Marley and Me. It was the perfect day filled with all of my favorite things! Oh yeah, they also made me a cake and James decorated it all by himself! I couldn't ask for a better husband, what a birthday he gave me!

I finally got a video of Kinley crawling! She is up and going, she can even get from room to room! About two weeks ago, much to my dismay, Kinley fell in love with her passy. I am hoping that it is because of teething - I am unreasonably strict about giving it to her. Anyway, I set her passy on the hamper that sits at the end of her crib (the hamper is totally blocked by the bumper pad). I put her down for a nap. When I went to get her up she was sitting at the end of the crib opposite of the hamper in the corner sucking that passy like it might be her last chance. She gave me the guilitest look then a big smile. Uncle Jason and Aunt Emily came to stay with us for a few days last week. We had so much fun hanging out with them. One morning we made goop and the kids loved it! Sweet snuggle time with Daddy - at least she has one parent that will sit still long enough to cuddle with her. Fostercare class is going fine, still hard but I think we are getting a little used to the heartache. This last Thrusday was about loss and helping kids heal from it. Friday James was playing with his crane - it has a cool detachable claw on it. He took the air vent cover off (after I told him he couldn't) and ended up dropping his claw down in the vent. We couldn't get it out and he lost his mind. It was so sad and funny. I witnessed all the stages of grief we had just learned about. The bargaining stage was the best, he was using some of his best creativity to come up with solutions for getting it out. I told him we could never get it because the ducts are under the house and no one can get to them. He remembered that we had a friend come crawl under our house and fix a pipe and asked if Mr. Todd could come resuce his claw, he asked me to turn the air on so it would blow the claw out, then as a last result he said he was going to grow up and become a plumber so he could get under our house and open the duct without breaking it and save his claw. It was exhuasting and I ended up telling him with love to get over it. I guess I still have a long way to go in becoming a "loss manager" - I should a least learn not to laugh when he is hurting.

Kinley is crawling!