Last Baby...

Knowing that this will be our last baby, I have some mixed emotions. Although I know six is more then enough kids for us at this point, it is still a sad time to think that I'll never be pregnant again. I thought that I'd write down some of the things that I'll miss about being pregnant. None of these are meant to complain or sound ungrateful. I am very thankful that God has blessed us with six daughters and six pregnancies. This is meant more for fun and just for me to remember all the good and "bad" of being pregnant.

I have been blessed with rather easy pregnancies. I do not get morning sickness and I have never had gestational diabetes or swelling. I love feeling the baby kick and move inside of me. It still boggles my mind, even after having 5 kids, how there is another baby in me. I don't know how anyone can call them anything but a baby. I love reading about how the baby is developing each week. At this point, 31+ weeks along, it is fun to know that the baby is listening to what we are saying and is growing and growing. I'll miss a few of my maternity clothes and I'll for sure miss the excuse not to worry about my size. No one cares what size you are when you are pregnant. :) I'll miss hearing the baby's heart beat at the doctor appointments. I will miss the last few weeks of being pregnant and the nesting stage that comes with all the wonderful organization and cleaning.

There are also some things that I won't miss. The first thing that comes to mind is acid reflux. I won't miss making multiple trips to the OB and trying to find a sitter. I won't miss the uncomfortable sleep at night, frequent trips to the bathroom, waddling, having a hard time picking things up, gaining weight even when I am eating good, and many others. :) All of these are so worth having a baby, but they aren't things that I'll miss. I won't miss worrying or thinking about delivering another baby and trying to remember how much it didn't hurt to convince myself it won't be that bad to go without meds again. I won't miss working hard for the next 9 months to try to lose the baby weight and get back in shape. I won't miss the lack of energy that I don't have some days.

Of all the things that I'll miss and won't miss, the worst part is knowing that I won't have a newborn infant to cuddle and nurse. Infants are so precious and I love their little cries, they are so cute. Once you have a toddler, you realize that their little cries are so innocent and cute, until they really find their voice. :) What a blessing children are!!

One of THOSE days...

Have you ever had a day that you just want to crawl back in bed and wish that it would start over? Or a day that gets so crazy that you just have to laugh at what a ridiculous day it is? That probably sums up my day today. Where do you start with a day like this? Well, we'll start at the beginning...

First let me give you some background to understand my state of mind. My husband is a tax accountant and this is the fun time of year when they have to work six days a week and about 10-12 hours a day. Today I finally feel like the stress of the past few months, the husband's surgery, his tax busy season, being 7 months pregnant, and homeschooling finally, caught up with me. I was feeling slightly warn down and not very energetic. It was gloomy outside today, although warm. I had to wear glasses all day because I scratched my eye last night, which always makes me feel off because I'm used to wearing contacts. Okay, now that you have a little background, we'll start with the day.

The day started out normal. The kids got up on Saturday and were watching some cartoons on tv. My husband was getting ready to leave for another long day at work. He left and I started to clean up a little since the kids were preoccupied with the tv show they were watching. I finally decided that I should get them breakfast when the phone rang. My husband had driven all the way to work (downtown Chicago) and realized that he left his laptop at home. So, I ran around trying to get the kids ready to meet him with his laptop. Most of the time they are really good about getting dressed all by themselves. Today was a different story. S4 decided that she didn't want to get dressed and was upstairs sulking on her bed because she didn't want to get out of her pjs and didn't want to find socks. So, I sent up A8 to help her out as I was getting the baby ready. Then N6 couldn't find her shoes and G7 decided to walk outside to the car carrying her shoes instead of putting them on. I am already frazzles at this point trying to "rush" out the door to help my husband out by getting him his computer. Remember, he has to work 10 hours today so every minute he is not at the office, is a minute he is not at home tonight. It takes us so long to get ready that we only save him about 10 minutes (5 minutes each way). That's right. He was able to drive almost 25 minutes home by the time I got the kids out the door.

So, we rush home and finish breakfast and the day seems to be going along fine. It gets chaotic like most days with 5 girls running around. Then the neighbor kids start coming around. Now, I love all of our neighbor kids, but some days it just is stressful to have all the extra kids around. I told everyone that they needed to play outside. So, all the kids went outside to play. When I looked around the house, I realized that it looked like a tornado had hit the house. There were blankets on the couch from Saturday morning cartoons, playdoh on the table with all the cookie cutters from N6 and M4 playing together, empty cereal bowls, cereal on the floor, etc. The baby was preoccupied walking around the house exploring. So, I set off to clean up the mess and make my home look presentable. Meanwhile, I was also running up and down the stairs starting loads of laundry because somehow in 2 days, our family is able to create about 6 loads of laundry (which I'm staring at now that needs to be folded).

The day is going along fine and I even take about an hour while the baby is sleeping to read part of a book on my ipad. I don't know if your house is like this, but my house tends to have a revolving door of kids coming in and out. The girls were changing from their regular clothes into swimsuits, back into regular clothes. It was starting to get chaotic and I was feeling a little stressed. I decided to call my mom and just talk about feeling stressed and overwhelmed. As we were talking, the M16months was walking around the room and playing with the blocks I brought out for her. I was telling my mom how excited we were that she was walking finally. We talked about how she will soon be adding to the "liveliness" of our home. M16months asked me for milk and I poured her a sippy cup with milk as I was still talking to my mom. Side-note: Aren't moms great? I love being able to just call and just talk through things with her. Anyway, I heard M16 crawl away from the kitchen with her milk into her room. About 3 minutes passed and I went to go check on her since she was being so quiet. I thought maybe she had fallen asleep, or was getting into something.

Well, she wasn't sleeping. She had managed to pull crackers from her closet (which we use as a pantry). She somehow opened a brand new box of crackers, ripped open the plastic packaging and had about 6 crackers in her hand that she was nibbling on. There were smashed crackers all around her. I told my mom I had to go and I went about cleaning up the mess.

At this time, I also called the girls in to eat dinner. S4 told me that she couldn't eat yet because of her toe. About 5 days ago she was playing outside without her shoes on and she messed up her toe. Well, she decided that since her toe "hurt", that she wasn't going to wear shoes today and she re-injured her toe. It was bleeding everywhere and I found a trail of blood through my house and all over the bathroom. I had just finished cleaning up her toe when all of a sudden she told me that she wasn't feeling so well. She just missed throwing up on me, since I was at her feet working on her toe. I went to get a towel to start to clean it up and she did it again. Now she is crying because she wants milk, but I'm not going to give her anything at this point not knowing what made her throw up.

I go into the basement to get the mop bucket to mop the bathroom floors. While I'm down there, I switch out the clothes because why waste energy making another trip downstairs when I'm down here and can switch out the laundry?? I go upstairs and clean up after her. I then have to calm her down and remind her that if she is fine overnight, that she'll get milk in the morning.

By this time, the other girls have finished their dinner and are "getting ready for bed" (aka are supposed to be getting ready for bed but have managed to get distracted doing other things). I clean up the dishes on the table and sweep the floor. They are now done brushing their teeth and are heading up to bed. Now it is time to get M16months out of her highchair and clean her up and dress her for bed. She has left me a present in her diaper and I'm trying to keep her still as I'm changing her on the couch. She wiggles just a little too much and the diaper starts to fall. I'm able to grab the diaper, but the extra little present in the diaper rolls onto the floor. After cleaning yet another mess up, I finally manage to finish changing her and get her into bed.

The messes are for the most part cleaned up, laundry still needs to be folded, I still need to eat dinner...yet, I decided to sit and write down this post because I know that soon I will forget this day. I want to remember all the chaotic days like today, along with the really good/normal days. I know that they grow up fast and that although the individual day feels like a year, the days and months pass all too quick and they are growing up. Soon they will all be gone and my house will be clean, but it will also be quiet and there will be no more chaos. I wouldn't trade days like today for a life without kids, but these type of days are definitely a challenge. I just thank God for the ability to laugh about my day when it is all over and celebrate the life that we have in our house. Children are a blessing from the Lord!! Days like this just reminds me that I have to keep my eyes focused on Him. Without God's help, I don't know how I would survive days like this.

Last of all, here is a clip that makes me laugh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCbPqi3virQ

Video Clip of M16 months Walking...Finally!!

Funny Sayings...

A8 was in the car yesterday with her dad and she rolled her eyes. She looked at her dad and said, "How did I roll my eyes? I've been practicing to see how good I can roll my eyes." Great, just what we need to be practicing. Her dad told her to watch me because I'm great at rolling my eyes.

Easter 2012

Easter 2012 was an exciting time in our house. We spent some fun and relaxing time celebrating Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. On Good Friday, the girls had a fun, but busy day. The girls had two friends over for the morning. We spent time reading the Easter story, making a Resurrection craft, a baby chick craft with our hand prints, dying eggs, and then we made homemade cookies. The kids helped me roll our the dough and then decorate the shapes they cut out. It was a fun morning just spending time together in the kitchen. Although we were learning, we didn't have to do "real" school work on Friday. The funny moment of the day was when S4 asked me to do her hair because her friend Caleb was coming over. She was very specific about how she wanted her hair done. She didn't want it all up in a ponytail, she wanted at least part of it down since that is how her friend likes her pretty hair.

On Sunday morning, we all got dressed up for church. Who can pass up an excuse to dress up 5 little girls in Easter dresses? After church, we came home and hunted for eggs. Then we took a 6 mile family bike ride. I was very thankful for the break half-way when we stopped to play at a park for about 40 minutes! When we got home, we made NY steak, vegetables and twice baked potatoes. It was a very relaxing day spent as a family. I love days that we can just enjoy each others company.












M16months and her dad. Her first Easter egg hunt.














S4 was having fun looking for eggs!
















N6 enjoying the beautiful day in Chicago!

















A8 (left) and G7 (right): having fun looking for Easter eggs.







M16moths exploring all the "goodies" in her Easter Eggs. She figured out really quickly how to open them and how to eat jelly beans.

Starting Our Family Blog...Again

I have been wanting to blog again for some time. It seems like just posting everything on Facebook is so much faster and easier. I saw on Kelly's Korner that she was doing a Show Us Your Life on all girls. Well I figured now was as good of a time as any to get back in the saddle. I want to capture some fun moments though of our girls. They grow up too fast and I need to write down things that they are doing and saying.

Let me introduce you to our family. My husband and I have been married for 13 years. We have 5 daughters (A8, G7, N6, S4, M17 months) and another daughter on the way. Yes, that makes half a dozen girls in our family!! I love having girls. I have to admit that as much as I would have liked a boy, the thought of having one scares and intimidates me. :) I guess God knew better and gave me all girls. We have lots of pink in our house! You are welcome to follow our adventure as we continue down this road of raising 6 future women. My prayer is that they grow up to first of all love the Lord with all their heart. My next goal is to raise women who know how to manage a household and raise kids (even though God may not call all of them to marriage). We hope to have lots of grandchildren. We figure if each one has 3 kids, we are up to 18 grandchildren. :)

Welcome to our fun, but crazy adventure!!