First and Last and Question and Answers

 Our First Sunday With Six Children

  One Of Our Last Sundays With Six Children

  One Of Our First Sundays With Seven Children

Questions that I have been asked:

Is having 7 kids about as hard as having 3 kids?

Having 7 kids is like having 7 kids.  Unfortunately, the more kids that you have you don't receive more hours in the day.  With each child I learn to be more productive and waste less time.  When we contemplated having our 7th child my prayers felt something like this, "But I don't have anything else that I can cut out!  Where can I find the time to care for one more person?"  It is amazing what Heavenly Father can do with our time when we turn it over to him.  Somehow he can make more out of our lives than we can.

Is it easier to have a new baby now that your kids are older?

No!  It is harder.   At one point we had 4 kids and the oldest was 4.  Yes it was busy, but the demands and busyness were all in our own home.  We didn't have outside commitments like you do with older kids.  With little kids we didn't have places we had to be, if I didn't sign them up for a session of community education gymnastics it really didn't matter.  At night everyone was in bed before 8:00 pm.  If I had a rough night with a new baby we didn't have to be anywhere early in the morning.

With older kids, when you have a new baby life doesn't slow down.  Whether I am up all night or not, when morning comes I need to feed and dress 7 kids, make sure lunches, snacks, and water bottles are ready, and  get all the kids to the car by 8:00 am.  During the day I am still caring for a baby and running to preschool and grocery shopping.  When afternoon hits I have loads of paperwork to do, hours of homework to help with, dinner and activities.  Soccer games, scouts, dance, gymnastics, activity days, and school activities are a few of the events we have.

With older kids the house isn't quiet and peaceful at 8:00 pm, later bedtimes means it is harder for me to get to bed even though my body is so tired!

As I look at pictures and compare last time we had a new baby to this time I would say that the biggest difference is that our house has a lot more opinions than it used to!  Everyone has their own opinions and ideas :)

There are some nice things about having older kids.  They are able to help out.  They love to hold her.  Today when I came downstairs breakfast was already made and the table was set!    It was a great surprise.    (It really pays off when you teach your kids to cook!)