Hello Ladies, come on in!

You two look beautiful, and yes this is where you will be staying. 

The most glorious day of 2009 was on Wednesday...when the washer and dryer FINALLY showed up! So why haven't I posted pictures of the ladies till now? Well, it's because just like every new thing I get I play with it for hours so I can know every thing about it. These two are AMAZING! The first night I was able to do 3 HUGE loads of laundry in just 3 hours, yes I said 3 hours, and that included drying. The washer spins the clothes so fast and hard that they come out nearly dry so then the dryer only has to run about 30 mins. Never in my life has it taken longer to wash the clothes than to dry them...AMAZING!! And the sensor in the dryer really does work (oh you know I'm going to try and make a liar out of it!), I took a load of clothes out that I checked and thought it was fully dry but the sensor light was reading that they were damp. Well once the heat cooled off the clothes....yep, the truly were damp...again, AMAZING!! The sensor detects if the clothes are wet or damp or dry so that it will automatically turn the dryer off  and the clothes won't bake in the heat, thus wearing them out...AMAZING! And it came with a rack the sits in the middle so you can dry a pair of shoes, a sweater.....AMAZING! I have never been so excited to do laundry in my life.....I'm getting old!

JT pulled the drawer open and climbed right on in. Such a curious little monkey :-)

If he laid sideways, we could just shut the door and leave him in there for a while.....Just kidding!

My little super hero trying to do the latest feat....saving his ball from under the chair. He watched daddy run around with Bob the blankie tucked in his collar so sometimes we like to do the same. JT's super hero is daddy. Sometimes I get sick of hearing...daddy, daddy!

This picture is hilarious! He likes to throw all the baking pans out on the floor and then walks around the house banging them together. Love the boots with the shorts!

Waiting Game...

Well, it's been over a week now since we've had to order the twins AKA the new washer and dryer and I still haven't received the shipping confirmation....which means my new babies are sitting some where in a cold warehouse all alone and scared :-( Yes we ended up having to order them from Costco.com because you got them cheaper and the 13" pedastool option they sit on for free....so of course I opted to order than to get them at the store.  Which ones did we end up with....well let me tell you, if you google washer/dryer be prepared to spend a whole day looking at all that's out there. GOODNIGHT, I can't believe that they make that many different options...none of which offer to fold and put the clothes away...what ripe off! ;-) 

Here's a couple pictures of the little boy of the house....busy busy busy...somedays I don't think he ever stops!

Checking daddy's painting equipment...making sure everything is in working order....he's quality control in our house :-)

Waving "HI!" He loves to wave and say "BYE!" when people are leaving but I'm trying to get him to greet them as well. He's kind of got a little southern drawl when we talks...not sure how he picked that up, but he is a Native Texan, so maybe God puts them into the world that way? What would I know I was born in Wyoming and will never have the option of owning the much coveted license plates that proudly boast "NATIVE TEXAN." Yes, those exist in Texas AND you have to show proof of naturalization to get them.....oh, Texas, sometimes you're just too funny for words, but I still love ya!

Hi MOM!

Yes Teresa, I'm saying Hi to you! Do ya like my get up?! How proud you must be! ;-) Even your grandson looks ridiculous in his non-matching clothes. 

Even though January in Texas can be fabulous with temps sometimes creeping up into the 70's (but plummeting back into the 20's with freezing rain a mere 48 hrs later) I have to remember that it is still January. Yesterday it was in the mid 70's here and I had been out in the morning raking leaves in the backyard. I was sweating a little after doing it and it was only 10:30 am. So after the morning nap, we went to Central Market to meet up with some friends to play and I just wore the shorts I had on from being hot earlier. Well, the sun had already moved beyond the playground by the afternoon and let me tell ya, it's chilly in the shade. I ended up finding (some would call it stealing, since I was nervous the whole time I had them on that the little girl would come back to get them) these leg warmers left by a 12 year old and decided to use them for some added warmth. Well pictures are worth a thousand words, so a few of my friends decided to snap a few of my ridiculous outfit. The best part is my kid looks just as strange as I do but for a good reason. I've discovered awhile ago that letting him have some control alleviates some of the fits...he is so strong willed and knows what he wants. So Travis and I started letting him pick his own shoes (he will pick a different pair each time we go out the door, or sometimes mis-match them, so crazy) and then the other day I started letting him pick his clothes from some choices that I offer. Well yesterday, before I could get out some shirts that would match his camo cargo shorts, he opened his dresser drawer and picked out a shirt himself. The weird part is that he took 2 others out and tossed them aside before settling on this blue one. In letting him have control over that, I have discovered 2 things: 1) I need to move his shirts to a taller drawer and 2) he's not going to always pick something that I will like or that will necessarily match. I'll focus on the important things and let these little ones go........Thanks Bekah, for teaching me that!

My mom and Rob got a computer about 3 months ago and she JUST RECENTLY discovered our blog and got an e-mail address. So now she e-mails me every time she reads our blog (which I think is daily) to tell me how much she loves it. I'm not much a phone talker, especially with people that are long distance. It's hard for me to interact and keep people up to date by talking through a device that is irritating me...aka the phone...I hate having to hold it up to my ear. Well my hilarious mom is a detail person and she wants all the details of everything I do and and everything her grandson does, but unfortunately the times that she has to talk to me is when life is in full swing here at the Kinley's and I can't be talking on the phone. But because I like to write about our antics, this blog is right up her alley. I think my mom thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread. Isn't if funny how when your mom thinks and tells you what your doing is great, it just gives you the incentive to do it more, even when you are now 30 yrs old (well 1/2 way there, I'm still 29). I need to remember that with my own son! You raise what you praise, and praise is still nice to hear when you are grown and gone.

I love this next pic and I think it's the cutest profile ever! 

Sharing is caring..

As much of a difficult toddler as JT can be sometimes, I do notice that he is really good at sharing...so far, that will probably change now that I've announced that so proudly....kids love to keep you humble, so I've discovered. Here's some pictures proving that he likes to share...

Example 1-He loves to share his favorite lounging chair with his new BFF-the lawn mower

This one is so cute....he actually was standing in front of the chair when Benjamin came walking by. JT then started patting the seat of his chair as to say...."sit, sit". So Benjamin crawled up in there and sat on the arm and then JT got in after him. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time and then I snapped this...it was too cute to miss.....

This one it THE BEST. They traded sippies and then started chugging!! I thought that started in high school?

It was so nice here last Friday (a high of 84-that's right in the 80's you northerners...ha! ha!) so we took JT to ride the Forest Park Mini Train. 

If you look closely at his left eye (your right) you will see a big ol shinner. That's right, he got that sucker from throwing a fit and not paying attention as to where he was throwing that fit. He has such a quick temper....it is very true that you inherit the sins of your parents, and that one he got from me...expressive and implosive, sometimes it's STILL hard for me to take control of it.

Am I really that excited?!

Oh, you bet I am! After 9 years of marriage Travis and I are going to make the big purchase.....a new washer and dyer!!! I can not wait to go pick up these beautiful factory crafted pieces of metal luxury up on Saturday morning! It will be the best Saturday of the year so far......

Let me just say that I am very grateful for the FREE, yes FREE washer and dryer that we have right now. I think the washer is about 25 years old and sounds like a jet starting and shutting down during the spin cycle and our dryer is probably only about 10 years old and takes about 15 years to dry anything, but these two crazy mis-matched machines have been a huge blessing and a nice long break from the laundry mats I frequented before they came into our lives 4 years ago. BUT last night as I was folding and putting away more laundry that was supposedly clean, but looked as if I had just taken them straight out of the dirty clothes hamper and was folding them to be put away, I became very frustrated that our clothes never get clean, stains get set in and it will take forever to dry clothes. So my very sweet and giving husband said.."well find the ones you want and we'll get a new set, this weekend" The weird part is that I am excited about it.....me, Crissy, excited about a new washer and dryer....who would've thunk it?! Oh and rest assure I will be posting a new picture of the twins when they come home on Saturday.

Well I'm off to wake the baby, which is breaking my #1 rule in this house...NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY, because we have a meeting this morning and then tomorrow it's back to our normal schedule.

Have a great day!

Pictures

Honestly, I don't think I have the patience it takes to upload video. I tried it again this morning and I think I'm going put my forehead into the keyboard. I think blogger makes it this way so that it can weed out the herd and not have a ton of video on it's server. The video I uploaded yesterday took 15 mins....AND IT'S ONLY 35 SECONDS LONG!!! That is ridiculous!! Sorry family it you loved getting a little glimpse of him in action...I just don't have the patience to keep coming back to the laptop to make sure it didn't go into power save mode during the uploading process for a video that is about 1/2 a minute. So you'll just have to see him in pictures. If I'm feeling really patient again one day, I might try it, but for now....no way!!!

The other night JT had his first sleepover at our house. His friend Benjamin (who is 2 weeks younger than JT) came and stayed the night because the next morning his daddy was having oral surgery to have his wisdom teeth removed and his mommy had to go with. The sleepover was the easy part, because they both sleep through the night at this age. It was the next morning that proved to be a little difficult. They play really well together and are relatively easy to take care of, but it's still like having toddler twins running through your house...whew! Now I know why people get a house cleaner.....my Friday Floor Cleaning Day was threw out the window. How can you clean a floor when you can't see it? :-)

This picture cracks me up! Just relaxing on my chair.

The artist working on his latest masterpiece

Oh, hi mom!

Helping daddy sand the hole he just patched in the laundry room wall. You can see he has his boots on, ready to work

Awww, sweet baby

We went to our neighbors (aka "our Mexican-family-we-never-knew-we-always-wanted) for New Year's Eve....we didn't make it to midnight, but was glad we went. All the authentic Mexican Food you could eat......mmmm, good!! This is JT with Sabastian our neighbors littlest boy. We spent Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve with them and their HUGE family. They make us feel like one of them, even though we clearly stick out. I love our neighbors!

This is Laura (our neighbor) with Sabastian. He is 10 months older than JT so we go next door to play A LOT! In the summer, our house is the hang out, because her older kids (Alex, 7 and Diana, 12) like to swim in our pool.

Out in the garage where the food and tables were. Here's my kid in his pj's and the others were dressed for a wedding, definitely a cultural thing we should have remembered. They get dressed up for parties and we showed up in jeans and JT had his pj's on.

If you look in the middle of the picture you'll see the ONLY blond haired kid in the room, JT. He is most certainly a leader. He loves to push things around, so he started this chair race with the other little kids. It began in the garage, but then JT added a lap that included through the kitchen and back out again. The other kids would just follow wherever JT led them.

This is where most of the older kids where...watching tv You'll notice the lone-blondie to the right of the picture...yes, that's him SITTING ON TOP of the train table. I don't know how he got up there, I just came looking for him and there he was. He then stood up and started throwing the tracks off of the table.....how proud was I!? All the little kids thought that would be fun too and tried to climb on with him. We had to shut down that new game ASAP.

The party boy getting sleepy. This was at about 9:30, waaaaay past his bedtime

You can see in his little eyes that he's just worn out.

Little Benjamin at the sleepover

"the twins"

We have these out in the office for when littler friends come over to visit us, which is ALWAYS accessible to JT. So I discovered that it is true that they like to show off a bit when they have company. He was climbing in it and turning it on for Benjamin to see how it worked.


He then wanted Benjamin to see his climbing mats he likes to wrestle with daddy on.

The next morning...playin in JT's room

Ta Da!!!

I finally did it, I successfully uploaded a video to blogger-cross #10 off my New Years Resolution list!!! I must say that it takes a whole lotta patience to get a video on this blog, which I was just handed a huge dose of humility because I "used" to think I was pretty patient with all techie things.

We were packing up Christmas yesterday and JT saw the dancing santa box. I thought I would let you all hear his sweet little voice....WARNING!! This will make you fall in love with my baby :-) Oh and you'll love the pj's with boots get up....I forgot to hide them again and of course when he found them, they just had to go on. It's a daily ritual at this point.

I also just noticed that in this video when I'm trying to get him to santa one more time, he says "box". Listen for it, it's really cute!!