Here's To A Great 2008!

Well, it has been a while since our last Neal Family update. As most of you already know, we are expecting our second baby in June. My hunch is that this one is a boy, but hopefully we will be able to confirm that next week at our ultrasound. Jason really wants a boy, so cross your fingers for us. This year we hosted the big Family Christmas party, and we think everyone had a good time. At the same time, we had Julia's 1st Birthday Party. She got tons of presents and made quite the mess with her cake. As it turns out, she is allergic to purple dye...yikes...her little face was red and swollen for the rest of the night. My brother and sister-in-law were able to come up north and spend the holiday with us. We had a great time having them here, and Julia was definitely looking for them the day the left.

Julia had her 1 year checkup just after Christmas. She had to get 4 shots, this time in the arm, and she was none too pleased. She now weights 21.75 pounds and is 30.5 inches. She is walking very well, loves to climb up stairs (much to my dismay), and is quite a little love bug. She no longer uses a bottle and has started to work on feeding herself with utensils. She does fine with fingers, but we're trying to adopt table manners as quickly as possible.

Merry Christmas Baby!

Grammy and Julia, getting ready for cake!

The after effects of Birthday cake.

Santa Claus visited our house!

Julia playing with one of Santa's presents for her.

Surprise! Santa left a gift for Tab too!

Uncle Tim and Julia on Christmas morning.

Daddy and Julia playing.

Hooray for blocks!

See, I can do it all by myself, Mommy!

Julia's First Birthday!

Go Buckeyes!

There is one day every year that OSU fans cancel life in general so they can sit and watch Ohio State play Michigan, and today is the day. Jason and I have taken very seriously the responsibility to teach our daughter love and acceptance of those different from her. Well, except maybe Michigan Fans. For that select group, she does not have to be tolerant. Here you can see Jason and Julia showing off their Buckeye Pride as they wait with nailbiting anticipation. Who will win? Every down is enough to cause serious heart problems as tears of pride and sorrow leak down OSU fan cheeks! Here we go. O-H-I-O!!!

Happy Halloween!

We're growing!

Ok, so I've been a little lazy on the "blogfront" lately. Sorry about that. We've been up to a lot...vacations, closing the shore, and growing! Julia went for her 9 month check up and she's getting "Sooo-Big". She now weighs 19 lbs 6 oz and is 29 1/4 inches long. That puts her in the 95% for height and 50% for weight. I think she's gonna be a supermodel. She can now wave bye-bye, blow kisses, clap, and show that she's "soooo-big". She is standing very well, but hasn't really shown much interest in walking. I think crawling is faster and why fix it if it ain't broken, ya know. Julia has also cut three new teeth...two top front and one more on the bottom. Watch out for bites! Those babies are sharp! Check out some of our latest pictures.

Nags Head Sunrise (this was the view from our room)

Julia out to breakfast on vacation!

Baby's first cookie!

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Our crew out on the beach (in our front yard)

Julia playing in the sand.

Our wild stallion. He was not easy to find!

Family photo at Currituck Lighthouse

Julia is hanging out in the boat at the trailer, and checking out fall leaves.

At home relaxing during out Indian Summer.

It's Septemberfest Time Again!

The day began with the traditional Septemberfest Parade. The weather on the other hand was not only non-traditional, but also rather unbearable. Ninety degrees with what felt like 150% humidity. Ugh! It was HOT! Anyway, this was Julia's first parade and she really seemed to like it. She most enjoyed the lights and sirens on the firetrucks, and the color guards for the bands. We watched the parade with G.G. Lois, G.P. Bob, and Daniel. Grammy and PopPop came along in the golf cart and whisked Julia away for her first 15 minutes of fame! After that, we ate and sweated our way through the day. Julia took her first amusement park style ride on the merry-go-round. We were able to catch up with some family and friends along the way too...check out the pictures below.

Julia was cracking up while dancing to the music with Grammy.

Julia and her favorite Great-Aunt Sue (*that one was just for you Aunt Sue, oh yeah, and for Ellie Mae)

Julia with her cousin Ryann.

More dancing with Grammy, to a new song this time.

She was VERY attached to Grammy today.

Julia with cousin Kyle. They have almost the same expression. Weird, eh?

Julia with her other favorite Great-Aunt Marge.

Daddy took Julia on her first ride.

Mommy took her the second time. She was less enthused.

We got to meet Ryann's beau, Billy. Nice drink!

Hmm, can't imagine what's going through his head....I wish this was a beer, I wish this was a beer.

They Don't Call It Labor Day For Nothin'

Wow, we were busy this Labor Day Weekend. We decided to take a long hard look at that list of chores on the "honey-do" list and see what we could tackle. Of course, we bit off more than we could chew (as you will see), but we did get a lot accomplished. Take a look...

The bathtub drain stop wasn't holding water and Julia's baths were coming to an end much before she was ready. We replaced the stopper and voila! Now bathtime fun can go on for hours, or until her lips start turning blue.

We finally purchased an area rug for the family room. It looks good, and it feels nice on your feet when you are sitting on the couch. Yes, we like bold colors and patterns.

See those lights that are shining above the top shelves...they didn't work before! Oh yeah, and all the burned out bulbs in the family room got replaced as well. Not an easy task as we have about 25 lights in there and 10ft ceilings.

Yay! We have a working doorbell now. We haven't had one in almost 2 years, since we moved in here. We were smart though...we bought one with a chime the dogs don't recognize as a doorbell...yet.

We installed all new hardware in the family room. We used to have ugly, bright, shiny, faux gold knobs.

We finally got Julia's coat rack hung up in her room!

The ugly hall lights (before).

Jason is working on getting the electrical all set up for the new fixture. And this time, we managed to not knock out power to the whole house!

They work!

And are much more attractive than those old ones.

Here is where we bit off too much. We were so pleased with our other light fixture swap-outs that we took on the kitchen light. Whoops. Now we have to spackle, paint, install an outlet box and hang up the new light. Oh yeah. And since it's back to work...looks like we're gonna have to do it in the dark. Dinner should be interesting this week.

Julia decided working that hard is for the birds. She opted for a nap. Can't say I blame her.