Welcome to the World McKinley Jane!!

One month ago, we welcomed our beautiful little girl McKinley Jane into our lives.  I was lucky enough to be induced at 38 weeks due to a medical condition called the anti e antigen.  Anyhow, we were supposed to go into the hospital at 7am on September 2nd.  But due to a busy delivery floor, we were bumped until further notice. Finally at around 3pm, we were called to head to the hospital.  They started the patocin as soon as we got there and we were in the beginning phases of getting the labor going.
At around 5 pm, my mid wife Claudia broke my water. At that point I was dilated to a 2. Instantly as soon as my water broke, I started to dilate. I quickly started contractions and received an epidural at 6:10ish.  An hour and five minutes later our beautiful baby was welcomed into the world weighing 6lbs6oz and measuring 18". 

 
Because of this anti e antigen I had, they decided to test her billirubin levels at 6 hours after birth. Normally, they wait 12 hours.  After the test, they found that her levels were really high and they immediately put her in the level 2 nursery and under the billi lights. And there she remained for four days. It was aweful. But at the same time, we were thankful that they tested her so soon. Otherwise we would have been looking at transfer to Utah Valley Hospital and a blood transfusion. What the anti e antibody did was attack her red blood cells.  Which was why they induced me due to how dangerous this could have turned out.  After a very rough four days we finally brought her home where we were able to hold her and love and kiss her.

She is so loved by her big brother and sister. They take such great care of her and adore her.

We are so blessed to have her in our lives and love her more and more everyday! She is the perfect addition to our family.

In other Squires family news, our baby Andrew started kindergarten this year! He has two wonderful teachers, Mrs, Payne & Mrs. Caldwell,  and gets to go to all day kindergarten. He is already learning so much and it's fun to see him grow by leaps and bounds.

Yes I cried when he got on the bus. But loved the fact that I was able to be there to watch this monumental day take place.

Now for a little fun, I wanted to see what my kids all looked like at birth so here we go...

This is Andrew

This is Brooklyn

And McKinley

Baby Update

I have this strange antigen that has been present in my system since Andrew was born.  It's called the Anti E Antigen.  Anyhow, last week at my Dr. Appointment, they did a blood draw to check my levels.  They have always come back to low to read until last Friday. The reading was a high enough number with high enough concern to send me to the Maternal Fetal Specialist at Utah Valley Regional in Provo.  They did an ultra sound and they said things seemed to look fine but, because I am 36 weeks along and their chart stops at 35, the baby may be at risk for developing either anemia, jaundice, or both.  What happens with the antigen is that it attacks the babies red blood cells causing the anemia.  Which means at birth, if anemic, will have to undergo a blood transfusion.  Hopefully this doesn't happen and everything goes as planned.  But because of the risk, I have to have a stress test tomorrow and another next week and then they want to induce me at 38 weeks which is just following Labor Day. So our little girl will be here sooner rather than later and I will once again be able to touch my toes!

On a side note, I taught my dance classes for the first time in months.  Lets just say I am pretty useless and am grateful for my wonderful teaching assistants who can demonstrate all I cannot.  I am also extremely lucky to be getting a fabulous sub while I am gone and am super excited about her coming to to fill in for me!

For some sad news but really exciting news, Andrew starts kindergarten next week! I can't believe my baby is that old!!  He is lucky enough to attend full day kindergarten under a new pilot program at the school.  For the first half of the day, he will be in a small class with 16 kids and get a lot of one on one attention. Then stay for lunch. And finally, go to his regular class in the afternoon.  I am excited about this new adventure for him.
Back to school night will be on Monday and we are super excited to meet his teachers!!

Last but not least, as we prepare for this new special spirit to enter our home, the time has been a little chaotic between school starting, choreographing all summer long, and trying to get Brooklyn's room up and ready to go.  Her room is finally painted. Now I just need to get the bed in and the decorations up! I am super excited for her to make this transition.

Well until next time!!

My Moment to Vent... I don't care if anyone reads this. It's more just for me so I feel better.

This pregnancy has definitely taken a toll on me! Not only physically but mentally.  I think that I am really glad I was still teaching school during both of my first two pregnancies.  It not only kept me going but kept me moving as well.  Now every time I stand up I have to pee or feel someone poking or prodding at my innards. It's been quite a challenge and a helpful reminder to not become morbidly obese. I can handle a little over weight but this not bending over stuff really stinks. Not to mention I am out of breath due to lack of lung space.  Only 6-8 more weeks to go. The reason I say 6-8 weeks, is because Andrew was two weeks early. And, Brooklyn was 10 days early. I really hope this trend continues. It would really make me feel a lot better. The person I feel the worst for is Barry,  He sure does take a lot of crap from me. Did I mention I have been really ornery during this whole process? I didn't think so.  Everything aches and hurts and it's Barry who becomes the punching bag. Hopefully one day he will forgive me and see past this horrible moment in my life.

Next area I need to vent on is the lack of time I have to get everything ready.  My plan was to keep my kids in daycare part time so that I could use those few precious hours to organzie clean and prepare. Instead  I am spending all of my free time working on choreography for this musical I am working on.  I really enjoy the musical and am having a lot of fun. But, it sure has taken up tons of my free time.  I only have three more songs to go. Then, we move onto drill team choreography... It never ends :)

Speaking of drill team, I have really enjoyed our three week break. It's been a good and a disappointing year.  The only thing that's really been disappointing has been the lack of money we didn't make on our firework stand.  It's been a bad year for fires so I totally understand. But going from making $4,000 to $1,600 makes for a sad season. This too shall pass right? It's only money.  
The good does come in on the wonderful dancers I get to surround myself with and the amazing assistant coaches I have that help make my job easier.  We are a very young and talented team who has all the potential in the world right now!  I have an amazing idea for next year that will hopefully make my life easier. Just in case I forget what it is, I will write it down here...
Each officer and her parent will be in charge of running a fundrasier.  It's brilliant right? I can't take credit for the idea though. That came from the Copper Hills Coaches who themselves are brilliant!  It will give the girls and their parents more ownership in the team and how the finances are handled. If we don't make the money, then we can't buy the new costumes and more out of pocket expense are put upon them. Love it!! Besides, if this is something they don't want to do, then I'll just quite coaching. My family is too important to me to have my valuable time taken up by something I only get paid $1300 a year for.  (That's right $1300 a YEAR.  I'm pretty sure the equals out to be less than a penny an hour.) And now that I will have three kids, it will make things that much more challenging and difficult.  Family First...

The last thing I really need to do is fix up Brooklyn's room before the baby comes.  I want her to get used to having her own room. Sadly, she still sleeps in the crib right now. We are just starting on cleaning out our office to make it Brooklyn's room.  I am excited to get going on it.  When it's done I will post pictures.  I hope it turns out cute.

Now something positive to end on...
I am looking so forward to taking maternity leave. I am excited to walk Andrew to the bus stop in the afternoons for kindergarten. My baby is getting so big!! I'm excited to see what it feels like to be a stay at home mom and actually be home for my kids.  One day, I hope that this will happen for me.  Right now it's looking like Barry will get to be the lucky one to be a stay at home Dad. Curse me for making the bigger of our two incomes for now :(  One day right?...

The End

Summer Fun!!!

It's been forever since I have posted so stand back here it all comes!!!!

To start off we have been doing a ton of stuff this summer with our fun cousin Ruby and Aunt Brittany and our good friends Andria and her daughter Wrigley. Andrew is a lady's man running around with all of these girls. Non the less we have a great time.

We started off the summer by heading to Thanksgiving Point Farm Country. We love that place because it's cheap and fun and a good 1/2 day activity to get some naps in. Our favorite parts were the pony rides and the wagon ride. We'll hit it again come August when they do their $2 Tuesdays!!

We also celebrated Birthday's this month for both Brooklyn and Andrew! My babies aren't babies anymore. Grandma Wachter made Andrew the COOLEST blanket. He is in love with Captain America and the Avengars. So she crocheted a Captain America Shield blanket. Sorry the picture isn't great and doesn't do it justice. Andrew turned 5 and will start kindergarten this fall. And, Brooklyn turned 3 and will soon be starting pre-school. It's been so fun watching them grow up and become "big" kids. And Grandma always throws a great party for every family member.

Then over Father's Day Weekend, we headed to Moab for the annual softball trip. This is the first time I have been in 4 years. It was a ton of fun even if it was a sweltering sea of heat. Us cool working mom's took crafts for the kids to do while we sat at the ball park all day. I would have to say we were a huge hit! We made foam pictures and visors. Painted treasure boxes. Made binoculars out of toilet paper rolls. And, face painted. I don't know who was having more fun the kids or the mom's!

More Birthday Celebrations continued on the Friday in between the kids birthday's. I got them each a bicycle thinking it would be a huge hit and they would be jumping up and down with excitement. Boy was I wrong. They both looked at them like "hmm, what do we do with these." So disappointing for me but oh well. We are still working on our pedaling skills and building the strength in our legs to actually go somewhere.
To finish out the month of June, we celebrated at Strawberry Day's. The Pleasant Grove City celebration. The kids go to Aunt Cathy's to watch the parade, this year with Grandma and cousin Jake while I ride in the parade with the Vikettes. Afterwards, they walked over to the carnival to have the staple meal of Strawberries and Cream and a few carni rides. They had a great time.

All in all, June has been a great month! Here's to July!!

Happy Summer Time!!

It's been FOREVER since I wrote anything down. I apologize for my slacking. But looking through most of your blogs out there, you aren't doing much better.

Anyhow school has now been out for exactly one week. How have I spent my time, cleaning my bathrooms, doing laundry, and being sick. Oh well there had to be something happen to slow my cleaning processes down. But seriously, with a baby on the way, the goals are to de-clutter the house and trash as much as possible. I will be able to get rid of my stuff fairly easily. It's Barry who I can't get to give stuff away. Although, this weekend he did a fantastic job at cleaning out his closet and got about 2 1/2 bags of clothes out of there. Anyway back to the goals, after the de-clutter, I am planning on putting Brooklyn in our current office and moving our office to the dark and dreary confines of the basement. Lucky for us we are having a girl so all I have to do with Brooks current room is move it.

Last, a few weeks ago at day care the kids did some pictures. Here is a look at my darling babies who aren't such babies anymore.

My Spring Break Adventure, or Lack therof!

Monday Day 1- This was the beginning of the Potty Training. I'll spare you the info on the accidents and details on the business.
Tuesday Day 2- Again, more potty training! This girl was getting it good! She has been sooo much easier than Andrew ever was!!! I had heard that girls were easier than boys but, you never know until you try.
Wednesday Day 3- More potty training!
Thursday Day 4- More Potty training!!! But, I did get to sneak out and head out to the mall to buy some dance company costumes.  Retail therapy whether its  for me or someone else is always a nice break.
Friday Day 5- More Potty training and Brooklyn made it through her sticker chart and got her fun new Rapunzel toys!! (Just a side note, it took Andrew weeks to get through his sticker chart and he was older.)
Saturday Day 6- For me this was my most adventurous and fun day.  It started out by a short trip to the Temple to do some Inititory work for some of my ancestors.  My sister Wendy has been fabulous and doing the research and hard work to find out who our relatives are on the Wachter side of the family.  Her hard work paid off and made it possible for 9 of us to do approximately 40 names!!! Afterwards, we had a little lunch at the great Mi Ranchito! YUMMY!  For the record, my wonderful Niece Sierra watched the kids and no potty accidents!!  Later that evening, Barry and I headed out on a date with my bro and sis in law, Craig and Brittney and some friends Ben and Andria.  We went to dinner and then to the Crandall Printing Museum in Provo. We learned about the way printing started and how the Book of Mormon came to be put into to publication. It was actually very interesting. And, just to repeat, baby sitter number two Bailee another of my wonderful nieces, had no potty accidents with my Brooky!!

That is basically spring break in a nutshell. Not to exciting but, I think as a mom I learned a lot more about Brooklyn and Andrew as my children and the different ways they work and click when together and apart.  It was a great spring break and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Disneyland!!!

This past weekend, Barry and myself were able to go to the USA National Dance/Drill Competition with my drill team.  We also as you can see got to take in a bit of Disneyland! We had a great time and it was nice to take a little break if ya know what I mean! The kids in the mean time were able to hang out at Grandma and Grandpa Wachter's house for the weekend.

To update you on the teams outcome, we placed 1st in Lyrical, 3rd in Military, and 4th in Character.  This competition was very interesting. What Utah standards are compared to California standards is completely  different.  For the first time in my life I didn't quite understand how the judging occurred. None the less, we still had some fun and had the opportunity to watch many talented teams who were full of amazing dancers.  We had a great time.

Then of course we took out plenty of time for play. I went on almost every ride except Tower of Terror and the California Screamin.  Truth be told I think my favorite ride is Toy Story Midway Mania.  I hate video games but love that one for some reason!!

Any way, all is great in the Squires household. Baby three is still growing and we should find out what it is with in the next month!! I'll keep you posted.

Until later...

Exciting News To Share!!!

Alrighty folks, it's been an awful long time since I have posted anything on here. Drill ended and so did I. I took a little time away, sleeping, relaxing, puking, and being tired all of the time. Strange combination right? Well that's because baby 3 is on it's way. September 16 is his or her projected due date! Now hoping that this kid follows in Brooklyn and Andrews footsteps we are looking more at September 2-6. Fingers crossed on that one. This will be the third and final addition to our family unless we for some reason decide to buy a fish. Once the cat is dead, no more, and I am definitely not ever getting a dog! So there is our fun news for the month. Maybe I'll be a little better and keep you updated a bit more often!!

Too Busy to Blog

Since Christmas, life has been very busy. Between family, school, and drill team wow, crazy!! We started going to a new day care at the beginning of the year due to some unforeseen circumstances and are now back where Andrew was when he was a baby. The kids seem to like it a lot and have adjusted well to the new place. They love going outside everyday and playing with all of the toys. We love the new day care and the kids learn so much everyday!

Drill finished all of their invitationals and our region competition. I am happy to report we finally, after two years of disappointment, qualified for the state tournament. In the pictures below you will see the excitement from the team, coaches, parents and fans. Thanks to the Howe's for tagging me in the pictures!! We finished 3rd overall. 4th in Military, 2nd in dance, and 3rd in character. We are sooooo excited to compete this Friday at State and finally get the recognition we have deserved. Best of luck to my girls!


Lastly, I have a student teacher this semester at school. It's been interesting to say the least. It's a guy student teacher in dance. Which there is nothing wrong with, it's just different. And, our personalities are so very different. We are both about the same age but at very different places in our lives. It's weird to think of someone my age just starting there career. I am sure he will be fine but hard for me to wrap my head around. I was just the type that wanted to get school done and over with so I could make my millions. Finished school, and am still waiting for the millions. I guess I better start entering the lottery! HAHA! Now hopefully my classes can survive. You know students teachers are doomed before they start. I know I was, I just had to find a way to make a connection with the kids. But, again I was 22 when I started so it was easy for me to build the connection.

Random Thoughts I have been having. I have been thinking about age a lot lately. I am getting up there ya know. It's weird because lately I forget that I didn't just graduate college, that happened 13 years ago. I didn't just get married. That was 9 years ago. Time keeps going we all keep getting older but sometimes, I still think I am 25. Here is to wishful thinking and always thinking your young even though your body feels a bit older!