Lila (8 month catch up)

Time to catch up on Lila and the past 8 months of her life...Lila has been such a perfect third and final baby for our family. Many of you have followed her story and know the pain and losses (6 known miscarriages) we went through before conceiving sweet Lila. At the time little did we know that God had this amazing and wonderful child in mind for our family...She is SO funny, reactive, beautiful and amazing in every way. I'm sure some people don't understand why she is so special to our family because they don't know the background. I certainly don't favor her over my other girls. I love different things about each one of them (of course). She was just the child that completed our family...that we prayed for YEARS and went through a lot of heartache before she came along. Sometimes I think God allows these things to happen so that we will appreciate them EVEN MORE once we receive that blessing... She is SO loved and adored by her big sisters. As a matter of fact, she had her first stomach bug last week and it KILLED Mia and Averi that they couldn't love on and kiss on her for a couple days. I love how they love each other...

Anyways, she has been a super easy baby. Very happy and always going with the flow. She misses naps for soccer games or has late bedtimes because of the girls activities and handles it like a champ without fussing or complaining. She is SO very social and outgoing. She just wants to be with people. As long as someone is in the room or around her, then she's happy.

First Valentine's day...with your roses from daddy;)

Curly blondie:)

First reactions to baby food..lol! Not a huge fan the first go around.

First time to roll over - 4 months

Drinking a bottle all by yourself. You started this early...around 5 mos.

First piggie tails - 5 months

First sitting up - 5 months (you sat up early because you had a good base;))

6 months picture

Averi's Story of How She Came to Know Christ

So mommy and daddy have both noticed recently that you were really starting to ask both of us a lot of questions about Jesus dying on the cross and had several conversations with you about it. But we never wanted to push you into making a decision and knew that you would come to it on your own. So on April 19th you asked Jesus into your heart all on your own when you were in your bed. The next morning you came in and told mommy that you had prayed and asked Jesus to take away your sins and come into you heart. I was SHOCKED and of course over the moon excited. So mommy spent some time talking with you to be sure you understood your decision and we prayed together again. When daddy got home from carpool you went running to him and said "guess what?! I asked Jesus into my heart AND we might be going to the zoo today" :) SO cute and such an Averi thing to say. We are so thankful that you came to know Jesus Christ at an early age. Averi with her new Bible from mommy and daddy

Averi turns 5 (6 months ago...lol)

Starting writing this months ago and never published it... My BEAUTIFUL girl turned 5! I have NO idea where the time has gone. It is so insane to me. But anyways here are a few facts/memories of the past year... You attended Hunter Street for K-4 and LOVED it. You only go 3 days a week but ask me every morning if you get to go to school that day. You did not want me to walk in with you on your first day of school (unlike your big sis) and you are little ms independent. You became a big sister! You are an AMAZING sister to Lila. Since the day you found out mommy was having a baby you were over the top excited. And you have been loving to her since the day she was born. You constantly entertain her and make her laugh. The two of you have an amazing bond and it has been so awesome to watch. Your personality has really blossomed this year. You always have a big smile on you face, and are so joyful and bubbly, bouncing around the house and everywhere you go. I love your spunkiness too. You are totally my mini me:) You are extremely thoughtful and always drawing pictures for us, picking us flowers, constantly giving us hugs and kisses and "I love you's". You are full of affirmation always telling mommy she is pretty or daddy he is handsome etc... We are SO thankful that God blessed our family with you because you sure do add a lot. LOVE YOU SO MUCH SWEET GIRL!

Gonna try this whole blogging thing again...

Okay, so I have been out of the loop on blogging for well a whole almost 8 months. It just became too overwhelming to try and keep up with it once sweet Lila came along. But I have to say that I do not want Lila to miss out on all the fun stories that I had with my other girls about them growing up. We love looking back through my blog and reading stories and seeing the pictures. So I am going to do my best to start blogging at least once a week again. And I'm going to try and somewhat catch up on at least some pictures of Lila:) I do have a million of those at least. But she's really getting to a very fun age and starting to do some really fun things that I know I'll forget about if I don't put it in writing. And believe it or not the little stinker is turning one NEXT WEEK (insert tears here). Can't even handle it. Get ready for a big picture dump...

Averi Starts Soccer

Averi has begun her first season of soccer. We decided to play Mia down for one more season since she is little and they play with the boys, so they are playing on the same team. She is loving it so far and is SO my mini-me. Totally looks just like me even when she plays soccer:) Hilarious! Here are a few pictures of Averi playing soccer...

Before her first practice...

Daddy coaching her on where to kick...

Team Spain:)

Waiting to go in...

Dribbling (LOVE her cute little lanky legs)

And Just Like That She Was 4 Months

So Lila turned 4 months yesterday! She is almost rolling over. She can get about 3/4 of the way over, but she's got a little more "junk in her trunk" so it's harder for her to do:) She seems really determined though so it shouldn't be too much longer. She is grabbing and chewing on toys, laughing, talking, squealing, cooing etc.

She is not my best sleeper. She is just EXTREMELY social and doesn't require as much sleep. And she could just sit in her bouncer or swing and be happy watching the girls play for hours. The good news is that she is pretty happy most of the time as long as she can see someone. And when we are out and about, sometimes she sleeps and sometimes she doesn't. But at least she is happy if she doesn't...She has really added a lot to our family.

Her stats from today's checkup are:

16lbs. 4oz. (90th perc.)
21 1/2 in. (95th perc.)

Here's some pics of her at the checkup...

My Story on Finding Out I Was Pregnant

It has been 1 year today since I found out I was pregnant with Lila. This time last year, I was at the hospital with Jeanna who had just delivered Addison taking a million pictures. It was a day that I had to put my own emotions aside because I was there to be a support for my sister. And obviously I was super excited for her and for the birth of my precious niece. But this day was following several very recent miscarriages for me (one of which I had a D&C on the same floor of which she had her c-section). So I felt a little sad walking through the hallways that day. But again, I chose to not focus on the sadness, because this day was not about me.

Fast forward a few hours. When I got home from the hospital that afternoon, I remember thinking "well I am several weeks late, so maybe I should take a pregnancy test and just see what's going on". I always had my fair stash of them in my bathroom cabinet. So I proceeded to take 3 tests, all of them being positive.

Now I did not have your normal reaction to a positive pregnancy test. Every time I saw a + I immediately started worrying and thinking "I wonder how long it will be until I start bleeding and lose yet another baby". So I waivered back and forth about whether to tell Jon that night, or to wait a few days.

Well as soon as the girls went to bed, Jon and I were in our room talking and I started crying as I was telling him about my day at the hospital and the ups and downs of my emotions. He of course was sympathetic and just listened. Then I blurted out "and I'm pregnant". He said "You are? Well that's great". To which I explained to him that I always had this horrible feeling of apprehension whenever I found out that I was. He proceeded to say that we would wait and see what happens and that God is Sovereign in ALL things...And he suggested that I call Dr. A the next day to make an appt to get an early ultrasound.

So I made the appointment. And as I feared, he could find nothing on the ultrasound but did get a positive pregnancy test as well. He told me it was probably just too early to see anything yet. So he ran my levels and said to wait a week and then come back for another ultrasound. That time all we could see was the sack, but no baby. That had also happened with another one of my other pregnancies which ended in a miscarriage, so I was freaking out. That had to have been the longest week of my life. I always hated those first few appointments and the unknown was so hard for me. It wasn't until my 3rd ultrasound, which happened to fall on Valentine's Day that we saw a good strong heartbeat and I knew all was well. Such a happy day for us!

I was looking back and realized I had never shared the full story on how I found out that I was pregnant, so I thought today would be the perfect day to do that.

So today we celebrate 2 lives in our family...Addison Kate and Lila Mackenzie.
Can't wait to watch them grow up together. They are going to be such sweet friends one day.

I still think it is awesome how God allowed me to find out about my pregnancy on a day He knew might be tough for me. And now I will always remember January 25th as being the day I found out about Lila!

P.S. Happy Birthday Addie Kate! We love you!