Took Tradd to the library today and while he was being asked about his "girlfriends" he said "I'm not so successful, you need to talk with Cooper." What? I've never heard him say anything like that. By the way, please don't ask my children about girlfriends or boyfriends until they're about 20!! Seriously, I don't think Tradd even understands that you are "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" before you get married or whatever. I'm pretty sure he still thinks (as I have told him), they are girls and they are friends! They'll naturally form crushes etc. but I don't love the idea of them talking about having a girlfriend or boyfriend when they're in first grade or something. Ugh!! (There I go being controlling again. HAHA!) I'm pretty tired, otherwise I'd try and explain more about why I feel this way. I do want to say that Cooper also said a cute thing today. We were reading a book at bedtime and he pointed to the picture of the giant dump truck and said "ehn I sro up I unna be dat sruck." (big brother had to tell him that's not possible) I think my favorite word in that sentence was "sro" because I literally thought he said "throw up." Oh my, many laughs today!! What a charmed life we live with these three little rascals!! I guess I have to even things out and talk about Coleman. She's growing quite a personality. She's quite possibly the happiest little girl on the face of the earth. She loves climbing all over her brothers and she laughs and jabbers at them. But, nothing makes her go crazy like a bath. (She's had to take about 3 a day since starting to eat because she plays with her hair in between bites.) I can hardly get her undressed she wiggles so much when she sees the water running. Getting her out, however, is not such a happy occasion. This is where her personality is beginning to shine through. Oh, she's very disappointed when the bath is all done. She gets over it pretty quick but not before she puts her lower lip out and gives a little attempt at a tantrum.

Quite sure her first word will be "stop." Scott and I can't kiss and hug on her enough and although she loves it, the more independent she becomes, we're bound to be told to "stop." I don't know, maybe (hopefully) not. Good night!!

Yesterday I picked Tradd up from his classroom at church. He had colored a picture that the teacher told me was a dinosaur. I told Tradd I loved the colors he used and then I asked what kind of dinosaur it was. He thought for a minute and said "it's a Cooper-eater dinosaur." I laughed so hard I thought I'd drop Coleman!!!!!!!!!

By the way, if you're a control freak like me, have you ever tried playing Shutes and Ladders or Candy Land with two year old and four year old boys? Unbelievable experience in letting go. The board moves constantly so you have no idea where you're supposed to be because you're game pieces are never in their proper place. They want the slides down as much as the ladders up so they just put it there instead of counting and waiting turns. Tradd grumbled evertime he didn't get a picture in Candy Land and they didn't want to take their cards in an orderly fashion, they wanted to look through the pile and only draw the ones with pictures on them. I knew from the beginning it was going to be crazy so I just let it be but now I think all that tension of not having things go in an orderly fashion is all built up inside me. I wanted them to have a good experience without mommy getting impatient but now I think I've checked out altogether. You should see this house!!!!

Thank You

Wow 2007 is quickly coming to a close. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by and all that has happened in 2007. I was just feeding Coleman and rocking her to sleep, and I started thinking about all the wonderful people in our lives who have walked beside us throughout this roller coaster year. Here is a list of people we would like to say thank you to for their help and support; (They are in no particular order (other than the first one)

• First and Foremost God for His many provisions, peace, and blessings throughout the year
• Our Family for their support and help while Coleman was in the hospital
• Jim and Charlotte for their love for us and our children and for taking care of the boys during Coleman's hospital stays
• Wendy - for introducing us to Tefra and helping us with the paper work
• Steve, Paula, Matthew and Michael for their support and love and knowledge of Downs Syndrome and giving us the scoop on Babynet and Easter Seals and connecting us to April
• Maggie and Grace for their encouragement and love
• Chad and April for their help and support and introduction to DSAL
• Melissa for her love, support and positive out look on everything related to DS
• Keith for loving Coleman as if she were his own
• Michelle and Daniel for their love from across the big pond and their continued prayers and encouraging words
• My Staff who are our great friends - they were a HUGE blessing throughout this year in more ways than I could ever list
• My fellow staff members and all of Seacoast Church for their love, prayers, food and support
• Mary for her love, support and blessing us with her friendship
• Aunt JoJo (and Lucy) for always having a way to make us laugh and to put things into perspective
• Joel, Tina and family for their friendship, love, prayer and support and regular phone calls, just to check in on us
• Dr Scott Bradly and his staff and crew for doing such an incredible job on Coleman's Surgery
• Dr. McQuinn and the Peds Cardiology staff at MUSC for taking such good care of Coleman and being so friendly and nice and answering all our questions
• Colleen for her friendship love and always looking out for us
• Dr. George for taking such an interest in Coleman and looking out for us while at MUSC
• Cindy (Coleman's PT) for her hard work with Coleman
• Chip, Mary and Corbin for their love, friendship and many blessings
• Travis and Chrysti Carol and boys for their love, friendship and many blessings
• CC and Laura for the wonderful I AM books. Their ministering words and images were such a blessing to us time and time again. Check them out at www.Isaiah4310.com
• Super Rog for his wonderful sense of humor and caring heart
• Judy and David for assisting us with our broken dishwasher
• Moneca for your introduction and wisdom to eating right and naturally
• Stephanie and Sara, God's answer to our prayers for Meghan to have folks who are doing the natural thing too here in Charleston
• Lori F for having great hair
• And everyone else who has blessed us by your thoughtful words and prayers as you have read this blog

Boy, when my husband is right, he is right!! I thought we should get one scooter so the kids could learn to share. hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!! They're having a hard enough time sharing the drums. Cooper is quite the drum hog!! Scott was the one that said they each get their own scooter. Thank goodness for smart husbands. Also, because the boys are boys, they are no longer just riding on them but they are getting many battle wounds from trying to do wheelies and crashing each other and this is all in the house!! They've taken them outside but are really enjoying roller derby in the house on the hard wood floors. What a riot!! Truly, passersby may believe there is a riot going on. Surprised the police and DSS haven't shown up yet.

We are currently helping Cooper go potty twice in the middle of the night. And, Coleman woke up several times last night. (Coleman may have had a belly ache from the spicy sausage and shrimp and potatoes she ate all day yesterday. Oooops!) So, aside from major sleep deprivation, we're having a blast! Hope you are too! Blessings for today, Meghan

Little Drummer Boys

Merry Christmas everyone! It has been a fun time at our house this morning. The kids woke up around 6:30 and came into our room - about 6:50 Tradd finally said something about opening Christmas presents. (Cooper already made the venture to the living room and peeked at one of them.)
Here is a little taste of what will be going on in the Kinney home for the next several days, weeks, months and possibly years! Enjoy the Video - and again Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy Birthday Jesus!

Baby Hunter

My cousin Amber had her second child on December 4th, Hunter. A day or so after he was born she found out that Hunter had a hole in his heart. Yesterday she had another appointment with the cardiologist and found out that he is going to need surgery to fix the two values that are smaller than they should be. He will have surgery between 4-6 months of age. Meghan and I know all to well the stress that a parent faces when their child needs heart surgery. We are asking that you keep Amber and Hunter in your prayers at this time. We will keep you updated as we learn more.
Meghan and I know the power of prayer and praise God for the healing He has done in Coleman.

In Christ's Love,
Scott

Observations

I just thought of something sweet to share. Yesterday Tradd colored on some paper and I told him I loved it and the colors were beautiful. He said, "I have a tear in my eye." I said, "why?" He said, "I sometimes get tears when I look at beautiful things. Just like you cry when you see beautiful things." Well, that qualified as beautiful because I certainly had tears in my eyes when he said that. Later that night after I had relayed the incident to Scott, Tradd told Scott that while looking at a picture of a beloved friend of his (who happens to be a girl) he had a tear in his eye. When Scott asked him why, he said, "because she's so beautiful." Today he told us he'd like to marry this girl and I said, "I thought you were just friends." (we don't encourage the girlfriend stuff at this age!) Tradd quickly replied, "friends can get married." Well silly me, I thought he was turning 5 in February, not 35!!!!!!!!!!! He is sooooooooooooo full of these one liners that I don't have time to write them all down. Cooper is talking a lot now and he loves to sing. Tonight before bed, he was singing very loudly, the Air Force song "off we go into the wild blue yonder." He just learned it tonight and was doing a wiz bang job. He had obviously learned the tune but not so much the words. He's still getting into things like crazy, climbing on counters, making daily messes in bathroom or bedroom or kitchen. Tonight when he was whining and crying about something his brother was playing with, I sent him to his room until he could get some control. Scott later found that he had eaten the rest of a bottle of homeopathic remedy for his cold!! Yikes! This was my fault since I had left it in there. Couldn't find any info. about overdose so we just did the 'wait and see.' My favorite thing that he says is "wecuz." You ask him a why question and he'll always respond with "wecuz" followed by some adorable little explanation. You kind of have to be there for that one. You really have to see his face when he says things. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!!!!!!!!!!! The boys were arguing the other day and Cooper finally said, "I taulkin' to mommy." He wrinkles up his face in a scowl that looks hilarious for a two year old. Oh, do we have tons of laughs. Cooper is quite the little personality. He's got several shirts that he loves to wear as well as winter hats that he has even worn to bed. He's got a pretty strong personality while Tradd tends to be more sensitive and easier to guide and mold. Tradd has no opinion about his clothes other than he'd rather be in his underwear. Coleman is the happiest, most content little thing!! She pulled up on the couch the other day for the first time and even the boys cheered her for that. She hasn't done it since but I'm sure she will. She's been saying something that sounds like "I did it." Everybody thinks that's what she's saying and even the speech therapist thought so. Cooper has been saying this a lot since he's learning to do things on his own. So, it's entirely possible that's what she's saying. She loves to be around the boys and doesn't mind their noise and jumping around while toys fly through the air. Honestly these kids drive me nuts most of the time. Only because there are 3 of them and they are all at various levels of independence/dependence. When I take time to think about how crazy things are, I realize I heap most of it on myself by expecting them to act any different than 1,2 and 4!! Anyway, they are amazing little blessings in our lives and the source of sooooooooooooo much joy!! It's always helpful to sit down and laugh about their antics instead of stressing about it. It's usually when we're trying to go somewhere that I feel the most stress because I spend at least 15 minutes looking for sippy cups to bring and then there's potty messes that require change of clothes before we leave etc. The same is true when I try to cook breakfast or supper. I can't count the number of interruptions during those times!!! It's mind boggling! Just in the midst of typing those last four sentences, I thought of how blessed we are to have all this craziness because so many people are dealing with infertility issues and they would do anything to have the insanity of raising 3 children. Oh, what a humbling thought!!

I could go on and on about these crazy and amazingly brilliant little ones but I'm tired and ready for bed. May God bless you all richly!! Meghan

Merry Christmas from the Kinney's!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I don't know about you but Christmas is my favorite holiday. Not because of the decorations, food, gifts or anything like that but when I think of Christmas I can't help but think that it was the beginning of the beginning for us. God came to earth as a tiny baby - that first Christmas the whole world received the greatest gift ever and it wasn't because we were good all year long - we weren't on the nice list, but rather on the sinner's list. Yet, God still loved us enough to give us the gift of life. You see without Christmas - there would be no Easter (My other favorite holiday). One of my favorite songs is "End of the Beginning" by David Phelps the chorus goes like this;

He was born of a virgin one holy night in the little town of Bethlehem,

Angels gathered round him underneath the stars singing praises to the great I AM

He walked on the water, healed the lame and made the blind to see again

and for the first time here on earth we learned that God could be a friend.

And though he never ever did a single thing wrong, the angry crowd chose him

Then he walked down the road, died on the cross and that was the end of the beginning

...But three days later He rose!

You need to go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search out End of the Beginning by David Phelps to really appreciate this song. But it sums up the story - "He came, He lived, and He died, but that's just the end, of the beginning." You see if Jesus came, lived and died what purpose would he have served - he would have been another prophet or preacher but God didn't stop there - God raised Jesus from the dead - and that gives us the hope of eternal life with Him, if we just believe.

We serve and awesome God - and 2007 has just been more testimony of God's great love and faithfulness to us and we praise Him for all His blessings - including you our family and friends.

May God Bless and Keep you and yours this Christmas Season!

Much Love in Christ Jesus,

The Kinney's

Happy Birthday Nanny

Hope you have a great day!

Awesome Confirmation

First of all, we're a little late in posting a Christmas greeting to all who found this address from our Christmas postcard. We've got some stories of the many blessings we've had this year and haven't taken the time to summarize it. I still don't have the time right now but I wanted to write about an awesome story I just heard from our friend Betsy. Betsy's friend is in the process of adopting from China. The little girl is in need of surgery on her heart. Betsy's friend had the results of the tests sent to the Mayo clinic for review and asked who was the best Doc for the job. The Mayo Clinic responded with "The best guy in the country for this surgery is in Charleston, SC and his name is Dr. Scott Bradley." You guessed it, the very same doc who so wonderfully fixed Coleman's heart. Can you believe it? We knew he was renowned for his work but what an awesome confirmation that we had the right doc. And, of course, The most capable Physician (God) chose him! Thank you God for the reminder of how you took care of us during that ordeal! More stories of our 2007 blessings and experiences to come. Merry Christmas, Meghan