Our National Karate Champion

Thursday March 27th we left for Albuquerque, New Mexico for The United States Karate Alliance National tournament. Bennett had placed 2nd in kumite for the state of Arizona, and was going to compete for a National title.

This picture was of Bennett on Saturday morning just before the tournament began. You would not want to cross this little boys path in a dark alley :o). Look at the karate face, quite fierce don't you think?

First up was his kata(forms). He performed Kihon Kata #5. This was by far his best performance of this kata, as he has been taking 2 hrs. of class along with an additional hour private class for the past 5 weeks.

This is quit a big accomplishment for kids. There was about 2000 people total in the room and he walks up to the judges to speak to them giving his name, dojo, kata, Sensei's(teacher)name, and asking for permission to begin. Bennett always has a very strong loud voice and the judges always tell his Sensei how well he speaks. He is never nervous and does not seem to notice all the people watching him. I think this is so great for him as hopefully he will never develop a fear of public speaking. He placed third Nationally for his kata. His friend Carson from his dojo placed 2nd for his kata.

Let's get ready to rumble!!!! Next up was kumite. (fighting)

Look at Bennett landing the punch to the boy in the white. He has fast hands and a long reach. He won this particular fight and they saved the 1st and 2nd place fight for the Tournament of champions that same night.

Carson on the left and Bennett taking a lunch break, waiting for the evening session to begin.

This was one of the only pictures I got of the fight for 1st and 2nd place that night. I was too busy cheering my baby on as he pulled out the win for the 1st place National title for his age bracket.

Bennett posing with his 1st and 3rd place trophies.

Mommy and Daddy with Bennett just after the evening session. We are so proud of our boy!!!

One happy little karate champion!!!

A picture of most of the competitors from Bennett's dojo. There are a couple of kids not pictured that were still competing at this time.

I also got these cool molds of all the kids hands at the tournament. There was a man there that made these casts of Bennett's fist of fury,Brayden's hand, and Baylor sweet little chubby hand . I had to wait for Baylor to fall asleep and he dipped his hand in this gel type material and kept it in for like 30 sec. and pulled it out and then poured the white plaster in and after it dried, he cleaned it up and mounted to the base. I'm so happy to have these molds of their sweet little hands, as they will never be this small again. They are so realistic and it's amazing to look at all the detail of their hands. I love it!

And last but not least is Baylor modeling his new cranial band. He got his band on Wed. before we left and has done quite well adapting to it, minus a red spot over his left ear. I'll call on Monday to see if they need him in before Wednesday to make the adjustment. I now have to get it decorated and take my picture for the Cranial Band calendar.

Baylor 6 months,Easter,& Betsy's Birthday

Yes, I braved the photo studio once again. I think I must enjoy self torture to continue to do this to myself. Really it is not as bad as I make it sound, it's just kids only have about a 15 minute attention span in which to capture those beautiful memories to last a life time and the lovely photographers really want you the parent to do all the work while they just stand there and snap the picture :o). I've really not found any place that I just love since we moved here to AZ almost 2 yrs. ago, so I stuck with Kiddie Kandids. The prices are reasonable and they will take the picture the way I want, and not stick some stupid prop in and insist on certain backgrounds they are to use. These are what I got along with some pictures of Baylor and myself as I have done this with all the boys so far. Baylor was so happy and delightful for all of his pictures and we easily got his 6 month photo, which was the main reason for the pictures in the first place. Everything else was a bonus!

My sweet, sweet boy. Can you believe he is already a half of a year old? My where has the time gone? This is all three in there Easter attire. At first I was a little disappointed because we could not get the baby to smile and his head is a little more in front of Bennett's than I would have like, but after I got home and looked at it, it captures my sweet little boys and I think it is absolutely beautiful and I'm so glad I bought it. I love my SONS!!! I look at them everyday and say GOD is so good. I also can't help but to think to myself they have the most beautiful dark brown eyes.

Some beautiful spring daffodils I bought at Trader Joe's to place on the counter. They smell so good and I really love looking at these little yellow beauties. This is Baylor sitting in his highchair as we were dying eggs. He loves to be in the kitchen with us no matter what we are doing. If he is able to see us, he is happy! He is such a good baby and such a joy to be around. Rarely does he complain, such a laid back and easy going little soul.

The eggs we dyed. We did some with rubber bands, almost like tie dye. I got the idea from Wonder Time magazine. They we a lot of fun to make. I must admit, I probably love dying eggs more than my kids and a lot of what we do, is based on my love for it. The eggs in the dye, the boys loved to pull them up and see if the right shade had been acquired.

Our finished basket. I bought this basket several years ago at the Southern Spring show. The purple egg with the bands removed, looks like a cross, my favorite egg this year. The boys also had Spiderman tattoos for some of the eggs as well. The little yellow crocheted egg was from when I was a little girl,handmade by my mom :o).

On Saturday we took the boys to IHOP. They had seen an advertisement on TV for these Horton Hears a Hoo hoocakes. Can you believe we let our kids have this for breakfast? They did not eat the sucker for breakfast and had some bacon along with the cakes, we tried to limit the sugar intake :o). They really enjoyed them and it was a fun time.

After breakfast we went to the Easter party at our church. Here are the three boys with the Easter bunny. This has been our tradition for the last three years, with this being one of the first things we did after arriving in AZ almost 2 yrs. ago! Brayden at the egg hunt.

Faith(Lt.) and Hannah(Rt.)Peterson They were our first friends as well when we first arrived here in Arizona. They will be soon adding a new brother being adopted from Ethiopia, named Mathias. The three boys after the egg hunt.

Daddy holding Baylor, and Baylor holding his little Easter Basket :o) Baylor just being a mellow little fellow in his stroller. Mommy and her boys. Easter morning just after service. The boys were soooooo awesome during church. They did not have child care, so we had to bring all 3 in church and we sat on the front row. We did not have to call anybody down the entire 1 hr. and 15 minutes. It was so enjoyable to have them in there with us celebrating Christ's Resurrection. The music was wonderful and the message was perfect. What a great start to the day! Another picture of the McKinstry 5!!!

After church we went to the Musgraves for lunch and the kids had a Easter egg hunt in the greenway just by their house. Here is Brayden stopping to see what is inside an egg he found! Silly boy. He had put several eggs in, and by the time he got to the other end of the greenway, his eggs had fallen out and his basket was empty :o(. Poor guy, he quickly refilled it though. Bennett and Brayden chasing after some eggs.

Looking inside the eggs to see what treats were inside. Brayden saying CHEESE!!! I try to tell him to just smile and for some reason, he always says cheese! I think he has a piece of gum in his mouth from his Easter egg.

At last when we came home Bruce, Bennett, Brayden, and Baylor had gotten me the prettiest cake, cards and a new pair of Coach sunglasses.

This was one of the earliest Easter's in some 100 years. The last time Easter Sunday fell on March 23 was in 1913.

The next time Easter will occur on March 23 will not be until 2160. I don't know about you, but I plan to be watching from from above :o).

Today was such a great day to celebrate my Birthday!!!

St. Patrick's Day with Me and my boys

Here are my 3 little Leprechaun's from this morning. It's not the greatest picture, I tell you it's nearly impossible for me to get a great shot of all three looking in the same direction with a nice natural looking smile at the same time. The boys are on Spring break this week, so I took them to Color Me Mine after breakfast to paint on pottery. Brayden picked a Powerman. This was his first experience at the pottery studio. I tell you I was a little nervous at first with all the breakable items (you know if you break it, you buy it) but they boys behaved very well. It took about 5 minutes of changing their minds about 20 times before the decided on the perfect piece of pottery :o).Brayden concentrating very hard on his Powerman. He chose lots of beautiful colors and sort of just mixed them all together. He was very pleased with the way his man turned out. He thought we would be able to take them with us today and did not understand the whole process of firing the piece and picking it up on Friday. That part he was not so pleased with. Brayden with his finished Masterpiece!

This was Bennett's second time painting on pottery. He did it once before in NC just before we moved about 2 yrs. ago. He picked a cute little 101 Dalmatian. They also had a great deal today. If you wore green you could paint for only $2!!! Gotta love a deal :o). I had originally thought this would take up a good hour or so, but nope the boys were very efficient and were done in about 30 minutes. Ugh now I have the rest of the day to entertain!!!

*A little story from while we were in there. Bennett saw a pottery piece of Elvis and said oh look mommy it's Jesus. You know Elvis has the long side burns and he thought it looked like Jesus with a beard. This lady heard what he said and was just chuckling under her breath. Some times kids say the cutest things. She seemed intrigued that Bennett would know about Jesus and what he looks like. She said you must go to church because most kids this age don't know who Jesus is. A very sad statment to me, but I'm so happy my boys know their father in heaven and feel very comfortable taking about him and singing his praises all day! Another reminder that we must be doing a few things right. His t-shirt that he was wearing today said. I'm not lucky, I'm saved!!! I told her well we do and he is in a Christian Preschool. We are there no less than 4-5 days a week. Bennett with his finished Masterpiece.

Right next door to Color Me Mine, is a Jamba Juice. It was around 11:15am when we finished so the boys and I thought this would make for a delicious mid morning snack. Bennett and Brayden choose Strawberry Whirl and I choose Peanut Butter Moo'd. While I was taking the boys picture, the owner said if I would bring a picture back of the boys drinking their smoothie then she would put it on her board.

After we left there, we went to the bank, then to Babies R' Us to get more formula for Baylor, and lastly to Trader Joes. After our morning outing, we returned home for lunch and I successfully got all the boys and myself to nap at the same time!!! It's now around 5pm and and time for dinner, baths, and bed time.

Daddy is in California today for Oma's memorial service and will not return until tomorrow. We miss you daddy and will see you in the morning after swimming lessons and Bennett's Karate lesson. Wow we have been busy, but for me and my boys it's the best way to be :o).

Will miss you Oma

We are very sad to say, that on Tuesday March 11th our Oma went home to be with the Lord. She would have been 92 on April 28th. This is a picture of her and the boys taken at Thanksgiving this past year. We will miss her and her sparkly personality. She always had so much energy and would literally run laps around me. :o) Mommy and Baylor at Mommy and Me on Monday at our Easter Party.

Brayden and the Easter Bunny at our party. Brayden and his little Easter bag that he made for his Easter egg hunt. He found 4 eggs and had so much fun this year.

Baylor jumped so much that he fell asleep. I looked over at him one minute and he was awake and jumping and the next he was asleep. I promise I took him out and put him in his crib just after I snapped this picture. I also took Baylor for his 6 month check up on Tuesday March 11th and he weighed 18 lbs. 3 oz. 75%, height 28 1/2 inches 100%, and Head Circumference 17 3/4 inch 75%. He is getting so big! She also said when I ran out of my supply of Alimentum, then we could try switching to regular formual. Yeah!!!

Here is Bennett this morning just after we got home from having his 4 bottom teeth pulled. He was given some Versed to drink which was to make him sleepy. I took him back out front and read to him for about 10-15 minutes and when the assistant came back for him, she asked if he was sleepy. He said no and then slammed his head back into the wall and fell asleep :o). I guess he was sleepy after all. After about 15 minutes they came back and got me and said he is ready to go. We only live like 2 minutes max from the Pediatric Dentist so we were back home and he was resting on the couch by like 9:30am. He is holding his newest Build-A-Bear friend that we got him to make the experience better and so he would not feel scared since he had to go back without mommy and daddy. His daddy is feeding him a smoothie right now. Yummy!!! They gave us his little baby teeth so the tooth fairy can come tonight. How much money does 4 pulled teeth get? I was thinking $5 per pulled tooth. Does anybody have a suggestion?

Here is a cute little video of Bennett making the baby laugh, so cute.