Happy Holidays 2009

Howdy from Austin. Wishin' ya'll a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Much Love, Jeff, Lindsay and Brett

Turkey Trot and Laundry Basket Races

I started Thanksgiving morning off with a bang. Me and two close friends ran a 5 mile race in downtown Austin, it was beautiful weather and the jog felt refreshing!!! I also felt justified in eating more later that day :). It was an AWESOME Thanksgiving with great food and friends.

My two biggest fans to meet me at the finish line! Jeff was sweet and took care of Brett the morning of the race. Brett had dried food on his cheeks, snotty nose, and dirt around his mouth (Jeff set him down on the ground and Brett started eating dirt). We are THANKFUL for mommy.

Gearing up for the race: the goals were to run the entire 5 miles and complete it in under an hour. We all accomplished both goals.

Awesome running partners!! We all stayed together during the race and chatted and laughed and had a great time!

We try to think of fun things to do with Brett in the evenings with our 1 hour together and we came up with........laundry basket races!!! We toss him in a basket with a bunch of padding and then we zooooom around the house.

Brett getting psyched up for his trip in the laundry basket.

So fun, Brett loves it...so does Jeff.

Brett rolls over and sleeps on his stomach now. We have a teddy bear in his crib and he likes to wrestle it. It looks like he pinned Teddy and then fell asleep.

Texas in November

The weather here is absolutely wonderful!!!! It's in the 70's and sunny everyday and we are lovin' it! November has been an atypical month for me, I'm used to having my coat, boots and scarf on by now. We still bum around in jeans and t-shirts. (sorry if it seems I'm bragging a little, I am, I feel like I get to after the awful hot summer). Here are some of our outdoor activities...

You know how your neighbors stuff and toys are always way cooler than your own, well Bretty feels the same way. His friend next door has a little tikes bike and cozy coupe. He is really starting to LOVE these kind of things, and it is so much fun.

Crazy Bretty driver!

Jeff doesn't like this picture becuase the bike has pink on it, but I thought it was so adorable, I just had to post it. Brett loves hangin' out on the neighbors bike.

Jeff got a suprise e-mail from Acton saying "no class tomorrow", he was so happy. We were able to spend a few hours of good family time.

Love this pic, check out those eyes. WOW!
Jeff and Brett chasing the ducks/goose back into the water.

He's finally crawling!!

On November 3rd Brett started crawling. Well I guess it's more of a scoot, but either way he can get from one place to the other. Guess I have to baby-proof the house now and keep it vacuumed and crumb free. Fun fun.

Stopping for a snack.


We have a crawler.

good lil' vampire

I was debating this year for halloween... should he be a cute fluffy bunny or tiger or something sweet and squishy?? or a vampire because of his awesome widow's peak?? It was quite the dilemma. And the winner is...

Good lil', cute, sweet, squishy vampire (if there is such a thing).

punk witch + vampire = fun Halloween. Bretty got his first taste of pixie stick and dum dum thanks to Jeff of course. I'm of the no refined sugars in the first year policy, oh well.

My Boys!

Here are some cute fall pics I took of the boys on a Sunday walk. I sure love my boys!



They really are best buds, always laughing and wrestling. While we were in Idaho I showed Brett one of these pics and he whispered "dada" and then was reaching for Jeff's picture on the screen. It was adorable.

Dream Vacation to....

Idaho!!!!
So Rexburg Idaho doesn't have warm weather, beaches or great places to eat. But Rexburg Idaho does have my awesome family, so to me it is my dream vacation. Jeff was so sweet and let me and Brett leave for a whole week to go visit the family. Jeff survived a week by himself, but barely, we had to come home and save him. :)
One of the nice things about going home is I can slip back into my 17 year old high school habits: laying on the couch eating fruit snacks and granola bars, messy room, telling the fam to play with Brett because we will be leaving soon while I lay with my feet propped up. It sounds really lazy, but it was much needed.

Brett wasn't so sure abot grandpa at first. So they went outside to have some bonding time. They found a Texas longhorn in the pasture (no fence) and practiced their "mooooing".

The whole cow and bonding thing really worked, after that they were best buds.

For mom's 50th birthday/halloween party she dressed up as a clown, it was awesome, what a cool grandma (and mom).

Alissa the pirate and Bretty the vampire

The Three Amigas

Brooklyn just loved little Bretty and held him any chance she could!

Also while in Idaho I was able to get with my nursing friends from BYU-Idaho. We all have had children in the past few months. It was such a blast to see our babies together.

I had so much fun visiting the whole family. I got to go out to lunch with my grandma Jones and my aunt Lisa, I also got my hair done...it was suffering badly. I went back to my natural color (dark blonde) and got layers. I'll have to post pics of the new do. Thanks everybody for a great week.

October...thus far

Time is flying here in Texas. We are finally starting to enjoy the weather, cool crisp air, 75 degrees. Jeff is insanely busy and studying constantly, so unfortunately this post is about all the things me and Brett do while Jeff is at school.

Our first outing in October was the Zoo. Brett loved looking at all the animals and was fascinated with the Lions. As we were looking at the lion exibit, I said to Brett, "what does a lion say... ROOAARR" Yea, well the lions didn't like that too much, they jumped up and started ROARing like crazy at us. Then I saw the sign "Please don't yell at these animals" ooops. Hehe, just trying to teach my little munchkin animals sounds.

Me and Brett with the lions. The male lion is glaring at us, I think he feels threatened by my ROARing skills.

Our second outing was to the Pumpkin Festival. There was so much to do. Brett went on a swing for the first time in his long life and loved it. He was hanging on for dear life and just yelling... AAAHHH. We went on a tractor hay ride, face painting, ducky pool, petting zoo, and tractors, it was awesome.

You can almost hear the "AAAHHH"

Dazed and confused after the face painting experience

Brett wasn't afraid one bit. Don't worry everybody, his hands were sanitized immediately after the pet.

Pumpkin Festival!!!

Brett has been reaching so many milestones and we are so proud. He gives five, pinches my nose so I will give a ridiculous squack, pulls up to his knees, claps hands, bounces up and down when he hears music, talks about "dada" all day, and loves the "baba"(bottle). He went to his 9 month check up and here are the numbers. Brett Louis Neeley weighing in at 20lbs 6oz, and 30 in tall, champion of the Neeley home! He is in the 50% for weight and 95% for height.

Brett hanging out at his toy drawer.

Welcome to Texas!

My mom made a special visit all the way from Idaho. It was so much fun and she stayed for an entire week. We spent our time exercising, talking, shopping, dancing, site seeing and playing with Brett. Brett just loved Grandma, he would wake up from every nap looking around for her (grandma). Mom was so sweet and wanted to help all the bums and people trying to ask for money, what a softy! We made sure before she left, that she left with bags full of Texas souvenirs as you can see below.

Look at all this Texas stuff, good thing the Longhorns are doing so well in football this year!! My little Texas Longhorn football star!

Mom and Bretty were best pals by the end of the trip. This if Jeff playing peek-a-boo from behind me, Brett loves peek-a-boo, it looks like grandma does too.

We had so much fun with mom and we already miss her. Brett and I will be going to Idaho for a visit at the end of October...so excited. Brett is growing up so fast and doing so well. He eats Ritz crackers and string cheese. Oh dear, my baby is eating real people food. I think I need another baby.

Junior Pilot

Lately Brett has loved spending time in laundry baskets and boxes. I'm thinking it helps him feel secure?!?! So I had this crazy idea to make him an airplane out of a box. I was seriously losing sleep at night thinking how I could make this plane awesome! Anyway it was such a fun project, it turned out pretty cute and most importantly Bretty loves it!
Here is our little junior pilot in the "Brett-sky"

Our New Schedule!

Jeff's program started full force this week and he has been so busy. He is loving the stuff he is learning! This is kind of what our schedule looks like:
5 am: Jeff wakes up, exercises and studies.
6 am: Brett and I wake up to join him, fix him breakfast and have him out the door by 6:30ish.
Then me and Brett exercise and get ready for the day and have a morning nap.
12 noon: We take Jeff his lunch at school and spend about 15 min with him. Then he studies while me and Brett try and find fun things to do in Austin (splash park, museums, farmers market, ect)
6 pm: Jeff gets home and we have dinner together, bathe Bretty and get him to bed. Then me and Jeff have a few minutes to hang out.
8 pm: Back to studying for Jeff, while I try to keep myself busy (practice piano, sudoku, read, blog, scrapbook, ect)
12 midnight: Jeff finishes studying, drags me off the couch where I fell asleep a few hours ago.
Then we start all over at 5am the next morning, Monday-Saturday!

16 hours of study per day
2 hours with me and Brett
5 hours of sleep
1 hour exercise/get ready
He is such a hard worker! I love that guy!

Here are some cute pics of last weekend, before the program started. We went to the splash park with friends from the school. Brett is starting to like the water splashes. When we first got here, he would cry every time someone splashed him. But you can see in the picture, he is learning to love it!Saturday we drove about 30 miles outside of Austin to a place called Hamilton Pools. It is a natural spring that is perfect water temp, we had such a blast. We also went on a 3 mile hike! It felt so good to get out and be active!
Me and Bretty got the best package in the mail from our sister-in-law/aunt, with all sorts of loot! She spoiled us... and we liked it. Thanks Alissa! Getting good mail is the best! Click on the picture to enlarge to read the card. The inside says "Trying to stay sane here. And you?" Haha, I love it!

Rain dance and much more...

Rainstorms in Texas are amazing. The rain drops seems so full and heavy and they come down in the sheets! It is pretty awesome and the best part is it's still 70+ degrees while it is raining, which makes for some fun in the rain. Even Brett was loving getting all wet....so fun. We splashed in puddles and tried to catch the rain in our mouths. I felt like I was 8 years old again.

Brett discovered his toes a while back and he is a bit obsessed with them. Here I am catching him in the very act. Side note: check out the awesome widow's peak! I think he is going to be a vampire for Halloween.

Brett's ears are starting to stick out a little bit more each month, so we decided we would try some things to help them stay back. My brother Dave suggested a sweat band. I thought it was a great idea...but Brett didn't like the idea so much. He had that dang thing off his head in 10 seconds. I did manage to capture this hilarious shot before he ripped it off! Haha.

Hailee bought Brett these awesome foam letters and numbers for tubby time. They are awesome because they stick on the tub so easily. Jeff would put them up on the side and Brett would rip them off and put them right in his mouth. They are the best bath toys, thanks sis.

Saturday we were wanting to get out of the house. We decided to go kayaking in the lake outside our apartment. We bought Brett a little life jacket and headed for the lake with our inflatable kayaks. We tied the kayaks together and Jeff paddled in the front kayak while me and Brett lounged in the back kayak. After a while Brett started crying and so Jeff took him up front to paddle with him. Brett was magically better and lovin' time with his daddy. I'm sure it was a site to see. Jeff up front with a little baby, paddling 2 kayaks, with me in the back lounging and sunbathing, I kind of felt like a loser. Everybody we passed in the lake was like "now that's the way to ride".

A Few Favorite Things

We've been in Texas now 3 months and everything is going really well. We are on our 60th consecutive day of >100 degree weather! Ahhh... it's crazy, the low at night is in the mid 70's. Jeff is loving school and is preparing to start the full program August 24th, yikes here it comes. Here are some pics of a few summer happenings.

Brett has a little addiction...it's his giraffe "G". This is his favorite toy in the whole wide world. When I give him a variety of brightly colored, noise making toys, he goes for his giraffe every time. He loves to shove it in his mouth and chew on the head and feet. He even fell asleep in the car the a giraffe leg in his mouth. It's the new pacifier.

I love this picture. I'm no great photographer, but I think this is a pretty good shot. What a little tooter.

Brett loves to shred paper. When we go to get the mail, read scriptures or look at books, he is constantly trying to grab the paper and crinkle. It is hilarious. So we give him an old magazine and let him attack. It's quite a site to see, he gets his feet involved in the shredding process as well. Way to go Shredder, you shred those papers.

We give Brett a bath before bed every night and he LOVES it. After he is finished eating his squash or green beans we say "Brett do you want to take a tubby?" He starts smiling, and grunting and waving his arms up and down. Bretty loves tubby time.

We found a free splash park with waiting pools last week and we are lovin' it. It's perfect for Brett now that he can sit up. He likes to sit in the waiting pools and splish splash. He does get a bit concerned by the water that shoots up out of the ground, as we can see from this picture. We spent 2 hours there on Friday and I lubed Brett up with the good SPF 50, but didn't put any sunscreen on me. I wanted to tan becuase I am pasty, you would never have guessed that I have been in Austin, TX all summer. Yeah well, I am now a cherry tomato and I am going to peel and have to start from ground zero. Dang it.

This is Bretty's good friend Saira. They have a typical Boy-Girl love relationship. She is obsessed with him... she wakes of from naps crying "wetty wetty" and she bangs on her front door crying Brett's name. When they are together she is patting his head and giving him hugs. He doesn't do anything to encourage her and yet she just loves him. It is the sweetest thing.

Jeff and I went on a date last night to see the musical "The Music Man". They have an outdoor theatre at the base of a hillside, then people come and bring blankets to cover the hillside to sit and enjoy the show. It is free and amazing! We played Phase 10 and ate Mike-n-Ikes while waiting for the the show to start. It was so much fun to have an evening out together, thanks Phil and Emily for babysitting. Also, notice the redneck. Oh man, my skin is achin' and it seems to be getting worse every hour. Oh dear!