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!

Happy Halloween

This is the super cute pumpkin I decorated at MOPS! Very easy to make! All you need is some ribbon and tacks. Measure strips of ribbon, and attach them at the stem and under the bottom of the pumpkin. Voila, super cute stylish pumpkin. When your done you can remove the tacks and ribbon, place in a container or bag and reuse next year!

Marley had a Halloween party at her school, she wore a really cute cat dress with stockings, orange shoes and an orange bow. And wouldn't let me take any pictures! She sat in my lap during the entire class party. The only picture I have is of the gifts she gave her teachers. Cute idea from Pintrest.

Nick also had a Halloween party the same day as Marley's which was on Halloween day. I made cupcakes and cute fruit sticks for his class.

Ah the only picture of Marley in her cute Halloween outfit ^ By the time Nick's party was over, I was partied out and had a  terrible headache! After school we rushed to the house to finish making their costumes. Nothing like waiting until the last minute right :) I'm fully aware that I totally deserved that headache! Costumes were done just in time and they looked great!

We had a Robot, an Indian and.......... a sweet little butterfly that once again did not want her picture taken, I'm not sure daddy did either. Just kidding Chris actually was smiling in the first picture but Marley turned her head and after the 2nd she was done!

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!

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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 Quick Vacation

Vacations are great especially the ones to a beach. It's been three years since our family has gone to the beach or on any vacation for that matter. This year Alex was invited by a friend to go to Myrtle Beach for 2 weeks. Not that Im over protective or anything but I really felt like 2 weeks was a long time for my 13 yearold to be away from us. So I decided to let him go for a week and then I could drive over to get him and stay the weekend, to let Marley play. It would be her first time to the beach. Which I thought sounded like the ideal plan.... until I found out that Chris was on call for work and the band he is in had a show in Atlanta. Sooooo I called my mom and asked if she would like to tag along. The 4 1/2 hr.- 5 hr. drive turned into almost a 7 hr. drive...... with a 2 year old Im sure you can imagine. Finally checked in around 4pm on Friday, and made our way down to the beach. Not knowing how Marley would react going down to the ocean her first time, I didn't put her swim suit on just a sun dress. Well I should have known my sweet girl is not afraid of anything she went right across the sand and into the waves dress and all. 
 This was really a super short trip as said before we checked in at 4pm on Friday and we were checked out by 11am on Sunday. The in between time we spent at the pool, on the beach, at the aquarium, the Ripley's museum, and had dinner at Crabby Mike's. We had a wonderful weekend, but missed Chris bunches! Marley had such a great time, she absolutely loved the water. Hopefully we can make another short trip back to the beach so that Chris can see her in action.




First time on beach playing in the sand.



It's bed time and she is still standing at the door to go back down to the ocean!



Alex at Ripley's Museum

And here is our final vacation picture.... a sail boat that had been achored at sea near our hotel washed ashore during the night. You don't see this everyday......