Neeley Family Blog

We sadly, had to say our good-byes to our first "Neeley baby," Tinsley.  He was 10 1/2 years old.  Brad picked him up in his Mustang when he was just 8 weeks old.  Tinsley has danced at our wedding, moved to every house with us, and welcomed each of our kiddos home from the hospital.  Tinsley was a smart dog.  He was a little too smart I think.  It often got him into trouble.  Brad and I called him curious George.  He always wanted to sniff things, test things, just check them out.  He loved going for rides in our cars.  He would stick his head, nose, tip of the nose....whatever he could out the window.  Tinsley LOVED his food! Treats, scraps, just any food.   It is probably one of the reasons he became diabetic.  We then had to limit his food and could really only give him his prescription dog food, with an occasional treat.  I can still picture him now prancing across the yard with his fluffy whit...

Well, I finally got most of the videos from the boys basketball season uploaded.  So here is just a dump of basketball videos for your viewing pleasure.  Brock is number 4 (shirt number) and Brayden is number 5, incase you need a little help. ;) Enjoy!            

Man, where has the time gone!?! Our littlest kiddo, the baby of the family is now 3 YEARS OLD! THREE people! I feel as though I have blinked and she went from a baby to a toddler. Brylee at three is.... Potty trained (just recently completed that adventure right before her birthday), into all things Hello Kitty, Dora, Disney Princesses or Jake and the Neverland Pirates (a Disney show).  She is still throwing tantrums, but I think they are tapering off now.  There is usually one a day, not handfuls as there was before.  I am still holding out hope we are near the end of them. ;)  Brylee is talking much more these days.  She is saying more complete sentences and really articulates what she is trying to say.  Brylee is still keeping up with her brothers in anything and everything they do.  She has found a new love of the iPad or our iPhones.  Brylee is getting into make-believe.  She makes up stories all the time and uses her toys as props fo...

We ventured out for dinner a few nights ago.  We had a couple errands to do as well and decided we would grab dinner, then run the errands.  The kids always enjoy going out to eat! We decided on California Pizza Kitchen.  Once we were seated and waiting on our meal, the kids started coloring, talking and this.... Yep, she was in rare form that night and just cracking us all up!  Brylee is just a doll face when she wants to be.  :) And Mister Brock was being a ham too!

My friend Sarah just had her 35th birthday.  She decided she wanted to try something new for her birthday instead of just going out for dessert.  She settled on venturing to a Rock Wall Gym. She invited me along to try something new.  I have told myself that as a goal for 2013 I am going to work on new things to keep me fit and able to chase after these kiddos.  I have not been running my every other day as I was into Fall.  I didn't have the proper attire (truthfully) to keep warm running outside.  Well, Brad solved that problem for me by getting me some good gear for Christmas.  No excuses now, right!?! ;) Well, back to my initial story, I decided to take the challenge with her.  Brad said to me a few nights leading up to our outing that he was super proud of me for saying I would try because had he asked me I more than likely would have said, "Are you crazy!?! No way."  Which he is correct that would have been the words to come out of ...

In December, the boys started basketball.  This year Brock is old enough to play as well. So we signed them up to be on the same team.  It is a K/1/2 group of kids.  They practice for about 30 minutes and then play a scrimmage game for the remaining 30-45 minutes.  It is really fun to watch them.  Brayden is completely driven by his competitive nature.  He is very focused, means business, keeps track of how many baskets he scores, and is a bit of a ball hog!  Brock is just so happy to be playing.  He has fun, smiles a lot, tries really hard, makes some shots and passes to his 'friends' on the team.  I have only recently been able to make some of the games (retail work + holidays = little time off on the weekends) :(.  But I did manage a few photo shots and Brad and I got some videos too. Enjoy a look!!!  

Sadly, on Tuesday, December 11th, a man went into my mall at work and opened fire in the Food Court Area.  He killed 2 innocent people, injured another and then killed himself.  There were around 10,000 people in the mall at the time.  I was not working that day.  I was home with the kids when this all happened, but very well could have been there had circumstances changed.  We are short handed at work right now, so I could have been called in that day.  I was also planning to go do some Christmas shopping, but decided I would wait till Brad came home from work to do it instead.  We also had just been there the night before to see Santa (all 5 of us). There were quite a few of my co-workers in the store though. All the stores in the mall went into Lock down.  We close all of our gates and usher all employees and customers to a secure location in the store.  They remained there for over 2 hours before authorities came to say they could lea...