A Little Family Time

In the last little while, we have been able to spend some time with our rad families. First up, Grandma and Papaw Neal came to see us. (oh yeah, and uncle jason, but I didn't get any pictures of him...)

Next, we made the trip to Idaho to see that portion of the family:

Then, Alicia and Brady to came to see us over Easter!

Maybe the Dingo Ate Your Babies

No, no it didn't. I still have them. And here are the pictures to prove that in fact, the dingo did not eat my baby(ies).(man, i miss seinfeld). I figured I'd better post some pics of the kiddos before the grandparents started getting hostile. We had our church Christmas party tonight... It was really fun, we got to meet a lot of nice people and Santa came! Also, we had ham. I love me some ham. I need more ham in my life.






G said she knew it was the real santa clause because he was old. I like that it was his oldness that made him legit.

Happy Halloween!

Bubs is trying to hook G, but she is immune b/c she's doing this witch pose.

"How I Spent My Fall Break". By V. Neal

The school district here does this crazy thing where they are off for a week in the fall. So, we had some out of town Neals come to visit us and test out the new house and the new state with us.
Grandma, Bubba, and...WHOA, A BEAR! just kidding, not a real bear.

Now, these next pictures were all taken at a tea room in a castle. We went there for lunch and it was so much fun. You get to wear these fun hats (hats are not normally my idea of fun, but this is a rare exception) and they serve you tea sandwiches and tea (well, we had lemonade, but you get the idea..) This particular tea room holds a special place in my heart. (pretty sure i've never said "holds a special place in my heart" before) because growing up going to colorado on family vacations, we would always go here and it was always my favorite part of the trip. So, it was really fun for me to take my kids there. Thanks to John, Rosemarie and Kristy for bearing with me and acting like the tea room and the hats and all were fun.

Well, John wasn't that great at acting like the hats were fun.

Come to think of it, J wasn't either.

During the course of the week, we did much more than pictured. For example, I spent a good chunk of time trying to get Bubba to stop yelling "POOP!" and "TOOT!" So,... that was fun. Also, we had a few days of solid shopping. This is purely my opinion, but I think a good time was had by all Neals during Fall Break. And their was neither "falling" nor "breaking" of anything at all. wow, I think I've reached an all time low.

Oh the Loveliness of Fall

Fall is the most splendid of the seasons. There is just something so romantic about it. I love to bring out my sweaters and jeans again. And something about fall just begs for goodies to be baked. And who doesn't want a delicious baked good?
We participated in some good old fashioned autumn jolliness today by raking and jumping into leaf piles. We documented it on film for all to see. Life sure is different now that every event is a potential blog post.

Our trip to Vegas, I mean D.C.

I've never been to Washington D.C. before, and why has no one ever told me that it's a lot like Las Vegas? Everything is so fancy and over the top, some things verging on ostentatious...(the distinguishing factor for each place being that one is tacky, one is classy, i don't like to point fingers, so i'll let you figure out for yourself which is which)I loved it! J's sister, Kristy, moved there about a year ago, so we went to see her.
First things first. Accessories. We'd only been there about 5 minutes when, G, Grandma and I started trying on shoes, and coveting handbags, etc. Kristy has the best accessories.




J, S, and G with Grandma
Aunt K with G
G getting a wiping lesson from Igor the Excellent Wiper. I told J that if he, I mean Igor, doesn't stop making getting wiped so fun, she's never going to wipe her own bum.

The National Zoo was so fun, not mention free. And within walking distance from Kristy's apt.

One of J's best friends, Sam, lives near D.C., and we were able to go see them. It was great because they have children the same ages as ours.

This is at the Natural History Museum, which G LOVED. She has been really into dinosaurs lately. The best was that she had brought a little notepad and pen with her, and as soon as we got into the dinosaur part, she took it out and was walking around 'taking notes'.
Generally, I'm not a super museum-lover-type, but a free and actually cool museum is a whole different story.


This was at the Botanical Gardens, they had an orchid display from A-Z or something like that, this is G with the G.

A cool cactus in the botanical gardens.
The crew. Let's face it, anything that got us away from this excruciatingly long Ohio winter would have been fabulous, but we really did have such a great time, what a fun trip!

I hate January

In an attempt to try to remedy some January cabin fever, we decided to go visit the great state of Kansas for a couple of weeks. Turns out it was just as freezing there, and we spent most of our days inside, hence developing the very cabin fever we were trying to avoid by staying home! Only, this was the kind of cabin fever where you mostly stay inside, but you have a lot of visitors. And you leave the house a total of 2 times.

So, here are a few ideas we came up with to bring a little fun and excitement to the horrible 31 days of January. I will also credit each idea to it's author. You know how I like to give credit where it's due.


There's always throwing a party for your sister's boyfriend who you've never met before. The Cake says 'Congrats Rocky'.
G said he deserved congratulations "for getting a girlfriend".
credit: G



And of course, there's always the old standby of building a sweet fort.
Credit: Brenna


And if there comes a surprising sunny day in January, you could always experiment with different objects to keep the sun out of your eyes.
Credit: G
G: Mom, the sun's in my eyes.
Me: Hmm, why don't you find something to block it with.
G: Ok. How bout these 'bungo' drums?



You could always visit some friends and family! Above is my sister Jessica's little boy. Do you think that G and he are related!?
Below, we visited our friends who have just recently moved to KS.

You could always do some thinking. A little thinking never hurt anyone.
Credit: G


We did a LOT of reading.
Credit: S

Don't forget about bean-bag peek-a-boo.(wow, 3 -'s)
Credit: S



Of course, if any of those idea's don't work out, you can always do this for a while.
Credit: S