Meet My Niece!

Monday, April 30th a wonderful young lady was brought into the world!  Her name is Kenna Paige.  Born at 11:50 am weighing 7 lbs 7 oz.  I am so excited for my sister, brother in law and of course the new big brother, Deakan!!  Congratulations!!

Here she is!!

Here is Kenna with her Grandma and her Daddy, Jason.

Just so precious!!

Windy, Windy

We always say a little prayer that we'll have a storm that will ruin our roof but not hurt anyone or anything else.  So far this has not happened.  But this weekend we had just enough wind to knock a few limbs down and get us a good tree trimming.  We were lucky that it fell just inches from my car.  But dang it, FALL ON THE ROOF next time!!

Here are a few shots of the clean up.  I think Dustin was in hog heaven getting to use power tools.

Here's a big limb that needed cutting back.

Dustin's cousin Adam helped with the removal.  In fact, Adam brought the chain saw, trailer, ladder and a lot of man power to help.  We took him out for lunch after and there he provided lots of entertainment for Reese!

Some of the large debris.

And the limb that came inches to ruining my car.

And of course the Project Supervisor.  Isn't she precious?

Wordless Wednesday

Easter

Easter is such a nice holiday.  It marks the beginning of spring for me and it's a great holiday for kids having fun.  I love all the spring food too, asparagus, peas, ham, yum!  I also really like going to Saturday night mass, but it is like 3 hours long and I have small children so we may have to wait a few years before we venture out to that one. 

Our Easter weekend was full of fun, eggs, yummy food, and family.  We really enjoyed ourselves.  I'll sum up our weekend as I go with pictures. (They loaded in reverse order, so I'm gonna go backwards)

Here are my loves, home and tired but still took out some Daddy time!

Maggie and River after the Easter Bunny brought Maggie her cool glasses.  Don't they look sweet?

Reese and River in their Easter best.  I had to threaten Reese to take this but she did and I'm so glad because they look so sweet together. 

Maggie hunting eggs.

Mags and Reese with some of their loot, we got lots of smarties, I stopped counting at 30!  Wowza!

This was what Riv did while we were finding eggs.  I wish I would've taken a nap instead too.

Reese on the hunt for Easter Ecks!!

River all dressed up in his tie.

Reese with her gymnastics ribbon.  She thinks you should squeeze your eyes shut to take a picture.  Silly girl!

3 little sweeties in a dog pile!

My Grandma holding River at my Mom's house on Easter Saturday.

Reese and River in the shirts I made.  Just write what you want with gel glue, let it dry and then dye them with RIT.  They turned out great and here she is again with her silly "cheese!"

My handsome nephew getting a smoocheroo from Reese.

This is pretty much River's entire weekend.  But I don't want to forget about him in pictures!!

Reese stuffed in one too many Laffy Taffys!!

Lulu, Jason and their cute, cute, cute boy, Deakan.

Deakan was SOOOOO mad that he couldn't hold all the Reese's eggs at one time.  He doesn't even eat peanut butter but he was a little sad that he couldn't get them all.  We thought it was HILARIOUS!!

Reese hunting eggs with her fancy Easer basket.

Deakan as he discovered Reese's eggs.  Just precious.

Happy Easter season, Everyone!  I hope you had a great weekend!!

Gymnastics Night!

Last weekend we were invited to a sweet little girl's birthday party at a gymnastics arena.  It was a blast!  We were lucky enough to have Maggie all weekend too so the two girls partied it up and River had a great time hanging with all the ladies who were ooohing and ahhhing him.  (He is very handsome).  We left and took the kids out for pizza and they played Old School Pac Man in the arcade.  Overall, it was one fun weekend, we really wish Maggie could come stay for about a week!

And just because he wasn't featured earlier, here is my little cutie patootie sleeping at our wonderful babysitter Angie's house. What a hunk!

Snake Saturday

Saturday we took the kids and headed out to the Snake Saturday Parade in North Kansas City.  We had such a blast and the weather was absolutely perfect.  We could not have asked for a better day at all.

River had a ball just laying around.  He never heard any of the horns or loud noises.  He just chilled out and enjoyed the breeze! 

 Reese loved the bands and all the candy that was thrown out. She also loved the music people were playing beforehand, she danced and jumped around like crazy!

Here is our first family picture.  We were lucky it turned out as great as it did.  The sun was out and the weather was beautiful.  We had the best time and are even considering braving the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown next weekend.....you know the one with approximately 100,000 people attending....yeah right!

Ready or Not

The past month has been dedicated to rest and relaxation (ha!) and preparing for Baby #2.  We have all had our share of contributions to getting ready, not the least of which is Reese's sacrifice of her Mama's energy level and lap space.  But we've managed to squeeze some fun in too.

Reese is getting a little suspicious about what exactly is going on.  For one thing, she is VERY tired of not having enough room in Mommy's lap.  She used to pick my leg up and move it so she could sit on it, now she just looks at me like, "really?" and has me sit in a V so she has room to snuggle in.  She also would really appreciate the decrease in belly circumference so she can rest her head comfortably.  But she's accomodating. 

For her baby brother, she made a couple of sock puppets.  I use the word "made" loosely here.  Mostly she squeezed the glue on and pushed eyes down on a sock.  Then when she went to bed I reglued them so they would stay.  She picked out and glued pom pons too but I did all the cutting.  I'm just not ready to turn a 2 year old loose on a pair of scissors.  They turned out great and it was nice for her to do that.  She picked out a sack and helped me wrap them all up.  I think she'll be really excited to give them to her brother but that's where the excitement will end once she learns he's here to stay.

Last weekend she helped us pack a bag for his clothes at the hospital.  Clothes flew all over the place but she eventually picked out a couple of outfits and helped me place them in the bag.  Then she removed all the socks that we own for children and unfolded them to make a long track through the house.  I really enjoyed crawling around picking all those up.

Dustin has been preparing for the new baby with expectation fatigue.  With Reese being as early as she was, we are ready to go at any time.  A ring of the phone sends him in a flurry of concern of whether or not it's go time.  Poor baby is just worn out from all the anticipation.

And me, well, I'm not complaining.  This is what I wanted.  A baby I could call term.  A baby we can bring home when it's time.  Bags are packed, registration is complete, shots are finished, and sure it's no fun to be 9 months pregnant, but I'm happy to be here with this little guy still cooking away. He'll come when he's ready.  But please oh please don't let it be in a classroom full of kids!

Ready or not we'll be having a new addition to our family very soon.  I'm excited to learn how a heart expands with love for another.  I'm excited to see the dynamic of big sister and little brother.  Daddy and son.  Will his eyes be brown or will this one have the Olinger blues?  Will he be tall like Papa Steve or the stout football build of Donnie O.?  How quick will his mouth be with hilarious one liners? I can't wait to watch him grow (and sleep through the night).

Cousins

Reese is pretty cousin-rich.  She has two of the best cousins around.

Here is the little cutie with the other little cutie, Deakan.  Isn't he handsome?  

Deakan and Reese and just right at 8 months apart.  And they get along great.  Last weekend they were giggling and playing on their Grammy's couch.  They love to play "get you" with adults and they both cackle.  The like to share things.  Even if they don't know it.  Ha ha!

This is Maggie.  She's 8 tomorrow.  Whoa!  Where did that time go? 

They are quite the pair together.  When they are alone all a person can hear from their room is giggling.

Giggling.  And more giggling. 

Deakan is getting ready to be a big brother.  I bet he's going to love having someone around to pick on. 

I imagine he'll be the best big brother there ever was.  At the very least, he'll be the cutest.

And this little one will be 8 tomorrow.  I remember when she was born. 

She was as sweet as a girl could be from the first few minutes I met her.

We are so lucky to have 2 great cousins for our little girl. 

And I know when our little guy and his new little cousin arrive they will complement the group well!

We love you Deakan and Maggie.  Thank you for being your sweet selves!

Learning to be a big Sister

This weekend, Deakan spent the night with us.  We really enjoyed his company.  He has such a sweet disposition and is tough as nails.  He's just learning to walk so he had many spills but always seemed to knock the dust off and get back up. 

Reese really enjoyed having him too.  She worked her magic as a Big Sister in Training.  She tried to clean up and entertain and she is definitely good at making sure everyone knows what he or she is supposed to be doing.  Quite the rule enforcer!

Deakan and Reese played, you know games that Reese decided she wanted to play.  They shared chicken nuggets and Reese taught Deakan how to play Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes. 

Our night with Deakan was too short.  We would've really liked to have taken him for a few days.  Reese could use the practice and I could use the sweet baby boy cuddles.  But either way, we know we are in for quite a ride with another little one on the way!

Girls, Girls, Girls

Last week was a week of beautiful ladies at the Neal house!  We were lucky enough to have two special guests, Maggie and Halee. 

This is Maggie.  Our beautiful niece.  She is 7 going on 25.  A gymnast, a reader, and a great cousin!  She came to stay with us last Saturday.  We had the best time while she was here swimming, watching the Disney Channel, playing babies, and eating at Burger King.  Reese was a stinker and a half while Maggie was here but Maggie thought she'd still come back, even though we wouldn't blame her if she didn't want to!  We were glad to spend a few one on one days with her and I know Reese loved bossing her around.

This is Halee.  She's Reese's aunt.  Or as Reese likes to say, Halba.  Halba is an athlete who is a rock star student involved in lots of clubs, she is a friend to many and she is getting ready to turn 15.  And you know what that means, my friends, DRIVING!  Halba came home with me on Wednesday after taking my Grandma to the doctor.  Her parents (and Dustin's) went to NYC for an extended weekend so we got Halba to ourselves for the rest of the week.  We had so much fun going swimming, shopping, and our VERY favorite; dancing the swimming dance.  We were sad to see Halba go.

And then there were none.  Yes, they've all left, even my girl, who is staying with TT for a few days this week while I teach/attend some summer classes.  It's a quiet place after all the fun that was had here last week, but now we get to gear up for a weekend with my nephew, Deakan!  We've been waiting all summer for this!!