Another day of Cousin Heaven

Kailey, Justin & Maddy

Kailey, Kaytlin, Lincoln, Max & Justin

Here's Makenna

Here is Joe & LeiLani's new little girl, Makenna KalaKiana Numbers, born on February 1st. She is a cutie for sure, but from the look on Justin's face, I'm not sure it's the right time for us to try for another baby!

Wild Disco Dancing with the Numbers

You haven't had TRUE FUN
until you've danced
Rock N Roll style with the Numbers!
We all laughed our heads off!

Buddies...Abraham & Justin

Justin and his cousin Abraham love to play together. They were able to spend a lot of time together...a sleep over at Nanna's house, and we stayed at their home for 2 days. It was cousin heaven.

Geoff Picks up his Truck

Geoff picked up his truck, and will now be promoting his FIREFLY business in Idaho again. He and his partner temporarily leased it to a partnership in UT, but one of the partners got a serious illness and the other was never able to move from Oregon. Look out Boise...Here we come! Is this a goodlookin truck or what?

Family Fun

COUSINS: Justin, Abraham, Caleb, Sammy, Courtney, Sammy, Becca, & Max.

At the playground with the Romero's.

Fun at the park.

Grandma and boys.

Mom really wants her bathroom done!!

Larin with the babies Becca & Max

JaNae enjoys a little female interaction!
Night out with Brinley & Makayla

Geoff the Builder

While in UT, Geoff was "Geoff the builder!"...
1st Project: replacing 2 of Joanna's toilets.






This was a successful adventure until we tried to flush the 2nd toilet. The water didn't run through. Justin informed us that Max dropped a toy in the toilet, and Justin seized the opportunity to perform a little "science experiment" to see how far he could push the toy up into the flushing cavity. He successfully clogged the toilet. He and Abraham first drew up a "plan" to retrieve the toy, then they spent a good 1/2 hour taking turns fishing for the toy in the freezing cold toilet water. Finally, their little hands jiggled it lose just enough for Geoff to get it out the rest of the way with a hanger. What troopers.

2nd Project: Out with the old, in with the new; a New entryway and kitchen floor in Joanna's home. It took a solid 3 days to complete this project! Geoff worked very hard. The floor looks great!
3rd Project: Bathroom installations at my mom's home...Geoff installed the vanity and vanity light, and other fixtures.

Family

Mike and Alisha and their 3 boys came to Joanna's for the afternoon and evening. It is always so much fun to be together with them and let our boys play together. They have a great time with each other. Our boys have so many similarities and interests. That both families have all boys, and mostly the same age, makes getting together even that much more fun.

After spending time together I always come away feeling so blessed! It amazes me that on both sides of my family, all siblings are happily married, hold similar beliefs & goals, and all members including in-laws get along and love to be together. It's great to come away from family with new (great) ideas of ways to be better parents, and fun things to do together as a family, etc... Mike and Alisha are such good parents, and have been such good friends to us. We love their family!!!!

Family Get Together

One of the great advantages of having Geoff's mom, Joanna, and my mom, Maxine live so close together is being able to have get togethers like this. We all have so much fun together. We have the best grandmother's in the world!! Our kids are so very fortunate, and so loved by Grandma and Nanna! I can't imagine raising them without them there! What an influence for good they have!

Sunday Service

This was the beginnings of one of the projects to be done at Nanna's house. The first began about 10 minutes after we arrived yesterday. Geoff unloaded the car and ran to Costco before it closed to get two toilets to replace the malfunctioning units. He installed one successfully last night and will do the other tomorrow.

Here, they are tearing out the tile floor to prepare it for a chestnut pergo floor. Of course, we were listening to the Tabernacle Choir and performed the service in our sunday clothes...which makes it legal on the sabbath, right? (Notice, Geoff is AGAIN wearing his newly found women's sunglasses! They have come in very handy on this trip!)

Etiquette Training... or lack thereof

At our etiquette school it's all about comfort and efficiency... elbows on the table are fine and feet on the table are tolerated as well. We even encourage a spoon in each hand, or no spoons in no hands! Just stuff it in your mouth as quickly and as full as possible in the time frame given, and by all means...BE COMFORTABLE and ENJOY!

Stopping by the Woods On a Snowy Evening

We love spending time at Nanna's house. Justin and Joanna have quite a lot in common, one of which is ART. Almost as soon as we arrived, Justin went to work at Nanna's art desk. I think just being here inspires him.

This was his first drawing. It is his representation of the poem we read together in school yesterday by Robert Frost, Stopping by the Woods On a Snowy Evening.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little house must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The Woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

On the Road

As we went to bed last night, we weren't sure we'd attempt the trip to Utah as Max had a little croupy cough. But he showed no signs of his ailment when he woke up (aside from a runny nose) and so we packed up and left.

A few minutes into our trip, Geoff discovered he left his sunglasses at home. Justin conveniently informed us that he found some sunglasses in the parking lot at the park the previous day, and were presently in the cup holder. Although Geoff was very grateful for the shades, he was a bit conscientious about wearing women's sunglasses! He was especially not happy about me taking the picture as he KNOWS it will end up on the blog.

Here was our six hour trip:

• Max plays with a toy happily for about 5 minutes, then...
• Max wiggles and squirms as much as the Car Seat will allow (His favorite position sitting anywhere, is with one foot hanging over or on something). Max is not happy.
• Geoff drives & sings songs to Max
  
• I move to the back seat & try to entertain Max
• Justin tries to entertain Max.
• Everyone ignores Max, in hopes he'll go to sleep. No luck.
• We stop and let Max move about. Eat. Get Gas.
• Repeat the process two more times, and we finally arrive completely FRAZZELED, and of course Max is screaming his head off. "Hi Nanna, were here!"

An apple a day...makes you smart in every way.

Justin was eating his salad and apple at lunch today, and said, "Mom I think sweet things make me think really well. Maybe because I eat so many apples I can remember so much!"

I love that when he is talking about "sweet things" he is referring to apples! I wonder how long his "sweet" innocence will last??? Maybe there is truth to his hypothesis. Justin eats at least an apple every day, and he has a REMARKABLE memory.

Ocean Panorama

One of Justin's masterpieces. (He created this set up all on his own, and took the pictures as well. Notice how he crumpled up little pieces of blue paper to add texture to the ocean floor--very artistic!)

I thought we'd study Ocean life for a few weeks in school. We bought a book that describes many oceans animals and includes these 3-D puzzle forms to make an ocean panorama. I thought we'd take a couple of weeks and study an animal each day, and add it to our panorama as we went along. Justin loved it so much, he read the entire book and made all the animals in an evening. I can't help but wonder how I will keep up with him!

Boys boys boys!

In this picture, these boys may frighten you at first glance, but really, they are GREAT boys, so thoughtful and good. Levi, Eli and Seth King (along with Justin & Max). Their mom is 8 months pregnant with #8, and is on bed rest, and has been an entire month with her husband overseas. Wo! We tried to give her a little break today and took her boys to the library and then to the park. What fun we had! We love the King family!

Max...the Garbage Monster

With each new day, as sure as the rising sun, Max makes a new discovery that makes my life ...well lets see, what is the right word...crazy, exciting, spontaneous, and VERY MESSY! Today, he discovered the trash can. He loved decorating the floor with the slimy green kiwi peels, and removed an old apple core which he apparently felt had more edible meat on it!

Yesterday he discovered the toilet bowl scrubber and plunger (eww!) and before that the grains in my pantry. Like an overpaid detective, he thoroughly checks for and finds any and every open lid and pours out the contents.

Today, while we were at Lynelle King's home, I heard Justin yell out from her kitchen, "Mom, I know who's been in here!" When I came to see what he was speaking of, I found her floor covered with potting soil...Max's ALL TIME FAVORITE! In fact this was his second potting soil adventure today, as he did the same thing at the Library. The very second I put Max down in the Library, he runs toward a potted tree by the door, where he quickly unloads as much potting soil as he can before I can come to the rescue.

What a guy! To think, he started walking at nine months!

Who needs food storage?

Here is the product of our food drive labors...the car is loaded from front seat to back. We dropped the food off at DeMourdants who have also collected a suburban load of food. This has been such a fun and productive service project.

Justin has absolutely NO WORRIES about surviving in the world after completing this project. This morning he said, "Mom, if we ever run out of food, we can just have a food drive!" Who needs food storage??

Scared out of my pants!

This morning, I woke early and was working on organizing Scripture study stuff for Justin and I. I was in the process of printing some songs, when all of the sudden, from behind the bar and out of the printer, my printed sheets came flying at me!!! It scared the daylights out of me...until I heard small squeals of laughter. Justin had sneaked quietly down the stairs and cleverly planned his attack. And clever it was...my heart is still beating!

He is just like his Dad, my little Justin, and OH, how I love him. Life will always be fun and exciting as long as I'm with my Neyman boys!

Nature

In scripture study with Justin, we have been working out of the Preach My Gospel manual put out by the church. This last month we have been learning about the Nature of God the Father and Jesus Christ. We were talking about what 'nature' meant. I asked Justin what he thought his nature was. He said, "cautious." I asked him what Dad's nature was. He responded, "Hard-working." I asked him about mine, hoping to get a "loving" or "amazing" title. Justin said, "your nature is ...always watching Max!" So there you have it, Justin is cautious, Geoff is hardworking and I am always watching Max!!

An afternoon at the park

It feels as though spring is not far off...hurray! Today was a beautiful, sun-shiny day. It was still pretty chilly, but the sun was shining and it felt so good.

Max has begun the phase of only wanting me to hold him, and wanting to be held all the time. He was surprisingly clingy today. I expected to be following him all around the playground. Instead, we spent a good portion of our park time cuddled on the swing together. He was so cute and so cuddly. He loved the swing, and I loved holding him so contented and relaxed.

A Great Home Teacher

Brian McCauley came over after church to home teach us. I am always so grateful for home teachers who magnify their calling--who come, are good with our children, are perceptive to our needs, and teach the first presidency message. Today, Brian so naturally did all this and then gave Geoff a priesthood blessing and assisted Geoff in giving me one. Words aren't adequate to express the gratitude I felt in my heart to feel the love of the Lord with such power right here in our little home. Truly, the priesthood has blessed our home.