Spring Break Fun

To start out Spring Break, Jared's dad came up to visit for a few days and used his expertise to help fix a few leaks and get our sprinklers up and running for the year.
After spending most of the break inside we made a fun excursion to have a picnic lunch at the new giant playground in town despite the overcast sky. It started to rain a little as soon as we got to the park, but the kids were having so much fun we decided to stay anyway.
Emily packed the picnic lunch for all of us.





I thought the "musical section" of the playground was pretty cool.


As we drove away with drenched pants and dripping hair, the sun finally started to peek through the clouds.

Cebey aka Alyssa

Jacob decided one day to start calling Alyssa Cebey (Kebby) and pretty soon the name stuck. Now she refers to herself as Cebey. She is such a fun child although she is way too busy for a mom with a newborn.

Here's a little of evidence of the results of Alyssa's "work" while I was busy feeding Joshua.

Reorganizing the Videos
Stealing fruitsnacks
I was too busy cleaning up to take pictures of her salt and pepper shaker art, experiments with expensive shampoo in the toothpaste drawer, and Emily's unloaded dresser drawers strewn all over her room.

Whenever its time to leave Joshua's room so he can sleep, she scrambles underneath his dresser to avoid my grasp.

It's a good thing she looks so cute and innocent!
I love how she begs to climb on my lap and read stories, gives sweet "goldfish kisses,"sings EIEIO (Old MacDonald) and ABCDE throughout the day.

March Madness...Wrestling

March is typically a pretty crazy month at our house with wresting practices or tournaments on almost every week night. Having a new baby to top it off made it a little trickier this year. Let's just say I sigh with relief when the wrestling ends, although I'm glad my boys have a chance to build their character and muscles at the same time :) They've practiced extra hard this year, getting up at 5:45 am a few times a week to practice with some friends for the past several months and participating in 2 wrestling programs. But their improvement is significant so all the hard work paid off with a lot of gold medals.

Jared's dad was able to come up to visit us and see their last match of the season.






Baby Josh (and I) attended his first wrestling match with the boys when he was just a few weeks old. It was amazing he slept all the way through all of the screaming and whistling. Some of the parents get pretty intense!

Helping Hands

Baby Joshua is definitely not lacking for helping hands to hold him every second he's awake... or asleep. Fortunately we've been able to help Alyssa steer some of her "love" towards her own baby dolls and she keeps busy changing, feeding and burping them more than ever now.

My parents came up to help after he was born which was such a blessing because Jared was quite sick on all the days he had taken off. Unfortunately they took our sicknesses back home with them :(

Leprechaun Luncheon

Emily was super disappointed when she woke up with an ear infection on the day of her school St. Patrick's Day Party and had to miss out on all of the fun, so she planned a party of her own for the family a few days later. She decorated some shamrock invitations and planned out the menu and games:

Menu:
Broccoli Soup
Pistachio Salad
Peas
Pickles
Lime Jello
Green Apple Juice

Games:
Lucky Spoons
Don't Eat the Leprechaun

Joshua's Firsts

First Smile Captured - 5 days old
He had been to the Dr. earlier in the day and had his tongue clipped (OUCH!) because he was so tongue-tied that it could interfere with his language development later.

Josh attended his first political caucus at only 2 days old. I wanted to make sure I had the chance to vote and was so grateful that I was feeling well enough to go.

2 1/2 weeks

First Bath

1st St. Patricks Day

Josh is a great sleeper (so far). It's amazing how the little guy could sleep through the live band at the Stake Spring Fling we attended and the shouting and whistling of the boys 2 hour wrestling match.

4 days old

2 weeks old- first church outfit

Baby Joshua

We are so happy to have Baby Joshua in our family!

The Stats:
Joshua Jared Neal
Born Sunday, March 4th 5:40 pm
7 lb 10 oz
20 1/2 " long

The best labor and delivery yet.... although I was a getting a little worried the Dr. and anesthetist weren't going to make it on time :)


The kids were all pretty eager to come and see him at the hospital a few hours after he was born.

1 day old & heading home

Alyssa claims this is her baby Josh.... looks like its going to be a battle keeping him safe!