My 1 Year Stats

I am 18 lbs (moved up from the 5th to the 11th percentile) woohoo! The dr says i'm gonna be a little petite thing My height is 28 in. (17th percentile) Yeah and i have an average size head they say. Those mean ladies stuck me 3 times in the leg but i got over it pretty fast. Then they say i'm a little anemic so mommy took me to another place while another couple of mean ladies messed with my arm and stuck another needle in it. I screamed my little head off and looked up at mommy holding me but all she did was just kiss my head, that's not what i was looking for mommy- i wanted you all to leave my arms and legs alone. If this is what happens when you have a birthday then maybe i will just stay 1 forever.

Sometimes It Doesn't Work....

to hold off nap time. She could easily take two naps, but their is not time between the times of taking and picking up the kids from school so i hold her off and let her take one long one after lunch. Yesterday at 9:30 she was sitting in the living room drinking her bottle with her eyes closed, i left her alone thinking when the bottle was gone she would get up and play but this is how i found her a few minutes later. She slept like this for an hour. Then when i got home from work last night she was sleeping in the middle of the living room floor flat on her back. Johnny said she had just layed down and fell asleep, yesterday must have been an exausting day for her.

Birthday Box

Ethan still containing himself from tearing into the package with Raegan

S-M-A-R-T-I-E-S!!!

how many packages of smarties can a 1 yr old hold? About 6

giving my new elephant a love

6 smarties and two stuffed animals, yea i can do this

30 minutes after the package was opened, still mesmerized by her smarties

Raegan got a box in the mail from Grandma & Grandpa Neir for her birthday. Thanks a bunch Grandpa & Grandma, i think you can tell how much she enjoyed it!

My Baby is 1 Year Old

August 23rd 2008 ~ 1 year old

August 23rd 2007 ~ less than an hour old

Wow, how a year flies! The first 6 months of Raegan's life were a blurr with little sleep for her and i with all of her skin and allergy problems. Thankfully that all got better with a change in formula and she and i could both get some much needed sleep! She did not start sleeping through the night till just recently, but getting up a couple of times a night was a far cry from her sleeping in the car seat beside my bed, rocking it with my foot while i pretended to be getting a few winks of sleep, or sleeping on the couch or recliner with her and not moving so she didn't wake up and start clawing herself...wheww i have to say i'm sad my baby is growing up but i do not miss those days!

Watching her develop over the last year has been very bittersweet. At each new step it makes me kind of sad, because she is our last and she will be the last to coo at us and go cross-eyed, the last to give us those first smiles, the last to take those first wobbly steps... I can totally see why that last child could easily be spoiled because you just want to keep them your baby forever!

She has been a total joy to our family! Her brothers and sister adore her and don't want her to grow up because they think she "is just so cute right now". She is always on the move and entertains herself very well! She is starting to give us those so slobbery opened mouth kisses that just melt a momma's heart and finally says "momma". It was "dadda" for so long i was thrilled to finally get a "momma"!

We love you so much Raegan! Happy 1st birthday!

The Party Before The Birthday

i want my cake and i want it now!

testing the cake

oh yeah we are going for the big bites now!

this is SO fun!

on a sugar high!

her first present, after this one she had no interest in opening any more

Grandpa Seaba and the birthday girl

enjoying some cake with Grandma Seaba

she got so much frosting on her hands that she just sat there and shook her hands, she wasn't quite sure what to do.

Daddy is going to be out of town on Raegan's birthday so we celebrated last night. We had strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and some raspberry sherbert for our little milk allergic girl. She LOVED the cake and ice cream, was on a sugar high at opening present time and wanted just to run around, and a bit overwhelmed i think by some over zealous gift opening helpers (brothers and sister). I can't believe my bay turns i years old tomorrow!!

Goin To The Park

I took Ethan & Raegan to the park today. We stayed and played until their was all of a sudden a horrible smell in the air, i looked over and they were cleaning out the johnny-on-the-spot so i decided it was time to head home, eat some lunch and send the little ones off to "peter pan land".

My "Yittle Airpwain"

After i put Ethan down for a nap today i heard him up in his room so i went in to check on him. He quickly moved towards his bed while still searching for something. He asked "do you know where my "airpwain went? My yittle one? It flew away and i can't find it!" A few minutes laster after being tucked in bed again he shouted "mommy, i found it!" all is well in the world and nap can go on cause the "yittle" plane is found!

Ethan is convinced that Santa mows the lawn at our church. The guy that does the mowing has a long white beard and white hair and is affectionately named "ho ho" aka-santa by Ethan. He will stand out side when he is mowing and yell "hey ho-ho" "ho-ho kindly let Ethan sit on his riding lawn -mower one day and he thought that was the best. He may be listening for the lawn mower on Christmas Eve this year. Ethan was in the Christmas spirit this morning and the whole way home from school was saying just what he is saying in the video...

First Day Of School

Avery and Trey's first day of school

yesterday we labeled all their school supplies and sharpened 50 pencils!

Avery's first day of 2nd grade

Trey's first day of 4th grade

Avery putting all her things in her desk

Today the kids had a half day of school to start the year off. The morning went very smooth and we were out the door just on time so that we could get to the school and take pictures. Trey decided he would pass on mommy taking pictures at school but Avery wanted me to come to her class and take a picture of her.

The kids were very excited when they came home, they both love their teachers and had a great first day!

My morning was extremely quiet. Raegan was so exausted from waking up so early that she went down for a nap by 9 and i had to wake her to go get the kids.

What? There Is Room For Dinner?

We are still getting used to the table looking so big in our kitchen, probably because our other one was so small

thank goodness for 5 point harness systems in a high chair!!! Why you ask???

this being the very reason-she will not sit and will crawl right out of the high chair

We can actually put serving bowls on the table when we eat dinner! Yay, it's the little things in life :). Johnny's parents got a new set of table and chairs, so we were given their old set. We like to wait till we outgrow things to the fullest extent around here :) The little farmhouse table with 4 chairs just wasn't cutting it, although we were making do. It was so fun to cook dinner tonight and put EVERYTHING on the table! Raegan's seat will have to wait for her a little longer for she will be in her 5 point harness for the time being! The thought of her in a booster... no thanks!

Ahhh Naptime!

This summer nap time for Ethan has been pretty much non-existent, not that he doesn't need one (he desperately does) but i just haven't been very successful at keeping a regular nap schedule with the two oldest out of school-with each of the little ones (yep i was a "little" one and now i am using the term with my kids as well) using up a bedroom the oldest two have nowhere to go, sooo therefore naps were most of the time skipped leaving a very cranky boy! Today Trey and Avery are spending the day with Grandma and i am having a few hours of NAPTIME a.k.a.: a time to get things done!

The kids start school on Thursday, i bought the last school supply item that we needed today so we are set to go. We go on Wednesday to get their classroom assignments (Trey is crossing his fingers for a particular teacher that he wants. Avery is just excited period, she is pretty sure her teacher is going to be super nice. She has been freshening up on her reading skills lately. One thing left to do...label all the school supplies...now that is something for during naptime for sure!!

Dancing

Today we were killing time waiting to go pick up Trey, the kids were driving me nutso, so i put on some music, turned it up, and let them dance. Raegan has the cutest little jig that she does any time she hears music come on. It kept them busy and happy for awhile!

I'm A Big Kid Now...

I went and bought some pullups the other day and decided we would have Ethan say bye bye to diapers. He wasn't too interested in the pullups but much more interested in his spiderman underwear in his drawer, so i decided to let him give it a go and he is on day 3 of wearing underwear with NO accidents!! WOOHOO!! He even pooped in the potty yesterday and today. I have just been asking him every now and then if he needs to go potty and i get lots of "no" and an occasional "yes". Along with the potty training goes flushing the toilet aproximately 5 times each time, climbing all over the toilet, little pieces of toilet paper everywhere, a stark naked boy half the day, and a smashed finger in the door (his own) while trying to shut the locked door. He agrees to let me put a diaper on him at bedtime with the agreement that he gets to wear underwear over the diaper. I'm proud of my big boy and very happy to be done having 2 in diapers!!

It's About That Time

To turn me around in the van. I think i will like it much better sitting up like a big girl. My big brother Trey is not happy about it cause he is sad he won't be able to see me in the car anymore, he always made me giggle. Mommy went out on a limb and bought me a pink car seat without daddy there (daddy isn't very fond of pink) but daddy must be softening a little cause he actually said it was cute!

In other news i recently had a follow up with my dermatologist and got an A+! My skin is wonderful right now, of course it is not without a few rough patches of eczema, but it is extremely mild right now. Mommy just took me off formula and is trying soy milk. So far mommy has decided that i can handle 1 or mabye two bottles of the soy milk a day but if i have more than that i tend to break out a bit, so we are still just testing the waters.

The Prairie Punisher

in between the two runs-chilling with the kids

the transition-switching the leg strap with the time chip from Rachel's to my leg

taking off on the 2nd 5k

finishing the 2nd 5k-last stretch

our winnings for being first female team finishers

wiped out!!

Johnny got the kids up bright and early to come watch me-we had a rough night with the youngest two-Ethan has a horrible cough and was up for almost an hr at 1am and when we got him back to sleep Raegan woke up-Johnny sent me back to bed and slept in the recliner with her

June, my mom, me and Julie(we missed you Susan)

my team mate Rachel (thanks for teaming up with me Rachel-it was fun!)

Today was the 7th annual Prairie Punisher Duathlon. Several years ago i did the whole thing, last year i was 9 months pregnant and went and watched my sisters complete it. This year I teamed up with Rachel Weyand. My mom teamed up with my sister Julie (which by the way i'm proud of my mom out there!! She passed on her love of running to me, i know if her feet and knees could take it she would be right out there running too!) , and my sister June teamed up with a friend, Damon (my sister's husband) did the whole thing and so did Rachel's so we had a good group to cheer each other on- the race consists of a 5k to start, then an 18 mile bike ride (that's where the punisher comes in because it is quite hilly!) and then another 5k run. I did the two 5k's and Rachel did the biking. It has been quite some time since i have done any races so this was so fun for me-probably would have been a little more fun if i had trained properly for this, but i completed it and now hopefully i will be hooked on races again! We were getting ready to leave but i thought i would check the results board and saw that Rachel and i had gotten first place in the women's team duathlon so we stuck around and got our award. Now i have to go to work which just might be a good thing that i keep moving so that i will actually be able to walk tommorow!