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.