Wow! A month since our last post. I had good intentions of posting weekly...really I did.

What We've Been Up To

Evie turned 1 on Sept 19th. We were in Grapevine visiting family that weekend so her GiGi bought an ice cream cake to celebrate. Evelyn enjoyed the icing. She received a few presents and the one she loved to play most with was a bear that sang when the arm was squeezed. That was a fun 3 hour ride home. That song is burned into our brain now. She is now walking, still working on balancing but would rather walk than crawl most of the time.

The kitchen is finished, except a few touch-ups that need to be done. I'm so happy we were able to remodel it.

I finished my scuba certification. Yeah! Last weekend Gabe went with me to the Blue Lagoon in Huntsville and did my check out dive with me. We decided to plan a dive trip soon before it gets too cold or we get pregnant again. I have also starting teaching a Bible/English class to internationals through our church. Most are here because their husbands are either studying or working at A&M.

Gabe is getting ready to move into his new office. He and the staff are very excited. He has also been working so very hard on a paper for one of his Master's classes. (That's really why I haven't been able to blog....he's been busy on the computer every night. ) It hasn't been easy but I am so proud of the work he has done.

I think that about sums up the past month. Check out the pictures below of our cutie and kitchen.

Stacy and Gabe.

Evie spotted a dog at the park. She loves dogs.

1st Birthday Cake
She is never sure what to think when we put cake in front of her.

"Not bad, maybe I'll have another taste."

"Ok, so I got a little carried away."

Helping with the dishes at great-grandmother's house. She crawled up there herself.

Not sure what she was thinking here.

Discovering bark on a tree.

Very happy with her leaf

Our finished kitchen.

10 Year Reunion

This past weekend we loaded up the car and headed to Marshall for my 10 year high school reunion. I can't say that I was super excited about going but I wasn't dreading it either. I decided to keep my expectations low. In high school I was not part of the popular crowd. I was shy and quiet. (I know this is a shocker to those that know me now : ) I was in band (which some may consider nerdy) and most of my close friends were from band or my church. I always tried to do my best not to stand out but rather blend in. Well apparently I succeeded. Not only did Gabe (who didn't go to our school) get more waves and "hello's" from classmates but my one friend that I keep in touch with from high school (Chad) had to introduce me to several of our classmates. The funniest was when a classmate walked up to our table and started talking to Chad. To be polite, Chad turns to me and says, "And you remember Stacy." Implying of course you would remember Stacy. She gets this blank stare on her face and then a long pause followed by incomplete words as she tries to come up with a reason why she doesn't remember me. It was quite awkward for all sitting at the table. We couldn't help but to bust out laughing after she quickly walked away.

Another favorite comment, "She looks familiar. Do I know her?" Chad's reply, "She went to school with us."

It was as I expected. Few people I knew showed up and most people seemed to revert back to the way they acted in high school.

Our kitchen is finally coming together. Gabe and I stayed up until 1 am tiling last Thursday and got up the next morning and grouted. We finally have our new counter tops and are hoping to paint sometime this week.

Evelyn is changing rapidly before our eyes. On the way to Marshall she learned how to play peek-a-boo. She holds the blanket over her face, waits for me to say, "Where's Evie?" and then pulls the blanket down. Her top front tooth is coming in. She is standing for longer periods without holding onto something. And when she walks with her walker, she pulls it back and tries to turn around after running into something. My mom had a little birthday cake for her when we were staying with them. She wasn't sure what to think of the candle but had a great time eating cake and icing.

Evelyn and Neal Playing

View from the living room

The finished back splash

View from the entry way

"Where's Evie?"

"There she is!"

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"If I play dumb, I might be able to eat it all before they notice."

"Is this some kind of trick? Why are you all staring at me?"

"Who cares, this is good. I'm eating it all anyways."

A funny thing...

So a funny thing happened today at Starbucks. I locked Evelyn in the car. Thankfully it had been raining so it was a little cooler than the usual crazy hot. I quickly ran into Starbucks, borrowed a friends phone and called pop-a-lock. (Which is free if a child is trapped inside.) Within minutes we had a fire truck and ambulance team working on the car. After what seemed like forever standing in the now pouring rain, the fireman was able to open the door. As if things were not already embarrassing enough, apparently the back door was almost closed but not quite so if I had only closed the door completely then it would have activated the never-lock-your-keys-in-the-car system and I would have been able to avoid the three ring circus. The fire man was kind enough not to make me feel even more like an idiot when he pointed out how I could have unlocked the doors. Oh well, now I know and we can all laugh at it. For those of you who already knew this handy info about the door, please don't write and tell me. You were not there standing in the rain watching your kid cry inside the car.

Our kitchen is looking better. The pipe was able to be moved. We are just waiting for our counter tops to be installed, hopefully tomorrow. This weekend we will put the knowledge gained from watching HGTV into practice as Gabe and I install the tile back splash.

Last week we took in a new housemate . My friend's younger sister, Haley, needed a place to live while going to Blinn, so she is living with us. We are getting a refresher course in the complexity (or lack thereof) of college life.

We just passed 11 months with Evelyn. I can't believe she will soon be a year old. She loves it when I chase her around the house, and she is enjoying the extra attention from Haley.

We are thinking of leaving the lights exposed. It gives the room that warehouse feel.

Evelyn's new favorite toy is a pair of lemons. She crawls around everywhere with them, or at least she did until I cooked with them.

She loves pushing the walker around. We are actually training her to mow the lawn.

Keep us posted,
Gabe and Stacy

Demolition Day

This past Saturday was demolition day. My parents and brother came into town and helped us tear down the kitchen cabinets and the sheet rock off the wall. In about 3 hours my brother and dad had it all taken out. Way to go guys! We could not have done this without you. Gabe, my mom, and I helped with the clean-up. As a side note, let me say that Gabe would have helped with the demo but he was working at the hospital all morning saving lives. He was very disappointed that he did not get to tear down the wall. My mom, Evelyn and I came home from running errands to a layer of sheet rock dust on everything. I did not think to cover the book shelves so we had fun dusting every book in our living room. Here is our kitchen in it's current state.
We are hoping the pipes can be moved. If not, this could all have been a horrible mistake. Any ideas on how to camouflage them.
Evelyn loves playing with cords. Look at that face. She is almost daring me to come and take it away from her. Let's see what happens.
She looks it over and thinks, "I wonder what this will taste like?"
And into the mouth it goes. I might add that Evelyn was not harmed in the taking of this picture as I quickly removed the cord from her mouth.

August. And, uh, stuff.

Life is staying busy at the Neal household. We are very excited about our upcoming kitchen remodel. In effort to save some money we've decided that we would do some of the work ourselves. We have never tackled any projects like this so we shall see how it all turns out. I've been doing my homework and watched a fair bit of HGTV while in Chicago. I don't know if that qualifies me to remodel our kitchen but it sure inspires me.

We are also looking forward to the opening of our church at it's new location and the start of our fall bible study. Evie keeps us busy. We occasionally catch her standing unsupported. Maybe she will be walking by her first birthday?

I've recently joined the world of facebook. If you're on, leave us a note.

Gabe starting the demolition of our kitchen. Yes, he is wearing a dress shirt and dress pants. And, yes, the shirt is pink.

Now on to more important pictures. The many faces of Evelyn as she enjoys a teething biscuit for the first time.

Pure Delight

Curiosity

A Full Mouth

Happiness. And two little teeth.

Satisfied

That's all. No more pictures please.

My what big teeth you have Evelyn!

Big teeth!? Let me check this out.

Oh no!! What happened?

The Past Two Months

For all of you who thought we would never post again and were tired of checking our blog spot only to find the same old blog, well I have finally found some time to post again.

June was a big month for Evie. She took her first swimming lessons. She loved putting her face in the water and drinking it. Going down the frog slid eventually became exciting but what she enjoyed most was the watering can that they got to play with. In June, Evelyn also got really fast at crawling. One second she is playing right in front of me, the next she has found her way over to some object she should not be putting in her mouth.

In mid July we spent 9 days in Chicago sans Evelyn. For Stacy this was a great vacation from the work of being a full time mom. She shopped, slept, ate, and watched HGTV. Mostly the first and latter. Gabe spent the week at a Trinity University Bioethics Institute and Conference. He is pursuing a Masters in Bioethics. He is researching the biblical and naturalist ethical response to Embryonic and Non-Embryonic Stem Cell research, In-Vitro Fertilization, Cloning, and Cognitive Enhancement among other issues. Stacy's parents kept Evelyn and apparently fed her lots of biscuits and chocolate chip cookies.

We are doing well and are staying busy. Keep in touch!

Gabe and Stacy

Sliding down the red tongue of doom!!!!

Landing Safely in the Water

Going after the watering can. We don't know why.

My friend Xiaoyan and her son Neal.

Hi, I'm really cute.

Why yes, I was aware that I'm quite cute.

"Hello? Yes this is Evelyn...sure, I can be a GAP model."

Chicago skyline from the Field Museum.

"The Bean" in Millennium Park