This is when we went to Ardmore last week to help my friend Shelly get settled in her new house. Lilly was trying to take care of the younger girls and I'm not sure they were loving it. My batteries died before I was able to get one of all of them looking at us. Well they don't look as squishy in the picture as they really are! Well James has another poop story I have to share! He was playing in my Mom's backyard and disappeared for a while. When he came back he said "you don't want to go over there, I did something wrong" So my mom went over to the corner where he pointed. He had taken off his pants and his pull up, thrown the pull up over the fence, pooped in the yard, put his shorts back on and went to tell on himself. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO??? Kinley is finally sleeping the length of nap she is supposed to - that is exciting. She started it while we were gone and did it perfect all week. Then we she got home she started waking up early again but she has been able to go back to sleep. I guess she is going to make all here big changes while out of town.

These two pictures are from my cell phone, the one of James is from his 3 year checkup. I totally forgot the info on Kinley's two month check up - I guess the poop had me distracted! Kinley weighed 13.5 lbs and was 25 1/4 in. The doctor told me she was the size of a 5 month old. She was off the chart in height and 95% in weight. Our regular dr saw us in the hall and said she'd be longer if she had a neck. She is really chubby right now - it is so cute. I'll take a picture of her thighs and put it on here in a couple of days. She is talking a blue streak and it is the sweetest thing I've ever heard. James never talked like this as a baby. She will look you in the eye and tell you all about it. But she does require you to talk back or she stops. I have tried to caputre it on video so I could put a sample on the blog but she stops everytime I try - naturally. James got to go to the "fairyground" (the OKC fair) with my parents. He rode all the rides in the kiddie land and said he loved it but you would never have known from the scowl on his face during all the rides. He would find something to hang on to and grip it with everything he had, furrow his brown and endure but the second he was off he would say how fun it was. He was looking at the adult rides and watching the people get on and off and said something about those are the rides that weird moms ride. I think he was noting how the women that rode those rides looked???

Monday James was playing in his room and said "Mommy, there's poop on the floor". I went in the room with the little box of wipes and saw that James had pooped in his pants, taken it out of the pants (still had his pants on??), put it on the rug and was driving and rolling his trucks around in it. He was covered head to toe in his own poop! It was all I could do not to wring his neck. I said "JAMES - we do not play in our poop" (I am so effective when it counts!) I threw him in the shower with all his clothes and threw away all his trucks, then I rolled up the rug after trying to comb the poop out. (Thankfully Bob is a rug scrubber!) After James was clean we did spanks, talking and praying then I put him to bed an hour early. He cried and cried for an hour then went to sleep. When he got up we went to the park and he threw sand on some girls, pushed boys off the bouncy toy, and ran away from me when we were leaving. It was one of those red letter days! What was funny at the park was a little 3 year old boy dropped his pants and peed right on the playground. His mom didn't see him but all of the adults that did were cracking up. I thought, well at least he knew it was coming and didn't try to play in it?? Congratulations to Emily and Jason - James and Kinley will have a cousin! When I told James he asked which cousin was it going to be and I said we don't know yet. I asked what kind of cousin he wanted and he said a girl!

James and Josh ran to the grocery store together Friday night and on the way out James asked for money to put in the machines by the door. Josh said "no" and James said "do we not have enough money?" Josh said "yeah, we don't have enough" and James said "did mommy spend all your money?" Josh said "YES!!". Josh came home bragging about how quickly our son has caught on to the truth of what goes on. I just cracked up - it is true, I'm good a spending money and I'm passing that gift along to James!

James just finished his second week of Tuesday/Thursday school. Until today I wasn't sure if I really wanted him gone two days a week - but now I'm pretty sure I'll get used to it. I was able to have someone over for lunch, encourage some friends who needed encouragement, and catch up on some parenting reading and Bible study I haven't had time for. I also have been able to hold sweet Kinley more. It also helps that James is loving going to school. He has a new friend this year - of course it is a girl - her name is Lee or "Wee" if your James. She just turned two and has some trouble separating from mom and conforming to the classroom routine. The director says James has helped her immensely and that she calls James "my James". I think it is sweet how he has taken her under his wing and helped her get comfortable. I have to share a funny story about my training coming back to train me. I was getting really frustrated with James over something and started using an ugly tone with him. He said "mommy talk kind to me, I am precious by God". I was stopped in my tracks and brought to my knees to apologize. See we have pounded it into him that people are precious and are to be treated kindly so now I know he's been listening not just giving us lip service. The problem was that two seconds later he was screaming at me with an ugly tone, but I turned to him with a big smile and said "James speak kindly to me, God made me and I am precious". He laughed and ran away??? Maybe someday we'll feel like we've gotten somewhere. Today after nap we wrestled on James' bed by his request. I ended up holding him, spinning really fast then throwing him on the bed. I got so dizzy I fell off his bed onto the floor and he thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen, so what did I do, continued to make him laugh his head of but throwing myself to the floor over and over then with a pounding headache we went out and played in the rain. The pictures are of James enjoying the puddles, digging for worms with a stick, and having acorn races down the driveway. I just love playing with him and I am going to miss these days like crazy when they are over, I'm doing my best to soak it up and not take life wiht a toddler too seriously. Kinely is a dream baby. She is smiling all the time, cooing and gurggling, and occasionally rolling over. She is HUGE and eats a ton but she is so content and is sleeping 11 hours at night now. I couldn't ask for a better life - I am so thankful for Josh, James and Kinley and getting to be home to take care of all of them!

We went to Amarillo over Labor Day weekend to visit Josh's Grandmother and Aunt and Uncle. The kids did great even in the car, but James got a stomach bug on Sunday. He even made us proud by throwing up at the Japanese steakhouse where we ate lunch - at least he kept it mostly on Josh's plate! We hope no one else has gotten the bug! Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Kerry bought James Buzz Lightyear for his birthday and big brother present. He was so excited and Buzz hasn't left his side all week. Kinley started sleeping 10-11 hour nights while were there and has kept it going since we've been home. We are so excited because waking her up to give her an 11:00 bottle was awful. She pretty much refused to wake up or eat. Yea for Kinley!! James started his second year of preschool on Tuesday with his backpack, cougar shirt, and Lightning McQueen lunch box. Buzz however had to spend the day in James' car seat waiting for him to get out of school. (I'm the Grinch who wouldn't let him take Buzz to class) He is in the two year old room again this year since he is an August boy but now he is twice as tall as everyone else in his class. Let's hope he doesn't learn to bully! James went to the Dr. today for his three year old check up. He escaped without having to get a shot this year. He did have to put on a little hospital gown and it was the cutest little thing. I took a picture of him with my phone but I can't figure out how to get the picture from my phone to my computer.