Joel Patrick is here!

On July 2, 2010 at 2:36 pm Joel Patrick Brown entered this world weighing 7lbs. 60z and was 20 in. long.

Brian and Joel's Daddy Adam have been friends since college where they were house boys together! Adam was also one of the groomsmen at our wedding. Our wedding is where we learned that Adam and Jennifer were pregnant and it was captured in this photo!

Congrats Adam and Jen! We are so excited for you both and can't wait to meet that beautiful baby boy!!

Happy BD Sparky!

Today is my hubby's 28th birthday!!! Our 5th birthday spent together but our 1st as husband and wife!!! We talked about getting married on this date but 1. I couldn't wait that long and 2. It is just Too Dang Hot!!!!!

We celebrated on Sunday with Brian's family since we are heading out on a float trip in a few hours today. We met his family at Stix a Japaneese restaurant at the Legends. We enjoyed a yummy lunch and then headed back to our house for cake and homemade Butterfinger Ice Cream!

Here is the birthday boy opening lots of wonderful gifts! He was spoiled this year!

Later that evening I headed to the Tim McGraw concert with my bestie Emily!

Here we are in our cowgirl boots ready to hit the town!

And of course a picture with my love!

We enjoyed dinner and drinks down at Power & Light before heading to the show! If I had a bucket list seeing Tim McGraw in concert would be on it!!! He does not disappoint. Either did Lady Antebellum who opened for him! It was such an awesome show! And our seats were amazing! We had a great girls night out!

And I can't end without a picture of SEXY (yes SEXY) Timmy! Oo la la!

Wishing my handsome husband a wonderful birthday and a Happy 4th to all of you!!

An Anniversary Celebration

Today celebrates my sweet Sister-In-Law and Brother-In Law's 10th wedding Anniversary! They were high school sweethearts! How cute is that!! They have been blessed with the cutestest little boy who Aunt Lane and Uncle Pudge get to babysit while Mommy and Daddy go out on the town Friday night to celebrate! :-)

Wishing you both a very special day with many more years to come!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Being the only girl in the family I have always had a special bond with my Dad. He has raised me to be a very independent woman and has always been there to support me. He has given me lots of wonderful things over my lifetime and recently a beautiful wedding which I couldn't imagine anything being more perfect. He always tells me how proud he is of me and that he loves me every time we talk. When life has gotten rough he was only a phone call away and always had some way to make it better. And when I was about to give up on school this past semester he was right there to encouraging me to keep going and just to always try my best! I’m so blessed to have him as my father and to now have a husband who I know one day will make a wonderful father to our children like my dad has been to us.

This Father’s Day my dad wanted to come up to KC to go to Gate’s BBQ. That worked out perfectly since I had to work at the hospital till 3. I decided I would have everyone over for dessert afterwards which meant I had to have a clean house so I didn’t have to listen to my mom complain. :-) I wish I was a clean, organized person. I never have been…..hoping that will change as that cute, organized, clean boy I met in college has become a slob like me. Our house has been spotless for a week. Hoping to keep it that way from now on! I will keep you posted! LoL Anyways… so Brian and I spent much of Saturday “Summer Cleaning.” Since I had to work on Sunday, Brian finished up the last few things! Not all wives can say their husbands help around the house so I’m very lucky for that!

My family along with my Aunt Cyndi’s and Aunt Amy’s families came for dinner too. It was nice to all get together. After dinner we headed over to see my Grandparent’s house which my Uncle had been renovating. All I can say is OMG!!! It is gorgeous and my Uncle is so talented! I may have some before and after pictures I should post later!

Then we headed to our house for homemade ice cream, Lemon Cake and Chocolate Cinnamon Cake per my Daddy’s request! Everyone had a good time and we even broke out the game Guesstures which had us all in tears laughing so hard.

Wishing all the wonderful fathers out there a Happy Father’s Day and special shout out to my Daddio! I love you!

San Francisco Here She Comes!

On Monday my best friend Hannah packed her bags and drove across country to start a new chapter of her life in San Fran. She graduated from KU in May and had been talking about moving to KC until after her recent visit to CA to visit our friend Shruti she came back thinking about moving to San Francisco! She asked me what I thought and I told her DO IT!!! She has nothing holding her back in KS and if she doesn't like it out there her family and friends will still be here to welcome her back! Plus I want to go to CA and this gives me the perfect excuse to go visit this Fall!

Hannah and I met back in 4th grade when her family moved into the neighborhood. We hit it off and have been best friends ever since. We have lots of great memories together and one of my all time favorites that I will cherish forever is having her stand by my side at my wedding and having her sing with her sister while we lit the unity candle. I think that is the only time I lost it during the ceremony!

On Saturday, Brian and I headed back to Topeka for her going away party. It seemed like a mini high school reunion and we all had a blast. Brian of course was the life of the party and everyone asked me why I don't bring him out more often. I'm like what do you think I do...keep him locked up in the house or something?!? LoL

It was a good time but we were feeling it the next morning! Dad made us pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning and then we headed home were we both took long naps after our wild night out in Topeka! LoL

I'm going to miss you HZ! I'm glad to hear you made it safe and sound!!! See you in October love!

Welcoming Eli James

Our good friends Peter and Kelly welcomed their son Eli James Atha into this world on May 31st at 10:15am. He is the cutest Memorial Day baby ever! He weighed 8lbs, 5oz and measured 20 inches long.

Brian and Peter have been friends since the 9th grade. Peter was also the Best Man at our wedding.

Here is the proud daddy holding his little man!

We are planning our next trip to Wichita to visit the family of 3 very soon. We can’t wait to meet you Eli! You are one loved baby boy!

I’m Baaccckkk!

After the hardest 4 months of my college career I can now say I’m a senior nursing student with only 348 days until I graduate! Is that sad I have already started the countdown. :-) School had taken over my life and I’m so glad to finally have a 4 month break to enjoy summer.
It seems like May has already flown by. It has been a busy month with graduations and birthdays. We also celebrated Mother’s Day with our families. Going out to brunch with mine and having a cook-out with Brian’s. It is so nice we are from the same town. It makes family gatherings so easy!

Happy Mother's Day!

Some exciting news for both Brian and I is that I got a job at KU Medical Center as a Nursing Associate on the Pediatric Unit and Brian got transferred to a branch closer to home. I start tonight at KU working the evening shift. I'm so excited to be back in the hospital. I love nursing and I love kids. What could be a better job?!?

Brian is now working in Independence, MO which is a 30 min drive rather than the hour and a half (one way I might add) that he has been traveling for the past 6 months. He makes me so proud. Driving the long hours, waking up early and getting home late all because he wants the best for our family. His dedication to Enterprise hasn't gone unnoticed and even the "BIG DOGS" of Enterprise as Brian calls them know who he is. He loves his job and I know he will go far in the company. The best thing of all is getting to see him more and getting back to eating dinner at a normal hour. LoL

Wanted to give a shout out to my Daddio (who is looking trim and thin these days…) turned 55 on May 8th. Love you Pops!

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!!!

Little Man turned ONE!!!

Our sweet nephew Evan turned one on March 22! Man did a year fly by. I still remember getting ready for bed when Kate's sister Julia called to tell us it was time!! We jumped up and headed to wait for his big arrival! We didn't have to wait very long before we got to meet that little man! Evan Bryant McNeil was born at 1:44a.m. He weighted 7lbs, 15.4 oz and measured 20.5 inches. He was just perfect and wide awake!!

Here is Aunt Lane and Uncle Pudge just a few minutes after he was born (Evan's Dad Matt gave Brian that nickname when they were younger. Matt no longer refers to Brian as Pudge but his friends still do...oh and my Dad too! LoL! And now Evan will!!)

I have tons of pictures of Evan but this is by far my favorite! They are both just so cute!

We celebrated Evan's birthday on the 19th with lots of friends and family. It was March Madness themed so everyone was dressed in their favorite teams. Here is the little Jayhawk with the only 2 Wildcats in the family!

Here he is enjoying his birthday cake. He was being so polite using his silverware!

I decided to get Evan a rocker for his birthday after discovering his love for rocking. I found this little one off Craigslist! I couldn't pass it up! I had the whole design in my head on what I wanted to do with it. Too bad I can't take any credit for it besides shopping for it! (Which is what I do best right?!?)

I'm so thankful to have family in Kansas City. My Aunt Cyndi and Uncle Dave were nice enough to let me bring it over to sand & paint it. I dropped it off and planned to come back on the weekend. When I headed back over there to my surprise my Uncle had done it all for me. So now I was off to Lawrence to let my best friend Hannah do her thing. She is such a talented woman and is a beautiful artist like her Mama! I told Hannah something sports themed and this is what she created! It turned out awesome and Mr. Evan loved it!

Happy 1st Birthday Evan! Uncle Pudge and Aunt Lane love you VERRRYY much!

Married 100 days!

Well I have been a little MIA from blog world lately mostly because of school. And I will probably be until the end of the semester. Since I missed posting about our 2nd & 3rd month together I thought why not blog on the 100th day of being married! (I promise I'm not counting! I just saw the count of my facebook page) I still can't believe our special day is over but what a beautiful memory I will always have! Our love for each other continues to grow each day and I'm so glad I have such a wonderful man to call my own.

In our 2nd & 3rd month together....

• We bought a Dyson!! (This thing is a amazing!!)
• Celebrated my Mom's 55th Birthday with her and the family in Lawrence
• Filed our taxes together (I loved that check)
• Celebrated our first Valentine's Day together
• Planned a surprise party for your mom's 60th birthday with a successful surprise
• Visited Kelly, Peter and baby Eli(in Mommy's tummy) in Wichita
• Cheered on my brother and the Topeka High Trojans as they played for State
• Helped Evan celebrate his 1st birthday
• We received our Wedding Video! (Aunt C-I will post it if I can!)
• You experienced Corn Beef and Cabbage for the first time on St. Patty's Day
• Jordan moved back from DC :-)
• Watched the Wildcats make it to the Elite 8
• I got to go to the Black Eyed Peas concert (sorry you had to work)
• Hosted our first dinner party as a married couple using all of our great wedding gifts
• It took us 100 days (yes it took that long) but I am so happy to say our house is FINALLY clean. We had run out of room with all of our wonderful gifts that we had lots of organizing to do.

I love you Mr. McNeil. You are the best hubby ever!

Prayer Request

The Everleys: Hayden, Mark, Heidi & Parker

Please add our dear family friend Heidi “Garren” Everley to your prayers. She was recently diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 35. The biopsy of the lung tumor came back as adenocarcinoma. This is the same cancer my Grampie had.

Heidi is the daughter of my mom’s best friend Linda Reynolds. Heidi use to come over to babysit us or we would see her at church, around the neighborhood or at the pool where she was a lifeguard. She has grown up to be a beautiful woman, with a beautiful family. She has two children, Hayden 3 and Parker 8months. Hayden was the ring bearer in my wedding along with her cousins Marin and MaKena as flower girls. She is an absolute doll. And according to her, I’m her best friend! (I’m sure she has LOTS of BFFs!)

Marin, Hayden & MaKena

My heart hurts for Heidi. It actually makes me sick to my stomach to think about it. This is such a scary thing to be going through but she is not alone. She has such a strong support system that is right by her side ready to beat this!

Feel free to follow Heidi’s journey on her website http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/heidieverley/createorsignin and check out her blog that some friends have set up! http://heidishelpers.blogspot.com/

"You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it" Matthew 21:22

Party Pics!

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Surprise!

Last Saturday all the McNeil kids surprised Chris with a surprise party to celebrate her 60th Birthday! She had no clue! Watch the video! (Sorry for my screaming! Didn't think it would be that loud when I did it!)

All the family was there along with some of her good friends! We had lots of great food along with cake and homemade ice cream! After everyone had left the family sat around a played my new favorite game Taboo! It was a great time!

You can never trust Kansas weather and once again there was lots of snow to greet us when it was time to leave! We all planned to go to church in the morning but decided to enjoy the snow from the inside and just laid around in our PJs instead! We headed back over to Jenny and Clayton’s for leftovers and to open gifts! We gave Chris a new coffee pot that she desperately needed and a picture of the family from our wedding! It turned out beautiful and I loved the frame I found! (Hobby Lobby is the best for 50% of frames!)

Chris I hope you had a great birthday! Thanks for being such a wonderful Mother-In-Law! Cheers to your 60th year!

Congrats!

Congratulations to the future Mr. & Mrs. Eric Waterman! Eric asked Heather to marry him on February 15th! I couldn't be happier for the two of them! Eric is such a wonderful guy and makes Heather so happy! Their wedding is set for July 23, 2011! Thank you for getting married you two because the wedding diet is back on!

My Valentine!

On Sunday, Brian and I celebrated our first Valentine’s Day together as a married couple! The only downfall of the day was that I had to study! :-/ This week I had 3 exams! Could they not have split them up?!? But thankfully I have an understanding husband who planned the evening while I studied! Brian made his mom’s Goulash which I love and Strawberry Cheesecake for dessert! We exchanged presents the night before because we were bored Saturday and couldn’t wait! I got Brian cologne since he was out, a Blu-Ray movie and some candy! Brian got me a gift card to get my toes “did” and some flowers. This was our 5th Valentine's Day to spend together and by far the best!

A House Divided

Last weekend our house was full of all K-State fans and one lonely Jayhawker. My best friend Heather and her boyfriend Eric came up to stay the weekend with us. It was so nice to see them since the last time we saw them was at our wedding! We spent the weekend catching up and gearing up for the big KU v KSU game! I couldn’t resist a picture of the boys as they headed to the store dressed almost identical. Sam and her boyfriend Scott came over along with our good friend Jenny! We enjoyed lots of good food and great company! Eric was out numbered but after a good game KU pulled through!

That's a BIG cupcake!

Have you all seen the commercials for this?!? My first reaction was that is stupid UNTIL I made one!! It was too fun!

I have been spending lots of time baking since I got my beautiful red Kitchen Aid stand mixer (pictures of that beauty to come!) So my girlfriend Sam brought her Big Top Cupcake pans over and we got to baking. We both talk too much as it is but put us together and we can’t shut-up! We thought the batter looked a little thick and then realized we forgot the water! Oops! So we paid better attention and got that baby in the oven. Here is the final outcome!

It was our friend Joce's BD so we popped some candles in and took it to class the next day! It was a huge hit! Looks like BIG cupcakes will be a birthday tradition with my nursing class!

The Perfect Keepsake!

Don’t ya just love it?!?

My mom surprised me with a gift when we met them in Lawrence on Sunday. I had no clue what it could be but when I opened it I was pleasantly surprised to see that she had my cake topper framed while we were away on our honeymoon! I laughed because I had been searching for it so I could do the same thing! But it would have never turned out as pretty as this! I couldn't find a place to hang it so I just set it with the vases on my dresser and I love it!! It just sparkles all day long and reminds me how beautiful our wedding day was! This is the perfect keepsake from our wedding! Well… besides that hubby of mine of course! :-)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mama's 55th Birthday! We celebrated yesterday by meeting the family in Lawrence for Mexican food! (My fav!) My parent's good friends Doug and Linda joined along with our cousin Annabelle. We hadn't seen everyone since Christmas so it was nice to catch up! Between all the kids we got her a pair of Coach ballet flats. Leopard print I might add!! So cute! I'm jealous I didn't buy myself a pair! I think she thinks they are alittle "wild" for her but sometimes mom... you just have to let loose!! I'm so glad you're MY mom! I love you and hope you have a wonderful day!!

One Month!

Now I promise I won't make a post for every month we are married but I couldn't help myself for posting about our first month together as a married couple! This has been the best month of my life and I'm told it only gets better!

In our first month...

• We enjoyed spending so much time together over the holiday break!
• Took an AMAZING honeymoon to Mexico!
• Celebrated our first Christmas and New Year's together as husband and wife!
• I started up my second semester of nursing school (only 2 more to go!) Pray for me! This is going to be a tough one!
• I have been improving on my wife-like duties! Brian calls on his way home from work and when he arrives home dinner is on the table! I'm working on keeping the house clean which is something I have struggled with since I was ummm..... 10. One step at a time!
• We act like newlyweds! Sooo in love!

I'm looking forward to many more years to come with my mister! He's the best!

Happy Birthday Jenny!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Sister-In-Law Jenny! Jenny and I met my freshman year of high school (her senior year) while performing together as SRO dancers in the talent show. Never would we have thought I would be marrying her brother 8 years later! Hope you have a wonderful day Jen!

FINALLY!!!

After all this talk about starting a blog I FINALLY did it! I had been thinking about starting one after following my good friend Amy's while she blogged about the road to the altar. (That was almost 2 years ago) Now she is quite the blogger with all her decorating ideas and her oh so funny pictures and videos of her son Carter! She has inspired me along with all the other bloggers out there that I love to follow to actually create one and start blogging! So here it is....in the life of The Married McNeils! Enjoy!