Odds and Ends:)

Every morning I wake up so happy and amazed that the Lord has chosen to bless us with another precious child! Each and every time we have found out we are expecting, we are truly surprised and genuinely as excited as we were when we found out we were expecting our first. Although knowing the ages and number of children we have, one might not believe this, but especially as we get older, we are very aware that one day will be the last time I know the joy of carrying a baby inside me. While we enjoy each day with each and every child we have, we always rejoice when the Lord gives us another!

Thank you so much for your prayers for our little boy/girl and I during this pregnancy. I printed up all the comments you all left for his/her baby book :) And yes, I do and love to take the time to make a baby book for each child! I have an easy system to keep them all updated and maybe I'll share that at another time.

To answer a few of the questions we've been asked in the comments/emails concerning this pregnancy:

*When are you due? I'm not exactly sure :) Because many of my pregnancies have been so close together, I sometimes am not exactly sure what my due date would be. The doctors here do an early u/s, and so I'll probably be given a "date" based on that. If I were to guess, I would think late April to early May ???

*Do you exclusively nurse your babies? Many have asked this due to the close ages of our children. And do you continue to nurse after you get pregnant.

Yes and no :) I have exclusively nursed most of my babies. Despite of trying everything from eating lots of oatmeal, drinking a lot, resting as much as I can ect..., I have never had what I would consider an over abundance of milk :) I've never been very successful at pumping. My first 4 were exclusively nursed and I got pregnant by the time they were 4 months old. Abigail (baby 5) was nursed exclusively for 2 months, but had a problem with her latch and so was supplemented while we worked on that. Nehemiah (our 10th) was nursed as often as I nursed all the others but with supplements also as he struggled so much with his breathing; the bottle gave him some ease of sucking and breathing at the same time along with some extra calories as he burned so much with his lung problems. Little Eliseo has had the most supplements of any of our children primarly due to the time when Daniel was so sick. But as Daniel always encourages, we just keep "plugging away" at it as I love nursing my babies! :)

After I conceive, my milk usually decreases over the course of the first few months.

To end, here are some pictures of the past few days :)

Sisters...all clean and sweet :) Both girls (and the boys too) have been so extra helpful to mommy since they found out about their new sibling :) They bring me flowers, treats, rub my hands or brush my hair which I love, and are so helpful to carry the heavy baskets of laundry or offer to do some of my chores. Abigail was so very helpful today and surprised me by cleaning the whole kitchen after lunch while I taught Beka. I asked her why she was so sweet, and she said, "Because you prayed with me yesterday and Jesus heard and is helping me :) "

September 16 we went to the parade of the Mexican Independence Day. All the children in the schools march. Here is our family with brother Macario walking down to the road to watch.
Here is Litzi, our neighbor, after the parade holding Eliseo
Here are Alma, Rebekah and Marisela; Alma and Mari are 2 sisters who've been going to church with us from the beginning. Alma has accepted the Lord as her Savior
Benjamin and Abigail wanted me to take a picture of what they made with play dough :)

Mommy helping to plant grass!!!
Benjamin helping to seed the grass! Muddy little ones in the background :)
A very pretty moth that Elijah found yesterday