Happy Valentine's Day (belated)

We had burnt pizza and watched a scratched DVD from the library ("Desk Set"). Loved it!!! So memorable and so fun!

Maybe it's not too late to write some awesome Valentine poems for Jeff and Ryan to keep up with the Neeley tradition. Growing up my dad wrote a poem for each of us and left it on the porch with a treat, rang the doorbell and ran. As we got older he just left it on the kitchen table. Valentine's Day was my favorite holiday because of it. My dad taught me that it is a day to have tons of fun serving others.

Happy Valentine's Day (a bit late). Hope it was a wonderful day for all of you! We love all y'all!

A trip to the Aquarium

February 12th we went to the Aquarium together. We had been with Jeff's family when they were in town, but hadn't been back since then. It was so much fun to spend some time together with our little family. So often we try to throw little parties or have some friends over. It was so nice to spend some time having fun together, just the 3 of us.






















And the award for the strangest thing we saw there goes to the alligator snapping turtle.







Ryan was exhausted and we kept thinking he would fall asleep in his stroller, but he proved us wrong. He did fall asleep on the way home, however. He got about 10 minutes of napping in before a car hit us. Just a fender bender - but it could have been so much worse.

It was Ryan's first car accident. Jeff had slowed down with the flow of traffic, I guess the woman behind us didn't see that traffic was slowing ahead...the rest is history. She was driving an older truck and the accident left her bumper dislodged on the sides, and only left paint on our car. There were a few little kids in the truck she was driving; everyone was ok.

Immediately after getting hit Jeff pulled over to the emergency lane and I ran to the back of the car to check out Ryan. He cried briefly when it happened, but I never even heard the car seat budge. I unbuckled him and he was smiling at me, standing up on my legs, cooing - acting like himself. I was so so grateful. I wonder if at times there are angels protecting us without us knowing it. I believe so.

A cold January

I'm a wimp with the cold now. I admit it. January really was cold though, and I had to post these pictures for scrap-booking (and remembering) purposes.

There was one week where the temperatures were in the twenties - plus the wind. Brrrrr!





Ice on the windshield and window panes.







People say it was the coldest it has been in a few years here.

Jeff actually missed a day at work because all of the bridges on the way to the tiny town of Bishop were iced over. I won't complain about an extra day to hang out with my honey though. :)

School was canceled in advance. It was just so strange...it seemed like the whole town shut down. I just have to remember that they don't have the machinery Utah has to salt the roads. It was the first month that I actually felt like it was truly that month - January actually felt like January. The mosquitoes are out again though and it is hot and muggy outside - so here it is February and I feel like it is May. Like I said, strange.

Eat your veggies

A few weeks ago we found a cheap high chair on craigslist, cleaned it up, added a few parts that were missing...and he loves it! (Daddy loves not having to wear Ryan's cereal himself)




Loves cereal & learning to eat more of it


Does not, however, love green beans.




We tried giving him green beans for the first time on Saturday. He made some pretty awesome disgusted faces, but kept going for more. I am determined to help my kids learn to love vegetables though...Sneaky mom just adds them to his cereal now & no more disgusted faces at the dinner table (except for the ones Jeff makes when eating veggies, that is) :)

I have a fabulous video of the event on my camera, but no idea how to download it onto my computer (not so technologically savvy, I know). So stay tuned...

6 months old

6 months old...It seems so strange that Ryan is 6 months old. Or maybe the strange thing is that he was ever a newborn. Hasn't he always been 6 months old? Was he really ever that tiny newborn in the pictures? Feels like a dream.

Ryan at 6 months:

- Pretty happy baby
- Two bottom teeth coming in, which was the cause for brief (well if 1/2 hour is brief) meltdowns for a few days there (you can see the teeth in the second picture)

- Quite photogenic
- Loves rice cereal, although he doesn't always eat much of it

- Loves to laugh
- Is ticklish
- Loves books and when we read to him
- If he had it his way would go to bed at 6:00 and would always sleep next to someone
- A few weeks ago he learned how to roll from his back to his tummy & now he is all over the place - his curiosity has really taken off as he has discovered walls, the little spring thingamabobs that protect the door from hitting the wall (just figured that out today), loves to kick the closet doors (today as well), and has even managed to roll under the bed, but couldn't get back out without help

- Loves his daddy & play time with dad. He loves when daddy sings songs to him - especially ones with actions
- Loves the piano
- Is mesmerized by the sound of the shower/tub
- Is Mr. Tranquilo outside on walks, or in his stroller at all for that matter

- Still loves bath time and is learning how to splash just a little more.
- Still snuggles with blanket, holding it by his face with one hand, while sucking thumb of opposite hand
- Has found all kinds of fun new ways to sleep in his crib
(Look hard and you just might see him rolled up in the corner)
- Doesn't suck his pacifier, but loves to play with it and chew on it
- Still loves car rides
- Still loves the grocery store...so many new sights and sounds! He is so much fun at the grocery store! He is usually really happy until he gets hungry. In fact he will look at me and talk and talk and talk with all of his little coos and "ahs"s and he will get super giggly - right before he needs to eat
- Still wants to nurse every 2 hours, I'm really really trying to encourage more cereal and stretch it out to 3 hours - even though I do love the bonding time nursing him
- Still loves his socks, seems that every time I turn around he has one in his mouth

- Loves to watch us eat dinner...especially now that he can sit in his high chair and eat cereal while we are eating
- Loves his exersaucer (and mom loves the occasional break to hurry and do something with both hands), doesn't take him long to pull out all of the toys in an effort to chew them, of course
- Interested in faces and often reaches up to touch your cheeks and nose when holding him
- Sucks on his toes (yes, this will be a problem if he keeps it up when he is walking and his feet are actually dirty)

- Quietly watches as we pray

The binge blogger

I admit it...I am a binge shopper, binge reader, and binge blogger. I would say I binge with desserts - but that would not be true, because...well...I eat them all the time. I blog about once a month, and when I do it is quite the "excessive indulgence" (see definition for binging). So prepare yourself for the many entries that are about to come.

Cereal Party

January 22nd we had a "cereal party" with Cream of Wheat in honor of Ryan and his milestone of starting rice cereal. Jeff said that a Cream of Wheat party sounded disgusting...Turns out he was right (he usually is).



Fun, but not so appetizing if you don't eat your Cream of Wheat right away...you know what I mean. Yep, cement. One of our friends was too embarrassed to tell me that hers no longer even jiggled & she tried to eat it that way...gross.

But those who ate theirs right away seemed happy, and the tablecloth to color on was fun even if the food wasn't (although I am a huge Cream of Wheat fan).

Most importantly, Ryan loved the rice cereal - probably because he could hardly even taste it because it was so diluted AND he was starving. Or maybe he takes after his mother in her love for food - all food.





No highchair yet. The more messy the more fun, right?



He was only mad when we couldn't give it to him fast enough - next time we should try an ice cream scoop.

We're so proud of our little guy. Cereal today, steak tomorrow (spoken like a true Texan).