Just a little distracted lately

Again, I haven't blogged as regularly as I used to but this time I have a really good excuse!  We moved!  Not another big move, just to a new house in Dallas.  Needless to say, this has pretty much consumed every minute of free time that I have lately.  It's been stressful and fun at the same time but we've been in the house for a whole week now and are loving it!  I haven't taken my real camera out once in over 2 weeks so I apologize for all of these pictures being from my phone.  Here's the new place:

Luckily, our house is located right near a Bahama Bucks, which we love!!!  It's such a yummy and fun little snoball/smoothie/ice cream place.  After a day of moving all of the big stuff, we topped our dinner off with a stop at Bahama Bucks where Kinley actually won the game by getting the ring on the hook.  She was so proud!  And I'm just noticing that she looks like a hot mess in this picture!  I guess after a day moving, I was probably too tired to notice or care!

Kinley's enjoying the new house, I think.  She's insisted that we sit outside and eat lunch in the scorching heat more than once just because we have a new umbrella.  She says that since we have a new umbrellla, we have to use it.

Before we moved, Jake and I were able to have a fun afternoon to ourselves going to a friend's wedding.  Here we are trying to stay cool in this Texas heat!

I've also been working with Kinley on writing her letters.  She does not like writing....period.  She's not big on drawing either.  Sometimes I wonder if it's because she's left-handed and gets frustrated more easily.  I need to talk to some lefties to find out if this could be a contributing factor.  So anyway....I've been working with her and last week she finally wrote her name all by herself for the first time!   I was SO proud and excited!  It's not perfect by any means but it's a start and that's all I can ask for!



Last Day of School

Kinley's last day of school was yesterday.  For the past few weeks, every time we talk about school being over for the year, she would start to cry.  She says that she's going to miss her teachers and her friends and she wants to keep going to school.  Sad, huh?  I'm pretty sure she won't always be sad about school being out for the summer, but for now, it's cute.  Here's a picture of her from her first day of school (left) and her picture on the last day of school (right).

Hattie's mom, Annie, was able to visit the kids during school one day last week and she took some pictures, which I have stolen:)  

All of the Tuesday kids being silly with Ms. Lynn

Such a cute and sweet group of kiddos

Silly girl

Kinley is most upset about not getting to see Ms. Lynn and Hattie every day.  Good thing we'll still be seeing them at church regularly.

And here's Kinley with Ms. Lynn on the last day.

We are so glad that Kinley had such a fun year but we're so excited to be heading into summertime!!!

Family Day at Klyde Warren Park

This past Sunday was the church's Family Day at Klyde Warren Park.  So after church, we grabbed our lunches and headed that way.  I love, love, love this park.  And it's so convenient considering that we can park at the church for free and walk just a couple of blocks to get there.  Kinley loves this park too but for other reasons like the cool playground.

And the water features that they now have turned on...

Being fully clothed didn't slow her down one bit from getting completely soaked!

Once all of the misters get going, the kids basically disappear!

One day this little guy will enjoy the playground too but for now, he just snoozes.  Isn't he adorable?!?

And here Tadem is with his mommy and daddy, Jacqueline and Tyler.

Kinley and Jake

Kinley and me

Kinley and Mr. Charlie, our most awesome children's pastor

Can you tell she had a blast?!?  Look at that face!

The day got even better when we picked up Rashad for dinner at Cracker Barrel!

Pool Posing

Kinley was so funny the other day jumping into the pool.  I was taking her picture and she was doing all sorts of poses mid-air.  The pictures turned out pretty funny!

Seriously, she keeps us laughing all the time!

Belated Mother's Day Post

I'm such a slacker with this blog lately...oh well.  Mother's Day was last weekend and Jake and Kinley did a good job of giving me a fun weekend and making me feel special.  On Saturday, we went to the zoo and spent a few hours there.

It's pretty much Kinley's favorite place on earth right now.  She asks to go to the zoo every single day.

Thank goodness we have a membership that we will clearly be renewing!

Dancing on the gator

Kinley and I after church on Sunday in front of the fountain

After church, I got to open gifts (a new sewing machine...SO excited!!!) and we spent the rest of the afternoon laying around the pool.  Perfect!

I love being a mommy to this hilarious little girl!

Fishin' and Swimmin'

This past weekend, we decided to try fishing in the pond near the house.  Rashad had never been fishing before and Kinley's only been once so it was a fun outing for all of us!

Sadly, no fish were caught.  In fact, we didn't even see a fish!  But we do know that they are there because there are other people fishing in this pond all of the time.  Apparently, we're just going to have to try a bit harder next time.

These two just had the best time casting their lines and then reeling them back in.

Funny boy

I spent a few minutes showing Rashad how to use my camera.  Look at what he ended up capturing:

Pretty cute, huh?!?!  Especially for his first time using the camera!  

After fishing, we headed back to play around the house for a bit.  They were dangerous in Kinley's mustang!

In other news, Kinley's been spending several hours a day in the pool.  She is such a fish!  

And she's beyond ready for the big pool to warm up.  Of course she's already been swimming in the big pool and doesn't care one bit that it's cold.  It's just that she wants other people to get in with her and no one else is willing to freeze with her!

Girl's Day at the Zoo

Jake had a softball tournament this past Saturday so Kinley and I headed to the zoo.  We actually went to his first game (see, I DO go sometimes) and then headed to the zoo.  The weather was beautiful and we had such a good time!

 Kinley walked up to the penguin window and this one little penguin swam right up next to her and stayed there for a few minutes.  It was so cute!

Checking out the elephants

She always loves to climb up on these rocks and have me take her picture.  She thinks she's such a big kid when she does this, Cheeto face and all!

The Dallas Zoo is doing a lot of new things lately like these little Wild Encounters.  They bring out an animal every 30 minutes and do a little question and answer thing.  We really enjoyed seeing this little guy up close and personal and learning about him.

And since it was such a nice day, of course we had to visit the water area so that Kinley could play for a while.  I promise you she would stay in this part of the zoo all day if I'd let her.

Petting the goats

There's also a lorikeet exhibit where you can buy a little cup of nectar to feed the birds so that they'll fly down and land on you.  Well, the birds weren't eating anything when we went by but they still let us go in. We've been in before and the birds basically just ignored us.  This day, however, was completely different.  Exhibit A:  One landed so lightly on Kinley's arm and sat there for a while

Exhibit B:  Does this photo really need explaining?!?!?

That darn bird took all of the bobby pins out of my hair!  I am SO not a bird person so it took every bit of self-control I had not to scream!

These B&G letters are all over Dallas.  It's part of a campaign/contest for the city of Dallas.  The point is for people to take pictures being the "I" in the middle (meaning Big things happen in Dallas).  The first time we saw one of these things, Kinley wasn't interested at all in being the "I" and taking a picture.  But now she's all about it!