Tis the Season

In honor of the Christmas Season, I thought rather than writing about the 12 Days of Christmas I'd show you...

The 12 Faces of Kinley!

ENJOY

Hey Mom, I've been working on a little something...

My present for you = )

Relieved!!

Is it just me or does it look like Kinley has a mohawk?!

FEED ME!!

And...Full = )

Very Curious

This one just makes me laugh

This is what I look at most of the day!

Love the tongue

We have staring wars...Kinley wins every time

SMILE!!!

A very sad Goodbye

We are so sad to say goodbye to our puppy Landry.  She died on Monday, November 22  from a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  It's a condition that is pretty much undetectible, so we had no idea.  (This heart disease causes the walls of your heart to thicken so it is impossible for blood to pass through...it is what has caused famous athletes to die suddenly in the middle of a game - ex. Reggie Lewis & Hank Gathers).  The fact that it was so sudden has made our grieving pretty tough, she was just the best companion to us and we were really looking forward to her being Kinley"s little buddy.  Landry was our little clown, she always made people laugh. 

One of my very favorite things about her was her strong devotion to Trent - I always tried to watch and see when Trent was about to come home.  Our little game was that I would ask her "Where's Trent?!" and she would run to the door and just absolutely go crazy!  She loved to run out to his car and greet him.  She understood so much of what we said to her and learned tricks in a couple of days.  She was such a snuggler and even did great when we brought Kinley home. 

It's been a bit overwhelming to deal with the mix of emotions I'm feeling - new baby (HUGE joy), loosing our dog (huge sadness), getting used to a new dynamic with a baby in the house, new role as mommy, not sleeping, holidays, and the lovely post-partum emotions.  I'm thankful that I haven't felt like too much of a nutcase through it all, and I truly want to enjoy every moment with our new little girl.  It is just also so sad to loose our dog that was so precious to us.  I wanted to share some pictures with you of Landry - makes me smile and cry to look at these again  = (

At 7 weeks old - already posing for the camera

I used to take Landry to work with me - this was her eating my work = )

This one is a little fuzzy, but just to show you how much Landry wanted to be part of everything!

Landry LOVED the frisbee - even knew the word.  And she always carried her frisbee just like this

Meeting Kinley for the first time.  Right after smelling her toes, Landry laid down beside me - perfect

I have a feeling we would have had a lot more of this.  Landry loved to cuddle

We'll miss you

Announcing Kinley Brooke Thompson!

Kinley Brooke Thompson

November 13, 2010

8 lbs 19.5 in.

10:41 am

In the last 2 weeks, Trent and I have totally fallen in love (actually that happened in the first 5 minutes!).  Kinley is wonderful in every way = ).  She's absolutely beautiful, her most pronounced features are her button nose, adorable full lips, and full head of dark hair!!  She also has awesome calf muscles that match Trent's - I love it!  She has an incredible temperament...she loves to sleep and when she's awake, she loves to look around at all the lights.

Here are some pictures from her first few days:

Our First Family Photo!

Minutes old

Kinley was wide awake when she was born!

Here are some more close-ups of our precious baby girl!

 

I love these lips!!

We were so glad everyone came to visit!

Gram and Papa Jack (Trent's Parents)

Gigi & JPops (My parents)

Linde with Trent and Kinley

Justin, Bobbie & Kinley

Ashley and Kinley

Bobbie and Kinley

Celebrating with friends and family in the Labor and Delivery room, about 30 minutes after Kinley was born!  One of my very favorite memories of the entire experience!!

Kinley was born the same day that the Aggies played the Bears.   Naturally Kinley was torn for who she should root for!

Getting ready to go home...yes, she's wearing the aggie booties in honor of their win.  Maybe next year bears = )

Lord thank you for blessing us so greatly with this little girl.  Please guide us as parents and protect Kinley.  We pray that someday she will choose you as her Saviour!!

False Labor?

Warning - this post may be a little boring - but I wanted to write it down so I could remember everything later!

I woke up last night at 1:00am with a new sensation...I've had braxton hicks contractions for a couple of months - which I can only describe as my stomach turning into a ROCK.  No pressure or pain with it, just a very tight stomach. 

Last night there was significantly more pressure and sometimes pain, so I'm wondering if this is a real contraction??  I looked at the clock and it was 1:02am.  Then another one came along at 1:08 and 1:14 and 1:19 and 1:23 and 1:28.  I figured I should wake up Trent at this point since it had been almost 30 minutes of the same thing...nothing unbearable, but consistent and different than before. 

We watched the clock as contractions continued for a few more hours - every 3-8 minutes apart...all lasting about 60 seconds, but never getting stronger or more consistent.  At about 4:00am we decided to try and go back to sleep - I think Trent was snoring in 5 seconds, but it took me till 4:30 to fall back asleep. 

But then I did - I fell back asleep for an hour and I'm thinking how could I possibly fall asleep if I'm really in labor?  I woke back up at 5:30 and had several more, but again inconsistent.  I think I got about 30 more minutes of sleep for the whole night...frustrating!

When we got up this morning we decided to go for a walk to see if that would change anything - and sure enough the contractions began again!  Every 3-4 minutes all about 45 seconds to a minute long, but these were less pressure and I could talk through every one of them.  It was hard to not get excited at this point because I kept thinking that it wasn't like what I'd felt before (braxton hicks), but also didn't seem as intense as it should be to be real labor! 

Well the second we got home and I sat down...nothing...no more contractions.  Everything just stopped.  Maybe this is the beginning - maybe Kinley will make her arrival in the next couple of days (we're praying for that and would love for you to join us!).  But I guess in the end I just have to trust the Lord and His timing for this little girl. 

Now I'm gonna take a nap = )

Round Top Adventure!

So I mentioned in my last post that our changing table was a GREAT find with quite a story...

Twice a year, there is an amazing and HUGE antique show in Round Top Texas, (about an hour and a half east of Austin).  A good friend found a gorgeous Armior that I thought I could use for Kinley's room.  It was perfect - antique, white, and FULLY built out inside with drawers and cubbies. 

Great huh?!...

I really couldn't have been more excited...thus began my lack of rational thinking...

So that weekend we borrowed a truck from a friend, headed out to Round Top, met the seller (a really sweet guy), purchased the armior and even found a dresser that would make a great changing table in the next vendor's booth - everything was working out perfectly!  We loaded up the armoir and tried to put the dresser/changing table in the backseat, but it wouldn't fit. 

But not to worry - our friendly sales guys had a plan to strap the dresser/changing table onto the back end of the truck...literally sitting on the tailgate.  Trent and I both has hesitations, but drove away hoping everything was tied down tight enough to make the drive home.

Then everything changed...

We had been driving for no more than 20 minutes when we watch as our great little purchase of a changing table goes flying out of the truck and onto the highway....yes I said highway...and right in front of oncoming traffic - 18 wheelers and all!  I was sure it would shatter into a thousand tiny shreds of wood.  Oh but it didn't - from what we could see it was fully intact..again remember - in front of on-coming traffic.  I definitely began praying in that moment that no one would get hurt!  We turned around, got back to the dresser and Trent pulled it off the highway without any accidents - thank the Lord! 

After much delimma and me once again learning to trust my husband's leadership, we strapped the dresser/changing table on top of the armior and made the rest of our trip back to Austin safely - I think I turned around about 100 times on that drive.  Once we got home we looked over the dresser and it amazingly was in great shape!  I mean this is one well-made dresser!

Now as for the armior.....

Ya, so it's usually a good idea to not only measure the room to make sure a piece of furniture will fit, but to also measure the path by which you are going to get it into the room as well....here's where we made our biggest mistake.  The armior DEFINITELY did not fit around the corner to get in the room.  Quite the punch in the stomach after the day we'd been having!  And truthfully, it was entirely too big of a piece for the room anyway. 

So I'm thankful that we still have the changing table - which I love.  But now we just have to sell the armior - anyone interested?  I've posted a link to craig's list in hopes of being able to find a buyer - someone who has a little more space and a lot more sense than me!

Kinley's Room

Finished!  We've finished Kinley's room thanks to my husband, sweet friends that helped us paint, my mother-in-law that made a beautiful pillow and curtains, and my mother and our family friend Vickie who came and helped me pull together all the final pieces.  Here's some pics of her nursery!!

This is the view from the door of her room.

And a closer look at her crib (all the clothes are waiting to go in her chest of drawers which hasn't arrived yet)

From the crib, if you rotate counter-clockwise, this what you see.  We got this antique dresser from Round Top - a HUGE antique show that happens twice a year in Round Top Texas.  This dresser has quite a story...more on that later, but needless to say it's a VERY sturdy piece!

 Keep rotating to the left and this is one of my favorite parts of the room!  Everything in this corner has a story...the window frame on the left (and artwork) is on loan from my great friend and TALENTED artist Kristin Cowden (my old boss!).  I love how antique this piece looks as well!  The glider I completely copied from my sister-in-law who has the exact same one.  Vickie pulled the table from another room in our house and we found the lamp at Home Designs.  The shelf my mom painted...I think I purchase it in college, it used to be cherry wood.  We also found the picture frames and hooks at Hobby Lobby and I painted the "K" - I felt very crafty!!  I love how it goes along with the paisley designs in the room = ).  Finally the pillow was hand made by my very talented mother-in-law.  Thank you Sue!!

Here's a close up of the glider...it's super comfy!

And a close up of the shelf...

If you keep rotating to the left, this is where the chest of drawers will go once it arrives!  The mirror and pillow are going to sit on top of it.  This pillow was a gift from one of my high school girls and her mother.  It's also a great find from Round Top!

And this is a picture of Kinley's closet.  Trent installed shelves so we'd have a more functional space to work with and Linde, my sister-in-law helped me organize, wash, and hang the clothes!

That's it!  We're so excited to welcome our little girl into the world!!!