Pray!

Last time I posted was 6 months ago. A whole lot has happened since then. Read on. Warning: it may get a little long. 6 months is a lot of time for a lot of things to happen. Kudos to you if you read all the way to the end.

First and most important, this little cutie joined our family 2 weeks earlier than planned, on January 30 at 6:22 am.  She weighed 7lbs, my biggest baby so far. She came with a full head of hair and is C's mini-me. She absolutely loves her sisters and has eyes for her daddy.  That picture is part of daddy's father's day gift where we wrote why we love daddy so much. Tomorrow she will be 5 months. She's rolling and talking, giggling, and gaining so much personality.  Seriously, she's my happiest baby. She makes me heart rejoice every single day. And seriously, those thighs! those knee wrinkles! I have another baby who has the most beautiful brown eyes that will get her anything she wants when she looks right at me.

Then in April, this happened (though in April it was just foundation; this is picture from end of May, early June):

Here's an updated picture from just a few days ago with awful lighting.  We only really visit our house in the evenings when people aren't working so as not to interrupt what they are doing. It's really a gray color, not tan like it looks in the picture.

We've been given a tentative final walk-through date of August 2nd, then we can move in around the 7th. Pray that it's sooner than that! Seriously, pray. Why? Because my bro-in-law had zero faith in our builders and didn't think we would be done in 4 months from April (which is what we were told) because his house that he was building was taking for-ev-er to build.  So, he made a deal with us that if we were done by August 6th (I swear it was August 9th, but he says the 6th) he'd take our whole family to Sizzler. C LOVES Sizzler!  He's now watching for Sizzler coupons and kicking himself for making that bet. But, he's a betting man and can't help it! Haha! So, we have been given Aug. 2 as our date, but let's just make it earlier so we're for sure done by his date and we can get that steak dinner, ok? OK! :-) My mouth is already watering.

In May this little girl graduated from Kindergarten:

That's her last day of school.  If you look reeaaaaallllll close, you can see her two front teeth are missing. To say that she loved Kindergarten would be an understatement. She cried on days when she couldn't go because of illness, or when Kindergarteners didn't have school for testing or other reasons. She is also so.freaking.excited to go to first grade, and I'm just not quite sure how I feel about that. BUT, like it or not, it will happen.  She'll be in first grade, in Spanish Dual Immersion with the same teacher she had in Kindergarten.  Mrs. Y. is moving on up to first grade to teach the Spanish part of Dual Immersion. We're so excited for C and she's stoked to learn Spanish. I'm beyond proud of what she accomplished this year, especially because she came to Kindergarten not wanting to read on her own (she loves being read to) and now she tries reading most things. I just love her!

Now, these next pictures I'm posting are for a little bittersweet remembrance. Sorry, the lighting was not great.

This happened on the last day of school, but I actually made the decision way back in March. So, this day loomed for 2 months, 2 very long months. After 10 years of teaching, I chose to not come back to teaching next year. *sigh* There. I said it. Seriously it was one of the HARDEST decisions I've ever made. When you work at a place like Timpanogos Elementary, what seems like a simple decision becomes an extensive internal battle accompanied by lots of prayer, thinking, debating, conversing with your spouse, wondering, deciding, changing your mind, changing your mind again and weighing the pros and cons, and so much more.  I couldn't ask for better people to work with. Not when I taught first grade and not when I taught second grade. Timpanogos peeps are my 2nd family.  We've gone through a lot together. We've cheered and cried, stressed and rejoiced, stayed more late nights than we wanted, and come very early in the morning more than we would like. That place will forever be my 2nd home. Even my principal said there will always be a place for me there. I cried when I told her my decision. It hasn't set in yet, because ya know, summer.  Every teacher has summer, but boy oh boy when August rolls around I might just be an emotional wreck.  My first born will be going to Timpanogos for 1st grade, and I won't be walking through those doors with her trying to shake of first day nerves. It will be different, but in the end, I feel like my babes need me at home more than we need me to work. So, my solution: substituting.  It's not a job to brag about, but I know I can help out my Timpanogos family by being a reliable, GOOD substitute. The nice thing is I can choose to just sub for them if I want to.

So there you have it. We're building a house and going down to one income. Doing things backwards. But it feels good, and right. I'm excited to be home with my girls and scared outta my freaking mind, especially when E reminds me of how good she is a throwing the world's best tantrums! But we're learning how to handle things better and I think maybe me staying home will help those tantrums go away for the most part. Please pray that happens!

Until the next update. Chao! (That's Spanish for good-bye! ;-) )

Merry Christmas to all! This has been one great year for our family. We are so blessed.  Our biggest news was finding out about baby girl #3 who is due to join our family in Feb. 2017. Claire and Emma are so excited to both be big sisters and are constantly talking to my belly.  We are excited to see how they will be when sister arrives.

Kory is in his 2nd year of  being a school counselor at Dixon Middle School in Provo. The school is just a few blocks away from our home yet he drives to work every day because he drops Emma off with Grandma in the mornings. Haha!  All of the counselors except Kory accepted positions at other schools over the summer, leaving Kory as the "head counselor" at his school after only being there for a year.  He loves his job and the faculty and students that he works with.  He spends most of his Sunday mornings fulfilling his calling at church as a ward clerk. He also loves to wrestle with Claire and Emma and enjoys the fact that, for now, they are such daddy's girls and they love being around him. In fact, Emma is so attached to him right now that he has learned to braid her hair and put it in a ponytail because she won't let mommy do her hair.

This year marks my 10th year of teaching, still in Spanish Dual Immersion teaching the English side and still at the same school I started at. It is my 3rd year in 2nd grade and I am enjoying it. Like Kory, my school is just one block farther than his school from our house. This year is a little different for me because I take Claire with me in the mornings so she can head off to her Kindergarten class when the bell rings (more on that in a minute).  I also stay busy with my church calling as the 1st counselor in the Primary presidency. We serve a lot of children from our ward and so we stay busy. Being pregnant on top of everything else makes life just plain crazy around here. I am excited to be able to welcome our baby girl when she decides to come.

Claire (5 1/2) FINALLY got to experience the day she has been waiting for since before her 4th birthday--Kindergarten.  She was so excited to start and asked me at least a dozen times on her first day if it was time to go to her classroom yet. She absolutely LOVES Kindergarten and is soaking up everything like a sponge. She also has finally started to get interested in reading and tries to sound out every word she sees. She was also thrilled to find out that her teacher, just like mommy, is having a baby girl too.  Claire has won the hearts of much of the faculty and aides at the school with her sweet smile and happy attitude and is now counting down the days until 1st grade so she can eat lunch at school. She also loves church and primary, especially seeing mommy in primary each Sunday. We love her sweet spirit, her caring and thoughtful attitude toward her sister, and her imagination. She also loves to have sleepovers at grandma's house, play with her cousins, build things with her Duplos and Legos, help daddy build Legos, read books, draw pictures for others, and climb all over and wrestle with daddy. She is so excited to be a big sister again and likes to help Emma "learn" about being a big sister.

I think Emma (3 1/2) was sent to our family to helps us learn early on about how to deal with a teenager.  We call her our threenager! With her sass and her fiery personality, we often forget that she is ONLY 3 and still trying to figure out life. She is our girl, 100%.  She often requests to wear dresses, especially the twirly ones and loves to dance and curtsy and pretend she's one of the many Disney princesses. She started preschool this year at the same place that Claire went and enjoys it. She loves to do everything Claire does and it's uncanny how she seems to be hungry or hurt the same time Claire is!  The two of them are the very best of friends and play well together but she also doesn't mind just playing on her own and being independent. One of her favorite things is to try to do the same homework that Claire does for Kindergarten. She loves Minnie Mouse, watching Frozen and Inside Out, singing "Let it Go", dancing, playing with cousins, having sleepovers at Grandma's house, feeding Grandma and Grandpa's kitty, having breakfast with Grandpa and wrestling with her daddy. She too loves church and will get to join Claire and mommy in Primary in January. She is so gentle and caring with her younger cousins. We know she will be an excellent big sister!

Well, that's our life in a nutshell.  It will only get crazier. We are thankful each day that we have each other and that we enjoy so many blessings. We hope this season finds you happy, healthy, and blessed.

With love,
The Sekaquaptewa's
Kory, Michele, Claire, Emma, and baby girl

Yeah, and BYU won their football game...among other things that happened today.

Nevermind that it's been nearly 2.5 years since I've written on my blog. I've had good intentions, honestly, I have.  I even formulated a mental list on several occasions of things I wanted to write about.  Some of those ideas may one day become blog posts, but for now I'll just write about today, because for some reason, it turned out to be a super fantastic day. Here's why:

1) Went to the grocery store and saved 44% on my grocery bill.  That's generally a norm for me, but it always gives me a rush. I love it. If you want to learn how to do it, ask me.  I'd love to help others save money on their grocery bills.

2) Got our cell phone bill lowered by $50 per month. Cha-ching!

So, if saving major amounts of money today wasn't enough, I had no idea I'd have an even better day.

3) BYU won their football game. Trivial--maybe, but still a win's a win and this Cougar fan is happy!

4) I got to attend a beautiful ceremony for my cousin and his wife and son.  They were sealed today in the Mt. Timpanogos LDS temple for time and all eternity.  They're an eternal family now.  It was perfect and beautiful and so wonderful to see family. Okay, okay, they're not actually family, but my dad and their dad pretty much grew up together and are the best of friends so we've always referred to each other's families as cousins (among the kids) and aunt and uncle for the adults. It felt good to be in the temple, to experience the peace and sweet spirit of the Lord. I hate to admit it, but it's been a while since I've been to the temple. Upon leaving, I felt renewed and having a desire to be better. My heart also desired for others to be able experience this joy, and ached that so many don't know or don't have a deep enough desire to participate in these sacred ordinances.

5) AAAANNNNNDDDDD, as if this day couldn't get any better, my girls got to shake Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's hand. YEAH! they got to meet him and talk to him for just a second.  He was eating dinner with some of his family at the same restaurant as us and he sat right behind Claire and my mom. Seriously, I've thought before if I could only meet one of the twelve apostles, it would be the hardest choice to make, ever, but Elder Holland would probably be at the top of the list. I didn't stop to meet him or shake his hand. He was with his family and I didn't want to take any more of his time. But, I wanted my girls to have the chance to at least shake his hand. Claire told him she loves the temple, and Emma told him she's going to be a big sisters. Precious moments. I thanked him as we were walking away and thought maybe that was my one and only chance to actually meet Elder Holland, but that didn't matter.  I want my girls to have that opportunity more than me and to understand how important all of those men are, especially in these days when following the prophet and his apostles is so critical.

Well, I'm tired and ready for bed.  I don't know if I portrayed how wonderful this day was in my hurried typing, but I felt like it was a day worthy of noting so, I noted.

Well there was supposed to be the cutest video ever of my CB leading the choir during General Conference, but my lack of "tech-i-ness" now makes this entry only mediocre compared to the super coolness that it would have been!

It's been forever since I've blogged.  My goal was to blog once a month with E's stats and updates, but I have been so busy that this blog has not taken priority.  Honestly, I don't know how hard-core bloggers do it, but kudos to them for keeping updates.

So onto my babies because that's probably why you came to visit my blog.

First, we'll start with the oldest child: CB

She is amazing! I love her with all my heart and soul. It's true. I really do love her that much and each day that love gets bigger and deeper.  She is so stinking smart.  She is kind. She is aware of EVERYTHING, she asks questions; she's curious; her comprehension of conversations and situations astounds me every time. But most of all, she is the BEST BIG SISTER a kid could ever want.  One of the first things out of her mouth every morning is: "I wanna go see my baby E." She can hardly wait to get her foot braces off, change out of her jammies, and go see her "sistuh." Because of that, I love her even more.

She's getting tall...too tall.  She doesn't look like a little girl some days.  Where has my baby gone? She loves her monkey, Koko that K originally gave to me wayyyyyy back when we were still dating.  She loves Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Peppa Pig (which drives me half crazy), and Elmo.  She can quote lines from all of them, sing the theme songs, and play her own versions of what she saw on those shows.

CB LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her aunties and uncles and grandparents on both sides.  How blessed she is that so many people love her and are patient with her.

This is an old picture from the 2013 football season, but dang it's a cute one! Believe it or not, she looks young in this picture. If you saw her now, you would be amazed how much more grown-up she looks. Yup, my baby is growing up too fast! Oh, and by the way, she's all registered for pre-school in the fall! Whaaaaaaaat?

Now onto E, my little E bug.

Halloween and today.  She is so busy it's hard to get a good picture of her now.  She crawls everywhere and gets into everything.  She loves her big sister something fierce.  She claps, giggles, jabbers, eats like a pro, and snuggles better than anyone else. K and I seriously can't get enough of her! I am still so amazed at how different she is from CB. She still doesn't sleep entirely through the night (though we are working through that) and acts like she's been starved for 5 days when it's meal time. She's not even one and has grown out of her carseat.  This girl is LONG! I think at her 9 months check up she was 29.5 inches--something like the 85th percentile. Her weight was just over 16lbs.--20 something percentile. Tall and skinny like her momma.

Some fun things I love about E bug:
--When you pick her up and hold her under her arms, she kicks her feet to fast it's like she's sprinting in a race.
--She has this weird noise she makes when she sees animals--specifically my parents' cat and my in-laws' cats. It's hilarious.  It's like she's trying to talk to them.  They completely ignore her!
--She can say "dada" in the cutest voice ever!
--We are considering buying stock in those little puffy snacks.  She goes through them like a maniac (see above note about being starved for 5 days!) and LOVES feeding herself.  If we are feeding her, she gets mad, but oh well.  She can't completely feed herself yet. Silly girl!
--Did I mention she loves her big sister? Yeah. She does.

That's about it. More later.

Half a year later...

...this is what she looks like! Isn't she too cute for words?????? I love this girl!

She makes me so happy and I miss her while I'm at work!  But I know she's in good hands with Grandma and Grandpa and Claire during the day. :-)

Wanna know more about this munchkin? OK!

Weight: 13lbs. 13.5oz. (11th percentile)
Height: 27 inches (89th percentile)

Again, tall and skinny!

Likes: EATING! Being held, watching Claire, playing with Claire, her family, toys she can hold, sweet potatoes and green beans, blowing raspberries, going for walks (around the house), being outside, wiggling, and being rolley polley!  Seriously, you put her on the floor and there's no containing her.  She LOVES to roll around!

Dislikes: Being done eating! Burping, anyone sitting while holding her, and seeing the empty bottle when she's done eating. Poor girl!

Mommy and Daddy dislike being spit-up on, ALL THE TIME! This girl is so spitty we change her clothes at least 3 times a day.  We could do more clothing changes, but then we wouldn't ever get anything else done. So sometimes if it's minimal, we just leave her be. She's never really cranky about it though which is why we decided with the doctor that we would hold of on any meds for all the spittiness and see if she grows out of it.

I think I mentioned before how much I love her cuddles.  She is so snuggly. I love it!  She likes to just bury her face in your shoulder when she's finished eating and it melts me.  Here's a peek at that:

I'm sad that I've stopped with nursing her now.  I wasn't producing enough and pumping at school was taking most of my prep time, thus leaving me feeling unprepared all the time!  I miss nursing her, but at the same time it's a relief and I'm less stressed that way.  There's nothing quite like the bond of baby and momma during nursing time.  I will miss that.  BUT, maybe Emma misses it too cuz she loves to hold my hand when she's drinking her bottle and I love holding her hand right back and staring into her brown eyes.

Claire is such a good big sister to this little one.  I think she is growing to love Emma more and more.  She always wants to "hold" her and has even tried picking her up a few times. AGH! Heart-attack for momma. They love each other, but they couldn't be more different.  It seriously amazes me how different the two of them are.  It's like being a first-time parent again.  It keeps us on our toes. ;-)

Okay, here are my girls, then I'm done for the night.

Oh, P.S.--did I mention Emma LOVES her grandpa Cummings? Yeah, she does. Just a little, though. :-)

4 and 5 months

My girl is just growing so fast I hardly have time to keep up the blog. Here are her stats from her 4 month check-up.

Weight: 11 lbs. 2oz. (barely 2 oz.) -- 2nd percentile
Height: 25.5 inches -- 87th percentile

I have a tall skinny baby! Hmmm, I wonder where she gets it?? The doctor said it would be better to start her on rice cereal sooner than later.  I think she's trying to fatten up Emma.  If that babe is anything like her momma, rice cereal isn't gonna do anything except fill her tummy and even that's just an assumption. :)

Other fun things about Emma:

* She is talking up a storm
* We finally got her to really giggle...by spitting at her!
* If we put her down on the floor on her back, she doesn't stay like that for very long.  In fact, if you blink, you might miss her crazy rolling and she'll just automatically be on her tummy.  After that, Claire will declare that baby Emma is having her tummy time!

* Because of her long, skinniness it's hard to know what fits her and what doesn't. Some things are too short, others to big around the waist.  I'm currently stretching her 3 month size clothes as far as they can go and hoping that her 3-6 month sizes don't fall off her. 

*The way she looks at you will just melt you, right where you are, on the spot!  Those light brown eyes and intense stare just gets to your core.  That makes it so hard to leave her (and Claire) in the mornings and go to work.

*She still just loves to watch Claire.  It usually calms her down if she can be held and watch Claire play or eat or whatever. Baby Emma loves her big sister.

*When she goes down for a nap, she has to be swaddled and rocked and she likes momma to sing "I Am A Child of God" and "Edelweiss".  Sometimes she hums along.

Claire is doing some great things too.  She is so darn smart, we sometimes don't know what to do with her.  Our favorite thing about Claire right now is how obsessed she is with the Temple (a sacred building for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to go and make covenants with the Lord).  They're building (reconstructing) the old Provo Tabernacle into a Temple and she LOVES it.  After she sees any temple she boldly declares "I goin dere (there) someday."  *MELT* How happy I am that she desires to go to the Temple.  It makes me love her even more which I thought couldn't be possible because I love her so much already!Part of the reason why she loves it so much is that she got to be outside the Mt. Timpanogos, Utah temple when Uncle Kevin married Crystal.  Claire remembers that experience and I am so grateful to Kevin and Crystal for making that choice so that Claire could have yet another positive influence in her life.

Something else we love about her is when she needs a tissue to blow her nose, she stands there and says "oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh!" Not sure where she got that, but it's cute. She is also obsessed with "Meena Mow" (Minnie Mouse) and has to watch "Meena Mow Cuh-how" (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) at least once a day.

That girl loves her family and talks about them every day. I just love both of my girls so much.

3 months ago...

...I gave birth to my 2nd baby girl.  She has blessed our lives in so many ways.  We thought we were so blessed with just Claire, but having the two most beautiful girls in the whole world has completely enriched our lives!

Here's a 3 month update on Emma.

We don't know her weight or height, but I would guess she's definitely over 10 pounds now, since she was 9 lbs. 11 oz. at her 2 month check up.  She's also just long; a long, skinny girl!

She's wearing NONE of her newborn clothes anymore.  SAD!

She is so alert, now and everyone comments on her big, bright eyes. She is such a beautiful baby.

Emma chatters like crazy.  If she's fed and changed, she'll smile and coo until your face hurts from smiling and cooing back at her.  What a social bug!

Speaking of social bug, she loves to be around us.  If we have her in her bouncy chair in the Living Room during dinner, she'll get cranky until we move her into the eating area. Sometimes she gets cranky if no one is talking to her at the moment.

She still loves to watch Claire play and is a trooper for handling all of Claire's kisses, lovies, and Claire petting her while chanting "sof, sof, sof" (soft, soft, soft).  She also has her daddy wrapped very tightly around ALL of her cute little fingers. :)

I can't believe she keeps growing so quick.  I love her to bits. Check out the pictures!

Auntie Kali was babysitting.  Such a tough life being tended to by someone who loves you tons! :-)

Emma, are you praying or sleeping?

Keep watching and she'll eventually get that entire fist in her mouth!

She loves to hold her clothes and get kissed by daddy!