Family

Family

Monday, November 3, 2014

Preparing for Reagan!

It's hard to believe I'm already 31 weeks pregnant!  That has Reagan weighing a little over 3lbs.  This pregnancy has flown by so quickly.  I'm sure it's because I've been very busy with homeschooling the kids, which is going amazing by the way.  You know what they say, "time flies when you're having fun!"  I've been feeling pretty great through my whole pregnancy.  I am to the point now where I'm starting to get tired more through the day.  I'm sure it has to do with having insomnia in the middle of the night.  Some nights I'm up for more than an hour at 2am and sometimes I make it till 5am and then just lay there staring at the clock for an hour or so.  I'm sure that's only going to get worse with the more uncomfortable I become.  I finally feel like I am almost prepared for Reagan to be here.  I have her crib and bassinet put together.  All her clothes have been washed and are put away.  Just a few more things to still get and I will be ready for her.  All the kids are getting really excited for her!  She will be in our room for a few months and then transition into sharing a room with Kyndal.  Kyndal is so excited about her little sister sharing a room with her!  

As I'm planning for Reagan to be here in a few weeks, I've realized I need to get busy making some freezer meals.  I've done this for my other births too.  I've been looking through my recipes and on Pinterest for some wonderful meals to make and freeze.  Some of the meals that I've thought of so far are Chicken & Dumplings, Chili, Enchiladas, Quesadilla Casserole, Wild Rice & Chicken, Pulled Pork, Terriyaki Chicken & Rice, Penne with Chicken, and Biscuits & Gravy.  Let me know if you think of any other ideas of fabulous recipes that do well in the freezer??

I'm wondering if Reagan will follow her siblings and be early.  All of the other kids have been born 1 week to 10 days early, either from going into labor naturally or being induced.  She is due January 4, so I'm waiting to see if she will be born in 2014 or 2015!  My original due date was December 28, which I have been measuring for that date my whole pregnancy, except during the dating u/s, but they don't change it back unless there is more than a 2 week difference.  My guess is that she will be born in December, which is exciting because that is next month!!
 

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Slow Life Down

Do you ever long for a more peaceful slower life?  Over the last few months I've felt like I've been at this point of wanting a simpler life.  I feel like as a family we are slowing life down some.

We are back to homeschooling all the kids and it's going really wonderful.  We have our challenging moments but I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.  Homeschooling is not the right choice for everyone, but for our family it has been great.  When the kids were in school, I felt like our days were so rushed.  Rush them out the door in the morning, only to see them for a couple of minutes when they get home and it's straight to homework, dinner, showers and bedtime.  And then do it all over again the next day.  I feel like life was just passing us by.  I love having them all home with me all day, teaching them and spending time with each of them.  It warms my heart to see one of the older boys do reading with their younger brothers.  I feel like they are going to have a closer bond with each other by spending more time with one another.  We aren't home all day, everyday, we do get out of the house too.  The younger kids are enjoying doing Awana this year and the 2 older boys are in youth group.  We are also part of a homeschool group through our church.  We just went on a field trip to Ritchey Woods last Friday with our homeschool group.  


I'm 25 weeks pregnant.  The pregnancy is going really well and has been going by really fast.  I feel like my monthly doctor appointments are just days apart instead of a month apart.  Baby Reagan is doing great!  Can't wait to meet her in a few short months!

Chris and I have been so blessed by God.  He has blessed us with six wonderful children, soon to be seven!  He promises to give us everything we need and He has.  We have a house to live in, clothes for all of us and food on the table.  We get to spend our days together as a family.  I couldn't ask for more!

        

Thursday, July 10, 2014

It's A ...........

We are so excited to announce that we are having another little GIRL!!!!!!  We got the call this past Tuesday from the geneticist.  They said she is healthy.  The baby's risk of being born with anything they tested for is 1 in 10,000.  Kyndal is probably the most excited of all the kids.  She has said it was a girl from day 1.  Some of the boys were hoping for a girl, and the others are coming around to it now.  It's so cute, Kyndal keeps saying she has a baby in her tummy too.  She talks about her all the time.  She says she's going to come out when my baby comes out!!  haha!!  We have chosen the name Reagan Sarah.  Reagan was one of my top 3 girls names.  We decided on the middle name, Sarah because this is my mom's middle name.  Kyndal has my middle name and if we have another girl after this one, she will have Chris's moms middle name. (Yes, we still want more!!)

I'm so excited that Kyndal will have a sister.  Growing up, I always wanted a sister.  I had 4 brothers, but I always felt like I was missing out on this special bond I saw other girls have with their sisters.  Plus, we are running out of room in the boys rooms!  Kyndal and Reagan will share a room, once Reagan is out of our room.  Kyndal is already asking where is Reagan's crib and trying to show me where it can go in her room!

 Reagan is due 4 days before Zachary's birthday.  She is due on Jan 4.  My baby's have been born 1 week to 10 days early.  Which puts us between Christmas and New Years!  That should be an interesting time to have a baby!  Tyler keeps asking me "what are we going to do if she is born on Christmas?" "Do we have to wait to open presents?"  You see where his concerns are!!

I'm so excited to shop and buy baby stuff!!  I have already bought a few things off of facebook boards of second hand stuff.  I love when I find good deals on used things, especially baby stuff, cause it doesn't get used very much and is usually in great condition!  I am excited to go add stuff to my babiesrus registry.  They give you 10% off anything you buy on your registry.  I figured I'll register for everything I need and slowly buy off of it and get a discount doing it!  Works for me!!  Actually I'm finding a lot of places do that if you create a registry with them.

Now that I'm in my second trimester, I can feel my energy level coming back up.  I was so exhausted throughout my first trimester.  I am trying to get back into working out.  I have been going for walks and working out on my stepper.  I'm hoping to keep it up the rest of my pregnancy, only 25 more weeks to go!!

 
    

Friday, June 27, 2014

Boy or Girl

We went in yesterday for our 12 week U/S appointment.  I am 12 weeks 5 days pregnant, although I am measuring 13 weeks 5 days.  I am due January 4, but I'm pretty sure the baby will come in December!  It was amazing to see our little baby up there on the screen.  I am in awe of how God created us and how we grow.   From just a ball of cells into a little person, it's just amazing!
Here is the baby at 6 weeks 5 days!

And here is a picture of the baby from my appt yesterday!



 At my appointment yesterday, we also did blood work for a test called the Panarama.  It checks the baby's chromosomes by looking in my blood.  We should have the results back a couple of weeks and it will tell us if the baby is healthy!  Everything on the U/S showed that the baby is healthy!  This test will also tell us the gender of the baby!  What do you think the results will be???
Boy
 Girl






Thursday, May 29, 2014

Adding another birthday to the calendar!!

So, it's been a really long time since I've written a post!  Our family has been busy with life!  We are happy to announce that our family is growing and we are expecting #7!  We are very excited for this new addition to our family.  We are very happy that the baby is doing great!  I had my first ultrasound on May 16!  My due date is January 4, 2015!  I've been much more tired with this pregnancy than the others.  I've had moments of nauseousness, not always in the morning, actually a lot in the evenings.  Smells are the worst for me.  Something will sound great to eat, then once I cook it, the smell gets me and I don't want it anymore.  I got sea bands for the nauseousness and they are helping alot.  The kids are very excited for the new baby!  They are very anxious to find out if it is a boy or girl!!  Mason and Kyndal have already placed their request for a baby sister!  We should know sometime in July!!!


Here is our announcement slideshow that we put together if you haven't already seen it!  


We feel very blessed!  I'm looking forward to what the rest of the year brings us!

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Ways to save money!

I have been trying to find ways to save money with our large family.  The kids are getting so big and eating more and more.  So, I decided to make some food in bulk and freeze it.  I took this afternoon and made waffles, pancakes and burritos.

The kids love waffles and pancakes for breakfast, but I don't have time to make the daily especially during the week.  I can't afford to buy frozen waffles from the store.  The kids would eat a couple of boxes in one sitting.  So, I made a bunch of waffles and froze them.  Flour is pretty inexpensive.  It was so easy and cheap.  Then the kids just have to grab them out of the freezer bag and pop it in the toaster!



 They are always hungry when they get home from school, so I thought I would make some burritos up too and freeze them.  A couple of minutes in the microwave and they're defrosted.  I love to cook!  It is so much cheaper to take a little time and do this rather than buy already frozen food.  Plus it doesn't have all the preservatives.




I also bought a pork loin for about 20 bucks this past week.  I cut it up into pork chops.  One pork loin made about 35-40 boneless pork chops.  I know to buy boneless pork chops already cut up is very expensive.  Then I put it in freezer bags of about 7-8 a bag for different meals.  I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of them.

Another way I try to save money is by making my own laundry detergent.  It's so easy and it lasts me about a year.  It usually costs about $10-20 for all the ingredients and it's enough to make it again with all the stuff.

There are always ways to save money.  Having a large family is a little more expensive, but if you watch what you buy and how you buy it, you can save money.  Some people with smaller families aren't usually so careful in how they spend their money and some spend as much as we do if not more.  We usually don't go out to eat because that is so expensive for our family.  But we do try to watch for specials when some restaurants do kids eat free nights.  It's nice to eat out every once in a while.  I love having a large family and they are way more important to me than having nice things that are of earthly value.    


Thursday, January 23, 2014

Update on Ethiopia

Some have asked how the adoption is going.  We submitted our application back in November 2013.  Our agency put a hold on all applications for 6 months because they were getting too many and the wait list was becoming very long.  So, our application is on hold now. 
There have also been problems arising in Ethiopia.  The Minister Zenebu said "the government is working hard to end foreign adoption and facilitate situations to raise the children within their community".  While they are working towards doing this, they are trying to change the laws and making it harder to adopt from Ethiopia.  No one knows what the laws are going to be, but there is talk on my adoption boards about maybe not allowing singles to adopt.  They may have a maximum amount of children you are allowed to have at home already.  A lot of people are scared they aren't going to get to even finish their adoptions that they are already in the process of.  We have been praying for clear direction from God on how we should handle this situation.  We don't think it's wise to put a lot of money into it and then it be shutdown and the country keep all the funds.  They don't transfer funds to adopt from a different country.  All of it would be lost.  Adoption is already an emotional roller coaster without adding all of this in.  Right now we are on at least a 6 month hold.  So, we will see what happens over the next 6 months.  Thanks for all your prayers.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Getting Back To What's Important!

Children are such a blessing!  I forget sometimes to just slow down and enjoy each of them at the age and stage they are at.  Life can get so busy to where you feel like you're running nonstop.  Either through having too many commitments to other things, or social media, & etc.  I just recently realized that our life was so full of stuff that didn't need my attention, and I didn't feel like I was spending quality time with my children.  I will have time when they are all grown to help outside the home with other things.  I decided I needed to reevaluate my priorities.  I sometimes over commit myself to things forgetting that I'm not like everyone else.  We have a large family that needs a lot of my attention.  And I am definitely okay with this! This is the stage of my life where my commitments are with my children over other things.  God blessed us with these beautiful children and he has trusted me with them!  I take that very seriously.  We only have so very few years with them to mold them for God.  I feel like Tyler is getting so old and before I know it, he will be off on his own.  I want to know that I have raised him to love the Lord and serve Him. 

I feel like social media can sometimes take over my life.  It's very easy to open facebook and get lost on what's happening in others' lives.  When this happens, I feel like I don't talk to anyone cause I already know what's happening with them from reading it.  It really takes away being personal with others.  I hardly ever call anyone anymore cause I feel like I'm communicating with them by just reading their posts.  But the truth is, I'm Not.  I tried to deactivate my account on facebook a few weeks ago, but our families want me to keep it.  For them, it's the only way they see our family and know what's going on with us.  None of our family lives near us.  They all live in Mississippi, Utah, California and areas close to that.  So, I am going to keep it for now, but just won't be reading through others posts very often. 

I'm trying to get back to what's important.  Since cutting back other stuff, I've really made it a priority to read my Bible and spend time with God everyday.  Jacob and I are reading through the Bible together.  We are doing a reading plan of reading through the Bible in a year.  I'm really enjoying it and so is he.  We are also trying to do a devotional as a family.  All of the little kids are in Awana and they love it.  Tyler is in a great youth group and loving it.  They do a junior high bible study every week and then the youth group meets every week.  They are a very active group.  While they are all doing that on Wednesday nights, I get to go to a Bible study that I am really enjoying.  We missed a few Wednesday nights from life being so busy, so I am happy to be back and so are the kids!

I just thought I would share what I was feeling in my heart.  I'm sure others feel the same way sometimes.