Kyle has been out of town this week, so it’s just been me and KJ for a few days. I decided to spend a little girl time with her today.

We started the morning off with breakfast at Bread Co. before she had to go to preschool. She got her favorite, a pumpkin muffie.

After I picked her up from preschool, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and we stopped at the park where she chased the ducks and fed them bread.

Her smile melts my heart, we had the playground all to ourselves, it was nice.

We ended the night with nail painting, popcorn and a movie. I love spending time with my daughter, although it was challenging at times this week not having Kyle around, we survived. It was so sweet when we were leaving the park today, she said, “I love spending time with you Mommy.” How precious is that, I love her to pieces.

This is our second year of deciding our Halloween costumes based on what Kenedee decides she want to dress up as, the ideas we came up with this year were great and made sense, however actually turning them into costumes wasn’t as easy.

So, any ideas as to what we might be (Hint: Kenedee was a butterfly)

I am supposed to be a caterpillar and Kyle is a cocoon (or chrysalis I guess is the more proper term) He was definitely called many other things that night other than a cocoon. It was fun and Kenedee enjoyed it so that was the best part, guess we’ll see what she comes up with next year, I’ve already heard her say she wants to be mermaid, don’t know where we’ll go with that one but so much can change in a year anyway.

Riley has been a part of our family even before we had Kenedee.  Kenedee absolutely adores her, I think Riley has grown to love  Kenedee as well, although I think on occassion Kenedee somewhat annoys her, she’s so great with her though. Below is a moment I captured a couple of weeks ago while I was making dinner.

See that look in Riley’s eyes, that’s the look we get quite often when Kenedee is bothering her. Riley’s hips have really been bothering her lately, she has begun having trouble walking. She’s only 7 years old. We hope Riley hangs on for many more years because the day Riley leaves will be very hard for us and Kenedee.

That’s what my hubby did last weekend. He ran a full marathon in Chicago for Team World Vision. We went up for the weekend with two other couples. It was very cold, but a lot of fun.

Here we are with our signs that we made during our hr. long train ride into the city. The funny thing is I think this is the only time the signs got held up was for this picture. We all got so excited and flustered when we saw our husbands that we forgot to hold up the signs.

This was taken near the finish line, his knee was really bothering him, but he fought through it. We were able to see them at the 12 mile mark and at this point, thanks to our friend who had it all mapped out where we could see them.

So proud of all of them. Kyle’s one goal was to just finish and that’s exactly what he did. He ran it in 4h 25 min., at about a 10 minute pace.  He did so awesome!

Holding my man!

I’ve asked myself that a few times over the past few days when it comes to Kenedee, wondering why she does some of the things she does.

See Exhibit A above. This occurred while we were on our way home from Oklahoma waiting at a gas station. I had bought her a Kumon book for her to practice her cutting skills. She decided to practice her cutting skills on her own clothes, you can’t tell too well from the picture, but she actually made two slits in her pants and a couple holes in her shirt. When I asked her why she did it, she responded by saying that Daddy has jeans with holes in them.

Here’s the story behind these photos: I had the box of food coloring out, I was using the yellow. Kenedee had gone down to the basement to “play” (at least that’s what I thought she was doing) while I was doing some cooking. She comes up sometime later with the whole box of food coloring and says , “Here momma.” I asked her what she had been doing with them and she said nothing, “Promise Kenedee.” She responds with a “No.” (i’m not sure she knows what promise means) Then I hear her mumble the words, “I did something really bad mommy.” She proceeds to take show me her hands and then takes me downstairs (I was envisioning food coloring all over the carpet) She takes me into her play area and shows me the blue food coloring she had squeezed on some of her play kitchen toys, she must have got scared and stopped at the blue. I told her I appreciated her honesty but that we don’t play with food coloring.

So I often ask myself why she does some of the things she does, it’s hard sometimes not to laugh at her. I have to remember that she is still pretty young and is still into exploring and learning things for herself.

I think I’ve shared before how much I love love love this time of year. In my opinion, autumn has one the best smells of all seasons.  I know, call me weird, but I feel like each season has it’s own smell to it. I definitely think that Summer is the worst smelling of all the seasons. It seems like the heat just melts things on the street and brings up smells that aren’t very pleasant.  I also love the beautiful colors of autumn, activities there is to do such as apple picking, going on hayrides, going to pumpkin patches, OU Sooner football…. I could go on and on but just thought I’d share how happy I am that this time of year is here.

He may not be quite a Bob Vila, but my hubby is getting to be quite the handy man around the house. We’ve lived in our home for almost two years now and have gone without closet doors in our room and KJ’s room for all that time until today that is. I’ve been desperately wanting closet doors without trying to beg too much. Lowes had them on sale for $19/door, so we took advantage of the sale. He did an awesome job! Now, if I could just get the trim around my garage door finished, love you babe!

The before….

….and after! Don’t they look great!

Proudly standing in front of her new closet doors. She’s mainly excited because now she can “open her door and get more animals to sleep with!”, as she told Kyle.

My awesome husband, Kyle will be running in the Chicago marathon on Sunday Oct. 11th.  He is running for Team World Vision. He has set out to raise at least $500 which will go to World Vision to help save lives in Africa.  Below is a video that shows just a bit of what Team World Vision is all about and how they are helping save lives of people in Africa.

So, there are two ways you can help, you can directly donate here: http://www.firstgiving.com/kylerainbolt

OR you can order one of these sweet t-shirts below:

T-shirts are $15 and can be mailed if you’re outside the St. Louis area for an additional $5. If you’d like one, just let me know by leaving a comment or you can also email me at: khrainbolt@sbcglobal.net. We will be submitting the order on Sunday Sep. 13th

This is a great cause, so if you’d like, help and be a voice for the voiceless.

Well, good news. My dad was able to come home yesterday. He is doing very well, getting up and moving around more. He was able to leave the hospital without requiring oxygen at home. Through all of this I’m reminded of how fragile life is and how lucky we are to have the life that the Lord has given us. I have learned to not take my life for granted and to be thankful for every breath I am able to take. I think this whole situations has strengthened our family. Thank you to everyone who has supported us with thoughts and prayers through this, my dad still has a recovery period, but he is getting stronger every day. I think Kenedee is enjoying the Papa that is now home and not at the hospital.

I’m staying overnight with my dad tonight. He is doing wonderful, all tubes and drains are out and his pain is pretty much under control, he is still having  a little nausea, but it’s getting better than it was. It’s great to see him up and moving around a little bit more. Quick story on Kenedee, my dad used to tease her and say “Remember when we used to be friends.” He said this because she started to show a bit of favoritism towards my mom. So the other day Kenedee was with Kyle and said, “I think I know why Papa’s heart is hurt.” Kyle said, “Why?” She replied, “Because we’re not friends anymore.” Bless her little heart, she thought she hurt Papa’s heart, Kyle very quickly explained to her that was not why Papa’s heart was hurt. She has been up to the hospital a few times to see him and I think it’s been good for her to see that Papa is beginning to feel better. Just continue to pray that my dad continues to recover well from this, he is doing great.