Jurassic Quest Adventure

In February we celebrated Everett's 4th Birthday. I am still trying to figure out how my sweet little baby boy has grown into this seemingly huge sweet toddler boy! I was bound and determined to not do a big birthday party for Everett this year like in years past however this didn't really come to be.

Everett continues to love everything dinosaur and animals. His absolute favorite things to get are dinosaur toys and small life like animals to create imaginative scenes of play with. Over the past holidays and birthdays he has collected just about every dinosaur and animal we could hope to find and I was searching for something more meaningful to gift him with for his 4th birthday. We heard about "Jurassic Quest" coming to a town about an hour away from us where they have life-size life-like robotic dinosaurs of all kinds in exhibits to see. Drew and I knew that Everett would absolutely love seeing the dinosaurs he loves so much in a massive scale and decided to take him and Haven for Everett's birthday gift this year. So one Saturday morning we loaded up and made the short trek over to Clovis, NM to embark on the Jurassic Experience of Everett's dreams.

Immediately upon pulling into the jam packed parking lot we saw several giant dinosaurs to which Everett began excitedly yelling out their technical names which he has learned all of.  "Mom look its a brontosaurus and a pachesefalosaurus and Ohhhhhh a T-Rex!!!" Drew and I knew instantly this little drive was completely worth it and hopefully he would always remember. Everett could hardly contain his excitement when we entered the convention center where there were dozens of scenes set up with robotic dinosaurs all roaring, grunting, and moving their heads.

We spent the next few hours walking around with Everett in complete awe as he saw the creatures he's watched on TV come to life in front of his eyes. I was worried that seeing these life size animals would scare him a little but was not worried at all about how Haven would react to seeing this huge creatures as she is absolutely fearless at this age. There was an area set up in the arena with a "walking dinosaur" that was a person in an elaborate velasa raptor costume that moved in incredible life-like movements and this was the only time that Everett began to get nervous. As I was holding him to get a better look and the walking dinosaur moved throughout the crowd playfully grabbing men's hats off their heads Everett began pulling me by the shirt to move back out of the line of interaction.








The whole experience was over-priced but worth it to see the excitement and amazement on Everett's face as he came face to face with the creatures he loves so much. We topped off the event with Everett riding an ankylosaurus and both kids leaving with a dinosaur memento to remember the day.

Rory Ashton

The past few months have been full of milestone's in our household as we have celebrated Everett turning 4 and Haven turning 2! We have also been busy being in a family wedding with Everett as the sweetest little ring bearer ever next to precious Norah as flower girl and Drew and I have celebrated a whopping 5 years of marriage! We have joked that in the past 5 years since we said "I do" to one another we have lived what feels like should be 20 years of life. Through it all I continue to grow remarkably grateful that he choose me to be his wife and that I get to have him as my partner in this crazy beautiful life!

( Me as a bridesmaid in my cousins wedding carrying you at 27 weeks. Dad says it’s a fake smile but it’s the only bump picture I’ve taken so far ) 

Intertwined in the life we have experienced and lived in the past 8 months specifically we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our 3rd precious baby! We will be welcoming Rory Ashton Neal into our little family in June! I have struggled with posting about her for several reasons but mostly out of fear that this precious gift could be taken from us before she actually got here. I think this is natural after experiencing a miscarriage coupled with the loss of my Mom this year but this little girl has been a beautiful reason to move forward each day and look to the future with hope!





We found out we were pregnant with Rory in early October and immediately began to hope that God would grant us the gift of another daughter. We were overjoyed to find out right before New Years that she was indeed the daughter and sister we had prayed for.

In early January during our second trimester sonogram at our doctor's office we discovered we had a very snuggly girl who loves to keep her hand by her face. Our doctor also alerted us to a potential abnormality on her skull. It was described to me as a possible cystic structure but very unknown to our doctor of what it was or what it meant. We were referred to a specialist whose first opening was 6 weeks later. For the next 6 weeks we anxiously awaited the appointment with the specialist while avoiding researching the unknowns and worst case scenarios of what could be going on with our girl. The appointment finally came and after a very long sonogram that focused primarily on the head by a dull sono tech the specialist came in to proceed with the sonogram. I had prayed and hoped and believed that there would be nothing wrong with our baby and that we would have a clear scan but when the doctor came in I was sure I was wrong. Thankfully God had his hands on forming this girl and created her perfect in every way because the specialist could find no abnormalities what so ever! We were overjoyed and ecstatic to say the least!

Choosing a name for babies is hard but it seems to get more difficult with each added child. I have been so honored to have carried the middle name of my favorite aunt through my life and wanted my children to know they were named for someone who was/is very special to their parents and will be in their lives as well. Everett was easy being named for my beloved Grandy and his own Dad. Haven's middle name was after my hero and courageous Mom. Although I have several amazing women and people in my life to choose from for Rory there was one person who I always knew I wanted to name my daughter after. I was not blessed with a biological sister growing up but the Lord gave me a cousin who has been my sister from the very beginning. Neeley has been a constant in my life through the ups and downs and I knew that if we had another daughter she would carry her Aunt's name in some way. After sorting through dozens of girl names Drew finally came to me with Rory, which I absolutely adored! Rory seemed to fit in so perfectly with Everett and Haven's names. Since Neeley's first name is actually Ashton we decided to use that for Rory's middle name landing us with Rory Ashton Neal. It seemed to fit her immediately and complete who she was in our minds!

Rory my precious girl I can not wait to meet you! In every sonogram we have had of you, you have been bundled up in a ball and snuggled up as close to me as physically possible in the womb. We even got pictures of your sweet little nose smashed against the placenta because you just want to snuggle. You are a huge fan of having your hand up by your face which reminds me so much of your sister's sonogram pictures but you seem to be looking full in the face with big cheeks like your brother. However you come out you will be perfect! Your brother and sister are so excited to welcome you and love to say "Hi" to you through my tummy. Haven especially is a big fan of giving you sugars which I know she will smother you with when you get here!






Lord willing we have 9 weeks left before we meet you sweet girl and each one of us are so very excited!