Happy 8th Birthday Keagan!!

Last Friday (June 22nd) we celebrated Keagan's 8th Birthday! I cannot believe that my oldest baby is already EIGHT. He is growing up right before our eyes. As I posted on Facebook: Keagan is funny, smart, and "always right." He equally wears me out and makes me proud. He has taught me how to love deeply and he's made me lose my mind. He is the only one of my children who has ever had my undivided attention, and yet he doesn't remember it. 

Keagan is a good boy and I am loving watching him grow and develop into a fine young man. While sometimes parenting him is tough, we are learning this together as we go. It feels like just yesterday that we were praying for his health while he struggled to breathe/eat/maintain temperature in the NICU. Keagan is a fantastic big brother -though he does pick at his siblings-  and is incredibly smart.

Keag's birthday started out with pancakes (his choice) on the birthday plate! It ended with a bunch of kids coming over (and several spending the night) for supper and cake and the new Jurassic World movie! It was our first experience having a slumber party, and though we will do it again, it will be a while!!

A bunch of kids for Keagan's birthday!! Clockwise from Keagan: Bryce, Hugh, Nick, Reagan, Cayson, Finn and Maclyn.

Mac was taking it all in. She thoroughly enjoyed hanging with the big kids!

Someday Keagan is going to be too old for me to walk down memory lane like this (i.e. too many pictures)...but for now: 

Happy 8th Birthday to the child who made me a Mommy.         

Maternity Pictures

In early May, around 35 weeks along, we had our maternity pictures. I will be honest, I wasn't looking forward to them. This pregnancy was hands-down the most difficult of the four, from feeling sick all.the.time to being huge and MUCH heavier than I have ever been in my life, and then serious aches and pains that were pretty much constant and didn't exist with my other pregnancies. I just didn't feel pretty at all during this pregnancy and so the thought of having pictures made didn't excite me. But, it needed to be documented and I knew I would regret it if I didn't. And now I am super glad that we had them made, because I am already enjoying looking back. I have mixed emotions about this being the last time I will grow a baby in this body (don't worry - it IS), and as I look at these pictures I find myself in awe that my body was able to do this 4 times. What a blessing! And it already seems strange that there are only 3 children in these pictures!!

 Thank you, Kaylee Burgess Photography, for another fantastic session!!!