Mmmm...

It's no question. Poosa loves to chew on stuff.

Mmmmm... Hawaii!

Blocks

Bagels! Courtesy of the big sister who knows how to get into the fridge,
and does so quite often.

Spaghetti sauce! Nummy!

The Papoose!

Our Papoose is growing up so fast!!!

Our silly papoose!

Plank position!  Work those abs, papoose!

Crawling with the tummy off the floor!  (This started November-ish, so about 5-6 months old!)

Look at the crawler!

Now she gets into everything!

seriously... everything.  Sometimes it's not so fun...

Sometimes it's an adventure...

And sometimes it means mom has to put her in here, for her own safety.
Poosa's not a big fan of baby jail....

 Now we have to watch out for this new trick...

(please excuse the sideways-ness... can't get it to turn. bleh)

The Living Room

Welcome to our home!  If you come in our front door, this is the room you'll find! Complete with our new couch and chair that we got an AWESOME deal on at a New Year's blowout sale.

View from standing by the stairs that lead up to the bedrooms
You can see the door knob to our front door to the left.

View from sitting in our fun chair!

View from standing in door frame that leads to dining room.  Our pretty front door and  chair. :-)

Our coat closet and stairs.

Please excuse the Christmas decorations... these pictures were taken Jan 2.  The Christmas decorations are no longer up, but this blog post is just getting published because I'm an easily distracted person that let the blog fall behind in the hectic-ness of life.  Hope some of you are still around to enjoy my attempts at blogging again!

And welcome to our house!

First Day of School

Today was our first day of home preschool for the munchkin!  It was so much fun, too.

For now, I'm kinda just going with the flow and "testing the waters" with munchkin.
The method for now is to just pull out my book What Your Preschooler Needs to Know, and the accompanying activity book and just thumb through some parts and let Naomi pick what she wants to learn.

She chose "I'm a Little Teapot," and George Washington. And then decided she wanted to make an American Flag like Betsy Ross.

So that's exactly what we did.
I taught her how to sing and dance to "I'm a Little Teapot."  Lots of fun!

Then we cuddled and read the story about George Washington and The Cherry Tree. The next story was about Betsy Ross, with a picture of her sewing the first American Flag, and Naomi wanted to make one, too.  So we grabbed some construction paper and went to town.

In the process we learned...
counting (1-13) for the stars and stripes
patterns-- alternating red and white stripes for the flag
shapes-- stars, rectangles, square, circle (you can prolly tell our circle of stars broke down in the pic below... we're working on it)
colors-- she had to pick out what colors the flag were from our big pile of construction paper
how to use scissors and glue (this is a work in progress!)

And them we learned the first part of the "Pledge of Allegiance"
"I pledge my allegiance to the flag of the United States of America..."
I figured the whole thing is pretty long and we'll keep working on it. :-) She isn't even 3 yet, so I think we're ok.

And we did all this in less than 1 hour!  Munchkin had so much fun; I did, too!  I call this a big success for DAY 1. And a lifetime of learning up ahead...

Playroom, part 2

Thanks to my aunt and her incredible eye for design and sending me some "inspiration sketches,"  I love the way the playroom is organized now!  (Though to be honest, I'm thinking I want to remove those closet doors to open it up more, which could mean another re-arranging is in order.)

 Here's Munchkin and Papoose's Playroom!
(photos taken with Brad's phone on "panoramic mode.")

taken from the doorway

taken from standing by the closet

I love that not everything is facing toward the center of the room anymore!  When everything was pushed up against the walls, it felt like all the energy of the room just pointed to the center and then started a tornado of mess in the middle of the room.

This new arrangement breaks the room up into smaller, more manageable areas.  And my goodness does it make a difference in simply how munchkin plays in this room!  Sure, toys still get dumped on the floor-- that's a given with a toddler that LOVES to dump-and-fill.  But now it's not all mixed in the middle so I have to sort and pick-up with her every night.  It feels organized, and Munchkin knows where the toys go, it's not a guessing game anymore.  And the energy in the room "flows" from space to space, instead of just pointing inward and having nowhere to flow to and thus creating the mess tornado in the center.

And it meets my goals!

• socially gendered toys are integrated together;' there's not a "boy space" or "girl space." it's all children's learning and playing space.
• it looks and feels organized, and it's clear where things go.
• it's safe for Papoose-- her toys aren't by heat vents or mixed with small choking hazards
• feels like a creative space where my kids want to play, build, create, and learn

The Playroom

Ok, so i was going to make a post to give you a full tour of the house, but I'm too OCD to manage getting EVERY room in the house looking nice enough to take pictures of the whole thing at once and make just one blog.  so, here's the first room you get to see... i may make this a series for each room when i get to it!

The Playroom.
I think this room may be the most important room in the house.
You may be thinking, "Seriously?  The kids' playroom... most important?"
Yes.  It's where my children spend most of their time. It's where they play.  And by play, I really mean LEARN (since play is really a child learning and enjoying it-- which is how learning should be.  I'll step off that soapbox now before I get too far off subject).

And now maybe you're thinking, "just post the pictures already!" If you haven't just scrolled to them already... you can cheat, and I won't judge.  But I'd love if you left some feedback! :-)


Goals (not in any specific order)

• organize so there are logical places for each type of play (role playing/dress up, games/puzzles, creating crafts, making music, etc) 
• foster healthy social identity by consciously integrating socially gendered types of toys (ie: not segregating the baby doll and toy kitchen from the blocks/legos and cars) (i could make a super long explanation for this, but i'll spare you the soapbox rant)
• safe areas for baby ruthe to play (ie: not by a heating vent, avoid small toys she can put in her mouth)
• maintain an atmosphere that encourages creativity.

I re-arrange this room ALL the time.  Like multiple time per week day.  This room never feels right.  Maybe I'm trying to do too much in one room, or the room is too small to do everything i want in it.  Or he kids have too much stuff. Or I need to learn how to arrange things not up against walls. I'm terribly boring like that. We do have space in other areas of the house that I could take something (their bedroom, basement, etc)... just not sure how those spaces will function yet. So I keep banging my head on this room.

*there's a long heat vent along the floor/wall
beneath the window
*small book shelf has puzzles and games,
larger toys on top

Current Set-Up ( #37, but who's keeping track anymore?) 

Pros

• everything is in here... (is this really a "pro"?)
• doesn't significantly change the room, so someday when we have more kids, it can easily be converted back into a bedroom
• there are clear places for each activity (goal 1)
• socially gendered toys are interspersed (goal 2)

*everything pushed up against the wall = boring
*heat vent on floor by play kitchen
 *baby toys on bottom shelf of toy bucket organizer
*smaller toys on top levels
*i have letters for "Ruthe" to put up on wall, just haven't yet

Cons

• it always looks cluttered or messy. 
• her desk is facing a wall in the corner-- creativity doesn't flow from looking at a blank wall (goal 4)
• stuffed animals are in the closet, which is closed off (really, what's the point of a closed off closet in a playroom? oh yeah, future bedroom space... bah)
• boring (goal 4)
• baby ruthe's toys are spread around the room -> more chances she'll find small naomi toys, or a heating vent (goal 3)
• i really don't like the window treatments, but that's a "luxury repair" that won't happen for awhile, or until i sew some myself :-)

*the closet over there is full of stuffed animals
*should I just take the closet doors off?
*to paint or not to paint the walls?

So, friends and decorators... any advice on how to organize this space?  Meanwhile, I'll  continue to re-arrange the room.  :-)

Christmas Card 2012

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dear Family and Friends,

Boy, it has been an eventful year for the Neeley household! So much has happened that we decided to publish our first Christmas newsletter and send it to you all! We hope this letter finds you well.

Brad celebrated his 1^st year of full-time employment at In The Round Design Group this past October. He loves working there as a web developer and is growing by leaps and bounds in his programming skills. In March, Brad took advantage of the new company insurance by meeting his yearly deductible during an appendectomy to cure his chronic appendicitis. He also celebrated his 1^st year anniversary of being the Young Men’s president in our church ward, meaning he works with the boys ages 12-18 at church. The boys are fun to work with and always keep him on his worst behavior. Marie is not happy to have gained a teenager this early…

Speaking of Marie, she enjoyed the year as a full-time stay at home mom, keeping the sanity (or some semblance of it) rooted in the home. In May, she got Brad out of one of his morning church meetings early to welcome a new baby girl, Ruthe Maedean. Marie has enjoyed seeing the two sisters grow and interact ever since. She serves as a primary teacher at church, teaching the 5-6 year olds. The majority of her year has been planning, preparing and taking the forefront in our search for the Neeley mothership (a.k.a. our first house!). She was the brains behind the operation.

On Dec. 7^th, we finally closed on our house after having an offer accepted by the sellers on August 12^th. Don’t worry, we still have some hair left on our heads. J  Moving day was December 11^th; we’re slowly getting settled in. We love our home.  Come visit us sometime!

Charlotte Naomi turned 2 this year and has been dazzling her parents with her intelligence and wit.  She always knows how to make her parents laugh and has a great Neeley personality (she fits right in with us weirdies). Some of Munchkin’s favorite things are cars, tools, horses, and Bambi. She is learning the alphabet and her numbers this year and really enjoys practicing. She loves the number 11. She counts, “1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 6, 11, 9, 11”. She loves nursery. Anytime we go to church, even when it’s not Sunday, she recognizes the road and asks “We go to nursery?” She has a great interest and enjoyment in playing the piano and listening and dancing to music. We’re so blessed to have her shining spirit in our home and family.

Ruthe Maedean made her grand entrance on May 27^th (a day before her due date!) weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces and 19 inches long. She is named after Brad’s Grandmother (Ruthe Charlotte Hollrock Neeley) and Marie’s Great-Grandmother (Francis Maedean Harrison Harkins). Baby Ruthe (aka: Papoose or Poosa) has her daddy’s crazy-eyes and goofy smile, and her mommy’s cuddliness.  She amazes (and frightens) us every day with how mobile she is becoming. She started rolling over consistently at only 3 weeks, sitting unsupported at 4 ½ months, and crawling a week before she turned 6 months. She keeps her mama on her toes! …and sometimes has mama’s toes in her mouth. She watches and learns from her sister’s every move. Naomi and Ruthe get along great and just barely started sharing a room in the new house. Mommy and Daddy finally get their own room again! J

We thank you all for your friendship and love towards us. We love you all and pray for you often. We know  Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. We love this time of year to be able to celebrate the miracle and gift of His birth, truly the greatest gift we have all received. His life and works have made it possible for all of us to return to live with Him and our families forever. May you have peace and glad tidings this Christmas and throughout the New Year!

Love,

The Neeleys

Brad, Marie, Naomi & Ruthe

How Hard Can It Be?

I'm tettering on the verge of a mental breakdown and am currently debating a very violent smashing of our pumpkin that's still sitting around from Halloween, or just crying uncontrollably whilst unpacking everything and resigning myself to the fact that we may never get into our home.  There's not much middle ground for me when I've been on an emotional edge for 3 months.

We made our initial offer on our home back on August 12. And should have closed by October 12.  No one was worried.  We were ahead of schedule for pretty much everything.

And then ... THE BANK.  That infernal pit of pain and misery full of people who seem to spend their days just picking their own belly-button lint.  We sent them everything on September 28, after jumping through a few hoops and harassing an insulation contractor to turn in his credentials in a more professional way than taking pictures of them on his smartphone.  Everything should have gone smoothly.  Until October 12 came and went and we hadn't heard anything from THE BANK. So we extended to October 31, which also happened to be the end of our apartment lease.


 October 17, we hear that the bank got our application and is beginning underwriting...
yeah.  a week after we should have closed-- they tell us they are starting to work on it. (in hindsight, we should have threatened to switch banks right then... we would now if we thought it might get us closed faster)

The week of Halloween rolls around, and our loan officer and buying agent are trying really hard to help us get closed, but they are honest with us-- it's not looking good.  So we kindly convince our apartment manager to let us stay another month, but she reminds us that she's keeping out apartment on the market, and when she rents it, we have no contract to guarantee we can stay there, so we'd need to be out.  We pass on our impending homelessness to our buying agent and loan officer, and they keep working really hard doing whatever they can.

We file a SECOND extension up to Friday, November 16.  and THE BANK keeps picking lint out of their belly buttons.

Our loan officer spending insane hours working on getting the bank to hurry up.  bank asks for more docs.  she sends them.  bank says, "oh, that's not what we wanted; we actually want these docs."  she sends them.  bank comes back, "we don't have these docs."  Actually, we've sent those TWICE.  And our awesome loan officer calls the belly-button-lint pickers and chews them out, and then calls manager, and chews them out, and then calls their manager, and chews them a new belly button to pick lint out of on Thursday night and Friday morning (the day we should have closed, the 2nd time).  But we don't make closing, so we file a THIRD extension that goes to (tomorrow) Wednesday, Nov. 21.  Because the bank passed on some info that "hey, you've been good sports and given us everything we've asked for, so you're ready to close.  just gotta get these docs to the title company."

title company, upon hearing our tale of woe and impending homelessness assures us that they are prepared to help us close ASAP and can have us ready to close within 1 hour of getting necessary docs from the belly-button-lint pickers.  Well, it's the end of business hours on Tuesday, and the title company still hasn't gotten the docs they need from the bank.

The seller's agent is apparently trying to pressure our buying agent to get us to close by telling us that the sellers are going away after thanksgiving and if we don't close tomorrow, then we won't close til December.  Newflash:  we'll be homeless pretty soon if we don't close tomorrow. You want to put pressure on someone, call the lint-pickers at Michigan Mutual, Inc.  

Everything we have is packed.  We've even dismantled our beds; my munchkin is sleeping in her closet (guess when your bed is packed and you can fit your teeny mattress in there, might as well as fun, right?), all but a few days worth of clothes are packed, our dishes are packed and we're using paper and plastic eatingware.  I've scrubbed down the bathrooms, the kitchen (including behind our stove!), and I've even started cleaning the baseboards and cupboards. We are and have been fully prepared to close for over a month now. I don't want to extend a FOURTH time...

 And it seems everyone I talk to knows someone or had this happen to them, and they find out hours before closing that the bank denies the loan.  Yeah... those kind of stories aren't comforting... they just induce tears and/or lots of screaming into my pillow. and a massive headache.

ok, rant done.
can we just buy our house, please?!

Anxiety

Something has been eating at me the last few weeks... maybe months.  it's hard to tell.  And maybe, as Brad speculates, it's all to do with the drama with buying our house.  But I have been feeling so anxious and wound-up lately.  Like a jack-in-the-box about to pop open, or a balloon filled to capacity with air about to explode, or potato soup in the microwave that ... you get the idea.  I've just not felt right for awhile now.

And the election didn't help at all.  I can't say that I've have ever felt so much anxiety over an election before.  And now that it's over, I don't even feel the least bit less anxious.  It's possible my anxiety is HIGHER now than before.

I stressed for months over who I was going to vote for.  I read everything I could about each candidate from the major parties.  I prayed for a long time about who I should vote for; and then we fasted as a family and prayed more about if the candidate we chose was the right one.  I never felt at peace either way.  I liked parts of one candidate's platform, other parts from the other candidate's platform, and on some issues I disagreed with both candidates. (and yes, I even considered a 3rd party candidate... but I didn't like them either)  Political posturing and mudslinging only made me grimace more at the thought of voting for either party.  And I mean political party.  I don't know that anyone as a voter who doesn't know either Obama or Romney personally truly knows what kind of person they are outside of the political mud fight.  I like to believe that both men are very intelligent and respectable, and are working to achieve what they believe is best for our nation; and the ugliness is just a cold (and in my opinion terrible) campaign strategy.

About a week before the election, I cast my absentee by mail ballot, and hoped that my anxiety would end.  After all, I'd done my civic duty, and could just sit back and be done with it.  (We voted early b/c we were unsure about when we'd close on our house and move, and if it'd happen before election day.)

I actually became MORE anxious. No matter who was elected or re-elected, I was going to disagree with him on some things that I feel passionate about.  It was like a hopelessness.  Election night came, and I thought that I'd feel peace after knowing who won... but wrong again.  I just felt more anxiety...

In the course of the election, friends, family, and acquaintances were bitterly divided.  And after the election results, I saw some pretty ugly things said from supporters of both sides.  And it dawned on me that the ugliness of this election wasn't between Obama and Romney.  It was between citizens.  Ugliness and disrespect and rudeness was rampant.

found this awesome image on thefirstecho.com, but it didn't have a souce cited, so this is the best i can do for a citation.

I REALLY dislike conflict.  I love to listen to other's opinions.  I love to talk to people who feel passionately about what they believe.  But can't this be done civilly?!?!?!  I've purposely decided to not reveal who I voted for to most people simply because it invites criticism, name calling, and rudeness.  

What are your thoughts on the election?  Social/political atmosphere?  Anyone else have a great amount of election anxiety?  Or am I just too sensitive to get involved in politics?

November is National Adoption Month!

So, a friend asked that I write a blog post or share something about adoption and/or their adoption profile to celebrate National Adoption Month.  I think adoption is so wonderful, and I jumped at the opportunity to share my thoughts...

but then when I sat down to write this ... I just couldn't think of anything to say that felt... Right.  Inspirational.  Powerful.

You see. I know adoption is a powerful and wonderful way to bring families together and bless lives.  But I can't say that I know that for myself personally.
I was not adopted.
None of my siblings were adopted.
My parents weren't either.
My husband wasn't, or anyone in his immediate family.
Our daughters were not adopted.
We probably won't adopt children, or place any of our children with an adoptive family. (I say "probably" because it's not in our plans as of now, but we don't know what the future holds for us, and if one day Heavenly Father impressed us that adoption would be right for our family, then we'd do it.)

So, in writing this, I kinda feel like an outsider to a beautiful thing; and I'm trying to tell you how beautiful and awesome it is without really knowing it personally. (Almost like trying to tell you what it's like to visit Rome after only reading travel brochures. I don't feel like I can do it justice or touch you the way others can who have been there.) But I do have quite a bunch of dear friends whose lives have been touch by adoption.  I know the love that has filled their hearts and made their families whole through adoption.  Anytime a friend tells me their positive experience with adoption, my heart just ... bursts (I'm not kidding, I really do feel like I have a mini-Independence-Day fireworks show going on in my chest.  I can't really explain it, but it feels good).  And so, to all of my incredible friends, I wanted to share a little something with you to celebrate National Adoption Month.  My hope is that families and persons who support adoption can be more than just those who are personally touched by it.

If you, or someone you know, has adopted a child or is looking to place a child with an adopted family, one of the kindest and EASIEST things you can do to support their family's decision to adopt is to use supportive words, often known as "Positive Adoption Language," or Respectful Adoption Language.  The words we use in conversation are powerful, and being kind in our words can build families and individuals up. Positive Adoption Language is not just for families or individuals directly affected by adoption; it's for everyone. A great friend sent me this document that recommends some potentially supportive language in place of potentially harmful language.


These are some friends' blogs or profiles who are searching for their child through adoption. Please pass along their blog/profile as they search for their family. (Also, if you are looking for your little one through adoption, I'd love to share your blog, button, profile, etc.  Just let me know!)

Shaun and Lanette

Chelsy and Brent

More adoption information can be found at It's About Love (facilitated through LDS Family Serivces) or Adoption.com