Thinking of making the switch!

Ok, as most of you know I am not good at updating my blog. No surprise there! The main reason I dread doing it is because it takes forever to download my pictures! Over the past year I have been working a lot with WordPress for my Firefighters Wives website and I LOVE WordPress! So...I think I am going to make the switch from blogspot to WordPress. The only problem is I didn't know how to do this, until now!

I came across this book and it's so step by step that I think it's going to be simple. I am not a tech wizard, so step by step and visual is important to me. WordPress is so much easier, faster and just over all BETTER! I will let you know what my new blog is once the process is complete, but in the mean time, if you are thinking of switching to a much better blog platform and you don't want to pay someone hundreds of dollars to do it for you, then I suggest investing $35.00 into this ebook! Here's the link!


Click here to see the book.

SNOW!

I absolutely LOVE the snow. When we get a lot of snow I usually get to stay home with my kiddos and play because the roads are too bad to drive on. This winter I was really hoping for some big snow storms and we got a few. Since buying our 4 wheelers, sledding has taken on a whole new meaning! Xavier loves to be pulled behind the quad and could probably do it for hours, if his face didn't get so cold.

The only problem with these random snow storms is that I am never prepared with snow gear. This year was no different, but we managed and we had lots of hot chocolate ready when our play was over!

Helmet on and ready to go sledding

Father-Daughter 4 wheeling in the snow!
Mommy pulling Xavier with Harper riding along!

February 23, 2011

Ok, I wrote the above a couple of days ago and today, what happened.....MORE SNOW! This time we are getting about a foot of snow. Holy smokes! This is just crazy, but I got a snow day from work and the kids had fun playing at the neighbors building snowmen! Here's a little video of the snow that fell during the day and then it started back up at 5pm.

Ice Skating

My step sister Amanda got to come home from Iraq for a couple of weeks! While she was here, we decided to take Xavier ice skating for the first time. Ever since he borrowed a skateboarding movie from our neighbor, all he could talk about was skateboarding, roller skating and snowboarding. I think he's still too little for skateboarding and snowboarding, so I decided to take him ice skating!

When I was 13 and 14, I took ice skating lessons. I LOVED it! I still love to go now, but I get frustrated because I can't do all the fancy tricks anymore and I don't have my own skates. The skates you rent are far from glamorous!

The first hour we were there Xavier wanted to hold our hands the entire time and skate around. This got old real quick! They have these buckets at the rink for the little kids to hold on to and push around the ice to help them learn to skate. Those didn't help much because Xavier was too tall. FINALLY, he started trying it by himself. By the end of the 2 hour skate session he was doing turns, like spins, all by himself! He is a quick learner, but sometimes needs to be talked into doing something.

All in all it was a great time! Xavier wants to now be a hockey player!

Christmas 2010

My first blog back. It has taken me a week to finish downloading these pictures and writing this! You see, that is why my 2011 resolution is to only do one post a month! So here it is, Christmas 2010.

We had 4 Christmas celebrations. The first one on the 23rd with my mom and Tim, the second with just us 4 Christmas morning, the third at Steve's parents Christmas day/night and the fourth with Steve's mom's side of the family on the 26th. Whew...it was a whirlwind and here's what it looked like.

Burlington Mall Santa pictures 2010.....wait for it....
HO HO HO...wait for it...
there it is...the best Santa picture to date! I love it!

The LIVE tree. We have started getting live trees every year and planting them on our property. I DISLIKE decorating Christmas trees...
....so this year we started a new tradition. Lights, train around the bottom and the cards people send us on the tree. That's it!!

Round 1: Dec. 23rd-Mom & Tim Christmas
I just love this dress...she looks so grown up. Sniff Sniff...
My mom told them to grab a seat and we'd start opening presents, so they both went and grabbed their chairs!


"IT'S CHRISTMAS!!"


Ok, ok...I know the pictures of Harper in her Santa hat are over kill, but she was so cute!


MINNIE MOUSE!! Her favorite!
looking at all of the awesome pictures Xavier took with his new digital camera
Her trike!
Making sugar cookies Christmas Eve. Steve had to work so my mom came over to "help!" ;-)

This picture sums up the whole month of December! What you don't see is the smoke alarm, aka the Santa Cam, above them that they are looking at. Santa is ALWAYS watching. We managed to convince Xavier that every smoke alarm was a Santa Cam, so wherever we went Santa was watching. I also put a picture of Santa on my phone so when Steve would call the picture would come up. If Xavier was not behaving, Steve (Santa), would call my phone and I would talk to Santa about Xavier! I think it was brilliant!!
trying to get a nice pic of the two of them in their Christmas jammies
Admiring the cookies we are leaving for Santa one last time before bed.
Santa came!

Round 2: The 4 of us-Christmas morning
Discovering all that Santa brought
future volleyball player....you bet!

Marshmallow gun!

Round 3-Neyens Christmas
A little lesson from Grandma about Baby Jesus
I see you...
She LOVES her Jeep!
I pretty much dove across the floor at Toys R Us to get this last pair of Buzz wings in the whole store! We will save these for when he is older and I will tell him that story. He will thank me later!
To infinity and beyond!
Watch out Buzz...I will run you and your wings over with my pink jeep!
This has become a favorite in our house....Steve's favorite!
Classic...trying to get a nice picture with the Great Grandparents...we tried!
Harper still was having nothing to do with pictures, but I love this one because GG is cracking up!
4 generations of Neyens men. I think this was the 15th picture we took....still not the greatest!
and this is how it all ended...

Round 4 was too crazy to have a camera around, so I don't have any pictures!

RESOLUTION 2011

Ok, I have made a resolution to do at least one blog post a month in 2011! I know I will look back when the kids are grown up and out of the house and wish that I had done more blogging. Plus, shockingly enough, I have heard that people actually read my blog....so I can't let the fans down!

See you in 2011!

HARPER'S FIRST BIRTHDAY

Ok, so it's been 2.5 months since I've done a blog post and it's been 1.5 months since Harper's first birthday, but here it is....better late than never!

The theme of Harper's birthday was LOOK WHOOO'S TURNING ONE. I did it in pinks and browns and owls! We kept it small, only inviting family & a few friends. Harper fell asleep right as her party was starting! Right when she woke up we fed her dinner and then her cake! She loved the frosting! She dove right in licking her fingers the entire time. She didn't really eat the cake part of it until we forced her to! She sat with me while we opened all of her presents and then she got to play with the kids. It was such a fun day!

Her One Year Sats

Weight: 20.2lbs 50%

Height: 30.5 inches 95%

Head: BIG

This is how her afternoon started....falling asleep in her chair!
The birthday table all ready for the party
Harper's first birthday cake!
My co-worker Sue paints custom rocks and she did this one for me! Isn't it AMAZING!
mini cupcakes of course
The table of Harper over the last 12 months...I can't believe how little she was
putting on her tutu for the first time! She loved playing with it!
Grandma Rhona made her a number one shirt
singing happy birthday and getting ready to dive into the cake!
ok there was no diving...she really just wanted to lick off the frosting!

opening all of her presents with the help of her friends
Aaron put balloons in Ty & Xavier's shirts so they looked prego! So funny! I think Kelsey and I have a picture where we look like them, but they were actually the ones in our bellies!
3 generations of girlies!
She was hungry and confused!
Sorry Harper...I wish they were that big!

The cute bummers Grandma made her!

My sweet ONE year old!