Our very real Christmas miracle

Ezekiel Lamadrid Jensen was born at 1:25pm on Christmas Day! He weighed 8lbs 6oz and was 21 inches long. My biggest baby yet! Azure was 7lbs 3oz and Vince was 7lbs 15oz.

His detailed birth story will have to wait. Why does it take me so long to write detailed accounts?

My due date was Dec. 21. With my track record I knew he'd come later than that. I was holding out for Sunday, Dec. 23. It was Joseph Smith's birthday and we talked about Joseph for a middle name. If he were born on the 23rd we thought it'd be appropriate to use the name. Sunday morning came with no real contractions and I panicked a bit. "What if the revelation I received was that he'd come by Christmas time? Did it really mean he'd be born by Christmas day?" I had Charles give me a blessing that night to calm my worried heart and mind. In it he said, "The Lord will fulfill His promises to you." I still didn't know what that meant. But, it gave me hope. Something to hold onto for a little while more.

I am absolutely humbled that he was born on Christmas Day. Every time I think about it tears well up in my eyes. Do you remember that we found out last Christmas that we were pregnant? And after my miscarriage I felt the Lord speak to my mind and heart saying, "You will have that same baby in your arms by the following Christmas." Friends, the Lord loves us so, so, much! He fulfills His promises! Zeke is a living testimony of that for me. I hope my mortal mind can remember this miracle when I lose hope or faith or feel unloved. My heart is so full.

The birth itself went well. A few things I wasn't really expecting. Some things I didn't plan very well for. I have even more respect for my body. I went into labor on my own and actually dilated pretty fast without any Pitocin. Yay! More details later...

His shoulder got stuck and I ended up with a 3rd degree tear. I had one with Vince too and it wasn't that bad. But, this time has been much more painful. Friday and Saturday I was in so much pain that I felt it was tainting my birth experience and I was sad that I couldn't bask in the glory and wonder of his birth b/c I was too consumed with pain to do so.

My emotions have been all over the place. Joyful ecstasy to paranoid anxiety. Totally normal for the first week after giving birth.

My body is shrinking down and it feels so good to not be pregnant anymore. It's exciting to be able to wear some of my old lose-fitting clothes again! (ie non-maternity clothes- don't worry they're not my normal form fitting clothes. Can't fit into those quite yet)

And I am in love with my Zekiel. (That's what Vince is calling him and I love it. He also calls him Baby Zete) I could just inhale him in. Tan tierno.

Best Christmas present EVER!

I imagine the Lord chuckling at me whenever someone would tell me of their Dec or early Jan birthday and I would think, "Ugh. I'm glad my birthday isn't so close to Christmas." Or even more recent, "I would never want to have a baby during the holidays." But, now. Now, every time someone asks when his birthday is I will remember that the Lord loves me. I will remember that the Lord indeed fulfills His promises to me. I will remember the importance of forgiveness. The Lord knows what is truly best for us, so much more than we think we do.

"For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him" 

1Samuel 1:27

Halloween festivities

Azure changed her mind multiple times this year about what she was going to be. Last year I bought her a sailor costume and a princess costume on Nov. 1st  (great time to buy clearanced costumes). However, she really wanted to be a pepperoni pizza after seeing the previously mentioned Halloween costume demonstration. That was a little too involved for me to get excited about. I know, way to quell your child's imagination! I admit I am much too intimidated by grandiose projects.

 Maybe she toyed with the idea of being Daddy.

She finally decided on her pirate costume that she had so cleverly put together earlier. And I found this Superman costume at a consignment sale for about $5.

Charles helped me concoct this pumpkin costume out of electrical tape.

Zeke-o-lantern

 We decided to go trick-or-treating on our favorite street in Savannah- Bluff Dr. a rich neighborhood on Isle of Hope overlooking the river. We were not disappointed. Such lovely Southern style homes. We had a great time with the Saavedras.

The stash

Jingle Bells

Vince for some reason thinks that the last words in Jingle Bells is:

"Oh, what fun it has to ride. A little bit ride!"

I'll never sing it the same now.

Soccer Family

*Are you wanting a baby update? Wish me luck in trying to catch up before Zeke comes!*

I became a soccer mom at the end of September. Azure had practices on Tuesdays and games every Saturday. That's about 3 hrs a week of soccer. She amazed us all and scored 6 goals in her first game! She definitely has a knack for the sport so we plan on putting her in every year until she changes her mind. Though, she did need a little coaxing from us in the beginning. She was afraid to play this year b/c she was going to have games and feared she wouldn't do well. This was part of our determination talk.

She hustled at every game. Some kids would just walk or slightly jog. Azure sprinted. She was intense. It was awesome for me and Charles to see her out on the field. Joy in our posterity :)
We talked about switching between art/creative classes and sports. Right before this Azure took 4 wks of violin and seemed to like it. I think we'll pick it back up in a few years. I don't think she's ready (or me either, let's be honest) for intense practicing of an instrument and the violin is pretty serious. Now, that soccer is over we might start piano lessons or do some more art lessons in Jan. We definitely only want to do one lesson at a time. We don't want to overschedule our children. It's going to be a delicate balance I'm sure, once the other children get older and start lessons of their own.

We were really touched when 2 of Azure's friends showed up at her game to support her. Obviously, we don't have any family here and no grandparents or aunts or uncles or cousins have ever seen her play soccer. We have been blessed this last year to have the Bryces and Saavedras as our family here. We love them so much!

And I love this little guy!

Fluffernutter break

Azure was the only girl on her team. The boy on the far left's name is Charles Jensen. We all had a hoot with that. Esp since he is Filipino :)

 You did a great job this season Cub, we're so proud of you!

Field Trip Fun

We have deemed Thursdays as our field trip days for homeschool. Back in Sept. we went to Publix, our grocery store of choice, for a tour. I was really impressed with the employees. They did a wonderful job and gave us a ton of free food! Charles said we should go around to different grocery stores every week saying we're on a field trip just to get free groceries ;)

In October we visited the Tybee lighthouse museum. What a spectacular view from the top! With no mountains here you never get an "aerial" view of the city so it's really awe-inspiring to actually get one. It makes me really appreciate living on the coast, esp since I'm a coastal girl at heart :)

Last month we finally visited the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace museum. She was the founder of the girl scouts and was born and raised in Savannah. Every Spring thousands of girl scouts come out here to visit the museum so we thought we might as well too, since we live here. Azure and I read the book, "Daisy and the Girl Scouts" back in May so it was fun to go to her house together- just the 2 of us. Juliette (Daisy) was a talented woman who never had children of her own. But, she was the mother of Girl Scouts and has influenced millions of young girls and lives. Her life story is inspiring.

While there, I received the revelation that one day I will be a tour guide. I am excited for that :)

There have been other numerous field trips but, they are not all documented with the camera. Our most recent field trip was last Thursday to see the gingerbread house display at the Westin. Then we took the ferry across the river and played on River St. with Theresa and Emily V and co.

Talk like a pirate day

We found out Krispy Kreme was giving away a box of free donuts to those who dressed like a pirate and talked like a pirate. Apparently it is an official holiday per wikipedia on Sept. 19. The day before we had seen a presentation at the library about how to make your own Halloween costumes. This very much intrigued Azure. So, when I told her about the free donuts she was all about putting together a pirate costume with what she had on hand. I was very impressed. She put almost all of this together by herself with minimal help from me. This turned out to be a great homeschool lesson :)

Who knew?

A few months ago Charles started digging through his family history and found out that his 6th or 7th great grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War in South Carolina! And that some of his ancestors settled there for awhile. And there's a historical site at the battle where he died. Who knew?! So, of course being only 3.5 hrs away we had to make a trip in early September. In their visitor's center we got to watch a video about the battle and his grandfather was mentioned.

I love this pic of Vince with his head bowed in reverence for his ancestor who fought and gave his life here.

We made a weekend trip out of it and headed up to the temple in Columbia too. While Charles was with the youth doing baptisms I took the kids to the Children's Museum since we had yet to go in Columbia. It was pretty good.