Thanksgiving and Stuff

I have gotten pretty bad at this blogging thing, not that I was ever great at it I guess. I had a friend laugh at the fact that I change my background on here more often than I do a new post(which is true) So here's what has been going on in the Neve household

Ben has been busy with the job search and all the fun things that come with it(resumes, interviews, paperwork, phone interviews, conferences, campus interviews, etc) It is going alright and Ben is handling the stress of it all much better than I am! He is also staying busy with his research and is starting to see the light at the end of this loooong college tunnel.

Jamison finished up his soccer season at the end of October and LOVED it! He is already asking when we're going to sign him up again. He worked really hard at getting better and there was a big improvement from his first game, which consisted mostly of making sure he looked good in his jersey and playing tag with another boy on his team, to the last game where he almost scored a goal! He is getting so good at riding his bike and likes any opportunity he gets to play outside in this chilly weather.

Natalie is also getting good at bike riding but doesn't enjoy the colder weather as much as her mom and brother do. She is much more content to do indoor activities like story time at the library or drawing lots (and I do mean a TON) of pictures. She is actually a very good artist, her favorite things to draw right now are mermaids and pictures of the family in our new house when we move, even though we have no idea when or where that will be!

I have just been enjoying this fall season and the uncharacteristically cool days. I have also kept busy with lots of cooking and baking and getting our Christmas decorations up, I just LOVE this time of year! Everything seems more exciting with Christmas lights on and the smell of cookies baking in the oven. I'm trying not to get too stressed out about the job search, but I haven't been doing a very good job. It drives me nuts not knowing where we'll be this time next year, but I just need to learn to be a bit more patient.

Our Thanksgiving was nice and relaxing this year. We weren't able to make it out to Utahso it was just us and some missionaries that we invited over. The food (except the dang rolls) turned out pretty great and I had a blast making it all! Seriously, I think there is something really relaxing about spending a day in the kitchen cooking and baking. The cleanup is another story but luckily I have a husband who is really great about helping with that!

Wow, that was a pretty long post and blogger is not letting me upload pictures right now, maybe I will be able to get them up later. Hope all of your Thanksgivings were great and that your rolls turned out better than mine. :)

Happy Halloween!

More to come when we all come down from our sugar high

Soccer

We signed Jamison up to play soccer this year and so far we have all had a really fun time with it! He has practice on Tuesdays and games on Thursdays and they are late enough that Ben gets to come with us so its a fun family event. Jay really likes it and I have decided that there is nothing cuter than a bunch of little kids in soccer gear chasing a ball around. Here are some pictures and I have some video but I can't get it to work! Sorry grandparents :(

Listening to the coach at practice

Doing some drills

Waiting to sub in

This is the face he did when I told him to look tough!

Soccer Jay

And what does Natalie do during soccer?

Kind of a funny story, at the parents meeting for soccer they told us that the practices and the games were going to be held at a place called Sokol Park at the North Complex. Well I had been to Sokol Park quite a few times and had seen some soccer fields there so I was pretty confident that those fields were the "north complex" portion of the park. Well on the day of Jays first practice he was SO excited, that is seriously all he talked about the whole day. So we drive to the park and nobody is at the soccer fields so we waited around for a bit and still nobody came. To make a long story short, after an hour and a half and three different sets of directions we finally made it to Sokol North Complex which is NOWHERE near Sokol park. So I start going off about how they shouldn't even call it Sokol park and that it's so dumb that it shares a name because the two places aren't even connected by a road or anything so they should name Sokol North something totally different etc. And then I hear Jamison in the back mumble "Ya, they should name it Mom-Freaks-Out Park." Anyway, that helped to calm me down quite a bit and now we have our own special name for Sokol North Complex! :)

Five Already!?

Jamison Vaughn Neve turned five years old yesterday and I am having a really hard time believing that I have been a mother for five whole years now. Probably part of the reason that it has gone by so quickly is because Jamison makes it so easy for me to be his mom. He really is such a good son and brother and for the most part he has been a really easy going kid! (minus potty training) Just for fun I decided to ask Jamison a few questions about himself, here is what he said.


What is your favorite color Jamison? Blue
Why is blue your favorite color? Because it makes me happy and it's dads favorite.

What is your favorite thing to eat? Pasta salad...no wait...peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

What's your favorite kind of jelly? Raspberry

What do you like to do for fun? I like to play games like I Spy Eagle Eye. Do you know how to spell that mom?

What is your favorite kind of treat? Pumpkin cake and pumpkin pie.

What kind of things make you happy Jay? Ummm...like...playing with my toys and cake. And also sometimes what makes me happy is telling jokes.

Whats your favorite toy to play with? My transformers

Whats your favorite thing to do outside? Play and have races and run around

What do you want to be when you grow up? A policeman

Why? Because they look cool.

What is your favorite primary song? The song where you sing I lived in heaven a long time ago it is true.

What is your favorite thing about being five? That I can help my sister because I'm bigger.

Okay we're all done. Did you like answering all those questions? Yep, did I win?

Lots of stuff

All kinds of fun stuff has happened since I last posted and as usual I didn't take hardly any pics of the events. Here are some of the ones that I did manage to take.

Ben's family (his mom, dad, emily and peter) came to visit at the end of June and it was great to see them! Jay and Natalie could barely contain themselves while they were waiting for them to get here.

I guess these are their excited faces

Cute Natalie

Big boy Jay
As a side note, Jay has had a major growth spurt recently and Ben and I just can't believe how tall he is getting and how quickly he is growing out of all his clothes!



Natalie and Jamison wanted to ride with Grandma and Grandpa so Emily and Peter got to ride with us. They were very excited about it. : )

While Ben's fam was here Ben and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Ben's parents kept the kids for us and we were able to go on a weekend getaway. It was the first time we've been able to do something like this without the kids and it was really great! We decided to stay at a bed and breakfast in the historic portion of Birmingham. We had never done the B&B thing before and we thought it was fun, I think we will do it again someday.

Ben and I were just being silly with some of the decor in our room at the B&B.

The house was built in the 1800s and still had the original flooring and mantle pieces. It was fun to hear about the history of the house and to visit with the other guests over a really yummy breakfast!

Ben's family had to go home on the 29th and we were sad to see them go! Natalie started crying about fifteen minutes after they left and kept asking when they were going to come back and Molly(the dog) yelped herself to sleep by the front door. Hopefully we can all live a bit closer to each other some day soon!

For the 4th of July we went to the Holley's house and had a BBQ and lit fireworks. It was really fun and I'm so mad that I didn't remember to take more pics! These are some we took right before we left.

Cute kiddos in their 4th of July outfits

Our sad sad attempt at a family picture

And I told myself that I wasn't going to post anymore pictures of my tomatoes but I just had to post this one because I'm just so proud and a little shocked!

SUCCESS!

SWIMMING!

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is going to the pool. We have been going a lot lately and we all have the sunburns to prove it! Here are some pictures of our swimming adventures so far.

Natalie, Sarah Beth, Jamison and TJ taking a break

Getting ready to jump back in

Natalie wearing mommy's sunglasses

Jamison jumping in

Natalie didn't want to jump in the water but she wanted me to take a picture of her jumping on the ground :)

My kiddos and me after 4 hours of swimming



Tomato Update

(because I know you all care so much)

They're Growing!

One Saturday Morning

It is a beautifully rainy morning...

...laundry can wait...

...dishes can wait...

...baths can wait...

...getting ready for the day can wait.

This Saturday morning we're going to play.



P.S.

My tomatoes are blooming!