Last week the night of all the tornado activity we spent some time in the hallway with all our pillows, flashlights and bike helmets. Good times let me tell you. We had to keep them up until 8:30 to make sure the weather had passed and by that time I was begging to put them in bed and take our chances with the tornadoes. Chubby face was pretty cute in the helmet.

James and Kinley have been having a lot of trouble using their words with each other so we have been using the last two weeks to retrain. James just starts grabbing or pushing and yelling in a bossy voice very similar to mine and Kinley does a HIGH pitched scream usually accompanied by a slap. I am seeing a tiny bit of improvement in frequency but there is still work to be done. I am afraid I will need a hearing aid at a young age though. Dealing with them and their impatience and harsh tones with each other has been one huge mirror reflecting my own sin. Last week the verse we were memorizing was Ephesians 4:2 Be patient bearing with one another in love. (By the way that was just then next one in the memory verse book for us to memorize...nice God thing don't you think!) I have been working really hard with the Holy Spirit to calm my nerves, quiet my tone, and soften my heart toward them and I think I am getting a little better too but still have a ton of improvement. I am starting to realize that I am a REALLY selfish person. It is really ugly to see but even uglier to ignore like I have been. I am so thankful for God's grace and power to change!

Kinley is very close to potty trained. She just went almost 72 hours without an accident. I am so excited that this milestone might happen before 3, isn't that sad!

Below is picture of Ezra, James, and Levi playing in the back yard in their underwear. We had the boys over to spend the night and they had been swimming then they all got cold and asked to get dressed then they all went back outside to play and ended up in the swimming pool in their underwear. Then we looked outside and James had the boys, both younger than him at 4 and 2, giving him a ride in his own wagon.

I can't remember if I put this picture in the last blog but this is Mallory sleeping at James' graduation. She got a fat lip today. She was reaching for a toy from the sitting position and fell on her mouth on the wood floor and her two bottom teeth cut her top lip. It was so sad and pathetic. She is saying "mama" now but only when she's upset. She'll say it while she's crying. It is so cute and it makes me want to give her anything she wants. She is getting a little more active on her tummy and bottom. She can go in circles and backwards while in both positions but still does not get up on her hands and knees.

Last weekend Josh went backpacking at the Buffalo River in Arkansas with 5 of his friends. The left Friday morning. It rained all the way down there, they hiked two and a half miles in, it was still raining, they set up camp and tried to dry out, it rained most of the night and a couple of their tents flooded so they got up the next day and came home early. I was proud of them for trying but really sad for them to go to all that effort and not get the full experience. They normally hike around 8 miles and spend two nights. He said it was a bonding experience for sure. This weekend for Memorial Day I cleaned a house with Alicia which involved climbing a 20' (I might be exaggerating a little but not much) ladder to clean windows. Talk about bonding experience...we had each other's lives in our hands! Then we had a cook out with James and Samantha Wagner and worked in the yard. This Friday we leave for Hilton Head so we are trying to get all our ducks in a row to be gone for 10 days.

I do have a funny story about Kinley. We've been talking about getting the junior bed out of the attic for her to sleep in so we can put the twin bed in Mallory's room and move Mallory in with the big kids so that we will have a guest room again. Well, the kids are really excited about this idea, so Kinley started asking when she could have the "asparagus" (which she says like expawacus). I kept asking her to repeat herself and asking her what asparagus she was talking about and finally she said the "expawacus" for me to sleep on. She couldn't remember the word junior but in Veggie Tales there is an asparagus named Junior and that is what she associated junior with was an asparagus so we now call it the Junior Asparagus bed.

We celebrated Easter in Duncan and had a wonderful time. The only bad part was that Josh and Granddad got sick on Easter and had to spend most of the day in their rooms. Granddad and I went shopping one afternoon and ended up getting the girls matching watermelon dresses. James got a coordinating shirt. Kinley and Mallory are kissing and Kate is watching waiting for her turn. Kinley has been doing really well with Mallory and she is starting to enjoy her more.

Best Buds - James and Tristan

All six kids waiting at the start line for the easter egg hunt to begin. We had to hunt inside because it rained all weekend but the kids didn't seem to care, they still raked in a ton of candy and money.

We got so many cute pictures of Mallory. Pardon me for overloading you with them. I just can't resist pictures of cute babies!

Nana organized a group egg dying event. It ended up being an ugly egg contest, which is a Morris family tradition, I think James won and grandma Jeanne helped!

We enrolled James at Hoover Elementary in April. Hoover is our Tulsa Public neighborhood school. We researched the surrounding schools and felt like this was what God was saying to do. In May the board had to start making changes because of budget cuts and decided to close 12 schools which will effect every district somehow. We heard that our neighborhood was being moved to a different school that is not doing well. Then a week later we heard that we will not be moved. Nothing is final at the moment but we are waiting on a letter to tell us for sure. If he is sent to the other school we may consider homeschooling until we can move to Broken Arrow. We are willing to do whatever God wants us to so we will wait and see!

It rained so much at Easter and the kids found a puddle in the driveway and decided to enjoy it. We brought Mallory out and let her play too. It was freezing and she loved it.

Mallory had her 9 month appointment at the end of April. She weighed 22 pounds which promotes her out of the infant carrier into the convertible car seat. That means I have to throw out the infant carrier and I can't bring myself to do it. I can't believe it is the end of an era. Baby days are over...well they don't feel like they are because Mallory doesn't even roll over...but I know we'll be at the toddler stage before we know it. She has figured out how to eat finger foods and is loving it. She likes eggs, puffs, cheerios, goldfish, strawberries, bananas, chicken, and carrots. I hope this means she is going to like variety, not just carbs.

Kate loves Mallory. They liked playing with the same toys over the weekend and Kate did a really good job sharing. They will get to see each other a lot over the summer. Jason and Emily are going to keep Mallory in June and hopefully we are going to keep Kate in July!

Oh this girl is one of a kind! She got to have a "girl weekend" with my mom and they got their nails done, hair cut, went shopping, had a tea party and she was totally enthralled with all of it. Then a couple of days later James was trying to buckle her in her car seat and she said "OUCH that's my penis, don't quash my penis!!!" (yes, she knows she does not have a penis I just haven't been brave enough to use the "v"word) She can be such a girl and such a rude, crude, violent boyish creature. I am so curious and scared about what she is going to be like as a teenager. I asked her where she wanted to have her birthday party and she said "bouncy barn" I said "who do you want to take with you" and she said "my animals". "Oh you don't want to take any friends?" "No, I don't like any". I'm glad I won't have to tell her none of them would come anyway because she's so mean. It is funny because she only likes to play with much older kids. If the are 3 or under she doesn't hit or kick or scream but she gives dirty looks and stays far away.

The kids made these stepping stones for Nana and Gigi for Mother's Day. I think they are really cute. (Nana sorry you have to wait until 4th of July!) The kids got me new measuring cups and spoons and new wine glasses.

We found out that in April Josh's office was profitable which means that after rent and expenses he made money for Edward Jones. That is a big deal! I am so proud of him. He has hit two huge milestones in building his business in the last 6 months. I am excited to see what God has in store for us. He is so faithful. What a journey it is to learn to trust God with our work and finances and to learn to be obedient, generous and disciplined. We have so far to go but we have also come a long way and it is exciting.

James is doing really well riding his bike and we have been taking family rides with our fleet. It is so fun! However, the trailer is on my bike and pulling 60+ pounds up a hill is REALLY hard. I'm wondering how soon we could get Kinley on a bike of her own?

James lost his first tooth right before mother's day. One of his adult teeth on the bottom started breaking through the skin before any of the baby teeth fell out. The dentist said we needed to wiggle that tooth and get it out within the week or they would have to pull it. So he wiggled and wiggled it and finally it came out when he woke up two days later. The kids were so excited about the tooth fairy in spite of the fact that about six months ago James asked me "is the tooth fairy real" and I without hesitation said "no, the parents do it". He totally played along and Kinley got into it too and was so upset that the tooth fairy wasn't going to leave her anything. We talked about wanting to save his tooth and put it in his scrapbook so he left the fairy a note that asked if she could leave the tooth and give him money. So when we went in we did what he asked and sprinkled glitter all over both of their pillows. Now Kinley can't wait to loose a tooth and James is over the fear of the unknown.

Last week was a bad week for me. I lost my keys, lost a check, ran into someone's car at a stop light, and my shopping cart rolled across the parking lot and dented someones car. I asked Josh if he could just put me down because I clearly can't do life. It was so humbling and frustrating. I did feel God saying to me that I am way to hurried in my spirit and way to addicted to accomplishing things no matter how small or trivial as fast as I can. I had gotten to where driving was boring to me and not worthy of my full attention. I was putting a card in an envelope when I ran into her. So, while the accident was bad, it definitely woke me up and convicted me. The kids weren't with me by the way. I have decided I am going to put my bag in the back with the kids and I have asked James to keep me accountable to doing nothing but drive when we're in the car. I found my keys at Target, the check at Reasor's and the persons car I dented at the store hasn't called us yet so maybe we're off the hook?? Oh yeah and our 4 month old dishwasher quit working too so I've gotten to revisit hand washing which is oh so fun and time consuming.

This was the day she had her doctor appointment and got a finger prick. When we got home I realized she had been sucking blood out of her bandaid the whole time. Gross!

We made rice crispy treats one day and James spilled half the box on the ground so they acted like dogs and cleaned it up! Mallory LOVED it!

James has had his first crush. We went to the Y at a random time and he met her in the Kidzone. He said he liked her face and hair and the way she talked and that she was definitely older. He had a dream that night that they kissed at their wedding! He was emotional about all of it and said he got a funny feeling in his tummy when he thought about her which we later diagnosed as butterflies. We did have a lot of great conversations about feelings, talking about feelings, love, kissing, etc. I feel the sex talk coming on soon!

This is when Kinley was sick with a virus. She had a 104 temp for about three days. She was so pathetic and would fall asleep in the craziest positions and sleep like the dead. Is it bad that I really like it when they are harmlessly sick. They are so sweet and calm.

There's the missing tooth!

James had a PreK graduation ceremony. His whole class wore star glasses and they looked so cute. The teacher talked about each one as they went across the stage. She told us how adaptable and fun James is and how he stood at the van door and helped each girl get out when they were on a field trip one day. Before the graduation they had a little music program where the kids sang songs and did motions. Well all the kids except mine. James just stood there looking painfully shy and did a couple of barely detectable motions. Kinley smiled and wiggled the whole time but never did appropriate motions. She started slapping herself in the head and dragging her hand down her face slowly. It looked really beautiful. I guess performing won't be their strong suit.

Last week, yes my bad one, we went camping with our friends the Henslee's. We went to Natural Falls state park just outside of Siloam Springs, AR. It was beautiful and had a very clean well maintained camp ground. There is a waterfall that is about 70 feet tall with a couple of small ones beside it. I hope to have pictures to post in a couple of weeks. We forgot our camera so Derrick took all the pictures and promised to send them to us. The falls were beautiful but the pool below was full of snakes. Both times we went down to look at it we saw several. It did rain at some point each day we were there but it was nice because it never got too hot. We love our camping tradition and no matter how hard it is to make happen it is so fun and we are making great memories. This was on the way home. I don't know if you can see it but James has drool on the right side of his mouth.

Wow, that was a lot of info and I'm sure I missed a few funny stories. I will try to post more often so it won't get so backed up but time to sit down and think sure is hard to find and dedicate to this! We are going to Hilton Head in two and a half weeks! That will make for a fun post!