black horse.

^^^^family date night^^^^^

charles is sleeping in his car seat under the table (the whole night) so no pictures of him...sorry yarlies! we haven't really gone out to dinner as a family since we have been in brazil, so saturday night we all got dressed up (or just dressed, really) and went to eat at the black horse. american food. ha! it was really fun. and beautiful. we love each other.

other fun things:

henry is sick, again. fever and stiff neck like what he used to get in utah. i think it must have something to do with teething, he has big boy teeth comin in in the back. poor little guy. the only thing that makes him smile is yarlies. (that is what he calls charles).

we blasted christmas music tonight (after we watched curious george for a long time!!!!) and danced. henry really let go, you should see that kid on the dance floor! dancing with your 18 month old might even be better than performing in the lincoln center. best dance partner ever.

we leave for AMERICA tomorrowww!!!!!! ah. you guys, im so excited i could squeal!

xxx

ho.ho.ho.

 few things to note on the above fotos:

• henry.
•  santa's real mustache peeking above the fake white one. classic. 
• the position of santa. he is progressingly getting further away from henry and i in the 3 fotos. favorite. part. 

on saturday morning after breakfast, we heard jingle bells blasting through our little neighborhood. we ran outside to see what all the ruckus was, and of course, it was santa himself zooming past our house to the park down the street. we hopped in the car and decided that today was the day that we were going to meet mr. clause. and when i say we, i mean henry. i knew he wasn't going to like it. in fact i was certain. but i thought the pictures would be a good to have to show his wife someday or something of that sort. we did have fun though. they gave us free pastels and soda and a truck for henry. all the kids either got a big truck or a doll. it was really cute actually.

poor santa. the guy must have been roasting! it was super hot, and he was in all the get up. you'd think mrs. clause would pack him a lighter outfit when she knew he'd be traveling to brazil, but i guess not. sheesh. and he wasn't so much a jolly fellow. not at all actually. i guess i wouldn't be either if all the kids screamed when they had to get their picture with me. that can't be fun.

 anyways. let it be known. this guy above doesn't like santa so much, but he loves to say ho ho ho all day long.

xxx

in a manger.

here is a video that you should watch.

i love mary. mary the mother of Jesus. i have always had a tremendous love and admiration for her. a connection, i guess you could call it. she was a beautiful and incredibly strong woman, in every aspect of the word. faith, and purity she must have radiated. i think we must have been friends in heaven because we both like having our babies at home/in a stable. (too far?).  but seriously. she was amazing. just watched this video and loved it. if only i could have faith such as hers.

how grateful i am to her. she not only bore our Savior, but raised Him as well. God be thanked for the divine gift of His son Jesus Christ and for his humble and willing mother, mary.


merry christmas.

xxx

i.love.you.

12.7.13 henry daniel neeleman tells mommy that he loves her for the very first time. like it was nothin. like he had said it a million times before. henry is at the stage where you can have conversations like these, "can you say.... yellow ?!", and henry will reply "lellow!!!!" with any word. anytime. its so cute, because most of the time it is the very first time he has said the word and his interpretation of it, well, is the best thing. so i have been trying to get him to say "i love you!" for a few weeks now, and he finally did it-it was a moment i will hope i never forget. he giggled and smiled and buried his head in the couch cushion and then ran away. it was a moment that was so sweet and oh too fast. i have had a lot of those lately. motherhood is a beautiful, beautiful thing. God is good and kind and trusting to let us care for these perfect spirits. how blessed i am.

one fun fact (or sometimes not so fun) about henry is that is isn't so much a morning guy. so wednesday rolls around and we find ourselves at the park at 8:30 am!!! yikes! you know it is going to be a long day when you are already at the park at that time. but. we really did have a blast. and i hate to bring up the weather again, because, well sheesh! its not a weather blog! but it was pretty perfect. so we stayed a really long time and i took a lot of pictures of my little h. he makes my heart sing. and he makes me sing, e-i-e-i-o (old macdonald had a farm) about a million times a day. truestory.

xxx

update picturedate.

decorating the tree. yep, thats our tree. hohohohhohoho

 this is them 234567 times a day. "yarlies, yarlies!" thats his version of charles. the cutest.

 exhausted from all the kisses. and sweating. because it's hot here and babies have this thing where they always want a blanket on them. sorry, yarlies!

today was a good day. daddy came home at 3pm which is unheard of! 

(we had yarlies passport stuff to take care of). 

had dinner in a pumpkin + cornbread. 

it was 73 degrees today. practically perfect. overcasty and brreezy. my favorite type of weather.  henry grew up. 

yarlies and i cuddled. 

i put red lipstick on because daniel was home. 

baby went pee pee on me 3 times. 

and henry wanted to brush his teeth tonight before bedtime. we giggled the whole time. yess. 

we played with the neighbor boy, fredi. well, henry did. 

henry and i read scriptures tonight and he said "oh, wow!" after every sentence. it made me laugh really hard. 

xxx

today.

today. 

charles woke up first, then me, then henry, then dad. all in about 5 mintues. 

when i looked out our window, i was so excited to see that it was raining. rain equals not as hot as yesterday. yessss. 

me and the boys went downstairs and made our pancakes that we make every morning, except we ran out of wheat flour so they were white today, and we barely had any maple syrup. yikes. what are we going to do tomorrow? (we have had wheat pancakes with maple syrup every morning for the past 3 months. favorite.)

we tried to read family scriptures but henry was crying at the front door wanting to go outside. so we all went outside. i went to brush my teeth. henry ran as fast as he could to the park that is across the street from us. with no shoes and jamies still on. i came downstairs to daniel carrying both boys in his arms from the park. 

it was a beautiful sight, i love those 3 boys, daniel looks good with two in his arms. 

dad left.

i prayed as i watched his car drive away that he would be safe and protected today. 

henry got in the stroller, charles got in the bjorn and we went for an hour long walk. then to the park. 

we came home because of the rain.

we went and got passport fotos for charles.

 we all took naps.

we went to the park again, in res. 1. 

henry made a new friend, fredrico, our next door neighbor.i tried to talk to his mom with my little portuguese. we mostly sat in silence though and watched the boys play. 

had ramen noddles and brazillian melon for dinner. 

sang "e i e i o" to henry as he fell asleep. 

now i wait for daniel to come home. its really hot.

this is my day. 

xxx