Zacheus...

Ethan's favorite song is "Zacheus". Grandma Seaba taught him the song, and every now and then he will sing part of it for us. When i picked him up from his class on Sunday morning the teacher said he had "lit up" when it was time to sing and they were singing the song "Zacheus".

Today he was singing a Scooby Doo song and i thought it was cute so i said "will you sing it for the camera?" and he said yes, so we rehearsed a couple of times and then i said "ok when i wave my hand, you start singing"...he started singing, but not what he had been singing....so here is unrehearsed version of Zacheus...i love how he says that Jesus is gonna come to his house to play!

2nd Part Of The Birthday...

getting ready to put the heart in her bear

bath time

picking out some clothes...or bath robe

havin a great time at build a bear

had to throw this one in of Ethan playing cousin Kassidy's drums, i think we have a little drummer in our future??

Uncle Rodney and Avery share a birthday

Reading her card from Grandpa and Grandma

guess who the new jewelry maker around here is...daddy...that's right, i think he has helped Avery make about 4 bracelets so far.

Avery screamed in delight when she saw she had a new Webkinz!

For Avery's gift from daddy & mommy, she chose to go to Build-a-bear. Once we got home from Zonkers we all got ready and headed to Oak Park Mall.

After Build-a bear we headed to Uncle Rodney's birthday party. Avery was born on her Uncle Rodney's birthday. He is scheduled to be deployed next Jan so they had his party this year since he turns 40 next year.

Finally after all the partying of the day, she got to open her package from Gramma Neir that we had been carrying around half the day not letting her touch. Ethan and Raegan had sacked out so she didn't even have little hands trying to grab any candy.

If she wasn't exausted after her busy day her mommy sure was...

Avery's Birthday Celebration

riding the roller coaster over and over...

some cool new headphones for her mp3 player

best buds

stuffing ourselves with pizza

We have tried to do without large birthday parties the last couple of years so we usually let the kids pick something to do with a friend. Avery picked Zonkers again this year with her friend Mikayla. She missed school Wed - Fri but was feeling great by Sat. I took the girls to the food court to eat some pizza first and then we headed in for a few hours of jumping off the rides and hopping right back in line...the girls said they road the roller coaster 19 times...i think they were just about right...they went back and forth between that and the yak attack.

part 2 of the day for the next post...

Avery Is 8!

Today our Avery Michelle turns 8 years old. She weighed in at a whoppin 9 lb. 2 oz. 21 inches on Wed. January 24th 2001 at4:11pm. She like her brother had a mop of dark brown hair.

She is our sweet and feisty girl. She is becoming quite the helper for Mommy around the house. She shoos everyone out of her room because she likes to keep her room just so... She loves Hannah Montana and watches John and Kate plus 8 by the hour. She has had to deal with 8 years of allergies, asthma, and eczema which most of the time she does like a pro, i think it has made her pretty tough.

We love you so much Avery, and are so happy that we were blessed by God putting you in our family. We love all your sweet notes that you give us all of the time! Happy 8th birthday, we hope you have a special day!

American Idol, Polly Pocket Style

I wish i had taken a picture but no pictures this post... I came home from work tonight at 10 till 9, all the lights off Johnny sleeping in the chair with Ethan sound asleep beside him and i thought wow all the kids in bed not bad! Raegan was in bed sleeping as well but the oldest two were playing quietly in Trey's room (trashed room i might add) . So i told them time to clean up and head to bed, which suddenly Trey remembered he had forgotten he had math homework in addition to what he had already done...lovely...i will just be straight with you...i hate math...Trey hates it just about as much as i do(though he is getting much better at it!)...so when he says the words math homework mommy cringes...especially when daddy is sound asleep!

Math was finished surprisingly quickly and Trey wanted to sleep on Avery's floor so i said as long as they weren't loud and didn't wake Raegan they could both sleep in there...i was picking up and went in to put something in Avery's room and found them with Avery's Polly Pockets...3 were sitting on a little couch and their was a LONG line of them (avery has accumulated quite a collection of polly pockets) I had heard them giggling and singing but didn't think much of it...they were playing American Idol and after watching for a few minutes they had mommy in stitches...i went back out and after awhile the volume was getting a bit too much so i went in and shut things down much to their dissapointment and as they were throwing all the Polly Pockets back in the tub Avery said "anyway trey, she is going to Hollywood!".... crazy kids...

Been Tagged...

My friend Barbie tagged me so here goes...

1.Choose your 4th picture folder

2. choose the 4th picture in the folder

3. explain the picture

4. tag 4 more people

Her's my pic...if my picture happened to be the picture of me in a bkini the night before i had Raegan, i just wasn't gonna play :)

I lucked out and it wasn't so this is the day of the Gardner Prairie Punisher duathlon this last summer in which i teamed up with Rachel Weyand and did the running portions...this was after the first 5k taking a little rest before going again...



and now i tag...June, Susan, my Mom and Julie...

A Couple Weeks In Pictures...

even batman...no wait...spiderman...whichever one he is cries too...

i can't even remember what my little super hero was crying about

i find polly pockets everywhere, they fit nicely into everything

Raegan loves climbing into Avery's airbed with her

how a 3 yr old opens a cheezits box

"i want to wear my tie mommy". In my younger mommy days, i probably wouldn't have let him out of the house like this, but you know the simple things that make them happy... yes we went to Target like this but he did have a jacket on (zipped all the way up)

Raegan and her alien looking winter hat, it was cute when i bought it but that thing is made for a child with an enormous head!

Kids Interview

Ok June you inspired me to get out the pen and paper and do some short surveys with the kids. I did two, but here goes the first...

What does mommy always say to you?

Trey-clean your room-
Avery- get dressed-
Ethan- we went at red robins (ok so it may take Ethan a little bit to catch on to this)

What makes mommy happy?

Trey-having a clean house-
Avery-when i tell you i love you-
Ethan-"laugh"

What makes mommy sad?

Trey-kids not doing what they are supposed to-
Avery-when i disobey-
Ethan-"cry"

How does mommy make you laugh?

Trey-by playing the staring contest-
Avery-when you tickle me-
Ethan-he giggled and said "like that one mommy"

How old is mommy?

Trey-is it 32 or 33...no it's 32...no your 33-
Avery-34-
Ethan-2

What is mommy's job?

Trey-Chili's and the doctors office-
Avery-work at Chili's most of the time and the doctor's office-
Ethan-work

What is mommy's favorite food?

Trey-is it quesadillas-
Avery-pizza-
Ethan-eggs

How do you know your mommy loves you?

Trey-well you just do, this is like a test-
Avery-because she hugs and kisses me every night-
Ethan-he gave me a hug and said "like that"

Celebrating Trey's 10th Birthday

Evan, Trey Micah and Owen Ethan not interested in the picture taking apparently

being silly with cousins

opening his package from Grandma Neir

yep- 10 it is!

wearing balloons under his chin and getting sung to at Red Robin

make a wish bud...

blow em out...

getting his spankings and a pinch from daddy

Trey had a sleepover with a few of his cousin's on Friday night for his birthday. I had to work, so Johnny had a house full of 7 kids. They were all (the boys) still awake but in bed when i got home from work at about 11pm, i went in to check on them and they were all acting like they were sleeping but one by one started popping their heads up. I was reminded that most kids don't sleep with a lamp on when a couple of them said "i can't go to sleep with the light on" :)

Trey's pick of treats to take to school was chocolate chip cookies (mommy didn't complain since he picked chewy chips ahoy! Can you get any easier?! I didn't mind not having to try to figure out how to transport 25 cupcakes!

Last night Trey picked to go eat at Red Robin and then we went to Target so that he could spend his birthday money that he had gotten. He picked a transformer (of course) and then a World War 2 plane (we had to make a trip to Toys r us too)

After getting his 10 spankings (and of course the pinch to grow an inch) it was off to bed...

10 Years Old!

10 years ago right about this time i was getting checked into the hospital to get induced. At 8:12 pm Jan. 12, 1999 Trey Michael was born weighing in at 8 lbs. 12.7 oz. with a head full of dark hair. The nurses styled it for me after giving him his first bath, he was so cute!

10 years later he is growing up way too fast, he is quickly gaining on Mommy in height and pretty proud of that! He is a very sensitive, kind, compassionate, silly, creative, sound effect making boy who is into action figures, his nintendo ds, and drawing. He can entertain himself in his room for hours and i will go in and pick up a piece of laundry and he says "c'mon mommy, that was a part of my battlezone!"

We love you very much Trey! We are so very proud of you! You make us all laugh with your silly jokes and your contagious giggle...have a very happy 10th birthday!

Happy New Year 2009

As i write this post my little princess is falling asleep beside me on her blow up bed in her little sister's butterfly tent, Trey and Ethan finally shut down their engines on their constant sound effects and fell asleep, Raegan finally cried herself to sleep. I tried the rocking thing but after telling her 15 times" if you don't lay your head down your going back to your bed", her quickly laying her head down for 2 seconds each time and then popping right back up...we decided she was crying it out tonight, johnny is laying on the couch snoring, and i, after falling asleep during the movie Wall-e am not feeling so tired... I am LOVING no alarms for the past week, Monday will be a jolt back to reality and then Tues or Wed (can't remember which day they start) will be back to getting up early for school...

I picked up a luch shift at Chilis today since we got up and were doing nothing anyway, decided to go to work for a few hrs and make a little $. The kids and Daddy were still in their pjs when i got home, so i take it they had a relaxing day! Then tonight we went to get a bite to eat (after getting a late afternoon bath that is) and were going to take the kids to the Great Mall to play but as we got their were told the mall was just closing, so we went to Mcdonalds and let the kids play till they were sweating and tired! Trey and Avery took Raegan up in the maze and took her down the slide, she didn't seem to mind but when asked if she wanted to go again wanted nothing to do with it. She is still at the stage where she just walks around, scopes out what table has some chicken nuggets so she can try to steal the box and just has fun watching all the action. Ethan on the other hand was being egged on by a bunch of older boys and was stepping up to the plate being "the guy that was after everyone" he was growling and chasing and they all thought it was great cause they could fake him out easily. He fell asleep within the first 15 minutes of Wall-e so i think we successfully wore him out...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and now for a few more pictures of Christmas...