Pigtails & Determination

We LOVE her little pigtails! At church today, Kinley decided to pull a diaper out her diaper bag and carry it around. This is not unusual behavior....but what happened next was a new twist.  She proceeded to walk up to the front of the classroom and lay on the floor in FRONT of the teacher with her legs spread apart trying to "change" her diaper (with a few grunt noises).  I was relieved when she rolled over and started to crawl away.....but she just tried AGAIN! Anyhoo...it was embarrassing, hilarious, and so dang cute.  Thank goodness it was only a small class of 4 teenage girls, the teacher, and me.

Other new skills at 15 months old:
*opening cupboards
*climbing on chairs (and trying to get on the dining room table)
*reaching up and grabbing things off of tables...loves to find dad's keys, watch, or sunglasses
*pulling herself up on the coffee table to reach the laptop
*almost mastering the pull lever on her See n' Say by herself

 

January--Fun at the Park & The Birthday Boy

One of the perks of our current neighborhood is that there is a park within walking distance.  We decided to head on over for a nice outing while the weather was still cool enough for me to enjoy it (with my internal heater) yet warm enough to be outside for awhile.  Kinley had fun exploring twigs, crunchy leaves, and walking....walking....walking....everywhere.  She was a little apprehensive at first, but she ended up loving the swing.  It was a good day! Another good day this month???  Celebrating Matt's 32nd birthday with macaroon brownies. Happy Birthday!

The Birthday Boy!

First "real" bump on the head happened on the walk home...darn sidewalk!

Random Pic---first time loving Jello--It. Was. Everywhere.

Christmas With the Dukemans

We flew to San Francisco and drove up to Eureka to spend Christmas with the Dukemans this year.  It was a fabulous Christmas vacation full of relaxing, great food, lots of time spent hanging out together and just enjoying each other.  

Some highlights from the trip:

Kinley had fun playing with her cousin, Barrett...

and feeding the dogs from her high chair

Caren and Daniel had their new baby, Arley, (another beautiful niece!)

We got to see some dear friends

Loved seeing the mountains, trees, and ocean

For me...first time in San Francisco..FUN!

October Happenings

A lot of new exciting things happened during the month of October for our family.  Our baby girl had her 1st birthday, we found out we are expecting a little boy on March 23rd, and Grandma and Grandpa Wintrode came for a week-long visit.  Most of the pictures are on FB, but for the few of you that don't use FB...here you go!

First time to the pumpkin patch. She didn't really like the pumpkins and kept pushing them away when we handed her one.

Happy One-year-old!

She loved to tear the paper and could have spent a very loooong time doing just that. 

Such a good little mommy....that's one way to carry a baby around. :)

Kinley LOVES her new doll stroller.  You can tell she feels so BIG that she can walk with it and move around more freely.

Happy Halloween!  She did not like wearing the hat at all. This is the best picture we got.

Saturday at the Park

Between General Conference sessions we decided to take a walk to the park. We have not been to the park in months due to the oppressive Texas heat. Today it was a balmy 85 degrees. Still a little too hot for us but far better than 110. Kinley enjoyed viewing the many squirrels foraging in preparation to hibernate. She has never been on a swing so we decided to try it out. At first she was underwhelmed with the whole experience but then ended up enjoying it. I think overall she liked watching the girl next to her swing more than the actual swinging.

Greenbrier Hotel

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to West Virginia for a major event to celebrate and announce several multiple million dollar gifts to build The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, which is the new high adventure base being built for the Boy Scouts of America. I have been working to support this project for the past nine months in my current position with the BSA.

I stayed at the Greenbrier Hotel Casino and Resort. This is a great historic hotel and I enjoyed staying there. Unfortunately with the hectic work schedule I was not able to explore as much as I would have liked but I will visit again sometime. This hotel is the location of the once secret government bunker to house Congress in the event of a nuclear attack. I did not get to take the tour but am looking forward to doing it on one of my future trips to West Virginia.

The event included a day at The Summit so donors and potential donors could experience a little taste of the property. The event was held at the overlook site on the property. It rained most of the week because of Tropical Storm Lee. I arrived on Sunday and we got about 7 inches of rain from Sunday to Tuesday. Needless to say the roads were muddy and wet. Thursday was the day of the event and fortunately it did not rain and we were able to get the roads passable by then. There were around 300 people in attendance including Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame and several CEO's of large American corporations. Overall the event was a great success and to date 225 million dollars have been raised to build The Summit.