Related?

We had Anna's 2 year pictures taken and when we got them back my Mom mentioned that one reminded her of a picture that was taken of me when I was 2. Do you think we look like we are related? :)

It's a BOY!

We went to the Dr. today and did our 20 week ultrasound. All checked out and the baby looks healthy and its a boy! Tomorrow Vance & Heidi (my brother and sister-in-law) find out what they are having - they are due a couple days after us. Then we found out today my brother Kyle and his wife Brittany are expecting and are due the end of May. So just like with Anna there will be three cousins really close together. So fun!

Happy Halloween!

On Wednesday we had a little Halloween surprise...SNOW! Here is what our pumpkins looked like that morning, although being Utah the snow was gone by afternoon. It started getting me into the Christmas spirit though.This was Anna's first year of actually participating in Halloween and it took her awhile to warm up to it. We took her to Macey's grocery store on Saturday morning to do trick or treating there. She cried when she saw a lady dressed as a witch who tried to talk to her. Dr. Spock (another worker) kind of made her nervous too. She did like the cookie (bakery) and the candy the other depts. gave her. That night we went to the ward trunk or treat. It rained all afternoon but stopped long enough to do the event (about 45 minutes). It was a battle to get Anna's costume on but once it was on she was fine. She has issues with putting things on that goes over her head. As we started the trunk or treat she wouldn't let go of my hand and if she had her choice of candy she just put my hand over the bowl. If the adults had really good costumes I had to drag her up to them to get her candy. As she watched the other kids running around she decided it must not be too bad. So by the end she still held on - just not as tight and would pick her own candy up. She got quite a bit of candy though and it should last until Easter. ;) Unfortunately, she came down with the flu that night and threw up that night and Sunday afternoon. Luckily it was only a 24 hour bug and she was feeling better just in time for me and Matthew to catch it. I am feeling fine now although Matthew is still feeling a little blah.

On Friday I took her to a pumpkin display with Heidi, and Jerika. Anna and Jerika had more fun with each other than looking at the pumpkins. As long as they were happy.

All in all it was a great Halloween!

Happy Birthday Anna!

We celebrated Anna's birthday a day late with a family get together. We invited our family members that live here in Utah. We just had cake and ice cream but had a lot of fun visiting. At Anna's 1st Birthday when everyone started to sing to her she started crying. This year she did much better with the singing but when we tried to get her to blow out her candles it was a no go an she hid behing Mom. I guess that is the down side to being the oldest and not watching siblings do it all year.

Singing to Anna

Trying to get Anna to blow out her candles

Anna is into this huge Snow White kick. She loves to watch the movie everyday and would watch it all day if I didn't limit her to one showing. She also has little Snow White figures including the dwarfs that she loves to play with - hence the cake. For those that are really good at making beautiful cakes, skip over the picture. I wanted to fill in the lines but ran out of time. Oh well, the thought was there.

Matthew and I had her open her presents from us and my parents in the morning before the party. I don't think she quite grasped the idea of the phrase "open presents" but after she got the first one done she seemed to enjoy it. Christmas won't be a problem.

September

The beginning of the month we took Anna to her first baseball game. We got a chance to get some tickets to the Orem Owls game. Once she saw a ball in the air she got more excited. I think she had a good time. We only stayed for 3 or 4 innings and then took her home.

The middle of the month I took Anna home for a last minute visit with my family. Matthew had to stay home because of responsibilities he had here that weekend. While I was home I took Anna to a parade in Shelley for Spud Days. It was her first experience with candy collecting. After watching her cousins collect candy and having me take her hand to show her, she got the idea, I think. She is enjoying her spoils now although I have to monitor her daily intake.

We spent eight days in Portland the end of Sept. visiting Matthew's family. We stayed with his parents and two of his sisters came as well. I was able to meet his sister Mary for the first time which was fun.

We spent a couple of days in Lincoln City, OR. We took Anna to the beach and she saw a beach and the ocean for the first time. She didn't mind walking on the sand in shoes but once we took her shoes off she had no interest in walking on the beach. She didn't mind having Matthew take her out into the water though.We swung by the outlet mall before we left and Anna found a bus to drive. We had one unhappy girl when we had to pull her out kicking and sreaming.

When we got back to Portland we spent time with family both Matthew's and mine. One day we

went to feed ducks with Matthew's sisters which was fun. I also got a chance to spend some time shopping with my cousin and we went to dinner with the husbands that night.

Anna's Announcement

Anna has an announcement.

Confirmation of Anna's announcement.

Although Seely #2 is due on April 1st, this is no April Fools joke.

Happy 4th!

It has taken me a while to get to this but, better late than never. We spent the 4th of July up in Idaho Falls with my family. Idaho Falls celebrated on the 3rd and we froze at the parade. We had seats in the shade which is usually a great thing but when there is a cold wind, it isn't so great. I had luckily brought Anna's jacket and I borrowed a quilt from my parents so all was well. After the parade we went to a bbq at my Aunt's house and had fun with my cousins. "The girls" as we call them had fun running around the yard and playing together. The mom's of course had to pull out their camera's for the typical group picture. Anna also tested out her driving skills. That night we went to the 2nd best firework show in the nation. Don't believe me? Check out this website. http://blog.ratestogo.com/best-4th-july-fireworks/ We didn't make it home until close to midnight but I had taken Anna's pj's and so we just took her from the car to the bed. Sunday night, the 4th, we went to a patriotic celebration which was really good. We also got to meet Quinn and Emily's twin boys, Tanner and Tyden, that weekend. Cute little guys. Then last week we met Shane's little girl Mia. That takes the grandkid count up to 9. We will see what next year brings.

Anna loves to help water. In this picture she is helping Matthew water his sister Karen's flowers. She is just as helpful at home.

Parade of Homes

This year I took Anna and we went to the Parade of Homes with my Mom, two sister-in-laws, 1 nephew and 1 niece. It was a lot of fun and we saw some cool homes that covered all spectrums! The kids held up incredibly well and luckily we went on weekdays so there weren't as many people and they could run more. That was some of the fun - keeping the kids where they were supposed to be.


One time Anna and her cousin Peter decided to look in the neighbors mail slot - luckily the townhome hadn't sold.







And sometimes they just got tired of walking.

After all the time spent in the car over two days - the girls still wanted to play in it when we got home.

It is fun for Anna to have her cousin Jerika so close now.

Silly Mom

So the past two weekends we have spent time doing something I never thought I would do...enter my kids in a baby contest. After doing it I don't think I will do it again. I guess you have to try everything once.
Two weeks ago I entered Anna in the Orem Summerfest baby contest. We went, had a picture taken, and then they did an "interview" with Anna. Since Anna isn't the most outgoing kid, she didn't do so well with that.

Right before the Orem contest I had entered Anna in the Provo Freedom Festival. After Orem I wasn't to excited about Provo but we had paid the money.... So last Saturday we spent some time at UVU at that contest. There they don't take pictures - they just interview. Oh dear. After shaking the judge's hand Anna proceeded to try to get away by crawling over my shoulder. It was fun times. I did take a picture before we left so I have something to put in her book.

So, this is what I have learned from the experience. If you don't have an outgoing, social child - you aren't going to win. Even if you have people tell you all the time (even in the stores) that your child is cute - if they are not outgoing they won't win. On the bright side we did get a photo (Orem) and a participation ribbon and cookies (Provo). Experience is a great teacher and even if she isn't outgoing, we still think she is beautiful!

Latest Stories

We spent the last week of May in Portland with Matthew's parents. We helped them do somethings around the house and had a good visit. We drove both ways which made for intersting times but we (Anna specifically) survived it. As per usual it rained all but one day that we were there. We took some time during a break in rain to go down to feed some ducks and geese. Anna thought it was fun until one of the geese came towards her (Anna had the bread in her hand) hissing. She did okay as long as they just ate from a distance.

Today Anna and I went out to garage sales. We got some really good deals and Anna is a great shopper. The best purchase of the day though was a stroller for her doll - a whopping $0.25! She had a great time pushing the stroller up and down the driveway and sidewalk. She can't drive straight though and kept running into the lawn and cars in the driveway. As she hit them she would giggle and giggle. Funny girl. The good news is she can't get her drivers license for another 15 years and hopefully by then she will have learned how to go straight.

She has really started talking. She will talk into her play phone and walk around the house and talk. She will yammer to me acting like I can understand everything she is saying. She is a joy to have around and keeps life interesting.

Happy Easter!

Anna celebrated Easter a day early. Orem City had an Easter egg hunt. As you can tell by her attire it was cold. It was a successful 1st Easter egg hunt though.

That afternoon we went to my brother Shane's house and Anna tormented her older cousin Peter. It was fun watching them together.

Obedient?

Anna loves to color! She also thought it was fun to do some taste testing on the crayons. I have told her a few times that she can't put the crayons in her mouth. I thought we had the problem taken care of but Anna just found a way around it. I just had to laugh and get out the camera.

Hope of Summer

Even though we have been getting a little snow this week the results of my fall bulb planting gives me hope that summer will eventually get here.

Success!!

Although I have always been somewhat crafty and into scrapbooking I never have done much sewing. It was with great shame I realized that at 15 months old Anna had no draperies (just blinds) on her window (what a horrible interior designer - don't tell TL). I looked around and didn't find anything I loved but eventually found a crib sheet at DI that was just what I was looking for. So I brought it home, cut it up and pinned the hems then ran into a problem. I don't have a sewing machine. What kind of Mormon girl am I?! Anyway, last week I found a gently used one on KSL Classifieds. So I spent Saturday getting them all sewn and hung. In doing that it got me excited and now I am thinking of all sorts of sewing projects I could do. I just have to find the time to do them.

Anna loves to read! She likes to start her day off with a couple (or four) books and continues through the day. Of course this involves Mom or Dad reading them to her. Monday morning I walked in on her "reading" the Ensign.

She has found her pockets. Today she walked around with her hands in her pockets.

She always brings a smile to my face.

Merry Christmas!

We had a crazy week and a half traveling to celebrate the holidays. We flew to Portland on Christmas Eve morning and spent six days with Matthew's family.

While in Portland Anna decided going through trash sounded like fun. I am still not sure how she got the TP rolls on both arms. Anna enjoys playing with shoes and found Grandpa Seely's shoes to play with. We flew back to Salt Lake on the 30th and went straight to Idaho Falls to spend four days with the Shurtliffs. That was wild and crazy times with all of the family there. Who needs presents when you have a bag of bows? The three girls all got their own firetruck and had fun playing with just one. Anna plays with hers all the time at home. She has almost worn the first set of batteries out already.

Anna with Jerika (Vance's baby)

Anna with Kindee (Reese's baby)

At Thanksgiving Shane and Julie announced they are expecting a baby (their 2nd) in August and over Christmas Quinn and Emily announced they are expecting a baby (their 3rd) the first part of July. The Shurtliff family continues to grow.