Birthdays

Anna just celebrated her birthday on Saturday turning the big 3. We also celebrated my birthday last week but I'm not telling how old I am. Anna has talked for weeks about blowing out her candles and showing me how you do it. Well, when the moment came, she got shy. So herfirst birthday she cried and the next two she played shy. Here is hoping that 4 is better. We had set her presents out in the living room the night before after she went to bed and although we asked her numerous times during the day if she wanted to open them she didn't decide to do it until 6:30 that night. She got a trike and some princess stuff and decided life was fun. On Sunday she decided to be a hot rod rider. As you can see Anna and Aaron still have a lot of fun together.

Homeless

The last couple of months have been crazy. We welcomed home my brother Bryce from his mission in Japan and sent my brother Jarom off on his mission to Johannesburg South Africa. Luckily they came and went close enough to each other that they spoke in Sacrament meeting together and saved us an extra trip. Crazy to think baby Jarom is in South Africa. We also drove out to Portland and spent some time with Matthew's family and introduced Aaron to the family. We always split the trip in half by staying overnight in Boise. Anna did well (we had a DVD player) but unfortunately Aaron hated being in his chair that long but we all survived. We went and fed the ducks while we were there and as you can see it wore Anna right out. I took the kids up to Idaho for the girls party. That is when we send the guys out camping and my Mom, sister in-laws and the grandkids party together. It was a lot of fun. Mom took the girls out to eat and we left the kids (except the babies) with babysitters. Yeah! We had fun talking, doing crafts, taking a walk around the river with the kids and fed ducks, went swimming and played in the irrigation water. I always have a great time with my "sisters".
As for housing. We were supposed to close the end of July but ended up not closing until the end of August. The buyers kept having to extend the closing date. It ended up working for us since a) we didn't have a place to go and b) they paid us for everyday they had to extend the last couple of weeks. So here is were we are now. It is an extended stay hotel so it has a little kitchenette and full size fridge so we don't have to go out to eat. Other than that it is like a regular hotel room which sometimes drives me crazy. Like when Aaron wants to sleep and Anna doesn't want him to. Can't wait to have separate rooms!!! We are back to college days using coin operated laundry and fun stuff like that but at least it isn't forever. We have put offers on homes but nothing has worked out. We have found what I consider a "perfect" home in north Orem. We are going to walk through one more time tonight and then if I still think it is perfect we will make an offer. Fingers crossed.

Here is our Seely update. Aaron has been a lot of fun to have around. He has gotten to the point that he smiles and he smiles a lot. It is so fun to get him to smile. It isn’t hard. Anna loves her brother,




sometimes almost to death. I thought she was handling sharing the spotlight ok but a couple of weeks ago she started being clingy and wanting me to do everything for her. We blessed Aaron the first part of May. It was fun having our families here and to visit with them.
Another red letter day the first part of May is Anna found my haircutting scissors (I thought she wouldn’t be able to find them) and decided to cut her bangs herself. We were meeting with a real estate agent in the living room and she disappeared for a little while and when she returned she proudly showed me what she had done. She “trimmed” her bangs down to the scalp and then cut a long lock off behind them. I was devastated!! I knew it would grow back but it took about 24 hours for me to be able to look at her without crying. People haven’t noticed and I think that is because she has lighter hair and I have been doing a Donald Trump combover. It is starting to grow back…slowly.

So we were meeting with an agent to get our house on the market. We got it listed and just this week we got an offer and it looks like we will be moving at the end of July. We may end up homeless and just move our stuff into storage. We are currently looking hard for a new home with hopes of closing on both the same day. We will keep you informed.

The Latest

I have been meaning to get a little something written about Christmas but that hasn't happened as you can see. So here is what has happened since Dec.

For Christmas we went to Idaho Falls and spent some time with my parents and all of my brothers (excluding Bryce who is on his mission) and their families. It was a lot of fun. Anna is getting the hang of Santa and all that entails. Her cousin got a train set that she really liked luckily he was willing to share.

March 31, 2011 we added Aaron Matthew Seely to our family. We ended up having to do another csection but it got him safely here so that is all that matters. It wasn't a fun decision to try to make though. He weighed in at 6 lbs 4 oz (7 oz more than Anna) and 19" long. He has quite a bit of hair but it looks darker than Anna's. We will see if it gets lighter. My Mom was able to come here for a week and a half which was wonderful. I was worried that Anna, being the Momma's girl she is, would have a hard time with me being gone while I was in the hospital. We told her what was going on but wasn't sure how much she understood. She did totally fine though and had a lot of fun with her Grandma the whole time she was here. Aaron is a pretty good baby. He sleeps a lot more than Anna ever did and doesn't have colic but he does spit up a ton. Anna loves having her little brother - sometimes I worry she is going to love him to death, literally. She loves to hold him, hug him tight, put things over his face, and give kisses. So I keep him in his bouncer high up so he out of harms way. He looks totally different than Anna. My Mom thinks he looks a lot like some of my brothers. He definitely got their coloring. Anna is pale like me but he has more of an olive complexion.

A week before Aaron was born Matthew was rear ended which pushed him into the car in front of him. He wasn't hurt or at fault but his car was undrivable and was deemed "totaled" by the insurance companies. So we spent the last couple of weeks looking for a replacement. We decided to get a mini van and then Matthew could use my car to go to work although we may try to sell it and get a smaller car that gets better gas mileage. My parents found a van in IF and will be bringing it down this weekend or next. It is nice to have that taken care of and finished.

Matthew's sister was in town and so his niece set up a Seely family get together. They did an Easter egg hunt for the different age groups. Anna's group just had it setting around and they had all sorts of fun picking it up. We may take her to the Orem City Easter egg hunt this weekend.