Treasure These Day's

I never imagined that I would be a stay at home mother. And defiantly never thought I would be good at it. But in actuality I am, I love that I can plan out every meal. I start every Monday with my coupon book and the sales adds. I plan breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner all the way through Sunday evening. And it saves our family a ton of money! In fact I spend $100 or less every week for our family of 6, this includes detergent, cleaning supplies, and pet needs.  My house is never spotless but I am able to take and pick up all of my children from school, feed them a healthy afternoon snack, help them with homework, and have dinner at least on the stove when Chris comes home. I love that when school is out, I am home with them. I love that we can stay in our pj's all day, or go to the park, play in our yard, make crafts, watch movies or talk about Jesus. Don't you just love the innocence of a child, and how a 5 year old explains his interpretation of the story you just read to him from the bible, well I do and it warms my heart to hear my children watch and do as we do. To hear them not say (God is Great) but their own heartfelt prayer. To hear them tell me ways they think we can help others and people they may know who need our prayers and our help. I love that Marley has really began to pretend play. She wants me to swaddle her dolls, so she can play feed them with bottles.  I love that she makes me snacks in her play kitchen. My favorite is the pretend cupcakes she makes me and then tries to make me eat them :)

I love that she is not in daycare, and I can capture silly moments on camera. Like the one where she fell asleep sitting straight up on the couch with her blanky over her head.

So today I am reminding myself to treasure each and every moment!

Marley's 1st hair cut

Today was Marley's 1st hair cut, yes I realize she turned 2 in June! But I just have not been able to bring myself to have it trimmed until today. Here is Marley and Chris waiting for her appointment to start. Oh did I mention that today is the GA/FL game!!

Here is the back before the cut!

My friend Amy cut Marley's hair and did a great job! Marley was so good, she sat very quietly in her Daddy's lap during the entire hair cut.

Today was perfect! Awesome time with my family, and the Bulldogs won! It's great to be a Gator Hater!

I'm Back!

I have been so terrible at keeping up our blog! As a family of 6 I'm sure you can imagine how busy we stay. We are continuing our hunt for a new house and are still in search for a church home, it has been both physically and emotionally draining. Pray for our family as we seek God and  find a new place to serve and live.
So hang tight this is going to be a long post, I'm going to back track and catch you up on the McConnell's busy day to day lives!
First let me say that this post will mostly be a photo dump! I just unloaded 350 pictures from my camera, yes I just said 350 all taken during a time slot 1-2 months. Don't worry I wont dump all 350 on you. I skimmed through and picked a few of my favorites. Lets start with football- the season has finally come to an end for this family, well except for college football. It was a sad end, for Alex's last year of middle school f-ball. They won 0 games :( But that didn't stop us from having a good time.

Alex is the Blue #5 ^



Marley wore red, white and blue to almost every game to support big brother! She obviously enjoyed watching the cheerleaders more than the football game.

                                                    Alex is white #5^

Chris and I took Marley and met up with his parents, for Marley to visit Babyland General for the 1st time. If your not familiar with babyland- it's the home of the Cabbage patch kids and is a must see for all ages. I had not visited since my childhood and still had a great time.


Marley looking at all of the cabbage patch dolls that are up for adoption.

Watching and waiting for a brand new cabbage to be delivered.

Of course she wouldn't sit in the chair and didn't even want a new baby. She picked out a stuffed monkey and cat. And her Nana bought her a cabbage patch fairy anyway.

Every other Friday after MOPS  I swing by my cousins bakery- Sweet B's and grab some yummy treats for the kids to have after school. If your in the area and have not visited her bakery and bistro. Stop by, I promise you will not be disappointed! It's on the square in downtown Clarkesville.

Marley and I finally got to enjoy watching Daddy's band play at the annual Habersham Jam!

We enjoyed some blanket time in the park, warm fall sunshine, and great music!

\
There was a lot of time spent enjoying the last really warm days at the park and in our backyard. I obviously have a handful of monkey's on my hands! :)

Here is the last little piece of exciting,  eventful moments of the fall. Does everyone remember way back in late May early June when my husband told the boys that they could keep 2 stray kittens if they could catch them (Without asking me by the way). And they did!! And then 1 of our dogs played a little too rough with the gray one and it died. Anyway to get to the point. We have been very pleased with Thomas (the cat) he is all around a great cat! Thomas brings gifts to doorstep- examples: 3 field mice, 2 moles, and 3 snakes. I'm sure your getting the picture that he really loves us right? Thomas was defiantly earning his keep that is until late one night I noticed a small place on the upper right side and he began to act very lethargic. Days passed and Thomas began to grow a large yucky ( I wont go into detail) mass on his side. I wouldn't let him come in the house or let the kids touch him. On October the 18th while the kids were at school I decided to make a trip to the vet and try to save this CAT that my husband TOLD the kids they could keep! After a quick consultation it was established that Thomas had been snake bitten and would need immediate surgery. OK I quickly said and rushed out of the office to pick up the kids at school. Called Chris and I told him what I had done. Here is how the conversation played out.
Chris: How much????
Me: Uh I didn't ask, I just wanted to save Thomas for the kids.
Chris: Well you had better hang up right now and call right back and ask! Because we could have gotten another cat out in front of the local Wal-mart for FREE!!
Me: But it wouldn't be the same! It wouldn't be Thomas!
Chris: I don't care call now! And call me back with the amount!

So I did call, and they were right in the middle of surgery. The lady on the phone says it should be between $100-$150. Not so bad right? Wrong, Chris was well to say MAD is really an understatement! I showed up the next day to pick up Thomas and boy were they wrong it was $250! Along with strict instructions for Thomas to stay inside and contained for 2 straight weeks. And that meant purchasing a litter box and all the crap to go with it. Oh and have I mentioned that Thomas was wearing the cone of shame when I picked him up. (all to keep him from tearing the stitches out)

Here is a picture of a small snake that Chris caught outside our garage (non poisonous). This will give you an idea of what the 3 small snakes Thomas caught and killed looked like.

The 4th time Thomas wasn't so lucky, the vet said the snake that bit him was poisonous. We will never know what kind- so Chris took it upon his self to purchase an insane amount of moth balls and scatter them all over yard. Supposedly moth balls keep snakes away, oh and side note they make your yard stink like moth balls. No sign of snakes though :)

Be back soon with more craziness from our McConnell Mob!

My Love

Three years ago today I married the love of my life. We had the most perfect wedding and honeymoon. No thought to how we would pay off our wedding/honeymoon debt. Or how we would all learn to live and love together as a family of 6. Alex (my oldest child) went from being an only child to having a step dad, two step brothers and within 1 year a baby sister (we didn’t plan that one either- God did) I thought we would have a perfect/American dream house that had perfect décor. The fact is we don’t even own a house and that's ok. Sometimes God has other plans, and I’m glad He does. You see God knew exactly what he was doing when he made us a family. And just so you know all that American Dream stuff- it really doesn’t matter. But that is another day and another blog post.

So today I celebrate my love for Chris and the marriage God has blessed us and continues to bless us with!

I love Chris for so many reasons. Because he is a Godly man and leader to our McConnell Mob, he is loving, caring, laid back, a handy man, smart, witty, humble, honest, how he kisses me every morning before he leaves for work; how he still tells me I’m his hottie and sends me sweet texts. How he dances with me in kitchen, holds me when I cry, prays with me out loud, works hard for our family to provide and for me to stay home with our kids. I love how he strives to be Christ like, how he wants to serve others, how he listens to me constantly talk about when and if we can adopt, I love that he gets excited about us serving locally and in Haiti. Really when it comes down to it I’m just thankful that he is in Love with Jesus because without that the rest wouldn’t fall into place! I can’t wait, and am so very excited to see what the next three years will hold.

Here is a  peak into the day we became ONE.

The Begining

Oh what a Journey life is! I am ultimately starting this blog so that our family and friends can follow our journey on our first trip to Haiti and so that all of our out of state family can keep up with our chaotic lives and watch our children grow no matter how far away they are. I am very excited to see what our trip to Haiti and the journey of the McConnell Mob holds! We are here to give God all the glory and be his hands and feet wherever he takes us. So come along and read what our journey will hold.