Random Ramblings

Just a few random phone pictures of what we've been up to lately.

Mart helped my boys both build boats to play with, and Lincoln loved pushing his all over the porch. This particular day he apparently wasn't thrilled when I told him I wanted to take a picture of him playing with his boat.

This little lady is growing so fast and just wants to be involved in everything the boys are doing.

Lincoln on a happier day pushing his boat around the driveway

Jade has been loving playing outside and climbing on her bike and pushing the buttons. Every time we go outside, she walk to her bike and just sit on it.

Ethan still just adores her and helps her with anything she needs any chance he gets. I love watching him with her.

I know, major Jade photo overload. I just can't get enough of her.

We had a huge cute visitor come see us in the office and I wanted to try and get a size different picture between Jade and Kohn. They are super blurry because neither of them would hold still long enough to take a decent picture. She loved him and didn't want to leave his side.

Lincoln has been loving living in a neighborhood with lots of kids out running around. He rides his bike all over the neighborhood playing with everyone.

Ethan and Lincoln both were invited to buddy day at the karate school. Ethan had taken karate when he was a lot younger and struggled with it and wasn't that interested, so I wondered how he would do now that he was a little older. They both loved it and had a great time. They both keep asking me if they have karate today. :)

The other night I sat down after everyone had gone to bed to get some work down. I had a new account I needed to program and when I opened my folder, I saw that Ethan had left me a stack of notes and drawings. I love that he thought to do that!

A snail

I think he said a snake

Just an I love you. :)

Someone laying outside under a tree with a blue bird flying

And after waiting over a month for my prints to arrive (I think they got lost in the mail. I had to have them re-print and resend them to me), we finally updated our photo wall and added Jade officially. It looks much better, but it makes me miss my old living room with the huge wall and tons of room for photos. It doesn't work quite as well in this house.

Other than that, we've just been busy with Ethan going to school and soccer starting back up. And the kids have finally made some neighborhood friends and they all play every night. They all end up here most nights and Mart will throw a football with them, wrestle on the grass, or sometimes the kids will build something on Ethan's workbench, or just run around and do whatever. It's nice having kids want to come over and play. I think it makes my boys feel more like this is home.

Ogden Temple Open House

About a week before Nanan and Grandad headed back to Arizona for the winter, we were able to go walk through the Ogden temple with them. Just pulling up and looking at the building from the outside was awesome. The outside is so much better than it used to be, and it was beautiful.

The only spot we were able to get when I made reservations was in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. Mart had to leave work super early and we got ready and headed out. We got there and since we had two people who needed wheelchairs, we had to go through the handicap entrance. Because of limited wheelchairs in the actual temple, we had to have our group draw numbers and wait for our turn to be called. We were assigned numbers 39 and 41, and when we showed up they were only on 17 ... with 6 small children who don't like to sit in chapels, hold still and be reverent, the wait was getting ridiculous. In the end, we ended up walking to the temple at 3 instead of at 1 when our original reservation was made for. We had to wait for 2 hours to even go over to the temple. It was incredibly frustrating and at one point I was debating if it was even worth going at that point and wondered if I should just take my family and go home.

We did end up hanging in there, and several tantrums and screaming crazy fits and lots of hungry/tired crying later, we finally were able to go inside. It was amazing and so beautiful. I love that I am able to live so close to so many different open houses to take my children to go see. Ethan was such a good helper and followed my grandma and her wheelchair around every room they went in.

Everyone that came with us: (My mom, grandma, my family, Kace and her boys and Nanan and Grandad)

Sometimes Mart buddies up to my mom. :)

Since she has lost majority of her sight, whenever someone takes a picture of her she thinks she needs to wave at the camera. I always have to remind her to stop moving her hand so it's not blurry. Ha! Love that silly lady.

I'm so grateful that Mart's Grandparents have been able to come and spend the last 3 summers with us. They have been able to go through the Brigham temple and the Ogden temple open houses with us, and it has been awesome to share that with them. It's always sad when they head to warmer weather for the winter.

My tired nugget and my mom

Kace and her cute boys

These two crashed minutes after we got back to the car.

What a wonderful feeling it is to walk through such a beautiful place with my family. I hope my kids always remember that experience and remember what a special place the temple is. Even with the frustration of waiting 2 hours, I am glad we stuck it out and took them inside.

First day of 1st grade!

Ethan has been counting down to 1st grade since the middle of Kindergarten! He has been so excited and was so happy the day finally arrived. When we were getting ready for his yearly school sign, I asked him this year what he wanted to be when he grew up, he told me he wanted to be a "cooker worker guy" ... also known as a Chef. That's my boy! :)

Looking back over the last two years first day of school pictures, he looks huge! We keep telling him to stop growing.

Flashback to Preschool and then to Kindergarten!

Typical to Neel family fashion (minus Martin of course), we ran a tad bit late on the first day. I assumed just like last year, there would be people in the room taking pictures of their kids in their desk for the first 10 minutes or so the first day. We ran in probably 2 minutes late and it was dead silent and not a parent in sight, which meant, no first day of school showing off his own desk pictures for this little man!

I have been nervous, since starting Kindergarten to be honest, about Ethan starting first grade. It was more than just him going all day long. I was nervous about lunch. I kept telling everyone that it was because he's so dang picky and he won't eat anything and then he'll starve and not focus, so on and so forth. But that was only part of it. Because Ethan is such a high energy, give it all or nothing kind of kid, he either makes other kids nervous or intimidates them, or they think he's weird or something ... but he has quite often been excluded when it comes to social situations. He is probably the most social kid I've ever met, but because he's all over the place, he's often not included. I was worried about him having any friends at all to eat lunch with or play with at recess. That first week was rough for me. Nobody would sit with him or play with him, and and older boy in our neighborhood started to bully him. Thankfully, even though he still doesn't always have someone to play with at recess (sometimes just because he wants to play alone) he seems happy and has said he's eaten lunch with at least one person every day. I hope he figures school out quickly and is able to make some more friends.

When we went to back to school night to meet his teacher, we saw this cute little man outside of the classroom door.

Welcome to 1st grade Ethan! I can't believe you are old enough to go to school all day. I hope you have an awesome year!

Week of August 14

Since I a month late on this one, the week is a little hazy. Good thing I have a few pictures as a reminder ... :)

Jade girl is at that stage where she is everywhere and into everything. We are getting to the point where we wonder if she is going to be worse than both of my boys combined (and that's seriously saying something!) To give me slightly more sanity, I spent one day installing cabinet safety locks in the kitchen. It was a rough day and I struggled way more than I would have liked installing them.

They are made a little different than the last ones I installed and they don't work quite as well as the ones I've done before.

Part way through, the battery on the drill died. Shortly after that, the drill bit smoked and snapped off and left the tip in the cabinet. At that point, I was too frustrated to finish (and sadly still haven't...)

We took a break one day before the rain came and went outside and drew lots of pictures on the sidewalk

Ethan drew our family. :) Love him!

Another day my sister in law came to Logan for a baby shower and left her kids with my mom while she went. We all went to the park to run some wiggles out and while we were there, Ethan and Kylie had a wizards duel with their wands they found. :)

"Expelliarmus!"

We also got to go to little Zack's 2nd birthday! How to train your dragon style, complete with viking helmets, shields and boat races.

It must have been a fun week, because the boys both climbed in Ethan's bed and took a long nap together!