Long Overdue

Well, I've been catching a lot of flak from Bill and other family members for being such a terrible blogger lately. But, rather than pledge to do better in the future (again), I'm just going to fess up and admit that I am an intermittent blogger, and probably always will be. I need a lot of things to pile up before I can take the time to sit down and write about them. Luckily for all you avid readers out there, things do tend to pile up after 6 weeks, so I guess I finally have a few things to blog about.

First off, we've spent a ton of time on our house the past few weeks, mostly painting and weeding. It is so much fun working alongside my sweetheart, and knowing that we're working for ourselves and each other. Heck, even mowing the lawn is fun, just because its ours! Some day soon I'll post some before/after pics of what we have done around the house. On the outside though, our rose bushes have been super pretty, and I really like having fresh (free!) flowers inside our house.



Bill's sister Julie gave us her crib a few weeks ago, after Jake made the switch to his sweet Lightning McQueen bed. Kinz loves the crib, mostly because its easier for her to stand up in it than in the Pack'N'Play she's been in for the past 9 months. Thanks again, Julie! Her room finally looks and feels like nursery, thanks to the crib and the cute bedding you gave us!



I also did a little craft project to organize Kinley's closet. It was fun, I just cut down some cardboard boxes, painted them, and mod podged scrapbooking paper on the fronts of them. The hardest part was finding pink, blue, and brown paper to use. For some reason that color combo was tough to find, but I found a couple that worked. Easy and cute. Now that is a project I can get behind!



Hmmm, what else... Kinz is almost 11 months old, and I think it is ridiculous. I cannot believe how fast this past year has gone, or how much has changed. I feel like we have always had Mckinley; she is just such a perfect fit in our family. I love watching her giggle and play with her daddy, and seeing how her whole face lights up when she smiles. Kinz has 6 teeth out, four on top, two on bottom. She loves feeding herself and jabbering. And she is finally saying Mom!!! I love it, it is so much fun to listen to her talk. She takes a few steps at a time with no hands, but gets scared when she realizes she's not holding onto anything and sits down. When did she become a toddler? She loves walking around stationary objects, and loves to run around if mommy or daddy holds her hands. Kinz also LOVES outside. She giggles when we put her in her stroller, and she can't get enough of grass. She loves crawling in it, pulling it up, trying to eat it... you name it. At one of our family BBQ's for the 4th of July, she took off across Bill's Grandpa's huge yard. She wanted to explore the whole yard, and every time I brought her back she just took off again. She's hilarious, I love it. I need to get better at taking my camera with me everywhere, because I don't have any pictures of our festivities, or of Kinley's 4th of July outfit. Oh well, these cute pictures will have to suffice.




How I love this girl!



Best smile EVER




Drumming out on food storage



Hiding in the blinds





Sooo tired