A day in the Life...

Just a normal day, a whirlwind of activity. I LOVE my life!

We ran some errands this morning. I was racing home and racing to make lunch before the naps began. Lindsey didn't want to wait. She was playing on the floor, cried out to me a couple times....when I turned around to go and take her to lay down. I found this. She has done this before. I PROMISE I'm an attentive mom, she is just that easy to just take care of it if I don't get to it. She probably would have just slept there if it hadn't have been in the middle of the main room. Bless her heart!

Then after naps, Kaitlyn attended her first swimming lesson! HORRAY! She's really gaining a lot of confidence in the water this summer. She does more and more each time we go to the pool, this is just a natural progression. She did great and really enjoyed it!

Pray for us!

A big change is about to happen to the McKneely's. Stephen was called into the bishopric of our ward. For you who are not members of our faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is divided into congregations (called "wards") based on geographic boundaries. Each congregation is lead by a Bishop. He has 2 counselors to help him oversee all the activities and business of the congregation. It's not a paid position nor is it permanant, it just means Stephen will be that much busier!

We're excited for the blessings his service will bring to our family and for the learning and growing he will experience. But what I'm trying to get my head around is how to handle Sacrament Meeting. It's the main meeting with everyone and his assignment requires him to sit on the stand and leave me with our three wiggly, wonderful, loud and amazing children.

It is going to take the ward to get the McKneelys through sacrament meeting....stay tuned for how our first Sunday goes.

Do you have any ideas how to keep them reverent?

What a week!

Whew! Life is so busy! I'm so grateful for all that I've been given and the opportunity to stay home to raise my children, but let me tell you it is HARD WORK!! Here is some of what we've been up to this week.

Poor Baby Beefy

Dad’s nickname, sad but true although it’s not such an accurate description now…anyway. She’s had such the rough week! On Sunday she was a little irritable, so not like her and during church I poked my fingers in her mouth and yes, she’s getting teeth #3 & 4 on her bottom—can you believe it! HOLY TEETH for a 7 ½ month old. She’s been having an extremely hard time (and therefore so has Mom) for the past couple days and nights. Here’s a cute shot when she wasn’t teething, she’s getting so big!

Pretty Girly

My BIG girl is SO GIRLY! We’ve recently started allowing her to paint nails and it’s a regular request. Since she's officially not taking naps or resting time, it's been nice to spend time with just her and do special things. I thought it would be a hard adjustment for me but it's really not. So this afternoon I pulled out all the stops and let her use my foot spa and everything. So much fun!!

And here is the finished product! A perriwinkle blue with sparkles! My kind of girl!

Old Mission Buddies

A pleasant surprise to have my favorite (sorry for any others who read this, I have many close favorites--Angela & Jen) mission companion Keralyn blow through North Texas for a family reunion. She hadn’t met my kids yet, any of them, so we met up at this fun place called Bucca di Beppo. She’d never been and living in a small Idaho town, knew she wouldn’t see the likes of a place like this for a while. The food is served family style and there were 7 adults. We ordered 4 things to try and stuffed ourselves! The food was fabulous.

We were a little worried about how our kids would do in a restaurant situation, because we don’t attempt things like this with 3 under the age of 4, we’re not into that kind of abuse. But they did okay. The restaurant does this cute thing where they let the kids color pictures and then hang them up on the “fridge” in the kitchen that you get to walk through on your way into the restaurant. Here is KP’s masterpiece!

I am so thankful that I served a mission, I met eternal friends there. It was clearly one of the best decisions I ever made.

Father's Rock

I have to take a moment to say how thankful I am for the Dad's in my life! I am so blessed---really really blessed. Every father related to me, my own, my father-in-law and the father to my own precious children are some of the most wonderful, caring, honorable, worthy men I've ever met.


My dad is such an example of integrity, hard work, righteousness and humility. I have grown to love him in a new light as I've watched him interact with my own kids, I don't remember being as young as they are but watching him with them makes me imagine what he must have been like with me. He's always up for a fun time and brought such a good sense of humor to our home. I love you Dad!



My father-in-law is so patient, so dilligent, a great listener, always quick with advice and always makes time for his kids. I knew by watching him that my husband would be a great dad and husband, he'd had a great role-model and if my sweetheart could be even a little like Carl it would be good enough for me!



My love, is a great Dad to our children. He wants the world for them and works so hard to teach them, he's very consistant with them, a great rough and tumble dad and loves to have them be involved with whatever project he's got going on. He loves his buddies and realizes the importance of being a dad. I'm so grateful to have him be my partner in parenting and am constantly reminded that God intended for kids to both moms and dads because its so much work and each of us bring something important to their lives. I need you so much sweetie and am so glad it's you that I'm in this with!

A new Hairdo

Chubbs had long hair, too long for the summer. Since he takes after Hubby with the spiky hair I’m not big into the buzz look, but a 2 year old rarely holds still to get his haircut and he is no exception. We ended up with a long buzz and I have to admit he looks pretty cute!! Don’t you think so?

Biking Womble Trail

Mr. Wonderful's High Adventures

Since Hubby works with the teenage boys at church one of the things he gets to do is participate in an annual high adventure weeklong excursion. This year they decided to go mountain bike riding in Arkansas on a trail out of Lake Ouachita called the Womble Trail. It was definitely an adventure, a slim bike trail with sharp drop off’s, it really pushed these boys. They biked over 20 miles in a 3 day period on many different types of terrain. Hubby-man led the pack a lot and admits to falling off at least half a dozen times. He’s scraped up and admittedly exhausted from the trip but he had a great time!!

And if you’re worried about his ankle, it did okay. He probably biked more than anyone because it was easier to stay on the bike (his pedals had cages) than to walk. He felt no pain while biking and had it braced well. We’ll see how he heals.

For an idea of what he was up against check out this biker who strapped a camera to his helmet: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ4Wz3qxcPQ

There is some question of whether this is really the Womble Trail, but it is enough to get your blood pumping for sure. And no, we didn’t let any mom’s see this before hand.

What Timing!

For the last 7 years Mr. Wonderful has played on an indoor soccer team. It has been his one physical outlet and we make it a family affair attending his games on Saturday afternoons (when naps permit). He LOVES it.

For the most part he’s done this injury free, an occasional strawberry or bruise but nothing major…..until May 31st.

A guy fouled him really hard while trying to go up for a shot on goal. This did not please Mr. Wonderful one bit and he thought to himself, I’m not going to let this guy get his shot off. So as he’s taking his shot, Mr. Brilliant decides to stick his foot out to block it and his ankle twists around---BADLY!

I get this phone call from him on his way home, “Babe, don’t be mad, is the icepack in the freezer?” Oh good grief! For the rest of the evening and next week, he’s off his foot, on crutches, high doses of Ibuprofen and swelling and colors you wouldn’t believe!

Why is the timing not so perfect? Because in 10 days later he was the lead organizer of our Young Men's weeklong high adventure mountain bike ride!

Schools Out

Thought I'd show you some of KP's end of year festivities!

On May 13th there was an end of year concert where the children sang the song, "I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee". All the girls were butterfly's and the boys were bees. We practiced and practiced here at home and she even decorated a shirt with her class. Sure the group got a bit star struck but it was darling. She had quite the fan club! Grandparents sides of the family were represented and Aunt Ray-ray came too. Afterward we had ice cream treats from Braums. Yum! Then the next day she got to show "The Grandma with the Sarah" her school which was such a special thing for both of them.

These are the wonderful teachers who have loved my daughter and have taken her for all her wonderful quirks and excuberant personality. Ms Simms and Ms Crutchfield. I truly feel I have found some people to partner with me in helping KP become a well adjusted wonderful happy child. I can't say enough good things about this program.

On the 2nd to last day of school it was a "water day" that kind of got rained out but they still had fun inside. Body paints were used and this is what she looked like when I picked her up. You should have seen some of the other kids, they were COMPLETELY covered! That's what I love about this place, they are so encouraged just to be kids and get messy and it's okay! The teachers even allowed the kids to paint them up! Can't wait for fall!