Well – I decided to make it a point this weekend to catch up on the blog – because in 9 days, I have a feeling I won’t have time. You know how they say, “A picture is worth a thousand words…”, well, I really hope that is the case, as that is the way these wonderful memories of the past couple of months are going to be displayed. The photos here encompass our awesome trip to Texas in October, my mom’s visit out in November and our fantastic Thanksgiving at the Raddy’s…Here’s a quick sum up:
October in Texas: First, we visited Grandpa George in Athens, and Bella got to experience one of Jeremy’s greatest childhood (and adulthood – since he still heads there for a trip once a year) places. We ate tons of great food, played in the great outdoors, Bella caught her first fish, we hiked with Dixie the guard dog, got to gather fresh eggs from chickens, pat horses, and plant in Grandpa George’s garden. Then, we headed to Aunt Christi & Uncle Jason’s house to meet Bella’s new adorable cousin, Caitlin. We hung out for a day, and then headed to the TX / OU football game with MiMi, George, Christi & Jason. This was Bella’s first TX fair experience as well – and even though we lost the game, we still had a wonderful time. The rest of our trip to Dallas was really fun as well – we visited the Aquarium (which is absolutely amazing!) and the arboretum – and Bella picked a huge pumpkin that we carved at Aunt Christi & Uncle Jason’s house.
Dee Dee Visits in November: We had a great time hanging with Dee Dee even though the weather out here wasn’t really cooperating. Bella got to take Dee Dee to a swim lesson. (Where she enjoyed showing off her skillz!) But, The coolest thing we did, was head to Sea World – where we did a special tour and fed dolphins, eels and huge sea turtles. It was a really cloudy day, and Sea World was pretty empty – so no one else even signed up – and we got to do the tour all by ourselves! Bella loved all the sea creatures.
Thanksgiving at the Radcliffe’s: At the beginning of the week, Bella was sick, so we didn’t think we were even going to go…but she bounced back by Thursday, so we drove up to OC for a wonderful Thanksgiving break. We got to see all of our old buds, meet Hannah, eat a fantastic meal and Nate put their bouncy house up in the garage and the kid’s jumped all night (and all the next day). They played so hard, that they slept until 9am the next morning!! (Terri said it was the latest that Kaelyn had ever slept!!) It is such a joy to watch the kids play together so nicely, it is almost like having a babysitter on hand. The next day, Terri, Amy and I even got a couple of hours of Black Friday shopping in while the boys watched the girls. We headed back that afternoon and then decorated the house for Christmas the next day.
These last few weeks have really been going by so quickly. I’m really excited to meet our new baby (no we still don’t have a name!) in just a week or so – plus I am very looking forward to not being pregnant anymore (I’m done with the back pain, leg cramps, huge belly and even the lack of libations!) But I am also really trying to cherish each and every moment that we have with just Bella for the time being. We are so blessed to have both MiMi and DeeDee coming in for a visit during the holidays and during my time in the hospital. I have a feeling the next few months are going to FLY by.
I probably won’t be too on top of my Christmas posts this year – so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year my friends…I’ll try to post baby no. 2 (who WILL have a name at some point) photos as soon as I can.
Much Love from the Neills.
(For the gallery below, you can click on the file and download a larger version – or you can scroll past all of the thumbnails, and a slide show will load that you can just on the arrows to view each photo.)
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