A Year in Pictures

January: Another look at Mackenna Grace

February: Anticipating the arrival of our precious girl!

March: Showered with Gifts!

April: Mackenna Grace Folden is here!

May: Our Growing Family

Visits from Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Patti

June: Dustin graduates from Faith Bible Seminary! All the grandparents come to see Mackenna... and to see Dustin graduate!

July: More fun with our girl!

August: Four Generations!

Visits from Grandpa Dennis, Great Grandma Rose, Great Auntie Denise, & cousins Abby and Camryn

September: Loving a visit from Poppi Paul, Uncle Turner....

...and a surprise visit from Grandma Patti!

October: Grandma Lee Ann and Auntie Allee come to see us!

November: Our Little Turkey on her first Thanksgiving!

Folden Family Pajama Day

In Honor of Mackenna Grace Folden's very first cold... we've deemed October 14th the official Folden Family Pajama Day. From here on out, if possible (meaning, we don't have commitments outside of our home), October 14th will be a day of pajama wearing and relaxing.

For having an infection at birth, I have been very thankful that God has kept our girl healthy for the first 6 months of her life. Yesterday, on her 6 month birthday, she succumbed to her very first cold... fever and all. She is so miserably congested and only finds relief when being held or when playing in her "monkey seat" (aka Fisher Price Jumperoo). Since she can't sleep in her monkey seat, she's either sleeping in my arms or begrudgingly falling to sleep in her crib for a restless nap with lots of wake ups due to coughing. But, she's a little trooper. When she's not tired, she's acting like her same ole cute lil' self! Her appetite is still good and she's giving out a ton of smiles. Mommy's thankful for that! Daddy says she sounds like a little piggy with her congested nose... I agree! But she sure is one cute little congested piggy!

Last night was a little rough. She normally sleeps 10 hours straight but was up two times before 10:30 PM. At 2:30 she woke up with a "had to change the pajamas" messy diaper and a fever of 100.3. After cleaning up the mess, administering some Tylenol, and feeding her a bottle, she fell asleep in my arms until about 3:30 AM. She was up for about an hour and a half until out of sheer exhaustion she feel asleep in her crib. Thankfully, she slept until about 8:20 AM. Whew! Her schedule is all outta whack, but I'm just trying to get her rest and fluids... so I am not watching the clock today!

I always knew this day would come. "One day Mackenna will have a fever," Dustin often told me when I was worried about her getting sick in her early days of life. I was sure that they day she did have a fever that I would be a nervous wreck. But, by God's grace, I'm not. God has once again given me the grace to handle her sickness without being in an anxious frenzy. Praise be to God! I don't deserve His grace, yet in my time of need, He pours it out on me in a way that I can't even describe. My heart is not anxious AT ALL. That is a HUGE deal for me! Only by God's grace... truly!

Well, my little piggy is sleeping now... I should scurry and get some work done. To God be the glory!

"The Great Baby Clean-up"

Today I had to stop by Dustin's work to make some copies and get our home mortgage application ready to be sent back to the bank. While we were there, Mackenna got hungry. While she was eating, she filled her pants. And, her diaper leaked... BIG time! So, I scrounged around in my diaper bag, got her changing pad out, got the wipes out, felt around for a diaper... felt around some more... dug in some pockets... NO DIAPER! Yikes! I had a package of size 1 diapers in the car (Mackenna wears size 2)... So, Dustin, so graciously offered to go out and get a diaper while I began the "Great Baby Clean-up." While very carefully removing Mackenna's onesie, I grabbed the wipes to begin cleaning her off and discovered... that was the last wipe! Double YIKES! Dustin brought in the diaper and I just looked at him and said, "I'm outta wipes!" Luckily I keep my car fully stocked with Wet Ones... they were better than paper towels. So, long story short... Mackenna cleaned up nicely... small diaper and all... and I learned, once again, to always check and make sure my diaper bag is fully loaded. :-) I love being a mommy! Even on the "poopy" days!

Unofficially Rolling Over...both ways!

Our darling Mackenna Grace has been rolling from her back-to-belly since she was only 3 1/2 months old. I've been expecting for her belly-to-back roll to make it's presence but it just hasn't been happening. Well... it's appeared... sort of! This morning she heard my voice when I came to get her out of her crib and she accidently rolled over. I thought, "Hmmm... I wonder if I can get her to accidently roll over enough that she'll just get some muscle memory and do it on her own." So we practiced a lot today! With the help of "Barry the Bluebird" I was able to tempt her by dangling "Barry" over her head and then...ooops... she'd accidently roll over.

We'll practice again tomorrow... hopefully she'll be doing it on her own by the end of the week. She's also pretty close to rolling from back-to-belly on her right side. Usually she just rolls to her left to get onto her belly. She must be getting stronger! I'm glad because she is so fussy lately. I think she's frusterated because her mind wants to do more than her body is capable of... bring on the mobility! I know, I know... once she's crawling I will miss theses days.... but right now... I am still looking forward to seeing her crawl around the house.

I Love You, Little One

A couple of weekends ago, on one of our date nights, Dustin and I went to Borders bookstore and bought a couple of books for Mackenna. My favorite one that we  bought her is called, I Love You, Little One, by innovativeKids. It is a really neat book that you can add your own photos to. Anyway... I really love the book and I wanted to share it on my blog....

To my precious, Mackenna.

I Love You, Little One

If love were something you could count and you were seeking the amount that adds up to my love for you, here is what you'd have to do....

Count every tiny grain of sand on every shore in every land.
Then add to that the quantity of stars in every galaxy.
Plus tally up each leaf you find on every tree and bush combined.
Count every scale on every fish from every ocean if you wish.

To that you'll add infinity-
you could add all your life, you see,
and still your counting won't be done.
I love you that much, little one.

Changing Focus

This challenge by John Piper in his book, What's the Difference?, has really, really convicted me and made me see that my focus is so completely wrong. I pray that God would give me the grace to have a heart that finds joy in living my life only for His purposes and His glory.

Challenge #13
"That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, billions of people hand in the balance of Heaven and Hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might and maximizing y our joy in ministry to people's needs."

Moving... Again!

We're buying a house! Some friends of ours were selling their house so we decided to take a look, figuring we'd just look to get some house hunting under our belts before we purchased a house next Spring/Summer. But we loved the house and loved the price and loved the LOW interest rates that the bank offered us... so we crunched the numbers, talked about it... a lot... and bought the house! We'll close on October 12th and hopefully move in shortly after that. Whew! Mackenna will have moved twice in the first 6 months of her life! Hopefully we'll be in the house for a few years... finally a somewhat permanent home... with a washer and dryer (that's what I am most excited about!).

So, first step in packing is.... going through the closets and really working on getting rid of non-essentials. I love being organized and clutter free and we just seem to accumulate so many things... that we don't need. So, I'm posting a few ads on Craigslist and also making "Garage Sale" boxes so that next Spring I can have my very first garage sale!

We are so thankful that God allowed all the pieces to fall into place and we're looking forward to using our new home to glorify Him! We don't deserve His blessings, yet He pours them out on us. What an amazing and gracious God we serve!