Creative Engineering

Kendall was enjoying her rocker today but started to fuss a little when the music stopped. To keep her happy, someone had to continually pull the ring hanging below the flower. Trace got tired of having to do that, so he decided he would fix up a do-it-yourself version.

If you look closely, you can see a blue rubber band stretched from her ankle up to the green ring. This way, when she kicked, she would pull the ring herself.

This kid's going to make himself a lot of money one day.

Cousins!

Cooper (16 wks), Trace (9 yrs), Kinsey (6 yrs), and Kendall (11 weeks)

Uncle Tug, Auntie Missy, and Cooper came to visit this weekend. Coop is only 5 weeks and 1 day older than Kendall.  We are missing Sophie and her little baby brother or sister, who is arriving in November. At the beginning of the year, there were 3 grandkids. By the end of the year, there will be 6!

Kinsey and Cooper

Kinsey held Coop while Auntie Missy ate some supper. When we walked back in the living room, Cooper had fallen asleep leaning on Kins. 

Screamer

This morning, Kendall screamed from the time we left the house, until we got to the school. Well, not just this morning.

I can't remember if I have mentioned this before, but she does not love her carseat. If she's awake, she really doesn't want to be in it. And she wants to make sure everyone hears her say so. In Montana.

Kinsey has a dry erase board that stays in the car to keep her busy. She drew this picture on our way to school this morning...during the screams.

It's Kendall! Her mouth is open because she's screaming. My favorite part is the wild hair. That's pretty much what it looked like this morning.

11 Weeks

 Kendall is 11 weeks old today. Pictures from previous weeks are here.

Every Thursday, as we mark another week, I am amazed at how quickly time has passed since she was born. She's growing so quickly! She only has two outfits that are size 3 months that still fit. And even one pair of footie pajamas (size 6 months) I bought last week are already too short!

Her hair was exceptionally wild today. I blame the humidity. Everywhere we go at least one person stops me to comment on her hair. The color and the 'style'.

This picture was taken a few hours after the smiling picture above. She is sleeping so soundly because she had spent about 30 minutes screaming this evening. Every now and then she will do that. Poor thing, I felt sorry for her because she just couldn't calm herself down. Needless to say, she finally did calm down and go to sleep laying on me in the rocker.

And I didn't move for about an hour.

Sure wish I would have put her pjs on before she fell asleep. 

The Gun Show

I love picking up my camera after the kids have been playing with it. I usually find lots of pictures and videos of whatever cartoon or tv show they've been watching. But every now and then I find a treasure like this!

This one is my favorite. 

Trace is really growing up. His personality is starting to shine through more and more these days. It's so much fun to watch him grow and enjoy the big kid he's becoming. He has a great sense of humor. But, he is also old enough to know that any little misstep is going to end up on my blog. So he is very, very careful not to give me any ammunition!

I am sure he won't be thrilled when he realizes that I put these on my blog.

Gotta love this kid! 

See that little thing on the wall below the picture? It's not a roach.

It's this little guy. If you look closely, you can see the tape securing him to the wall. 

The next picture is the hallway outside Kinsey's room. AKA her art gallery. 

It's safe to say that Kinsey likes to tape things. Not just paper. Sometimes we find her elbow length red dress up gloves taped to the walls. And even little Lego-ish people. As I am typing this, I can hear her getting the tape from the drawer. Maybe the little man on the wall is getting some company.



4th Grade and 1st Grade

We had a successful drop-off for the first day of school!

They have both known what they wanted to wear on the first day of school for more than a week. Last night they picked out their clothes for the whole week. Kinsey had already done this days ago, but I made Trace do it because Kendall doesn't like me taking time away from her to wash clothes (or do anything else, for that matter) very often these days. And I doubt mornings will be as smooth as they have been before.

When did they get so tall???

 4th grade

He has Mrs. McHaney and Mrs. Vandergriff this year. He was ready to go more than 30 minutes early!

 1st Grade

Kinsey has Mrs. Johnson this year. She had a few butterflies this morning but once she saw her friends she was all good!

On the way to school I told the kids that I always loved the first day of school, especially when I was teaching. Kinsey replied, "I always love the last day of school."

Kendall woke up bright and early with me and was up the whole time we got ready for school. I dropped Trace off at the front door, but Kinsey wanted me to walk her in. Kendall loved walking through Peavy with us, looking at all the kids. We got home at 8:30 and it was already too quiet for me. 

Kendall was back to sleep by about 8:45.

And now it's REALLY too quiet for me.

Toes! (10 weeks old)

Kendall was 10 weeks old on Thursday. She was in the bathroom with me while I put my make-up on, being precious. She was keeping me company, smiling and talking. So cute!

I leaned down and kissed he bottom of her foot. When I leaned back, her gaze was fixed on her precious little toes. She looked at them for a long time, wiggling, bending, and spreading them apart.

Looking at that picture, I realized how much her hair has grown. It really looks long when it's standing straight up! 

Baseball & a Bee for a Souvenier

Today was Trace's first day of live arm baseball. His team played two games...One in 90 degree heat, the other in 105 degree heat. Thank goodness for Kendall...I had an excuse reason to watch from the car!

I couldn't find my camera this morning so I don't have any pictures to share.

They won the first game 15-2! The bad news for us is that we don't get to play that team again this season.

The second game was not as great. I was sitting in the car for this game and couldn't see the scoreboard, but I do know that only one of our boys crossed home plate. Trace did get to pitch, though. He faced 4 batters...walked the first, the second hit one right back to him, walked the third, and the fourth...out of the park grand slam. My heart dropped farther and farther into my stomach the farther that ball went.

The air conditioner that cools the majority of our house went out on Thursday. We have a second unit that cools our bedroom so we've been 'camping' while we wait on the new unit to be installed. Instead of going home between games, we went to our new favorite restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings, for a little more baseball. And to eat lunch in a cool place. On the way there, Kinsey was telling us all about playing with her friends during the game. "My friend caught a bee in a gatorade bottle. I told her if it died, she could just keep it as a souvenier."

Are you as impressed as I am that the girl caught a bee in a gatorade bottle?

Graduation

I ran across this today and thought it was appropriate since we are less than one week from the first day of school. I had written it down 2 years ago and had forgotten all about it. She did this on the third day of school.


Kinsey is writing her song for her 4K graduation...in May. She informed me today that she will get to stand on a stage and sing. She's quite the composer...pretty song...graduation...girls can go anywhere when they're eighteeeeeeeen...graduation...i'm a rock star...nah nah nah nah...i'm a rock star...nah nah nah nah...graduation......

Hooks Game

The kids and I went to Rockport for a few days to wrap up the summer. Back to school shopping, swimming, and a Corpus Christi Hooks baseall game. Mom kept Kendall while Pop and I took the kids to the ballgame.

The Hooks are a AA team, owned by the Houston Astros. Trace's favorite player, Hunter Pence, played here before he was called up to play for the Astros. So he was really excited to be going.

We had really great seats. So great that Pop and I were a little nervous when we realized just how close we were. On the 3rd baseline, right down ball-in-the-face alley. In the end, no one got hit with a foul ball. And the game ended with fireworks. This won't be our only Hooks game!

 The looks on their faces says it all!

Kendall is 2 months old!

Try as I may, time just keeps right on ticking. Kendall is growing so fast and changing so much each day. She was 2 months old on August 9th. She is not missing any meals, weighing in at 12 pounds 8 ounces. She's grown 3 inches and gained 4 pounds and 9 ounces. When she was born her hair was much darker than we expected. But it looks auburn now and stands up at the crown of her head.

She likes to be moving. Even when she's sleeping. Riding in the car she is generally happy. But stop at a red light and she makes her displeasure known! Needless to say, she sleeps in a swing. She also sleeps best when it's noisy. Trace and Kinsey spent a week at Mimi's house a few weeks after she was born. While they were gone, she only slept 20-30 minutes at a time. The day they came home, she slept for 3 hours! It was just too quiet in the house for her.

As far as the nights go, she goes to bed at around 11pm then wakes up around 3am. So I am getting tons of sleep these days!

She's smiling and talking to us a lot and holding her head up much better. She will lay in her bed and watch her mobile for about 10 minutes at a time. Just long enough to unload and load the dishwasher. When it's time for her nap she gets cranky. She likes me to rock her, pat her on the back, and bounce her up and down while she's laying on my chest. I'm not kidding when I say that girl likes to be moving!

Here she is at 6 weeks. Rockin' those chubby cheeks!

 After a bath at 6 weeks 

Two months old

Here she is at 1 month

2 weeks old 

Imagination

The boys were at baseball practice last night so the girls were home, left to do what we do best these days. Here's the proof. Kinsey was the photographer. I found these pictures when I plugged the card into the computer this morning to upload a dance video she made for a dance contest. That's a story for another post.

Kendall is in this picture with me. (She's 7 weeks old today!) Give me about 30 seconds to get still when she's sleeping and I'm out like a light! I asked Kinsey to cover me up and that was all she wrote. 

When Kinsey plays she is very, very busy and requires lots of props to bring the scenes she imagines to life. Just look below...in the wing backed chair at the right, there's a hairbrush (this was probably a microphone), next to me on the couch is an apron, on the floor there's a cup with a pencil laying nearby - this was a smoothie and straw. Underneath my chair is some Barbie money, no doubt used to purchase said smoothie. You will also see part of a baby bed at the bottom right hand corner of the picture, and of course a pink blanket. There's a piece of mail on the floor, too, but I think that's just something that didn't make it to the trash can. Gotta love a kid with some imagination!

Sweet Kids

There's a little grin!

5 weeks old

5 1/2 weeks old

Check out the double chin and those cheeks!

6 weeks old

4 weeks old

Yee-Haw

She finally did it!

 

We've been trying to get Kinsey on a horse for a few years, but she was having no part of it. But, really, who can blame her? Those things are giants when you're just a few feet tall. Trace has been riding for about five years and loves it. He's really good at it, too.

I'm so happy she finally tried it and, more importantly, liked riding! But want to know what I'm happiest about? That those horses aren't ours! And that they still believe us when we tell them our yard isn't big enough for a horse. Pretty soon they're going to figure it out...2 acres is plenty of room for a horse. Or two. Then we'll be in trouble!