The Neal Family

Oh my, December just keeps coming at you, doesn't it? And this year, I haven't wanted to miss a moment. One of my favorite mommy blog authors offered a reminder this year, a reminder not to miss the "sparkly eyes." And I have to say, those are my favorite moments, although often not the staged moments that are caught on camera. Hopefully these moments that were captured will help me remember the whole feeling of this season, especially those sparkly eyed moments with my little ones. It's been a great month.
At the BSA's bowling party, Patrick was delighted to roll a spare at just the right time to win a McDonalds' gift card. My kids rarely eat fast food, even more rarely eat at McDonald's, and when we DO go there, I almost never spring for actual Happy Meals, mostly because the kids never eat anything there. Patrick shared his largesse with Kennedy and they were both thrilled by an afternoon jaunt out for Happy Meals.


The kids all got new Christmas jammies early in December; however, I have yet to have them all awake, clean, and in the jammies at the same time. Soon, very soon. Here are the big two. There's sort of a Snowman theme, although Patrick's were hard to find. Apparently 5 year old boys are supposed to be too old for Christmas jammies. (Wrong.)
We had a really nice Family Home Evening two weeks ago, where we started talking about and reading the Nativity story from the Bible and the kids acted it out with our Little People Nativity. (Best gift. Seriously, they were SO excited when we got this out this year!) What's funny is that...others....keep joining the Nativity this year. Most commonly I find Optimus Prime and Strawberry Shortcake and Pilot Paula tucked in there with the others. Funny kids!


Last Friday, one of the most anticipated events of the holiday season occurred--the arrival of Mongy Nay's Christmas package! Seriously, the woman puts together these huge boxes of little kid heaven for almost every holiday and the kids are always SO thrilled! Although I put many of the goodies away to take on our drive this week, the kids couldn't wait to try out these suckers:


Hilarious! In addition to all the fun things for now, there were lots of wrapped goodies, and a box of awesome stickers to decorate the packages with. Entertainment for a solid hour--I'll go ahead and call that Renee's Christmas gift to ME.


Which brings us to Christmas Sunday. Here are the kiddos all dressed up and NOT ready to take pictures. Oh well, I tried.




Well, I think that about brings us up to date. This week Sean is using Monday and Tuesday to finish up work for the year. Fortunately, everyone is at goal for the year and so he gets the entire break off which is fantastic news. Wednesday the kids get their second round flu shots (Merry Christmas, kids!) and we pack up the van so we can take off veeeerrrryyyy early Thursday morning. Over the river and through the woods, to Nana and Grandpa's house we go!  We are SO excited to see (almost!) my whole family and to celebrate Christmas together. Also on the agenda is letting the kids attempt skiing, and a short jaunt to Utah overnight. Then we'll return to my parents for New Year's Eve and drive home the next day.  Should be great, if we can get through the car trips. Hope everyone has a lovely holiday....see you on the flipside.

Miss Maren, you are seven months old today! It has been a HUGE month developmentally for you. You are changing and moving forward in every way. This month you:

• got your two front teeth. Just in time for Christmas! 
• continued to be my "baldest" baby--you're grooming quite the mohawk.
• gained some weight and some length, still very proportional. You're just kind of perfect baby size, not tiny and fragile, but not heavy and hard to hold. It's fun to cuddle you. 
• started hands and knees crawling, still sort of a work in progress but you do it!
• continued to army crawl and roll around the house like a crazy lady to get to where you have decided you must go.
• started eating some finger foods and you LOVE it. Attack the Cheerios! 
• continued scarfing down pretty much any solid food offered to you, usually 3x a day
• continued nursing well, about 5 or 6x a day
• began to babble with consonant sounds; da-da-da, ba-ba-ba,  etc
• developed the beginnings of the velociraptor yell--life is just SO exciting!
• began to develop a sense of funny--you have this deep chuckle that you are fairly selective about using, but when you do we know you thought it was REALLY funny.
• have consumed many unmentionable floor stuffs, including hair elastics and possibly a Lego. 
• know that Patrick's room has the best and most dangerous things. You make a beeline for his door whenever you notice it open. The mudroom is second best, but you know I've gotten better at cleaning that floor and Patrick's room is still the last frontier.
• continue to be  great sleeper both day and night. You sleep from 6 PM to 7 AM, usually with one feeding about 6 AM. You nap twice a day for about 2 hours in the morning and about 1 hour in the afternoon, as we have to wake you to do the preschool pick up. You make up for it by going to bed early though.
• began to noticeably recognize your name--you turn immediately to either Maren or Goo-goo, which is your siblings chosen nickname for you. Or Maren Goo-goo Pants Olivia Neal. I'm sorry, I tried to stop them. But you encourage it by laughing when they call you that. Just saying.
• continued to secure your little spot in each of our hearts. We love you so much, sweet baby girl. You are a bright spot in our days and we love caring for you and watching you grow! 

Love you, little one. I'm excited for you to experience your first Christmas this week and to see what the next month brings for you.
Love, Mommy

Wherein we let the children have at it with frosting and assorted sprinkles. The cookies were kind of scary looking, but they still tasted good. And the kids had a loavely time creating!




We headed out to our ward's Christmas party on Friday night. By the time we got there, I was starting to feel like I was seriously coming down with something, which was unfortunate, but I knew the kids would have been heartbroken have missed it. They got to visit with Santa (Kennedy declined, hence no pictures) and then we had dinner and a program. I was truly grateful for a few ward members who noticed my lack of energy and offered to hold the baby or help with the kids throughout the evening. 



This year the council broke with tradition and had a far less formal party for the whole family, instead of a formal evening. We all went bowling and had great food, fun activities and good times. Patrick was in HEAVEN. He bowled non-stop for three full hours, only stopping for a few minutes during the formal announcement portion of the night. 







By the time we left, both girls were feeling pretty sick, and I was really feeling unwell. By the time we put the kids to bed, I had made the official call that the girls and I were going to have to miss church. Sean and Patrick went to church, and then after church Sean had to go to an Eagle Court of Honor. In an effort to rally and keep the kids from climbing the walls, we pulled out the craft stuff and wrote our official letters to Santa.

Hooray for Christmas! This coming week/weekend we have sugar cookie party #2, the ward Christmas party, and Sean's work Christmas party, which is a family affair this year. Fun, fun!