2011 Year In Review

2011 Baby!!!!

This past year has been a Roller Coaster for us! We’ve had our ups and downs, and quite honestly, I’m hoping for a smoother ride next year. A lot of changes happened this year. Right around the time the above picture was taken, I became pregnant with Crew-y!!! I was a total meany my whole pregnancy, and took it all out on poor Brad. 🙂 Then halfway through the year, we kissed our families goodbye and moved 11 hours away to North Carolina!! There were many good times in between and we love our new city but miss our families tremendously. As I am writing this end of 2011 review, I am only hours away from heading back home to see everyone for Christmas!!! So excited!! And so much in shock at how fast this year has gone by. Whoah!!!
Here is a look back:

In April 2011, for Evie’s 8th Birthday, we took a train to Chicago and visited the American Girl Doll Store. It was such a fun trip; and it was just Brad, Evie, and I. She loved the city and wants to live there one day. 🙂




Then, in June before we moved, we celebrated Owen’s 2nd Birthday!! He has so much personality this year. What a trip he is!
Speaking of trips, we got to go on a really fun trip to Lake Of The Ozarks with my family. It was such a blast!!! We went boating, fishing, caving, and Joni and I decided we need some Wave Runners. Despite being pregnant, we spent hours on them between the two of us.












Also in June, my awesome friend Leah, took our family photos. I was 6 months pregnant with Crew in these photos; our last few months as a family of 5….





Our last house had a pool, so we spent many days enjoying some fun in the sun. Cookouts, friends, parties, and some relaxation! I miss this house. 😦


After we moved to North Carolina, Brad and I took up many DIY projects. We made this headboard for Owen’s new big boy bed. It was fun working together as a team. Owen and Lily helped too!
And here’s the finished product….
North Carolina is full of beautiful Lakes and Parks. We have been exploring them all. At the beginning of the Summer, Owen was terrified of sand, so he refused to go to the beach or get off this bench! Finally, this Fall, he decided playing in the sand isn’t so bad. 🙂
Lily turned 7 this year and my Mom, Dad, Sister, Ava and Grandma D came to visit for her Birthday!

We took D to Wilmington to tour a battleship and check out this beach town.

Soon after, on September 29th, 2011, Crew Bradford Seaman blessed our lives!!! He is such an angel; we all just love him to pieces!!








We totally love the weather here in North Carolina. Today, December 23rd, it is almost 70 degrees out. Can’t complain about that! Here they are enjoying some Fall leaves….
My little Crew-ster….
We visited an old tobacco plant in Durham, that has been turned into shop and restaurants. Very cool…. We are loving discovering all that our new state has to offer.
We went to a Christmas Parade in Downtown Raleigh with our friend Rebecca. Such a fun day!



We love going to the many parks that are in the Triangle. Evie is a pro lizard catcher. She has caught 3 lizards since we’ve been here. I love the look on her face in the photo below; so serious!




Owen has made a few new friends since our move. Here he is with two of them; Addison and Cole. I don’t have any photos of him with his friend Stella, but these girls are all so sweet! So glad to have them as friends. 🙂










All right, it is time to get in bed. I have to catch a plane in a few hours!! See you all in 2012!!

Love and Blessings,

Aubree

Shared Boys Room

I finally took some photos of Owen and Crew’s shared space. Their room is my favorite room of the house, not only because of its cute layout, but because Brad and I worked together on many DIY projects for their room. Therefore, it has a lot of sentimental value to me. I just adore it!!

The only thing left to do is make their curtains, a canvas of Crew-man to go by his crib, and a paint sample mobile to hang over his crib. After Christmas I will get busy, busy!! Oh yeah, and I want to make them a couple of boyish Moroccan poufs to go at the foot of Owen’s bed. 🙂

Let’s start with the headboard! I absolutely love how Owen’s headboard turned out. Each phrase is a perfect little rule for him to live by. Some of them Brad and I made up, but most of them came from John Wooden’s father.

“Let the Lord lead you.”
“Be true to yourself.”
“Help others.”
“Make each day your masterpiece.”
“Make friendship a fine art.”
“Build a shelter against rainy days.”
“Be courageous.”
“Give thanks for your blessings.”
I love the chalkboard at the entrance of their room. I always leave little notes on there for him. When family members have visited, we left a welcome note on the chalkboard for them as well. It was fun!
We wanted to go with an adventure theme. So this room is full of maps, sports, adventurist treasures.
Crew’s crib bedding is very simple. It is gray and orange with little catfish and pebbles all over it.

I made this gray book sling for their books. Brad or I read to them every night!

I used a map of North Carolina as matting for some picture frames and to make an “O” to go by Owen’s bed.

The nightstand was found in a relatives garage and we re-finished it and painted it blue.
I love the rugby striped bedding by Serena and Lily.


We also painted his dresser blue to match the nightstand….
They have a gorgeous balcony off of their room, which is a nightmare, we had to put a lock on the door for safety. But the view of the golf course is spectacular every morning!


Owen likes to look at Crew playing in his crib…
Hi Crew-y!!
And lastly, I made this canvas of Owen, and soon will make one of Crew!
Thanks for touring the boys’ room! Hope you liked it!

Aubree

Act Like A Kid Again!

Sorry to keep you waiting a couple of days for our next workout! I probably didn’t pick the best time to start, since its the week before Christmas. I have been busy planning and running around for two parties that I am hosting this week.

Anyway, if you have felt anything like Joni and I after that first workout, then you are sore!! So, now that we have broken down our leg and bum muscles, it’s time to build them back up! Today we are taken it back to our childhoods with this workout:

Make sure you stretch before every workout. Now, head outside in this cold weather (I know, it sounds awful, but once you start it’s not so bad. Starting is the hardest part). Do you remember those line exercises you did back in middle school while playing sports? Where you would sprint to the free throw line and back and then to half court and back and then to the next free throw line and back, etc. etc. etc.? We are going to pretend that the next five houses down from you are the lines. If you live in the country like Joni, just create your own imaginary lines with rocks, or corn stalks or something. 🙂

First you are going to skip to the first house/rock, and back. Then, sprint to the second house and back. Then do low side shuffles to the third house and back (this is going to burn). {Side shuffles are where you are in the squat position and you gallop or shuffle sideways, keeping low in the squat position the whole time} Now to the fourth house you can jog and do the same coming back. And finally, sprint again to the fifth house and back.

Take a break from that and do 5 types of ab exercises, 30 reps of each.

Now, repeat this same cycle two more times. Who knows, maybe skipping like a child will inspire your neighbors to start working out too! 🙂

If you didn’t catch Day 1, Leg and Butt workout, you can find that here.

To a healthier, happier, you!

Aubree

Decluttering My Mind

As a Mom, most days can be stressful. There are a million messes to clean up, (after you just got done cleaning.) There are bills that need paying, there is cooking, diaper changing, homework, baths, getting asked 400 questions a day by little inquiring minds, and getting ignored by the kids when you ask them to do something, only to be totally worn out from all of it by the end of the day!

So, I discovered a small change that I can make during my day to destress and start fresh. Hang with me for a moment on this one… Showering by natural light!

Sounds weird but, usually when you take a shower with the lights on, expecting to have a little quiet time to yourself, your mind is still whirling about how the day went or all of the millions of things that you have to get done that day, right? Well today, I woke up and noticed the beautiful sunshine that was lighting my shower from the window in my bathroom and decided to take a shower by the warm natural light pouring into the room, instead of turning on the lights.

It was very spiritual; it reminded me to take a moment and be thankful to God for all the good in my life. It allowed me to free my mind of all the cluttering nonsense that can overwhelm it. I was able to be renewed and have a fresh start to a new day that was followed by peace, joy, and happiness. Having that renewed start changed the way my whole day went. Really!

We went to a state park today and took the kids hiking. They had a blast climbing on fallen down trees, and crossing a river over logs, and just playing on our natural God-given playground. Here are some photos…

Running wild in an open field….

Aubree