Putting Up The Tree

getting the tree started

Trey thought his sister needed some decorating as well

Ethan hanging his "baby's first Christmas" ornament

"look honey- all the lights work!! "

We got our Christmas tree put up the other night. Trey and Avery actually put up the whole thing by themselves with daddy just telling them where the pieces went. The kids had fun looking at all their ornaments from previous years. We bought all new lights for the tree before we even started because usually we are making a trip to target to grab lights in the middle of the process. After 12 years we are learning! :) The kids did most of the decorating, they did a good job, i thought. Tonight we are putting up the outdoor lights.

Walking Off The Turkey

Thanksgiving Day 2007

Trey carried this huge rock all the way back up to the condo

cheese

Ethan was perfectly happy to ride

peekaboo- i'm on a walk too- she stayed nice and warm

heading down to check out the boat docks

It was really cold but the kids were itching to get outdoors, so after stuffing ourself we all headed out for a walk.

Thanksgiving 2007

Trey made name place cards for each of us at the table

the kids with their cousin Ellen

Johnny and his parents

Raegan's Thanksgiving meal

We went to Branson for Thanksgiving this year. We stayed in a condo, and Johnny's mom prepared a delicious Thanksgiving meal! We went shopping on Friday which was total madness at the outlet malls down there!! We took the kids to an arcade, and then went out for pizza Friday night. We headed back home on Sat. We had a great time hanging out with family.

Sisters

Avery and Raegan officially are sharing a bedroom now that Raegan has graduated from sleeping in her swing to sleeping in her bed!! Avery likes for her little sister to come lay in bed with her for a little while before i tuck her in.

Raegan's congestion had been better but has gotten worse again this last week. I am hoping that it was because it had warmed up and that she might get better now that it's getting cold again. She has been going a little backward in the sleeping at night success, waking 2-3 times instead of the one time she was. Hoping it's just a growth spurt and she goes back to 1 time soon!! We have made it to 3 months of nursing as well, which with my supply issues and not succeeding in nursing my first 3 past 5 days old, i am very happy that i have made it this far. I'm just hoping that she may get the little boost to her immune system to help her not have to battle the allergies that her big sister has had to.

Avery had her appointment with her allergist today. He is very pleased with how she has been doing on the allergy injections. She has progressed well and seemed to handle the increase well. We are seeing improvement in her breathing issues and also in her skin!!! She does still itch alot but it is under better control. She can actually go outside without needing a breathing treatment after 15 minutes!! She had an ear infection when we went in today and bronchitis so he is going to have her do 2 rounds of antibiotics. He also tested her immuniglobulins (sp?) to see if there are any underlying issues. It is very easy with allergies and asthma to blame all the coughs ect. ect.. on that it must be allergies when she could actually be getting infections that need to be treated. So the cough that she has had this last month he does not think is from asthma but from an infection... He may have her get the pneumonia shot but will find out after the blood work comes back. He is starting her on a new antihistamine instead of the costly one that they had wanted her on before and he wants to have us try taking her off the Singulair and see how she does without that. I love the fact that he is sensitive to the issue of how much all these meds cost and does everything to try and help us keep cost down. The goal is to slowly but surely get her off all these meds that she is on. She is doing awesome and we are so proud of her being such a trooper!

Nursery Buddies...

Raegan and Abigail

Ring-around-the-rosie...

...all fall down

Paula and i dressed our girls alike for church tonight so i snapped a few pictures. Raegan and Abigail are 3 weeks apart in age. I'm sure they will have lot's of playing ahead of them in the next couple of years in the nursery.

Paula was playing ring-around-the-rosie with Ethan and his buddies. These three boys have had quite the time with being left in the nursery the last year, it's been tear-fest at nursery time, although the other two are getting better but Ethan still has a hard time. Samantha just looks at them like- c'mon boys, whats the problem???

Blowing Bubbles

Raegan has been doing lot's of cooing at us and the other day she started blowing bubbles. She has become a happier baby lately, very content and easy going-doesn't seem like her tummy has been bothering her quite as much. She still sleeps in her swing at night but last night the batteries were dead and the swing stopped so i thought it was a good time to see if she would stay asleep without the swing moving and she did till 3 am then i put her in her bed and she slept till 6:30. That is the longest stretch she has slept in her bed-we are taking baby steps to the bed :) She was happy as could be but would NOT smile for me trying to take her picture.

"I Did It"

"Went poo-poo on the potty mommy". Sure enough he had! Whether i like it or not we are in full blown potty training. I was trying to delay this becasue i didn't want a long drawn out process, but due to the fact that Ethan will not leave on a diaper or pullup and simply prefers to just hang out in the nude, or if he does pee in something immediately wants it off- i am forced to proceed with my least favorite thing of parenthood! As i type this i turned around to peek at him and sure enough there he is laying on the couch in the buff watching Dora. I know they say that is a good way to do it (just let them run around naked) but i have never been to keen on the idea because it made this clean freak a little nervous. But hey this may just work because just now he ran to the toilet and went pee! Yay Ethan!! So here we go....

Visit To Hutch

Raegan was talking away to her cousin Brendon

Avery loves the zipline

Trevin and Trey checking out the Target Toy catalog

Meryn and Avery had fun together at the waterpark

Ethan's first time on the zipline by himself-he LOVED it!

Avery loves waterslides

Trevin and Trey hanging out in the hot tub

Last Thursday we headed to Hutchinson for the weekend. Johnny was going to help Greg work on his roof and the kids and i hung out at Grandma's. On Saturday Susan took us all to an indoor water park. I left Ethan and Raegan with Grandma so it was fun being able to go on water slides myself for a change, and just relax a bit. I think the kids were fine but Susan and i were beat after a few hrs so we called it a day.

On Sunday morning early i went for a run with my " much more in shape than i" sister and her friends. They went over 6 miles but i headed back walking after two miles. I did get re-motivated while down there though and have been getting up at 6 every morning to run since. I have decided that if i am going to have time to run i have to get up early because there are just not enough hrs in the day otherwise.

As always the weekends with family always go way to fast...we headed back home Sunday.

Gymnastics Gym

the long trampoline to the foam pit

nice soft landing

my adventurous little guy

scaling the beams

One of the gyms close by has open gym a couple of times a month. I took Trey and Avery there when they were younger and decided it was the perfect place to take "monkey boy". He loved the place so i'm sure we will be going back more often.

Dedicating Raegan

Grandpa Seaba giving us Raegan's first Bible

On Sunday October 28, we dedicated Raegan Elise to God, giving her back to the one who gave her to us, and promising we would raise her in church and to teach her to love God. We are so thankful for the gift of a healthy baby girl. Our prayer for our daughter would be that she would grow up to be a Godly young girl and lady someday. What an awesome responsibility God has given us!

Trunk Or Treat

Raegan's nose got a little messed up from sleeping on mommy all night

Avery chilling out for awhile

Trey getting his hair painted blue

Trey and his bud Michael

Daddy and his little tiger

Grandma and the kids

Avery and her little bear

our "trunk"

Our church had our first Trunk-or-Treat this year. We had an awesome turnout! Kids were streaming through all night. There were 22 cars, things to jump in, a train, balloons, a place to get your hair sprayed with color, a huge bonfire, and best of all free food!! :) The kids had a blast! Johnny had fun making all the kids say "hi" to his storm troopers. I had Raegan in a snugli on my tummy all night so she stayed toasty warm and slept the whole time.