Finally fit for14

Trey put up with having trucks on his curtains and on his walls into his teen years. I have promised him that as soon as i could he was getting a "new" room! The other day while the kids were at school i shopped all afternoon for things for the boys new room. I had already purchased new sheet sets and blankets several months ago and had a plan in my head but just needed to get all of the stuff and needed to take my hubby to the paint store because i don't do well with paint choices and it stresses me out BIG time!!

When we moved into our house over 13 years ago John drew a mural on Trey's bedroom wall. Lot's of hours of painting and drawing. Last night it took about 1 minute to cover it all up! Of course it made a Mama a little sad that my boys are pretty much done with trucks and moving on to sword collections...

There wasn't a whole lot of daylight when i took this picture tonight so the colors don't show very well 

We did 3 gray walls and 1 smoky black wall. We took advantage of the snow day and John painted last night and today and got it all done. I don't have a picture of the black wall because it was still tacky tonight and we couldn't decorate it yet.

I went to Walmart last night to get some more pillowcases and a bean bag chair for the corner of their room and found this little bean bag chair. Most comfortable little thing ever! I told Trey and Ethan i might hang out in their room during the day while they are at school just to sit in their chair!

I was happy to finally get this project mostly complete! The boys love their new room!

A new ride

We recently made a pretty big purchase! After our beloved "goldie" (yes, we name all of our vehicles) had a rough night on Trey's birthday, we decided that it might be time for something new(er). 

I was driving down the highway and went over a bump and something did not feel right so i slowed down a little but kept driving because i didn't know what else to do. Another bump and the back axle bit the dust. Scared the living daylights out of me but thankfully i was able to pull off the highway safely! 

Our insurance towed our van back to our house and as i was laying in bed that night i started googling info on the back axle on 2000 Ford Windstars...yea, that brought up a whole lot of information! Huge numbers of these vehicles were recalled in all of the cold weather states surrounding us for this very problem. The salt that is used to treat the roads corrodes the undercarriage and causes it to eventually break. KS was excluded in this because we evidently take better care of our roads???

We called the Ford dealership just to check to see if by chance we were under this recall but the above is what we found out....The dealership advised we bring it in and they would take up our case with Ford and try to get it paid for! Our insurance company again towed it to the dealership. It was a bit of a lengthy process as Ford wanted a whole lot of pictures from the dealership but in the end, they approved the repairs and replaced the entire undercarriage front and back axles without any cost to us!

We decided during this whole process that it was time for a newer vehicle anyway so we looked around a bit and ended up back looking at the Chrysler town and Country's. We fell in love with them last summer when we were looking at them. I had my heart set on black but John won with stone white which i ended up really liking. The kids love it and i need to get a picture of all four with their headphones on watching a movie! It is blissfully quiet!!

I am very happy to have something reliable that is going to last us for hopefully lot's and lots of miles!

Our 2012 Chrysler Town and Country

Avery turns 12

January is birthday month at the Seaba house! Avery is 12 years old! Can't hardly believe it! She had a choir festival at school on her birthday so had a fun day at school. We ate at pizza shoppe for dinner because Avery's favorite food is pizza and the girl can put more pizza down than her big brother!

She is celebrating this weekend with a couple of her friends from school. We are going to go to an indoor water park and  slide and swim the night away!

Avery was my little chunk when she was born. She weighed 9lb 2 oz and following Seaba tradition had a full head of hair! My sisters commented that she looked like a little toddler when she came out :)

Today, you would never know she was a chunky little baby! She is tall and lean! She takes tumbling and has recently mentioned going out for cheerleading next year in 7th grade. She ran cross country this past fall and is very excited for track season. She is especially excited to run the 800 because she loves that distance!

She can often be found sitting in her room curling or straightening her hair. She loves to shop, she loves stuffed animals and was super excited to receiver her very first American Girl doll from Grandma  "mckenna". She was on the honor roll this year at conference time so was very excited!  

We love you Avery and are so proud of you and so happy you are a part of our family! Happy Birthday!!

Trey turns 14!

Some handsome dude in this family just decided to turn 14! His birthday party was not without excitement as the back axle on our van broke while i was on the highway to go pick up pizza and the wheels literally almost fell off...more on that in another post.

In some ways it seems like yesterday this little guy was born and in others it feels so loong ago! He was by far an "easy baby"! He slept through the night by 6 weeks (little did i know he would be my last to do that!), napped like a trooper and was a pretty easy going kid! He had to have his first hair cut when he was 3 months old because he looked like a little monkey and it was so unruly!

Today he is happy go lucky 14 year old.  He is in the 8th grade. He loves to write stories, play xbox, run cross country and track and hang out with his friends, and likes to torture his cat and still believes that he can train it to do things a dog would do!  He has a contagious laugh and a great sense of  humor!

Happy Birthday Trey! We love you and look forward to see what you have ahead of you in life!

Christmas continued

Since it is mid January i suppose it is time to finish blogging about Christmas!

On Christmas Day we spent the day with John's side of the family. 

Trey and his cousin Dylan bought for each other...

Raegan got a little porcelain doll  who sleeps in this little box at the end of her bed

Avery got hooked up with some cute boots!

Ethan talked about how Grandpa promised him last year he would get him a remote control truck this Christmas. Grandpa came through just like Ethan knew he would!

Dylan was way more creative with the 20 bucks he gave Trey than Trey was with the 20 bucks he gave Dylan...

Avery and Grandma Seaba

This picture just reminds me just how fast she is growing up...she just looks so grown up to me in this picture...

John's brother David was leaving for Afghanistan the day after Christmas for a year so it will be awhile before the original Seaba family will all be able to be together again. 

Our family snap shot on Christmas Day...

Raegan playing on Grandma's kindle fire...

It was a great Christmas! I hated not being able to be with my side of the family at all this time around but it was relaxing not doing any traveling/packing/unpacking. After Christmas for me it takes about a week to reorganize the house with all the new gifts/toys and things (not that it's a bad problem to have of course) I think i lasted about 3 days after Christmas till i took the tree down...that's much better than some previous years! :)

Christmas Eve and morning

Our Christmas plans were to go to my parents on Sunday morning and spend Christmas Eve in Hutchinson and then head back home late Christmas Eve to be with the Seaba side on Christmas Day. Our plans went right out the window when i was unable to take Sunday night off (just too many people gone and it is my regular shift) so instead we stayed home and went to our church's Christmas Eve candle light service which was very nice. John's parents were able to join us for the service and then we went out to Jose Peppers afterwards. Our kids were getting pretty antsy because they get to open 1one gift on Christmas Eve. We actually let them open a couple because we had so many since we had everything at our house from the Neir side.

These pictures are a mix of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our house...

Ethan's cousin got him just what he wanted! I think i have been punched with these fists more times than i can count...

Ethan was pretty impressed with his stack...

Trey was completely shocked to open his x-box game that he had been dying to get...especially after he got the first present that he opened which is further down...

Raegan got a princess Bible so that she has her very own Bible to take to Sunday school

Grandma Neir got her a new outfit for her American Girl doll that she got her for her birthday

Ethan had asked for a KU sweatshirt and Santa delivered!

 I had been shopping with Avery at the store and she came carrying this bear over and asked if i would get it for her for Christmas. She loves stuffed animals...always has and always will if you ask her. When she put it back on the shelf she gave it a hug and said "I will see you on my bed on Christmas Day" 

Pretty sure every middle school girl is in love with this group...her cousin hooked her up!

stocking time...

Raegan loved her cuddle blanket from her cousin. 

Avery and Trey had a present wrapped together that we made them open at the same time...they were pretty happy to each open an ipod touch. Yay for black Friday deals!

Hey Santa

We went to Bass Pro to visit Santa again this year. We lucked out in the timing and had no more than a 5 minute wait! 

Raegan freaked out when he asked her what she wanted and told him "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" so was worried after that he wouldn't know what she really wanted. I assured her i could update him.

They have so many little activities for the kids to do while they are there including riding the reindeer. 

(No, Raegan didn't get glasses...she just likes wearing her big sister's attitude glasses)

The last day of school was party day of course and holiday sing a long and pretty much just a full day of hanging out at the school

Raegan got to perform with the spirit squad. I think her favorite part of this was the 1 2 3...

Ethan's class made his principal (left) and his teacher into snowmen. It was so cute and the kids had so much fun doing it!

Random

Well, before i start my Christmas pictures i needed to finish up my Thanksgiving and fall pictures! Story of my life lately on trying to keep on top of things and i imagine that is the way it will be from now on till the kids are grown. I will take the being behind though because the kids are growing to fast as it is!

For Thanksgiving we went to my parents in Hutchinson. A bunch of us got up on Thanksgiving morning and ran a 5k together, my parents included so that was in my book a great way to start the day! :)

We ate lunch at the church...

Raegan, Hudson and Ella playing a board game...

Avery playing Uno with some of the little ones...and that was the extent of the pictures i took. The rest of the time was spent doing some black Friday shopping and just hanging out!

The next few pictures are just random shots that i took over the past few months.

Our cat Cheta...the most patient cat ever! She won't put up with much but when it comes to Raegan she let's her do whatever Raegan wants to do. She will scratch everyone else if made to do something but if Raegan picks her up she just goes limp. Smart cat! We found the cat sleeping in her bed the other night and Raegan was asleep too and holding tightly onto her tail. One of these days i am sure she will have had enough and fight her but for now she is still patient with Raegan who calls her "baby"

During the election the kids voted at school. Fruit Loops got Raegan's vote!

We had some really pretty fall nights. One of our favorite things to do as a family is just spend time outside on the patio. This particular night we played games and had snacks. It was a great night. The days are coming soon when our oldest two won't think it is so great to hang out with Dad and Mom on a Friday night but for now they do and we love it!

We also had a furry friend that frequented our trash can and drug trash out every morning. One morning i was taking some trash out and i caught sight of him still inside! After having what felt like a mini heart attack and running back inside i went and put a block on top and John called animal control.

When animal control got there she calmly opened it and said "yep, he is just taking a nap in there." Whaat??!! I snapped this picture as she got him out. He was ticked off and wrangled his way off of her thingamijig and ran straight towards me (another mini heart attack). They apparently can't take them away, but just have to let them go right there. He hasn't been back for awhile...maybe he is hiding for the winter! I personally hope he lost his way to our house!

Aww, so that is the rest of our fall! On to Christmas posts soon...