Halloween party fun!! 10/14

I have the most creative, fun friends ever!!  One of my good friends Kathy throws the most amazing themed parties, seriously like nothing I have ever seen.  This year she sent out letters inviting us to Hogwarts for a a fun adventure filled night full of searching for horcruxes, making potions, Harry Potter trivia, and delicious food!  I wish I would have gotten more pictures!  They had all the themed food, floating candles from the ceiling, letters coming out of the fireplace, and wanted signs of all of the wizards in Azakban.

 The sorting hat put me in Gryffindor and Scotty is Slytherin.

 Just some of the fun decorations!

In the middle of our potions competition!

We also went to another Halloween party the next weekend at our friends the Barlows.  Their party was just as amazing!! Scotty and I were ninja turtles and somehow did not get any pictures!!  I am so grateful for such amazing friends!!

5K walk for Dr. Burns 10/14

 The morning after the camp out we had the WPAFB peds clinic 5K walk for Breast Cancer awareness. Dr. Burns, our kiddos pediatrician was diagnosed with breast cancer and was currently going through treatments.  She is such an amazing pediatrician but an even better person.  She is so strong and brave, and was back at work as soon as she could be.  We are so grateful to know people like her! 

Boys Camp out!! 9/14

 We had the Fathers sons camp out with our ward and this was the first year Scotty wasn't on call so he was able to take the boys.  The boys had been planning, packing and counting down the days.  They held the camp out on some land that a ward member has and they spent the night eating smores running through the forest and staying up way too late!!

 Of course Liam fell asleep early and Barrick partied the night away.

While the boys had their night we decided to plan our own girls night too.  We ate lots of yummy food, painted nails, played dress up, and watched "girl shows".  It was such a fun night for our whole family!!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip!! 10/14

 Our kiddos LOVE this field trip every year.  They get their own mini pumpkin, have a hay ride, play a bunch of games, and do a craft!!  Ohio certainly does Halloween right.  They have so many things for kids!!  We love it, and is October not the best time of year.  Sure I am a little bias but it is the beginning of the holidays, parties, and the change of the season.  Really nothing better!

We had such a good time, and Briony felt like such a big kid.  She cries everyday I drop the kids off at preschool, and runs to their teachers begging them to take her in.  So when she was able to go be a "big kid" for the day she was in heaven. 

Is this picture not the absolute best of Lilly!!  She is a whole head taller then all the other girls.  Tall and skinny just like her daddy!! 

School!! 8/14

 I totally forgot to post about the kids starting school!  Barrick started first grade and his teacher this year is Mrs. Medina.  She has been amazing with Barrick!  She is so bubbly and kind, yet very consistant and sticks to her guns which is exactly what our little guy needs.  We are so excited to see where the rest of the year will take us.

 Lilly and Liam started their second and last year of preschool.  They now know the ropes of how things go and are so excited to see their teachers, and preschool friends, they sure missed them over the summer.

Here is to another great year of school!

Happy Birthday to me!! 10/15/14

One year older and wiser too!  Well at least older... 

 There is no better way to spend my birthday then with my favorite people in the world!!  Especially when Scotty is able to be home, which makes it even that much better.

September 27th and 11 years!!

Eleven years and still going strong.  We had big plans to do something spectacular, but last minute cancelled it and decided to just do dinner and movie.  We hadn't been able to go on a date in quite sometime, and just a nice simple night was exactly what we needed!!  Happy Anniversary to us!!   

Our Briony girl!!!

 This little girl brings so much love, laughter and happiness into our lives!!  She is obsessed with dolls, pink, and anything girly!!  Somehow she has recruited an accomplice (Lilly) who will get her whatever she wants while she is supposed to be sleeping.  So when we go into get her up in the morning we have found some pretty fun surprises in her bed.  My favorite is the book, oviously she found in necessary to read herself to sleep.  Little girls are so much fun!!

 

Visitors!!

 We had our good friends the Strombergs come and visit and what a great time we had!!  We were able to go to the Columbus Zoo, Youngs Dairy, and just spend some good time catching up.  We have been so blessed wherever we go to have such amazing friends.  Also it helped so much that our kids loved being together!  Our kids had never met, and in about five minutes they were best friends.  So the weekend could not have gone any better!!

Food Truck Ralley

 What is better then food trucks, dancing, live music, friends and exploring nature?!  Not much in my opinion.  We took advantage of Scotty having a Saturday off and took the kids to a food truck competition.  It was so much fun and delicious.  We ate some Indian food, home made ice cream Popsicles, and some good old mac-n-cheese.  We had such a great time spending time together.  It was the perfect day.  Not to hot, not too humid and with just a few sprinkling showers.  We sure love when Scotty has time off and we can get out and do something fun!! 

Neel Family Events!

After we got back from Utah Scottys cousin Drew who lives here in Dayton was getting married, and his other cousin Marie was going through the columbus temple, so we were lucky enough to get all of our Aunts and uncles from Scottys Neel side out to visit, and man did we have a good time!!  It was like my kids had 5 grandmas and 2 grandpas out here.  They were spoiled!  

One of the days they were here we met at Youngs Dairy for lunch, ice cream and some playing time.

Here are the girls riding the tractor.

Like I said they were spoiled!!  Scotty was working so he couldnt come, but we didnt really need him there with all these adults giving all these kiddos all the time and attention they wanted.  They had a great time feeding the animals!  I think they each had three cups of food.

Yes Barrick forgot his shoes, and yes I know that is pretty disgusting but oh well he had fun! 

Trent got the kids a smashed penny that said Youngs Dairy on it.  

They each went on a couple rides on the train.  Here is grandma Stewart with the kiddos. 

Briony had Elise wrapped around her little finger!

Here are the boys on the slides.  Lilly was to afraid to go down!

The day we went through the temple with Marie, Gma Stewart, Peggy and Shaunessy took the kiddos to the Columbus zoo.  Then we went to lunch afterwards.  It was so much fun!

We had so many events and pictures taken this weekend, but Scotty and I didn't take any.  We had pictures at the temple and the wedding and we didn't have anything.  This last picture was the only one we got, fuzzy,  with nobody in it.  We had such a great time.  We love our Neel family and it was so amazing being able to catch up and have so much quality time with them!  We love you all!

Ogden Temple!

My mom knew we would be in Utah why the Ogden LDS Temple open house was going on, so she got tickets for us to go.  These open houses are for anyone, and everyone to go and see the inside of these beautiful temples before they are dedicated and ready for use.  The kiddos were pretty excited to go since they have never seen the inside of a temple.  They were so respectful and patient.  It was a very crowded, hot day and they did amazing.  Liam kept telling everyone and me multiple times this is where mommy and daddy got married, and me too.  Barrick and Lillys favorite part was the "Diamond lights"  (chandeliers) they thought it was pretty amazing!

Here I am with my sweet kiddos.

One with Grandma!

The only time we could get for our tickets was right during lunch time, so we came out to the car and ate muffins afterwards.  Briony was pretty tired at this point.  They were so good even though they were hungry and tired.  It was beautiful and such a great experience for these four little ones.  I am so blessed that through the blessings of the temple in our lives we will be togther forever! 

Museum of Natural Curiosity!

We decided to go down to Thanksgiving Point and spend the day at the new museum down there.  It was probably one of the best museums we have been too.  There were countless things to do!  Some of our favorites were the water works area where you could play and build ramps with water.  They had a wind machine that the kids thought was pretty fantastic!  They had mazes, a whole city of fun with trains, veterinary house, building room, every type of building in a city shrunk down to kid size.  It was amazing and Scotty and I enjoyed it as much as the kids!

Here we are just getting started!

Barrick was completlely in heaven here.  So much creating, mazes, and entire room dedicated to building legos and all kinds of building items.  

All of the kids gave this rock wall a try!

We all went and climbed these net mazes, they were very high and encircled the enitre room.  It was pretty hard for some adults and our kids LOVED it!  It went up three stories Briony was a little monkey!  She kept screaming hello to all the people below.

Barrick built an entire house of legos, with a door and everything.

Here is Briony climbing her nets again!

We then went outside to the cave area, gardens, and the outside splash pad.  Here are all the kiddos with Grandma Stewart.

Liam playing by the pirate ship.

Briony LOVED these water spouts she ran around and insisted on sitting on all of them!  It was such a fun day!  The kids were great!

To top the day off, that night Alex and Jamie came in for the night.  It was so nice to finally meet Ethan, and let the kids play and catch up.  It had been two years since we had seen them, and even though it was a short time we made the most of it!