How time flies.........

I cant believe that I haven't blogged in over a month!!! Just to catch up a little bit....... we went to NC for Thanksgiving. We were able to be there for 5 days well that includes driving there and back but still we were gone for 5 days. Everyone was so excited to see all of the kids and to especially see Mali for the 1st time. There were very few minutes in the day that she wasn't in someones arms. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Mama and Daddy's. My sisters Macy and Mariah and my youngest (but biggest... hes over 6 ft tall) brother Riley was there. Mema (my grandma) was able to be there and to see and hold Mali and Mikal and all of her family and Marianne and all of her family. There were quite a few of us squeezed in the house but it was nice being all together.
Marlee and Makenna had their Christmas chorus concert and it was great. That group of kids sing really good and I love their concerts. Mali is now 2 months old and weighs a big whopping 9 lbs!! She isn't very big but she is growing!! Michael is finally getting a top front tooth and for those of you that really know him, he hasn't had one since he was 2 years old!! Maleah had a haircut this week and man is her hair curly now. I really just trimmed it but it looks much shorter now. Maleah and Michael also got new bunk beds this week. John and I finally got them put together last night (with the kids help) so they were finally able to sleep on them. Which they didn't know til this morning....... they fell asleep on the couch!!
Christmas is next week and I haven't done ANY shopping. When I say ANY I mean I haven't purchased the 1st gift!! NOTHING!!! I need to get busy, I just have to decide what I am going to buy for them!! Today is also the kids last day of school til January 6, 2009. We are hoping to find time to take the kids to Stone Mountain while they are on vacation for a day of fun at snow mountain. It looks like so much fun!! Heres a video that you can look at. http://www.snowmountainpark.com/snow_goodies/promo-detail.aspx?id=14 It's open from Dec 31 til March 31 so if we dont get to go during this vacation there is still time that we can go!!
What a wonderful year this has been. We have been blessed in so many ways. We have 6 beautiful and healthy kids. My husband and I share a wonderful life together and working together everyday. Our children are blessed with the best parents ever (hehehe) and the best grandparents too. Hopefully this coming year the kids will be able to spend more time with Grandma and Pa. (we are hoping they visit more) To everyone that reads this we love you and wish the best for your families in the coming new year.

The 6 of them

Al l 6 of the kids were here this past weekend. They had alot of fun times. I tried getting a good picture of them but try getting 6 to look at you and smile all at the same time. The 4 girls on the right did a good job, but Marlee and Michael weren't very cooperative. So out of all of the pictures I took of them together this is the one that turned out the best. I'm hoping that the next time that Lexi comes down that we will be able to get at least one good picture of all of them so we can put it in our office.

John, Makenna, Maleah and Lexi spent a great deal of the day doing cheerleading stunts, with Maleah being the flyer. John, I have to say caught on pretty quick. They tried getting Michael to do it but he changed his mind real quick!! THANK GOODNESS!!!!!

Anyway Mali is growing tooooo quickly, and time is going by tooooo fast. She will be a month old is 7 days and it hurts my feelings and hurts my heart. Dont you wish sometimes that time would just slow down, but then there are times when you wish it would just speed up. We are planning, as of right now, going to the Island for Thanksgiving. I really want everyone to see Mali before she gets too much bigger. And I especially want Mema to be able to see her.

Life has been good here for us. We have so many things to be thankful for. The kids primary program is this coming Sunday and then the following Sunday Marlee and I are supposed to talk in Sacrament meeting. We are both very nervous to say the least. We have to speak on service. I havent talked in Sacrament meeting since I was pregnant with Makenna, over 11 years ago!! The little one has woke up and so I must cut this short!!

SHE'S HERE!!!!

Mali Anna Peck arrived on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 6:15 pm. I had to be at the hospital at 6am. When I got there I was dilated 2 and 70% effaced. At 6:45 they inserted Cytotec into my cervix. Around 10:30 the magic man arrived in my room, Dr Loo, and started the epidural and then at 10:45 I was dilated to 4 and they started me on Pitocin and the Dr broke my water. Soon after that her heartbeat dropped and so did my blood pressure. They gave me medication to bring it back up and put oxygen on me. We kept losing Mali's heartbeat so they put a fetal monitor on her and put my feet up and my head down. I stayed at 4 for quite a while. I think at 4:00 I was finally dilated to 6. It wasnt long after this that I told John, everytime I have a contraction I feel pressure down there. I waited for a couple more contractions to make sure and then I got John to call the nurse back in, that was around 5:00. She came right in and checked me and I was dilated to 9.5. They called the Dr and she finally got there sometime after 6:00. I felt like everyone was just taking there time, but the epidural was still working good, so I wasnt in any pain. I think I pushed thru 3 contractions. When her head came out, they told me to stop pushing, the cord was wrapped around her neck twice, hence the reason for the heartbeat to keep going down!!! The Dr cut the cord and one more push and she was out!! Head full of black hair and BEAUTIFUL!!!! She was much tinier than we thought that she would be. She weighed 6 pounds and 9 ounces. She was 20 inches long. All of the kids were in the waiting room eagerly awaiting her arrival. Everyone was so excited and glad that she was here. We are enjoying every minute with her. All of her sisters and her brother, think that she is perfect and Dad and I know she is. What a wonderful, beautiful, perfect little girl to complete our family. There is nothing in the world like a new baby. We all love her so much and cant wait to watch her learn and grow. Heavenly Father has truly blessed us.

Went to the Dr

OK, so I went to the Dr yesterday, for my last visit!!! YAY!!! I am dilated a whole big whopping 1 cm and I am 50% effaced!! I am to report to the hospital on Tuesday, Oct 14 at 6am. Daddy, Mama and Macy (and all of her kids) are leaving the Island today for Durham. Daddy has a Dr appt in the morning there at 8am. After the appt they are leaving to drive down this way!!

So my to do list:

On Saturday, Marlee has All State Chorus tryouts at 11:40.
Some of the girls at church are getting together on Saturday at 1:00 to have me a little shower. (glad Mama and Macy are gonna be able to be there)
Get my bag packed
Get Malis bag packed
Make sure I have all of the necessary items for the hospital
Make a place for everyone to sleep while they are here
And I'm sure ALOT more!!!

Our last photo shoot!!

I went to the Dr this morning, we had our final in utero photo shoot. She was simply beautiful of course!! According to their calculations she weighed 6lbs 2oz. What a big girl!! And I'm not even 35 weeks yet. She hid her face most of the time, but we were able to get some good pictures of her after her measurements. Only 3 more weeks til I go to be induced. Maleah and Michael ask everyday, how many more days til Mali is here. They are all so excited and so are John and I. Cant wait for us all to be at home together.

A sweet surprise!!!

So this past week has been a busy one at the shop!!! On Tuesday we interviewed about 75 people!! What a LONG day! On Wednesday we had 11 of those people come back for orientation. A very busy morning!! I had to take one of the guys home after orientation was over. Well Mariah and Chris and their kids had been to Florida the past week. They spent Tuesday night in Savannah which is about 3 hours from Griffin. I called her Tuesday night and told her that they should come here and stay a couple of days, which was the original plan, but then we were so busy at the office that those plans got changed!! She said she would let me know something. I called her Wednesday morning and she said Chris just wanted to get home, he pulled his back out while in Florida!! I told her that we should be done with class around lunchtime so if they could hangout in Savannah then maybe we could meet somewhere and at least we could spend a few hours together. So I went on to the office and like I said we had orientation, then I took one of the guys home. On my way back to the office I called her and she said they had decided to go on home and they were almost to Fayetteville. Well when I got to the office, John met me outside and said the Smiths were there and very upset cause their baby had gotten her fingers cut on their machine, for me to hurry and come talk to them. He said this with a kindof smirky grin on his face, I had no idea what he was up to. So I went on in and went in the back of the office and there sat Mariah, Chris, Kenan and Kenly!!! What a sweet surprise!!!!
We hurried home and got the kids out of school ordered pizza and pasta from Pizza Hut, ate and then headed to a Braves game. The Braves actually won the game and we had a great time! The weather was nice, it cooled off and felt really good. They came to the house the next morning and told the kids bye before they went to school and then they headed home! Their visit was short and sweet but we enjoyed every minute of it :)

..........

Ok, so I went to the Dr this past week. I had lost a couple of pounds YAY!! So as of now I have only gained 12 pounds. I was 31 weeks and measured 33. Everything went quite well!! The Dr's here are so much different about things than back in Carteret County. They will induce you with no problems at all. When I had the placenta previa, my Dr had talked to me about a c-section about 2 weeks early. At that time we discussed that most of my family lived in NC and it was about a 10 hour drive for them to get here so a scheduled date would be wonderful. Well as you know my placenta has moved so hopefully heads down and no c-section, BUT she said that she would plan to induce me so that my family could be here. (so nice of her) So my due date is Oct 28 and we have a planned induction for Mali on October 14!!! Its also Julies birthday so we are excited that she may be born on that day!!! I go back to the Dr on Sept 22 for a routine visit and another ultrasound. I cant wait to see how much Mali has changed in the 7 weeks since we have seen her.