It has beaten me!

Okay, so I cannot live without my Dr Pepper.

Thank you, Thank you a million times to Papaw Neal and Papaw Smith for the help with the siding. The "boys" (as Isaiah has called them all weekend) have worked VERY hard Friday and Saturday and the house looks great. We really appreciate all the help! Although they are all tired and sore and have worked extremely hard, I think they made a great team and I think overall they had a good time.

Meanwhile, Zach has been here all weekend and the kids have had a blast. They played non-stop yesterday. I called them "spastic" because they literally ran from one activity to the other ALL day. It was hard to keep up. But, they had a great time together. Today, we visited the zoo. The zoo was celebrating Earth day, so we had several stations to stop at and learn how to take care of our environment. We also saw a goose lay an egg right in front of us. See the picture of Zach feeding a goose right out of his hand. It was a really fun visit and I think the kids had a great time.

It has been a great weekend and here's to hoping everyone can crash tomorrow!!!

FYI - I have been invited to a coffee in the morning at a friend of mine's house to hear why I should vote for Hillary Clinton. My friend's sister is a state senator in New Hampshire who is endorsing Hillary and Hillary's campaign flew her to Fort Wayne for the weekend (she is from Fort Wayne and is one of 11 children, hence she might have quite the influence in our city)to persuade undecided voters to vote for "the Hil". I am indeed an undecided voter as of today, so I am willing to go and listen. I will let you all know if I learn anything worth passing on tomorrow. I am anxious and curious to hear what she has to say.

Thought I would share some pictures from our day. The kids have been playing outside non-stop this week, which has been fabulous. Notice Isaiah's reaction to Ella in one of the pictures "Don't take my stuff!!!" That is a constant theme around here right now. Ella wants to be "big" and Isaiah wants her out of his stuff. Alyssa is the little mother and was excited that they were twins today. Thanks Gran and Gin!

Mom or Chauffer?

Having 2 preschoolers and a toddler should not be considered the chauffer phase of parenting quite yet. But, today I had a conversation with Isaiah that proved otherwise. The conversation went like this:

Isaiah: Mom, Grace told me that she was going to invite me to her birthday party. Not Alyssa, but me.
Mom: Well, that was very nice of Grace. When is her birthday.
Isaiah: She didn't say that, but I told her that I would only come if she invited my mom.
Mom: That is so sweet (naively thinking that my son just wants his mother to be present and experience the fun birthday party with him)
Isaiah: Because I told her if she didn't invite my mom, I would try to come, but I don't know where her house is and I wouldn't know which way to go.

Awesome, isn't it!

Spring is here

As you can see from the attached pictures, spring is definitely here and the kids are wearing the mud to prove it. You can tell we have southern roots because wearing a pair of shoes on a warm day is like torture to Alyssa and Isaiah. And I don't know what it is about Isaiah and his face, but no matter how long he is outside he comes in with his face looking like this! It is just hilarious! The warm weather is making all of us feel a little more alive.

A great sibling moment --Isaiah still has his ear infection (UGGHH) and was pretty restless last night. He woke up about 3:30 crying and saying his ear hurt. Alyssa heard him and came in to check on him. When I was leaving his room a few minutes later Alyssa called me to her room and said "Mom, I prayed for Isaiah so that his ear would feel better." It was a beautiful moment. I am sure she body slammed him as soon as he woke up this morning, but it was great!

The invasion of the ninjas

This just cracked me up. The kids found many things in the dress up box today and decided to be ninjas. I just thought the picture was cute and wanted to share. On a side note, thank heavens for daddy! On those days and nights when mom is tuckered, daddy saves the day by playing tag, hide and seek and wrestling with the kids. In a world where many children have absent fathers, I am very thankful that our children know the blessing of a father who loves them and is intricately involved in every aspect of their lives!

Oh and Ella learned how to say "Cheese" this week. It is the cutest!

I think we are all healthy. . .?

Not 100% convinced with Isaiah, but we are functioning at 90%! WOOO--HOOO. Dad is home and we are mobile and although it is wet, the weather is just great in the spring. Thought I would share some pictures from the week. Isaiah wrote his name for the first time this week. He had a little help with the "s", but did all the rest by copying what I had written. I was really proud of him because he is my child that is not as excited to do new things. (Unlike our adventuresome Alyssa.) Alyssa is also working on her lower-case letters. So, I have a picture of both of them holding up there work. And, a picture of Alyssa as a pink kitty cat. We went to the YMCA Healthy Kids day today at a local park. Isaiah was a lion, but fell asleep before I could get a picture and then woke up screaming because his nose was already crusted. Oh, yeah--Alyssa lost yet another tooth on Thursday afternoon. I think she is going to go to kindergarten with a mouth full of adult teeth. The toothless wonder is loving the visits from the tooth fairy!

This one is for dad

We all went to the library this afternoon and the kids picked out the "Muppet Show" season 1 to check out and watch. Alyssa had recently gotten a cup somewhere with the muppets on them so they wanted to see what they were all about. Isaiah keeps calling Kermit "Shermit, but what is a name anyway:-) After dinner, Alyssa was laying on the couch and Isaiah was sitting at her feet. She turns to Isaiah and says "Will you rub my feet." My dad spent many-a-night rubbing my feet and squeezing my toes growing up. I guess I better start some hand exercises!

When will these dark circles go away?

Today was a particularly hard day for Mommy Neal. After a night where all 3 kids were up multiple times, my patience was pretty short all day today. Isaiah is no longer running a fever, but is not quite yet healed up as he was in need of mom's snuggles and wasn't expressing himself very appropriately today (i.e., whining). One thing that is new to us here at the Neal house since last fall is that we are allowing Alyssa (and sometimes Isaiah with his sister) to go play with the neighborhood kids in the culdesac behing our house. We have gotten to know the parents, but this is still a VERY hard step in the growing up/letting go process. I refuse to be a "helicopter" parent (hovering over every move), but man, is this letting go stuff VERY hard. Especially when my oldest child pushes EVERY boundary she is given to the very limit. Unfortunately, she has also inherited her mother's need to please everyone and completely forgets that she has any rules whatsoever when she is with her friends. So, the past 2 days have resulted in loss of privileges because she has gone outside of her neighborhood boundary. UGGGHHH. THIS IS SO HARD!!!!!! Plus, Tim is out of town, Ella's pacy is in the bed now, she has given up her nighttime feeding and I have given up coffee and pop all since Monday. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and a lot tired. I am just ready to stop feeling like I need a nap every day. No wonder my house cannot get clean and my eyebrows can't get plucked. Does anyone have any herbal supplements or anything????? Maybe just some Red Bull will do! Good night all!

Who Goes to School?

We were having a conversation today about why certain neighborhood kids go to school every day and why Alyssa and Isaiah only go to school certain days of the week. Alyssa started rattling off her friends who are in kindergarten or grade school and telling Isaiah that they go to school every day because they are big. Isaiah then responded "When I get big, I will go to school every day. But, giants never go to school, do they mom?"

Happy Birthday to Ella

She is officially "1"!!! Ella's birthday was yesterday and we celebrated with family! She was not too sure about her cake. She would eat it if daddy would feed it to her, but really didn't dig in. Most of the icing you see on her hands is a result of Alyssa shoving her hand into the cake! We had a great visit with Gran and Ginny on Saturday and Sunday morning and it was great to see everyone else on Sunday.

On a side note, Isaiah has an ear infection so we are treating that starting today. The doctor thought his throat swelling was just a result of the infection, so we will hope that the antibiotic takes care of it all. Poor little guy continues to feel miserable today when he doesn't have motrin (the wonder drug) in him.

Enjoy the pics!

Ella's new tricks

Ms. Ella is quite the active little booger recently. She is walking all over the place and in that phase where she wants to play with anything but a toy. Attached is a picture of her climbing up the little rocking chair over the edge of the couch and taking a nose dive into the cushions. She just cracks up and thinks she is so big when she does it. Notice that she is holding the camera case in her hand. It's usually a sock or a fruit snack package. Only the best educational toys for the Neal children! I can't believe she is going to be 1 on Sunday. My, how time flies. Although the addition of a third child has had its challenges, our family would not have been complete without our Elle Belle. She is such a bright, sweet light in our house!

Spring break is boring

Sorry I have been lacking on my blog posts. Tim and I had a fabulous weekend of adult time while the kids were visiting grandparents this weekend. But reality kicked in real quick as Ms. Ella came home with a fever and Isaiah developed one on Monday morning. So, we have been nursing everybody back to health. Ella has an ear infection and Isaiah seems fine now. But, Alyssa has been healthy and exclaimed to me yesterday morning "Mom, spring break is boring." Ah, I still hope she is saying that when she is 18!! Isaiah also told me this morning that he was the "coloring chapter". I think he meant coloring champion. It made me laugh.

We had a great visit today from Ashley, Trevor, Will and Nick. They came up for the day just to hang out and it was great. The kids got along wonderfully until naptime hit. I am so glad that they came up! Anyway, we are hanging tight and trying to think of other things to do for the rest of the week so that Spring Break will not be a complete bust :-)