Happy 3rd Brithday Kinley!

Thursday night we tried to go to the Kiddie Park in Bartlesville. It is an amusement park with rides for toddlers. That is where Kinley wanted to have her birthday party without friends. The sad thing is there were storms in the area so the park was closed. We ended up at the McDonald's playland which seemed ok with her.

She got a kitty cat and bedazzled crate which she got to open right when she woke up. As dramatic as she is, she opened her present with little excitement and it took about 5 minutes for her to get all the ribbon and paper off.

She ordered pink cupcakes with pink icing and sprinkles.

She sang happy birthday to herself while we were singing but I could tell by the look on her face that she knew she wasn't supposed to sing to herself but she couldn't help it. It was so cute!

I did ask her why she wanted an animal to come to her party and not her friends, and she said "because my animals make me happy and my friends make me sad". I said what do your friends do to make you sad. She said they hit me and call me such a meanie. I said I think that is what you do to them. She just said "oh".

I dropped her off at the Y last week and when I walked out the door she threw herself on the door and yelled "it's all your fault mommy!!!" at the top of her lungs and continued to yell that for about 5 minutes. I could hear her across the Y. I was humiliated. Not only was my daughter throwing a massive fit she was completely trying to guilt me!

This is Kinley's dream bike. We told her she can get it when she's potty trained and I'd say she is. She struggles with the occasional accident but takes herself most of the time so maybe it will be hers soon?? She wants a doll carrier on the back for her animals.

Mallory had her first popsicle and she loved it of course.

Mallory is finally mobile. She is scooting on her bottom but she can go from room to room and get into plenty of trouble. This week she also said "uh uh" three times when she dropped her cup or a toy! She has dropped her bottles but I am still giving her one after dinner because I can't bear to give the last bottle of my career.

She even sucked on the stick to get all the juice off.

We made cornstarch goop in the water table and my goop monsters went nuts.

We started swimming lessons this morning and James was the first one across the pool and back on his kick board, he jumped off the springboard and swam to the side all by himself, and he was very confident and talkative instead of shy and hesitant! It was really fun to see him like that.

Friday June 3 we left for Hilton Head Island with my parents, my sister and her boys, and my grandma. We drove leaving at 3:30 on Friday and we pulled into our beach house at 4:45 eastern time on Saturday. So yes, it was a whole 24 hours in the car! The 11 of us were divided into two cars and having the kids split up helped. All 5 kids were amazing the whole way. No one even repetedly asked are we there yet! We drove all night and yes we were very unsafe and let the kids out of their carseats for the night. We folded the seats down and made beds. I think that tactic saved our sanity. It was a little strange though because Steve had a trailer with his Harley on it and five car seats because they couldn't fit in the car with all the seats down. We stopped at a gas station at about 2am on the way there and a police officer pulled in beside us and just sat there for a long time. We started worrying that he was waiting for us to pull out so he could pull us over and ticket us for kids not in car seats. So, Steve being Steve, went over and shot the breeze with him strategically offering that he is a retired police officer. He drove off when Steve walked away.

One night we had professional pictures taken. They turned out pretty good considering all the little kids and sand. These are ones that Josh took the night after our professional pictures so we could have some digital images. The photographer had a reasonable sitting fee but of course you can't have any digital copies and it is pretty outrageous to get prints.

We spent most of our time either at the beach which was a short walk down a beautiful street and sandy path or at the pool/hot tub combo in our back yard. James started swimming across the pool completely on his own while we were there. He also loved boogie boarding. It took him a couple of days to catch a big wave but once he did he rode it all the way to the shore.

Kinley loved playing on the pool step, jumping into the pool with her baby boat on, and chasing the waves at the beach. They all loved playing in the sand.

The second day we were at the beach there were dolphins breeching within 100 yards of us. We saw jelly fish washed up on the shore most days which was really cool and disgusting. The last day we saw two huge horseshoe crabs. However, the water and beach were really clean and free of sea life which made for nice prissy girl swimming.

Funny Stories-Tristan said "Old people are no good" (referring to Gigi, Bop and Grandma) James responded with "I know they're old but they're still good".

Kinley and Grandma Dorothy shared a room and every night Kinley did something werid. One time when Grandma walked in she was sitting in the middle of her bed talking on the land line phone and looked just like a teenager. Another time grandma walked in and she was spinning her panties around her finger and flung them in the closet. Then after nap one day she went in and Kinley was stark naked.

Our most recent memory verse has been Ephesians 4:2 "Be patient, bearing with one another in love". I was riding my bike pulling Kinley and Cade and Cade kept saying "no" then Kinley would say "yes" and they would laugh and do it over and over. I guess Kinley decided she was done but Cade kept saying "no" in a loud mean voice and she said "beaw wif one anofer in wuv" then again a little louder then she screamed it at him. I had to teacher that while it is good to use scripture to remind us all to make good choices, it isn't ok to scream it at each other. I was cracking up...at least she retained the verse and used it in context.

One day we drove to Savannah. We tried to eat lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant but we didn't think to make reservations so we ended up at a hole in the wall local diner which turned out ok and actually was the restaurant in Forest Gump where Jenny worked. Then Mom, Grandma, Kelly and the babies went on a trolley tour of the city and Josh, Steve, James, Tristan, Kinley and I went to Old Fort James Jackson. The kids thought it was cool and we got to see them fire a cannon.

Kinley has been mostly potty trained so we did only panties on the trip. She did great in the car and perfect with her pee pee but pooped in her panties every day of the trip except the last one. So frustrating, but we're going to get there. We took a picture of her on the princess bike she wants so that we can hang it up and motivate her. She has to go 7 days without any accidents to get it.

We all took turns cooking meals and only ate out a couple of dinners and they were both crazy with all the kids. We talked often of how if we take another family vacation while the kids are little there will be a nanny on the trip which if funny because there were 6 adults on the trip.

Josh and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on the 5th. It was fun to be on vacation for that. My parents had a little toast for us. We feel so thankful for each other and are learning to love better and better each year. We praise God and give Him all the glory for our marriage because there is no way we could do it without His love, grace and strength. Speaking of marriage we are leading a small group for the next 9 weeks. We are studying Love and War by John and Stasi Eldredge. It is a pretty intense book covering a lot difficult topics. We know that God has asked us to do this to strengthen our marriage and to provide an opprotunity for others to do the same. Please pray for us...we're nervous! There are 6 for sure couples none of which we know!

Three days after we got home from Hilton Head we left for Dallas for the Edward Jones summer family meeting. We got to stay at the Westin in Frisco. Jason and Emily kept Mallory for us which made things so much more fun. Hotel rooms are no fun with babies. James and Kinley and I had a great time swimming at the amazing pool while Josh was in meetings. We had fun getting to know other Edward Jones families too. Sunday we went to church with Jason and Emily then Emily made a great father's day lunch and we sent Josh and Jason to play Top Golf which is a kind of electronic driving range. We are so thankful for Josh and the amazing father that he is. He leads our family with strength and integrity and we love him!