Tiny Tales Thursday...

Radley never stops talking and he asks about 392166 questions a day (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating). Sometimes we know the answers, sometimes we don't and sometimes we make something up.

On our drive to the beach last week he was full of questions. About everything. The beach, planets, the color of the sun, dinosaurs, etc. It was one of those moments that I needed Uncle Josh to be in the car to provide accurate information.

The questions eventually turned to snakes and how big they can grow which lead Radley to ask about the largest animal "in the WORLD". Ryan and I answered (with confidence) the blue whale.

Radley: A whale?
K/R: Yes. A whale is the largest animal in the whole world.
Radley: Like what ate Jonah?
K/R: Yep.
Radley: You know, Jonah. He was on a ship and jumped off and got ate by a whale. God was mad at him because he wouldn't go to "Nin-a-nin-aveh". ::pause:: Right?
K/R: Right.

Love how we never know where his conversations may lead. Also love that the bible is easily accessible in his mind.

Pop Quiz...

Maybe they look more alike than I thought...

Emmy circa June 2010 above; 

Landry circa April 2012 below... 

Love these bathing beauties!

I'm a BIG kid now...

So last week Emersyn decided she didn't want to sleep in her crib anymore. She pointed to her bed and said "bed, bed" until Ryan put her down and she fell asleep. She only rolled out once in the past five nights (and didn't even wake up) so we figured we should just take down the borrowed crib from the HMMs. It actually all worked out well because Cindy has grand plans for all three girls to share one room and make the other room into a Pinterest inspired playroom. 

So we said goodbye to the baby bed and hello to more space! While I was telling Ryan what to do Ryan and I were working together, the kids got in some snuggles. 

And voila! The finished project...

We decided to move the kitchen into her room to clear up some space in the rest of the house. We try to rotate rooms that we destroy play in each night, so now Emmy's can be on the rotation! :)

This is generally how we find her in the morning...sideways in her bed. She's so little that we stack all her pillows at the foot of the bed and she doesn't even notice. 

Can't believe our little miracle baby is almost 2. Makes my heart break and smile at the same time!

Kings Gone Wild...

Sunday brought more excitement our way with another day trip to celebrate a WILD birthday for Karli (Jenni's little girl). But our morning started out pretty calm with some tummy time for this princess...

And some puzzle time for these two...

Radley later informed me that MaMaw was the best puzzle doer ever. Quite a compliment. :)

Then we were on the road to meet up with these cuties at the Cameron Park Zoo for Karli's 5th birthday party. I've talked about the RaRas before and these 3 kiddos are nine months apart total. Jenni, Charis and I had babies all in the same year. Grace (far right) is oldest followed by Karli and then Radley. They have so much fun together and days like Saturday made me wish we all lived on the same street so they could play all the time. 

 The Cameron Park Zoo is the perfect size for small children. They can easily walk the Park and not get tired and they have a great playground complete with splash pad in the middle. They have the big animal attractions including tigers, lions, elephants, bears and giraffes. Highly recommend if you are close to Waco. 

Landry liked it so much that she was even awake for some of it!

And Emersyn kept right up with the big kids walking much of it herself or talking Daddy into carrying her. (Which meant the double stroller we borrowed from the HMMs was empty all day).

Wasn't long before she gave in and fell asleep :)

We also got to hang out with this little man. Mason is almost 1 year to the day younger than Emersyn. He belongs to the 4th RaRa, Lyndee and is just adorable. 

Emmy, Cooper and Mason were all born within a year of each other. After we took this crew home (Grace and Charis had to leave early) we held an impromptu shrimp boil at Lyndee and Ryan's. 

What a yummy ending to a perfect day two of our long weekend! After all that we jumped back in the car with the sunsetting behind us for the quick(ish) drive home. 

Two days of going and going left the two biggest kids (me and Ryan) completely exhausted but that back seat didn't stop chattering the whole time. But that's okay because we all slept late (almost 7:30am!!) on Monday! :)

Day trippin'...

We had a fantastic 3 day weekend starting with a day trip to Galveston with the HMMs and Porters on Saturday. It's only about a 2.5 hour drive and completely worth the 6:30am leave time when I woke Radley up with the fun news! I have never seen a boy get dressed so fast! :)

(I'm kinda sad I didn't take a picture of our car...you would have thought we were traveling for a week!)

We were a crazy crew... 6 adults and 9 kids ages 4 and under! Three of those are under 1, so we had our hands full...but it could not have been a more perfect day! The kids had so much fun and played so well together. We all gorged on "beach food" (ie. chips, sandwiches, and a few bites of fruit) and just let the day go by. 

If you've never been blessed to visit the sandy beaches of the Texas gulf, let me show you what you're missing... 

Yep. That's seaweed. About 3.678 tons of it! I can't for the life of me figure out why they didn't clear this out for the holiday weekend, but oh well! We had tons of fun anyway! 

(the beaches aren't always like this)

He was so ready to build sandcastles, surf, look for seashells, eat junk food and just be a kid! I love that whenever I take a picture of Radley outside his right eye is always closed. ALWAYS. 

The seaweed brought all sorts of sea creatures to the shore. Josh found this tiny crab (how he spotted it I have no idea) and the kids were picking up shrimp and throwing them back in the water. The fish were everywhere, too, getting some tasty snacks close to the shore. 

Emersyn couldn't make up her mind on what she wanted to do. One second she was at your feet begging, "hold you, hold you" and the other she was running all around giggling away. She LOVED the ways and kept asking me to take her farther out. But all that seaweed was creeping me out so we stayed pretty close to shore. 

(I apologize for the large man in the background of this pic...Sarah hit me up with a little photoshop ;))

Annaliese and Emmy are "partners" so they stick pretty close to each other. Anna is good at telling Emmy what to do and Emmy is good at not listening to her (or anyone else). I love that this is the face Anna gives when you tell her to smile! 

This was our set up. Not to shabby of a day. We tried to barricade the little ones in so the big kids couldn't attack get them sandy. It worked. Kinda. 

Emmy has been clinging close to Momma lately. I secretly like it. 

;)

Right eye. ALWAYs. closed. 

Landry loved the sweet breeze and sounds of the ocean. She is just so easy and goes along with all our crazy plans. I didn't realize the sand/wind were so bad and she ended up with a slight red face from wind burn...but she was still all smiles at the end of the day. 

My hot husband. 

The kids had fun trying to throw the seaweed back into the ocean. 

But I don't think it was going to help.

This is our crew...

Azalee (2), Ella (4), Isabelle (10 months), Millicent (7 months), Caroline (4), Annaliese (2), Radley (4), Emmy (1), and Landry (2 months).

Whew. 

And of course, the King crew! 

It was seriously a great day. I would make that drive each weekend if I knew they all would be that wonderful. Just all smiles until about 3 miles into the drive home when it was all snores. 

Hope y'all had a great weekend, too!

Sisters...

I don't have sisters. I have two wonderful big brothers and lots of incredible, amazing, beautiful girlfriends that are as close to being my sisters as I can imagine. I don't feel like I missed out growing up with out a sister by my side and was just fine thinking about Emmy being the only girl before we knew MAKs gender. 

And then Miss Landry arrived. 

And then all said girlfriends that DO have sisters were ecstatic that Emmy would in fact have a sister. I tried to explain that I grew up without "real" sisters just fine and that I had said girlfriends to lean on, laugh with, fight with, cry with, etc... and they replied with "it's not the same".

(I keep trying not to be offended by that statement ;)) 

But I must admit, I LOVE watching them together. Landry for the most part has the same "please don't let her drop me" look as seen below, but Emmy just lights up when she is holding her. She can't give her enough kisses and she is the first to check on her when she's crying.

Makes me think about years from now when they will hold each other up through successes and failures, kiss away the hurt that some boy causes, and just sit there and let the other cry if and when they need it. 

So, maybe having a sister would have been nice. 

But, well, having a brother isn't so bad either....

Distractions (pt 2)...

So, the $10 sprinkler may not be any fun for my kids. 

But the $150 cool mister for the upcoming hot Texas summer weather was a blast!

I really hope their taste in toys gets cheaper. 

We had to force them to come inside last night. 

Mainly after they started removing clothing. 

:)

Tiny Tales Thursday...

Last night we had a first.

As Ryan is putting the kids to bed Emmy didn't want to lay down. Instead she insisted on sleeping in her big girl bed. He later down and she even insisted on sleeping under her "bankits". When I got home from dinner, I peaked in and she couldn't look any cuter. She was all curled up and sound asleep.

Cut to 4 AM when Landry was having her first breakfast ;). Ryan went in to check on Emmy and she was sound asleep.

On the floor.

 Our girl is growing up and her tales just keep getting sweeter.

Gawgle, gawgle...

Emmy is obsessed with brushing her teeth.

Ob.Sessed!

She loves it and insists on doing it herself with "Emmy turn! MY turn!" being heard through Daddy/Mommy brushing crusades. We usually do a good brush and then let her go for a while (she actually does pretty good).  Recently Radley added mouthwash to his brushing routine and Miss Emersyn noticed and wants nothing more than to "gawgle, GAWGLE" just like her big brother.

She will brush, then blow bubbles, then very daintily spit, then "gawgle".

This video is kinda long, so watch if you like, but it really is too cute not to share!

And, I posted Miss Landry's 2 month stats if interested!

;)

Distractions...

You know when just need 10-15 minutes to "get something done" and you pull out one of your master "distractions" for the kids? Crayons, paint, toys, books, laundry, the occasional Doc McStuffins marathon. Yesterday Ryan and I were trying to finish organizing our garage (we are crazy - he wanted to clean the garage for his birthday. Even Emersyn likes to organize) and we needed about 25 minutes to finish up before I needed to run in to start dinner/feed the baby/be supermom. 

Among all the junk I found a caterpillar sprinkler and thought - Yes! This will give us at least 30 minutes of fun. We ran and put swim suits on the kiddos and plugged that sucker into the water hose and .... 

SUCCESS! 

For like 5 seconds then they did this... 

What?!?! Aren't kids supposed to be drawn to sprinklers like bugs to lights? 

Humph. Radley complained that it was too cold and Emmy just does what Radley does. We are going to have to have a chat about sprinkler fun. 

Instead they stood at the water table and played until Radley sat in it and Emmy tried to follow suit and turned the thing over on her head. But, by that time we were ready for dinner and baths. 

Next time I need a distraction, I'll just have to dig out the cars... this racing activity turned into 30 minutes of solid laughter from these kiddos. 

And Radley had lots of fun chasing Emmy with Lightening while she retreated once again!

Anyone else gotta any good distraction tips? 

;)

Gymnasts, dancers and birthdays...Oh my...

What. A. Weekend.

I'm exhausted just thinking about the mega blog post I am about to embark on. 

Bear with me people... it's a long one!

Saturday morning started with Radley's "Olympic debut"/annual "mini-meet" for his gym. We had never participated in one before so didn't quite know what to expect. 

Let's just say that they could use a little help on the organization of this function. 

But. Our little dude had a blast, so that's all that matters!

They started out with a special performance with the classic parachute routine. 

(Do y'all remember these? I LOVE them, but they are super expensive (yes, I have looked into buying one)). These kids were so cute running in and out and doing front rolls in between. 

Then it was time for rotating "events". 

He killed the uneven bars...

Mastered the balance beam...

Executed floor skills with ease...

Owned the rings...

And went home a winner! 

;)

Team Gray and Yellow were super proud!! 

A boy and his first trophy...

And the cutest cheering squad on the planet!

After naps Radley and I headed out to watch a tiny dancer make her stage debut...

Caroline just finished her first year in dance at this awesome Christian dance studio in town. They open and close each practice with prayer and every dance performed was to religious music - even the hip hop. What a great way to raise our young ladies! 

Radley did such  great job sitting through the recital (which was 10million times more organized than our meet) and was so proud of Caroline. He kept pointing her out on stage and loved watching his friend do such a great job!

Next stop...

Dinner to celebrate Ryan's birthday! 

(I know, I know - he deserves a whole post to himself, but well, this is real life and he knows how much I adore him - promise). 

Since it was a combined celebration of our Olympic athlete and Broadway beauty, we headed to a local favorite, Koppe Bridge for some burgers, chicken fried steak, and the yummiest french fries around. 

The two newest RHMs had to sit together since they are besties already.

No one was allowed to take a french fry away from this cutie...

The big kids got distracted for a bit by a party crasher...

Meet Mr. Racoon. He was very eager to come inside with us but settled for left overs thrown down by the kiddos. 

Even Emmy wanted to see what all the fuss was about!

Whew! 

That was a QUITE a day! 

I may be exhausted, but I sure am HAPPY! Wish everyday was just as much fun celebrating the ones I love!!