Early Easter

Here is a shameless shot of my cute kids. :)

Crawl Remix

And here's an old school joint for ya!

Eden's Easter Thank You

My sister and her family sent Eden a beautiful dress and an Elmo movie for Easter. Kendall came up with the creative idea of making a short thank you video for them. It thought it was too cute not to share. Here you go!

We're back!

For those of you who used to follow this blog regularly, you know that we've been sort of off the grid for a while now. We experimented with making this a private blog, but it sort of ends up not being worth the time of keeping a blog if it's going to be private. That is, we had to invite specific people to subscribe to the blog, and then those people had to sign up to read it. As you might expect, this ends up being just a bit too much hurdle-jumping to have a broad, regular readership.

So we debated quitting the blog altogether, but as I've thought more about it, I've kind of decided that we've put a lot of time into it and I'd rather not just abandon it. We also had a change in our family about a month ago that I thought merited sharing with our friends and family who might not already know. We lost our dog, Henry.

PetSmart Puppy School

What a cute pup!

Happy First Birthday, Henry!

Welcome home, Eden!

Henry was a wonderful pet. He was great with Eden, not a mean bone in his body. He loved to play and insisted on being a part of everything the family was doing. He was a great traveler, and he made our home warmer for the time he was in it.

Lil' buddies

Merry Christmas! 2011

Unfortunately, Henry also loved to run, and one day he got out of the yard and got hit by a car. It was nobody's fault. It was just one of those things. We all miss him, and things haven't been the same around the house, but we're moving on.

In other news, Eden is growing and developing in leaps and bounds every day. That's another reason I thought it would be worth starting the blog back up again. Now that we live in North Carolina, we don't get to see the Florida folks as much as we used to, so I thought bringing the blog back would be a good way to stay connected with everyone there.

A new bike for Christmas! 2011

Eden with MeMe & Grandpa

Eden & Grandma

Little Elf

We've been making good use of Skype, so that's been a nice convenience of modern technology. Although we'd love to be with everyone in person, video calls are a nice alternative.

Happy 2nd Birthday Eden!

Eat cake!

A "Barney" birthday party!

Kendall and I are both plugging along at work. Kendall went on a trip to Kalamazoo, Michigan, not too long ago. She said it went pretty well, but I think she's also glad we ended up somewhere still in the South. Spring break started for me this week, which really means that I have some time when I don't have class so I can get some other work done.

We've also enjoyed being able to spend some time with my cousin Cody and his family. They came over to Wilmington from Ft. Bragg a few weeks ago and we had a very nice time with them. This was the second time we've seen them since moving here, and we've enjoyed those opportunities. We have some other folks we'd like to try to connect with soon, too - my cousin Travis and his family, my friend Jason in Greensboro, my cousin Chuck around Charlotte, and I'd like to make it up to West Virginia for the Vest family reunion one of these Fourths of July.

Chef Eden!

Ready to go!

Anyway, that's the latest in a nutshell. Hopefully, I'll be able to post more frequently now that we've got the blog up and running again. We hope you are all doing well.

That's the news for now. We'll keep you posted.

Eden's first day at the beach

Greetings from North Carolina

I hardly know where to start. An apology? Some sweeping statement about the nature of life's big transitions? A knock-knock joke? OK.

Knock-knock.

Who's there?

The Neelys.

The Neelys who?

Oh my, it has been a long time since our last blog post.

Wah, wah, wah ...

4th of July at the Dethier's House

Eden- 17 months

Enjoying a swim at MeMe & Grandpa's

When we last left you, we were counting down the weeks and months until our move to North Carolina. Well, those months have come and gone and we are finally settled in, mostly, to our new home, no thanks to Hurricane Irene.

We made it through the storm just fine. We were without power for a whole 45 minutes one night and had a lot of wind and rain, but otherwise the storm was fairly uneventful for us.

Kendall finished up her job at Shands last month. All of her friends and coworkers there gave her a very warm sendoff. The month of August was a VERY busy and tiring month for us.

Some photos of our little cheerleader at UF

After flying home from my orientation here at UNCW the first few days of last month, Kendall and I got straight to work packing up our apartment. Actually, she somehow managed to get quite a bit done while I was gone.

That following weekend we went down to Tampa for one last get-together with our family. We had a great time, even though it was tough knowing that we'd be moving farther than we'd ever been from family before. We were really grateful everyone was able to make it out.

That next week, we rented a moving truck, packed up our storage unit, made our way back to Gainesville with Kendall's parents, put the apartment in the truck, struck out for Wilmington, arrived in NC and unloaded the truck, and started putting the house together.

Everything is pretty much done at this point, still just a few things that need to be hung on walls and what not.

Discovering a new playground by our house in NC

So far my job is going very well. My colleagues are great, and I like the students, too. I'm very busy with teaching new classes, trying to get research out the door and just getting a feel for the university. But I'm managing to keep my head above water.

Kendall also is very busy. She's been staying at home with Eden, who continues to grow every day in her levels of adorableness and stinkerness. She's giving a lot more hugs and kisses, especially to Henry, and she may hold the record for how many times one person can say "no" in a single day. Her vocabulary is also growing, and we are learning all her new words right along with her.

Eden's new "sand & water table"

Kendall also manages to get more done in Eden's nap times than most people do all day. This week she has managed to repaint our bedroom, polish the floors, manage correspondence with the rental company and repair man (our iced used to smell like old sweaty gym socks), do multiple loads of laundry, shop for new dishes, and reconceptualize fractals and string theory. All this while also meeting some moms in the neighborhood, taking Eden to the pool, and otherwise keeping our toddler entertained.

Eden & Henry enjoying the new backyard

We've started going to a church up here called Port City Community Church. It's very similar to the one in Tampa where Kendall and I met. We like it pretty well so far, so maybe we won't have to spend months on end "shopping" for a home church. We'll see. God's got a place and a plan for all of us. We'll walk it out one day at a time.

At the park down the street

Anyway, that's the news for now. We'll keep you posted.

Slide Time

Here's a short video clip from a couple of weeks ago.