Little readers

 I was carrying a basket of laundry up the steps and when I came around the corner this is what I saw.

 McKenna must have been making up a pretty good story because her little friend was into it.

These two girls (M & M) have become the best of friends. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be watching the littlest "M" anymore since I went back to work. We are sure sad about that because we love this little friend.

Daddy's Helper...sort of

 Will had one of those little cars that you pull back and let go and it zooms across the floor. This was the scene when he let it zoom under the refrigerator for the third time.

 Daddy was trying to get it out...again.

And Will was observing.

 Oh Daddy's head looks so snuggly...I think I'll take a little rest.

 Just chillin'

 Will is always so helpful.

 In the end, the car was rescued with no thanks to Will.

PJ Day

 McKenna (the doll) got to go to school with McKenna (the girl) for pajama day!

They have matching pj's so this was a big event!

 I'm not sure who was more excited, McKenna or McKenna.

Super Bowl 2013

 Christian and I are the Raven's fans in our house! We were so excited about the Super Bowl.

Do you see that goal post Christian made out of legos??

 We had a football themed table and Christian thought it needed a goal post at the end. I moved it to the middle of the table because I didn't want it to get knocked over and he kept moving it back to the end of the table.

 We had 49 people who actually came to the party, so I had crockpots sitting everywhere.

We had even more food in the basement and in the dining room.

 The calm before the storm.

 The house really didn't seem that crowded. The serious watchers were in the basement. There was a small crowd in the dining room. The kids were mainly playing upstairs in the bonus room.

 And there were people in the family room (this was taken when people started leaving when they thought the game was going to be a boring one...boy did that change).

At one point I saw Will sitting all by himself in a car looking up at the tv (you can sort of see him in the picture before this one). It was adorable. It was as if he knew that he should be sitting there staring at the tv too.

It was a fun night.

So excited to have a Ravens win!!!!!!!!!!

Changes

Have you been wondering what we've been up to around here??

I mean other than the 49 people we had at our house for the Super Bowl (WooHoo Ravens!!!!).

We've had some extremely significant changes take place in our lives in the last week. 

I keep waiting for the right moment to have enough time to sit down and actually explain what's been going on in our lives and I've realized that I'm never going to have enough time to put all the "right" words together. So I trust that by now you all know my heart and hopefully I don't really have to "explain" myself.

To those of you that know me well this is going to come as a huge surprise...as it should...because this was a surprise to me too. I've been a stay at home mom for the past almost eight years. I was planning on being a full time stay at home mom for a few more years. Eventually I knew I would probably go back to work part time, but all that has changed.

I went back to work full time on Monday.

((gasp))

I know. This is huge.

I was hired as the Children's ministry director at our church. It is the perfect job for me. Honestly, it is most definitely my dream job. I'm not going to launch into the whole story, but this job is the fulfillment of a dream I believe the Lord placed in my heart over a decade ago while I was at Liberty University.

It's a full time job but I'm going to be working from home a lot. I love the flexibility that this job can give me. I'm planning on working 2 1/2 days a week at church. Then Sundays of course. And the rest of the time I'll be working at home. Things will get easier in the fall because I will have two kids in school full time and Will is pretty flexible. I would not have taken the job if it meant that my kids would have to be in daycare outside of our home. I am blessed to have a mom and dad who were in agreement that this is what the Lord wanted me to do they are coming alongside me and supporting me by taking care of the kids while I'm at work.


I could go on and on about why Ryan and I decided that this was the right choice for our family right now, but for now I'm just going to tell you that I felt confident that this was what God was calling me to do, so I'm trying to be obedient.

Please be praying for our family during this time of transition. McKenna is thrilled about this and wants to go to daycare. (She's very disappointed that she's not going to get the chance to do that). Will loves his Nanny and PopPop and thinks it's grand fun when they come over. Christian is still on the fence. This is hard for him, which is pretty funny since I worked yesterday and still got him on and off the bus (if I hadn't told him he wouldn't have even known I went to work). It's affecting his life the least amount, but he's worrying about it the most. He just isn't a fan of any kind of change.

This job is a huge responsibility and I'm a little overwhelmed by all it entails, but the first few days are always going to feel like that. I've got a good plan it's just going to take some time to put the plan in place. I love dreaming and thinking and planning and praying and .......

I hope I still have time for blogging. This blog has been a huge part of my life for six years and I intend to continue, I just hope I have time!

Love you guys!

Snuggle Bugs

It's hard for me to believe that we've finally gotten to the point where all three of our kids will crawl into bed together and watch a movie. Will usually doesn't last long. But it's so sweet to see all three of them spending time together.

Pictures from Christian

 I've been terrible about taking pictures lately, so I thought I'd show you some pictures Christian took.

 We all think Will is so funny.

 A nighttime doughnut run with friends.

 Hiking with a buddy from school.

 The 2nd oldest oak tree (I forget what kind of oak) in Pennsylvania happens to be on Christian's school property.

 Christian loves baseball so much that he even takes pictures of his baseball books.

He pretty much exclusively checks out baseball books from the library.

Alright, back to baking. I've got 50 people coming over for the Super Bowl on Sunday. I've got a huge list of things to get done today and then I've got another list for tomorrow. Good times!