Neeley Family Blog

We took a little weekend getaway for Brayden and my mom's birthdays.  They rented this super huge house for us and my sister's family to join them all weekend.  We let the kids miss school Friday and took off after school on Thursday afternoon.  It is about a 2.5 hour drive over the Santiam pass to get there.  It is a resort town near Sisters, Oregon.  It was the perfect weekend! The car was loaded with suitcases, some food, bikes and gifts.      We spent some time playing tennis, hanging out in the hot tub at the house.  Brad went golfing with my parents.  They boys got to go do a few holes as well.  We took some bike rides around the property.  We also went to the pool and splash pad one day with our kids plus my sisters! Talk about crazy fun keeping track of 5 kids under the age of 8 in a pool! Whew! We didn't lose anyone! ;)      There were games played, some good meals cooke...

And here we are again, celebrating each one of the boys turning another year older.  It is so hard to believe how fast time goes by these days. I know they will be driving and going to college before I know it, but I just want to focus on now for a minute. This year, Brayden turned 8.  He is very into sports! Brayden is a sports broadcaster in the making.  He check the ESPN app on the iPad daily.  He watches NFL Red Zone every weekend.  Really, he will recite scores and stats to you after games (whether you want to hear them or not ;)).  Brayden loves school! He enjoys his second grade class and has many friends at school.  He is always willing to help the teacher out or do extra projects.  We are super proud of him! Brayden is a great kid! He is loving to his brother and sister (for the most part- they are siblings after all).  He helps me out with things around the house when he can too. He is still stubborn beyond belief, but has a funny...

Can you tell from the title that I am just a bit excited, just a bit!?! ;) We had a very full and eventful summer.  I was more that ready to get the kids back into a normal routine and get myself some free time! This year, for the first time, all 3 kids will be in school for some part of the day. All 3 have different schedules this year, 2 are in the Catholic school and Brayden is going to the public school again. Brylee is entering preschool 3 days a week for the mornings this year.  So big changes all the way around. Brayden was the first to start.  Here is a quick look at his first day of Second grade. He did not want me to take his picture! I barely was able to convince him to let me get a quick pic before too many people saw. He's growing up on me! sniff! Brock and Brylee started the following day.  Here are their pictures as we got ready to take them into their classes.  Brock is doing full day Kindergarten (like Brayden did) at St. John the B...

Well, just before summer came to a close, I decided to take the kids roller skating.  I had been thinking about it for some time and thought let's give it a try! Ha! We got there, got all the correct skates, laced up and took this picture: From then on, it was rough! Not going to lie, I had many second thoughts as to why I attempted this by myself, without the assistance of Brad! I, myself, had not been skating in some time and felt a bit shaky.  None of the kids had ever roller skated before.  Brayden once put on a pair of plastic skates at Toys R Us and zoomed around for a few minutes, but other than that, nothing. The people working at the rink were helpful and tightened the kids wheels on their skates so they would not roll so quickly, which helps with learning.  I will say, the kids were all troopers for how hard they really tried.  We were there about 2.5-3 hours.  By the end of the time, the boys pretty much had it down and Brylee could do s...