Do you see onery?  I do!

Today Kinley walked in the bathroom turned on the sink, plugged the drain, locked the door then closed it from the outside and walked away.  I saw her shut the door and walk away then I heard the water running.  I tried the door and of course found it to be locked!  I asked "is the sink plugged?"  She smiled and said "yeeeeessss".  I immediately wished I had had Josh teach me to break into the bathroom.  This is not the first locked door rodeo we've been to but luckily he's been here all the other times it has happened.  We also have not had running water on the other side of the locked door.  I called Josh and he tried to coach me through it.  I was having trouble so he got in the car and headed home.  He told me to get the wrench and go turn off the water main, well I couldn't find the wrench because if I'm honest I don't really know what a wrench is.  I grabbed something and went to the water main.  I couldn't find the thing he was telling me to turn.  So, I went back inside and tried the credit card on the door again.  With my feet in an inch of water I had more strength and was able to get in.  It was only about 15 minutes that the water was on but that was long enough to fill the vanity, bathroom, and hallway with water.  We've had a fun afternoon drying out.  James was a great helper but all the while he was imagining if it had been much worse and much more dramatic.  He kept telling me I should have just let him bust the door in with his shoulder.  He also said"well mom, what consequence to you think we should give her for this!?".  I asked Kinley why she did it and she said "I just wanted my ponies (two little plastic ponies) to fwoat.  I wocked the door so no one would go in and tuwn the water off.  I just knew if it overfwowed my wittle ponies would fwoat".  So cute yet SUCH A MESS! 

The fourth of July we had a party with our lifegroup at James and Samantha Wagners house.  We ate yummy 4th food then went down to the river and watched fireworks.  We've have lived in Tulsa for8 years now and have never been in town on the 4th so it was our first time.  We had a great time.  Mallory calls fireworks fire cookies. Below is her fire cookie face. 

The weekend after the 4th we went to Duncan and had Birthday Palooza.  We celebrated the birthday's of our three kids and all of our siblings kids.  It is becoming a fun tradition and it makes it so much easier to celebrate all their birthdays together rather than get together for 6, now 7 (I'll get to that in a minute), birthday's each summer.  Granddad and Nana bought the kids some patriotic clothes and we tried to have a photo shoot but they didn't cooperate very well.

 I love the pic below because this is a fairly common sight when you look out the back window of Joe and Caren's house.  All the kids, granddad, and a dog fishing in the pond.  

Josh's big catch!  He had a couple of runs where he caught a fish every time he cast.  He says he really enjoys fishing but he is finding that he really only enjoys fishing at his dad's because the pond is full all the time and there isn't any competition.

James and Tristan are getting closer and closer.  They love each other and rarely ever fight anymore.  I love that he has a cousin his age.

There aren't words.

The girls got tons of new dress ups and Kinley is getting into it thanks to Polly. She has taught her to be a little more girly than she has been in the past.

 Mallory's turned 2 July 9th.  At every birthday celebration we had she cried her eyes out it was time to blow out the candles.  Usually the candles got blown out first by someone older than her so that made her mad and sometimes the song wasn't sung for her and that made her mad.  The day of her actual birthday Kinley was in Edmond with Gigi so Kinley refuses to say that Mallory is 2 since she missed her turning two.  We had our friends Sunday and Shiloh over for cupcakes.

 In the middle of July we had a party at Tulsa World of Gymnastics for all three of them and all their friends.  It was wonderful!  I loved that they did every thing for me! The kids played in the sponge pit most of the time and they got the best exercise.

They had the 18 guests sit in a line and watch all three open gifts at the same time.  It was crazy but someone we kept track of who got what!

Little monkey's

Right after the last blog post we were at church and Mallory got her head stuck in a rocking chair.  She tried to slink down the slit between the back rest and bottom rest of the chair and managed to wedge her head in it really good.  Several adults tried several things finally our worship pastor got a hammer and a crowbar and busted out slats until she was free.  She was stuck for about 15 minutes and never cried until he started hammering.  We are just glad we didn't have to call the fire department!  We got home about 30 minutes later and while we were fixing dinner she stood up in one of our kitchen table chairs and managed to tip it backwards which caused her to fall on her face and made the chair hit James' foot.  

Mallory is asking why! I think she is a little young for that.  The others did't start until they were two and a half or three.  We will tell her no about something and she will say why and sometimes why not.

Kinley got a cowgirl hat and boots and Mallory loves them.

James turned 7 August 4th.  He had asked a few weeks ago if his friend Joshua Butters could spend the night on his birthday.  I told him probably not and planned it with Alicia (Joshua's mom).  I picked Joshua up and brought him home.  I asked Joshua how he wanted to surprise James and he said "go in the back door, I'll crawl while you walk so he won't see me then I'll jump out at him".  So that is what we did and James was really surprised and excited.  Below he and Josh are growing crystals.  We got him a crystal growing kit for his birthday.  

 He's so into stones, gold, rings, etc that he asked for a diamond shaped cake.  Yes, Mallory cried after he blew out the candles.

Introducing Ezra Jude Morris! He was born to Jason and Emily August 4th at 3ish am and weighed 9lbs 14oz.  He and James are birthday buddies!  We can't wait to get to go to Dallas to meet him.

 The second week of June we went to Branson again for our annual Edward Jones Summer Regional.  We stayed at the Chateau on the Lake which has an atrium lobby with a waterfall and fish ponds.  The kids had a great time but I wanted to jump off the top of the hotel.  I would rather be camping than staying in a nice hotel with my kids any day!  Keeping them from disrupting everyone, getting them to sleep and having to feed them in banquet rooms buffet style is not an easy task and four days of it felt like a marathon.  I did try to create at least one good memory.  Saturday morning while Josh was in his meeting I took them all three out in a canoe on Table Rock Lake.  It was so nice, no one fought or disobeyed.  We saw a copperhead in the water!!!  and I didn't even freak out!  The picture below is on the Branson Belle which is a big boat that cruises for a couple of hours while you eat dinner and watch a Branson-style show.

Below is a good picture of everyones personality right now.  Polly is the blonde back center.  She's the girl we've been babysitting twice a week this summer.  She is always smiling.  She is very active and if you give her an inch she wants a mile but she fits right in and really doesn't cause any problems.  James is a tortured soul.  He feels that he cannot let any of the girls do anything without telling them how to do it better.  With me, he doesn't want to do anything the way I suggest or require.  In the picture below, I was telling him to sit between Kinley and Polly and he insisted that he sit at least 1ft from either of them and then was sad when he wasn't fully in the picture. It makes me tired recounting it.  Mallory is miss independent.  She will not be told she is too little. She will not be told anything she doesn't want to hear.  Her favorite word is of course "no" even through her vocabulary is in the thousands and she is putting three and four words together.  Kinley is lazy, defiant, and manipulative and her excuse for everything she does wrong is that she is "too tired" or "too itchy" (she does have bad excema).  I am just putting this in here to remember the reality of most days because I know I'm going to look back with rose colored glasses and say they were the most precious of days. And, in spite of their flaws (and mine - which are many) we have a great time together and I am so blessed to have strong, smart, creative, funny, beautiful kids.

Mallory liked to wear her ears upside down, that's how they do it in the hood.  She loves to dance right now and Kinley taught her "shake your bon bon" so she runs around singing "shakeee bom bom".  She also loves to sing happy birthday.  Almost every morning she and Kinley sit at breakfast and sing happy birthday to each other holding up food on their forks like a candle, blowing it out, then feeding it to each other.  Mallory's version is "happy to you, happy to you".  

 One afternoon while James was gone the girls and I were playing in the yard, yes it was 5:30pm and they were still in their pi's, and we heard the ice cream truck.  I have never bought the kids anything from the ice cream truck because it is creepy and expensive, but that particular day I was feeling nice.  They both picked the cotton candy one and sat on the step together eating it.  It was cute and sweet.

The other day we were driving in the car and Kinley said "mom, what would you do if you were in a hot tub getting a bad massage?"  I said, "well, I guess I would get out".  She said "NOOOO you wouldn't get out because a bad massage in a hot tub feels good!"  This is just a sample of the randomness she brings to our conversations.  She asks the strangest questions, so often I can't even begin think of a way to answer them.  So curious what she'll be when she grows up!

 We are currently in the middle of our two weeks of swimming lessons.  All three kids are taking them this year and they are loving it.  All three are jumping off the low diving board. James is jumping of the high dive and Kinley, by her own decision, climbed the high dive and got halfway out before she decided she wasn't quiet as brave as she thought she was. I am so thankful they aren't fearful of the water but I will be extra thankful when they are all strong swimmers because it is nerve racking taking them all to the pool.  Our lessons are at ORU which is across the street from a high rise called City Plex towers.  James asked what was in that tall building the first day of lessons.  I told him there were a lot of businesses in there but one of them is our therapist.  I told him that when mom and dad go to counseling that is where we go. The next day when we drove by the tower he said "man, a lot of people need help today" because there were so many cars in the parking lot.  Our therapist got a kick out of that.

A couple from our life group, they are in their late 50's, had us over for swimming and dinner last week.  Their pool was amazing as you can see below.  We felt so cared for.  I left their house praying that when we have people over that they will feel the way I felt leaving their house.  

 Tuesday June 26 Kinley turned four.  We had Polly, swimming lessons, and life group that day so we didn't get to do anything too crazy but we did make it to Cherry Berry after swim lessons.  Kinley said "it's the place where you get to put whatever you want on your ice cream!!!"Unfortunately for the most part the day was terrible.  Kinley got more spanks that one day than she has ever gotten in any other day.  I remember when James turned four his behavior got so much better than it had been at two and three but I'm not sure Kinley is going to follow that same path.  "God help me" is my constant prayer!

 We made her a princess cake to have at life group which I forgot to take a picture of or put candles on until we had already cut four pieces out.  

 This morning we went to the zoo so James could take in a birds nest and snake skin for nature points.  Once he gets 1000 nature points he is going to be able to buy a deer antler. I personally can't wait to have a deer antler around.  Anyway, we stopped by the new sea lion exhibit and let the kids spend some of their piggy bank money in the gift shop.  

Below is a video so if you are reading this in an email you will have to go to www.jklmorris.blogspot.com to view the video.

As apparent in the video we haven't done a great job encouraging modest dancing for our girls.  As a result we have some back peddling to do in their training.  Pray for us in that! On a funny note, we had a conversation about purity rings in the car the other day. James asked what they were (he heard about a 13 year old friend of ours that got one).  I explained it and used the M&M commercial that has the song "I'm sexy and I know it" as an example of not being pure. We had previously explained sexy as things God means for a husband and wife to do (touching/holding).  So I said being pure is not doing any of those things until you are married and and ring is a symbol of committing to that.  Well, Kinley said "so when can I get a sepsy ring?" She meant sexy.  I died inside then I said PURITY ring PURITY not SEPSY!  We don't get a ring to commit to be sepsy!!!  James asked me if I had a purity ring and I said yes then he asked if dad had one and I said no.  He said "I guess dad sang 'I'm sexy and I know it' too much when he was a kid so he couldn't get a purity ring.  I of course corrected him after I laughed my head off.  I know a lot of people will disagree with me on having this conversation with my little kids but I always want to give them answers to their questions.  I want to be the one they get their information from.  I want them to know that I care enough about them to take the time and energy to explain things on their level.  Plus purity is what we are striving for so I'm definitely going to bite on a conversation explaining the do side of sexual stuff instead of the don't side. One big thing I'm scared about with this method is them passing information that we talk about along to other kids so I tell them all the time we only talk about this stuff with mom and dad and I sure do hope they listen and obey or there are going to be some angry parents in our future!!

We are having a great summer!  James ended the school year with great success and is loving being home and not having to get up and rush out the door in the morning.  He has been a pest to his sisters.  His response to this is that he doesn't have anyone to bug.  He says the kids at school liked it when he walked up to them and punched them in the face.  

We are babysitting a little girl from our church, she will be 4 in July, on Tuesday's and Thursday's this summer.  It is going well and she is a lot of fun but James is particularly annoyed by having two three year old drama queens to put up with.

Check out this drama queen.  She is in love with Adele and was dancing to one of her songs right before she struck this pose.

We went to Big Cedar with the Morris clan last week.  My parents joined us for about half the time.  It was a wonderful vacation.  We swam, rode the Ducks in Branson, swam, rented a boat, swam, enjoyed the movie room and fire pit with a view, and swam some more.  We are so thankful to be surrounded by such wonderful family.

Mallory is one tough construction worker.

While we were on vacation Kinley started swimming across the pool by herself!  James was swimming around the whole pool with his snorkel and never had to come up or touch the bottom.  Mallory warmed up to the pool a lot too.  She is not fond of the pool in our yard but I think it is the two bafoons she has to swim with that she doesn't like. She LOVES to put her "suit" on and run around in the yard though.

The first week of May we dog sat for one of my friends who clearly doesn't know me well enough to know that I don't keep dogs.  It actually went pretty well.  The kids loved him and I didn't hate him.  I was just glad he was still here at the end of the week for me to give back to her.  We told the kids when Mallory is potty trained we'll talk about getting a dog.  She is going pee pee and poo poo on the potty off and on but I have no hope that it will happen before she's three.  My plan with her is to let her teach herself how to go.  The other two made me realize the more I wanted them to do it the more they were determined not to do it.

Yesterday Mallory ran into the kitchen crying and she was wet, as if she had run under spraying water.  It was bath time anyway so I took her to the bathroom and asked Kinley what happened and she said "she melled bad so I pwayed her wif the woom pray" (she smelled bad so I sprayed her with the room spray).  I picked up the bottle I just bought last week and it was almost empty.  GRACIOUS!  At least it didn't get in her eyes.

Mallory, Tristan, and Cade at one of James' TBall games.

James getting his medal after his final T Ball game. He says he wants to play again.  We're going to try to see if we can get him to try soccer or basketball??

"Pat the Bible" is a song the girls sing at Bible Study Fellowship.  I walked in their room one day and this is what they were doing.

We have finally redecorated the girls room.  Kinley finally has a bed and room to call hers!  My dear friend Amanda Reynolds (we met at BSF 1.5 yrs ago and our kids went to preschool together) gave us the bunk beds.  It is so amazing how God brings about things He wants us to have in His time and His way no matter how big or small of a deal they are.  She then bought me paint and offered her painting expertise for my birthday.  I could not have gotten to change their room without she and her husbands' generosity. The picture below does not do it justice and when I get it finished I will take better pics.  The walls are a light blue and the duvet covers are pink with pink, green, and blue flowers.  I love it and and I'm so glad to have that crazy green gone forever!

 Kinley got her second set of ear tubes today.  She did really well and was so brave.  She did have some nausea and vomiting afterward because of the anesthesia - she is just like me - but all went well and hopefully her ears will straighten out by the time this set of tubes comes out.

Isn't she beautiful! 

 Mallory got a handful of Kinley's Aquaphor and put it all in the front section of her hair.  It was greasy for days!  She is such a mess right now as most almost two year olds are.  You have to watch her like a hawk.  She is the most obedient toddler we have so far though and has had to have far less spankings than the others...wait that might be because we are busy and tired and don't spend near enough time training her! I'm going with the first option.  She has been sleeping in a big girl bed for about two weeks (the bottom bunk of the new white bunk bed).  She only got out three times and hasn't tried it since.  She lays down and goes right to sleep. So big! She is talking a ton, running, jumping and dancing.  The big kids think she is hilarious and she LOVES it when they laugh at her.

 Kinley rocks back and forth in her bed at night, we call it the death roll, and it causes the biggest rats nests.  The pic below is the worst rats nest I have ever seen.  Thank the Lord for conditioner!

 James lost one of his top front teeth.  One evening it was so loose it was just hanging on by a thread and it was driving him crazy so he ripped it out after much debate.  He came running in the living room to Josh and I, so proud of himself for ripping it out, but the second he realized what he had done he started bawling.  It was bleeding a lot and I think it hurt worse than his bottom teeth.  Josh and I giggled at the way he looked when he smiled because we were sad that he's growing up and thought it was cute how he looked like the typical 7 year old boy with gaps in his smile.  Well, he did not appreciate our giggles and started crying harder because he looked goofy.  He's gotten over the insecurity about it and is proud of growing up.  The other front tooth is pretty loose so it looks like he'll be wishing for two front teeth for his birthday.

 I finally got my surprise from Josh for my birthday.  Friday the 13th we were scheduled to have a date.  He had asked Samantha Wagner to babysit and told me to be ready to go out for a nice dinner at 5:30.  He said he had a meeting for work in Muskogee and he needed to take the suburban so he could drive other Edward Jones people to the meeting.  I bought it all without question because he did a great job giving detail and covering all the bases.  So at 5:30 I was waiting by the window holding Mallory and Josh drove up and my mom was following him.  I was like "oh yea, a surprise!!!" then my closest Tulsa friends all got out of the suburban after Josh.  They were all dressed up and smiley.  It was so fun to have them all in one place at the same time.  Josh chauffeured us to the historic Mayo hotel in downtown Tulsa and told us to go up to the rooftop for pre dinner drinks and all we had to do was tell the bartender my name and all would be taken care of.  We had a great time chatting it up and taking in the view.  It was the night that there were tornadoes (the bad one in norman) so it started raining on us halfway through but we just took the party inside.  Then Josh dropped us off for dinner at Lucky's.  It is a locally owned restaurant on Cherry Street. The food was amazing and it was so encouraging and fun to talk with friends and enjoy an evening out.  Josh took the girls back to their cars and said that he and I had to go back to the Mayo to close out the tab.  When we were done at the bar we got in the elevator and instead of pushing the lobby button he pushed the 7!  He had gotten a room for us for the night and arranged for us not to be home until 11on Saturday (at which time James had a Tball game Josh had to coach because there was no one else available).  We had a wonderful time, the room was really cool, and we were loving laying in bed watching cable TV Saturday morning when at 8:30 my mom called and said she was throwing up and needed us to come home.  Once we got home I ran to the store for medicine and Josh started getting everyone ready for the game.  James had fixed the girls popcorn for breakfast to help Gigi out and Kinley chose to put one of the partially popped kernels up her nose.  She came in the kitchen and told us what she did with a hilarious knowing look on her face.  We tried to get it out and of course nothing worked so with my mom stuck at our house throwing up (a migraine was causing the nausea), Josh and James headed to Tball, and Mallory dropped off at Ed and Barbara Wagners (thank goodness for our amazing Tulsa grandparents) Kinley and I headed to the urgent care.  All of this happened before noon on  a day that we were supposed to have until about noon to relax.  We were cracking up at the life of parents.  I'm thankful it's never boring and always challenging us to be joyful no matter the craziness going on around us.  I am so thankful for Josh and I we love doing life together.  He truly is a gift from God and I could never put words to what his selfless extravagant love means to me.  We are so excited for our 30's.  We can't wait to see how many new things we will learn about God and each other and what all we will be empowered to accomplish for His kingdom.

 Rachel Henslee Samantha Wagner Me Amanda Reynolds Alicia Butter's

in the lobby of the Mayo

Josh officially earned his 3rd Edward Jones vacation in a row!! We are going to Lana'i Hawaii in September.

My 30th birthday is on Sunday the 8th and my best friend Alicia has the same birthday! This last Tuesday she surprised me and took me out for a massage, manicure, pedicure, and a margarita! We had a wonderful time. My body was so relaxed and my heart was so full of joy when our evening was over. Her friendship is the best birthday present!

Last weekend some friends gave us white twin beds that bunk for the girls. They are old wood beds that have curvy spindly head boards and foot boards and when they are bunked they are shorter than the normal bunk bed. I love them. So, we moved Mallory out of the crib and into a bed. As we were taking the crib down we all got sad. It has been up in our house for 7 years and all three babies have slept in it. They all wanted to get in and say one last goodbye. James was the most emotional, he cried hard for about five minutes. He has such a tender heart...so sweet. I will post a pic of the girls room when we actually get the beds bunked (we have to do a few things to spruce them up and make them safe).

Over spring break we took our annual Henslee/Morris camping trip. We went to Robbers Cave in southeast OK. This was on the bluff. It had rained the entire week before we left and was still raining as we drove into the park but as we pulled into our campsite the rain stopped and never returned. The rest of the days were sunny and beautiful. Everything went great this trip. We had everything we needed. No one was sick. Mallory's ears did start draining the minute we got there and of course I didn't take her drops but I was so thankful for those tubes because she was happy the whole time in spite of an ear infection. On a side note but related to ears, the past month I have been feeling like Kinley can't hear me. We had her regular check up with the ENT (her tubes fell out in the Fall) and he said she has a lot of fluid on both ears and probably really can't hear me. He wants to give it one more month then put tubes back in if the fluid is still there.

James posing after some hard core rock climbing.

Derrick and Rachel were heating oil for a fish fry and Derrick went to the bathroom. Josh, Rachel and I were doing other things and all the sudden the dutch oven went up in flames. The Oil in the pot had caught on fire. Josh took it off the fire and it burned like this for about five minutes. It was crazy but thankfully the ground was good and wet so the fire didn't spread.

Josh and I went to Rome the last week in February because he earned his second Edward Jones trip in a row!! We had a fabulous time. The weather was perfect. Travel went well and all the details were taken care of for us. The city was beautiful and it was all exactly like the movies make it seem. I just knew I would be disappointed with reality but I wasn't at all. There were even accordion players on the street corners playing traditional Italian music!

One day we took a train south to Sorrento. It was beautiful. We had the famous Lemoncello (it is an alcoholic beverage that was invented in Sorrento because of their large supply of lemons. We went in a shop and asked for a sample and the guy got out a little dixie cup and poured us each about two ounces. We asked where we could get a glass and he said the bar around the corner. We went to the bar and asked for a glass. The guy got out two little dixie cups and poured us each about 2 oz! They were 4 euros each! We should have stuck with the samples! It was a REALLY sour drink that burned all the way down. They like it strong in Italy!

That is the dome on St. Peter's.

This is inside St. Peter's. It was beautiful and extravagant. The architecture and detail amazed me. We climbed to the top of St. Peter's dome and enjoyed the view of the city. It was about 540 steps to the top and it was a very tight and winding staircase.

Josh took illegal pictures in the Sistine Chapel.

A random church made a beautiful picture.

Our hotel, the Westin Excelsior, is apparently an icon in Rome. Many US presidents, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles and other famous people have stayed there through the years. It was a nice hotel and the coffee was wonderful!

Josh has already earned the next trip and we are in the midst of deciding where to go. We love working for Jones and feel extremely blessed to have this amazing job.

James has been having a really difficult time talking kindly to people. This is generational sin continuing it's cycle right before my eyes! It makes me so sad but I am serious about it stopping it, so we have been working on it a lot. We recently made a family covenant that we all helped write and set up our own consequences for breaking it. It has been going well so far. We got the idea from Gary Smalley's book The Key to Your Child's Heart. I would definitely recommend every parent to read it.

Below are his two favorite bears. He does all kinds of things with them. Here they have easter eggs as hats and they are tied together. Yesterday we made one of them clothing.

One day the whole family was in the car and James and Kinley had been fighting a lot. James was being really mean and Kinley finally said "Bubba, don't you know that God made you to be kind and that Jesus died on the cross for your sins"!! We were like preach it girl! If only we all really knew how God sees us and let Jesus' death cleanse our sins and give us the power to love.

We were listening to a praise song that said something about "His grace" and Kinley said "His grace?? I'm His grace!!" (her middle name is Grace).

I asked Kinley to write the alphabet for me and this is what she did. I did give her a copy of the alphabet to look at.

James has continued to do really well at school. He had a downturn after Christmas when he just seemed bored out of his mind but he has recovered. He is soaking up every bit of information he can these days. It is fun to watch and it makes me want to hang on to it. I hope his love of learning sticks around.

James is playing T-Ball at the Y. It is his first sport or organized activity. I'm pretty pumped that we made it 6.5 years! He is loving T-Ball and doing really well at it so far. Josh is helping coach and James thinks that is awesome. Entertaining the girls during the game is no fun though. I need some tips from more seasoned mom's!

James built this tower of blocks by himself. You don't think he's OCD and Type A personality do you?

Lunch time serenade. Mallory sings London Bridge.