Day 2

"Family is Everything"

 

Day 2: I am indeed grateful for my beautiful Family. Kevin is the most incredible husband, and Kinlee makes me smile all the time. They are both great examples to me. So grateful they are a part of my life.

Grateful Challenge

"When we give thanks in all things, we see hardships and adversities in the context of the purpose of life."

- Dallin H. Oaks.

I have often wondered how so many people can feel so grateful after a very hard challenge. I know of 2 right off the bat that have touched me personally. The first, being Patrick And Ashley Sullenger. I dont know them, but they have touched me. I hope that one day I can bless as many lives as they have through their adversities. Since Thanksgiving is coming soon, I find it appropriate to find all of the things that I am greatful for. I often get too caught up in every day activities, and forget how blessed I am for all the "things" and people I have in my life.

I will attempt to update every day leading up to Thanksgiving. I will post something each day that I am thankful for. You are welcome to join along with me to do this yourself!! 

Day 1: I am grateful for the Gospel

I know that no one really reads these posts, but I'm going to attempt to get people together!  I have been following a blog and they lost their little girl in July. For her birthday which would be in December they are gathering people, and donations to get some baskets together for families at PCMC suffering with a loss or injury. For more information you can go here. They are getting so much support, but it is a big task, and the more they can get together the better, and the more families we can help. So far they don't really know what they need, but for sure granola bars, gum, chap-stick, shampoo and conditioners, toothbrushes and toothpaste. Also, they are setting up a paypal account for donations. Even if you cant donate things it would be fun to donate your time in putting them together. I know I am SO THRILLED to get to help!!! I will probably be making a drive, but we can carpool:)

What a great way to PAY IT FORWARD.

Family Pics

Sorry for the picture overload, but I just love these Pics of Kinlee. 

She is so adorable.

Thanks Whit for taking them for us!!!

Dentist!

Kinlee went to the dentist for the first time. I must say we paid WAY too much.  We thought since she has had so many teeth since 6 months old that we should get her in to be seen and get them cleaned so she doesn't get tartar build-up.  We took her in and it literally took 15 seconds for the doctor to look in her mouth, and chart which teeth she has and tell us they look great!  See you in 6 months. $45 later we are thinking Yeah right! ha We wont be taking her in until she can sit in the darn chair and get them cleaned!!  Good experience for her though, and the doctor was VERY sweet to her. She was adorable.

She loves the dentist already

Doc looking at her teeth.

She got to pick out a prize too! - She picked a baseball whistle (I later threw away- mean mommy)

Date Night

The beautiful temple- shot on the way to dinner:)

On the way to dinner also

At the river- the temple is behind us- just too dark outside to see.

Kinlee was a little upset about the driving home part!

Kevin and I haven't really gone on many dates by ourselves since Kinlee was born 16 months ago.... and in our temple sealing our sealer told us to go on dates, and even when we have kids to make time to go as a couple and do it frequently. We haven't been so great at it, but we finally found a day to get out.  We drove up to Idaho Falls and our original plan was to go to the temple, dinner, AND movie- but I was feeling really sick the day before and had some lingering effects that day so we cut out a few things.  Instead, we went to Outback and Reeds Dairy to get brown cows. Then we walked around the river by the temple. It was a great time! Kinlee had such a good time at her grandma's too! 

Boring

I don't have any pictures to show or really fun stories to tell, I just want to document Kinlee- so that's what I'm doing!

Today and yesterday I had quite a bit of school work due, so the majority of the day was spent on the computer doing that, while little Kinlee was destroying the house. 

She is so stinkin cute though. 

I love watching her do new things.

For instance. 

She now crawls onto the ottoman and sits and colors a picture. 

She breaks the crayons and says "Uh- Oh" and throws it on the floor.  

She couldn't get out the raisens from the box, so instead of asking for help, 

she takes the box and shakes it and bangs it all over the place to get them out. 

When she has eaten something and dropped a piece

gus(our dog) runs over to eat it for her and she YELLS at the top of her lungs "NO NO NO NO GUS!"

She is still petrified of the vacuum.

I wanted to take a picture of her, 

she ran up to me and kept saying "cheese" "cheese"- but the batteries were gone. Dang.

She grabs the keys and comes and gives me a kiss and says bye bye. Love you.

Today, that all happened.  LOVE HER!

 

Incredible

Today I was searching through some blogs and I stumbled across an amazing one.  This sweet family in Rigby, ID lost their little girl in July and it is such an inspiration the posts they have made, and the testimonies they have shared.

As I sat here BAWLING my eyes out- even still- I just cant help but think of my sweet little Kinlee and how hard it would be to lose her. I cannot even tell you how this blog has made me realize how important it is for me to blog and document all of the little things Kinlee does each day.I have so many emotions running through my head right now, I hope that I can get it all out.

I can relate to this family so well, even though I dont know them. They had been engaged in May 2007- Kevin and I June 2007.  Married that same year- them Aug, us Dec.- They had a baby girl in Feb 2009 (I believe feb), us a baby girl May 2009- Both in school, and our age. This really made me think about how life can just be so short. We dont know what Heavenly Father has in store for us, but we know that no matter what it is, it is to make us better. That is what the Lord intends for us, and it is up to us to decide whether to make ourselves better from it, or be hateful and angry with the Lord for giving us such a trial. This family has definitely been so greatful for such an awful thing, it is a true testimony of the love the Lord has for us. They just kept saying how much the lord has blessed them- never angry at the Lord for what he has taken from them. Truly inspirational.

I have been so busy with school work lately that I have forgotten what it is like to just sit and play with Kinlee. I have SO much to do today, but all that I can think about is how much I want to play with her, and rock her to bed, and just hold her in my arms. So I think I will:)

As I am writing this, Kinlee is on my back biting me, and all I can think of is how much I would miss that, instead of getting mad at her. I hope that I can remember this every day as she is pulling trash out of the garbage and throwing it all over, or taking things and throwing them at my computer screen. Or biting me, or hitting me, or throwing fits in the store.....

I am going try my hardest to be the best Mother I can, and help Kinlee to grow up knowing how much she is loved.

If you would like to read that amazing story, the blog is patrickandashley.blogspot.com

Kinlee

Kinlee has decided to grow up in less than a week and learn to do everything on her own.  She has been having a lot of alone time because of her neglectful mother doing homework 24/7.  The hardest thing I think I will ever have to do- spend less time with her and more on stinkin school work. But...i remind myself it will be worth it in the end!!!  

She has become such a mocking bird. She says so many things now. When she talks on the phone to her dad, she carries on a real conversation. Saying yes nodding her head, saying no shaking her head. Saying love you and kisses at the end. Cutest thing EVER to watch. Her newest words include Ouch, Nooooo, Please, Kitty, Doggy, and animal sounds. When she doesn't want to do something (like go to bed) she says Mom OUCH!! NOOOO!  It kills me every time. 

She is getting so funny too. She dances ALL the time- and when people are over to our house she is such a show off! She runs in circles and dances and runs away and just acts silly.

She acts like a dog. All the time- on all 4s walking through the house barking like a dog. Very cute.

She carries her doll around everywhere with her. She likes to tuck her into a "blanket".  Her blankets include hand towels, daddy's shirts, her clothes, and even pillows. Whatever she can find she uses. Another cute thing. 

She now is obsessed with the T.V. (not a good thing- another sign of neglectful mom) But LOVES sesame street and Curious George. Loves watching movies too- Finding Nemo and Ice Age are her favorites. 

She can now open doors...AHHHHH- and loves to get into our pantry and pull everything out, or the shoe closet and pull our shoes out. She has always been a shoe girl! :) 

Well, I guess that's all for now- We just love our Kinlee- She just turned 16 months!!  Where has the time gone!

Today is a good day.

Today is the day I got my cricut back.  

Kinlee is happy.

The house is a MESS.

Im eating a popsicle.

GOOD DAY! Almost Friday.

Kinlees 2nd "1st Birthday"!!!

Kevin's grandparents are so great to us every year they come.  We are so lucky to have them here right now. They have been here for a little over a week and will be leaving in a little over a week from now.  Since they weren't able to be here for Kinlee's 1st Easter and/or her 1st Birthday they decided to celebrate with her now that they are here.  So, we had a very nice birthday party with Kinlee and an Easter egg hunt! We love our little munchkin and we are blessed that we have such great people to influence her and love her so much.


 
Kinlee's cake with a little rocking horse on top.  They spelled her name wrong- "Kintee"- why would your name be Kintee?  But, it was an easy fix... just scraped the frosting off and turned it in to Kinlee!

 Kinlee is making another one year old wish.

She found her easter eggs hidden and each one had a fruit snack in it, she would eat the fruit snack and throw the egg down and move right on to the next egg and do the same thing, until they were gone, and she went back through all the eggs to be sure she didn't miss any.

 She was in the middle of saying "Oh Wow"- her most used phrase.  She just looks so cute.

 She always makes that her "fort"  so she placed her baby down in it.......

 ......and then sat down with her!

 Trying on the dolls shoes...they wont fit.

Memorial Day weekend

Kevin Kinlee and I decided to take a little trip during the memorial day weekend.  Obviously I am the worst at pictures, but I will just tell about it :) We couldn't figure out where we wanted to go, so the night before at about midnight we got online and chose Park City.  We have some friends that were leaving about the same time as us to go to Boise..so we were about to split, when they decided to come with us!  It was quite fun.  We drove to Salt Lake where my sister lives and went to Cafe Rio for dinner with her.  Then, we drove from there to Park City.  It is gorgeous!!  We had never been there before so it was a totally new experience.  

We went to our hotel, which was so awesome!  We liked it, it was a log cabin hotel. We didn't have any plans for this trip, we just wanted to get away for a while.  We had gotten there fairly late, so we just tried to go to bed.  But Kinlee had big plans.  She would NOTTT go to sleep, so we sat out in the lobby and played cards for a while.  Finally I was able to get her to sleep and we continued playing cards for a bit and started singing loudly...so we got in trouble by the hotel :( It was hilarious though.  The next day Kinlee would not stay asleep for long, so about 6AM her and I went for a drive around the city. It was cool to see all the houses.  They are so close to each other on the side of a mountain so they are tall and skinny and multicolored. 

Then we went SHOPPING...  Wow there is the best outlet mall there.  We shopped at Carters, Osh Kosh', The childrens place, Old Navy, Kitchen gadgets store, and tons of other places.  We shopped all day!  Then when the day was over we stayed one more night and woke up and just drove around.  The cool things we saw were like 10 different ski resorts within about 10 miles. There is also an Olympic park where we saw where the Olympics were when in Salt Lake City. We drove home and went and got our little pup from Idaho Falls and came home to bed.  It was awesome.  We want to live there one day!

May 5th 2010

Kinlee had such a great turn out for her 1st Birthday party!  So many friends and family members came to celebrate with us.  Kinlee's aunts were such a great help with the party decorating and food.  So thanks to my sisters!!!  Kinlee looks adorable in her cute little tutu and bow.  Kinlee's cake was made by a very sweet lady who is a professional cake maker. The pinata was made by us, it was a pull string pinata.  I will have to post the video.  This was Kinlee's first time with sweets, and she ate a ton of her frosting on her cake.  She loved it!  I cant believe that Kinlee is such a big girl.  She was spoiled rotten and received WAY too many gifts. Her family and friends love her so much!!   

Picture overload.

So I decided that I wanted to document Kinlee's 1st year, So I made her a little book she can look back on her 1st year and I have great intentions on doing it for every year. This starts from basically the most recent pictures down to when she was first born pictures.  I cant figure out how to get an exact order, so its as good as its going to get.  We love our Kinlee so much, she has been such a blessing in our lives.  We couldn't imagine life without her.  At a year old here are her measurements.

Weight:  18lbs 13oz

Height: 29 inches!

Head circumference: 17 1/2 

She is still pretty little, but she is getting SOOO big now with all the big girl food she eats and absolutely NO bottles or baby food.  A couple big things she does:

1.  She has 8 full in teeth and 2 molars that have come through and are about half way in.

2. Her favorite things include reading books, hanging with her cousins, and watching PBS :)

3.  She is perfect on walks and from the time she was little is calmed by the outside.

4. She goes to sleep at 9 (give or take)

5.  Wakes up around 10 AM (good sleeper)

6. She takes one nap and its never consistent, usually 1 to 2 hours.

7.  She LOVES dancing to music.

8.  Favorite words:  Momma, dadda, gus gus, woof woof, peek a boo, i want some, more( in sign language), thank you,  and uh-oh.

*she has said many other words here and there, but these are the ones she says all the time.

9. Favorite food:  Bananas and chicken nuggets.

10. She walks like a pro...basically runs everywhere.