Time marches on....

So much to say, so many things happen and yet I never have take the energy to put funny things my kids say on here. What can I say, right now I love to sleep when I can because I feel more and more exhausted every day.

We just hit the 6 month mark and I'm shocked at how fast this pregnancy is going. We are in no hurry for her to show up, so of course that makes things go a little quicker.

Here's some pics because those are way more fun to look at.........

At the Dinosaur Park

J inside the life-size T-rex mouth

One of the many many life-size dinos in the park. The T-rex is J's favorite

A T-rex nest. 

Digging for bones with daddy

C checking out the playground. He's our climber

Up the rocks

To the top!

J telling me about the bones he excavated

back home playing with the dinosaurs

J is the ever-teaching-dino kid. He loves to tell you the names and now has become by-far a dino expert. He can pronounce the extravagant names and corrects his not-so-interested mom, who chops and butchers the names every time. C'mon, science is not this girl's thing! I do however love that he is so passionate about learning

He bought a few things at the dino park with some $ he had saved up.  This was a clay block with t-rex bones buried inside. To say he loved it would be an understatement. Mommy, on the other hand was all for the hours of quiet I got out of that block of clay. Next time I will buy every single one they have on the shelf

Letting C help him. 

C's helping turned into him high-jacking the block. He's is turning into a selfish little 2 year old right before my eyes! Augh!! I thought we just mastered selfishness 2 years ago and yet, here we got again! God love 2 year olds.....He must cause that's why He made them cute, otherwise.......Oh, lets just say I'm not a fan of this stage. I'm thankful how patient J is with him tho. He's not a saint by any stretch, but he definitely is gentle with the little un-redeemed-sinner in our house. ha! ha!

Say what?! Busted! I pay dearly for when they are giggly and laughing uncontrollably, conveniently out of sight of mommy. I may or may not have seen this first and then hurried to go get the camera because it was too funny.  

The destruction was fed by mommy laughing hysterically. What can I say, it was funny! 

Oh, yes that IS Santa wrapping paper! I may be against the big obese man but I still will purchase the paper because I'm a poor planner and it was the only paper available at Walgreens when I needed some "now". Just keepin it real, folks

He finally learned how to put his socks on my himself. Course I still do it for him because I don't want to wait for his high school graduation to get out the door, but hey we made some progress

Doing a "sticker project" with C. I learn my patience from J some days. ha! ha!

Loves that stick horse. 'Ol Victor has been a good stick horse for these boys.

The bros.....C does everything that J does at this point....some days this is a blessing some days....not so much

We had a wave of family blow through town. This was the day that they left and these boys were wiped out. They just laid around most of the day. A nice change from the bouncy balls they usually are. ;-)

Don't judge. We got a sweet deal on these balance bikes. I really thought that I'd have it painted by now, but to say that he LOVES his bike is an understatement. He's going to be so mad when he sees these pics as a teenager. I'll have it painted as soon as I can keep him off of it for more than 24 hours

These boys love bikes......and mommy loves the energy it burns

Yes, my love affair with H-E-B goes hand in hand with my children. They have cute cupcakes and my boys love being surprised with them! 

The boy is serious about his cupcakes

C had to have another set of tubes put in those adorable ears and they also went ahead and nabbed those pesky adenoids cause they were contributing to the non-stop ear infections again. We had to be there bright and early one morning and while C is a morning person, he wasn't so much a fan of all the strangers taking his oxygen, pulse, temp.....He put Hobbes over his head and tried to hide while they prepped him for surgery

Right before they took him back. I liked this children's hospital a little better, they didn't make him gown-up because he was a little cranky. They just took his pj top off after they put him under. Thank you nice anesthesia Dr for making my life easier. Going to recovery put things into perspective for me., There he was in his diaper, holding his Hobbes, laying on the bed with an iv in his hand, blood pressure cuff on his leg and some heart monitor stickies on his chest. Praise God we only suffer from ear infections and seeing him this way is not a daily or routine reality for me. I'm blessed beyond I could ever imagine with my family's health, relationally, spiritually, financially. It really stirred up more of this "I have too much, now what?" storm that God has been brewing in my heart for over a year now.....augh, more on that later. 

J spent the post-op afternoon helping me take care of his cranky brother, including laying with him while watching Wonder Pets (which held some perks for J too).  Not sure if it was lack of sleep or his terrible 2's but the boy had me hopping all day.

J loves his PJ's. He won't take them off unless we go somewhere that day. A boy after my own heart, ha! ha!

After C's hair cut. His locks were pretty and curly, but he would scream everytime I had to comb his hair and since I'm not one to create un-necessary battles with these boys because I'm lazy smart, I decided reluctantly to cut off his curls :(

More of their shenanigans. Course you put a crawling tunnel in a crib with a preschooler and a toddler.....adds to the excitement I guess!

C's true love, his guitar. One more thing in the crib....boys!

Finally a smile on camera!

And another smile......he's learning how to pump on the swing

daddy tickling

Loves to push his brother, course mr. un-appreciative screams when J does it......makes me curious if J just does it to get his brother screaming? ha!ha!

Baby Kinley #3

We found out what the "surprise baby" is........

A GIRL

I was shocked but T-rav was not. He said that he wanted a girl and figured it would be since everything about this baby is the opposite of what we know. We planned the other 2, this was a complete surprise.
We are a rough and rowdy boy house, this is going to add some femininity back into the house.
Nonetheless, we are excited and thankful for the added blessing

And because people love to buy baby clothes, I have already received some gifts for her.
Be still my heart, do really own these?

Baptism

Because Christmas fell on a Sunday I think our Pastor took advantage of the calendar to hold a special baptism service. T-rav had accepted Christ as young 11 year old boy but had never felt the need to be baptized, so he said. Being baptized doesn't get you into Heaven but as an outward showing to the world that we are anew by accepting that Christ died for us, believers in Christ are called to follow the example of Jesus and be baptized. T-rav said that he felt that he had missed the opportunity and that it wasn't that important to have it done, which looking back he will tell you that it was straight up pride. Well for some reason I felt like he needed to. Several years ago I now know that God allowed me to feel the need to pray for T-rav to be baptized (I never once told him I was praying for it) so that I would be able to witness 1st hand, AGAIN, how God answers prayer. About a month ago, after J's asking Jesus into his heart and to forgive him, T-rav said that he started really thinking about the things that he does as a model for J, especially since J has been asking so many questions. So when the opportunity to be baptized came up, he felt the call to show to J how to be a follower of Christ and to be obedient to His calling, no matter how silly it may feel to you at the time. T-rav says that if it feels silly it's more than likely your pride trying to win.

T-rav explained to J about baptism (since he would be in the audience watching his daddy take a dunk) and asked J since he had accepted Christ if he would like to be baptized too. His first reaction was no, that he didn't think God wanted him to do that right now. We let it go but told him to pray about it (the kid loves to pray, once again something he's teaching mommy to do more) and let us know if he wanted to do it. Well a few weeks later, out of nowhere he tells us that he wants to be baptized, to show people that he has the Holy Spirit living in him. Clearly he knew and was being obedient, something I wish I was a little more of.

 I'm learning so much from his child-like faith. 

So on Christmas morning at 11:05 am I got to stand across the pool and witness something that I never even could imagine........It was a huge blessing to be able to see this.......

Waiting across the pool with daddy

I don't know what he was saying to T-rav but I love how he was looking up at him

Be still my heart. Thank you Lord that I got to watch this 1st hand

Down with the old man

Up with the new. T-rav said that he felt so different, that it was hard to explain

And to add to my joy, T-rav baptizing our 1st born

What an amazing moment!

This is the snippet video I took of J being baptized. We had asked him several times, including that morning if he knew why he wanted to be baptized. He made it clear to us why and was sick of being asked the same question over and over (he gets that from his mama). So right before I started the video T-rav asked J "have you accepted Jesus as your saviour?" to which J replied "yes". So when you hear him saying "yes" with annoyance in his voice, I think it was because he was so tired of us asking him. I know he was thinking "just do it already!" Why do adults make it so hard for child to come to Christ? I'm speaking to myself here. 

When we got home later and were eating lunch J looked at daddy and said "thanks for baptizing me. Your like John now, you're daddy the baptist." The things he says.....too funny!

Aren't they cute!?

C so excited about his bunny fruit snacks 

J doing his silly face

How did this little guy get so big?

Blurry but still cute

Determine to dig the last fruit snack out of the bottom of the package

T-rav calls this look "dandelion head". They both have bushy blonde hair.

Doing the fishy face on himself

C's eyes are hilarious

Going to the lodge...

We try to take the fam to the Great Wolf Lodge each Thanksgiving. This year required a little extra drive, but because it's so much fun we packed up and took a "road trip" for the fun.

His new found love...pudding

Testing the waters

J was so excited that C finally got up from his nap and came down for some fun

He loved these bubblers

Running through the water was another hit

J was all over the place so getting pics of him without getting the camera soaked was hard. Here he is getting tired and freezing a little too....note the purple lips

And think little bro is getting tired too....back to the room to get pj's on

Waiting for storytime to start, staring at all the slides he went on that evening

C in awe of the waterpark 

Listening to the storytime production

C was a little scared of the characters so he ran to daddy for security

I was shocked Mr Independent wanted to show the softer side and take a photo op with the "girl" wolf

the "up and down box" was C's favorite ride

J with his confidence walk, telling C where to find our room

the boys in the river

J coming down his favorite slide

after bath, resting while mom and dad do all the work packing up

worn out and ready to go home

An interview with J

I stole this from a friend who does this everyt year with her 2 little boys. I'd like to think that I would be able to keep up the same tempo, but I'm thinking no. So maybe this will pop on here every few years. C  isn't old enough to understand 1/2 of these, so he'll have to get in on the next one.

What is your name? Jackson
When were you born? in Ft Worth (Clearly he didn't understand the question so I asked it again and he replied with the same answer......Alrighty then!)
How old are you? 4
Who is your mommy? Crissy
Who is your daddy? Travis
What does your Mommy do? I don't know, she loves me (I'm betting since he will never be a mommy, he will never really truly understand this invisible, thankless job a mom does)
What do you love about Mommy? she hugs me
What does your daddy do? works 
What do you love about Daddy?  wrestling with me
What is your favorite color? dark blue
What do you want to be when you grow up? a paleontologist and dig for dinosaur bones and live in Wyoming
What is your favorite food? Pancakes and pizza
What food do you not like? blackberries
What is your favorite animal? big boy deer
Where do you want to live when you grow up? Casper, Wyoming (alright, ya broken record. I get it, I get it!)
What do mommy and daddy do after you go to bed? brush your teeth, go potty, read your book and then watch your show (I don't know who he's been spying on but I feel like I'm lucky if I get even my teeth brush. I fall into bed dead at 8:30)
What is your favorite song? Jesus loves me
What is your favorite movie? Cars 2
What is your favorite kind of ice cream? vanilla
Where is your favorite place to eat? pizza planet (this place does not really exist, T-rav named the favorite pizza buffet place that they eat at this name)
Who is your favorite person? mommy (awwwwww)
Who is your best friend? Calvin
What is your favorite toy? Cars 2 toys
What is your favorite book? Cars 2 books that I'm going to buy
Who is your brother? Calvin
What do you like to do with your brother? play and watch movies
What is your favorite thing to do? run
What does your brother like to do? swing on swings

What is your favorite thing you did in 2011? go to Ft Worth to stay at Weston's house then to the Great Wolf Lodge and go down the big slide.