Easter 2018

Easter this year was fun because both the kids could hunt eggs on their own and Everett was particularly excited about the Easter bunny coming! 

We continued our tradition of going to Grandma White and Mimi Susie’s house the day before Easter for lunch and our first egg hunt. It took a minute for Haven to catch on to putting the eggs in her basket when she found them vs opening each one as she got it but we eventually got the hang of it. Everett’s basket got so full he needed help carrying it around and then he loved opening each egg to find what was inside! It was also the kids first experience with confetti eggs thanks to Aunt Carrie and they loved it! 

Drew grew up dying eggs and each Easter and has been shocked that I didn’t do that every year. This year he got the kits and spent Saturday morning dying eggs with the kids before we went to Grandmas! Everett was very proud of the eggs he got to put dinosaur stickers on and Sissy excitedly followed his pride with her own when they showed me the eggs! 

Easter morning the kids woke up to fun surprises from the Easter Bunny before going to church. They both looked adorable in their Easter outfits and Everett got sit through big church with Mom and Dad. We finished up our chilly Easter Sunday with a quick egg hunt at Gran-Nana’s and a Sunday dinner with her and Aunt Cindy! 

Haven's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Haven's actual 2nd birthday party with our favorite cousins in Midland! Drew somehow happened again to have to be on a work trip over her actual birth day so I decided to take the kids and escape for a few days to be with our people in Midland!


Aunt Nene started the morning off right with doughnuts for the birthday girl and we ended it with a cookie cake! In between we had lots of play time with Everett, Norah, Merritt and Emma overall it was a pretty spectacular way to spend a 2nd birthday for our happy girl!





For Haven's birthday party I wanted something she would recognize and love and settled on one of her favorite foods, Strawberries! The ironic thing is that about the week before her strawberry party she decided she didn't like them anymore! 

I decorated with a Strawberry Birthday Banner, lots of red white pink and green pinwheels and some other coordinating fun decor. My favorite thing about her party though was the food. I did white chocolate covered strawberries, thumbprint cookies, and the most delicious strawberry scones that I found a recipe for on Pinterest! Mini made Haven’s personal sized strawberry cake and mini cupcakes because nothing can compare to Mimi’s homemade strawberry cake!

I came across the most adorable smocked Strawberry Gingham dress that I knew Haven would look ridiculously adorable in for her party and had to order for her to wear! 

We celebrated Sissy’s second party surrounded by some of our most favorite people! Everett took over as party etiquette leader telling Haven when to open her next present and who she needed to thank and hug when she opened one. It was such a special day celebrating our precious girl who I still can not believe Is already 2! 

Haven you are such a sweet girl and never stop going for long! You absolutely adore your brother asking every morning when I come into your room where Bubba is? You have recently gotten back into wanting to be rocked and held by me at bedtime and I love it! You are a huge fan of your blanket, your babies and your Bobbie’s! We often find you walking around the house with your little arms piled high full of those favorite things of yours! You love to wear hats and your rain boots and would every single day if I let you!  Haven you are already fiercely independent, you want to do everything yourself and insist on picking out the clothes you wear each day and pajamas you put on each night! Thankfully you continue to be our good eater and love to try everything! Most nights after eating your dinner you come and eat off Mom and Dad’s plates. 

Haven you are so excited about being a big sister and have taken to calling your baby “Rory” just like Mom’s baby! You love to come talk to your sister through my stomach and give her sugars. You are well practiced in singing Rock a Bye Baby to the bed Rory will sleep in and I know you will want to spend every moment with your new baby sister! Haven you are such a dream come true to your Dad and I and we absolutely adore you! You are such a bright light in our days and keep us on our toes always! Happy Birthday my beautiful daughter! I am so proud and grateful for you every single day! 

Everett's 4th Birthday

Everett's 4th birthday hit me like a ton of bricks... I am dumbfounded how my chubby faced first born has turned into the most adorable toddler boy who looks like he could already be a teenager at times. I am devastated at how quickly time is flying by with my babies.






Everett woke up 4 on a Tuesday morning. Drew and I had spent time the night before blowing up 40 or so balloons for him to wake up to, the only problem was Everett is in a stage of waking up in the middle of the night and coming to sleep in our room. So what I had envisioned as a fun birthday surprise turned out to be a middle of the night surprise. I woke up to Everett tapping me and whispering "Mom, Mom come here, come out here!" He dragged me by the hand back to his room and said simply "balloons for me!" I had to convince him to go back to bed and not play with them immediately. Drew was scheduled to fly out on a business trip the afternoon of Everett's birthday but he first treated the birthday boy to doughnuts and a few presents before leaving. That night we celebrated with family at Rosa's where Mimi surprised Everett with a Lion faced cookie cake that he loved!





For Everett's birthday party my idea was to keep it small as compared to previous years. However I found a theme and ran with it so small really just meant our guest list was limited but we decorated to the fullest! I had asked Everett what he wanted for his birthday party this year and it went from "Gorillas" to "Gorillas, tigers, & lions" at some point he added in "Pigs and Frogs" but we ultimately settled on a Safari theme with all the animals.



We celebrated on a Saturday afternoon surrounded by all of Everett's favorite people! We had jungle vines hung around and all of Everett's animals joined with their party hats on.

I am so proud of the sweet tender hearted 4 year old Everett has grown into. His favorite things are animals, dinosaurs and more animals. He has mastered the growl of his favorites and is most ferocious as a tiger! Everett, you are so protective of your sister and are the first to alert when she is upset or translate when someone hasn't figured out what she is telling them. You insist on being there every time to get her out of her crib from naps or bed and usually greet her with "Good Morning our pretty girl!" It is the sweetest thing ever! You are also the very first to push her buttons and pester her usually with a good growl or roar in the face when she is not in the mood for it. Everett you love your Daddy so much and when he leaves for work in the mornings you watch as he drives away and within two minutes come to tell me "you already miss your daddy!" When Dad comes home from work each day you love to wrestle with him. Oh, but Everett you are a Mama's Boy and I am 100% ok with it! You are so protective of me, you want me with you all the time, and love to hold hands with me. You give the sweetest sugars and close your eyes with big puckered lips. You adore your Gran-Nana and want to go visit her everyday.





I have most enjoyed watching you prepare to become a big brother again to Rory! You ask me every morning or after your naps "Mama, how is Rory? Is she sleeping?" You are especially excited to hold her and rock her in her chair in Mom and Dad's room. You did tell me though that she can have your room and you would move into our room with us.

There is a million little things you do every day that I want to remember forever! I am madly in love with you Everett Tristan Neal and so proud to be your Mom! Really though time can slow down just a bit now so you don't grow up too quickly!

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!

A birthday gift

For many many years I have shared my birthday, when I was younger Patrick and I shared since our birthdays were only 3 days apart. We often had joint parties growing up but each with our own theme to make us feel special. It annoyed me some years but being a mom now I completely see the convenience and cost of having two parties together. As I grew up I got to share my birthday celebration with my Mom. Our’s is 4 days apart and the past 7 years each year we had joint family gatherings I have looked at as an honor. I knew the birthday would one day eventually come when I would have to do it alone again and I was not in the slightest ready for that day. Today is my 32, birthday and I have it all to myself. I would give anything to be attending a joint party for Mom and I. She with her carrot cake and I with my chocolate. 

Ever since Oct. 28th I have been afraid and equally excited to be alone, in the dark at night especially because I just knew you would be appearing to me first chance you got. You would come to me and tell me you were ok, that I would be ok, that I made the right decisions. I became obsessed with the idea of seeing you. Would you appear in my dreams? I once thought I heard you call my name. I was doing dishes, listening to music while the kids took naps and I heard your voice so clear, “Megan.” I stood frozen looking for you but you never appeared. Sometime along the days I have not been consumed with the idea of seeing you. Frightened by what would happen or how I may react I pushed it to the back of my mind. 

Everett has not once looked for you or asked where you were and I have worried he would forget his sweet bond with you. We try to talk about you, things you liked, ice cream you loved, the beautiful moon shining down on us is you. He’s so sensitive and quiet about it. Last night while playing with his kitchen toys he got for Christmas Everett looked up at me and and plain as day said “Mom, Solly Moo is with me.” I was floored and caught off guard for a moment. I asked if you spoke to him and he said “No just standing with me.” I asked if you hugged him and he said “ No, just kisses 3 times.” I wish I had asked what you were wearing knowing he would say white but I couldn’t hold back the tears. I gathered myself and told him to be sure and give you kisses back. To tell you we missed you and love you. He recounted the exact same story to His Dad who walked  in a few minutes later. 

I believe so much you came to him last night. That you are with us and looking out for us even when we don’t know it! I love you always and forever! 

59

I have written a post a thousand times in my head over the past few months but never had the courage to actually sit down and do it. I feel like I have been living in an alternate reality, waiting to wake up and continue our journey together.

My memories are broken into two of you, prediagnosis and post diagnosis.  The memories of both are so dear to me.

Today is your 59th birthday. We would have celebrated with a big breakfast, maybe a movie or some shopping afterwards. Outback for dinner no doubt with dessert! I can't help but think about last year, how we took you to Outback and I was so worried about how you would do. However you did amazing, Patrick sitting by your side helping you eat. We read you birthday cards and you wept upon hearing Nana's. It was such a sweet day! If you were still here with us today, living like you were this past year, the kids and I would have picked you up and gone for a drive in the park having chocolate shakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner! We would have gotten a car wash together, one of yours and the kids favorite things to do. We would have visited Nana. I would have brought you orange/ coral flowers to put in your room. We would have held hands and told each other "I love you" as we drove around listening to Kenny Chesney. It would have been perfect.

But today you are celebrating your earthly birthday in Heaven. Surrounded by your Dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles, probably even my Dad because you were amazing at forgiveness. What we would have done for you today doesn't even compare to the celebration you are having right now.

Today I wore your orange sweater that stretches over my baby bump, we took flowers to your grave. We listened to Kenny in your honor and drove through the park and got a car wash. Haven wore a coral bow in her hair. We will get a chocolate milk shake later. We did the things that made us think of you and smile.

I see pieces of you everyday in Haven's orneriness and red hair, Everett's caring nature, Drew's compassion that he learned from you. When I look in the mirror at myself I get glimpses of you and see what people mean when they say we look just alike.

I miss you every moment of every day! I still feel like I am in a surreal universe waiting for real life to kick back in.

Happy Birthday Mom! We celebrate you today, your beauty, your courage, your legacy! I love you always and forever and ever!!