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.