Hublein Tower.....Take 2!!!

Wow, what a busy weekend at the Neeley house...and this was the perfect way to end our 5 day long weekend! We could seriously not have asked for better weather and had so much fun with our friends.

I was talking with my girlfriend @ baseball on Sunday and we decided to do the hike again with the big boys. I absolutely adore this family and our kids get along great. Another fun day, the boys were silly, Lexi got to follow her little boyfriend around, and Ethan collected half the mountain and shoved it into his pockets....which I was so happy to find in my washing machine at 11:00 last night!!!

After our hike we went over to the cider mill for apple fritters and fresh lemonade (bad combo. for my taste buds, but kids loved it!) we had to make sure we put on all those calories we burned hiking! :)

I was just starting to think that we would not have time for days like this with our crazy schedules and then I realized that the time is always there, we just have to be creative and find it!

Lots and lots of pictures...........

Half way point.....happy kids, happy mommies,
and they are all still clean! (and yes, those would
still be workout clothes, why break tradition!)




They were all sooo good to pose
for my pictures all day. I tried to
just snap without telling them, because
if I asked they did obnoxious things!




What one does not think of.....the other does!
Love it! :)





Love Love Love this teenage boy
of mine, and his smile is so infectious!



This very nice man offered to take a picture
for us. Our kids were all climbing down the side
of the mtn. together and he thought it would
make a great shot! I had to post this one first
because I think we have 12 just like it! He could
not get anyone to look at the camera and then we
started laughing and couldn't stop!






Much better... AND...we even
managed a couple of smiles, of course
not by my little munchkins!






These big boys absolutely scare me sometimes!
I have to keep telling myself "He's not a little boy"
My kids downloaded a Miley Cyrus song a while
ago and everytime I hear it, I think about Jake.
(Get Ready, Get Set, Don't go.) I think I'm ready,
he's definitely ready, yet I still want to hang on
for as long as I can.....I'm such a sap, sorry!





End of the road! Could not get "The
Princess" in the picture. She was
behind me couting all of her "owies"
She fell 5 times and was so banged
up, cut's everywhere and I had left
the bandaids in the car!

Hublein Tower

This was today's little adventure and we had soooo much fun. It was a beautiful fall day and we could not pass up a day outdoors. Jake and Cameron had big boy stuff going on so I decided to take Lexi and Ethan and hike up to the Hublein Tower. It's only about 20 minutes from our house and about a 45 minute hike up to the tower. (Little legs take longer!) We've lived here for 5 years and always something we have wanted to do and just never done. We got the perfect day! We got half way up and stopped to take a few pictures and I realized I had left the battery to the camera in the car....they did not skip a beat and happily went back down with me to get it! They simply amaze me every single day! Their sweet little smiles can turn my entire day around. I loved this day with my little ones, I don't get too many of these and love them when I do!




So, this is a very bad shot of the tower. Lexi asked me to take one and this was the best one I could get from where we were standing. I just love seeing the blue sky!



My little princess. She was so happy today, she told me on the way up "mommy, this is my best day ever!" She sang me (and everyone else walking by us) all of the songs that she is learning in music, it was so cute and I love to hear her sweet little voice.


Ethan loves his sister so much and wants to do everything she does. Today was no exception. Somedays I forget that they are 2 yrs. apart in age.



It is always a challenge getting a picture of Ethan. He will NOT smile for the camera, he will make the silliest faces or just run away! I used to get mad, now I just snap lots of shots as fast as I can and hope for a good one.....this would be a good one! There were a bunch of teenagers behind me trying to distract him, I think he was scared of them.

Ethan is all boy and loved every minute of our little adventure. 2 minutes into the hike he already had his hands full of rocks, big sticks and a fabulous assortment of leaves.....NO, not the pretty fall leaves, they leaf green ones he picked that were probably poison ivy!


Yes, this one took a little bit of confidence on my part to post. I don't make a habit out of leaving my house looking this way, unless I'm running that it is! But, it's a memory and one we want to remember, no make-up and all!!! The cutest old man (Lexi called him the grandpa man) stopped us and commented on Lexi's singing and asked me if he could take a picture for us so that we could remember our day!




This would be the half way point where we had to go back for the battery. The view was absolutely breathtaking and the kids were so curious and excited to have me point out different landmarks that they knew.

History of the Grandparents "nicknames"

Yeah, this is a boring one, no photo's....but definitely worthy of an explanation.

When Jake was little, he had a hard time figuring out who all his different grandparents were. He never knew where we were going and who-was-who! It did not take him long to come up with his own little nicknames for them and they just kind of stuck. All 4 of our kids still use the same names......11 years later! The only problem, our parents still can't get it right!


Grandma Siddoway (my mom)
Nickname: Aunt Jill Grandma

My little sister Jill was still in high school and living at home when Jake was born, so every time we went to my mom's we would say "We're going to see Aunt Jill and Grandma". They became one person and the name stuck! Jen's girls call her "Grandma Sally" so my kids hear them say that and still have absolutely no idea who they are talking about!


We took Grandma and Jill down to Mystic and had such a fun day! It was a little chilly, but the boys loved it and Jake never misses an opportunity to do something silly in a picture. I cannot believe how small the kids were....time for new photo's. Aunt Jilly's had 2 little girls since then! :)


Grandpa and Grandma Wahlquist (my dad and step mom)
Nickname: Grandpa and Grandma Robin

This one is actually really funny! My dad is always teasing....anyone & everyone.....it does not matter who you are, no-one is exempt from the teasing! Robin is my step-mom and so Jake would always hear me call her by her name. My dad was tormenting my 2 yr. old one night as we were leaving and had him all confused on names. The next time we went back, he had affectionately become Grandpa Robin. NO matter how hard he tried, he could not convince Jake to change it and the name stuck and all my kids call them that! I love it...it's by far my favorite!

Again, a really old picture. This was actually right after Ethan was born, my dad came out for Ethan's blessing. The only one I could find with all 4 kids. I get so excited to see everyone when we are in Utah, I forget to take pictures. That needs to be high on the priority list this Christmas!

Grandma Neeley (Jarrod's Mom)

Nickname: Pat Grandma

My mother-in-law, who I call by her first name "Pat". We spent a lot of time with her when Jake was a toddler and I think this was the first nickname he came up with! and yes.....stuck, although she still thinks it's "Grandma Pat"!

Grandma Wahlquist (my grandma)

Nickname: Great Grandma

This is my grandma and she is still alive. Her memory is not the best and I think she only remembers Jake. Jake and I spent a lot of time with her when he was little and he has great memories. When I was little she would put puzzles together with us on the hearth in her family room. She did the same thing with Jake, even the same puzzles....from the same closet in her basement! I love that he has those memories with her, my other little one's will not have that.

I will treasure this picture as it is the last one I will probably have with my kids and their Great Grandma. This was taken Christmas 2004 and I wish I had a more recent one. She loves Christmas and it will be so sad to not see her house all decorated this year and have Christmas Eve dinner with her (even if we don't eat the food, it's still a memory!)

So, the boring explanation as to why my kids have funny names for their grandparents. Now you will not think it's a typo when reading my posts!

10.21.08

***Found a few pictures of my kids with their grandparents and had to put them up! Still looking for one of Pat Grandma, I will get that one up shortly.

Ethan's Birthday

This has to go down as the worst b-day ever! This poor little guy spent all day in the freezing cold rain for the big boys baseball games! I wish I would have taken a picture of Ethan and Alexia all bundled up in the blue chairs. I sat them in the middle and built these little tents around them so they would stay warm, you could just see their little pink faces poking out!

They were so good about it and did not even complain. Ethan asked for Dino Chicken (yummy!) for his b-day dinner and ice cream cake. My last attempt at a cake did not go well, but I was really excited to try this one. There was no baking involved, so not much to mess up! Again, went to the store, bought all the ingredients, had everything ready to go and nothing about this day went as planned. We were on "baseball stand-by" all day. Game-on/Game-off all morning.

By the time we got our little popsicles home, there was not time to make an ice cream cake, we ended up buying one from Ben and Jerry's. Ethan did not care, he had more fun playing basketball and riding his scooter in the kitchen. He is such a little boy and so easy to shop for. I can never resist wrapping up something that I know my kids will make a face at! Now that he's a big boy and potty trained, I had to wrap up underwear.....it was too funny! I must get the urge to do obnoxious thing from my dad!

I always want to make each of kids birthday's their own special day, and in it's own way....this one was definitely memorable. One that I will never forget!

Here are a few pictures, we've been having problems with our camera and the quality is not great. Time for a new one!

Movies and Color Wonder from Aunt Jill Grandma.

We absolutely love Color Wonder at our house,

no-way for him to color the walls!!!

Ethan wanted a bat and glove like his brothers.

He loves to do everything they do.....he was

not too excited that they did not look

exactly like the big boys though!

Just what every little boys wants

for their birthday.

Socks and Underwear!!!

The face is priceless!

What did I say in my previous post

about getting a picture of my kids

NOT doing something obnoxious!

I'll take this though, this makes the

whole icky day worth every second!

We try to tell him it's rude to point,

but it does no good! It's become his

trademark, along with sticking

his tongue out at everyone he

sees.....we actually tell people

it means he likes you!

The cake was yummy, and he was happy!

(No-one is allowed to comment on the fact

that there are matches in the cake.....I could

not find the candles!!!!!)

This was the highlight of his day, because mom
never lets the big boys play basketball in the
kitchen or ride scooters in the house! Did not
have the heart to tell him that it was all
moving outside in the morning!

Jake's Birthday!

Oh my gosh, I have a teenager! Where does the time go??? He is no longer that giggly, mischievous little 3 yr. old that had to be watched every second. (although he is the one that keeps me on my toes and running non-stop!) Jake has got such a funny, quirky personality and I love to just sit and talk to him. That's not to say that he is not developing what I call the "teenage moodiness"! I'm sure it will get worse.....before it gets better.

Since we've been in CT, birthday's are CRAZY!!! Jake and Ethan's fall right at the beginning of baseball season, end of the year projects and field trips and so we are usually throwing something together quick! This year was no exception. For the first time ever, Jake actually made a dinner request....and it was actually something I could do. He asked for kabobs on the grill and he wanted me to make an Oreo cheesecake for his cake!!! (see photo's below, that one did not turn out so well!) We were able to eat a quick dinner as a family, which does not happen very often in this busy house. He even ate my cheesecake, what a good sport!

These pictures definitely need some explaining.


I'm sure this comes as a shock....but my boys LOVE the Red Sox! "Aunt Jill Grandma" (I will explain the grandparent nicknames later....that takes an entire post!) called a couple of months ago and asked me if I thought the boys might like Red Sox Nutcrackers for their birthday's. She seemed so excited about it and I did not have the heart to tell her NO! They love her so much and Jake was a good sport to smile so I could have a picture to send to Grandma. I believe Ethan has tried to crack everthing imaginable (including his fingers) in this thing and he managed to break Cameron's......yes, Cam got one too! (sorry MOM, I could not resist, it was just too funny!)

This would be the Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake that my son asked me to make him. I have never made a cheesecake in my life, I really don't even like Cheesecake...or Chocolate! I looked online for the perfect recipe, bought all the ingredients and followed every single step. I have no idea what went wrong, but we all decided it was the ugliest cake we had ever seen!!! I always tell my kids that the word "QUIT" does not exist in our vocabulary and that it's not allowed in our family. So, I am not quitting.....but "RETIRING" from Cheesecake making!

Another thing that I should "RETIRE" from.....trying to get a picture of all 4 kids......smiling and not doing something obnoxious in front of the camera! (and getting Jarrod to smile would be an added bonus!)
Against my better judgement, we decided to get Jake a ripstick! If you don't know what they are, look them up online. They are scary! It's kind of like a skateboard, but it's all bendy and twisty. I was actually excited that he asked for something that was not a video game!

Red Sox # 1 fan!!!

The season officially started yesterday and I have some pretty excited boys in my house. The DVR is already full of pre-game, the actual game, post-game, highlights, and I think we even recorded it twice! I don't think anyone would argue that Cameron is their #1 fan. Mr. Stockwell (the para in Cam's class) knows how much Cameron loves the Red Sox and he kept checking the score for him yesterday, and gave him frequent updates!!! I love it. This is what I thought having boys would be all about it. This child lives for Red Sox baseball.

So, yesterday I got all the facts on Tokyo. "Mom, did you know it's a 13 hour time change...do you think the players are tired, did you know they play in a big Dome, did you know Dice-K and Okajima are from Japan, do you think they are happy to be home, will the Red Sox learn Japanese, Manny and Moss hit homer's.....etc" That's all I can remember, he was talking a mile a minute! (hmmmm, wonder where he gets that from???)

Well, this morning I wake up to the tv blaring from the family room and Cameron talking to himself! I go downstairs and he's ready to go! "Mom, did you know Terry Francona gets in trouble for not wearing his uniform, Beckett's arm is hurt so he's on the injured list, do you think Manny will hit another homer today, do you think J.D. Drew is really hurt...he's probably just really tired with the time change, guess what....Pedroia shaved his head, he has little spikes all over!" With my eyes half open and my mind spinning, all I could do was smile and try to process what he was saying so I could answer him...I just wanted the questions to stop! I don't know how the kid ever falls asleep at night. His mind seriously must run in overdrive all day long.

I think I am getting my payback! I remember waking up at 5am everyday and I know that it made my mom crazy. I may not have been shouting off baseball stat's, but at that hour it really doesn't matter why they are up....it's just annoying that they are up and when one get's up....the other's are soon to follow! It's a good think one of us is a morning person, and NO, that person would not be Jarrod!!!

I guess I should just be thankful that all the games are not in Japan and I don't have to worry about anymore 5am games. Well, it's definitely "Game On" in the Neeley house. Ready for another season of Red Sox baseball. Anything you want to know, give him a call....I'm sure he would be happy to share his knowledge with you and it will give us a break from listening!!!


***The pictures are from a game they went to last season. Jarrod got tickets to the Hartford box and was able to take the boys. I honestly don't think I've ever seen the boys so excited, esp. Cameron. Jarrod let them wander around before the game and being the brave one that Cameron is, he was able to get down by the dug-out during warm-ups. He started yelling "Hey Big Papi!" a guard told him he had to get out of there, but not before Ortiz came over and signed his ball for him! I think he almost hyper ventilated!!! David Ortiz is Cam's favorite player and my new hero!

Easter Egg Hunt

It's been so much fun establishing new traditions with our friends in our neighborhood. They are just like family to us and we love spending holidays with them. We started this little easter egg hunt last year and it almost got forgotten this year. Easter kind of snuck up on us but we pulled it together and despite the cold weather enjoyed the afternoon with our kids and our friends!






















It's not easy to get this many kids to stand still for a group photo. I must of snapped 20 pictures to get one with them all looking at the camera. You'll notice Cameron is not in the picture. He had a small melt-down because his mother would not let him leave the house in a t-shirt and shorts. What a mean mom!





























He perked up and decided to join us. He even shared some of his eggs with our little neighbor next door, it was so cute.




























Ethan was too cool to hang out with the other kids!





















The big boys had just found out that there were 2 eggs with money in them and started ripping through there eggs to see who had the $$$. It ended up being Cameron!























Our little one's could not wait to get inside to check out their candy. They all plopped down right in the middle of the front yard and went to town!






















Another group shot. I think I put this on by mistake and can't figure out how to get it off!




























Ethan filled up his basket in about 2 minutes. He was so cold, 5 minutes later he was inside messing up the boys video games!






















We tried to make it a little harder for the big kids so we put all of their eggs in the woods behind our house. They were still up their hours later finding eggs.




























I think Lexi may have been more excited to see her friends than to find eggs. She is such a little social butterfly.

The Paragraph!

A couple of years ago Jarrod came home from work one night to find a very agitated wife. Not completely uncommon in our household, especially with 4 kids! The reason for my frustration that particular day was because of an email that he did not respond to. He looked at me, smiled and simply asked me if I had ever learned how to make a paragraph? He then explained to me how hard it was to read my emails because they were just 1 big long jumbled up mess and he would stop reading the long ones a few sentences in. I'm sure I got mad, but decided that I would not write the big long emails anymore w/o using paragraphs! My mind is constantly in overdrive and I have a tendency to think faster than I can type, so I of course do not stop to think about adding a space, I'm just trying to keep up with the crazy thoughts in my head!!!


Jarrod has been very supportive of this blog. He gives constant encouragement and praise and it gets me excited to keep adding to it. Well, he came home the other night and much to my surprise......I received the "paragraph" talk again! Just for the record, I really do know how to make paragraphs! What I DO NOT know how to do however.....is make the paragraphs show up on this stupid thing! I have played with all of the settings, I have added more than one space, yet when I click the little orange button to publish my post, it ends up 1 big long jumbled up mess. So, as much as it really does not bother me to read the big long jumbled up mess, it's making Jarrod crazy and he promised me that we would fix the problem! I think he's convinced it's a "user" malfunction!

Sorry , no pictures for this post. It was just something I've been thinking about all day and decided to throw on here. Jarrod will get a good laugh out of it.

Cameron

Heads up to anyone reading this.....it's a long one!!!




















Not the best quality photo, but sadly enough....it was the only recent photo I could find with just me and Cam. We need to be better about that, maybe it's because he is so active that we can never pin him down long enough to get a picture!


This sweet little boy of mine has been consuming most of my thoughts over the past few weeks. I worry about all of my kids, but always a little bit more with this one. As a mom, I feel like it's my responsibility to be the strong one. Let me tell you, Cameron is the strong one. He is my biggest source of strength each and every day.


Any "1" of the challenges that he faces each day would be enough to make most people want to quit and give up....but not Cameron. He is just that much more determined to prove that he not only can do anything he sets his mind to, but that he can be the best! He faces things head on and has no fear, at least you would never know it. He has more confidence than I ever had at his age and I know that is what will take him so far in life.


I love his passion and his energy and I even love his stubborness. There are days that I want to pull every hair in my head out because of this stubborness and the fact that he will never take NO for an answer, but I have realized that he has such a fire in him and that he will never settle for anything but the best.


Jarrod and I have always worried that Cameron would struggle with relationships and friendships. It has actually been one of my biggest fears for him. It has been over the past year that we are realizing just how loved this special little boy is, and not just to us! Everywhere we go, people know him. The school...of course, grocery store, movie theater, gas station, swimming pool, gym, you name it. You cannot help but smile when you look at him. He has so much energy surrounding him and his smile and laugh are so infectious. He makes friends quite easily and wants to be everyone's friend.


You would never know it by talking to him because he is so funny and sarcastic and loves to be silly....but he is very caring, loving and sensitive to others feelings and needs. I think he is very much a people person, he is so natural and happy around anyone he meets! He is so blessed to have so many people in his life that care so much about him. I can't even begin to describe the feeling I get when I see him get off the bus with the biggest smile because Mrs. Randall got him SI for kids, or Mr. Stockwell laminated a Red Sox article for him. It's been hard for me to think about how much more time these people get to spend with him than I do and to trust them with my child. I no longer feel that way. I know w/o a doubt that they love him and want him to succeed! I know that because they cry right along with me through the ups and the downs.


Anything you ever would want to know about the Red Sox, ask Cameron. He used to get up at 5am and read everything he could about every player and then quiz the entire neighborhood. Last season he would walk to the bus every morning and ask our friend next door about something that happened at the game the night before. She would just laugh and tell Cameron that she didn't know, that she hadn't watched it. Well, one morning Cameron didn't ask and she stopped him and said "Cameron, you didn't ask me about the game last night!" He said "yeah, you never watch so I didn't ask" She was so excited by his excitment every morning that she had watched that game so she could talk to him about it the next morning! He had our entire neighborhood wanting to go to his little league games!


I told a friend tonight, that I hope Cameron knows how special he is to his mommy. I am so proud of him and how much he has accomplished in his short life. There are so many things that do not come easy for him and he just plows into them and works that much harder. I know that my thoughts are all over the place and for anyone that actually reads my ramblings, I am truly sorry. I just wanted to share Cameron with you. On the outside most people would see him as a very energetic, fun-loving, sometimes hot headed 9 year.....but I see so much more.

Mom got an A!

This would be the latest BIG project that Jake was assigned at school. In History they have been learning about Africa. At the end of the unit each child got to pick a country to research. Leave it to our child to pick the country that we've never heard of, Mauritania. I actually asked him if he was sure he was pronouncing it right when he came home and told me! They spent a couple of months on this unit and then were given 3 weeks to complete this monster of a poster. The teacher was very very very specific on the size of the poster, what had to go on it, and in which panel everything had to go. We instantly started having flashbacks to the last

BIG project when they studied the Shakers and we spent a week driving to every bookstore and library in a 50 mile radius to find an "authentic" shaker cookbook, then trying to locate the ingredients, and half the neighborhood staying up all night editing his journal and making batch after batch of bread that never did turn out. We were going to do things differently this time. We made a timeline, Jake got a lecture and we were thinking that this one was going to be different. We were so hard on him. He needed to find better pictures, more detailed maps, well written captions, more accurate graphs, etc. etc. etc. You name it, we kept telling him he could do better! We got down to the weekend before it was due and mom and dad stepped in. We swore up and down that we wouldn't, even told our friends at dinner that Saturday night that he was on his own. 2 straight days were spent making the thing look perfect, we printed photo's off the photo printer, used multiple web sites to verify his facts, we even added sand to the paint before we painted the poster to make it look like a desert.....and we were very crabby to Jake the entire weekend. Jake came home the next day all excited to tell us he got an A, to which Jarrod replied "Your Mom got an A" ! After the posters were all turned in and the kids presented them, they set them all up in the gym and all the families were invited to come and see them. Jarrod took Jake and not 20 minutes later I get a call from him saying "We owe Jake a HUGE apology!" He said that most of the posters were not painted, many of the pictures were hand drawn, and the only specific graph that they were required to do was to compare the per capita income of their country to the US.....apparently ever single poster had a different per capita income for the United States, but we were pretty sure Jake's was the only correct one.....we should know.....we did it! Jake was doing his poster the way a 7th grader would do it and we set expectations that were way to high! A big lesson was learned in our house that day......save the poster so when Cameron chooses Mauritania in 3 years, it's already done!!!

Straight hair like Giselle

"Enchanted" seems to be on perpetual rewind at our house this week. Lexi wants to watch it over and over, but only the singing parts! When it was time to do her hair this morning she asked to have it straight like Giselle's. So, I started to pull the elastic in like we usually do and she got upset. She said that "Giselle does not have an elastic, she just has it straight" I smiled and said Ok, straight it is! We got the flat iron out and made it straight and as I expected....she was not happy. Lexi has a lot of hair on the top of her head and it was hanging in her face. It was driving her crazy. We finally compromised on a small clip to hold some of it back and she asked for a picture to send to daddy at work! As I was taking this picture this morning, I realized how fast she's growing up. I keep waiting for the day she tells me NO MORE BOWS! I think that day may have been today and I'm in denial!

***I'm not sure if it's just her or if I need to fix the settings on my Camera, but she has such a hard time with the flash. Every picture we take of her indoors she squints/blinks. Any suggestions? (we're looking for a new camera, it's slightly overwhelming!)

Lexi's 1st date

Lexi had her very 1st date last night w/ her daddy! It was the daddy/daughter dance in town and all the little girls k-6 were invited. She has been excited about this for weeks. She's been giggling about it all week with her little girlfriends, she even talked to one of them on the phone about what kind of dress she was going to wear. She had to start getting ready after lunch, and daddy was not allowed to see her. She wanted to have a new dress and we drove all over creation trying to find white shoes for her tiny little feet. Jarrod ended up fnding them (w/some help) at Walmart of all places! We curled her hair, painted her nails, and put on lip gloss. It was so much fun, I was of course in heaven.....and she looked absolutely adorable! Jarrod told her that she could pick out his tie and I could not believe how excited she was. She went straight for the purple one so it would match her dress. We took lots of pictures and it was actually kind of hard for me to not be there with her. I missed her. She is such a little daddy's girl though and I know she loved every minute of it. Jarrod spends so much time with the boys and sports and so I think it was so good for her to have her special night with daddy. Jarrod said she walked into the school and the 1st think she said was "I want to go find my friends"! He was secretly bummed out, he wanted to just hang out with her. Jarrod said she quickly found them and said that we could not have planned their little outfits more perfectly if we tried. He said that all 4 of them had little flowered dresses and cardigans! I wish I could have seen it. Of course, leave it to the dads to not have camera's. One of them may have, I'll post a picture of the 4 of them if we can find one. She asked Jarrod to dance with her, but she said that he couldn't dance all funny. I'm have flashforwards of my teenage daughter being embarrassed of her parents! She came home with a princess crown and a huge smile on her face. It was so much fun to listen to her talk about her night out with daddy and her little girlfriends, she did not leave a single detail out. We have a collection of princess crowns growing on top of one of her shelves in her room and this morning she was already talking about which crown she was going to get next year.