A mothers prayer . . .

Dear Lord,
So far today I've done all right. I haven't gossiped, I haven't lost my temper, I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or very indulgent. I'm very grateful for that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on, I'm going to need a lot more help. Amen.

. . . sometimes that's all that needs to be said! :-)
Happy Wednesday!
Kindra

First Day of . . . SCHOOL!!

Well, we went to check out a preschool for Mason on Wed. for the fall, and they informed up that they still had openings for this spring if he wanted to start now. We decided to try it. He was very apprehensive about us leaving him there. We tried to hype it up by having him help us pick out his lunch, and his clothes, and talking about the trampoline they have inside. When none of that worked, we opted for a good ole bribe of a 4-wheeler ride (the weather worked in our favor). Today, Friday, was his first day. As soon as he got up, I asked him, in my oh-so-cheery-ready-for-school voice, if he was excited for school! He reply was, no! OK, great start! Once we got ready, he wanted to wear his book bag to the truck, then when we got there, he said," look there's my school!" with a small bit of excitement. Then I practically had to speed walk to keep up with him walking in. He walked right in, with a small quiver of his chin and watery eyes when I gave him a kiss and told him I would pick him up in a little while. 4 LONG hrs later, Kenny and I were practically racing in the doors to pick him up! He had a huge smile on his face and couldn't wait to show us all he had done for the day! Overall, a huge success. He loves it. Now if mommy and daddy could hurry and get used to it!!!
Audrey and I took advantage of our time and had a girls day with Jessica (Grants fiancee). We went to try on and pick out Audrey's flower girl dress for their wedding in July. She had a ball. She's so girly, this was right up her ally!

Mason before school, a little nervous!



Starting to get excited



Racing in to school! That book bag is almost bigger than him!

The aftermath! A very happy kid, either he had a great time or is really relieved that his parents came to get him. . . probably a little of both!

Such a little princess!

Finally! We made it to the fire station to see daddy!!! And boy did we fall in love. Audrey has found her calling as an engineer. Mason, on the other hand, wants to control the hoses and especially the deck gun. Daddy was at station 8 today, 56th and Binford. He's been there for the last 4 or 5 shifts and likes that station. We got to check out where daddy sleeps, eats, and hang out. The guys at the station were really nice. Mason definitely didn't want to leave. I have a feeling we'll be visiting daddy often at this station, it's in a decent area, and fairly close.
Overall, we've been great. Christmas was wonderful. It went by so fast! The kids could open up a store larger than Toys-r-us with all the toys they got. Mason's doing a lot better in soccer. It was a rocky start (first time without me or Kenny on the field, so lots of running around and not listening to the coach, or just standing there not doing anything). Today was great, he participated in everything and listened to his coach the whole time! He was bribed with a trip to the fire station to see daddy. I guess it worked! Audrey is doing great. Talking more everyday. She hasn't had any more urinary tract infections so the antibiotic is working! 11 more months to go the we will hopefully be in the clear! Kenny is still loving his job. He's learning a lot and seeing a lot. As for me, I just signed up to do the Geist half marathon again. What am I thinking! I guess my plan is I have to train to be able to run the marathon, and training=getting into shape! We'll see!
I also added a few pictures from Christmas at my moms. (They were the only ones on the camera I was uploading tonight, I'll try to put x-mas morning pics up too)

Watch out! Crazy driver!

He's lovin every minute of this!

OOOhh! OOOOhh! Show us which lever turns the water on!

Family pics

Here was our attempt at family pictures. I thought entertaining one kid to smile at the camera was difficult, I had no idea how easy that was until I had 2. My goal was to get good 3 yr pictures for Mason and good 1 yr pics for Audrey. Accomplished. An added bonus was to try to get pictures of them together and . . . a family picture. With some help of our favorite photographer, George Miller, (with help of Cathy and my mom that day) we did get some great shots! Thanks George!

HE DID IT!!!

It's been a busy couple weeks! Mason turned 3 October 7th. He had a great party. It was firefighter themed to go with the theme of the year. It's fun now, because he's really starting to get it, the party is for him, there's family, friends, cake, ice cream, and . . . oh yea, presents! It's so fun. Audrey turned 1 a couple weeks later. Another great party, she was a doll. Such a princess in her new chair from her great mamaw. She literally sat there smiled at the camera and let us open her presents, occasionally grabbing some paper herself, then checked out every gift as we handed them to her. Too cute. We have also had some fun checking out daddy's fire gear.
Tonight was a big night! Kenny graduated!!! He is officially done. He starts shifts next week. His graduation was so nice. The recruits were allowed to have their choice of who gets to pin their badges on. Kenny had Mason and I go up there. Mason was so excited when we told him about it. He did so great. He actually got it on almost all by himself. I'm so proud of both of them. Kenny has worked to hard to get here. He deserves it! Here are a few pictures from parties and graduation. Enjoy!

Pumpkin time!

So we actually made it out to get pumpkins despite our busy, busy month. We went to Beasly's on the westside of town with Matt, Stacie, their boys and Stacie's family. It was beautiful although it did get a little warm. Here are a few of the 200 pictures that were taken by our built in professional photographer (Thanks George!!)

Remembering 9/11

9/11 is so sad every year, but this year is a little more close to home. Now that Kenny's in the fire service, it really makes you think about what these guys do every day and how dangerous their job is. Mason & Audrey are in their firefighter t-shirts in honor of all the firefighters that lost their lives and for the ones still fighting today.

As for the rest of the summer, it seemed to fly by. We passed the time by swimming at Mamaw's, which Mason has ended the summer with twists off the diving board with NO ONE catching him, then he swims to the wall! We went to Cherie and Todd's lake house for Labor Day. It was the closest thing we've had to a vacation in a while (3 days). The weather was perfect and we had a blast. Boating, fishing, tubing, and waverunning! On a more sad note, little Audrey has unfortunately inherited her moms ability to easily get urinary tract infections as a kid. She had one, I'll spare the details on how I got the urine, just say tricks I've picked up from work. She was on antibiotics for 10 days, then we scheduled a VCUG (test to see if urine backs up to the kidneys). Low and behold, we have another infection. So more antibiotics, then reschedule the VCUG. She's such a trooper. The only big thing is until the antibiotics kick in (24-48 hrs) she has high fevers and an awful time sleeping (pretty much means me and her are bunked up on the couch all night). What are moms for! Kenny's been doing great is school. Absolutely loving life! Count down till Nov. 6!!! Now for the pictures you all have been waiting on!

Mason, showing off his skills

The little ladybug herself

Riding the fair train to the State Fair

Mason and Daddy-Daddy had a picture taken like this when he was little, we've done it every year we've gone!

having fun at the lake house

Mason actually got in the lake, and liked it!

Daddy and Mason tubing!

On the boat, Audrey really didn't mind her life jacket