Y Pics

It's been forever since I posted pictures but a good friend of mine at the Y took these of the girls playing. LOVE IT.

The Y has been such a blessing for our family. Taylor had her first swim lesson today and did GREAT. It won't be long before she's a little fish. And She'll be in camp little y this summer. She's really come out of her shell since we've been coming here. She'll talk to just about anyone now and has made tons of friends. We all have. Maddie's got a bunch of little friends her own age here... and she acts like she owns the place. It's great.

I really enjoy all the programs and classes. They really are wonderful and I would recommend a membership to ANYONE. :) it really has been great for us.

First Tumble

My little bitty baby had her first bad tumble yesterday. While we were at John and Krystin's house watching their boys, Moo decided to walk down the stairs like a big girl... without holding on to anything. Me and C were in the Kitchen when we heard her start tumbling and we got to the stairs just in time to see her land on her nose on the wood floor.

Her nose immediately started bleeding and bled for a good 20 minutes atleast. The bridge of her nose swelled up and bruised. I couldn't believe there wasn't anything else wrong with her. She has a tiny bit of bruising on her side, but that's it.

I think that's the most blood I've ever seen come from one of my girls. I handled it much better than I ever thought I would. I guess those mommy instincts kick in and you just do what needs to be done.

Anyways, Maddie is fine. Still has blood coming out of her nose a bit. But it's dried up now. I don't think there's any permanent damage and I've very grateful. It could have been much worse.

New blog Here!

That's right, Yet again I changed blogs. Mainly because I changed email addresses and wanted a fresh start. So here ya go. My new blog

www.TheNashvilleNeelys.blogspot.com

Hope you like it.

Updated

I have been awful with this whole blog world lately. I haven't even been checking anyone's blogs, which is crazy for me. I'm a blog-a-holic usually. But I guess life is just busy. Because It's been so long and lots has been going on (as it usually does) I'm going to update everyone on our little world here.

Maddie - Maddie has hit the TERRIBLE TWO's 6 months early. It is BAD. She has an AWFUL temper, the likes of which I've never seen in someone so tiny. She usually will pitch one fit a day and that fit can last anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours. She'll hit things (walls, people, furniture, toys, anything in reach). She throws things (sippy cups, toys, etc.) She knocks things over (toys, furniture, and yes, people!) She is ROTTEN. I'm getting aggravated with it. I don't know what to do. I put her in time out. I'll spank her (giving her "something to cry about.") I'll put her to bed, I'll ignore her, I'll try to draw her attention to something else. This girl of mine is STUBBORN. And yes mom, I know it's payback :) Thanks for all the reminders. I'm praying this is just a phase and that it doesn't last long, cause if it does, then I won't!

Regardless, when Maddie isn't throwing a huge tantrum, she's the sweetest, most cuddly little girl I've ever seen. She gives the best hugs. She says hi to everyone and thinks she's big stuff at the Y. She even has a "boyfriend" now who is 4 years old. He adores Maddie as much as she adores him. He'll hold her hand and walk her around, get out toys for her, push her on the cars... all sorts of things. And he's a total cutie also.

She's talking all the time now too. She can repeat just about anything we say to her. It's so sweet to hear her little voice. Taylor gets her to repeat things all the time, like people's names and such. She LOVES to say her prayers at night. She just repeats what I say for now, but she does good. And she always says AMEN real loud after prayers. I love it.

Today was Maddie's first day in nursery, and she didn't fuss one bit. Thank you Y for prepping her for that step. :) It's so nice to be able to sit through a sunday school lesson.

Taylor - Taylor is turning into such a beautiful kid. I think both my girls are GORGEOUS, but both in their own ways. Maddie is crazy cute, but Taylor is such a Classic beauty - like she walked out of a 40's or 50's movie. Anyways - She also has a boyfriend. He's 4 years old and loves to play with Taylor. He pretends he's a puppy and she feeds him and takes him on walks and just takes care of him. It cracks me up. His mom asked if taylor was his girlfriend and he said "Yeah, I think so." :) Love it!

Taylor loves nursery and playing at the Y. She's turned into a real social butterfly lately, which is huge for her. She used to be painfully shy. But her friends and teachers have helped her open up alot more.

This summer Taylor will be going to camp at the Y three days a week from 8:30-3:30. I'm a bit nervous to not have her with me, but I think she'll LOVE it. She'll also be taking dance starting in May, and swim lessons over the summer (Maddie will be taking swim lessons also. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my job?)

Taylor is constantly talking or singing now. She's hardly EVER quiet, even in her sleep. When she sleeps in our bed (which happens rarely) chris says that me and taylor sleep talk back and forth! Too funny.

Chris - Chris is loving working at his new job. It's only a 4 minute drive from home, so he comes home daily for lunch with us girls. :) It's nice because we only get to eat dinner together a couple times a week. Those lunches make up for it. He has also started working Saturdays instead of Mondays. It's a little odd still, but it's nice to have him home on Mondays. For example, we're taking the girls to Chuck E Cheese tomorrow for lunch. :)

He's also been crazy sweet and awesome to me lately. For example: getting up at 11 to make me a grilled cheese and pickle sandwich, buying me not one, but 2, not 12 packs, but 24 packs of DR. PEPPER, letting me nap today for a few hours, buying me a GREEN vaccum, taking me out on a date shopping for shoes, and buying me awesome dark chocolate colored silky bed sheets!. :) I'm married to the most awesome man ever! yup. He's the love of my life. And he's getting old. His birthday is next Sunday! ;)

And lastly - Me - I'm doing well. Just busy with work, church, and the girls. I've got some great ideas in the works for new things at work, and working on visiting teaching. I'm also still trying to get a routine in place here in our new home, which i LOVE. I miss having chris's mom and dad around, but I've been so busy lately, I would have hardly seen them if we did live there. :)

All in all, we're doing great. Settling into our home and new jobs and routines. :) I swear there will a video soon of our place. I made one, but it sucked. Maybe I'll let chris do it. He's more entertaining than me. :)

Alright then... Well... You've been updated!

The Sandstroms

Okay, okay, okay, I know. No video up yet, but that's because our apartment has yet to be all clean enough to show on video. I swear, it'll be done in the next week.

Moving on...

A friend on Facebook asked me about what happened yesterday and so I figured it'd be easier to post it on here as opposed to there. To make this a bit more fun (cause the story can be hard to tell) I'm going to actually TELL A STORY. :)

A LONG LONG LONG time ago... I was working at a daycare while me and Chris planned our wedding. I loved my job (I've always worked with kids) and there was one boy in particular in my class who caught my attention. His name was Joseph, but I called him Jojo. He was a sweet little boy, but like most boys, loud and rowdy. He immediately won my heart over.

Joseph had 2 older brothers who also came to that same daycare. Charlie and Sidney very quickly worked their way into my heart also. They were my favorites, and I was theirs.

Joseph, Charlie, and Sidney lived with their grandparents in foster care. The day came when their grandparents could no longer take care of them and they were going to have to be seperated in the foster care system. It broke my heart to know this, and I came up in tears that day, upset that the boys would be leaving the daycare, and also they would be losing each other.

My mom and dad came to the rescue. They said they'd do whatever it took to keep these angels together. And they did. Joseph, Charlie, and Sidney came to live with my parents. They were not only my little friends at the Daycare, now, they were my brothers. I loved them as if they were mine even.

It eventually came time to find our boys a mom and dad who could love them forever. My mom and dad contacted LDS services and very quickly found the Sandstroms, a real Cowboy and Cowgirl, with a real farm, and cows, horses, chickens. It was a dream come true for our boys.



But the nightmare that had previously been their life was not completely over. There were many many battles with DCS, the courts, the biological parents and grandparents. It was hard on these young boys, never knowing if they'd have a real family one day.

This past summer, our Father in Heaven decided it was time for Charlie to return to him, at only 9 years old. Those of us who were left behind understand who he is, where he is, and what he's doing. But we do miss him in our lives, very dearly. No one in this world had a smile (or could move :P) like Charlie.

Yesterday, The battles, and war finally ended. The adoption was granted and now Joseph, Sidney, and yes Charlie too, have a mommy and a daddy. Last night, Joseph and Sidney also were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And I'm positive Charlie was looking down from Heaven, so proud of his sweet brothers.

I have never in my life been so touched by a baptism. Looking down into that water and seeing these strong little men. While Sidney was waiting to start, I blew him a kiss and he blew one right back to me. You can't help but fall madly in love with these boys. You really can't. There was proof in that court room yesterday. We had it packed with every seat filled and all the walls lined with people, supporting, cheering, and loving these boys. I've never in my life seen such a miracle.

And this weekend, I'll be priveleged to see another miracle, as Charlie's temple work will be done, and this gorgeous little family will be sealed for time and all eternity. I am so very grateful to have witnessed this miracle, and to have had any part in it. I'm so grateful to my mom and dad for being so willing to love these boys, to see how truly unique and special they are, and for so unselfishly opening up their hearts and home to them. My parents are such great examples to me. I'm so grateful to the Sandstroms, for loving these boys so much. For wanting so badly to be their mom and dad. For never giving up, after all the battles, the trials, the fighting, the drama. They are superman and superwoman in my eyes, and many others. I love them so much, and I'm so glad to be considered a part of their family. :)

Yesterday truly was a miracle, and I'm so excited for the rest of it this weekend.

Box, after Box, after Box...

So, we're unpacking now. We're here at our apartment, and I'd Say it's about 75% set up. It's pretty much just little stuff now. All the big things are where they go. All the tv's are set up, but no cable yet, which I'm actually really enjoying. The girls aren't watching it as much, and if it takes us til this summer to set it up, that's fine by me. We buy all our favorite shows on DVD anyways. We're mooching cable off a neighbor right now, but hopefully in the next few weeks we'll have that set up. The girls both slept through the night last night, and very lovingly woke us up this morning. I took the day off from work so I could focus on unpacking cause I'm stressing it a bit. I can't think in clutter, and our apartment is a bit of a mess, with little boxes everywhere. So Today, hopefully it'll be set up and I'll do a video tour for everyone and post it. :) Anyways, I need to go clean up the girls room again so they can actually find their toys and play with them. I'm loving our new place... Love love love it!

Apartment Update

I went today and put in our application on the apartment. We've decided to go with a ground floor one (yay us) and our move in date will be 2/12. It's a friday, so for anyone who just has an itching to help someone... you're more than welcome to come help us move! We'll be moving on Saturday too, and depending on how many people we have, we'll probably be buying Pizza for everyone. So come and help us! This is assuming we get approved too, which we'll know by tomorrow or wednesday. Wish us luck. :) I'm so excited.

The time has come...

to move.

Me and Chris think we have found the apartment for us... a 3 bedroom, 2 bath at Cambridge here in Antioch. We went by today to take a look at them, and I love it. Plenty of room for our little family, and I'm already planning out the decor in my head. SOOOO EXCITED. We'll be filling out our applications and turning them in over the next few days, and hopefully signing a lease here soon. I can't wait to have our own home (not a house yet, but more than we've had in a couple years) and to not feel like we're imposing.

The sad part is that we won't be here with Chris's parents anymore. It's so nice to have them here during the day, someone to talk to, or help entertain the girls when my patience is gone. And the girls love living with Grandma and Grandpa. They're always so excited to show them a new trick, or just see what their up to. It'll be a bit sad to leave... but good for all parties involved :)

I'm sure we'll be busy over the next month or so, planning and packing, moving and setting up, decorating and adjusting... but I'll try to keep you all updated on where we are and what we're doing. Right now? I'm going to bed. It's late. And I'm tired! Good Night :P

The Neely's Family Mission Statement

I have been casually reading the 7 habits of highly effective families and I LOVE IT. As much as I love it, i've been very lackidazical (is that a word and did i spell it right?) in putting what I've read into practice. But me and Chris finally took our first step towards "Highly Effective" tonight when we made (drum roll please!) our family mission statement.

I'd been talking about it for months... literally. But we'd never taken the time to actually do it. So earlier today, as my sick behind was laying in bed, I started writing down words or small phrases that I thought were important. Some examples are: compassion, charity, respect, responsibility, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, and integrity... I kept getting flash backs of primary and young womens in my head. Anyways, about 50 words later, chris came up and I asked him if he'd like to go on and write out our statement. He said sure, so he sat down and started writing too.

We found some examples too from the book and online and in scriptures (D&C 88:119 is my fav) and here is what we came up with!


Our family is one of gratitude and compassion, integrity and respect.
Our family is hard working and hard playing.
We find the joy and humor in life.
There are no wasted moments.
Our family will keep the promises we make, always be on time, and always say "I'm sorry" and "I love you."
As we study the scriptures and pray together as a family, we learn how to be more like Christ and always remember him.
We will honor our name and always remember where we come from, our earthly and heavenly parents.
We will never settle for less than our dreams.
Our home is a place where all who enter will be provided for physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
Our home is one of order, study and learning, prayer, faith - a home that welcomes the spirit.
We love each other unconditionally
... To infinity and beyond!


That last part is my favorite. It's turned into a little inside joke between me and chris and i think it's the perfect ending to our mission statement.

I think this mission statement will come in handy as we plan our family goals over the next few years (especially with all the changes in store.) Another extremely important part of this statement is that it's not set in stone. At any time we can change it, take away, or add to it as we see fit. And when the girls are old enough to understand it, and give their own ideas of what our family is about, we'll add their input as well. I can't wait til they can tell us what they think our family should be!

Next chapter... First things first! Now we'll see how long it takes me to prioritize!

ELMO

2009

Alot has happened this year. It's been a bit nuts for us. We started out the year at my parents house, then we moved into chris's parent's. This summer, Chris decided to become a pharmacist and started school this past fall to get all his prerequisites started. I started work at the YMCA in September. Taylor celebrated her 2nd birthday and we celebrated our 5 year anniversary with a trip to Florida in May. Maddie celebrated her first birthday in September. We had a great summer with our neice Katie here. There's been plenty of excitement in our extended family too, with a new sister-in-law, health scares, graduations, births...

2009 has been a full year for us, in so many ways. We have been blessed beyond belief this past year. And I'm so looking forward to next year.

Chris will be working closer to home.
We will be moving in the next few months (not far... don't worry!)
Chris will be taking spring semester off of school, but starting again this summer.
Taylor is turning 3 this may - old enough for classes of all kinds (music, gymnastics, dance, soccer, cheerleading... whatever we decide)
Hopefully we'll be finally making the trek out to Utah to visit family. (I'm working my tooshie off to save for it!)
I'm hoping to finally get my stuff together and really buckle down on getting routines together, and a schedule, and doing the home preschool.

I don't like to set new years resolutions... cause they're usually broken in a couple months anyways... But we do have some great goals for us, as a family, and as individuals. And I'm excited for it all. I hope you all have a great new years and are blessed this next year!

To 2010!!!!!!

Merry Christmas

And A Happy New Year

Potato Candy

Can I start off by saying, "HOLY COW" it's been over a month since I last posted anything. Life has been nuts, and there will be lots of updates over the next few weeks. At the moment, everyone in this house is sick... very sick. Throwing up and pooping all over the place. Oh, except me and Maddie. So far we're the only ones who have not gotten sick. Weird, since I'm the one who's been cleaning up after Taylor since it started last week. But I'll think of it as a blessing, and try not to think about the fact that i'll probably finally catch it on Christmas eve.

Anyways - I thought i'd share a special Christmas recipe with everyone. When I was a kid, my Big Momma would make us Potato Candy. It sounds gross, but tasted delicious. I haven't had this kind of candy since my Big Mom passed away when I was 9 or 10. I always remembered the recipe... for the most part. It's simple. So last week, me and my mom got together to make some christmas goodies and baskets. We tried to make potato candy... but the potatoes would not turn into a dough... a very necessary part of the process. We'd try to cool them off good... add some instant potatoes... Nothing we did worked.

I came home VERY disappointed... thinking it might be the 2nd coming before I figure out what that recipe was. But I started searching online, and finally came across the recipe! It explained that the liquified potatoes were part of the process, and we just didn't add enough sugar. So i made some potato candy... Finally, After 15 years. It tasted just like I remember - it's a hard taste to forget, but delicious. So I thought I'd share the recipe with everyone. I'm interested to see who will ACTUALLY try to make some potato candy... cause it sounds so weird... But i promise that it is delicious and worth a try.

Big Momma's Potato Candy
1 small potato (I used a medium potato and cut it in half.)
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
2 lbs Powdered Sugar
Peanut Butter

Bake the potato (I cook it in the microwave)
Peel the potato and remove any miscolored(is that a word?) parts
Let the Potato cool off (I wrapped mine in paper towel and set it in the fridge for a while.)
Mash the potato with a fork, and add the salt and vanilla.(I actually forgot the salt and vanilla, and it tasted just fine.)
Slowly add the Powdered Sugar, a bit at a time. You won't need the whole 2 lbs... but probably most of it. LIke I mentioned in the post, the candy will liquify. Just keep adding powdered sugar and eventually it will become a dough. You want it to not feel sticky to the touch... Like cookie dough.
Once the dough is the right consistency, Roll it out like a pie crust to 1/4 inch thickness.
Spread peanut butter over the entire dough. Roll up like a jelly roll. Wrap it up and stick it in the fridge.
Once it has hardened a bit, take it out and slice it up into pinwheels.

The candy tastes better Cold I think, so I leave it in the fridge. It's super fast, super easy, super cheap, and super delicious. So let me know if you really try it. I'm interested to see who does.

Digital Predicament

I have recently joined an online scrapbook making thing. In order to do the scrapbooks that I want, I need to organize the images that are on my computer. Not a big deal, right?

WRONG!!!!!!

There are well over 10,000 images on my computer taking up 35 GB of space(Just from the past 5 years!) How in the WORLD am I supposed to organize that many pictures plus a hundred or so videos in the next week???

Needless to say, I'm overwhelmed right now.

So I've been googling (I love to google!) Organize digital images. There's tons of websites that talk about using the right folder names, and tags or keywords... all that jazz. But as nice as that is... I'm still a bit lost - maybe just from the mere SIZE of this project I'm about to take on.

I've read about Free image organizers that I guess you can download, or use different websites. But if you read the fine print, some of them "reserve the right" to use your images and pictures any way they want. No thank you.

There are programs you can buy too, that can make the job easier, but I'm already trying to save every little penny right now so Christmas will be nice.

Anyways - Here's how I "THINK" I'm gonna do it.

I'm going to arrange folders by Date The year... Then the month... Then the day - and then try to include a description of what the images in that folder are. Then I'll put tags on all my images - who's in the picture, where it was taken, any other special tidbit I feel the need to include. That way, the images will be easily searched.

Then I can just click on November from this year, search for taylor, and I can see all the pictures I took of her this month. I can even click on Taylor, thanksgiving, and I'll be able to find the pictures of taylor from thanksgiving.

This will definitely be a HUGE undertaking. It'll mean hours on the computer I'm sure. But It'll be nice to see these images of the past few years again. And it'll be nice to have this awesome system in place for all the new pictures I'll take.

So, I'm off to organize my pictures. I hope it doesn't take too terribly long. We'll see. I'll keep you updated!

For my Friend Tiffany's Comment about Picasa!!! Here's a little website I think you should read!
http://www.groovypost.com/howto/security/how-to-lose-face-with-google-picasa-literally/
Kinda scary if you think about it.

Now open to the public

That's right... I got a bit sick of not posting anything... and I was trying to figure out why I'm not posting anything anymore. I think it's the whole private thing. It made it harder for others to look, so I was wondering, Who's Looking? Also, some family members and close friends weren't able to see the blog even when they were logged in and after many invites to be able to read the blog. So i gave up. I did however make it so that my blog is completely hidden from the rest of the world, unless you specifically come to this blog! No searches can find it (I think) so we're pretty much off the radar that way.

Anyways... be on the look out for more posts. I've got lots of things here to talk about... and the next 3 days off of work!!! Woohoo