Matthew & Tamera Seely

The Holidays

2012-01-10T08:02:00.001-08:00

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving in Idaho Falls with Tamera's family. It was fun to spend time together. The whole group went bowling together. For the kids we got them their own lane with a ramp they could roll the ball down. They all seemed to have a great time.

Anna found the air blowers there and had a lot of fun with them.

While we were there Tamera cut Anna's hair. We wanted her Dad to do it but Anna would scream if he tried so it was left up to Tamera. It turned out pretty cute. We didn't take any pictures right after but you can see the finished cut in later pictures. After the hair was cut Anna kept turning her head back and forth to feel the difference of short hair.

As per usual Tamera made sure to take a group picture of all the new Shurtliff grandbabies for 2011. Left to Right: Cosette - March 28 (Vance), Aaron - March 31 (Tamera), Lucy - May 28 (Kyle), Colt - August 31 (Reese). We thought it was funny that both girls were b

orn on the 28th and the boys on the 31st. Crazy huh? As per usual the Seely baby is smaller than all of them, even if Colt is so much younger.

We spent a week in Portland over Christmas. Besides spending time with Matthew's parents we got to have Christmas dinner with Tamera's cousin who lives in the area and then spent a night up in Seattle with Matthew's brother and family.

We came back from Portland, helped Tamer's brother Vance pack a moving van and clean and then spent the night at home. Santa was coming that night so that presents didn't have to be taken on the airplane. So we celebrated our Christmas on the morning of the

29th. Anna woke up that morning and came in to our room saying she was hungry. When asked if she wanted to eat or go see what Santa brought she opted for eating. That is probably the only time that will happen. After she ate we did the Santa and present thing. It was so fun to see her reaction when she walked in the room and realized what was going on.

That afternoon we headed up to Idaho Falls to party. We spent three days up there and everyone was there but Jarom (mission) but we got to talk to him Sunday morning. Besides doing the usual Christmas present/dinner and New Years Eve food and games we watched the BYU bowl game (exciting) and took the kids to a place called Blast Off in Idaho falls that has ball pits, tubes to run through, and slides. We had to carry Anna out crying. I guess that means she had fun.

Tamera also spent some time with her Dad at Thanksgiving and Christmas hanging pictures and a big clock (Christmas present) on the walls. Now we are back at home and trying to get into routines again. It was fun being gone but nice being back in our own beds.

New Home

2012-01-10T07:06:00.001-08:00

Since I haven't added anything in a long time I will divide our update into a couple of postings. The most exciting news is that we are no longer homeless or in an apartment. On October 29 we moved our stuff out of four storage units (they were one small, two mid size, and one large units) into our new house in American Fork. Yes we have too much stuff. My parents came down, a couple of brothers and their families, and a couple of Matthew's siblings came to help. It took most of the day to get the units emptied and the big stuff out of the apartment but it got done. By mid December we had most of our boxes unpacked and things on the walls and the garage emptied. I just finished the last framing of items that I want to hang on the wall and we are doing odds and ends like hanging up coat racks and little things like that. The house is perfect for us and it is so nice to be settled here. Anna loves having a room and all of her toys. It was like Christmas for her when we moved in and unpacked her boxes of toys that had been in storage for a couple of months. Although we aren't as close to stores as we were in Orem we live in a nice quiet neighborhood and the ward is great! Although it was incredibly stressful getting here I think this is where we are meant to be.

Here are the details:

2415 Sq.Ft total (I think)

5 bedrooms

2 finished baths plus one in basement to be finished

large laundry room

2 storage rooms - Yay!

Living Room

Basement Family Room

So now we will see what to do with the yard this summer. I already have some ideas so that will give me something to do. Like that is a problem.

Birthdays

2011-10-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-06-15T20:40:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Related?

2010-11-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-10-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-07-16T13:41:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-04-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-02T21:56:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-03-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-03-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-01-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

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.

I think it went well....

2009-12-18T22:12:00.000-08:00

Today I took Anna for her first visit with Santa. She reacted like I thought she would...cried. Santa must have thought I was upset because he tried to comfort me saying next year would be better. I thought it was funny and hadn't expect anything different.

You should see the other guy....

2009-12-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

Here is Anna's beautiful eye. Doesn't it look like she has been in a fist fight? She has had a rough week. It started with four days of the stomach flu involving throwing up and diarrhea. That was fun for everyone. Then there was the pinching fingers in a closet door, hitting her head on a corner of the fridge, hitting her head on the corner of the wall, and getting her hand stuck in a block container (raccoon syndrome - didn't want to let go of the block but couldn't get hand out with the block). This didn't hurt but it made her mad and me laugh. :) To finish the week off she got an eye infection - hence the picture. The good news is it is looking much better today. It has been a weird week because usually she doesn't get hurt. That is the fun part of getting older and finding your way in the world.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T21:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a little snapshot of our Halloween fun.

Here is Anna and I dressed up for pack meeting.

This is Anna and Matthew carving pumpkins. Actually this is as close as she got. I stripped her down to avoid any stains but I wouldn't have had to since she didn't get close to any pumpkin.

Happy Birthday Anna!

2009-10-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Anna turned one last Thursday (the 15th) but we celebrated on Sunday with family members who live in the area. Anna was a little overwhelmed by the 20+ people singing happy birthday to her and as you can see it brought her to tears.

She opened presents from family and had help from Mom and eager cousins to get it done.

But as you can see, by the end of the night she was our smiling little princess again!

Latest Tricks

2009-10-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

As we approach Anna's 1st birthday here are some of her latest tricks.

Walking with help

When no one will help you walk you have to use toy containers to help you get around

Whenever the fridge opens Anna crawls as quick as she can to try to get there before we close the door and the light goes away.

It's Official!

2009-09-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Anna is always up on all fours doing the standard crawl. She has found you can move a lot quicker that way and get into more things. If she disappears she is good to respond when I call her name so it is easier to find her and see what she is into. She definately keeps me busy and on my toes.

She's moving

2009-08-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Anna is mobile. Actually she has been that way for a month or more but she is getting better and quicker. She isn't crawling but doing a half crawl. I call it her solider crawl. She uses her arms to drag her lower half around. The bad news is that her shirts get very dirty but it gives me more motivation to mop the floor often. :) Yesterday though I thought she was going to do a real crawl but no luck. She is also walking - if we have her hands. I get scared when I think of her walking on her own. It is only a matter of time. I guess we will have to break down and baby proof the house.

Anna goes to the fair!

2009-08-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

We took Anna to the Utah County Fair last Saturday. We introduced her to the sheep which went well until one with a wet nose touched her hand and she flipped out. We may have ruined her relationship with sheep forever which would make her Dad sad. We will try a petting zoo next.

Girls Party!

2009-08-06T09:43:00.001-07:00

Anna and I spent last week in Idaho Falls with the Shurtliff family (Matthew had to stay home and work). On Thursday we sent the boys off to the woods and the girls partied at Mom's. We spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday watching the six grandkids (of course), making bread (Emily O taught), making freezer jam and canning raspberries. For fun we went swimming, watched a chick flick, Mom took us to dinner, we made fresh strawberry shakes (yummy - thanks Heidi), and had late night talks. We had four of my sister-in-laws (the two newbies didn't come), the six grandkids, plus Mom and I. It was a ton of fun. Anna and Jerika (Vance's baby) kept taking things from each other which was funny this year but next year it may get interesting when they are all in the "mine" stage.

9 month visit

2009-07-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

Well, the dreaded day of the Dr.'s visit arrived. Anna weighed in at 13 lbs and 3.5 oz. (.09 percentile) and is 25 .5" tall (3.13 percentile). The Dr. didn't freak out as much as I thought he would but he did do an iron test and she was fine. So she has one month to bulk up and we are supposed to go in and have her weighed. This is the only time in her life she will be told to eat lots and gain weight. She is so much fun. She talks quite a lot and is moving in her own way (sliding on her bum). She can get to her hands and knees to crawl but then panics because she doesn't know what to do. Both Matthew and I have shown her how to work the arms and legs but it hasn't caught on yet. I am ok with that. It keeps her semi-stationary.

Whew!

2009-07-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

So here is our family update. We have finished with our summer travel - almost. We spent last week in Portland visiting with Matthew's parents and introducing them to Anna. Since she is 9 months old (tomorrow) we thought it was about time they met each other. I think with all the new people Anna has met this summer she is finally relaxing about only letting Mom hold her. She let Matthew's parents, siblings, and nieces hold her without fussing. When we were in Idaho a couple of weeks before she even let my great-aunt hold her!

The 4th of July is my most favorite holiday next to Christmas. This 4th we were flying to Portland and so I didn't get to do the usual celebration events. Luckily, my cousin Kari lives in the Portland area and invited us to their house. We had a lot of fun playing with her family and friends. Kari (the sweet girl) spoiled Anna rotten! Of course I still had to dress Anna in a patriotic outfit for her first 4th!

Although I (with Anna) may be going up to Idaho for a girls party (sister-in-laws and Mom while the boys camp), and we will be up in Idaho in September for my Grandpa's 90th birthday - it is better than traveling every other weekend.

We have Anna's 9 month visit on Friday. In Portland she finally broke down and started eating rice cereal and other items. I guess she decided I wasn't going to give up trying to get her to eat. So far she has had bananas, carrots, applesauce and yams as well as the rice cereal. Hopefully a couple of weeks of that has helped bulk her up so that the Dr. doesn't flip out about her size. We will let you what happens.

This is Anna trying food for the first time a couple of months ago. You can tell she wasn't too thrilled.

2009-06-20T22:28:00.001-07:00

We have been home from our trip almost a whole week and I haven't gotten anything posted. Sad. We spent a week in the midwest. Started in St. Louis, hit Independence, Liberty (jail), Far West, Adam-ondi-Ahman, Nauvoo, Carthage, and back to St. Louis for the big wedding. Seven of the nine kids were able to be there and all but one joined us in Nauvoo. It was a fun trip with some crisis moments but what is a family vacation without those? :) Thank heavens for some borrowed GPS units!! So here are a few shots from our trip.

Nauvoo:

Anna's introduction to horses.

The happy couple - Mitch and Keri.

The best part about being the only girl in a family of boys is you are always surrounded by good looking men. :)

Anna's first swimming experience. Obviously not too successful. She loves baths but this water was a lot colder than her bathtub.

Pretty Flowers - for now

2009-05-31T21:25:00.000-07:00

I am so proud of my front flower bed. I had quite a few flowers volunteer back from last year and just filled in the empty spaces. I don't know if it will continue to look this way through the summer so I thought I would grab documentation now.

And then there were two

2009-05-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

It isn't the best picture but you get the idea.

Here they come!

2009-05-12T08:42:00.000-07:00

So I felt a tooth coming in at the beginning of this month but it has finally come in enough to see. It was great fun trying to get a picture of it and keep her tongue out of the way. Yesterday I could feel a second one coming in right next to it, just not visible yet. Let the chomping begin!!

Family Photo

2009-05-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

Here is the Shurtliff family photo we took in February. This is 8 brothers, 4 sister in-laws, 2 parents, 1 husband, 4 granddaughters (1 of which is Anna), 2 grandsons and a partridge in a pear tree. :) The two sister in-laws that will or have joined the family this summer are not in this picture. Can't be in the family picture until you are legally family. Back row (left to right): Kyle, Jarom, Quinn, Dad, Matthew, Vance, Bryce, Mitch. Middle row (left to right): Reese, Emily (Quinn's wife), Mom, Tamera (holding Anna), Heidi (holding Jerkia), Shane. Front row, kind of (left to right) Emily (Reese's wife, holding Kindee), McKay, Maylee, Peter, Julie. I hope that makes sense. If it helps "families" are wearing the same color. Mom, Dad and single boys are wearing blue but then the marrieds picked a color and dressed their family in it.

Trek to MT and WY

2009-04-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

So we left Idaho Falls for Montana on April 15 feeling pretty good about the sunny sky. The further North we went, the cloudier it got. Here is what it looked like in Island Park. So we skated through Island Park and West Yellowstone and only had one really bad white out. We arrived safely in Billings but unfortunately the bad weather slowed us down so much that we weren't able to go and see Custer's Last Stand. Matthew really was looking forward to that and I felt bad we didn't make it there. The next day was all wedding stuff. I got this picture that shows everyone having a wonderful time.It was freezing! That is why we got married in August. We took a two hour drive to Burlington, WY for the reception after the luncheon and entertained ourselves for a couple of hours by taking pictures of the grandkids that were there. The three girls (Anna, Jerika, Kindee) and Peter (Shane's little boy). Vance's wife Heidi made all of the matching dresses and headbands for the girls. She did a wonderful job!!

The girls with their Dads.

The girls with their Moms
Notice how Anna is the same height as the girls even though she is two months older than Jerika. Of course Jerkia's parents are super tall and Anna's Mom is short. She doesn't have a chance.
Peter and the girls.

Anna loving all of the attention.

We headed back to Idaho Falls on Friday and went the Jackson Hole route and it was sunny the whole way. Anna was a wonderful little passenger, thank goodness. Hopefully she will be that good when we are in St. Louis in June.

We spent a day recovering in Idaho Falls on Saturday and back home on Sunday. Oh, and for those who know Kyle, here is a picture of the happy couple.

Anna Defies Gravity

2009-04-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so maybe that is an extreme title but hey...I am a Mom. As you can tell from the picture on the left Anna is sitting up! Of course I don't dare go too far from her as you can see in the action picture on the right, she is still not too stable. We will keep working on that part. Still trying to get her to roll over and lay on her tummy but I will take what I can get.

Kids are funny things

2009-03-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

I don't have to much to tell but I wanted to post the latest pics of Anna. Anna is getting to be more and more fun. She has found her voice and is quite the talkative one. She definately didn't get that from her mother. :) On Sunday I was giving her a bath before church and had almost made it through with no tears. As I was getting her dressed she started crying like she had gotten hurt. I was a little confused and looked things over to see what could be the problem. I finally found it. She had put her hand up by the back of her head and ended up grabbing her hair and pulling it. I guess she didn't realize that she was hurting herself. Laughing I helped her unclench her hand and all was well.

Four month visit

2009-02-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

Today Anna had her 4 month visit which included more shots. I feel so bad for her. Bad enough that I was worrying about it last night. How do you explain to a 4 month old that shots are for her own good? She didn't cry as much this time as last time though. She weighed in at 11 lbs 2 oz. (6.12 percentile) and is now a whopping 23 1/2" long (22.5 percentile). She is doing well and got a clean bill of health from the doctor. Yeah!

Latest News

2009-02-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

This post actually has nothing to do with Anna. Surprising, I know. My 7th brother Bryce just received his mission call. He will be going to the Japan Sapporo mission and enters the Provo MTC on June 17. So the summer plans currently are brother #6 wedding in Montana with reception in Wyoming, brother #7 mission farewell, and it looks like brother #5 will be tying the knot this summer in St. Louis. While we are out that far we are going to take a family trip and I am going to introduce Matthew to the church history sites in Missouri. Samantha, I am hoping to connect with you when we are out there. Of course we also are going to throw in a week in Portland somewhere. Of course I love that I get to plan two wedding receptions! Should be a wild and crazy summer.

The Three Amigas

2009-02-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

Back to Idaho on January 30th. We were getting family pictures taken on the 31st and Vance and Heidi were blessing their baby, Jerika, on the 1st. Once again Anna did pretty well on the trip but it still isn't as fast as it used to be. Pictures were fun and luckily 3 of the 6 grandkids were below the age of 3 months which made it a little easier. After the family group my brothers all changed into their scout shirts and got a picture taken. Jarom, the baby of the family, will be having his Eagle court of honor in the next few weeks and he will be the eighth Eagle in the family. Pretty cool. I can't wait to see the proofs for both pictures. We went up to Rexburg for the baby's blessing on Sunday. Vance and Heidi are BYUI students. Rexburg has changed so much and campus is so different. Amazing what changes in 12 years. :) After the blessing we took a picture of the three girls. Anna (3 months old), Reese's Kindee (2 months old), and Vance's Jerika (1 month old). It was interesting to see the developmental steps and the difference 2 months can make.

Christmas in IF

2009-02-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

We spent a full week up in Idaho Falls over Christmas. There were 17 people staying at my parents house and there were 21 for dinner if Reese, Emily, and Kindee (their little girl) came for dinner. It was fun but quite chaotic. I think it was a little disturbing for Anna since she is used to a quiet house and the week in Idaho was anything but quiet. It was fun having everyone home for Christmas though. It has been 13 years since that has happened and we don't know if it will happen again. Anna did pretty well on the drive. She would have made it there with no problems except we got slowed down for a half hour by an accident between Ogden and Brigham City. She started crying at Blackfoot (which is only 20 minutes from home) and so I talked to Anna for the entire time and planned out her whole life for her. I talked about high school, college, the family we were going to see and was very glad to get to my parents because I was running out of ideas. It kept her pretty calm though. The ride back went better but we did have to stop for a lunch break for her. No more 3 hr. and 15 min. drives to Idaho.

Anna's Blessing

2008-12-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Anna was blessed this past weekend (Nov. 30). Since we had family near for Thanksgiving and some other scheduling conflicts we got permission to bless her on the 30th. It was great to have all of my family here (except Reese and Emily because they had had a baby the week before). Matthew's brother, sister, in-laws, and some nieces and nephews were able to come as well. It was fun having them at the house afterwards although it was a little cozy at times. The fun part about having a lot of brothers is it makes for a large blessing circle. Total between both families we had 12 men plus the bishopric who stood in as well. Yikes!

Anna's Arrival

2008-12-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

Anna didn't come when or how we thought she would. My due date was October 18th and based on the fact the Shurtliff's tend to be born late I assumed that this baby would be the same. On Oct. 7 my doctor had me go and do a non-stress test (NST) which went fine. He decided he wanted me to do a second one the following week right before my next Dr.'s appointment. Well, that started a series of events that led to Anna being brought via emergency C-section on October 15. Some of the events were a "scoop" in the NST, the history of stillborns in my family, and the baby's heartbeat dropping from 150 to 60 beats. Although it was a scary afternoon/evening for us, we were both very happy that Anna arrived safely. Thank goodness for modern medicine. That is saying a lot coming from me as you know my herbal leanings.

Here we are!

2008-12-03T17:23:00.000-08:00

I hadn't started a blog before because we really didn't have much to tell. Now that Anna is here I am sure we will have all sorts of stories to tell and pictures to show. Here goes nothing....