Fun with Jo Jo

I took a few minutes to play around with some pics of me and Jo Jo this morning and this is what I came up with. I love pictures and I really could look at my 'old-school' photo albums and all my pc albums all day. If I ever start flipping through old pics, Jeff quickly leaves the room, because he knows I will tell him every story behind every picture I have. And if he doesn't act interested enough I get annoyed and wonder why? So this is a personal hobby, if you know what I mean.

The Best Halloween thus far!

For the past 3 years Leanna has worn the same kitty-cat costume. I didn't think she'd want to wear that again this year, so I bought her a different one. But, the day came and she just dressed herself into a cat and we drew a nose and whiskers as usual. That girl is so easy to please.

Jo-Jo is so darn cute, I really can hug and kiss him all day long! Look at him in this lion costume!

I don't know what it was, but all of us, especially Jeff & I, had an amazing time trick-or-treating this year! We've made it a tradition to go to the harbor and collect candy from all the store fronts, something we've done for 3 yrs now. Even after cruising around the harbor, we hit a few streets in the neighborhood (a first for us). Jeff probably had the most fun of all. He was all smiles that day.

Gone fishin'

It was picture day at school so I had to get a shot of all the kids together. So cute!

Gong-Gong (my dad) bought Joshua a fishing pole along with a fully stocked tackle box for his birthday this past spring. My dad took Josh and Brandon fishing last weekend and they both caught one. Everyone was so excited. So everyday since then we've been fishing and yesterday I caught a small fish. It was fun. I grew up fishing with my family and I have some great memories fishing, reading, and napping in a boat or by some lake in Canada.

Low Tide at Filucy Bay

This is the beach that's a 5 minute walk down the street. We went there today at low tide to go exploring. Josh was very brave catching and holding up crabs for a picture.

This is a nice view of the bay. When we have a few bucks I'd like to buy a kayak to paddle around the sound. And get a little exercise.

Brandon would turn over rocks and get so excited! He'd yell out things like, "Oh, cool!" "Wow!" "Check it out baby!"

JoJo had a great time exploring, and when I went to wash my hands in the water, he quickly followed and kept on walking right into the water. He'd inhale fast when he felt how cold the water was on his feet, but he'd tromp in and out all day if I'd let him. I love it that our kids love the water.

JoJo

This incident is actually a few weeks old, but since my camera is on it's deathbed, I have no new pictures to add. I'm pretty sure all my kids have been caught unrolling the tp at one point in their toddler years. It's pretty funny everytime.

JoJo is...let me count...14 months old now. The older kids love playing with him and he's so good natured. He wrestles when they wrestle, he runs when they run, he dances when they dance and if they ever play a little too rough and crazy, he has the good sense to just stand back and watch.

Speaking of dancing...the Neal family has had dance fever and it's not going away anytime soon. Jeff and I have been adding to our music collection (thanks to the library) and we are all lovin' the new tunes. While the kids were in the bath last night we listened to some old Depeche Mode. Remember those guys? I just picked up a couple of Janet Jackson CD's from the library yesterday. Can't wait to bring back the memories.

Oh, I almost forgot the most exciting news of the week! No, I'm not pregnant...I swear that's what everyone asks whenever I have good news. I wonder why? No...we got a free piano! I'm a huge fan of craigslist and I check it all the time. So when I finally convinced Jeff that it'll be almost a decade before we can afford the $3000 Yamaha piano that he wants, he defeatedly gave in to a $0 no-namer on craigslist. Jeff got a U-haul and brought it home himself. So the actual cost was a little over $20. Not bad! Plus, the piano works great, looks nice and fits perfectly in our house. If my camera is willing, I'll try to get a few shots of it with the kids playing. Jeff and I are working out our rusty fingers, playing scales and we're teaching the kids the basics. Leanna is very excited to learn and realistically we should find someone locally to teach her. This is all very exciting and I hope we can eventually appreciate some Mozart or Chopin in the near future. If not from our piano, then maybe from our library collection.

Summertime highlights

Computer problems are to blame for my lack of postings this summer. It's been a fun couple of months and I'll highlight a few things we did (in no particular order) including yesterday's day trip to Mt. Rainier.

* Leanna lost her two front teeth and looks so cute.
* Spent 4th of July in California and celebrated all the kids' birthday's at Grandma & Grandpa's house.
* On Leanna's 6th Birthday we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and rode lots of exciting rides.
* Brandon is now potty trained and he also moved out of my room and into Leanna and Joshua's room. All three kids now share and it's going really good.
* Joseph is walking around now and is getting some more teeth.
* We've gone to the beach a few times, which is just a 5 min walk down our street. Jeff, Leanna and I have all jumped into the cold sound water too. It's salty and refreshing.
* Joshua still loves the vacuum and has added a new obsession...brushing his teeth.
* Went to a few BBQ's and hosted a few BBQ's.
* Attended everyone's first PowWow and visited the Seattle Zoo.
* Leanna decided to chop all of her hair off. It's an adorable bob now.
* And of course went to Mt. Rainier and hiked around in "North America's truest rainforest" according to the Lonely Planet. We also hiked around Mowich Lake and soaked our feet afterwards. The place is gorgeous!

Last day of paid work tomorrow

I was teaching ESL for the past 5 months and I really enjoyed working and making a few extra bucks. But the time has come for Jeff to make the bigger bucks and for me to take care of the house and kids. Jeff, bless his heart, has done an 'okay' job at being Mr. Mom, and we're both ready for the switch. I miss the kids terribly and Jeff misses, missing the kids.

Leanna took this photo of Joseph and I. She's got talent. She loves taking pictures and we let her take as many as she likes. Joseph is starting to walk now and it is so cute. What's equally as cute are how the rest of the kids get so excited when Joseph takes a few steps. They count his steps and then announce to the rest of us!

Living WAY out there!

Because of the real estate slump, the beautiful house that Jeff designed and built hasn't sold and so we moved into it. We absolutely love it out here! It's 20 minutes to the grocery store (which is actually far...considering we lived about 30 seconds from one before), and 30 minutes to any other kind of shopping. Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a shopper at all, so that doesn't bother me one bit. We have one really nice family that lives next to us and that's about it. The other neighbors keep to themselves and it's really, really quiet. We have the luxury of hear birds chirp and the wind blow. We live on high bank waterfront and that picture above is our backyard view.

Last weekend we made a fire pit and made s'mores and it was so fun. Brandon, the sneaky boy that he is, ate half of the chocolate all by himself. Everyone had too many marshmellows, and fortunately between our family and the neighbors, we finished them off. Too much sugar!

Somebody turned 4

Do my boys build houses or cool towers with their legos? No, they build guns....very big guns! We never showed them how, they just knew. Then they proceed to go around and shoot anything and everything. Today Brandon was pretending to shoot the cars that went by while waiting for Joshua's school bus to come. They're being creative right?

Leanna loves playing with Joseph. She misses him while she's gone at school. She was hopping around with him and making him laugh. I love to see them play together. The other day Brandon and I were waiting for Josh to get home from preschool and as soon as he got off the bus, Brandon wrapped his little arms around Josh and gave him a great big hug. It was so cute!

Josh turned 4 yrs old yesterday. He was sick with some stomach virus for the past few days so it was really nice to see him smiling and feeling better. He even helped me bake this cake. Surprisingly the kids didn't even touch their peices of cake....they just ate the ice-cream. It's been quite a while since I've bought ice-cream so it was a real treat to them...and me too.

As Josh is opening his gifts, Jeff motioned me to take this picture of Brandon quietly dipping his finger into the icing to to have a few tastes. Sly boy.

What did you do?

Jeff found some "artwork" on the staircase this morning. The black marks all over Brandon's hands and sleeper gave him away.

I brought home a work bag that had 2 dry erase markers in them and Brandon must've gotten into it last night. He made some pretty good circles for a 2 yr old though.

He didn't forget the railing. He was busy last night.

Right after I discovered this mess, I told Brandon boy what he did was a n0-n0. He was really upset. He went to his room, on his own, and cried. I had to call him out just to take this picture. If you look closely there's more drawings on the wall below the mirror.

I wasn't even mad at our 2 yr old for doing what he did. When you have kids you have to expect the unexpected.

Call Guiness Book of World Records!

The sun finally came out in Washington and we soaked it all up this week. Joshua, our 3 yr old, decided he was ready to ride a two-wheeler, and with that, I walked behind him and held the seat, he pedaled, and he was cruising all by himself! It was as easy as that. He rode and rode and never fell. The very next day, he taught himself how to start. He sat on his seat, pushing his bike forward with his tiptoes until he rolled a little and then put his feet on the pedals and started riding. Amazing! We're so proud of you Josh!

$2.70 in change and other news

I still haven't gotten my new camera batteries (they're in my amazon shopping cart but I still haven't purchased them), so these are some old pics of my beautiful kids in case this blog entry gets boring.

We packed up all the kids and drove all 14 hrs to Sacramento to spend the holidays with my in-laws. The drive went really well and I still haven't given in to the DVD player in the van. We're old school...toys and books for entertainment...and my personal favorite when I was a kid...looking out the window!

We spent Christmas Eve and Day with Jeff's parents and sister's family. The kids and their cousins were so well behaved opening their gifts and playing all day which surprised me considering a full house and chocolate, candy, and cookie overload.

Meanwhile, Jeff fixed our CD player in our van. A couple of years ago Joshua put all of our change that he found in the car and put them in the CD and tape player. So, we went without good music for 2 yrs. Jeff retrieved $2.70 in quarters, dimes, nickles and pennies and ran off to buy a few fun CD's for our drive home. After a week and a half of visiting, playing, shopping and hanging out, we started our super long journey home.

This time however it was more eventful than we would have liked. We started getting closer to Mt Shasta and Jeff & I noticed hundreds of ducks or geese flying south. It wasn't just a few V's of birds, this went on for miles and miles. So we knew we were going to come into some very cold weather and snow. Once we got up to the California border we were dumped on with tons of snow. Jeff exited off the freeway to get chains and in doing so got into a little fender bender. No damage was done to the other guy's truck, but we broke our headlight and put a little ripple in our hood. Thank goodness the other guy shrugged it off. So we bought our overpriced chains and gloves and Jeff got soaked with the snow while putting them on. A few miles later, we took the chains off and cruised for while until we reached the Oregon border. The chains went back on and about 10 miles later, they came back off. By then we became pros at putting on and taking off chains. In Oregon after dinner we decided to go to Toys R Us and let the kids spend their gift cards from Uncle Mike and more importantly run around in the store and burn some energy. Leanna had a loose tooth, her second one, and it was really bothering her. So I checked it, and it basically fell right into my hand. Jeff went and got a wet paper towel and I put the tooth in my purse and we continued shopping.

Back on the road everything went fine until 1:00 am when we were about 2 miles from home and a good ol' policeman caught us doing 65 mi/hr in a ridiculously low 55 mi/hr highway zone. Jeff shrugged it off because we were having such a great conversation and he "didn't want to let it get us down". Could my husband surprise me more?

We made it home, everyone got colds and we are just barely getting better. Maybe next year I'll ask Santa for a leer jet and a personal pilot!

blood, sweat and tears

My camera batteries have run out and buying some new ones is quite the chore for me right now, hence the picture of Billy Blanks, the Tae Bo master. I've recently been borrowing his DVD's from the library to get back in shape. They're a lot of fun and they give me quite a workout. I tried other kickboxing type videos to change things up, but nothing compares to the energy and positive motivation of Billy Blanks! Hopefully I can stick with it and lose the post pregnancy weight.

Happy Halloween

Puppy Dog

Horsey, Kitty Cat and Lion

Trick or Treating along the harbor storefronts and on this tall pirate ship.

Pump up the Jam

Years ago Jeff & I downloaded music from the internet, back when it was legal to do so, and we've unleashed the collection of dance, rave, 80's, and good ol' rock n' roll to our neighborhood, whether they like it or not. Yes, it's PARTY time at the Neals, any given day, any given time (except nap times of course...those are oh so precious). Usually it's in the evening, the kids turn out the lights and Jeff plays DJ with the volume on LOUD. We show off our dance moves and burn a few calories. Leanna has got great dance moves and attitude too. Josh can dance too, and sometimes just does the "maniac" run on the spot. That kid has loads of energy. Brandon mostly jumps around (remember those middle school dances?) and also sways his head to the beat. Joseph is usually up in his room sound asleep. Amazing how babies can sleep through anything. Jeff, aka Mister Roboto, is by far the best dancer in the house. He suggested we get a disco ball to hang in our family room. It's a great idea and I think I'll follow through with that. Who would have thought that our kids would appreciate Blondie, No Doubt, Yes, and Nine Inch Nails?

Joseph at 3 months

Joseph is getting big! On to 3-6 month clothing now. It still amazes me that babies grow out of their clothes in just weeks.

A friend of mine offered me a part-time receptionist job at his chiropratic office at http://www.holmeschiropractic.net/ and I've really enjoyed that. I think more so for the short break from the kids, than for the extra cash. But anyhow, it gets me showered more often than not and for that I am grateful.

I can get this boy smiling & laughing all the time and it just cracks us up to watch and listen to our cute boy. He's a great baby who sleeps wonderfully and never really fusses. I moved him from the cradle to the crib, so he has his own room now. Brandon is out of the crib and onto a big boy bed sharing a room with Joshua. It took about a week to get adjusted to that change. Lots of late nights playing in their room together. But as Jeff said, all that partying took it's toll and they couldn't keep up with that lifestyle too long. As for me, I feel great! I'm getting a lot more sleep and that makes for a happy mommy!