I'm still here...catching up from the last 3 months

3 months and 2 days since I last updated this blog...I promised myself I wouldn't be a slave to the blog or let myself get too obsessed with updating all the time.

But so much has happened and is about to happen that I don't want to forget!  

(Hopefully this won't be a novel!)

We are 4 weeks and 5 days away from August 28th (my due date for Emerson Leigh!).  And we're not-so-secretly praying that the Lord would bring her early (August 19th to be specific)...this momma is tired of being pregnant in the summer!

www.kristinjphotography.com

P.S. thanks so much to my sweet and TALENTED friend Kristin Laughlin for taking this picture back in May - more of her fabulous pictures soon! 

With Emerson on her way - we've been teaching Kinley about being a "big girl" and "big sister" lots.  I've tried to prepare her by pulling out all of the baby gear and talking about how Emerson is coming to our house soon and will be using everything.  Plus she gives Emerson lots of hugs and kisses - I love this!!
 
Also, as we prepare to get things ready for Emerson, we've moved Kinley from the nursery into her big girl room and made the switch from crib to twin bed!!  I was dreading this - thinking it would mean lots of sleepless nights, but she has done AMAZING!  She loves climbing in and out and has developed some precious new bedtime routines as a result.  Every night we put on some soft music, give her a glass of milk and read from The Jesus Storybook Bible (BEST children's bible ever!!).   Then she climbs in her big girl bed and asks for us to pray for her and with her.

Melts my heart every time.

I've had a blast making her new room and can't wait to post pictures of everything soon - just have a few last projects to complete before it's completely done.  

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

This is some of my inspiration for her room - gotta love pinterest!

Besides re-doing Kinley's Big Girl room, we also decided to remodel our guest bathroom.  Let's just say it's been an adventure!  We started with some free tile thanks to a good friend, have had 2 minor floods in the tear-down phase, we're currently debating how much/how to fix the results of the floods, and are picking out counter-top, vanity, wall color etc....

...did I mention that we're 4 1/2 weeks away from the due date?!  Hey, we're keeping it exciting!

Outside of house/pregnancy stuff we've kept busy too.

Starting sometime this spring, our lives got totally crazy.  Trent has been the youth pastor at our church for the past 7 years and we've LOVED every second of it.  There is just nothing like walking alongside kids as the meet the Lord and realize that He's worth giving everything up for.

This spring our dear friend, Matt Blackwell, who has also been the college pastor at our church for several years decided to take an exciting job as a campus pastor for another local church.  I really can't express how much we love the Blackwells.  We've shared life in community group for close to 3 years and have traded babysitting nights for dates since before we had Kinley...actually Trent was doing it with the Blackwell's and other friends long before he knew me!  As a result of Matt leaving, our church leadership asked Trent to consider stepping out of youth ministry to be the college pastor alongside pastor to those in their 20's (which he's been doing for about a year now).

Kinley (wow she looks young) hanging with the Blackwell boys - we LOVE these guys!!!

Here's a more recent pic from one of our many nights of swapping babysitting and dates

God moved in our hearts so quickly to confirm this is exactly what He has for us - so as of April 1st Trent took the job!  We kept doing high school ministry till early June, which meant 3 ministries, a trip to Colorado, Haiti, and a road trip all across Texas in just 3 short months.  Ministry has been crazy and full of blessings during the transition, but we're loving the new direction God is taking us!

There is so much more I could say about this - but again trying to avoid writing a novel!

A few updates on our little BIG girl Kinley!

Seriously - is this my baby girl??  She is getting so big!

Kinley LOVES to talk, and all things "big girl" right now...like her big girl chair, drinking from the "biggie water" (i.e. our glass of water instead of her own), her big girl room, and basically anything she can do on her own.

She seems to be turning into quite the girly girl...

 No, I didn't pose her

 Yes, she picked out all her accessories on her own

We are in trouble!

At 20 months, Kinley loves to talk, play chase with her daddy, eat LOTS, and to sing!  She sings parts of Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Happy Birthday, Jesus Loves Me, and a few others.  It's so precious to listen to her conversations she has with herself!

She also loves watching cartoons when we let her - especially Dora, Curious George ("Monkey"), Sesame Street ("Elmo"), and newly The Cat in the Hat. 

One of the most precious things she does right now is sort things.  Usually that just means making messes, but she's fascinated with taking things out of containers and putting them back in.  Here's a little video of her sorting her diapers.

I just love this girl!

Kinley also loves to read - or really she loves for us to read to her while sitting in our lap...which is a problem since I don't have much of a lap these days :/  We get creative.

Some of the funny things she says right now are "Let's do this thing" (from her daddy), "May I have more please" (with the cutest little inflection), "Hold you" then she corrects herself and says "Hold ME", and just yesterday I caught her saying "Stay focused" to herself in the car.  I guess she was remembering me asking her to stay focused in something I'd asked her to do at the house.

She is our little parrot for sure!!!

Ok, ending the novel for now.  More on Kinley's Big Girl room and more from the photo shoot with KristinJPhotography soon!!!