McKays on the Move

Well, spring flew by! The boys all played baseball this spring, so that occupied pretty much every night and every weekend with practices and games.  Carter and Jonah played in the Rec league in Arlington.  Jason and I coached them, with the help of my brother, Uncle Cheeto.  Jonah played short stop most of the time because he has a good glove and a strong arm.  He hit the ball really well, too.  Carter is obsessed with baseball! Every day when he gets home from school, he grabs his glove and my glove and asks me to throw with him outside.  He loves it!  I throw with him every day.  I know one day, he won’t want too much to do with me so I am loving this time now!  Carter played first base because he’s really good at catching.  He also has a great arm.  He throws right handed, but he bats left-handed.  He’s my little sports’ enthusiast!  Isabelle loved cheering for her brothers at their games.  She had friends at the games so she was never bored!  Beau played for the Arlington Tigers Major 12’s.  We have had a very busy season.  We’ve had tournaments almost every weekend since the beginning of March. Beau is playing outfield mostly, but he’s gotten to pitch a few times and play third base a little.  He loves it!  

I did a lot of subbing this semester. When I subbed, Izzie went to her babysitter, Julie’s house.  She loves Ms. Julie!!!!! They have so much fun together.  Isabelle is growing up so fast.  She loves to wear her hot pink tutu and leotard.  She loves to twirl around and pretend she is a princess! She is such a prissy little girl, but she loves to play rough and tough with her brothers.  She’s such a mixture of sweet and sassy!  We were watching college softball on TV one day and she told me she is going to pitch like her Mommy one day!  She wants to do everything I do-she’s my mini-me!  I always wanted a little girl so I could do all the girly stuff and I got it!  She loves to have her nails painted and her hair fixed!  She and I love to go get pedicures together! She sits very still and tries really hard not to mess up her nails! 

School came to a close in May.  Carter went on a field trip to Cici’s Pizza.  He got to make his own pizza! That was fun!  Carter had his Kindergarten recognition program where they sang several songs and he got a certificate.  It was very cute.  They sang a song about the bones and muscles!  I can’t believe my baby boy will be in first grade next year!  We will miss his Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Grimes! She was awesome! Sniff sniff!  Carter is also my little thinker.  He thinks about and analyzes everything.  He is very organized and knows where everything is. 

Jonah turned 8 in April!  We had a birthday party and sleepover at our house.  It was so much fun.  We had about 12 little boys spend the night.  They stayed up all night playing games, watching movies, and eating popcorn!  Jonah had his 2nd grade music program where he sang all patriotic songs.  It was a great program.  He made the best grades he  made all year! Two A’s, one B, and one C.  Yeah!  His C was in Language Arts.  The boy does NOT like English! That really hurts my feelings, since I’m an English teacher!  Oh well! He’s my science and animal nut! He loves all kinds of animals and he loves nature! His field trip this semester was to Lichterman Nature Center and he got to hike around the woods/ponds and pet a snake! It was right up his alley.  He says he wants to be an archaeologist.  We will see. 

Beau finished 6th grade and now has that first year of middle school under his belt.  He doesn’t exactly love school.  He would much rather play sports!  He takes art and P.E. in middle school.  I wish he would take Chorus because he has such a great voice, but he won’t.  He thinks only nerds sing! Beau has had some medical issues this spring as well.  He started having major allergic reactions to something (he broke out in enormous whelps all over his body and his lips swelled drastically).  After numerous doctors and different tests, his allergist determined that he was allergic to himself! WHAT! What does that mean?  Who knows, but hopefully he will grow out of it.  His insulin resistance is also getting worse so he had to quadruple his medicine for that.  Boo!  But, he’s a trooper! He handles all of this very well and with little complaint.

Well, spring was busy and summer doesn’t look any slower, but that’s how we like it!



Cooperstown
Beau’s baseball led us to Cooperstown Dreams Park this year!  What an amazing experience!!!!   There were 104 teams there and Beau’s team finished 17th!!!!!! It was awesome! Beau struggled this week; I think the pressure got to him.  He wanted to hit a homerun so badly that he stressed himself out.  He didn’t hit any bombs, but that’s okay! The experience was just incredible.  The Dreams Park is the most amazing ball park I’ve ever seen.  I can’t wait to go back in 4 years with Jonah!  We rented a house for the week in Oneonta, NY with our great friends, the Brewington’s.  Isabelle and their daughter Chloe are good friends so they played with baby dolls and played dress up all week.  Jonah, Carter, and Kyle Brewington played great together all week as well; they played whiffle ball and Legos!  It was so relaxing having a huge house and huge yard for the kids to play in while we weren’t at the ball park.  We got the chance to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame while we were in Cooperstown.  It was awesome seeing my dad, Jason, and our boys checking out all of the baseball records and memorabilia.  What a dream!   

We left Cooperstown and went to Salem, Massachusetts, where we walked all around and checked out all of the history.  We toured The House of the Seven Gables, which Hawthorne wrote a novel about.  I got to stand in the exact room where Hawthorne was born.  I was in awe just to be there.  We toured a very old, historical cemetery, with tombs that dated back to the 1600’s.  From there, we went to Boston.  The boys all went to a Red Sox game (Jason, Grandad, Beau, Jonah, and Carter).  They loved it!  They got to ride a subway to get there.  We are now Red Sox fans, I guess!  Izzie, Mom, and I hung out at the hotel.  We ordered in some Italian food and crashed out early! It’s been a very long week!

Overall, this has been an amazing trip!  Jason and I talk about it all the time; we would probably have more money and I know we’d have more time if we didn’t play sports, but we just love it. More importantly, the kids love it! They love sports and they get to learn how to be part of a team.  They learn how to succeed and fail and how to put others ahead of themselves.  Being part of an athletic team is so much more than just the sport; it teaches them life lessons that simply cannot be learned anywhere else.  Most importantly, however, our family gets to share our love of Christ with all the people we meet through sports.  Our sports are our mission field! 

January 2012

Sailing Away 2012

DAY 1
Well, today is the day! After a wonderful visit in Fort Myers, Florida with Jason’s Gram Henderson, we arrived in Port Canaveral to leave on a 7 day cruise! There are eight of us going-Jason, Amy, Beau, Jonah, Carter, Isabelle, Grandad (Steve) and Mamaw (Connie).  We are so thrilled!  The closer we got to the boat, the more excited the kids got!  Beau was the first one to spot the boat as we crossed the bridge to the port.  WOW! That boat is COLOSSAL!!!  It’s the 2nd biggest ship that Carnival has and it has a 3 story water slide!  Well, we boarded the ship and got a major surprise-MamaKay and DaddyKay met us as we came around the corner! They are going to cruise with us until we get to their port of St. Thomas! AMAZING! The kids are so thrilled to have both of their grandparents all to themselves!  What a special trip this will be!  As soon as we got over the shock of seeing the McKays, we headed straight to the slides!  It was only 50 degrees, but the kids didn’t seem to notice. Their lips were purple, they had goosebumps covering their skin, and they were shivering uncontrollably, but their smiles couldn’t have been bigger! They were having a ball!  After playing on the slides, we had a nice dinner (steak, chicken, lobster, shrimp, etc.).  Then, we went to bed because we were going to Nassau the next day!

DAY 2

It’s Nassau, Bahamas day!  We got off the boat and caught a bus taxi to the beach.  The waves were pretty rough and crazy, but, as usual, the kids didn’t notice!  They absolutely loved playing at the beach.  While on the beach, Isabelle, Mom, MamaKay, and I all had our hair braided in the Bahamas‘ style!  We won’t talk about the price-let’s just say that I could have had an amazing two-hour massage for the price of mine and Isabelle’s hair! We learned a lesson on the beach-ask the price BEFORE you let someone spend 30 minutes torturing you with braids!  But, it was a fun experience and all of our hair looked pretty awesome!  We headed back to the ship and got all dolled up for our first formal dinner!  Again, my group was looking snazzy! Best looking kids on this boat-hands down!  While at dinner, the boys were talking about their muscles and who is the strongest.  Carter proceeded to tell us all about his “six pack”. Well, Izzie then says, “Hey, I have an ICE PACK” and she lifted her shirt to show us!!!!! It was hilarious!  That girl is a mess!  A PINK mess!  After dinner, we went to a show; it was pretty good.  Then, we crashed! More adventure awaits tomorrow!

DAY 3

Well, the weather does not like us today! It’s pretty cool and rainy. The ship is really rockin‘ and rollin‘ today (a little seasick, I must admit).  The kids really wanted to swim, but after a little bit, we decided it was just too cold and rainy.  The boys went to Camp Carnival and played games for a while and the rest of us just bummed around the boat (we played cards and walked around).  The boys all played bean bags (it’s like horseshoes, but with beanbags and a board with a hole in it).  I have to say this-the kids are certainly taking advantage of the 24/7 ice cream bar!  I can’t count the ice cream cones they’ve had-at least 5 a day!    Carter has also discovered the french fries station! I bet he’s eaten 25 pounds of potatoes all by himself in the past 3 days!  Oh well! It’s vacation, right! We went to another great dinner and had a strange episode. I looked down the table at Beau and his lips were swollen-he looked like Fat Albert! Or Julia Roberts! Either way, it was abnormal for Beau.  We took him to the medical clinic and they gave him Benadryl.  Apparently, he’s allergic to anchovies!  Who knew!!!!! So, we went to the room where the dining crew had packed up our dinner for us and we ate.  Then, we headed up to the Lido deck to have-you guessed it-ice cream!!!!!  Isabelle was our “entertainment” for the evening. She stood on the table and did a dance show for us!  That girl loves to dance!  After our dinner, dessert, and “show”, we crashed out early.  

DAY 4

We pulled into St. Thomas harbor today and it was beautiful!  Boats silhouetted against the rising hills and beaches- just breathtaking.  We got a bus taxi and went to see MamaKay and DaddyKay’s coffee shop (Lattes in Paradise).  We all had mochas, coffees, smoothies, or milk shakes! YUM! Thanks for the tasty treats, McKays!  Then, we went to see the McKay’s house. It was really nice!  It has a beautiful view of the water and islands beyond!  Then, we hit the beach!  WOO HOO!!!! The kids were on Cloud NINE (adults too!)!  The beach was the perfect beach for them.  They swam and snorkeled until we literally dragged them out of the water several hours later!  Then, we went to eat some delicious pizza and head back toward the boat. We did a little souvenir shopping by the pier, then we said goodbye to the McKays! ;-(  What a day!  The best day of our trip so far!!!!!!  Well, goodnight! We’re off to St. Marten tomorrow!

DAY 5

We went to St. Marten today. We spent a little while at the beach, but it was chilly.  The kids played in the water and I enjoyed a fresh aloe vera foot massage on the beach by one of the locals! NICE! We decided to do a little shopping and then the rains came! Dad, Jason, and the kids headed back to the ship to eat lunch and swim while Mom and I headed out for a driving tour of the island. Despite the rain, it was really beautiful. We had a great time and saw some pretty neat stuff. We finally headed back to the boat to meet the rest of the family. We had another amazing dinner and saw another show! Whew, I'm tired!

DAY 6 & 7

We are headed north now and back to reality! BOO! We basically swam and played on the water slide all day for both of these days. We walked around the ship and shopped and had a great time! We watched some shows and ate some great food.  Beau tried everything (escargot, frog legs, sushi, etc).  He also continued to break out in humongous hives for the remainder of our trip (little did we know that these break-outs would last for the next three weeks and cost us numerous trips to the ER, allergist, doctor, etc.). Saturday morning, we arrive in Florida and get back in the car to head home! It was an amazing trip!!!!!

Home Again

We are glad to be home! It was a crazy ride, but it was worth it!  The kids got settled back into school and I started subbing again. Beau started practicing baseball and Jonah and Carter enjoy playing on the trampoline every afternoon.  Isabelle is enjoying dancing non-stop! We are going to put her in some gymnastics classes in the fall.  She just loves to dance and flip!

January was an adventurous start to 2012 for us and we hope it's a great year!

Reflections of 2011

Well, 2011 was a year full of change for the McKay family.  We moved in January into Heather and Chad’s house. They moved to Bartlett to put Charlie and Hannah into school.  I continued to homeschool Beau, Jonah, and Carter through the end of the school year.  We took a trip to Florida in March to visit with Jason’s Grandmother Henderson.  She had never met Jonah, Carter, or Isabelle.  We had such a great time! She is an amazing Christian lady and she adored the kids.  We went to the beach (the first time for Carter and Isabelle to see the ocean!) and spent time with Gram and her family.  Lads to Leaders came in April and it was awesome!  All the boys participated in Song Leading and Preaching.  Beau won 2nd place out of about 60 boys his age in Song Leading! We were so proud!  He has a great voice and he loves to use it! 

When school was over, summer was packed with baseball and swimming! We had a great summer! In July, we went to Gatlinburgh for vacation with my Mom and Dad. We camped for a week beside a beautiful creek!  We enjoyed the outdoors and we went to Cades’ Cove, where we saw a mommy bear feeding her three baby cubs! It was unbelievable!  We left from there and went to Pennsylvania to drop the boys off so they could spend a week at church camp with MamaKay and DaddyKay.  The kids had a great time at camp! After a week, we met MamaKay and DaddyKay to pick up the boys. MamaKay and DaddyKay moved to St. Thomas to run a coffee shop. 

School and football started in August.  Beau, Jonah, and Carter all did awesome at football this year! Jason coached Beau’s team; Jonah and Carter played on the Bantam team.  Homeschool was rough; Beau and Jonah did fine, but Carter struggled with the structure of it.  He needs a strict schedule and lots of structure, which is NOT the way I teach, so we were butting heads pretty hard! Jason and I did lots of praying and we felt that the kids needed to go back to school this year.  So, we had to move AGAIN to get the boys into Shelby County Schools! We moved September 1st to our house on Douglass.  It’s an amazing location! We walk to the elementary school and church! The kids are so happy there! We got them all back in school and football was in full swing by October.

The kids were thriving in school and football when we had a slight disaster. After running the 5K race for Team Hannah and LeBonheur, I suffered a mini-stroke.  It was the scariest moment of my life-I truly thought I was dying and I would not see my children grow into adults.  I spent 3 days in the hospital having a multitude of tests run. Doctors decided that a small hole in my heart led to the stroke and I needed to take a daily 325mg dose of aspirin a day to prevent a future stroke.  So, I take my aspirin and I am continuing to run 4 times a week to keep in shape. Hopefully, I won’t have another stroke.

November came and football continued.  All three boys made it to the playoffs in football, but lost in the first round.  ;-(  It was a sad day!  Beau made the All-Star team and was named Lineman of the Year! His work ethic on the football field is astounding! All of his coaches love how dedicated and hard-working he is.  He gives 110% all the time and never gives up!  I hope he will always keep that winning attitude!

Jonah is a clown! He loves to entertain us and make us all laugh! He will just get in the middle of the room and start doing a silly dance just to see how we will react.  He’s also a bit dramatic.  If he gets a paper cut, he acts like he cut his entire finger off!  Jonah also loves animals! I think he might be my vet one day.  Carter is my “thinker”.  He contemplates everything he sees and he can figure out anything.  He reminds me so much of Jason that way.  Carter is the one we go to if we lose something-he usually knows where it is.  He loves to work with tools and cars and anything with “parts”.  It’s pretty amazing!  Isabelle is our little princess, of course!  She absolutely LOVES the color pink-it’s almost an obsession! She only wants to wear pink clothes and even at Easter, she would only pick up the “pink” eggs! It is hilarious to see! The boys love to carry her around and baby her! She eats it up, too. She is such a girly girl, too. She loves to play dress up and play with baby dolls and play kitchen! But, she’s not too girly to get in the dirt and play with a truck-as long as it’s PINK!  ;-) 

Well, in a nutshell, life is just as I have always wanted it! It’s not perfect, but it’s perfect for me! I get to spend every day with the people I love most in the world-my husband and my kids! This is my dream! As long as I have them, I couldn’t ask for more!  My family all lives nearby and we are all so close. It’s like a preview of what Heaven will be like! 

Christmas 2011

Another wonderful year for the McKay family! Christmas was fantastic! We started our holiday festivities a little early with a day full of baking Christmas goodies with my sisters (Ziggy, Heather, and Tommie) and my mom.  The kids played Wii and they also played at the park while we cooked.  They created a Christmas craft and decorated sugar cookies (they didn't turn out great but it was fun anyway!).  Since we ate so much, my mom and I ran 3 miles to burn off some calories.

Christmas Eve was a fun-filled day.  We started off with our day visiting with Mamaw and Ziggy for a while, then we went to the Stokes' annual party where we ate great food, visited with friends, and watched the kids bust the pinata! We always have so much fun doing that!

Our evening was topped off with the Hannah Christmas gathering at the church building.  It looked beautiful and the food was great! We ate and visited with our family, then we sang Christmas songs! The evening ended with a surprise visit from Santa who gave all the kids a stocking with gifts! We went home and played cards for a while with Dodie, Mark, and Dawn.  We had a blast, then we opened our Christmas presents from each other and MamaKay and DaddyKay.  Beau was thrilled with his clothes and XBox controller. Jonah was excited with his art set and Nerf guns. Carter loved his Under Armour sweatshirt and Legos. Isabelle loved her baby dolls and clothes! I got running gear and clothes. Jason got some clothes and a Shop Vac.  It was a great night.  Jason and I went upstairs with the kids and got everyone to sleep.  Then, Jason and I watched A Christmas Story!

Christmas morning dawned bright and early! The kids were so excited! They got a trampoline and a basketball goal and a huge playhouse! They got lots of other stuff too, but I'm not going to list it all! They must have been very good this year! After playing with all their new stuff for a few hours, we went to church to worship God! Then, we went to my Mamaw and Papaw's house to eat, open presents, and play Dirty Santa with ornaments! We always have so much fun there! Mamaw and Papaw gave Jason and me a handmade wood Santa and Reindeer standing candle holders! They are awesome!  After that, we went home and cleaned a little, then went to Mom and Dad's house to open more presents. We ate appetizers and opened presents, then we played Dirty Santa with our brothers and sisters.  I ended up with Dove chocolates and $20, while Jason got a$25 gift card to Macaroni Grill.  Yummy!  We played a little Wii Dance Party, then the kids were begging to go home because they were worn out.  Isabelle fell asleep within a few minutes of getting in the car.  Jonah and Beau watched a new movie when we got home and then they fell asleep.  Carter crawled in bed with Jason and me and crashed out! It was a great day.

Being with my family is the best thing in the world.  Each day is a precious gift that I will always cherish! Yes, I let my kids sleep in the bed with me if they want to because I know there will come a time when they won't want anything to do with me.  I pray that we are always this close!  I feel so blessed that I have four healthy, amazing kids and a terrific, loving, Christian husband!