Man's work

I think everyone thinks they have the best daddy as their husband or even their own daddy. I personally think that too, but I don't want to ever down play all the other great daddy's out there.

That being said, we have the best daddy for our little family! T-rav is so gentle, patient, fun-loving and just plain silly with our 2 little guys. J talks about how when he grows up and becomes a daddy his name will be Travis. His daddy is his hero!

T-rav built the boys a picnic table so they could enjoy eating in the great outdoors more and mommy could enjoy just hosing off the back porch for clean up.......perfect! J helped daddy through-out the process and kept referring it to his "man's work"....

J cleaning up the scrap pieces and C sweeping in the background

J so excited that I came out to photograph him using the electric sander.

It was sooo hot out that day......T-rav looks miserable, but he never likes to leave anything un-finished. I remember being able to be like that.....about 4 1/2 years ago

watching brother with intent....while holding his watermelon. He had just gotten up from his nap and his sleeve was un-buttoned. The boy is usually starving right when he gets up so it's best not to get distracted from getting him food otherwise it's meltdown city....this includes messing with his attire ;-)

J multi-tasking. He's not one to stop the fun to eat, so notice how he is still sanding but reaches out for brother's watermelon to get himself a quick bite

J is the ONLY one C will share his food with......I'm glad because C is a food pirate these days. Poor J better eat it quick cause C will nab it fast.

Daddy teaching J how to blow the dust off of the table with the air-compressor to get it ready to paint

He really is great help

helping daddy paint it "blanco" (T-rav is trying hard to remember his spanish skills by teaching J as much as he can remember....maybe colors are all he can remember at this point...lol!). I was shocked when they came home from the Home D with that color, I really thought he would pick his favorite color, red.

I love this picture because you can see C's little feet dangling down......almost can touch

Sharing some strawberries......my cup is full of joy with these 2!!

Crazy little thing called L-O-V-E

Some days I need to be spoon fed His word because getting time to read anything is impossible, directly caused by being blessed with a full nest. So today when I was listening to a podcast from IFL this tidbit from the message resonated with me, in a good way.....for once.

A Chuck Swindoll paraphrase of a proverb-

"We can really be picky people. It takes a Heavenly appetite to enjoy a Heavenly food. Where there's a peace of God and where there's a hunger for God, you'll eat whatever is placed before you. You do it with gratitude. Better is a little dish of herbs than a big 'ol t-bone steak with out the blessing of God."

A few weeks ago an almost miraculous thing happened to me and I've been not only in awe of it, but I notice that it has changed my outlook on everything that effects my life. I know that I know for certain that I prayed the sinners prayer when I was 7 years old and at that moment I was saved by grace. I know that I know that at the age of 22 God got a hold of my life, our marriage, and took it captive for His own. And on May 18, 2011 I know for sure and for certain that God took me deeper into His love........ never in my life have I known love like this before.

Love had confused me before, it was something that I showed for others hoping that they would "like" me or (if I was lucky) they would love me in return. It was conditional, if I performed the way they wanted to see me then I could get them to love me and not just like me. If they wanted funny, funny I would be. If they liked a little more sass, sassy I would be. If caring was more what they saw in me, then I would go out of my way to be caring for that individual. See the craziness I was on? I had no idea who God really made me and was at times embarrassed/ashamed of the personality He had given me. On that morning of May 18th, God grabbed ahold of me and showed me a small glimpse of how much he LOVED me. He loves me for me. He knitted me together, short legs and all, in my mommy's tummy over 30 years ago. He knew how easy my birthday would be for my husband to remember. He knew that my hair would slowing turn brown over the years making run for the hills of hair color to keep the local cosmotologists fed. He knew that I would be groomed by an out-doors man of a dad, and tom-boy of a mom and an older brother who made it his success in life to make sure his little sister knew how to hit like a boy. He made me for His purpose not for anyone else's entertainment. Yes, I still have a very sinful nature that needs to be dealt with regularly. Candor can be used for evil sometimes if not taken under the control of the Holy Spirit. My mouth has gotten me into more jams that I can count......augh, but the grace of God is showing me how He loves despite those flaws. Wow!

So now that I've gotten just a small glimpse of His pure love for me, it's setting me free from so much that had held me back before.

I'm talking about and remembering funny things about people that I swore I could never love again. That only comes directly from the overflow of love that I'm feeling in my heart. Never again will I ever try to feel the intimate love from someone on this earth that was only intended to be from the One who created me. Talking about setting myself and others up for failure!

He's up to something..... something that is the exact opposite of anything I ever thought He wanted from me......something called LOVE.

PS....I heart this song.

lost photos

These are from Gramie's camera when we visited up north a few months ago....too cute!

J pretending to be mommy......Aren't sunglasses suppose to be a hair accessory?

C's 1st bday cake/party with family. J picked it. C kinda liked it. And mommy needed a nap. I noticed that here lately I'm starting to do this smile more and more in pictures. I think it's because I'm tired so I don't feel like my eyes are fully open....therefore I force them open.....and this is the result. Terrify, no?

A much needed respite

We went on vacation last weekend with out our boys and even though I missed them I have to admit it was so relaxing and fun. We met some funny folks from Canada. Enjoyed not having to lift a finger. Went fishing. Layed on the beach. Rented some scooters and drove around the island. took only about 25 pics because I was too relaxed to pick up my camera. Laughed. slept. ate weird local food. laughed more. danced. .....the entire vacation was much needed, to say the least. We even stopped calling each other mommy/daddy and started referring to each other by the names we had before the kids came.

Coming in for a landing....the runway was built out on the water to accommodate bigger planes

Our 1st afternoon/sunset...so relaxing

coffee on the beach....what a great morning

Our 1st full day we rented scooters (T-rav wanted hogs but they didn't have any on the island, ha! ha!) and drove around all day. Some pretty hysterical moments in my mind of me yelling and laughing "stay on the left!" while riding with T-rav. This island is owned by the British, so everyone drives on the left side.

Eating lunch at a famous eatery in Turtle Cove. The deck was over the water and you could see all the turtles and their babies below us...so cute! Course, I forgot to take a picture of them

Another peaceful sunset

Where I spent most of my time...in the water laughing and lounging

Our last day, we were suppose to go snorkeling but this was out there with lightning so they cancelled it. funny how it was nice on the beach all day but out on the water was like this for about 3 hours. Never once came ashore, but was beautiful to watch roll by

Before our flight home. I stayed as far away as possible so that T-rav wouldn't have to drag me out

A shot for the geologists out there....for those of you who aren't....the islands sit up on a carbonate shelf. You can see the waves crashing as the elevation in the ocean comes up. I learned a lot of geology this weekend
By the way we went to turks and caicos

Ahhhhhh...

We're on vacation.....

Wait, make that 2

.....TWO strong willed boys, yes that is what we have. I just gave Mr. C some H-E-Buddy Honey Grahams (yes, that's a shout out to my fav store, ha! ha!) and he threw a fit for the box. So I handed it to him thinking he just wanted to hold it....nope! He opened it up, pulled the cracker that he had in his mouth out, dropped it back in the box and then reached his chubby arm back in there to retrieve a whole handful. I'm hoping that in that handful is his soggy one that he put back. Lord have mercy, we have already moved into the "I do myself" stage.

I stopped cooking dinner just to put this on here, so that I could always remember the day that lil stinker started his terrible 2's. Don't let that sweet smile fool ya, ladies.....he's a Kinley boy for sure. ha! ha!

OK, back to dinner.......

Randomness, at best

Ever seen the movie "A Christmas Story"? There's a part in there where the family is eating at the table and the main Character, Ralphie, randomly tells his parents that one of his friends saw a grizzly bear at the local candy store downtown. I can't quote it line for line, despite seeing this movie over a 100 times, but ol T-rav can. He's a movie quoting machine....anyway, sometimes when we are talking....ok, all the time when we are talking, I will have a thought enter by brain and I will just say it to him, whether is off-topic or not. To which he'll look at me and quote this movie line with a smile. In'it he cute? (insert sarcasm here)

It's not like I want to be off and random, but as anyone can attest to having little kids around, this is what my conversations with J are like all day. So you tend to pick up on it and have it as your rhetoric for adult conversations as well. (by the way, did you see that I tried to insert a big person word in there? I'm not even going to go to the online dictionary to look it up and make sure I'm using it correctly here.....my writing skills will just have to suffer until I can grow out of toddlerhood. Poke fun if you must, I love getting a good laugh). I feel like my brain is moving so fast to be ahead of the next teaching moment or lack there of, that having a real conversation takes a lot of brain power.

Dant-da-da-DA!....In walks my new friend! He really IS the God who sees me because THIS girl has got a new girlfriend to hang with that has a lot in common with me including the randomness, plus a sense of humor to boot....jackpot! (ah-hem, Um, I will NEVER tell her about this blog either. Well at least not until she has really gotten to know the crazy me. How would she feel that I was telling the whole blogging world that she is as much as a s-l-o-w and random thinker as me?) Anyway I just wanted to thank anyone who might read this occasionally and to let you know that He is answering prayers. I actually have 3 friends (more abundant that I can even count, is My God!) but this particular one, well it just clicks if you know what I mean.

I sometimes find myself lost and confused at Costco as well. Between being over stimulated by all the pretty things that Costco has to offer, looking at all the fun stuff with J, keeping food down C so he doesn't scream and run my moment that is "Costco" (this child is an eater some days), Oh and actually getting the things that are on my list, it can seem down right exhausting. I usually come home from a food shopping experience with my boys mentally fatuged and wanting to do nothing else for the rest of the day. Have I ever mentioned that I think as spoiled citizens of the USA we have WAY TOO many choices at the grocery store? Seriously, it's nice, but when you have chaos erupting amongst the buggy, sometimes I wish there wasn't so much to navigate your way through.

I've also discovered that I'm a sucker for "patent-pending" products. I was noticing in my bathroom alone there are 3, THREE things that I have bought BECAUSE this was stamped on it. Granted they weren't impulse purchases, but I did pick that particular one because it seemed to stand out amongst the others. I feel like if it has something that special about it, it feels like I won't be getting any false advertisement .....it does what it says it will do and no other product will be able to copy it because they have the exact secret to what makes it work the best. Which then made a random thought come into my head.....why don't they "patent" the Bible? I mean, as much as I have learned from it and changed old patterns in just the past 2 months alone is un-speakable measurements. It seriously is a get-what-you-paid-for-instructional-manual in the book of Proverbs alone, just thinking of how much could be grasp in the other 65 books makes my head spin. I know, I know, all you Bible history buffs probably have a whole lesson on why and how, but I was just sharing my simple, random thought.

I have some good and sad news to share as well. Our house in Ft Where sold :-(. My thoughts about "maybe we made a mistake and God is showing us by not letting our house sell" where blown to bits when after the 5th party to make an offer came swiftly, quickly and out of no-where. We had been working with another out of town couple, but they decided they didn't want to move to TX after all. But the next day another couple went and looked at the house in a down-pour rain, saw it in it's glory of a flooding swimming pool, deemed the house as perfect for them, made an offer that was perfect with no extras and wanted to close pronto. God is so good, that's all I can say. Course He's even better in other ways, as to how He keeps our family safe, together, healthy, provides, keeps children yearning to know more about Christ despite my ridiculousness, makes the sun rise......you know, the simple things in life. ha! ha! Most of all I'm grateful for His goodness to me and keeping my joy alive. I still love to laugh and I thats something that had almost disappeared when we 1st moved here. Glory be to God, alone!

K, our little morning person has risen and is getting impatient with me.....need to go retrieve him out of the crib before he starts getting that little leg over the rail. How does he do that?! Climbers will always amaze me!