Player of the Year

Jacksen played basketball with the Salvation Army this past winter and loved it. He never took a shot and never had a foul all season. He was however named player of the year and awarded this sweet Nike basketball because of his willingness to do everything his coaches said, attending almost every game and practice, and playing his best all season. He was a very proud boy and we are very proud of him. His team's name is "Money Makers" and he was asked to be on the same team for the summer league. With his award he has a new confidence and in the first game this summer he took three shots and made two fouls! He didn't make any of the shots but just shooting them is an accomplishment, and we can't wait to see what the rest of the season brings!

2 months old!

A few pictures of Jillian at 2 months old. She weighed in at 8lb 10 oz. last week at the doctor and I think she has gained at least a half a pound since then. She has started smiling and talking. She loves her big brothers and sister and gives them the biggest smiles of all. Jillian still has all of her hair and it just keeps getting longer and longer. She is finally out growing all the newborn clothes and is into 0-3 months!

Jillian Arrives

Jillian arrived 5 weeks and a day early. Her due date was June 26th and she came May 21st. I had been put on bed rest 5 and 1/2 weeks before that for what they called pre-preeclampsia. She weighed 3lb 14oz and was 16 inches long. She didn't have to be on any oxygen or a ventilator which is amazing considering how early she was. I will post later about what all we went through to get her here, but I had to start somewhere. These are the only pictures I was able to look at after she was born until the next day when I was able to go and see her. They whisked her away so fast I only got a glimpse of her before she went to the NICU. I think that was the hardest part of all of it. Even then I didn't get to hold her, it was another 24 hours before I was able to do that. She spent 9 days in the NICU and we would go and visit her everyday. I really struggled with whether or not to stay with her at the hospital, but with three other kids at home and the tough delivery I went through we decided it would be best for me to go home and get rest and spend all day there. This worked out well, but it was so hard to leave her at the end of the day. That is all for now next I think I'll post the bed rest days and what all we went through to get Jillian here. It feels so good to be back to blogging!

Wow!

What a rough couple of months! I'm afraid if I don't blog about it soon I will forget all the details of everything that's happened. This is one of my goals for this week; to get back into blogging. It was one of my goals last week too and it didn't happen. I had high hopes to print off this picture of the kids and have it sent out with all the thank you cards I have yet to write to so many friends and family that have been there for us through it all. It didn't happen so I'll share it on here. That is another goal I had last week that has become this weeks goal. Four kids has really slowed me down. I can't seem to get caught up on anything. I feel like I'm running in circles most of the time.

Miss Louise

This is an old picture from fall, but I can't put a story on here without sharing a picture. Aren't all the colors pretty in the trees behind the kids! I know the kids will love goofy pictures of themselves like this one some day. This is a typical fall Saturday afternoon at our house we rake and rake for hours then spend about ten minutes jumping in the leaves before cleaning it all up.

Here's the story I want to share today...I am now 22 weeks along and the kids are now able to feel the baby kick. They think it is so cool and really enjoy getting to feel their baby sister kicking them. It has become an evening routine for them to feel her kicking right before they all head off to bed. One day this week while they were feeling her kick, I told them that she is now old enough to hear us talk. They all wanted to start talking to my stomach so the baby would recognize their voices when she comes out. Then Jennah said all of a sudden, "mom you need to start calling me Miss Louise". (This is her middle name and when she forces Joel to play school with her this is what she makes him call her.) She went on to tell me that Miss Louise is what she wants her baby sister to call her when she gets here. Typical Jennah story that just cracks me up and I wanted to share. I hope this baby girl is going to be laid back, because she's going to need to be with all the stuff she's going to have to put up with from her big sister Jennah.

I'm Back!

Wow! So a lot has changed since my last post. I found out a week after returning home from my trip to Honduras that we are expecting our #4! We were completely surprised because we had stopped trying four months before and were happy with our family of 5. It was quite a shock for Jonathan as well. I told him I had some weird news and he jokingly said "what you're pregnant" I said "yep!". He sat quietly for a few seconds and said, "you're going to have to give me some time to think about it". All evening long he just kept looking at me and saying "really, really". We wanted to wait as long as we could to tell everyone because of the past trouble we'd had. We were able to wait until I was eight weeks along, which is good for us.

I am now 20 and 1/2 weeks along and we found out last week we are having a baby girl! We're so excited. We thought for sure it was a boy because I've been so sick. After dealing with the morning sickness for so long I finally broke down and asked for some medicine to help with the nausea and wow has it helped. I can't believe I didn't ask for it with Jacksen and Joel. I thought it would be easier having older children and being pregnant, but it doesn't seem to be it to has it's challenges. I can't just lay on the couch and let the kids play around me, I now have to go to ball games, ball practices, get them up and off to school and so on.

I am finally getting use to the idea of having another little one. When we decided we weren't having anymore we were set on it so it's really taken me a while to get use to the fact. Also, I can't believe how far apart the kids will be Jack will be 10 and 1/2, Jennah will be 8 and 1/2, and Joel will be two months from being 5!

We definitely feel blessed and are so excited to welcome a new little Hendricks into the world around June 26th!