Life at Home

As I am writing this blog post, Miss Kinley Jane is rocking in her swing cooing and giggling....God, life is good. It has been such a change of pace around here since Hunter is at school all day. I love love love all his energy, but I have to admit it is nice to be able to just hang at home without having to entertain a five year old. And I am finally able to get all my chores done, and maybe even squeeze in a nap. I feel so recharged by the time I have to pick Hunter up so I am able to spend the afternoon enjoying him. I feel so blessed and I love my husband for working so hard so that I am able to stay home during the week.

I think you all are due for a Kinley update, so here it is.....

I have been treasuring every second I get to have with my baby girl...because as Hunter has showed me, time flies and I know pretty soon she will be crawling, then running (yeah, I have a feeling she will skip walking and go straight to running) all over the place. She is rolling over every chance she gets.

Some things we have learned about Miss Kinz is that she does not like to miss a party. She loves to be held, but she is definitely not a cuddler. She wants to be up and looking around. She is SO active and SO strong. When she is on her tummy, she is able to push herself all the way so she is resting on her hands. She still has the most beautiful, big, blue eyes I have ever seen. She always has a laughing attack when I give her zerberts (sp?) on her belly. Her giggle is so contagious. When she is tired, she just falls apart (I wander if this trait will stick). She is happiest right when she wakes up. She gets excited and starts shaking her arms and legs when she sees 'Big Brother'. She has her daddy's ears, and she wears them so well. And lastly, I know I am a bit biased, but I think she is just the most photogenic babe in the world.... So here are the many faces of Kinley.

I can NOT imagine my life without my beautiful little girl. She is such a wonderful addition to our little family. Paul, Hunter, and I have all enjoyed our own special time with Kinley, and let me tell you, she already has ALL of us wrapped around her little finger.

First Day

That's right, this handsome fella started his first day of Kindergarten. And let me tell you he was smiling like this all morning. He woke us up at 6:30 (school doesn't start until 8:40 and he usually wakes up at 7:30)....can you tell, he was VERY EXCITED. It was so cute, he woke up, made his bed, and came running into our room so excited to start 'big kid school'.

He was so cute that I just had to bite my tongue when I saw that the outfit he picked out was slightly dirty and did not match at all. I nicely asked why he wasn't wearing the clothes I picked out. He said because I picked them out myself....duh, why didn't I think of that. Luckily, he decided to at least wear the shirt I picked out and he picked out a clean pair of shorts. Who can argue with that!

After breakfast he ran outside and it was so fun to see all the neighborhood kids outside taking pictures and getting ready for the bus. And no, Hunter does not ride the bus...at least not at this moment. Sending my baby off to kindergarten was traumatic enough for one week...i am DEFINITELY NOT ready for him to ride the bus. No way, No sir.

Here he is with one of his friends down the street. It just so happened they have the same teacher, as well. SWEET! (that's what he said)

I was so not ready to let my Baby boy go, but seeing how excited he was that morning made the whole experience go much smoother.

He claims since he is old enough for school, he is old enough to hold Kinley on his own....I am not so sure she agrees.

So when we got to school, I begged for one more picture outside....

And then off he went......

*Well not really....of coarse we walked him in the building, and into his classroom. In fact, I didn't really want to leave. But we did, and he stayed! He had an absolute perfect first day and can't believe he gets to get up and do it all over again.

a letter to ME

If I could write a letter to ME

This blog post was inspired by my cousin-in-law Joey, who challenged all of her blog followers to post a letter to their 16-year old self. I thought this was rather interesting, so here is my attempt to advise my not so advisable self when I was a teenager.

If I could write a letter to ME, I would tell myself

....to stay away from all the drama teenage girls like to start because at the end of the day that is all it is...DRAMA. It doesn't have any meaning. Oh and FYI, the guy you will marry HATES drama.

....to treasure your relationships with your friends and family....some of these will last a lifetime...and in the end life really is all about the people you share it with.

....to stop drinking at every social outing because it really does NOT make you cool...

....to stick to playing sports because it is one of your passions in life, and it will keep you out of trouble (I REALLY wish I listened to this advice back then)

....to be nicer and more respectful to my mom and to trust her guidance. At 16, you have no idea how hard it is to be a mom and how lucky you am to have such a hard working, patient, and honest mom who loves me unconditionally.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

.... to stop stressing about the future because no matter what you envision as your future it will not turn out how you imagined, but more than you could ever ask for.

Oh my Lord, I could go on and on about what I should have done as a 16 year old that would have made my life a whole lot easier had I listened. However, all the mistakes and bad choices I made as a 16 year old helped pave the way to where I am right now.....and for that I guess I really can't have any regrets:)

*** This was a lot of fun...I challenge any of my own blog readers to post the same letter...comment and let me know you will be doing it so I can read your letter****

Ryan and Kirby Corbey

I am just now getting around to blog about Ryan and Kirby's wedding. The rehearsal dinner was held at The Lazy B, which is a historical farm house that is renovated for parties

The wedding was absolutely beautiful. The wedding ceremony and reception took place in a ul and classical hotel called The Gallatin Gateway Inn. Here are some pictures from the wedding. We love you Ry-Ry and welcome to the family Kirby:)

The Happy Couple

The Handsome ringbearer

Kinley and her Godfather

Road trip

Well, we made the drive to Montana and Back still smiling, so all is good. Paul and I decided to drive because we wanted to stop and see some fun sights along the way with the kids. So we packed our car Sunday night, and headed on our way. Hunter was all set with his bag of toys and snacks, and some new DVDs to watch thanks to the Raridon's. Kinley was snuggled up in her carseat and enjoyed watching herself in the mirror above her seat ( I know, she is sooo my girl).

The first leg of our trip, we drove into the wee hours of the night making it to Sioux City, SD. The next morning, Paul offered to drive first (and pretty much the whole way there...but who's counting). I fell asleep, and when I woke up he had pulled over to our first sight seeing stop.....

The world's only CORN PALACE

You can imagine my surprise when I woke up to find that my husband decided we just had to stop and see this place.

All in all, I guess I am glad at least now I can say I have been to the only corn palace in the world. I have to admit, It was pretty cool to see that the whole building was made from ears of corn. Hunter enjoyed it too...as you can see from his drawing from our first stop on our road trip

I enjoyed my husband's ethusiasm about exposing our children to all sorts of different sites along the way, but needless to say, I made sure to be awake before we made any further stops.

And so it goes, our next stop was the famous little town called Wall Drug. Hunter was not so excited about the historical town, but he was ecstatic about the 80 foot tall dinosaur we saw right off of the highway.

I think we all enjoyed our last stop the most. We were fortunate enough to be right by Mount Rushmore, and of coarse we just had to stop and explore.

We also had fun finding our state flag and learning about when we joined the union

Our last stop included a long detour through the beautiful scenic Custer State Park

All in all, the road trip to Montana was a GREAt idea. We had fun seeing the different sites, playing car games, swimming in the hotel pool, eating out A LOT, and just enjoying some family time.,.....Now our trip back, that was a different story, but that calls for another blog post.