Wordless Wednesday: Ninja Baby

(On a very cold walk that lasted only about 15 minutes!)

Sweet Little Cousins

We had a great Christmas this year, and yet again were able to spend time with both sides of our family! We are so blessed with awesome families, and it is so fun to see our kids start to grow up together. This is the first year they were able to really interact and play, and they just really love each other. There was lots of toy sharing, snack eating, hugs, sippy cup borrowing, and present opening together. Kenna is just two months apart from Beckley (Matt's sister's little boy) and just six months apart from Emerson (my brother's little girl) and it's really great to have them at the such close age levels. She also has two older cousins to look up to: Ansley who is five (Brogli side) and Evan who is almost three! (Dean side). Sorry if this all sounds a little over-sentimental, these are just some fun things about the stages they are all at that I want to remember for our photo albums!

We got some great pictures of our happy little campers this Christmas.

The Brogli/Edwards cousins:

Ansley Bug (5 years) Kenna Bear (13 months) and Beckley Boy (15 months)

Doesn't that group hug just melt your heart? These are some super active kids, so I'm amazed we got them all to sit still together for even a minute. But it seems like if one of them starts to hug, they all want to hug each other! They've even been known to give some pretty big smootches. The little jumper Kenna is wearing was a hand-me-down from Ansley- it makes me happy to think of them being connected in that way, and makes me a little less sad to think about how quickly they are all growing up and outgrowing things! I was amazed to see Ansley sit and write out her name and several other words. Beck is constantly on the move, and Kenna is about 15 teeth behind him- she has some catching up to do!

The Brogli/Dean cousins:

Evan Buddy (2 years) Emmie Grace (6 months) Kenna Bear (13 months)

Matching girly girls!

It totally cracks me up that the girls have the same amount of hair and it is the exact same color! The girls are wearing little matching outfits that their great-Grannie gave them. Evan was much more excited to help them open their gifts than worry about what anybody was wearing. Good thing Kenna and Emmie both love big kids so much! Evan is speaking noticeably more words and more clearly... he had a blast playing with the Jesus toys (kid's nativity) and knew all of the members of the family- Joseph, Baby Jesus, and "Mary Mommy." Emmie is sitting up and babbling, very obviously holding her own with these big cousins.

We love all these kiddos so much! I love waiting to see how much they will change with each year and each Christmas. I think no matter what, they will always be little cousin friends.

Merry Christmas!

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." -Luke 2:10-14

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God... Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." -2nd Corinthians 5:17-21

Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
Merry Christmas from the Brogli family!

Christmas 2009 Photos

I admit, like many people, I can get a bit obsessive about "the perfect" Christmas card picture. This tends to be one area that the Lord continually has to teach me to keep my attitude in check, to remember what this season is really about, and to know that I am not perfect.. so to try to present myself as perfect by obsessing over "the perfect" Christmas picture can make me pretty ridiculous.

We did a good job at staying easygoing and lighthearted while trying to take some at home in front of our tree, but with little to no natural light and a cranky, nap-needing baby, we were getting some not-so-great results from our attempts with our timer. So we finally broke down and went to the professionals. Picture People is doing a special right now where if you bring a brand new toy to donate to Toys for Tots they give you two sheets of portraits for free! Since a 10x13 enlargement counts as one "sheet" we decided that would be a great way to get a family portrait that we could also use for our Christmas card photo. We ended up having a really good time getting them done- Kenna is such a ham for the camera and tends to charm the pants off anyone that she is around. Maybe we should look into baby modeling!

Here are our favorites:
Kenna had so much fun playing in the little sled with the fake snowball. We also had some taken of her standing up and holding onto a little tiny prop ottoman that was so cute.

It's really hard these days to get a picture with all three of us in it (especially where Matt and I are not making crazy faces because we've been giggling maniacally and tickling a baby trying to get her to smile) so I'm so thankful that we have these lovely ones to remember this time, this stage, and this little window of our little one who is growing oh-so quickly.

Each year, I try to let go of a little more of my perfectionist tendencies and appreciate that the little imperfections in each photo means we are real people, imperfect sinners saved by the grace of a perfect Savior! I want to focus more on my love for a husband who will put on a collared shirt knowing that "let's just try one more" means at least 10 more photos, and for a baby who absolutely loves to smile and can light up anyone in a room with her laughter. Merry Christmas!

"Getting Through" the Holidays

I've been thinking a lot about a phrase you hear often from adults this time of year, "I've just got to get through the holidays." For kids, Christmas is a time of huge excitement and wonder and anticipation. For adults, real life can often set in and it easily can become a time of stress, frustration, and even dread. I think a lot of times that comes from loss- of a loved one especially. We know so many people who are celebrating Christmas through the feeling that someone is missing, or remembering a pregnancy that ended in loss instead of celebration. That is so hard, as we know first hand, since this is our second Christmas (third, really, if you count the time that she was unresponsive in the hospital) that we celebrate without my mom. Just this week, we have a family member who is thinking of a birthday where their parent "would have been" a certain age, and as we were leaving church on Sunday, we saw a teenage girl sitting near a headstone among the poinsettias that belonged to her mother who committed suicide recently. That's hard enough to see on any day, but seems especially hard and unfair at Christmas time.

Because of that, I wanted to share a few resources we've found that have helped us related to grief. I hope that they can or have already helped you as well, or that you can pass them on to someone. Here are some blog posts written by others with helpful suggestions if someone you know is grieving:

-Practical ways to serve a family that is grieving.

-How to help your grieving friend.

And here are some excellent books that can be a resource to you and a friend! We recommend reading it for yourself and then giving it to them as a gift. I promise it will be helpful!

For a clear view of what heaven is and is not: Heaven by Randy Alcorn is one of the most excellent books out there. I started reading it immediately after Mom died, and it was just too much to take in, I want to go back and finish it. It would be a

Jesus doesn't promise us that life will be easy, or that even acceptance of him as our savior will instantly grant us a free pass around suffering. That's hard to know and harder sometimes to live out. But what we do know, and what we are promised is that a reunion with those precious loved ones is waiting for us in heaven, if our trust for salvation is in Christ. And we know too that at that time every tear is wiped away as only God is able to do. In the meantime, we can trust our loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing heavenly father to walk with us through the days we're not sure we can bear on our own. I'm so thankful I don't have to!

Christmas Cookies

I came to the realization this year that many of the things I used to do with my Mom at Christmas time, I would have to pick up the slack and do myself if I wanted Kenna to experience them. The two major ones of importance to me were putting the ornaments on the tree and making Christmas cookies. Last year, we had just had Kenna and I had a hard time finding the motivation or energy to really decorate at all. Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who put up all the ornaments for me while I sat on the couch nursing Kenna. This year, we made it more of a family project, and she was much more able to be involved!

Daddy and Kenna decorating the tree, 2008:
And this year:
(PS- How is it possible our little bear could have grown so much in just one year? My two favorite people decorating the Christmas tree in the glow of twinkly lights- now that's a tradition to keep!)

As for the Christmas cookies, I feel like I took every opportunity I could find to make Christmas cookies! Our Sunday school couples' social, a ladies' cookie exchange, the last meeting of one of my classes, and I even packaged a few up for the nursery workers that keep Kenna during our missions class at Southeastern. I forgot how fun they were to do, and how dangerous now that I am the grown up and have no one to keep me accountable for how many I've eaten!
I made two of my favorite classics, peanut butter hershey kiss ("kissmas cookies") and powdered sugar snowballs (pecan shortbread balls rolled in powdered sugar! Mmmmm!). I also made a new recipe on a whim, coconut almond snowflakes, because I love coconut and I had everything I needed on hand for them.
Party-ready cookies!

Another sort of unspoken Christmas tradition of Mom's was how much she loved Hallmark's Keepsake ornaments and would love to get one each year for the big events that happened in our lives... getting engaged, studying abroad, baby's first Christmas, etc. I had to laugh when I saw one of their 2009 ornaments and thought maybe I needed it to commemorate the year of cookies:
Unfortunately, I doubled the recipe for the coconut cookies and ended up having to throw some of them away because they made so many! I feel like I took them everywhere with me, trying to get rid of all these cookies! (Matt hates coconut, so I was on my own trying to eat them). The only kind I have not made yet that I promised Matt I would are sugar cookies with icing, so the year of the cookie making will continue!

ELF!

This was too funny not to share!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

It's Christmas Time!

Our snowflake socks say so.
Decorating the tree with Daddy:

Going to church with Mommy (and Daddy too!)
Hurry up, Christmas!

Missed Chances

Yesterday Matt stopped to help the car parked beside us in the Wal-mart parking lot jump their dead battery. It was cold and rainy, and Kenna not only needed a nap, but we had just come from her doctor’s appointment where she had gotten four shots. As I watched Matt help the guy, I sat and thought of the small handful of gospel tracts in my bag that I had told Matt I would give away weeks ago and hadn’t yet. As I thought to roll down the window and hand it to Matt to give the man, Kenna fussed and I instead turned around to soothe her, mentally rationalizing that as a mom, she was my first priority and ministry- a child who will grow up with access to the gospel not only in the words on the page of a Bible story, but hopefully lived out before her daily by her parents. Will she call me hypocrite when she becomes old enough to see me speak of the importance of one thing and not do it? The example I set before her is not a responsibility I take lightly.

And how many others have there been? The acquaintance who is heartbroken after an adulterous relationship ended when her lover went back to his wife. The mom at work who mourns the deep loss of a stillborn child. The co-workers when I was at Target in front of whom I cared more about what they thought of me than how Jesus could change their lives. And how many perfect opportunities that I let slip away, such as the lady on the plane next to me who told me she and her husband always fly separately so that if one of them were to die, their kids would still have one living parent to take care of them? It would have been so easy to have asked her where she thought she would go if she were to die, but I didn’t.

It is well with my soul. I have the eternal assurance of being rescued from my own sinfulness, of a future in heaven with the God who loves me unconditionally and knows and created the tiniest, most hidden parts of my heart. But is it well with the soul of the woman who will not smile back at me in passing in the store as I Christmas shop? Is it well with the person who has obviously not showered recently and is unpleasant to stand near? Is it well with the people who pass me every day? So many hurting people. We have the answer, but do we have the time?

What are we doing, Christians? Do we care about people? Do we care enough to speak to them personally, telling them what God has done for us, rather than just invite them to church so the pastor can “do his job?” Think about the words we will sing this Christmas:

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining

Until He appeared and the soul felt it’s worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

… sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we

Let all within us praise His holy name!

Christ is the Lord!”

This Christmas season, and every day, take the chance to give others the most important gift we possibly could. Don't miss it. Tell someone. Not just "have a blessed day." Not just "I'm praying for you." Tell someone that we celebrate Christmas because Jesus the Savior came to live a perfect life and die that we could have salvation from the sinful nature that we all have that separates us from God. You don't have to have a seminary degree (I sure don't!) or be a super outgoing person or know how to have some theological debate. I want to care enough to speak up, enough to be a little uncomfortable talking to a stranger, enough to bring up a subject that is personal and oh so important.

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes..." -Romans 1:16

"If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" -David Otis Fuller

Thanksgiving and Two November Girls!

As you can tell from our lack of updates here, we've had a really busy month! That tends to happen with Thanksgiving and our two November birthdays (Kenna's and mine) all in the same week! We started off on Sunday with a very happy little party to celebrate how much our sweet little girl has grown up this year!

Happy first birthday, Kenna!

Uncle Creech took some amazing pictures for us (including the one above) so that we could sit back and enjoy the party! We had the perfect amount of food, family, and friends who we consider family all in one place. (ps- This is my first attempt at uploading a slideshow, and it doesn't include pictures of everyone, but I did not want to hold off on posting this any longer, so here they are!)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

On Thursday, we did double duty for Thanksgiving dinners and got to spend time with both sides of our family on one day! We had a delicious lunch with Matt's family, and then got to host my family for the first time. Matt made the most incredible turkey, and we had all the fixin's including three pumpkin pies. He is really the cook between the two of us! (I'm realizing now I did a terrible job of taking photos of this holiday!)

At the Brogli's:
At our house:
I definitely was fed well on my birthday (haha) starting with a dinner with the Deans, then lunch after church with the Broglis! Sunday night, Matt and I left Kenna home with Papa and got to go out on our first real date in what feels like quite awhile! We had dinner at Twisted Fork, and then went to see the Blind Side, which turned out to be pretty good.
We wrapped up the night by picking up some milk and other essentials at the store (you know you're a grown-up when!). I ate crab dip and dessert at lunch AND dinner yesterday. That right there is the sign of a good birthday.

Birthday Girls!

Wordless Wednesday: Laundry Day!

Teaching and Learning

I quickly mentioned in one of our older posts that I've had the privilege of taking a class at SEBTS while Matt has been working on his MDiv. I wanted to write a little bit about what I've been learning. That first sentence alone shows the great change that's gone on in our hearts regarding school, especially for me. While I've always loved information and learning, I've never really been a person that enjoyed or thrived in the traditional schooling system, and that lead to lots of frustration (that eventually became bitterness) in trying to figure out what kind of degree to pursue, etc. I've been so thankful that God opened up this opportunity and provided a class that was just exactly what I needed, and so applicable for right where I am. I wanted to share some of the things I've been learning from some incredibly awesome women, because I feel like it is universally helpful, whether you're Baptist or not, or even whether you consider yourself a Christian or not. Really, these are just some highlights- a few notes on the topics that I have found really helpful for me personally. It's a little long, but I like having it in a place I can come back and read through it easily!

1. Forgiveness.

This has been huge for me- I'm learning that forgiveness is such a crucial part of life. It's what we're supposed to do as believers, but there are very few times that it's easy or simple, maybe even never. Especially as Christians, we tend to separate "Bible land" in our lives from "everyday land"... Bible land is where we live and who we are at church or in front of other Christians, and everyday land is who we are when we try to live our lives in our own strength, without God's help.

In Bible land, we know that we're supposed to forgive, that we should forgive, we might even say we have forgiven or want to, but then we don't live it out in everyday land. We bring it back up and dwell on it. It becomes a bitter root in our lives (Heb 12:15). We have to choose to do it, even when we don't want to, don't feel like it, feel like we can't, and haven't even heard an apology. We do it out of obedience to God- repeatedly, everyday if necessary, not because it's easy or because the person deserves it or because we're a doormat to be walked all over.

Real forgiveness is realizing how much you have been forgiven of in Christ, and forgiving others. When it's ourselves that we struggle to forgive, our forgiveness comes from Christ and can never be taken away from us. There's probably no greater way to be Christ-like than to forgive. The world says retribution, God says forgiveness. Forgive fully and specifically for the hurts you've felt- they will have names and faces. It's not easy, but God who loves justice, will make everything right someday (Heb21:12). God orchestrates forgiveness- He changes your heart!

2. What is the Purpose Of My Life?

How do you see who you are and why you are here in this life? I think everyone wants to feel like they have a purpose and a reason to be alive. The answer is in the heart- the real inner you, the control center for all you do- we live out of what is in our hearts (Prov 12:23). We should protect what goes into it, and what things we chose to think about often or dwell on (Phil 4:8).

Things that are out of your control can influence your heart (parents, upbringing, finances, job, marriage, your past, children, culture, sickness or loss), but they can't control you. That's because God is sovereign over your life, meaning he designed your life and circumstances to make you the best you you can be for his glory. That last part is SO important! Especially when hard times arise- we have to have the faith and trust that God is in control. If you are a Christian, everything you go through has meaning and purpose. God lays a claim on every part of you. This means there is no area of life off-limits to God's mercy, grace, love, power, and redemption!

You may think of Christianity as some long list of rules to be kept, or be asking yourself, if God is in control then why do bad things happen at all? That would be another post entirely (which Matt is great at explaining!) but in short- God is all about his glory, but he gives us choice. We get to chose whether or not to love him, whether or not to seek him, and whether or not we live for him or for ourselves. BUT, that also means we have the power to make wrong choices, choices that hurt us or that we regret.

When we chose to live our lives for him, and to want his will for our lives rather than trying to figure it out by ourselves, that's where real joy is found! (1 Cor. 10:31). We can stop living in the fear of what people think of us, and instead live in the forgiveness and love of a merciful God who knows even the deepest thoughts of our hearts and still loves us anyways! What's even better, is then he starts giving us everything we need to be able to obey him and give him the glory, even through those difficult things (2 Pet 1:3). He doesn't even ask us to do it all on our own- he helps us every step of the way!

3. How Do I Talk to God?

It's so easy for me to forget to talk to God. Sometimes when you pray you can feel like you are just talking to the ceiling- wondering if anyone is listening. Prayer is really just abiding in the Lord, talking to him every day throughout your day, just like you would call your mom or best friend every day. It helped me to look at prayer not as something about me, but as something about God. I would never have called my mom and talked about nothing but myself for 2 hours and then hung up the phone. It's the same way with prayer. Tell God what you're really thinking and feeling. Tell him what's really going on. But also thank him for the good things you have, and the things that have made you happy. Those are all blessings he's given you! When we're choosing to live for him and trying to do what he wants us to do, we can know that he hears and listens to us (Prov 15:29).

How you pray is usually the best indicator of how close you feel to God. When we feel far away, it's easy to feel stressed, frustrated, discontent, angry or bitter about pretty much anything in our lives, even the little stuff that probably shouldn't really be all that stressful. Praying throughout the day really helps me keep things in perspective because it reminds me that God is in control, and he gives me his peace even when it doesn't make sense for me to feel a peace- because God's peace doesn't depend on our circumstances.(Phil 4:6-7) Praying a bible verse is a great way to pray and know that you are praying God's will and that he hears you- without God's word, we are praying out of our own limited and weak knowledge (1 John 5:14-15 and Rom 8:26-27).

The most important thing about talking to God is to remember to listen- he answers! Take some time each day to be still and listen for what God is telling you. (Psalm 46:10). He's God and he loves you! The more you talk to him, the more you will want to talk to him!

4. I Am a Work In Progress.

I am someone who loves crafts and ALWAYS has an unfinished project (or two, or ten) and a work in progress in the process of being made. If you don't believe me, ask Matt who is constantly tripping over a half-crocheted scarf in the living room or moving the glue gun out of the way on the kitchen counter! We (believers) are in the process of being made more like Christ. I find such a comfort in knowing He's not finished with me yet. He has a plan for me, and for my life. That's so reassuring to me- I am so far away from perfect!

Think of yourself as a house... when you become a believer, God starts with the major renovation: floors, walls, a rebuilding that is sometimes unpleasant, but necessary. Then you think you’re “pretty good” and you realize He’s not done. Stuff comes up you thought you had gotten rid of. You thought you were a pretty nice little place, but He’s building a mansion, a palace where He can live!

But rest assured, He won't walk away and leave you unfinished... "being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion..." (Phil 1:6). Wherever God takes you, wherever you are, he is at work! He's up to something! He will complete it!

If anything you're reading here is confusing or you want to know what I mean when I say "believer" I would absolutely LOVE to talk to you more. I haven't always been a person that finds it easy to talk about God and how much he has done in my life, but that is changing for me. These crazy lives we have, beautiful and painful, are only part of the journey. Where does the journey end? The eternal destination of the soul is the most important part, where your soul goes when the body is done. If you seek truth, you will find it, and if you knock on God's door he will answer! (Matt.7:7). A huge thank you to the following professors/wives who have taught me so much this semester: Sharon McDill, Mindy Williams, and Charlotte Akin, among others!

Also, if you've made it this far (yay!) I want to invite you to leave your comments and thoughts here (just click 'comments' right below and it will prompt you). You've always been welcome to do that, but I'd especially love to hear it them!

P.S....

This is what we brought back from the State Fair for the little girl who had to stay home:
Actually, she was at her Nana B. and Granddaddy's house, getting spoiled just a little more rotten!

Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer

For Kenna's first Halloween, I was planning on keeping it simple and just making a little costume for her... like a collar of "icing" made out of felt for a cupcake costume, or a red onesie with black dots to be a strawberry (she has a strawberry hat too). But at the last minute Matt said he wanted her to have a real costume, and of course, I was ok with that!

So one quick trip to Target later we had a skirted leotard, plus some hand-me-down pink tights and her polka dot leggings:
A tiny dancer. I was so excited about getting her all dressed in her costume and taking pictures, you would have thought I was sending her out to the prom!
We took her last night to Bayleaf's Fall Festival, which I had been excited about for weeks! We had volunteered to run one of the games and were assigned the David & Goliath bean bag toss. We had so much fun! Matt chased after bean bags for all the little kids, and Kenna and I admired all the costumes and handed out candy. She sat on my lap for 45 minutes straight, completely enthralled by all the action around her!
There were tons of people and lots of great food, and games for the bigger kids! We all had a blast hanging out and watching the kids stuff themselves with all the good stuff... hot dogs, cotton candy, cookies, soda, and candy!

Bayleaf's family life center was completely packed with people!

Nana B, Kenna, Granddaddy and Beckley... busy getting spoiled, of course!

Little cousin friends, Beckley the alligator, Ansley the pumpkin, and Kenna the ballerina!

Group picture- me, Matt, Kenna, Leanne, Beckley, Sandy, and Ansley

Kenna was not so thrilled about sitting on the hay with the scarecrow. She sat and pouted and then started melting down shortly after! We didn't even make it home before she completely crashed out:

What a good time we had! Happy halloween!

Very Fall-ish Things

In addition to going to the pumpkin patch a week or two ago, we've been able to do some other fall-ish things recently too... like going to the NC State Fair and a corn maze!

NC State Fair:
Going to the fair is a special tradition if you live in Raleigh... lots of people even take a day off work to be able to go spend a whole day there with their families! This year, Matt and I planned our afternoon at the fair around two Christian bands that came that night, Tenth Avenue North and Jeremy Camp. Grandaddy and Nana B. agreed to keep Kenna while we went so that our afternoon was relaxed with no time pressures! It sounds silly, but just having no diapers to stop and change all day was such a treat!

One of my favorite things is collecting all the stickers and wear them with pride... we brought extras of all of them home for Kenna this year too.
Every year we ride the Ferris Wheel together and take a picture at the top. Our picture this year was a little awkward since we weren't actually sitting next to each other. The little door to get in and out of the ride was right between us! Luckily we didn't fall out. It's beautiful to see the entire fair from the top of the ride.
Mercilessly, we didn't take photos of all the ridiculous amounts of fair junk food we ate... which honestly is why everybody goes to the fair. My favorites this year were the NCSU ice cream (which somehow I had never had before! Delicious!) and the awesome apple cider slushies (I had three and literally could have eaten dozens more. They were incredible!). Matt's favorite was the ice cream too, McBride's polish sausages, and the elephant ears (he loves the elephant ears, and I love the funnel cakes!)

For a fun comparison, here is the one we took on top of the ferris wheel in 2006, right after our second anniversary! I remember being bitter that my sunglasses had just broken and it was so sunshiney that day! Isn't Matt's smile is adorable? We look so much younger!


The Corn Maze:

We went to a corn maze in Morrisville with our Sunday School class, and we had a great time even though it was a little chilly and tried to rain on us a few times! There were a couple of fun things besides the corn maze (which was extremely detailed and partially shaped like a picture of Kay Yow from above) such as a corn kernel sandbox, a "cow truck" (a tractor pulling sideways barrels on wheels that were decorated to look like cows... they looked like an awesome, bumpy ride!), a hayride, and my favorite... a corn husk chucker gun. I'm sure that's not the official name, but imagine those "guns" they use to shoot out tshirts at football games, then imagine shoving a corn husk into it and shooting it out into a field, trying to hit a round hay bale with a target painted on it. Awesome! We all shot it a couple of times.

They also had duck races (our class is competitive!):
We were laughing that Kenna has already been on two hayrides in her short life! She was turned around looking at another little girl who was screaming bloody murder... apparently not so much a fan of the hayride. Kenna loved it! They started playing music over a speaker right after this, and she started clapping along and laughing.
We tried to get Kenna to crawl through the hay tunnel, but she wasn't so sure about it, and I started wondering how we would get her out if she crawled into the middle and then stopped! But it made for a cool picture:
We ate a great lunch at Smithfield's barbeque before calling it a day, and all the kids left with balloons with a bag of cookies tied to the string. We love our Sunday school class and have had such a great time getting to know these incredible families! Hayride, corn chucker, barbeque, and balloons... if that's not a successful day, I don't know what is!