Letter to Santa

"Dear Santa, I wanted to ask you how do you go through the whole world in one night? Please right back.
For cristmas i would like more music to liten to, a bird or fish webkinz, clothes from justis, some new baribs (barbies)clothes, some new boots and soks, a santa hat and maby an amiracan girl doll and matching clothes and shoes and i want a new house for my baribies and i want to have a wonderful CRISTMAS!

p.s. i hope you have time to read this and we will have plenty of cookies and milk for you.

Love, Avery"

*she is "in the know" now but still wants to believe i think! She and Trey do a good job at keeping the younger two believing!

Thanksgiving

We started out our first Thanksgiving with Johnny's family the Thursday before Thanksgiving. We then went to Hutchinson for Thanksgiving day. I have eaten way. too much. in the last couple of weeks!!

breaking the wishbone

nothing like having your cousin be able to french braid your hair. avery would like me to learn how to do this. i would like to too!

hanging out with cousins

all the cousins are getting pretty good at sharing computers. they are just happy if someone lets them use one. Ethan loved watching movies on my phone.

I was not picture crazy this Thanksgiving! I took a few at Seaba's and ONE picture in Hutchinson. I was just way too busy with other things...like eating!

My sisters, sis in law and i did try out the midnight shopping at Walmart this year. I didn't like it. It was very stressful. You can't move after you grab your stuff. I am clausterphobic. You shouldn't be at Walmart after midnight on black Friday if you are closterphobic! I don't know how to spell clausterphobic! Stinkin red underlines! I'm too tired and lazy this morning to try to get it right.

Hope your Thanksgiving was great!

My favorite sport

by Avery Seaba (4th grade)

What is round, black, and white? You got it! A soccer ball! My favorite sport is soccer because it is a challenge to get a goal. I am running down the field as fast as i can go. Bullets of sweat are racing down my face. The goalie tried to get the ball, but i am too fast for her. I run around her and kick the ball. The reffree screams "Goal!" My team and i all scream and celebrate. As you can see, soccer is a fun, but also a challenging sport!!

This was one of Avery's writing assignments this week...

And just because i like pictures with my posts...

Have a super day!

My polka dots

You are 3 years old Raegan. You are such a little sweetie. You curl up in your little bed under your pink silkie blankie at nap time and say "love you soo much!" You like to brush your own hair in the morning and "make yourself pretty". You love to go outside with your siblings but still can't open the front door to come back in so you stand outside it and yell with all your might till someone comes running. You steal my work coin purse whenever you can and unload all the change all over the house and then magically make the coin purse disappear for days on end! You love cheese! You still drink your applejuice half watered down with water. You are very picky about what you wear! You would wear this little polka dot dress every single day and be completely happy! I have to hide it somedays and then you still come walking in with it on! You love your new converse pink tennis shoes i just got you and usually wear them with this dress when you don't have mommy's boots on. You are so full of personality right now! I love you being three sweetie!

Cat food

Raegan doesn't want our cat to go hungry...and besides that, it seems like a handy place to dump off the rest of the cheeseburger she doesn't want. She's a smart cookie, she knows mommy won't make her eat the rest if it's been in the cat's bowl...or she just has a kind heart. We'll go with the latter.

I am thankful for

With Thanksgiving season i thought i would write down some of the many things i am thankful for...

In no particular order...after the first one that is!

*my salvation! the fact that Jesus loved me enough to die for me and is in heaven preparing a place for me to live for eternity! how awesome is that!?

*for our cozy little house that i am often times tempted to complain about, but truly am very thankful for.

*mini butterfinger candy bars...though my waistline is not thankful!

*the fact that we just paid off our van and the fact that in a couple of months our other one will be paid off as well...i'm also thankful that God is going to answer my prayer and keep them running strong for some time! i have an ongoing conversation with God about this!

*a husband that loves me and would do anything for me!

*naptime!! this is also know as sanity time around here when i can catch my breath!

*our four healthy though rowdy children and for the fact that 3 of them have accepted Jesus as their Saviour!!

*my parents! i can't even count the number of things my parents have done for us and helped us with as adults, let alone growing up! from formula for my babies, gutters for the house...i could go on and on!

*Klove radio station! i am always so encouraged by music and my kids know almost all the songs and sing along as well.

*John's parents! his parents help us out soo much with the kids and have since they were all tiny babies! i'm sure they can't count the number of sleepless nights they have had with our kids when they were babies cause i know they had a number of them!

*pumpkin spice and mulled cider candles!

*friends both old and new!

*for the times when walmart has more than two checkout lanes open!!

*for steady jobs for both John and i.

*that i didn't have a dead bird on my doorstep this morning!

*for God's grace and forgiveness!

*for unlimited text messaging and a non-ancient phone finally!

*for the fact that Raegan is finally #2 potty trained Ha, that's just what you wanted to hear) no seriously, for all sanity involved...it's a good thing!

*for all the nice comments that many of you have left here on my blog over the years! i was going back reading old posts and comments the other night. some from ones that probably don't even ready my blog anymore but fun to read.

*and last but not least all that turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes that we are all gearing up for right??

I'm thankful! What is something you are thankful for?

Dermatology

I took Raegan and Avery to visit a new dermatologist at CMH on Tuesday. I feel like we have just been stuck in a rut with their skin. Some days/times of year are worse than others that's for sure (their eczema is flared by allergies unlike some that get worse in the winter, winter for us is our best time of year). I've mentioned to some that i've been very concerned about Avery's pigment on her legs, even though i've always been told it will return. This summer it was pretty bad! We have used steroids on her skin since she was a baby and that concerns me of course but you do what you got to do.

I really like the lady we saw. She assured me that most of the areas on Avery still have some pigment and will re-pigment once the skin is healed or at least not inflamed but that it takes about the course of a year after it heals to re-pigment. That was encouraging! She does have one spot on her ankle where the pigment is is completely gone. I am not sure why but she told me to watch to see if any other spots showed up like that.

She changed both Raegan and Avery's skin care regimen up completely...trying some new ointments, adding some more anti-histamine to what they already take (avery takes three different pills a day, her body is a histamine making machine!)

We are going back in a month so this next month i am going to try to be super faithful to get them moisturized 2-3 times a day and see if with all of these new things we can really help them get cleared up!

Bleach baths, wet wraps, chilled vaseline (the girls like this new little idea one of the nurses gave me), a basket of ointments (that i spent yesterday, labeling what part of body and who they go on for daddy), a big tub of super thick cream and a cupboard full of antihistamines. I always get inspired after their dermatology appointments to tackle the eczema and get them all healed up :)

Oh and also, as of yesterday Avery has graduated to every three weeks allergy shots! Here is to hoping! (she, for the past three years has gone right back to weekly every time we have gone to every other week. this is the first time we have gone to every three weeks...crossing my fingers...

Missing

It is an ongoing problem. Ethan loses his shoe/shoes on a regular basis. Just about every time we leave our house it is a mad rush for him to find his shoes. I have asked what feels like millions of times..."ethan, where are your shoes?", "where did you put them?", "ethan, what on earth do you do with your shoes?" (i say that one a lot!) My questions re always answered with a simple non-chalant "i don't know" or "they just disappear, mommy".

His brand new tennis shoes went missing last week. I searched this house high and low and was getting very frustrated! I asked him if he might have left them outside. "nope, i don't think so" I decided to go for a little walk around the house and i was glad i did and also glad it hadn't rained those couple of days!

Grandma's 90th

The kids and i went on a little road trip Saturday to Salina to celebrate my Grandma Tucker's 90th birthday! They had a reception at Salina Bible Church where my grandparents went to church for many years when they lived in Salina.

Raegan hopped right up beside Grandma and stayed there for quite awhile

Grandma and 16 of her 24 great grandchildren!

Grandma and 5 of her 6 grandchildren

the boys taking a little cake break

Raegan and Brooklyn raiding the mint plate!

The kids and i went on to Hutch for the evening and came back Sunday afternoon to stretch the trip just a little.

Happy Birthday Grandma! We all love you bunches!

Oh, and if you see this Dorothy...thanks a bunch for taking pictures for me! :)

"I wanna run"

"I need to train so i can get faster mommy!", "can i run on the treadmill? pleeease?!", "did you want to be a runner when you grew up?" The little guy loves it! He would run on the treadmill every morning if i let him. Some mornings i do. I only usually let him go a half mile, partly because i think that's all the farther his little legs need to go right now and partly because i am a nervous nelly while he is on the treadmill...so worried that he will trip and fall. Oh and did i mention he is up on the new trend of barefoot running? Who needs shoes??

He knows how to get wired up and knows how to start the treadmill all on his own

he runs with the treadmill on 5...pretty impressive for a 5 year old if i may say so myself :)
today he wasn't ready to stop at a half mile so i let him go another quarter of a mile. I really wished i loved to run on the treadmill as much as him!! It's that season when i'm having to get back on it. I hope winter flies by!!

Trick or treat

Two out of the four changed their minds at the last minute about what they wanted to wear for a costume this year. Raegan was going to be a cheer leader until she found this princess dress in the back of her closet (honestly i had forgotten about it or it would have been out a lot sooner!) She was a princess from that day forward, including halloween! Trey changed his plan last minute as well and that big tall trick or treater, i don't even know who he is...he just jumped in the picture! Ok, you know i'm lying about that one...

Avery got asked if she was Paris Hilton in jail...i thought that was hilarious! Avery said Huh??

the little princess only wiped out once with about 15 other almosts...

the scuba guy!

we went out for pizza after trick or treating. we were all starving since we had dinner late!

Ethan was still chewing his pizza when he fell asleep! We were all giggling and taking pictures and he woke up and got upset that we were laughing...once trey and avery said, "no we are laughing at the show on tv" (little white lie) he went right back fast asleep!

he was a tired little ironman!

Party day

Party day at school Friday. This is the first year that i haven't had to go back and forth to parties but it will start up again next year. The kids paraded their costumes outside on their walking trail...

they painted pumpkins and Avery got black paint (that did not come out) all over her costume!

this picture shows Avery's true personality! She was Soo hyper Friday (i have no idea why after downing two large pixie stix!!??