Goodbye Uncle and Hello Paint!

We said goodbye to my brother this week. He's off to Iraq today, actually. He joined the Marine National Guard and has been in training in California and Nevada for a long time. He only got to come home for 7 days before being shipped out too. I know Finn enjoyed seeing him again, and I did too. He's scheduled to return home in December, but hopefully he'll be back sooner!

Since I didn't have anything else to do this week, I decided to put some paint up in the my new living and dining rooms. The blankness wasn't bothering me until Scott mentioned it. Now, it's all I can think about! I need stuff for my walls! And it's snowing and cold and I have no time to go get it with 2 little kids hanging off me! Big problems, huh? I can tell you that I am dying to decorate with these (But I need to get things painted first). Anyway, I painted my living area with "Vanilla Brandy" and it turned out a LOT different than I thought. It's still growing on me. But at least the brick red is gone!

I forgot to get a "before" shot, but here is one in progress:

And here is one of the somewhat finished playroom:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I really like celebrating St. Patrick's Day. I've just got a thing for the Irish. I've been to the place (although I can't remember what is was actually called) in Ireland where St. Patrick supposedly drove out all the snakes or lit the flame or something. I do remember that it was really pretty. And in ruins. Whatever, Ireland rocks!

Milestone: First Words!

I bet you can guess what Kinley's first word was! Watch this:

That's right! Her wonderful "Bubba" was blessed with being her first word! She just loves him so much! She started this Wednesday night when we were still in Vegas. We were getting ready for bed and she just started up with the "ba ba ba"-ing. I guess she missed him. Now I know that babies start babbling at this age, but I think it is no coincidence that she decided to pick that sound to start with! (Finn's first was "Dada").

Back to your regularly scheduled life...

All of our stress is finally over! We've moved and we've gone on vacation! (Two great things of course, but also very stressful). I'm so glad to get back to reality.

We moved into our new home last week. It was very exhausting, but we got all of our stuff over here in a little less than 24 hours. So far it is truly amazing! We really like the new house and all the space. Even doing the dishes is more enjoyable (the water actually gets hot fast!). Kinley has been napping so much better too in her new secluded room. It's awesome. I'll post pics and whatnot soon.
We also went to Vegas! I had some serious doubts about going on Sunday night. Kinley had just had a very fussy day and I didn't want to go if I was just going to be trying to calm a crying baby the whole time. But Monday she woke up in a great mood and we had a great trip! She really came out of her shell in Vegas too. It was probably the millions of people that stopped us to tell her how cute she was! Here's some highlights:
The gardens at Bellagio. They had the coolest fringed tulips!:

The white lions at the Sigfried and Roy Dolphin and Wildlife Habitat. This was probably the best part of the trip. We got to see a lot of cool dolphin tricks and then some white lions and tigers. The lions started getting a bit "frisky" with one another (I've got it on video). There were 3 male white Siberian tigers in a pen together and 2 of them got in a fight right in front of the crowd! It was evidently kind of a big deal. The trainers were getting very worried. Too cool:

This is from an AMAZING chocolate shop inside the Bellagio. We saw these the first day, right after we finished a meal. I couldn't stop thinking about these desserts though, so we made a special trip back:

Here's the 3 of us on top of the Eiffel Tower. We went here with Finn two years ago too, but he slept through it:

We saw Britney while we were there! She posed for a special shot with Kinley (who thought she was getting lunch):

Kinley had quite the adventure actually. Here she is with Brangelina. I had to hold on tight so they didn't try to snatch her up!:

And Kinley even got to interview Cameron Diaz! Lucky girl!:

Okay, I'm a lier. We visited Madame Tussand's Wax Museum. It was pretty cool. I got a shot with the lady herself:

By the fountains in the Caesar's Shops:

And finally on the plane ride home. We gave her Benadryl, but it only knocked her out for about 30 mins. each time:

I hate moving

Everything's in boxes and the house is a mess! But I know I'll love my new house. We are finally moving tomorrow! I nearly forgot through all the stress that we get to move!

I think I haven't been the only one that's been stressed out. Finn has been regressing big time when it comes to the pacifier:

I don't really mind. I understand it brings him comfort. But I feel bad for the little guy. He can obviously tell something is going on. I just hope it doesn't shock him too much when we move in. He's pretty funny with the pacifiers though. He collects about 3 at a time and carries them EVERYWHERE in the house with him. He even has a little cup that he puts them in. Sweet guy.

Another thing I'm looking forward to is the time change on Sunday! Finn has been waking at the crack of dawn lately, so I'm glad that sunup will soon be around 7:30 instead of 6:30!

Kinley had a big milestone last week: She turned 6 months! Hard to believe. She has been teething so badly lately. It's really been affecting her nap schedule (and my stress level!). She regularly only takes 3-4 naps a day for 30 minutes each. It's very rare that she sleeps longer than that. And then she'll sleep 12-13 hours at night. Lately, it's been even more difficult to get her to nap. Anyway, blah blah blah, I hope those suckers just come in soon!

I wanted to mention a great website: Etsy. Most of my readers all ready know about this cool site, but in case you don't, it's shopping site for homemade items. It's amazing! You find some of the coolest stuff on there, espiecially cute accessories and clothes for kids. My friend Kristal (who is pretty amazing herself) sells some awesome signs under the handle gratefultulip. I recommend everyone to check it out!