Fort Worth

We took the girls to Fort Worth last week to visit with family and friends. This was Leah's first trip and her first time to meet our family there.

The Zoo

Fort Worth has an awesome zoo so we decided to check it out while we were in town. Unfortunately, every school district in the DFW area had the same idea. Kinsley didn't mind though and we ended up having a great time.

Mom and Kinsley


Mommy and Leah


Daddy and his princess


Leah at the zoo - 4mo


Kinsley at the zoo - 5mo


Mom and Leah (4mo)


Mom and Kins (5mo)


By the way, doesn't my mom look awesome!! She's lost about 45lbs since these last two pics were taken. I'm so proud of her!

Cookie Monster

My Uncle Rob caught Kinsley in the cookie jar
before lunch on Saturday. She loves those Oreo's!


Lazy Days





Bailey Jo and Kins spooning


Chuck E Cheese

In an attempt to wear Kinsley out before the trip home we took her to Chuck E Cheese's. It worked!

Deeda, Mom, Papa


Sipping on lemonade and watching the show


Deeda was using Kinsley to help her
get more tickets so she could buy
the fake barf. She would give Kinsley a ball
and have her walk up the lane and place it
in one of the higher scoring holes.


Cheater cheater, pumpkin eater!


"Who needs fake barf when you can have these!"

Flower Girl

Since I don't have much of a green thumb I thought I might let Kinsley try her hand at growing some flowers. So far she's doing pretty good. They are for sure the most watered plants at our house. Maybe I need a cute watering bucket.

Making sure she got all of the dirt out.


Making sure they have enough water.


"I love watering flowers!"


"That's hard work! I need a drink."


All done!

Leah's Baptism

The Baptism - Leah really enjoyed this and was
smiling and cooing at our minister the whole time.


Her sponsors -Each of Leah's sponsors is very dear to Doug and I. They possess special qualities that I know they will share with Leah as she journeys through life as a Christian.

My best friend Becky and her husband Kevin
Among other things they will show Leah what
it means to have a loving relationship with God
at the center. I also hope that she will see my
relationship with Becky and come to know and
value the importance of friendship and community.


My dear friend Melanie has such a loving and
joyful spirit. Her enthusiasm for life and Jesus
is contagiuous. I am so excited for her to share
this with my little girl.


Our happy family


Mommy and her princess


We had a wonderful BBQ lunch at the house afterward to celebrate the blessed occasion. Unfortunately, I was so busy stuffing my face that I forgot to take pics. Oh well.

Kinsley's Baptism 4-22-07

The Fam

My parents and sister, or as they are affectionately known around here, Paw Paw, Mom, and Deeda, came to visit for Leah's baptism this weekend. Kinsley calls my mom mom because that's what I call her although her official name is grammy. Caitlin recieved her name of Deeda last year when Caitlin kept calling Kinsley a little diva. Kins associated diva with Caitlin and it came out Deeda. It warms my heart to see how much Kinsley loves my family. She prays for them every night as she rattles off her list and talks about them daily. The night before they came it was all she could talk about and it took us forever to get her to sleep. I think I'll wait until the last minute next time to announce their visit. When they left it took us quite a while to console her. She was crying so hard and just kept repeating their names over and over.:(

Here are some pics of our weekend together
Mom and Kins relaxong before bed.


Deeda and Leah


A typical day at the Brinkley's

Mom's working in the kitchen


The twins are laying around.


Cait, Mom, Me


Relaxing with Paw paw before the excitement

Cabin Fever

With my entire community (including myself) paranoined about the swine flu, we spent the last two weeks at home having a "staycation". I have to be honest, this was very hard for me. I'm used to filling at least part of my day with some type of social interaction for myself and Kinsley. So, in order to keep my sanity after spending 24 hrs/day at home with a two year old and infant I dug deep into my bag of mommy tricks to help me out. Although I'm glad to see the outside world again, the past two weeks ended up being a lot of fun for our family. I really enjoyed spending quality time with the girls and building memories I will treasure for a lifetime. When they're teenagers and want nothing to do with me I will be able to pull out these pictures and remember the special time we shared.

Cruisin on her bike. Burnin plastic baby!

A stare down with cow. The cow won.

My little techy


Kinsley was helping Leah accesorize.

"I can't stand being couped up with this family

one more day!"


Beating the heat.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Just In

I just got Leah's 3 month pictures in and wanted to share.

My Aunt Deborah made this blanket for Leah.
It matches the colors in her room.



Girly Girl

Sleeping Beauty

My family and close friends know how much I treasure my sleep. I need at least 8 hours at night in order to feel refreshed and I really prefer 9-10. God knows this. He knows that I am a better wife, mother, and person when I get my sleep. I firmly believe that He only gives us as much as we can handle. Which is why, I believe he blessed me with Doug and Kinsley who like to sleep as much as I do. However, when I was pregnant with Leah I suffered from insomnia the entire 39 weeks. Then, of course I had a newborn who was up every 2-3 hours. After months of not sleeping I had just resigned myself to the fact that I would never sleep more than 2 consecutive hours at a time. Never underestimate the grace and power of God! At only 3 months old, Leah is now sleeping 9-10 hours. I feed her and she's back down for another 3! Can I get an Amen?!!! I feel like a new woman and I'm finally getting around to things that have been on my list forever - like this blog. God Is Good!

Sleeping Beauty herself



My other sleeping princess.
No nap and her first swim of the season was
just too much to handle.