A Little Catch up!

Well, here goes!  We're going to start a little after Cody's birthday, but not quite Halloween.  Cody was sick a couple days and stayed home from school with Tank and Rylee...Tank laid with him all day and snuggled.  :-) So sweet.

 The kids still love hanging outside, it's where they'd rather be actually.  Cody had to drive Rylee around for awhile in the "mule" but then she finally figured it out.  And by finally I mean...after a LONG time of slamming into things and getting stuck.

 We cleaned up the pasture this fall, picked up all the dead branches and trees.  Lots and lots of work, and in the process found some interesting bones.  Nothing like what you'll see next time I post though (those were just plain weird!)  Pretty certain it's a back bone.

 And this was really cool.  It's a jaw bone, if you click and enlarge it you can see the teeth left over.  Pretty neat.  Gross, but neat.

And the kids newest favorite thing to do?  Lawn sledding.  They tied the sled behind a four wheeler and Logan pulled them around the yard.  Classic.  I guess it was good they got it out because we got absolutely NO snow this year at our house.  A couple flakes, but that is it, nothing stuck...stinks!

 Tank likes to chase them on the sled.

 Then they got the bright idea of talking Justin into pulling them behind the mule on two sleds, they would jump from one to the other like they do when they are tubing at the lake.  Lots of falls, laughs, and fun!

 Cody mastered the front flip on the trampoline finally!  He worked on it forever, after Hannah taught Logan, Logan taught Cody, and now everyone is trying to teach Rylee, but really, you can't teach her anything...she just wants to do it and figure it out herself.  very independent!!

 They do love to bounce together though.

 Cody lost two more teeth (actually he's up to 6 now with almost no teeth in the front of his mouth) He is pretty proud of it!

 And sometimes Rylee likes to fix and dress herself up for the day at school.  Here she is on the way to school, she pulled her hair up in a chip clip but I guess I didn't get a picture...so big.

Well, that's a little bit of our life in the past several months.  Keep looking for more! Maybe I can do this!  Love and miss you all!

Have you missed us?

So it's been forever since I blogged...so behind.  I got frustrated with the new blogger and quit because I couldn't do it at home and it became a casualty.  Anyway, I'm going to try to be back at least for my own sake.  I miss being able to go back and see what we were up to!

 

So here's what you've been missing...3 crazy kids!

Gonna try to post on Monday and Thursdays because that is when I can get to town for real internet.  Wish me luck!  Love and miss you all!

Cody birthday take 2!

On Cody's real birthday he had a special surprise...Nanny and Papa came to celebrate!  We had chicken and fries and a special spiderman ice cream cake.  (Ugh, that was tough)

 He wanted to wait to get presents from us until his real birthday since he knew he was getting others the weekend before.

 He got a great spy package from nanny and Papa.

 It was a wonderful dinner and celebration!! 

Hope you guys are having a great year...miss you all!!

Lake house renovation!

So as you know we bought a lake house this summer.  It was in pretty sad shape but we worked all summer and got it looking great!!  Here is the process:

The laundry room, however we don't have a washer/dryer and aren't going to get one so it's mostly just storage.

 the "dining room" actually it's the kitchen with a table.  That's the front door Justin fell out of, we don't use it except for sleepwalking!

 The kitchen aren't the floors lovely??  Mmmm.

 living room with the hide-a-bed pulled out.

 Other side, check out the panelling and carpet in the living room.  It's the same in all the bedrooms.

 And looking into the kitchen from the living room.

 I textured and painted the walls to camouflage the panelling some.

 And the final product.  Clean walls and new carpet...

My dad built a cabinet and shelves for the "laundry" room.

Elizabeth and I laid tile and we got a new vanity and toilet.

And the biggest difference was knocking out the bar and building new cabinets.  My dad and Justin worked forever on these and they look awesome!!!  Just need to stain it all and we're done!  Seriously, if you didn't see the place before you can't tell how great it looks now, but yes, it's awesome. 

Thank you to everyone who helped clean, build, repair, watch the kids, so we could get this project done.  It was a lot of work but so worth it!! 

love and miss you all!

Happy Birthday Cody and Eewww!

Went to the lake last weekend to celebrate Cody's birthday!  We sold the Jeep and bought a new play toy...it's called a Mule and we love it!  It has enough room for all of us plus a bed to carry stuff (or Russell) in!

 The day was pretty rainy so we just hung out until time to party!!  The people we bought the house from, Merle and Trish and their granddaughter Kassidy drove up from Newcastle and Aunt Connie and Uncle Mo came too! (Along with the usuals of course Amy, Russ, Russell and Grammy)  It was a Spiderman theme!!

 He wanted plain cheesecake for his cake, that was easy!!  Can't believe he's turning 6!

 So excited about so many presents, he is one lucky boy!

 And finally got his Slushee Magic, he's been wanting that all summer!

 Woooweee, money, money, money!!  Happy Day!!

 And check out this new crazy bike helmet.  Pretty awesome huh?  Makes it super easy to see him on the road!

 Thank you so much to everyone for the presents and the company, it was lots of fun...can't wait to do it again!

Got home and the boys were out of school on Monday so I took Rylee to school and picked up the twins.  Little did I know the three teenage boys would do this...yup.  That's a real snake they found by our house.  Killed it will a pellet gun, thank goodness the kids were out of school because I don't know if I could have taken care of that big ol' thing!!  Ewwww!

So that's it for now.  Hope you guys are having a fabulous week!  Good luck to my friend Sara in the Chicago marathon and I'll see you all soon!  Love and miss you all!

How about a catch up?

So, it's been awhile since I posted last huh?  Yup, it has.  Well the good news it with Rylee in school I can hang out at the library and get some blogs done so hopefully I'll get back on track.  So here we are going to play a little catch up...Hold on people, it's going to be a long, crazy ride!!

 

Met up with some of my old sorority sisters at the beginning of August.  It was so nice to see them and hang out.  Man has Norman changed though!  It's crazy that when we were there we could really only eat at Olive Garden, Don Pablos, or Chilli's and now they have a TON of stuff!  Also, our favorite hangout was torn down and moved across town, just not the same.  Sad.  Here's a little pic of me and my "big sis" Elcyzyn...so much fun!

 Really don't know what was going on here except for craziness.  That's pretty much how we roll at the McNeill house!

 I left my camera at the lake on the boys first day of school...ACK, but I did get one of Rylee on hers.  So big!  The boys started a new school this year and are LOVING it.  It was such a great move for them I am really excited about it.  Most of Logan's class moved with him so he already knew a bunch of kids going in so he wasn't nervous, Cody of course made friends quick and was the Student of the Month for August!!!  So proud!

 Here's some of the fun I have had while the kids have been at school.  I heard Tank barking one morning and walked out to find this...except I thought it was bigger when I picked it up after I whacked it to death...come to find out, there were two!!  Yikes, pygmy rattlesnakes are super dangerous and pretty common around here.  A child will be dead within the first 5 hours if no anti-venom has been given, an adult could be within 12.  So needless to say, I did my job as a mother and killed them both, even though I was freaking scared out of my mind!  I would hit it with the shovel, run away screaming, go back and hit it again, just to run away screaming again.  Not cut out for this crap!! ;-)  And of course I was looking for more of them the rest of the day, even in the house for some reason, I'd open the fridge door and worry that my feet were under the door and one would strike.  Ugh, it's like ticks and lice, once you think about them, you start to itch...you're welcome for that.

 And yet another fun thing while the kids were at school.  Got out of the shower and went into the living room to check on Rylee, only to walk around the corner and see THIS!!  Um, yes, it's a deer leg...a whole deer leg.  I got the broom, hooked up under the knee and took it outside only to realize that Justin would not believe me that it was a WHOLE deer leg so I snapped a picture.  It's crazy.  So here's the fun party...Tank had to jump over the chain length fence that is in the back yard, go into the  pasture somewhere and dig it up (half of it was covered in dirt the other with hair...awesome), carry it back up through the pasture, JUMP back over the fence with it in her mouth and then manage to bring it through the dog door somehow!  Geez, that dog drives me crazy!!

 We haven't stopped going to the lake even with the weather being a little cooler.  Just haven't taken the boat out, played around at the beach by our house.  And of course did some fireworks!

 And dug some holes...here's a fun little "Where's Waldo" game...can you find Rylee and Cody in this picture?  Click on it and blow it up cause they're there...just sitting in their holes!  Ha!! :-)  Seriously, blow it up cause it's super hard to find them!!  It's not just a picture of Russell I swear!

 Here's my little Tarzan...she walked around without a shirt on and some dirty shorts with her hair all crazy.  From the back everyone decided she looked like Tarzan when he was a boy.  Poor girl.

 Russ had the kids helping him dig up "treasure" on the beach.  They found lots of pop tops (which by the way Logan's class is collecting for a good cause, so save yours if you think about it!), some money, trash, and a ring!!

Here's Cody in his hole...did you find them in the picture???

And of course Logan had to give it a try!

One day we went to the beach and ran into some new neighbors.  They own this super tiny boat!  That's Logan riding in it.  It fits two adults and has a 3 gallon gas tank, it's so fun!!  He loved it!

This is Rylee's favorite dress, she would wear it every day if I would let her.  I have to put it in the actual washing machine when she's done with it or she'll dig it out of the dirty clothes hamper!!

She has become VERY independent and wants to do EVERYTHING by herself...this is how she puts on sunscreen by herself...pretty sure her face is covered huh? :-)

And this is how she puts on eyeliner.  Awesome.  Gotta watch that girl!

On our way to the lake one day we went to my friends rodeo.  They had a slide, games, and a BBQ.  Rylee LOVEd the slide!

Cody would jump at the top and land about halfway down.  Hated that!

Logan won the sack race for his age group...Go Logan!

Cody did not, however he had lots of fun trying, and trying, and trying!

So that's it, you're caught up to last weekend...whew, that was easy! :0)  Love and miss you all!!