My, how things have changed!

After a 3+ year hiatus, I've decided to update this blog. Life has changed considerably for the McKinney family. In 2016, we moved from our old home in Montgomery to our current home in Pike Road, Alabama. While we loved our cute, little house it was just too small to contain all of us. Our new home is considerably larger. We went from 1550 square feet to roughly 3600 square feet. Of course, I had to carry my bride over the threshold of our new home! The best thing is that we have room to breathe now! We are blessed to have such a lovely home.

Our new home!

Carried over the threshold!

In other news, Elisabeth worked at Brewbaker Elem. School and then received the opportunity to move to Dalraida Elementary School. This is a much better fit for her and she is SO much happier there. She also finished her Master's degree is Special Education. She somehow managed to run our home, take care of the kids, keep me in line and keep nearly a 4.0 GPA. She's pretty amazing.
I left Bullock County Schools after serving as their Technology coordinator for about 3 1/2 years. I was getting so burned out that I was glad to leave. I'm now working at the Air Force Culture and Language Center which is part of the Air War College. Becoming a defense contractor has been very interesting for me. It's a very different world than the K-12 environment. While back in Bullock County, I wasn't able to work on my PhD at all. The Tech Coordinator job ate all my time. Now, I'm planning on going back to school and getting this PhD knocked out.

On the family front, we have added a new member! Wyatt Russell McKinney was born on October 5th, 2017. He is the most unique looking of all the McKinney kids. When the first four kids arrived, they were all bald (or nearly bald) with bright blue eyes. Wyatt came out with dark hair and the biggest brown eyes. He's a handsome little guy and I can't get enough of him. He really has completed our family.

The Gymnast!

The other children are also growing like weeds. Charlotte is now 5 years old. She's a beautiful, opinionated, spunky little lady. She can also be a bit of a handful sometimes. She's loving kindergarten and she's involved in gymnastics.

First day of the 2018-2019 School Year!

Bennett is now 6! He's in the first grade and is doing really well in all of his classes. He loves soccer and right now, he's taking ninja classes! I'm not sure what that actually means.
Yes I do. It's an excuse to wrestle with dad and practice roughhousing with me. He's a great little man and we have tons of fun playing and learning together.
William is now 15! He has his permit and he's learning to drive now. This is only mildly terrifying for me. He's in his sophomore year at Prattville High School and he is heavily involved in the marching band! (Go Lions!) In the past year, he's grown over 7 inches! He's taller than his mother, his stepmother and much to her chagrin, his sister. It's been fun watching him change so quickly. You can actually see and hear changes in him over a 2 week period!

Sarah is about to turn 18. She's a senior at Prattville High School and she's currently the show choir captain. She's having a great year and as of a few days ago has decided to attend Auburn as an engineering major.  I got top spend one day with her on campus. AU has a great engineering program and I'm proud of the young woman Sarah has become. She's going to have a great time there and I expect that I'll be traveling some to see her, particularly on game days!

While the past 3 years have been really great, we've also had our share of heartache. Elisabeth's father, Jim, passed away unexpectedly back on March 10th. It's been a difficult few months since his passing and we have all felt his absence. We did have one last surprise visit with him back in February, almost exactly a month before he passed. It was a great week and we had a good time with him. We were particularly glad that he was able to meet his newest grandson, Wyatt.

Overall, it's been a good 3 year run for the McKinneys. The family is healthy, the children are growing and learning and somehow, the adults are managing to keep their sanity. Running a home with 2 teens and 3 young ones isn't easy, but somehow we make it work. (I actually think that it's Elisabeth who makes it work). Anyway, life is great in the McKinney household. Come on down and pay us a visit!