Santa gifts

Checking out gifts from Santa!!!

Henry with a Buzz and Woody!!!

Sara.. so excited!!!

Sara's gifts from Santa

Emily's gifts from Santa

Henry's gifts from Santa

New play kitchen!!!

Art Easel

The Neal Family Christmas

Here are all six Neal grandkids. Trying to get a great picture of all of them is hard to do, but they still are cute.

Ford- age 5, Witt- age 8, Ellie- age 7
Emily- age 4, Henry- age 2, Sara- age 4

For some reason, Henry was NOT happy about pictures and just wanted to go back inside.

We spent Christmas Eve in Columbia with my family. All the cousins enjoy playing together and had so much fun with presents! Before heading back to Greenville, we even went to my sister's church for Christmas Eve service where Uncle Andy sang and Cousin Witt played a shepard.

Emily and Sara with cousin Ellie

Henry with his cousins Witt and Ford

Emily and Sara

Henry

Witt helping Henry with his new Mickey Mouse train

Now that it is spring...

I thought it would be time to finally post some pictures from Christmas, snow, etc. I am so far behind!!! Hope to get caught up with pictures this week so I can actually post some current news and blogworthy stories. With three toddlers in the house, I do have some great stories to share!

Christmas Pictures

The Cox family Christmas was in High Point the weekend before Christmas.

Sara, Henry and Emily

Peek-a-boo with Henry

Cousin Ann teaches Sara how to knit

Sara with the new ironing board!

Opening gifts from Granddaddy

Sara and Ann

Cousin Bryan and Henry

Where Have I Been?

It has been almost 4 months since my last post. How is that possible? I thought I would have more time on my hands to update regularly now that I am a SAHM, but it seems that now my time is eaten up in different ways. And that is a good thing!

The family is loving Greenville, specifically we LOVE our new home. The kids each have their own bedrooms. I hope to post pictures of those soon. With each in their own room, bedtime is no longer a struggle, but a time for the kids to be in their own room with no one else. Henry has been stubborn about moving out of his crib, but has slept in his big boy bed for the past two nights and is now telling me to take his crib down. I guess that needs to be added to my to do list.

I will be posting pics soon, but now I am heading outside to enjoy the beautiful day with the kids, maybe pull some weeds and continue my pressure washing project! (I am pressure washing the playset and deck and plan to stain them later this week)

Going diving

This was an email I sent to Ben last week who asked me to put it up on the blog as he thought it was hilarious. Hope you enjoy and can empathize with the ever growing sea of boxes with which I am exploring through daily.

"I just went diving...

Through a sea of boxes in our garage. While plundering through box #1, I located our windstream modem and the instructions to my camera. This made me think the wireless would be there since that was office equipment, but when I hit the bottom, no such luck.

So I swam over other boxes and climbed over rails to reach yet another box that read storage misc. Maybe this would be it! What did I find- an unopened stapler, the box for my OLD camera, and more office supplies. But no wireless modem. Ugh!

So then I viciously attacked the largest non-bedding box, literally falling in with only my feet kicking out. At this point, Henry walks out with his southern "mommy whacha dooooiiiinnnggg?".

After throwing out every kid safe equipment we own, except the much needed door safety knobs of course, discovering our camcorder, I was about to give up when something caught the light at the bottom of the box and hope filled inside me as I saw it... Wedged between a Noah's Ark trash can, a tapestry hanging and some stuffed animals.

I shout for joy! We have wireless!!!

Well, it isn't hooked up yet, but I did find it!"

And for those of you who actually read through this... our wireless is now hooked up and I am typing this from our computer in the living room while the modem and wireless are safe in our bedroom. Ah the simple things that make me happy!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We have a fake tree that already has the lights built in and for that I am grateful. Although the top of the trees lights don't work and some of the bottom lights are out also, I am really not worried or stressed about this as the tree is about the only thing in our house that is actually together. Moving three weeks before Christmas with three toddlers simply means that Christmas and the next couple months will be spent unpacking boxes and unloading the boxes the kids decide to pack after they were empty. It is a long road ahead to make the house be home. And it seems that the to do list and things we need grows longer daily, BUT in the midst of that, I did manage to find time to decorate the tree.

Well, I had three (make that four helpers)- my kids and a very curious cat. I had the bright idea of having the kids help with decorating the tree and it really was a good idea. Except I forgot that the plastic ornaments I bought after Christmas last year were on the bottom of the ornament box. So, we proceeded to decorate with all the sweet, more fragile, sentimental ornaments we have collected over the years.

And yes, many were broken. But luckily, I broke the first ornament went meant I couldn't scold or be mad at anyone else. I must say that I think my curious cat Cali has broken the most ornaments as she decides every night to crawl through the tree and undecorate it. This means things to do in the morning as we go on scavenger hunts for the ornaments the cat played with throughout the night!

All I can say is that no matter how messy or how silly our tree may look, we are together as a family. And it is a Christmas that we get to spent just enjoying each other. (It is the first time in 11 years that I haven't been in a Christmas Eve service in some way. And this will be the first time my family gets to go to a Christmas Eve service TOGETHER!)

Emily

Henry

Sara

Cali

Our tree...

Sara and Emily turn FOUR!!!

On Sunday, December 13,we celebrated the twins fourth birthday!! I cannot believe they are four. It was a small gathering with only our immediate family and the grandparents. But it was the first birthday celebration in our new home! The kids love the house and we do also.

Sara and Emily blow out birthday candles

Emily enjoying the yummy cake made by Grandmother!

Sara loved the cake

Sara

Henry

Emily

Em and Mamaw

Sara with Grandmother and Granddaddy