New Blog~

Well, we obviously can no longer be known as "Six Peas in a Pod" when we have become a family of seven. Check out our new blog at:
www.surrenderedinpraise.blogspot.com

It's amazing how many times one can fall in love...

Adelynn has captured both her Daddy's and her Mommy's heart! I sometimes think she is a sweet little angel. She has such a quiet way about her and rarely ever cries. She seems amazingly content. She is also well- loved by all of her siblings. I was a little concerned at how Dakota would do, but she has been nothing gentle and loving toward Adelynn so far.

Tomorrow she will be a week and already the time has flown by. I have tried to cherish this special time with her, but I know that it will go by way too fast. I love the tender and sweet moments with a newborn!

I have wanted to write down all of the special moments up to her birth and of her arrival and will do that very soon before I forget! All I can say for the moment is how incredibly GOOD our GOD is. There is something so miraculous about birth and seeing our Creator at work. I think honestly the more kids I have had, the more I have come to appreciate all that the Lord does for me during that (hard!) but special time. It really is an incredible opportunity to get a closer glimpse of our Heavenly Father at work.

Your family loves you sweet little Adelynn!

Adelynn Mackenzie~

Monday, March 30, 2009

9:27 pm

7 lbs. 4oz.

18 1/2 inches

Waiting...patiently.

Or, at least I am trying to wait patiently:)
I would be dishonest if I did not say that this has been a difficult road.
Last week at my appointment on Wednesday, I was measuring at 40 weeks, and according to the average measurements of the baby from the sonogram, she was at 39 1/2 weeks. weighing about 7.5 pounds. Now, I know that is not huge, but I have average babies. Always have. Micah was the biggest at 7lbs. 10 oz.

I have lost count of how many times I have had series of contractions and cramping over the last several weeks. At night, is when I feel her head the most in between my pelvis, with both legs feeling like they have a ball stuck between them. AHHH, the graphic pains of pregnancy.

I have tried everything normal and natural that I know to get labor officially started, but with obviously no results so far.

I would also be dishonest if I did not admit that my attitude has been challenged over the past week or so. The kids came down with what seemed like a slight cold over the weekend which challenged my attitude even more. Let's just say that some of my kids don't do well being sick and with sickness comes extra fussiness and fighting around here.

I am trying to stay positive and I am trying to get some sleep at night. Thankfully, the past two nights the Lord poured His grace upon me and I was able to get two relatively good nights of sleep in a row. These days it has been maybe one good night out of a week. I know not to expect much sleep when the baby comes, but at least I have a sweet little face to look at during those nights of sleeplessness:) Tossing and turning makes me feel like I could go crazy at any moment.

I think motherhood has given me more opportunities to grow in my walk with the Lord... more than anything else in my life so far. This journey is also ones of those painful growing times. I have been challenged to stay positive,be joyful in all circumstances, have patience with my kids more, and rely on His strength more than ever. It sounds like this journey is preparation for having five kids in the near future:)

This is what keep coming back to my heart: Praising Him in all times for all things. I have sought scripture during tough times and prayed for peace and patience, seeing truly that His mercies are new every morning. I am needing many extra doses of His mercy these days and hoping that soon this little girl will arrive safely into the world.

A heart of giving...by a six year old~

Caitlyn came home from school today telling me all about the speaker that came to chapel this morning. He told the students about many children around the world who are starving. She wanted to know what she could do to help. She wanted to earn money to give.

In our home we have a ticket reward system. The kiddos can earn tickets as rewards(they can also get them taken away!). Then, they can cash in their tickets to purchase something, usually something that they are saving up for. I have found that it is much easier to keep up with this kind of system than to hunt for nickles,dimes, and quarters... and always have them on hand.

Caitlyn, being the oldest, is the first to really understand this system completely, and she has spent a lot of her hard earned tickets on other people.

Today, when she came home from school with the mission to earn more tickets to raise money for children who were starving, she also found herself torn. She got out a piece of paper, started counting the tickets earned in her envelope and would scribble down some numbers. I was in the kitchen cleaning up and I noticed her busy thoughts and listened to what she learned from the speaker at chapel.

She started to explain that she really wanted to buy something for Micah for his birthday as well. She was currently saving all of her earned tickets for that special occasion, but NOW she wanted to earn even more to save for the children who needed food. It really became a dramatic dilemma for this first born girl. I could tell she needed me to talk her through this one, so I took a seat beside her.

As I looked at her paper I noticed that she drew a box for each day leading up to Micah's birthday. Minutes before she asked me to tell her exactly how many days until his birthday and I handed her the calendar with the special day marked.

She then tried to figure out how many tickets she could earn leading up to his birthday that would make it possible for her to give both to the children and to her brother. We sat and talked through how to make both possible and she set a goal for how many tickets to earn each and every day until his birthday.

Then, she spent the next 45 minutes cleaning around the house to earn tickets. She cleaned the playroom (which was her brother's and sister's mess from the day), emptied trash cans, brought down every one's dirty laundry...including Mom's and Dad's, and folded clean laundry. Then she went immediately outside to tidy up. She worked until dinner. Then, after we ate she was anxious to help out in any way that she could.

It's amazing to see her maturity and her heart of giving. She is such a great example to her younger siblings, and by the end of the night she had them both excited to also help out and earn tickets.

It is during these moments that I find myself overwhelmingly blessed by how the Lord is working in the heart's of these little children, and I am reminded that I have the best job in the whole world.

The art of swinging...by a three year old~

The art of eating grapes...by a 19 month old~

38 weeks

Update since last night's post: Isn't it funny how you get very little sleep at the end? I was up until 2am with baby "aerobics" girl. She seems to stay active at night:) Then, at 4am I woke up to some pretty serious contractions. I mean, come on...I thought after an hour and a half of them today would be the day. This is reminding me more and more of Cassidy's pregnancy...so confusing at the end:)

I took this a couple of days ago, so I am sure that I have grown since then:) It is hard to imagine the end of this pregnancy journey. It is such a mental/spiritual battle to keep my attitude focused on the fact that this will end very soon. Every day is filled with new challenges at this stage, not to mention my body is trying to prepare for labor and delivery. In fact, as I was going through a labor book that I have had since preparing for Caitlyn, I laughed as I read the phrase, "eliminate all unnecessary activities from your schedule as you prepare for labor and delivery."

Does this include getting everyone dressed, fed and ready for the day? Because after we get through all of these activities I seem to be worn out:) Not to mention, keeping every one's clothes cleaned and school done for the day. I am really not trying to complain, I am just trying to find the balance between actually being able to rest during these last days and keeping up with LIFE.

I have read some great scripture and find myself constantly encouraged that my Savior is my strength and my rest. The little one's birthday will come one of these days and I know in my heart He will give me everything I need and prepare me for that special day.

Family Fun at the Wildlife Ranch!

This past week was Spring break from school so we decided to take the day on Friday to do something fun as a family. We actually headed out the door with not much of a plan, but decided to stop for lunch and go to the wildlife ranch for the day. Greg and I have not done this in years and it was the first time we brought all of the kiddos. In fact, the last time we went I don't think we even were married yet.

It turned out to be a fun day with everyone and the kids seemed to enjoy it...Caitlyn and Micah especially. Cassidy wasn't too sure about some of the animals, although she loved the peacocks and the baby goat.

The ostrich was the most amusing part of the day and has made for some great stories around here. The kids really didn't like them, and would actually make their way to the back of the car when we passed by them. Actually, they were pretty aggressive when they went after the food and it turned out that both Greg and I rolled up our windows as much as we could when they came around.

And, apparently when I was trying to talk the kiddos into enjoying them and having fun feeding them I told them to watch Daddy do it. Well, it only took Daddy a few minutes to realize that they were aggressive and had a pretty good bite. Caitlyn got a kick out of this since she realized our plan to talk them into feeding the big birds didn't work out so well...and actually backfired on us.

I think we all smelled like wild animals when we got back home, but we sure did have a good time as a family!

Our Kiddos. Having Fun.

Well, almost all of these are of the kiddos having fun. I had to include this one as well, because this is after all, real life:)