Ok I couldn't figure out how to switch this around but I thought it was cute. They decided to bury Jacob and then put her in the hole.

She loved watching the waves crashing

It was great having Travis with me. He works so hard for me to be able to stay home with MacKenzie that a lot of times he is unable to go with me.

It meant so much to us to see so many family and friends come out and support us. There were still probably another dozen people that came who are not in this picture

Aunt Lili (Lisa Sprouse)

It was such a nice surprise to have my grandparents there

We can never get a picture with all three of them looking

pastor John took a minute out of his busy schedule to take a picture with us.

More Family Time

This week has been extremely busy with my sister being in town and she will be here until the 29th of June. I have been promising pictures for a while and hadn't gotten the chance to post them. I hope you enjoy them. I am posting pictures of the dedication, our trip to the ship and The womens conference. The dedication was especially special to me because they have each pastor come up and pray with a separate family and my dad got to pray for us. Also the pastor writes a letter and seals it and presents it to the child a long with a bible. In the letter contains a note from the pastor that is suppose to be given to your child on the day that they accept Christ and it states that on this day we prayed over you etc. It was very touching.

FAMILY TRIP

It's a busy but fun week. My sister along with her two children came into town Sunday night and are here for a month. This week so far we have gone shopping and today we took them to the Ussr battleship and the Wisconsin. We went with our parents and some friends from Nicaragua it was a lot of fun. It is so great to have all the cousins together. I love seeing Mackenzie interact with them. Jacob calls Mackenzie "miss Kenzie" it is so cute. They have a lot of fun with each other. It's nice having my sister around and sharing this time with the kids. It doesn't happen a lot with her living in Tennessee. Mackenzie is doing better with her sleeping. I hate giving her medicine but baby ibuprofen has really helped. In one night she went from going to sleep between 8 and 8:30 for over a week to going to sleep at 7 and has done that the last three nights. It's so amazing to watch her everyday. She is really starting to develop a personality. I know I have been really bad about posting pictures. I have quite a few to post and I will try and get them posted by the weekend.

MacKenzie's baby dedication and more

Well the weekend is finally coming to an end. Although it was a great weekend I am ready to relax a little bit. MacKenzie did great considering all the running around we did. Most of her action was on Sunday. On and Friday and Saturday she didn't do much she just didn't see me until late in the evening. The conference was refreshing and much needed. We had great speakers like Angela Thomas and singer Jeremy Camp along with many more. Then on Sunday I was so excited because MacKenzie was dedicated. It was such a beautiful and awesome experience. I am going to try and put the video up later in the week. I also gave my testimony at church for all three services. By the last service I was no longer nervous. I think that was also video taped so I will get that up later. Mackenzie's dress was beautiful and made by a special person Grandma Lynn. She was so good and I felt so special we had about 25 people show up to watch it including my Grandparents (which was a total surprise). We ended it by going out to eat at golden corral.

Mommy and Kenzie

Daddy and Kenzie

9 Month pictures

Sorry it has taken so long for me to get these up. The past week has been really exhausting. I thought it had to do with teething but I am wondering if it is a stage. Either way I hope it ends soon. MacKenzie has decided that she wants to go back to these short inconsistent naps and on top of that when she is awake as long as I am around her she wants me and when I go to set her down she cries. So needless to say it has been long days and very little getting done. My parents kept her yesterday for a little so that was nice. Travis and I had the opportunity to go out by our self which had been a while.
she is actually napping now and of course I got on to update my blog and am putting off the cleaning a little while longer. Please, keep her in your prayers. I opted out on taking her to get her x-rays done yesterday since Travis had some free time. I will take her in the morning.

9 Month Stats

MacKenzie went for her 9mo check up today. She also somehow went for a check up around 6mo but her 6mo shots got missed so we had to do that today. It always makes me sad when the time comes but she always amazes me at how well she does. she had a total of three shots and one liquid that she drank. She didn't even start to cry until the second shot and as soon as they were done she stopped. I was so proud of her. So these are her current stats
Weight 16pds 9oz -10th percentile
Height 26 and a quarter- a whopping 12th percentile
She is in good health and happy as can be. The one thing that the doctors did ask me to get done are some leg x-rays. The doctor said that when you lay her down and look at her hips, legs etc her butt cheeks do not line up along with other marks on her legs. She said that is common in some babies but usually ones that went through c-section or were born breech MacKenzie was either. She did not seem to concerned with it but just wants to make sure that her hips are line up ok. She is still struggling with her naps again during the day. Last night she was also up for 31/2 hrs I think her teeth are really bothering her. She had another one break through again so that makes two coming through the top.

MOTHERS DAY!!!

Well this years Mother's day was especially exciting for me since it was my first. I feel so blessed to have MacKenzie in my life and even more that God has given me this opportunity. Even on the toughest days I wouldn't trade what I do for anything. I pray that as she grows and we hopefully have more kids that one day God will look at me and say well done. My desire as a mom is to serve Christ and my family. I want my children to see that the desires of my heart is God and know that the joy in my life is because of the gift that God has given me. I am not as good as I used to be but I try and read, sing and talk about Gods love everyday. I don't want a day going by without MacKenzie being reassured that God is in her life.
This year we didn't do anything major. MacKenzie got me a card with a gift, we went to church, spent the afternoon at home and then went over to my parents house for dinner where we stayed for the remainder of the night. I think this year was especially special for me because not only did I get to take part in one of God's greatest gifts but I got to experience that with my Mother as well. It gives you a whole new appreciation for you own Mom and all the hard work and sacrifices that she made to make me who I am today.

party time

After working hard it was time to celebrate a birthday and eat

cooling off

And she finally got it. I was so proud of her

She got a little heart painted on the side of her face. She did pretty good sitting there while they did it.

Here are a few pictures of our day Saturday at the 5K and the birthday party

5k run

On Saturday MacKenzie and I started our day early by heading out to downtown Portsmouth to support the orphanages in Nicaragua. Our church was working with one of the local ymca's and putting on a 5K along with various booths, entertainment, games and face painting. We had about 40 people run. The cost was 25 dollars for a single person or 20 dollars per family. At the end of the run we spent a few hours there enjoy the different activities. MacKenzie got a heart painted on her face, played in the ball pit and the pool. She really enjoyed throwing the balls out of the ball pit and then leaning over and trying to pick them up to put them back in. I was so excited for her as I watched her trying so hard to stretch out and get the ball. I wanted so badly to get it for her but was very excited when she accomplished it on her own.
MacKenzie is now in the full stage of teething again. She had started to show signs but was still doing ok until yesterday. These days can become very long and test my patience especially as I am not feeling all that great myself. She is still sleeping good she is just clingy and fussy when she is awake. I have tried new medicine for her that has helped a lot. It something that you put in her mouth and it quickly dissolves to make her gums and teeth to go numb. I prefer using this over ora jel and baby tylenol. I am not a big fan of filling MacKenzie with a bunch of medicine especially at such a young age.

taken down by the older children lol

play group

It was really cute to see her interact with other kids

FUN,FUN, AND MORE FUN!!!

So I think I have come to realize with the summer time I am going to have to make a conscious effort to make time for down time. It seems like every week even if I don't start out with plans I end up going out everyday. This week on Tuesday I had my first play group at one of the moms house. It was a lot of fun and I think good for Mackenzie to get out and play with some other kids. Most of the kids ranged from a yr to 2 yrs old but there was one baby girl a month older than Kenzie and a couple of moms expecting any day. On Wednesday I went to a friends house and she has a little boy about a yr in a half old. So while they enjoyed some play time. We got to visit and we made jewelry. That is definitely not on my list of things to do but I thing being a mom is bringing some of these things out in me. I actually enjoyed doing it and look forward to doing it again. Thursday we were suppose to go to the Britanical gardens of Norfolk with my mom and some other people and about half way there my car over heated so that ended that trip. On Friday I went to my every other week moms group where I had the pleasure of hearing my mom speak about relationships. So on top of having a busy week it was even longer for MacKenzie. I think it might have something to do with teething. She has two teeth coming through on her top gums. All of last week she was sleeping 7 to 7 eating then going back down til 9 or so. This week she took a nap on Monday and has refused to take a nap the rest of the days. She literally only slept for about 20 mins each day. Today she has done a little better but of course she fought me so much and now she is asleep and I am going to have to wake her up bc it is getting to be dinner time.
I wonder if she will be walking soon. She spends more time on her feet then she does crawling. anything that she can use to pull herself up she will. She will be 9mo on the 12th which to me is crazy. On May 23rd she is being dedicated and on the same day my dad who is currently the executive pastor at our church will be speaking that day and doing the dedications so I am really excited about that. MacKenzie over all is a very happy baby with a great appetite. So far I have fed her banana's, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, chicken, fruit, yogut, cottage cheese and the list goes on. Of those things yogurt and cottage cheese are the two things that didn't go well. I think she is maybe lactose intolerant and the yogurt just upset her stomach all day long. We have a 5k we are suppose to be involved in tomorrow and the proceeds are going to the Nicaragua orphans.