Goodbye Nealy's

The best way to think about the last two weeks with the Neal's is cramming three days to one, without the extra days of sleep. I can speak for all of us in saying that we loved every minute of it (cause hey, being exhausted with someone else so much better).

Monday was our "bumming around day", and unintentionally the first day of school for public schooled kids (everyone posting pictures of their kids, all neat and fresh, while we are in our PJ's eating breakfast from morn to eve). We watched movies, and made sure the blinds were shut all day!
 It was great.
Tuesday the Neal's and Mica went to the Vaughn's for the day, Elena baby-sat, and Mom and I cleaned. That was probably the quietest day.

Riding horses with our friends the Bingham's

Wednesday was all-day at the Binghams up in Conroe area, and our Christless Christianity  small group.
All the girls loved going horseback-riding -even Mrs. Jackie went riding. We also made cheese, (some of us) went four-wheeling, and played many rounds of foosball.

Johnny and David.

Making mozzarella goat cheese

 I wasn't around for the actually making of the cheese, but I helped stretch it! Stretching the cheese almost reminded me of warming polymer clay in your hands.

Jo -she was being really cute the day they left.

Thursday we packed a bit, had some friends from morn to afternoon and then had some more friends drop by after dinner.
Friday was busy; 9:30 piano, 10:15 violin, friend for lunch, and dare I mention packing and last minute errands!

Note that these are just the main events in between the basic everyday things (cleaning, blaring loud music while washing the dishes , answering questions, playing multiple rounds of cards and Mancala, laughing over daily incidents, dishing out fish oils,  and making salads)

Getting into the car, after giving hugs and kisses to the Neal's, I was so tired but I already missed them!
 No one to carry down from naptime, talk to at night, put in a headlock, answer wide-eyed questions, or help find their shoes.
Goodbye Nealy's!

Hoodies, Nealy's and Us

I don't mean to sound boastful, but I have a beautiful family.

This blog post title is the skinny of these past few weeks. Extra skinny, actually. There were thousand of extra details and curves to these past few weeks. To show you a crack of our week, I had the brilliant idea of trying out Elena's PicMonkey. 

 I think I just got addicted.   :)

One raining Wednesday in July, we left in the morning and spent a few days at my Grandma's, in Burnet. As a special treat, we  forced invited Ryle to come along. We had a great, but humid, time going for walks, watching old movies, and going to the Domain (like Houston's City Center) with the rest of the familia.

The girls insisted we peek in the creepy house for sale

As you can see, Abby and Nate thoroughly enjoyed Ryle

Grilled Pizza (grilled by Luke)

Thai eggplant from one of Dad's co-workers.

On Saturday we worked outside. We washed all four of the cars (Luke, Grace, and I had the privilege to be the first to wash Elena's new car), transplanted plants (one of which was the Thai eggplant), and did other odd jobs around the house. As a sort of reward, we went to the pool in the afternoon with some of the older Neal's.

Matthew McMuggins -simply yummy

The ultimate game of ultimate Frisbee out on the Parker's land

 

At our friend's the Parker's land for GfBC Conroe's baptism (we were invited by the Hood's for Mia's baptism). It was hot, but we had such a great time hanging with all the Conroe folks!

Mr. Wes, Mia, and Pastor David Shiflet

When I looking through these baptism pics I got a huge lump in my throat; they captured the moment beautifully!

Chicken sandwiches and and RJ Goodies cake in honor of Grace's birthday

Grace's birthday snuck up on us, so we simply had a special tea party.

But first there was Eva's birthday.

Nicole surprised mom with a spontaneous visit during which we celebrated dear Eva's berry first birthday! We didn't do anything too special, but it was just special to have her with us.

A few weeks ago, Dad went on a trip to Wales....(sigh)

The dear ducks have returned!

I believe it was two weeks ago that we spotted some ducks in our tree just outside the dining room. Since then we have been seeing them more and more frequently.

Hopey-dopey-doo and Joy

As I was sorting through the gazillion pictures, I found that I had to post these

The Past Couple Weeks

Nate and Naomi in the Hood's fairy grass (aka rye grass) of a backyard! The Hoods planted the grass in the early fall, then it will die in the spring and then you can harvest it as actual rye (like the bread, or the Poirot mystery, or like the gluten that Mica can't eat).

The watermelon had its last days mid December.
Alas, there was some gooey gross stuff on the outside of it, then when we opened it most of it looked bad to eat. But mom and I took a wee bit of the good parts; it wasn't extraordinarily sweet. But, I actually grew something!

So, while the girls were in Dubai, Mr. Neal mentioned that he was going to ship a few things to our house, and we could open the boxes, put some letters and stuff in, and condense the contents into one box. So the first day, we got two skinny packages, I wasn't sure how we were going to a book and a bottle of Witch Hazel (for cloth diapers) into those packages. But every day we continued to receive more packages, and boxes, till three weeks later, we had 19 boxes! But, we managed to condense everything into three or four boxes!! Mica and I were very proud of ourselves. :P

This little field mouse was literally an inch big. We found it in the Hoods backyard.

A sweet friend gave me a mug!

We got to meet the Hood's Nonnie and Poppie!

[Note the impressive deer head, stylishly mounted on the wall, compliments of Mr. Hood.]

Dom with his sword, Mia with her hat.

Yeah, this is pretty much how we take pictures; that's why we can never take professional family portraits.

This scarf is the courtesy of Mrs. Mitzi.
Thanks a bunch!

Oh, we went shooting too!

To get to this "shooting range", we had to drive very, very far, past the sticks. But it was worth it because there was no one at the range to boss you about; just you, your guns, your friends, and other people with their guns and friends.

The family, well some of it.

Yes, we believe in child labor. :P

Nicole bought Elena, Mica, and Mom some special cupcakes-- from the best cupcake place in Austin-- for their birthdays which we had missed.

Love,
Caro :)

Meet Matthew

Dear Familia,

 It is my great pleasure to introduce the newest Neal!

Meet Matthew Timothy Neal, born on November 22, 2011 at 8:09pm, weighing about 6 1/2 lbs.

After spending his first few days in the NICU, Matthew is thriving well on being home with his siblings.

 Mrs. Jackie is so happy to be home and we're so glad to have her back. She is recovering well from the surgery and the days spent at the hospital were restful. Mr. Brock has a week off from work and we're enjoying the time we get to spend together.

I love you!

Love,
~Micaela