The Holidays

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

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

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.

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? :)