The Six Pack

Friends, family, and esteemed readers, I am a blogging failure.  I have high hopes of entertaining you, sharing pictures of our sweetest family moments, updating you with my boys' most important milestones, and simply giving you a glimpse into our crazy life.  I am a blogging failure.  But I WON'T be a Mommy failure, and over that past year especially, it seems the time I take to compose an update for this website is time I take away from the boys.  Why, in the past three sentences I had to tell Zachary three times to LEAVE ME ALONE FOR A MINUTE AND LET ME WRITE THIS!  And by golly, when we finally get them to sleep, well, I'm asleep too (or at least too mentally exhausted to compose.)  But lately I have been reflecting on the years with my babies that have all but vanished... and I wanted to share my thoughts. You see, we have a room in our house that is full of toys.  Toys locked up so they won't be strewn every which way all over the house (though i...

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year once again to all our family, friends, and blog readers!  We barely got a few Christmas cards in the mail this year but had to forego our annual letter to save time.  So if you are lucky (or more likely bored )   enough to stumble across our blog, here's a summary of our year in review. Our lives all changed for the better in early spring when on March 26 we welcomed our sixth Little Blessing--our sixth little BOY--Mark Timothy Hagerott.  Unlike his older brother Zachary, Mark decided he would spend very minimal time in the hospital, and was born just two hours after we arrived!  And with a very healthy heart (thank you, God) and all other systems in check, we were able to leave and bring him home the very next day!  His brothers quickly fell in love with their little bundle of joy and fought over whose turn it was to hold their baby... until the crying started.  "Please God, let him be healthy," we prayed time ...

Yesterday marked four amazing years with Zachary.  Four years ago, things were very different for our family.  Four years ago, we welcomed our dinky little boy with a special heart.  Four years ago, we questioned what the future held for him.  Four years ago, we shivered as we gazed out the hospital window at the falling snow.  Four years ago, we fervently prayed that our new baby would still be with us at Christmas. Fast forward to yesterday. Zachary is now FOUR AMAZING YEARS old! He's still a little small in stature, but "dinky" by no means!  His special little heart pumps with such strength and stamina that he runs his mama ragged.  Though we still question his future health, we don't worry because there are no signs that he is slowing down.  And so we CELEBRATED!  So much for snow; yesterday my spunky little pirate ran barefoot through our yard in search of treasure! Zachy had hoped to celebrate this year at the Ronald McDonald House. ...

Funny how time flies when you're having... six boys.  Our baby Mark is--can you believe it--already six months old (more like 6 1/2)!  No doubt, we are having fun, but I wouldn't be honest if I didn't tell you that this has been the most challenging six months ever  for our family.  Unlike Zachary's newborn period, we aren't dealing with the stress and uncertainty of our baby's health (thank you, God!)  We are simply dealing with the daily (and nightly) grind, and those little day-to-day responsibilities with six little boys can really add up!  So I suppose it's no wonder that my "hobbies"--one of which is updating our blog--have fallen by the wayside for now.  It just seems that every time I sit down to write about the boys is time they spend neglected, or a day dinner doesn't get made, or school uniforms sit unwashed! But I just had  to take a couple minutes, while Mark nurses to sleep and Zachy sits next to me asking me to stop blogging so h...