Kinley, You're 13 months (and one day) Old

Kinley, you're 13 months old!   And as the title says - one day.   I never had the chance to take your picture yesterday when you were officially 13 months old!   Your Picky Sticky month labels ran out at 12 months and so I had to come up with another way to document the months as they fly by.   I made this chalk board for your birthday party (that I still need to blog about) and decided that it was too cute to put it in storage.

 

 This was the best picture I could get before you erased the "ONTHS".   The chalkboard may pose more of a challenge than getting you to keep a sticker on your shirt each month!

 

You've been busy this month!  You're walking ALL.OVER.THE. PLACE!   Finally at 12 months and 3 weeks of age you have decided that it's easier to walk than to crawl everywhere.    It still seems funny to see you out of the corner of my eye walking across the room.  

You weighed in at exactly 20 pounds (fully clothed) at your doctors appointment two weeks ago.  They tell me you're tall but skinny.  I'll tell you that you're just perfect and eat everything we put in front of you and then some!  Your favorite new food is cheddar rice cakes.  As soon as you see the bag you start screaming.    And speaking of screaming.....you scream "mama" when you want anything at all - food, toys,  a drink - anything.   It gets to be a little embarrassing when you scream it throughout the grocery store because you want to open the food that's in our cart.  But oh well, you're still cute.   You are saying a few new words including "no", "hi" and "go".   Sometimes when I put you in your carseat you say "go bye-bye".  Pretty cool stuff.  I would bet a large sum of money that you're going to be a talker like your big sister.

Up until this past week we had been having a good run in the sleep department.  Like sleeping all night kind of stuff.   Good stuff.  But those darn teeth keep creeping through and your poor little mouth looks so painful as your molars are coming in.  And so, we are back to our usual meetings through the night.   You are getting better though so I'll try not to complain.  But for the record, my least favorite part of raising babies is the teething part. 

I love this picture of you with Tucker.  He loves you so much and tolerates everything you do to him and with him.   He's the best dog ever.

To keep you from taking everything out of the cabinets while I prep dinner or load the dishwasher I've started to employ new tactics to keep you occupied.   You seem to like to color and only tried to eat the crayons once.

You also like to color with sidewalk chalk but on this day you were more interested in that cute, little furry caterpillar inching toward you.

And let's just say you weren't afraid to pick it right up....

And proceed to squish it in your little fist while your brother screamed that you were killing it.

Finally, we convinced you to put it back down.   The poor thing was likely traumatized - Cooper and the woolly worm.

But you didn't seem phased by it!

 

Happy 13 months baby girl!

Another Day

I'm still working on the long awaited (by some anyway) 1st birthday post.   Sifting through and editing over 300 pictures has been fun and overwhelming and time consuming all rolled into one.  But it's coming...I promise.

 

I've been trying to make more of an effort to take more pictures and to blog about the little, somewhat ordinary things that go on in our lives.  I sometimes feel like I get too caught up in the "events" on the calendar and I forget that we are living a full life in all the hours and days in between the special times.   I've also been trying to take more photos.  During the summer while we were very busy it seemed like it was second nature to be snapping pictures.  But now that we are back to school and homework and activities it seems I have slacked off a bit.  Okay, a lot. 

 

Monday was a fun day for Cooper.   A spur of the moment opportunity to go golfing with Daddy.  It was probably a good idea that it was a last minute deal because none of us had time to come up with a  lot of reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea.   I quickly packed a small backpack full of snacks and drinks and a few small toys in the event that Cooper became  bored say on hole 2 of 18.

 But it turns out that none of my supplies were needed.   After playing 18 holes, driving the cart, having a hot dog and a root beer, Daddy brought back one very tired little golfer!  Suffice to say they both had a blast but only one was lucky enough to get a nap!

Tuesday morning it was up and out of the house for everyone.  We had a few minutes to spare so I thought it was a good time to snap a few pictures.  

 This sweet girl is just growing by leaps and bounds already this year.   She is even more responsible this year and sometimes is up, dressed and ready to go before I can even get out of the shower.  She has recently discovered how to change her own earrings by herself and never leaves the house anymore without lip gloss.  Lord help me!

 I think Cooper was still tired from golf the day before!

 

And this big girl...she melts my heart.  Except for the times recently when she screams my name repeatedly at the top of her lungs.   Like this morning while we were trying to have a quiet breakfast in a cafe with a friend.  Or later when we were shopping in Wal-Mart and I wouldn't open the graham crackers right there in the store.  She definitely knows what she wants and will make all attempts to get it.     As I write this she is emptying my cabinets....sippy cups, potatoes, pudding cups and the blender lid are scattered across the floor beside a whole host of toys which she has crawled right over.  Oh well!  I guess that means it's time to get back to another ordinary day at our house.

We Are....Still Penn State Proud

On a foggy September morning we donned our blue and white and headed to Happy Valley to support our favorite team.  Say what you want about the events of the past year, the players still deserve our cheers and our presence and we were more than happy to provide both.

 

 McKenna and Cooper were excited to be attending the home opener with us this year.  Our family didn't make it to State College at all last year with Kinley being so little.  I think that made this game extra special.

We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast before the game with family and friends.

And Deana deserves the credit for that.  Poor girl slaved over that hot grill cooking up made to order eggs and bacon.   And it wasn't a cool September day either!

 

 Pap might just be the best Penn State fan ever.  He plugs along and goes to the games even though it's sometimes hard for him to walk so far or sit out in the sun.  I'm assuming that, mostly, because he would never dream of complaining!

 As always, it means so much to see him at a game with the kids.  I have such great memories from when I was McKenna's age of going to Penn State games with my pap.

 Let me just say that our seats were A.W.E.S.O.M.E.   Honestly, it felt like we could reach out and touch the players.

 So thank you, Uncle Shane, for finding such great seats for us!

 

It's obvious from this picture (in the parking lot) after the game that we had a big day!   Cooper and McKenna both cheered until their little voices were hoarse.  I was admittedly a little amazed that they could handle sitting through a 4 hour game but they did great.   At one point during a bathroom break Cooper and Earl had the opportunity to have their picture taken with the Nittany Lion.  A pretty cool experience for a little boy.

We might have come up short in points scored but definitely not in memories made.   The best part of football for our family is the time spent together enjoying the sport.  We Are...Penn State!