the sequeira family

Aubrey and Nishika go to our church and Patrick and Aubrey also go to school together. Aubrey was awarded with the preaching award at SBTS last Thursday. To celebrate this occasion, they asked if I'd take some family pictures. What a beautiful family! So happy for them and was extremely encouraged by his sermon.

mcmains: family

uncle john's hat

A month or so ago, uncle John came for a visit. He brought his lumber jack hat. Kes looked pretty stinkin cute in it too!

I love how tiny she looks.

lydia: update

Once Lydia hit the 2 year mark I felt it was a little much to keep up with the monthly posts. I thought it would be easier to do updates every couple of months. This one is a little over do.

Here's what our funny 28 month old is doing. (these pictures will start with oldest (so when she was younger) to newest...confusing? good!)

Lyds is a sweet girl! Her hair is getting long and her baby cheeks are slimming up. Her laugh is contagious and her smile melts me! I LOVE this girl!

She is really into asking if people are girls or boys. She will ask "momma a girl? yeah momma's a girl. daddy a girl? NO! daddy a boy. grandma a girl? yeah grandmas a girl....etc." One night she woke up around midnight, I went in to get her back to sleep and she asked me in a super cute sleepy voice "Lydia a girl?"

Favorite songs: wheels on the bus!, I'm in the Lord's army, If you're happy and you know it, and all the old classics.

Favorite books: Dogger, good night moon, what is the gospel (sojourn kids book), puff the magic dragon, where's waldo.

Lydia is such a talker. Usually as soon as she's up she's gibbering on about something. Sometimes its coherent and other times its not!

We do a preschool group once a week with a few other kids from our church. Lydia LOVES preschool. During this time we have about 30 minutes of structured time with the kids where they work on sitting on a mat and listening to a lesson while also doing activities to reinforce what we are learning (colors, shapes, numbers, etc). All week she will talk about it and ask about the other kids. I love that she enjoys learning and her friends!

We are really trying to work on doing things with a happy heart. Not whining or being rude. If Lydia is rude I often will tell her "love is not rude, love is kind"...she is so cute when she repeats it back to me. Our pastor just preached through 1 Corinthians 13 and I was super convicted by my lack of love. Praying that the Lord would produce a heart full of love in me as well as Lydia.

Lydia will often say that she is scared of something. This will happen at really random times. She will be playing fine and then all of the sudden run over to us and say "I scared, I scared." We have been trying to let her know that there is nothing to be afraid of. She has learned the Psalm that says "when I am afraid, I will trust in GOD!"

It is hard to see Lydia's sin and see the areas that she most struggles in because it's often the areas that we most struggle in. I'm thankful though that the Lord gives us these little mirrors to show us just how much we need HIM. I am weak on my own but it is in my weakness that HIS strength is made perfect! I pray that I am not quick to hide my weaknesses from Lydia and Kesid but rather quick to repent and point them to the one who is STRONG!

Patrick and I have mentioned a few times recently how have tried to freeze little moments in our mind...focusing on a moment trying to forever imprint it in our memory. One of these moments made me cry. I was laying with Lydia one night while we were putting her to bed. I had my nose up to her pinky (she was sucking her thumb) and she took her other hand and put it right on my cheek. It was such a sweet tender little touch and I just started tearing up. I am trying hard to treasure these days because they are going so fast! She'll be big before I know it.

Another favorite of mine is at bed time we will tell each other secrets. I whisper that I love her all the way to the moon and all the way back. She will whisper it back and it's just so sweet. She always makes sure that she whispers it in both ears :).

I am sure there is a lot I'm forgetting that I'd want to remember about Lydia right now but it's getting late and I'm tired. I'll add more later if I remember :)

We love you Lyder Bugs!!

kesid: 9 and 10 months

I'm slacker mom lately. Well, maybe just slacker blog mom. I've been trying to spend more time engaged with the girls and less on phone or computer...therefore I'm behind on blogging.

Kesid is 10 months! These past two months have been full of changes for her. She has become so expressive in the last few days even. We are so in love with this baby girl! Praise the Lord for "His loving kindness!"

Some updates:

Kesid is all over the place. She crawls and walks along furniture. She loves to stand up holding onto the kitchen chairs and push them all along the hardwood. She is also obsessed with the STAIRS!  (these pictures are from closer to 9 months when she first started going up the stairs)

She is nursing 4-5 times and eating 3 meals of solids and 1 snack a day. It's fun to give her new things and watch her enjoy (our kids like food!!) new tastes.

We had her tested for allergies this last month because she was having a rough time with eczema and rashes on her bottom. This test wasn't fun... but it also wasn't as bad as I had expected. She fussed a little when they were scratching her back and applying the allergen? but once they were done she was super cuddly while we waited for the results. They told us that she's not technically allergic to anything but she did show some sensitivity to a few things. Eggs, carrots, some fruits, avocado, and peanuts. The only thing I'm really concerned about is the peanuts. Our family has a history with peanut allergies so we will wait until 3 years to introduce her to them. They advised us to kind of experiment with some of those foods and see if it had any affect on her eczema. I took out carrots and her rashes cleared right up.

 

 After they cleaned her back off and put on an anti-itch cream all the redness went away.

I'm also thinking about dropping the dream feed for Kesid. It's hard for me because I love how sweet she is after that feeding. (I don't do a typical "dream" feed... I let our kids wake up afterward but stay sleepy. They both have gone down just fine afterward.) We bring her into our bed for that feeding and she is just so cuddly and smiley that it's hard to give it up. The reason I'm wanting to drop it is so that I can put Lyds and Kes in the same room at night. It's hard to put them in and then have to go in to feed Kes and not wake up Lyds. I've done one night of not feeding her and she went until 6 am.

A favorite thing of mine that Kesid does is wrestle. If I lay down on the floor she will crawl over and start attacking me. She just giggles and gives me kisses. Lydia often chimes in too...it's fun to see them play together although Lyds some times gets a little too rough. I'm trying to find the balance of letting Lydia be rough without hurting and Kesid not being a wimp.

Kesid says dada, mama, baba, and hi. She waves hi and bye and blows kisses. It's fun to see her learn these new things and start to be able to communicate. We are still waiting for the baby signs of more, eat, please. She is awfully impatient when it's time to eat, she can barely sit through the prayer.

At her nine month appointment she weighed and was inches long (we just went last week to the dr and she was right at 20 lbs!!!)

We thank the Lord for these precious 10 months and praise Him for a healthy happy baby girl! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Happy 10 months baby girl!

simmons: married

It was really special to get to shoot this wedding. Gernayle and I have been friends since 8th grade. I'm so happy for her and John. Congrats guys!