The Neal Family: 2009

12.30.2009

Catch you later, 2009!

A Year in Pictoral Review

January Doesn't she look like such a baby?!?

February Patrick played along during the family yoga phase.

March Three best buddies and their loveys.

April Celebrating Miss Kennedy's 1st birthday!

May A trip to the Happiest Place On Earth

June Hiking and playing at Lake Tahoe

July Playing at the waterpark every single day.

August Family Reunion in Nauvoo

September Moving to Washington and settling in.

October Blueberry Picking

November Being thankful that it's still fall-like and not snowing here.

December Celebrating with friends and family.

I for one am more than ready to kick the old year to the curb. I don't usually feel like this at the end of the year, but this one, especially the 2nd half has been a rough one for me and I'm ready to feel like I'm starting fresh. The moving and the general misery of this pregnancy have left me worn down but also ready to move on. I feel like I'm ready to surface and reclaim my life. I have big plans for a more structured home preschool curriculum for Patrick (and by default Kennedy as well), for a better scripture/spiritual study time for myself, for better planned date nights for Sean and I, for a major financial renovation, for a more organized home, and more structured days for the kids and I. There's more I'm sure, and most of it will get surface skimmed at best, but at least I WANT to do it, which is saying something after the last several months. So, I'm excited to bid a not-so-fond farewell to this old year and welcome in 2010 and the changes it will hopefully bring. Besides, 2010 is just such a nice, round number. It just SOUNDS like a better year is waiting.

(Of couse, now that I reread this after browsing through the year's worth of posts, I feel like and ungrateful brat. It's been a good year. I'm just looking forward to change.)

12.27.2009

We Had Ourselves A Merry Little Christmas

Turns out Santa also drives a Buick. And takes the ferry to Seattle.

Our appetizer dinner with the Strom's. We made WAAAYYY too much food.

Kennedy did her share to help clean it up though. Turns out she LOVES to dip things!

Patrick and Cullen were mostly into the "little hot dogs." And then they ran off to play.

When we got home we set up the Nativity and told the Christmas story,

Posed some cute children by the Christmas tree,

laid out cookies and milk...I mean Orange Rolls and milk (Santa texted Daddy his request).

Watched the "Joy to the World" DVD, wherein we found out Patrick has been LISTENING in primary this month,

and Dad read "The Night Before Christmas" (semi-abridged version for Addy).

The next morning. Kennedy was mostly interested in the chocolate.

When she discovered there were toys from Santa too....the day got a whole lot better!

Patrick got his requested computer from Santa and has been playing with it ever since.

Kennedy exploring a new book from Grandma Nay.

And Patrick checking out an awesome box of dinosaurs.

It's always a good Christmas morning if it ends with both kids playing happily with their new toys, surrounded by clutter and debris!

And just from the Department of the Totally Random: Our neighbors yard display. We can't tell if Santa is protecting the snowmen or threatening them! We laughed every night this month and I finally snuck over to take a picture! Merry Christmas all!

12.23.2009

Christmas Eve Eve

I always used to strongly acknowledge today as a very real part of the holiday. The day before. The anticipation day. So close you could actually taste Christmas, but before it all gets started and then suddenly it's all over for another year. I really loved the 23rd of December growing up.

I still like it. I do. It's just that I've developed my annual Christmas head cold, complete with earache. The kids are at loose ends with me sick and Daddy still at work. I'm missing being with family. I'm even missing the long car trip that usually gets us there. In some ways I'm happy to be doing Christmas on our own, for the first time ever, but in other ways, I feel too tired/sick to pull it off properly.

Of course, when I say "doing it on our own" you should know that the only part we plan on being alone for is Christmas morning. We're getting together with our good friends, the Strom's for Christmas Eve. We'll be doing an appetizer buffet and fun and games with the kiddos. As we're all used to the chaos of a big family, we decided we could recreate at least some chaos with our two families. And we'll be joining my cousin Suzi and her extended family at her house for Christmas dinner the next day. So, instead of making ham and potatoes and rolls and veggies, I'll be showing up with Christmas Punch and Kiss Cookies and just enjoying those other things there. And we will do a special Christmas morning breakfast and presents with the kids on our own Friday morning.

I think the whole thing will be nice. And low-key. And happy. If I can just get this layer of saran-wrap of my congested head, without benefit of any drugs besides Tylenol. (Does anyone else feel that Tylenol is totally a placebo? Cause it does nothing for me. Nothing.)

I hope you all have wonderful holidays. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a happy 23rd of December as well!

12.15.2009

What the UPS man brought....

A GIANT box of presents from Grandma Nay, that's what!

Big enough, in fact to hold BOTH children easily.

And full of packing peanuts, providing en entire afternoon of entertainment.

No, seriously, the entire afternoon. Good distraction from the rain outside.

After dinner and baths, it was back into the box. It's like a pack-n-play for big kids.

The kids got permission from the giver to open one gift early and were ecstatic!

Addy LOVES her "Yittle Peepul" and Baby Jesus--both together is wonderful for her!

And this became today's new entertainment! We love Grandma! Maybe after Christmas we'll reuse that box and just ship the kids directly to you! Cheaper than airfare...

12.14.2009

Baby Gus and some Minor Drama

See this cutie patootie baby? This is Baby Gus. He is the firstborn of my cousin Suzi and her nice husband Todd. One of the huge perks of moving here was discovering that Suzi and her family live about 10 minutes away from us. Suz and I have always been good friends, even though we usually lived at least a continent away from one another. (No, seriously. She lived in Japan and Ireland and Africa and Oman and stuff.) BYU was really the only time we lived near each other, and that's been 10 years now, so it's been really fun to hang out and watch her wrap up a looooonnnng pregnancy and have her first baby.

So, last Monday Suzi calls me up (she's adjusting to maternity leave and the inherent boredom of staying home with a baby all day) and asks if she can come visit and maybe we could all talk a short walk together? See, even though it was only about 30 degrees, the sun was out and you just don't waste that here. We agreed, I got the kids all ready to go and then debated whether to feed them lunch while we waited for Suzi and Gus to arrive. Well, in the end, I made them lunch, they ate almost nothing and I really did eat nothing. Suzi arrived, and we decided to head out quick for a brisk 15 minute walk. I was already thinking about the hot chocolate and nachos I'd be indulging in when we got home.

Well, long story short, somebody decided to leave her diaper bag in the house, someone else neglected to grab keys and a cell phone and somebody else decided to be helpful and lock the door behind us, leaving us with two mommies, a very enthusuastic 4 year old on a scooter, an 18 month old in her stroller about 20 minutes away from naptime, and a 1 month old baby snug as a bug in his carseat bundler--all LOCKED OUT of the house. With no keys, no wallets, and no cell phones on anyone. In the 30 degree cold. With both husbands (i.e. the keepers of the spare keys) at work in two different locations, but both of them at least an hour away from saving us.

In the end we used a combination of the phone at a rest home, a neighbors cell phone, and the phone in the Urgent Care center to communicate with assorted people and eventually someone from our leasing agency came and unlocked the door for us. Sometimes it pays to be a renter, I guess. All told, we were locked out for about two hours.

The blessings of the moment were that Gus is a nursing baby so no starvation, no one had a diaper emergency since we had none, that Patrick is actually pretty good on his scooter already, and the warmth of the Harrison medical building with its decently anonymous lobbies to hang out in with three kids. It could have been much worse. And hey, I still got my nachos and hot chocolate. And after all that I REALLY appreciated them!

12.01.2009

Thanksgiving

17 hours in the car, each way

+ myriad bags, pack-n-plays, and crap to pack

+ 2 grandparents, 7 siblings, 5 in-laws, and 6 grandchildren

+ 20 different schedules, agendas and opinions

+ 1 large house that nonetheless seems to shrink every time we get together

= A Very Happy Thanksgiving!

(All the big kids, ready for church. The babies were napping.)

We made our first car trip to my parents from our new home, and may I just say that it was a LONG trip. We learned firsthand the dangers of Snoqualmie Pass on the way there, and on the way home learned just how long it can take to cross the state of Oregon with their wretched 65 mile per hour speed limit.

(All six, with Nana in her classroom for a visit.)

All that aside though, it's always worth it to be with my parents and siblings and siblings-in-law and neices and nephews. The kids had a wonderful time running around Nana's house and Grandpa's farm. And Sean, well, he got to go skiing AND to the BYU v. Utah Game. His life is now complete, as you can imagine. He even rushed the field after the game like a college kid.

(Playing "how many people will fit on this 4-wheeler?")

I kept thinking about how much my family has changed in the last five years. Five years ago at Thanksgiving Sean and I were newlyweds. And now, I have four other married siblings. We collectively have six children so far, with two on the way this spring. I mean, in theory, you have to assume that in a family with 7 closely spaced kids this is bound to happen, but actually watching it unfold and watching a family grow that quickly is kind of amazing.

(Patrick is helping Grandpa lead Ella's horse around.)

As you can imagine, there are inherent difficulties in getting all those people under the same roof. The grandkids squabble like siblings, theres a ton of cooking and cleaning and tidying to be done, there are different schedules and needs to accomodate, and the ever important question of WHERE THE HECK WILL EVERYONE SLEEP?!?! But. At least for me, it's all worth it to listen to my kids on the way home as they talk about their cousins and aunts and uncles and Nana and Grandpa and all the fun they had. And to hear them ask me over and over again, "when will we go back?"

(Uncle Chad leading storytime in the classroom loft.)

*I have to make my apologies. I was kind of a photo slacker this trip. Hopefully everyone will post their aweseme pictures and I can steal them from their blogs... :) My only excuse is continuing crappy pregnancy sickness. It's still kind of the pits. Oh, well.

11.09.2009

Portrait Time

Patrick and Kennedy were both due for some portraits. Patrick needed a new 4 year old picture, and Kennedy was due for an 18 month shot. (I'm fairly compulsive about this schedule: newborn, 3 months, 6 months, sometimes 9 months, 12 months, sometimes 18 months, 2 years, and every birthday thereafter. It was a revelation to me that not everyone follows this schedule, but Sean has decided to simply concede this one.) Miraculously, both kids were healthy and HAPPY the day of the pictures. I haven't had a picture taking session with both kids involved ever go this well, and quickly. And, I think we got some SUPER cute pictures!

At the last minute, I also decided to grab their new Christmas jammies in case we had any leftover time in our session. I LOVE how these turned out!

11.05.2009

18 Months and counting....

Somewhere in the middle of the flu madness around here, Kennedy turned 18 months old. Actually, it was the day before we all came down with it. I remember because I took her to the peditrician and she was acting all out of sorts even then. Anyway, she checked out well. She's well ahead of the curve on all developmentla milestones, so no worries there. She weighs 24 lbs (40th percentile) and is 31 inches tall (15th percentile). I'm kind of waiting for the next height spurt, because she is definately on the short and round side right now. Adorably short and round, needless to say.

Kennedy is a very funny girl. We laugh at her/with her all day long. She has such funny little words and phrases and is suddenly talking in full sentences that are quite amusing. Recently she picked up "Are you kidding me?!?!" as a statement of disbelief when something funny happens. It kills me every time she says it.

No doubt about it--this girl is her own woman. She has always got a plan and can frequently be caught executing some grand scheme, often from on top of the table or desk! This is one of many pillow forts that she builds to watch the Wiggles from. I kind of hate the Wiggles, but am loving that she will sit still for about 5 minutes, which is just long enough to grab a shower!

As of now, she's also legal nursery age! We sent her once solo a few months ago and then I had been going and sitting with her (she didn't want me to leave after that one time.) However, when I got called to Primary and Sean took her, she was fine with him leaving her there. She loves going now, and talks about Church-Nursery all week. Every time a put a play dress on her she wants to go to Nursery!

Kennedy is very fun to feed. She's very adventurous in her tastes and LOVES fruits and veggies. She would live on avocado, blueberries, and broccoli if I've let her. Quite the opposite of big brother who is afraid of green foods. I hope this lasts with her and we can skip or minimize the toddler bland food phase.

What, don't you all soak in the bathtub with your sippy of "choc-o-wat miwk?" Really, what better way is there? Kennedy begs all day for tubby time, but inevitably makes poor choices regarding the dumping of water over the side and ends up getting the boot early. We've taken all the tub toys out even and she still finds a way to throw water over the edge. The other night, no lie, I watched her get her hair wet and wring it out over the edge of the tub, just to see what I would do. Can you say "limit testing behavior?"

I guess it's a good thing she's So Darn Cute. She really is the sweetest girl, and loves to cuddle and snuggle and love. Her personality has always been bigger that her body and we love that about her. It's been fun to watch the girl coming out of the baby--even though we (having now been there, done that) know that there will be many stormy minutes of toddlerhood ahead, we couldn't live without this little girl's sunshine in our lives! We love you, Addy-girl!