7 Month Whirlwind

Hi Everyone!! As it turns out, the busier I get the lower the ol' blog falls in my priorities. I apologize, as I know that it is important to keep our friends and family updated especially as everyone is so spread out. So, I will now attempt a 7 month, super condensed catch-up and work MUCH harder at keeping the next update sooner. :)

The kiddos are growing and learning and it never ceases to amaze me. As you can see in the pics we've been trying to keep up and keep them busy.

Raimi continues to move quickly through violin and has attended 2 violin workshops/camps already this summer. The last one was a week long and she had 3 different recitals. She was selected for the Honors recital, you can see it here . We've also got the Orchestra and the Final though Raimi's hard to see in the final. She is such a great big sister and Evan asks all day long for "Reemie". There is no one in the world that he gets as excited to see. She loves to read to him and he cannot get enough books. Though we've told her repeatedly that she needs to stop growing and stay 6 1/2 forever, she refuses to obey and keep sprouting up and up. She's lost a ton of teeth, the last at gymnastics just last week via an elbow to the mouth. :) She took it all VERY well and the tooth fairy gave her a little extra for her pain and suffering. :) She spends a lot of time in the pool and loves to dive for treasure. It's impressive how fast she can find a tiny little jewel on the bottom of the pool. :)

Evan surprises us every day with a new word, new concept or new place to climb. :D He is the stereotypical boy, with all his climbing, jumping, running, throwing, and building. He loves his Legos, books, and cars though too. He's named everyone in the house including Duke(DooDoo). He got his first haircut and we said goodbye to the baby curls but I will admit it was looking a bit too 80's mullet & needed to get done. :) He is a total fish and can't get enough of the pool. With his vest on, he swims completely independantly and loves to copy Raimi and put his face in the water while he does it. He climbs out and jumps in at least a hundred times. The bigger the splash the better. :) He's going to "school" (aka Mother's Day Out)for 3 hours on Tues and Thurs morning. It took a few weeks to get used to it but he loves it now and it's a great break for me! :)

Chris and I continue to be the same :) We love hanging out with the family and feel so blessed to have such great kids, such great times and a good life. God has truly been good to us still. Chris is still working at Pegs though they forced him up to the top floor. He'd rather be down in the trenches. :) He's caught the photography and video bug and doesn't get the time to spend editing and playing like he'd prefer but he's got a great eye for some cool pics and I'm hoping to get some of his stuff online soon. He takes everything in raw mode now which might not mean much to some but basically, it all has to be tweaked before publishing so therefore I am completely out of the family photo handling business. :)

That's all I can think of for now, I'm sure I missed a hundred things but like I said, I'll try and keep updates going more regularly and with more detail.

We miss each and every one of you that we don't get to see and hope God brings us together sometime soon.

Catching Up

Well again, this is a summary, catch-up post. I wanted to get some new pics out that have our Christmas and some cool random stuff in general. Chris has been playing around with photoshop and learning some stuff so I put some of those out here. I think they're really cool and he's having fun tweaking, which if you know him, is kind of a summary of his whole personality. :D

The kiddos are awesome! We had a GREAT Christmas break with Raimi here a lot of the time. She is a gappy 6 year old with 7 whole teeth missing. We love the toothless grin. Evan is running around and into EVERYTHING. If he can climb it, stand on it, pick it up, push it or find a button on it, he's game. It's cool watching his personality come out and he's awareness of himself. He gets very proud of himself for his accomplishments.

The Mayes crew suprised us with a visit before Christmas. We were in the living room and suddenly the door opened and in walked Keagan and Skyler. My brain could not comprehend what was going on...it was a very bizarre moment. :) We were SOOOO excited. Turns out God blessed us with lots of bad weather going north so they were stuck with us until the 26th. HOORAY!! We had a blast!

Anyway, check out the new pics in Cute Kids and the Christmas and Photoshop albums. Keep in touch!! :) LOVE YOU ALL.

November 2008

I can't believe November is already over. We still have one more birthday party but I realized I need to take the chance when I can to post. I've posted Evan's bday party pics. We're actually going to have 2 parties for him to accommodate schedules but I went ahead and posted the first one already. Besides a burned finger from our first bday candle, things went alright. SIGH. Raimi's is officially toothless. :) Just in time for the holidays. Guess we'll be spending some extra time learning "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth" :D

Both kids continue to amaze us. Evan is walking all over, having all kinds of nonsense conversations and developing quite a sense of humor. 90% of the time we have no idea what's so funny, but he's running around giggling anyway. Raimi is a whopping 4 ft tall now and will be performing at Carnegie any day now. :)

Chris and I are still reeling from the loss of our close friend Margaret. She was an amazing woman and will be extremely missed! It's a test of faith to understand but we are trusting God is faithful.

That's all for now, I'll put Evan's second 1st bday pics out soon.

Little Drummer Boy

Check out Evan's new rockstar video on the right. :D

October 2008 - Phew...it's over. :)

We've had an awesome last month and we survived the crazy Halloween weekend!! Hooray! Halloween night followed the next day by Raimi's 6 yr old Haunted Birthday party. :)



Raimi's violin continues to amaze us. She's learning songs faster than we can give them to her. I am sure we'll see her playing in London or Paris one of these days. :) We hit the State Fair and Raimi rode every ride she could possibly get on. She is a TOTAL adrenaline junkie. Maybe stunt woman is in her future.



Evan is walking around a lot these days. He'll still crawl half the time but he's getting the hang of being upright. He's into EVERYTHING and all things in the house are slowly creeping higher and higher out of little hands' reach.



So life continues to move on and we continue to enjoy it. :) Chris got Guitar Hero 4 so we've been all working on our rockstar skills. Don't worry, there will be pictures of that soon. Check out the 2 new albums for October and the birthday party. (take extra time to look at Chris's halloween costume. Hee hee)

Quick Catchup

Sorry everyone, I've gotten really behind. I've put a couple albums out on Picasa to show our fabulous trip to California (Disney and G'ma, who needs more) and some other fun stuff.

Evan is starting to walk holding onto things though he won't walk with help from Mom or Dad. Kind of a theme with him right now. He won't take medicine, eat or walk if anyone helps. He takes medicine himself, eats only food he can eat with his fingers and will soon be getting a walker to get around the house. I am wondering what's going to happen when he can actually say "No! I can do that myself!" :)

Raimi is doing SO well at violin and homeschool. She is weeks ahead of where normal students are in violin. It's crazy to me how naturally she's picked it up. She is light years ahead of anything I could do. She is finished with her 1st grade math (though technically in Kindergarten). It's her favorite subject (GO MATH!!!). She really like learning and it's exciting to hear all the cool things she picks up on. She's really into art and science as well. We're working on her reading and God has blessed us with a 1st grade teacher that lives right next door. Ms. Elizabeth's favorite thing to do is teach kids to read so she's given us a ton of stuff, it's very cool. She's going to assess Raimi's reading level and then we can use the library's system to get books appropriate for that level.

Chris is having fun playing violin with Raimi. He proves over and over what an amazing dad he is. With the whole family sick for 2 weeks, it was amazing to see how well he can calm Evan and how comforting he is. Lots of Daddy/son naps. :)

I've just started a new Bible Study that is really great. It's helped me a lot with perspective and learning to enjoy my new stay at home lifestyle. It's a huge change from the last 12 years but God is showing me the fulfillment I can find in the everyday tasks.

We're keeping our fingers crossed and prayers going that Uncle Aaron, Aunt Jennifer and crew get to move down here. They're trying to sell their house in Colorado and looking in the Allen area to relocate..HOORAY!! It would be SO awesome to have them so close. Now we just need to get Leah down here. Wink Wink. :)

I'm going to update the kids albums soon so you can see how completely adorable they are now. :) Chris has some new video he needs to edit and get out here too so stay tuned for that.

OHHH Chris and I are both on Facebook and completely addicted so if you are too and we haven't found you yet, send us a request! :)

Father's Day

We had such a nice Father's day. I think it's an awesome opportunity to acknowledge that dads do stuff too. :D Raimi and I conspired to get some pictures taken by Camille's fabulous sister Megan. They are SUPER cute and I've included the album here.

We got to suprise Chris when we gave him a huge collage of frames and pictures. I was just impressed that Raimi could keep a secret for over a month. Go Raimi, you sneaker!

May 2008

Hello all. Just a quick update.

There are new pics in Raimi and Evan's albums as well as the May 2008 album. Things are going really well here in Texas. Raimi finished Montessori school and will be off until she starts homeschooling in the fall. She's excited about it and a very eager learner so we're thinking it's going to go really well.

Work for both Chris and I is pretty much the same. We're trying to launch some new stuff at Rebel Travel which is kind of exciting so keep that in your prayers, it could be big! :D

Evan is growing and growing. His 6 month Dr's appointment had him at 18 lbs 13 oz and 27" so he's continuing up the charts. This is definitely helped by his love of food. He's started feeding himself a few things and his 2 teeth love gnawing away at bagels and wagon wheels. Surprisingly I've been having a really good time making all his baby food. We'll see if that continues through all the stages but so far so good. :D

Overall we are just so blessed, hanging out having a great time. I could not be more grateful for all that God has given our family.

So have a look around. Chris will be adding more videos soon. We love you all.

Raimi's Talent Show

Hi everyone, Raimi had a talent show at school and Chris recorded it. He found this site that allows you to upload HD videos so that's cool. :) Check it out, it's pretty cool!!

March & April 2008

Hi everyone, so I'm pretty much really late putting this one out. Sorry. So I'm giving you a 2 for 1 deal. :) March has been a fun month here in ol' Allen. The weather is warming up (tho we had a freak snowstorm) and we're getting outside! HOORAY!! Evan is growing like a weed, measuring a whopping 16 lbs 8 oz at his 4 month appointment. He figured out his hands and now grabs anything he can and sticks it in his mouth. Thank God he's not mobile yet! :D He loves to smile and laugh. His favorite person to laugh at is definitely his big sister Raimi. She has this goofy nonsense song she sings to him that cracks him up every time. Chris is working on getting video onto the PC and then you can see it in action.

We had snow and our first swim day all within a month. Gotta love Texas!! :) Evan's started eating solid foods. Oatmeal and bananas are a go....rice cereal and applesauce are apparently near poison :D

Raimi lost her very first tooth and already has one more wiggly one! She's got short hair now which Dad decided makes her looks about 8 years old. We've tried to convince her to stop growing but she keeps insisting she has to. ;) G'ma Jo made her Easter dress which she LOVES. They went and picked out the pattern from "the big book of dresses" and Raimi picked the material. You can see the pics in the album, it turned out BEAUTIFUL.

I'm working a few hours a week with my old boss Fred Bean (Rebel Travel) and that's been really great. Bringing in a little $$ every month makes me feel less like a mooch. :D Though I have to say I am LOVING staying home. I can't imagine anyone else taking care of Evan and I like being able to take care of the house stuff too. Who knew homemaking would suit me so well. :D

February 2008

Hi Everyone! February's been a great month here at the Neal House. Summer is around the bend and we got a taste of it during our couple 70+ degree days. Woohoo!! We got to go to the park and Evan got his first slide and swing experience. :) We're having a blast with him. Raimi is an awesome big sister and spends lots of time with her little brother. He's growing like mad, well over 15 lbs now and talking up a storm. Chris is going to get video out soon so you'll be able to hear him. He has all kinds of VERY important things to say. :) He's found his hands and prefers them over a pacifier any day. You can find them dripping with drool anytime he's not asleep. We got some pictures taken and they turned out GREAT. We don't have them quite yet to post but if you wanted to take a look they're at www.hobt.net under Clients. The password is Evan0 (that's a zero).

Raimi makes us laugh all the time with her very grown-up ways. :) She's reading like a fiend and we can't get enough Junie B. Jones. We finally found a Wii and she is a bowling champion. Seriously, she's the only one in the family that's reached professional status. It's very humbling to be schooled by a 5 year old. :) She hangs out with her friends and they are already like a bunch of teenagers, talking about clothes and putting on "make-up". They've even got their own album of all their good times.

Uncle Aaron came down and visited from Carbondale which was AWESOME. Evan definitely likes his Uncle and Raimi thinks he's the coolest. She's very interested in the fact that he "pushes snow" up in Colorado, every time it snows.

Chris's oldest friend in the whole world, Carlos, came up for a day. It was so nice to see him and his wife Catherine and sweet little girl Giselle. Giselle is quite the miracle baby and it was so fun to see her running around, playing, and talking up a storm. :)

Check out the pics for the month and of course there's new additions to Raimi and Evan's albums too! Have fun.

Still Working On It....

Hi everyone...well...it's begun. I've started on the family blog. I've gone a bit crazy and started backfilling posts and albums so soon I'll have the whole last year properly documented. I'm dabbling in HTML so the posts may get fancier each time. :D We're using Picasa (Google Rocks) so please check out all the albums and links as they all lead to TONS of pics!! WOOHOO. Who knows..you might find a pic of yourself out there! ;)

I'm trying to do this time based and event based so you'll see summary albums and posts for the months but then highlighted events and people. Who knows, I might change my mind 100 times before I settle on a format but this is what I have so far.

Feel free to share and comment! We want to keep in touch with everyone.

Oh and P.S. if you see any pics you particularly like, feel free to download it from Google.

January 2008

Things are starting to look more like "normal life" It's a very different normal than it ever has been. Evan is amazing and growing like mad. He went from 6 lbs 8 oz when he left the hospital to a whopping 13 lbs 4.5 oz in just 2 months!!! Raimi is having a blast being a big sister and doing such a good job at school. She's been reading this semester and it's SO cool to have her read her school books to us. I've been staying super busy just keeping up with Evan and trying to come up with some sort of schedule (yeah right :D ). Chris is doing well at Pegs but has way more fun when he comes home to all of us crazies.

The Evans came to visit so Evan could get some more quality time with his future wife, Mia.

So far 2008 has been amazing and we could not be more blessed!! Make sure to check out all the pics. Let's see what the rest of the year has to bring....

December 2007

Well December was a crazy month for the Neal family. We got to meet sweet little Evan Neal (technically Nov..be eh..), we had Leah and Izabeau visit, Christmas, and even an incredible visit from Big Grandma. For those that don't know, that's Great Grandma. It's a family tradition and now, Grandma Duffield gets to assume that role in this house. WOOHOO!! I've got this huge summary album but plan on reorganizing a bit and splitting out Christmas and Evan's newborn stuff. For now though, I just wanted to get it out there. Enjoy!

January 2007

This was our first month as a new family and we've been having a blast. We got a dog....Mr. Duke from our friends the Evans. Dad took Raimi and Jasmine to the park while Marc killed me in his boot camp workout. (Not sure what I was thinking there... )Check out all the pics We had a GREAT time when all the cousins visited. Raimi loves her new cousins!!

The Wedding

We had such a great wedding. We opted for a very small ceremony and we took our vows privately. It was so nice and relaxed. It was amazing. We had a family dedication ceremony with friends and family there and Raimi as part of the candle lighting. This was 3 becoming a family, not just two. :D

Lets Begin at the Beginning

Long ago in a far away land...
No....
Here's a story of a lovely lady who was bringing up.....
No....
Ah Yes....One day while sitting in the parking lot of Pegasus, Rachel and Chris decided (quite logically and rationally) that they should go ahead and get married. This was October 2006. 2 months later on December 1st, with a very small ceremony with friends and family they became, Mr. and Mrs. Neal. Thus began the adventures of The Neals as will be told forthwith on this blog. Please enjoy, feel free to comment/harass and never take it too seriously. :)

Let the adventure begin....