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