Party at the rink

Avery and her friends partied at the skating rink on Saturday. I decided i like parties where there was no set up, no clean up...just go and enjoy the party!

Avery and her cake. She doesn't like cake, she hates frosting...she wanted brownies. Brownies was not an option of the party packages...

she ate anything that wasn't touching the frosting. She is just like her dad, she didn't get this from me!

the girls

Avery was given a beautiful tea set from Grandma Seaba. She was very surprised and was talking to me on the way home about how she would give it to her daughter someday on her 10th birthday. We have hid it away in safety for the time being in safety from our "tiny tornado"

i love the gift huddle everytime, so fun!

She had a fun day, and that concludes our January of birthdays...

A favorite

I have always raved about one of my favorite meals from when i was younger. The restaurant that i worked at in high school had the best teriyaki chicken ever! I loove teriyaki chicken! We have made it before without the rice and one of my new favorites...pineapple! (i can't get enough of pineapple these days)

I'm so happy that my husband loves to cook. It really works out nicely since it is not on my list of love to do!

Lat night i took the kids to their church activities, we normally have small group but are on a little break so when i got home i came in to this...

Delicious was the word of the night! After feeling great about the healthy dinner i later went to sonic to get us a treat and threw healthy right out the window! Oh well, they canceled each other out.

Birthday celebrating

The kids get a "birthday box" filled with goodies from Grandpa and Grandma Neir for their birthdays. Avery was ready to go to it as soon as she got home from school. We quickly took the knife from her right after the picture before she cut a finger off! I think i had a mild heart attack during the two swipes she did take while i was taking a picture! Not sure why she was given that big of a knife!

Avery loves the fact that she was born on her Uncle Rodney's birthday. They have celebrated together several different times. We didn't plan it this year but their family was going out to eat abd we were to so we decided to meet up. (we didn't tell avery) Grandpa and Grandma Seaba came too along with Uncle Duane and Aunt Denise. Avery was surprised and thrilled and said "it was the best birthday dinner ever!"

the birthday duo wore their balloons and got sung to and enjoyed dessert which i just remembered i never got a bite of...i always get a bite!

I have enjoyed the way we have done the birthdays this year. No parties on the day of the birthday (since their birthdays have fallen on school nights). It has made the actual birthday a little more relaxed and enjoyable instead of just worrying about the party!

Avery can't wait till her skating party on Saturday...

A decade

Ten years ago today we welcomed a new baby girl into the world! She was born on January 24, 2001 at 4:11 pm. She weighed a whopping 9 lb. 2 oz. She, like her brother had a mop of dark hair on her head which i was excited about (i thought my girl might be bald since my boy had so much hair). I was wrong...

people always thought she was much older than she was. The hair threw them off. She is and always has been a little go getter. She started walking at 8 months old. It didn't even look right!

This is on her first day of kindergarten

Avery loves to laugh, loves reading, will most all of the time be found doing a cartwheel, and is dying to take gymnastics! She is feisty yet quiet at times and can get extremely hyper and giggly when around her friends! She is in the 4th grade and her favorite subject is social studies. She loves to play kick ball at recess.

Happy 10th birthday Avery! We love you very much and are very proud of you! Avery chose her birthday dinner to be at Red Robin. She chose not to go to a buffet like Trey cause she "has to eat two vegetable there" :)

Deep breaths

It has been one of those weeks, not a bad one but just a hectic, take a deep breath and dive in type of weeks. Ethan got sick first with flu like symptoms...high fever, horrible cough. He is doing fine now, just a lingering cough.

John was off work on Thursday and threw his back out while shoveling the driveway. He finally went to the urgent care on Friday night and they gave him some steroids and some pain meds so he has been able to move around a little better.

I started making an online photo book the other night because there was an offer for a free book. Either everyone on the other side of the world was making one as well or my computer was bogged down but it took me till 3am...well, i gave up at 3am when the computer froze. I finally finished it Saturday morning. Raegan had been starting to cough on Friday and i could tell she was coming down with something and at 4 am on Sat after i had just gone to bed an hour before she came in sounding horrible! She had the barky sounding cough and every time she took a breath it sounded horrible. I pulled her in bed with me but you can imagine how good that sleep was from 4 to 7 when we finally got up. We spent over 3 hours in urgent care on Sat. She has croup. They gave her a dose of steroid that should help for 4 to 5 days. She has pepped up a lot more and does not have a high fever this morning, though you wouldn't really be able to tell that with this pathetic little face...my youngest two's favorite place to be while they have been sick is right on my pillow with my blanket...it will be a miracle if i don't end up sick...

I am down to the last week and half of our January challenge. My mom is leading the pack or at least i think so. My sister June and my brother in law Greg i am a bit suspicious of, not really sure where they are at. I'm sure it will be a tight race at the end. I will add my miles to my log after midnight on Feb 1st. and then i will add a new log for our yearly goal of 1,000 miles in 2011. Trey is going for 500 and Avery is going for 250. My dad has put up an incentive for each of those distances so that the kids can all be involved too but not do more than what is healthy for them at their ages.

We each are also trying to read through the Bible this year. Trey and Avery are doing really well. I am proud of them. They have already had lots of questions like "why did people live so long in the Bible?" and "what is begat?" John is doing his with the chronological version, the kids and i are just doing beginning to end.

And, 10 years ago today i was once again preparing for a very special trip to the hospital the next morning...

Trey's party

Well, i was procrastinating and that turned around and bit me! Raegan managed to erase all of the pictures on my camera before i uploaded the pictures from Trey's birthday party last Friday.

I am not angry, i am not angry...ok, i'm angry/frustrated/sad.

We were able to go out to Elm Grove's gym with cousins and friends and about 20 nerf guns of all kinds and have nerf gun wars, basketball games, kickball and food.

He got action figures, a b b gun, a gigantic nerf gun that shoots mom at lightning speed and some other neat little gadgets that 12 year old boys find intriguing.

I'm sorry i lost your pictures Trey. I had some great shots of you and your buddies! I'm not too sad about no picture of the pathetic looking cake though with the number twelve drawn in green decorators icing that i did with my finger because i didn't have a decorator's tip :)

One party down...one more to go this month. What on earth were we thinking having two babies in the month of January??

Running goals for the year

If you know me you know i'm very much a goal setter, list maker type of person! So, when thinking about my fitness goals for the year, what better way than to write them/ type them down so that i can check them off...or not depending on if i meet the goals or not as the year goes by.

*1,000 mile challenge: my parents have a goal at walking/running 1,000 miles this year! He challenged any of us to join them. So, i will be logging my miles ran/walked with a goal of 1,000 logged miles by 2012! I only hope that i can be as motivated and physically fit as my parents are when i am their age, i think it's awesome! I'm hoping we can all do a race together this next spring/summer/fall running season!

I have some times i want to beat...go figure. hopefully this year will bring me some new pr's...we shall see.

My goal race times:

*1 mile- I have only one shot at this since there is only one 1-mile race that i am aware of. My time to beat- 6:32

*5k- time to beat 22:17- plenty of shots available to try to get this

*10k- time to beat 50 min.- plenty of shots available to get this one too, preferable not 100 degrees like it was last summer during the only 10 k i ran!

*half-marathon- time to beat 1:57:05- i have 3 shots at this as i have 3 half marathons planned

So...that gives me lots to work towards...cmon spring!! I'm ready to get outside and run!!

Look who's growing up

Trey Michael was born 12 years ago tonight at 8:12 pm and weighed 8 lb. 12 oz. A lot of 12's were going on in his stats and now he has reached another 12! I can't believe he is getting this close to his teen years! Yikes!!

Trey is a fun loving guy who likes to laugh and make other people laugh. He LOVES his cat Cheta! He is a very creative guy. He loves to draw and write stories. He is in the 6th grade enjoying his first year in middle school and has discovered this year that he loves to run and has a goal to beat his momma which i'm sure he will accomplish before long at all! He plays the viola in orchestra at school and loves hanging out with his friends and cousins!

He chose to eat at a buffet tonight. Where else would a 12 year old growing boy choose than somewhere he can eat till he feels sick!

Happy 12th birthday Trey. We love you and are very proud of you and the young man that you are becoming!

Snow day #2

I was excited again to read last night that we were going to get another snow day! Another day of sleeping in, and that they did very well! I think i rolled out of bed after 9 am! But tonight reading that our district will be having classes tomorrow made me happy! Two nice long days in the house and these kids need a change of scenery! They drove me crazy today! It's no secret, i told them so! They were bouncing off the walls like a bunch of caged monkeys!

after lunch i decided we needed to go outside and exert some energy, so we bundled up...again




The snow was way too soft to build a snowman, or at least it was for my skills so they built a pile of snow to jump in.

I did tackle my coat closet/catch all/store all too!

By 5:30 i was losing my marbles, patience and pretty much anything i had left! Daddy was going to be another 2 hrs at work so we went out and grabbed dinner in a drive thru just so we could get out of the house for a bit.

Tomorrow is a special day...12 years ago tonight i was preparing to make a trip to the hospital the next morning...

Happy snow day

Today was our first snow day of the season! I was anxiously waiting to see our school district run across the bottom of the television. I tried to tease Trey and Avery and tell them mommy had overslept and we were late (trey despises being late to anything) but they didn't go for it. Trey's response was "what? we have to go to school in this weather? nu-uh!" Avery just grinned and yawned and curled back under the covers like she knew mommy was full of bologna. I think she must have already looked out the window!

Daddy got the day off as well, at least all but a few hours so we spent a lot of the day de -cluttering the kids rooms. The boys room was in desperate need of it! Seriously, tell me i am not the only mom that has to pull a zillion things out from under beds almost daily. For some reason an under the bed mess is enough to drive me crazy! And for some reason, my youngest three like to stuff everything under their beds! They start groaning when i start making the middle of the room pile!

They have already canceled school for tomorrow so we are going to have another lazy day, yay! maybe i will tackle my coat closet aka (catch all and store all) tomorrow, ha! oh and play in the snow some more!


i sent my hubby to the store today to stock up on batteries because every toy, electronic devise, camera, and remote is needing new batteries and one important thing on his list was a 2 liter...who can have snow without this? For dinner tonight was spaghetti and coke snow slushies!

Happy snow days everyone!

Raeganism for the day

Raegan (pushing on my tummy) " you have a baby in your tummy mommy"

me- "no, mommy doesn't have a baby in my tummy"

Raegan- "yes you do, why is it like that?"

me- "mommy's tummy is just a little pudgy"

Raegan- "noo, you have a baby in your tummy(acting like she's sure i'm teasing her)"

me "nope honey, no baby in my tummy"

Raegan- "did you eat your plate??" if only you could have heard the tone she used...

January challenge

I have been very unmotivated and lazy since my half marathon in October! I have continued to eat like i eat while training so i've gained my winter time 10! Sooo, i was excited when i got a message the other night after work that my sister had created a facebook group and we were going to have a month long "Neir challenge"! I needed something to get me motivated cause spring time runs are right around the corner! There are 8 of us in the challenge and the winner is the one with the most logged miles either walking or running by Feb 1st 12:01 am! We are each putting in 10 bucks to the winner to add some extra motivation!

The kids decided this sounded like so much fun that they wanted to do it too so they started their own group and about 8 of them are logging their miles as well. They are each putting in a dollar to the winner

I don't know what is making me more tired, the running and walking i'm doing, or trying to referree the treadmill usage and whos turn it is and having to be right there while Ethan is on it. Trey has logged 9 miles, Avery 7 and half and Ethan has 3. They are plugging right along! My miles will remain secret for the time being :) I will say i am tired but i am trying to be careful to not overdue it...the last thing i need is an injury, i have a few half marathons i'm wanting to run this year!

I finally, after a lot of begging let Raegan on the treadmill going very slowly and left Avery for a few minutes to keep an eye on her. This is how i found them when i came back in. Avery was being her "agent" she said. Crazy girls, i think i need a little of this treatment when i run...ha! :)


Well i'm off to go for a walk...kidding! That was earlier, Johnny, Avery and i walked to Mcdonalds and back to rent a movie from redbox...i'm now going to go crash in the recliner and watch it. I'm done with my miles for the day. Done!

I added a log over on the right side of my blog with the miles that the kids run/walk and will update it daily if you want to see how they are doing throughout the month. If you want to leave a comment to cheer them on i will pass that along to them as well! :)

Happy new year!

We went to to my parent's last Wednesday to spend a few days. The kids were excited to spend some time with cousins that were also still in town in addition to the ones that live there! We spent New year's eve at the my sister and brother in law's. They had a ton of food...

and the wii, "just dance 2" which provided all the entertainment we needed! I decided our family needs to get a wii, so we can learn to dance, who needs dance lessons?? I still have the song "it's raining men" running through my head!

these girls danced all night long even when they weren't holding the controllers

notice what raegan is holding...she danced with the tv remote all night and was perfectly satisfied

ethan would get very upset when he would get behind in points from the "duehring dancers", i swear they must have a dance class incorporated into their home school...no one could beat ANY of them...anyway, ethan welcomed daddy's help!

the guys were hilarious, i think this might have been their russian dance

happy new year

5 minutes before the new year, i have a picture exactly like this from last year...he just can't make it...

so i woke him up, it wasn't easy! and in the end it wasn't a fantastic idea because after this picture he bawled his head off. he didn't shoot the confetti off in time with the other kids and he was inconsolable, so next year i think i will let the little man sleep!

confetti poppers while watching the ball drop

Happy New Year 2011! Here is to a great year!