Dana turns 32!!

On the 19th, Dana had his 32nd birthday.
Dana's brother and mom joined us to celebrate.
Happy Birthday Dana!!!

Here are some photos to share... enjoy!!!

Some fun Family Visits!!

Here is Amelia with her Great Aunt Pam, chewing on some candy or something, enjoying the fun treats of the day. Isn't her red crown a hoot? She is such a loved and happy little girl!!! Check out these goofy lips....

On the 17th, my Dad and Kathy joined us for a short visit. Here Amelia is playing with her Papa having a great time. There are few people who know how to play so well with little kids as my dad... it is a blessing to watch and it's great to know that in some cases, one never really needs to grow up! :) Thanks so much for the fun visit!!!

Our princess

Another fun princess dress up dress for Amelia. I just love this one and so does Amelia. I find dresses like this as inexpensively as I can and when I find a bargain we let her wear the dress where-ever or however she wants to. She just loves the fact that this dress "Twirls" which is very important criteria when selecting a dress. I just had to share as there is glimpses of the McNeil acting talent within these two photos... enjoy!!!

Amelia is officially in Dance!!! And LOVING every moment!

Here is beautiful Amelia trying on her new dance gear! She is really enjoying the whole thing. When we went to get her outfit, she wouldn't let me take anything off...needless to say, we had to put on her normal clothes as it was snowing outside... so after much negotiating we settled that she could keep her leotard on and take everything else off until we got home. Doesn't she look so much older than almost 3?? I can't believe it! We are starting to get some glimpses of what she may look like as she gets older.

She's so into her dance class right now that when we say we are going to Kindermusik Class she says... "No, I'd like to go to Dance Class." It is great she can do both...they really do compliment each other!! Below are some photos of her first official dance class.... can you tell she is enjoying herself??

So many thanks go out to Papa Overton and Grandma Kathy for helping with Amelia's dance pursuance...they are wonderful to participate it this!!

Fathers and their Daughters

There is something so beautiful and amazing to a wonderful father with his amazing daughter. Dana and Amelia know how to have so much fun together! The laughter, giggles and games they create are absolutely contagious and they fill our home with so much joy. Here are some tickly giggly photos for your enjoyment :)

I feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband and father to my children in Dana... he is amazing: patient, kind, fun, supportive, level headed, absolutely involved... Amelia and I are the luckiest girls in the world!!!

Amelia's Expressions

Little Amelia has really gotten into working on her facial expressions. She loves to read books about different feelings and such. She is very knowledgable about sensing people's feelings and has a great deal of empathy. Here are a couple cute photos of her ideas of what emotions look like :)

Here is her Mad face:

Here is her Excited face:

And her beautiful Happy face:

Beautiful snow... Finally!

We just can't believe that it has taken until February this winter to actually get a real good snow! Here Amelia is having a ball in the snow with Dana and Skyler. They are at the park running around. Dana even fixed up a sled to pull her which she was okay with as long as they were going slow :) She is still talking about how Daddy went fast and she got a little scared :)

We're getting close! 35 weeks!

This photo was taken on Feb. 6th, slightly into the 35th week of this pregnancy. Amelia is so affectionate to my big belly and seems to be understanding everything that is coming up :) Enjoy!

What's been going on around here??

Well, not a whole lot, but we're busy at the same time! This week we went to Butte to visit my Grandparents. Aunt Pam came a long with us so she and Amelia could play while I was setting up my Grandparents new computer. Their old one was 10 years old and they were due for an update! I'm sure they will be so thrilled with their new machine, especially after they get DSL set up!
On Tuesday, we went to Amelia's Music class, which is something that Amelia adores! She really gets into it and loves dancing with the other little kids there. At home she has her favorite song from the Kindermusik Cd's and wants it to be repeated over and over again....she can dance to that song for what seems like eternity :) She's also been sick this week. Fortunately she hasn't been sick but maybe 4 times in her life so we are blessed that way, but when she is sick it is a real downer. This time she has a yucky cough like she's never had before. She's been a real trooper and is quite cooperative and good natured despite the fact we know she feels like crap! Hopefully today will be the breaking point and it'll only get better from here.
We also had our 34 week check up on Baby McNeil on Tuesday. Baby is growing just fine and is as strong as ever! I sometimes can't believe the force in which this baby can jab!! Every now and then I actually find myself saying "OUCH!!" :) Soon enough we'll see what all the fuss is about...baby will likely be here in 4-6 weeks! This pregnancy has gone by so fast!! Most people are still guessing boy... Our Dr. is just wonderful, during the checkup, she allowed Amelia to be so involved and help with the measuring tape when she measured how big my belly is etc. I think it really helps Amelia feel involved to get to do that and listen to the heart beat... then she thinks about for a day or so and then starts to talk all about the baby "when the baby comes out, I'll get to feed it" "I'll get to kiss and hug it" "Mommy, will I be able to give the baby a toy?" So sweet... I think she really is getting the gist of everything. She's going to be a wonderful big sister!!
Today, we are getting the nursery measured to have the carpet installed! Yippee! I'm so excited, I keep daydreaming about how we'll set up the nursery and what it will look like for when baby arrives. Dana has been so diligent in getting everything set up. This weekend he plans on texturing the walls and then getting on with the painting so that is all done for when the carpet arrives. Then we'll have a few other small details to take care and then we can set everything up!!
Today is also exciting on another front: As many of you know... Dana has his private pilot's license, however, we haven't been able to fly as his license lapsed a few years ago and we just didn't have the time or funds to get it going again. Well, we still don't have the time or the funds... but this is one of those things you just have to MAKE happen or it NEVER will... so today is the first step... Dana is going to get his physical checkout to start taking a few lessons again! I am so thrilled about this. Flying with Dana has been one of the most fun things I've ever gotten to do in my life and I miss it so much. I can't wait until he can take me up again for a spin... We are so blessed to get to take on these adventures in our life!!!
Monday we will try something new for Amelia... DANCE Class! There is a studio here in Belgrade that has movement classes for children Amelia's age. I think it will be great fun for her as she already comes up with some pretty creative moves when dancing by herself. She seems so interested in it so we thought we'd give it a try. It is for 1/2 hour once a week. This first week will be a trial run and we'll decide after that if we want her to do it regularly... we'll keep you posted!!!