My Princess

McKenna surprises me every day! The other day she pointed to the TNT Fireworks logo on my shirt and said "Daddy's work?" Oh my word, how on earth did she know that. And another day last week a friend of ours was babysitting McKenna. Ryan had given them some fireworks and when McKenna saw them in their garage she said, "That's my daddy's." Now just to give you a little perspective....we don't have any fireworks at our house. None. I have no idea how she knows daddy has anything to do with fireworks, unless she remembered from last summer, which I guess she must.

She loves to put puzzles together and read books. Unfortunately she's also at the age where she destroys books. I learned the hard way not to let her have a flap book in her bed with her when she takes a nap. By the end of nap time the book will no longer have any flaps.

McKenna is 26 months old and weighs 26 lbs.
She still takes a decent nap every afternoon.
She likes to stay up late with Mommy and Daddy.
Her new favorite obsession are her babies.
She has two babies; Reagan (named after a baby friend she knows) and Sara.
She loves to take care of Reagan and Sara.
Many times I find myself searching the house for one of them before we go somewhere.
She loves to have them in the car with her.
McKenna is quite the little singer.
She sings ALL THE TIME!!
Her new favorite thing is putting on "shows."
A "show" is when she stands on the hearth of the fireplace (her stage) and sings for us.
Then she tells us to clap!
Her favorite song continues to be "Jesus loves me" but sometimes we also get to hear:
Abc song
If you're happy and you know it
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam
God is so Good
McKenna has all the men in our family wrapped around her little finger.
Her daddy and her PopPop are totally smitten.
Of course they are....
she always runs up to them and says "Much You" as she hugs their leg!
-----

I had a hard time figuring out what the name McKenna meant when we were picking out baby names. Most baby name sources say the name McKenna means "ascend" or "son of Kenneth." But this one source said that McKenna means "happiness" and that's the meaning I'm claiming for my McKenna! It fits her!

The Potato Chip Field Trip

I got to hang out with these handsome men the other day!

We went on a field trip to learn how potato chips are made.
And we got to wear these very cool hats as we toured the factory.
Christian made sure that we brought them home with us so that Daddy and PopPop could try one on.

Cheese puffs!

Cheese puffs on the left, potato chips on the right.

Warm, salty chips...yummo!

It really was an awesome tour. Lot of interesting things to see and lots of great information.

Did you know that it takes 4 lbs of potatoes to make just 1 lb of potato chips??

Look at all those chips.

It was a really fun morning. I love spending time with my boy!

And Christian was pretty thrilled that we got to take home a bag of goodies!

Wordless Wednesday

4 Wheeling Fun

This is McKenna's new favorite thing! It is not an exageration when I tell you that Christian drove her around for over an hour today.
The relationship between these two is really starting to change. Christian finally gets it that God made him the big brother so that he can help take care of McKenna (we tell him that all the time). So instead of tormenting her he's starting to find joy in making her laugh and in taking care of her.

And he loves it that she is starting to trust him.

Look at how tightly she holds onto his shirt.

She climbs up onto his four wheeler all by herself and says "Come on Chrish." And he loves it that he's the big brother who can take her for a ride. Today I watched him (while I was mowing) and everynow and then he would stop the four wheeler....get off and show McKenna something like a bird's nest or a flower or a stick. I wish I could have heard what he was saying. It was like he was taking her on a tour of the yard. So cute! They even found a robin egg.

He also loves to get her out of her booster seat at the table after a meal. I think he likes doing that because he gets to pick her up for a minute and usually that's not allowed around here.

And he loves to push her in her swing. He lets her feet "knock" him over onto the ground and he rolls around like a crazy guy while she laughs. It's so sweet to see them actually playing together!
Thank you Jesus!

Hi

We're having so much fun!

But I miss my kids more than I ever imagined.

But we've decided that we need to do this at least once a year!

Definitely!!!

Gotta go...we've got a movie to finish watching!

See ya later...

This weekend I'm going to:

• sleep in
• snuggle my husband
• read a book
• have conversation without interruption
• go out to eat
• enjoy the company of my best friend
• invest in my marriage
• relax
• miss my kids :)

Ryan and I are heading out of town.
Just the two of us.
We've never done this before.
We need it.
I need it.
I'm excited!



I think I've realized over the last couple of years that you have to put your marriage first.
I haven't done a very good job with that.
Because of kids, a house on the market, laundry, blogging, cleaning, moving, moving again, mowing grass, changing diapers, family stuff, Sunday school lessons, lack of sleep, health issues with kids, health issues with me, kids, kids.....did I say kids ?? and just life!
I've had so many people tell me to "guard your marriage," "work at your marriage." ETC....
But marriage was easy for Ryan and I...at least the first five years :)
Seriously...things were perfect.
We would scratch our heads and wonder what people were talking about when they said "work."
We thought we were some exception.
And to some degree I think we are.
We are so blessed.
We are happy.
We still love each other :)
But kids happened.
And McKenna didn't sleep for about a year.
And Ryan's job got super stressful.
And we had a few extra kids around for awhile.
And then, being the tremendously wise people that we are, we put our house on the market during the worst time possible.
And we showed our house 18 times.
I think I had about 18 melt downs.
And we moved.
And we moved again.
And we are finally catching our breath and in between all the busyness I've realized that I miss him.


So this weekend it's just me and him.
Sounds like perfection to me!

A Message from MALAWI, AFRICA

Remember McKenna's Malawi birthday party??

Our boxes of clothes arrived a few weeks ago.



And these beautiful children are wearing them.

Isn't she so pretty!

I'm sure she doesn't have a clue that all of us over here in America are talking about her :)

And look at that little cutie.
Jamie, Daniel and a group from their church here in the states headed out to the orphanage to play with and minister to the kiddos. Hence the sheep hats you'll see on lots of kids. I'm guessing they must have been a cute craft that went along with a lesson or something.

This picture makes me wish we had sent boxes of Crocs too!

And there's a shirt that one of you sent.

Looks like everyone is washing their hands.

Check out that cute Hello Kitty dress that made it all the way to Africa!

What handsome little men! It makes me so sad that they don't have a mommy to tell them how handsome they are everyday!

And this is one final picture. I snagged this off of Jamie's Flicker account. Those do not look like dresses that we sent. Those look like precious little girls who still need new dresses. I know we can't solve all the problems in the world...But.....

Y'all Ready for this???

I told you big stuff was going on with this boy and I wasn't kidding!

Check out the lack of training wheels on that bike!

And he seriously goes so fast....it makes me very nervous. But no wrecks on record yet!

Look at that face full of joy and victory!

So how did this happen?

Daddy mentioned to Christian that he needed to get rid of the training wheels before he turns 5.

Christian said "ok" and wanted them off immediately.

So off they came.
Daddy got quite a work-out running behind Christian for an hour or so.

And pretty soon daddy was running farther and farther behind him.

And Christian realized that he could do it without daddy and the rest is history.

Chrish is still having a hard time getting started on his own.

He can't seem to get the hang of balancing the bike in order to take off, but it will happen...hopefully soon.

Oh my. He pulls out his own teeth. He rides a bike with no training wheels.

Up next....we're going to get rid of that thumb (not literally...we are just going to work on not sucking it anymore).

BIG Stuff!!

There's lots of big stuff going on around in our house.

This is the last official picture of all of those teeth.

Notice that bottom one is missing now!

He pulled it out BY HIMSELF!

It's quite shocking really!

He's growing up...so fast.

Several things like this have happened lately and it just takes my breath away.

I love him to pieces.

How thankful I am that he still loves to be held and cuddled :)

Stay tuned for another big announcement about this guy!!

Easter Evening - Hunt #2

My parents headed down to my brother's house for the week on Sunday afternoon. So we didn't have a big Easter meal. We had McDonalds :)
We enjoyed our backyard and the beautiful weather.

And we had our very own Easter egg hunt with just the four of us!

My kids love hunting for Easter Eggs.

They seriously love it.

I'm tempted to hid all the eggs again just to watch McKenna find them.

And Christian was just as delighted as she was.

No one seemed to care that half of them were empty :)

I'm not quite sure when it happened...but we don't have a baby in our house anymore.

It was a beautiful way to spend the evening.

The end.