The Paul Neff Family

US LATELY...

2011-11-20T10:09:00.000-08:00

We took a trip to Washington and Oregon over the 4th of July weekend. Sad to say that all of our pictures from Washington and the previous two months were erased just before a firework show.

Some of our harvest...a small patch of pumpkins...

..too many zucchini. These two giant zucchini were hidding and didn't get picked at the right time

Soooo many peaches!

This was Marla's first attmept at canning. We ended up with 21 qts. and several bags to freeze.

HALLOWEEN!

She is supposed to be a little pig.

"Britain" Lightyear

Ruby after Grandma Judy fed her two pieces of Andy's birthday ice cream cake.

Summer 2011

2011-09-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

Josh started kindergarten at the end of Aug. He's still adjusting to a new school and wants his teacher back from last year. He rides the bus at 8 in the morning. I didn't get pics of the other kids--maybe we'll take a "been in school a month" picture.

Fishing at Tibble Fork (we didn't catch anything there, so the entertainment was feeding the ducks.)

Oh and also stuffing graham crackers down gopher's holes.

We went swimming a lot. Josh only gagged on water and threw up twice this year at the pool (a major accomplishment)--and made it to the garbage can both times.

Eric, Britt & Dan hung out together at the pool.

First ever raspberry harvest.

2011-07-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

I had fogotten all about this blog since we switched web browsers. We are excited to make some freezer jam.

Reunion

2011-07-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

Carolyn at the pool.

Brittany & Kaitlyn--conjoined twins.

Jared at the baseball game.

Tyler at the baseball game.

Baseball game.

Swimming

The mosquitoes were bad--Josh got bitten on the eye.

Dan & Ron

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

We miss you, dad.

Broken Collar Bone

2011-06-17T14:05:00.001-07:00

Josh broke his collar bone Wed. night--or should I say that the kid on the swing at the park broke it. Josh got in front of him and got smacked right in the shoulder. There's not much you can do for a broken collar bone, except keep it still and in the right position while it heals. So he's got his arm in a sling and pumped up on ibuprofen and tylenol. He cries a lot because it's pretty painful. I think today has been worse than the first day.

Eric's Eagle

2011-06-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Eric was awarded his Eagle on May 25, 2011

The lady he built the mews for came and did a presentation

with birds.

Eric's cake after Josh got a hold of it.
They misspelled "Congratulations" anyway, so this way I
guess you couldn't tell.

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess this was actually pre-Memorial Day. Dad finally has a suitable marker. We'll go back tomorrow after we scrounge up any live flowers we can find in Ruby Valley. There is a winter storm warning here until tomorrow morning. I guess the good news is that I still have tulips...unless they get decimated tonight.

Shanna's Graduation (AKA what we did during branding)

2011-05-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

BRANDING 2011

2011-05-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

JUDY IN HER CINCO DE MAYO APRON

RUBY'S BLESSING

2011-05-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

Dan Gets Baptized

2011-03-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

Dan turned 8 on Feb. 26th and was baptized Mar. 5th.

I thought I'd turned this picture right side up but it's still sideways.

All of the baptism goers.

Mom at Chuck-A-Rama afterwards.

OUR LITTLE VALENTINE!

2011-02-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

RUBY RAQUEL

6 LBS. 6 OZ.

18 1/2 INCHES

Christmas Break 2010

2011-01-14T18:14:00.000-08:00

Eric turned 13 on Dec. 24th!!Jared chilling in front of the TV

All Josh could talk about was going to see Calvin...

We went to Ruby Valley for a few days the week after Christmas. It started snowing the night we got there and then was a blizzard for 2 1/2 days. The roads were closed but the power didn't go off.

Josh with Charlie.

Group photo...Eric especially liked this...

All I Want For Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

2010-12-22T13:46:00.000-08:00

Dan lost both of his front teeth a few weeks ago, and is trying very hard to grow the new ones in as quickly as possible so he can eat certain foods again.

Eric had his jazz and concert band concert on Dec. 7th. It sounded really nice! Dan looks really tired and bored.

Happy 11th Birthday Britt! (On Dec. 10th). At her party we had to play the flour game (with the coin in the middle). All of the girls wanted to get flour on their faces. Wasn't the goal always to not have to get your face in the flour??? I guess times have changed....

Carolyn

2010-11-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Carolyn from this weekend. She rolled over for the first time!

Happy Halloween from American Fork

2010-11-01T20:05:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween! Trick-or-treating didn't last very long since it was pouring rain, but at least they got some candy.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN....and more!

2010-10-31T15:21:00.001-07:00

Britain The Dragon......GRRRRR
Ward Halloween Party

Witches at Gardner Village

Decorating Halloween Cookies

Dinosaur Park in Ogden

Digging for bones.

Ruby Valley-- Andy took the boys on several rides.

Elko parade

Of all the rides at the county fair you would think the Merry-Go-Round would be the safest. Well...It wasn't. One of the animals came loose and a part flew off the ride, while in motion.

Notice Anything Different?

2010-10-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

Yep, Eric got his braces off on Wed. Now he has to wear retainers 24 hours a day for 6 months, then just at night. He thought it was pretty good timing so he can have candy with caramel in it for Halloween.

Josh did a forehead plant into a cinderblock corner at church on Sun.--I guess he tripped while he was running full speed. Notice the cinderblock texture imprinted on his forehead. Amazingly, there was no blood, but the bump stood out from his head quite a ways.

Pictures from Home

2010-10-05T09:06:00.000-07:00

If anyone's interested, here are some pictures from my trip home.

Thank you to everyone for inviting me to their homes and giving me rides everywhere. You are always welcome down here in Texas...I'll even bring you to and from the airport!

It was nice to see everyone!

SADEN REUNION AT CHERRY HILL

2010-07-21T15:41:00.001-07:00

Sadens in the Lazy River

New member of the family.

4th of July Weekend

2010-07-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Rod and Britain

Neff/Jensen softball game.

Brigham's

4th of July fun with sparklers and glowsticks.

Jedis in training.
"Light saber" action

BRITAIN IS 2!

2010-06-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

BRANDING 2010

2010-05-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

CALIFORNIA

2010-05-04T14:40:00.001-07:00

Just before branding we took a trip to Central California to visit Marla's relatives. Here are some pictures of the trip.

A FISH HATCHERY NEAR FRESNOFRESNO STATE FOOTBALL STADIUMJAMES DEAN MEMORIAL NEAR WHERE HE CRASHED HIS CARMORROW BAY

Happy Birthday Danny!

2010-02-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

Dan turned 7 on Friday, February 26th at 12:51 PM. He had a party with some of his friends after school. They had cake and ice cream, then played fruit basket upset (none of them had ever heard of or played this game before, so it only lasted about 5 minutes). After that they built a fort, but there was so much arguing over who was going to be in charge (be the captain), we had to call a stop to it and move on to the treasure hunt. Then they just played outside until it was time to go. Happy Birthday Dan!

Winter 2010

2010-02-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

Its been at least 6 months since we posted anything. The only thing we have done recently is go skiing. Its the only thing that gets us outside during the winter.

Christmas Photos

2010-01-01T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to all of the pictures I took over Christmas. There are only a few good ones! I've posted quite a few on my blog but here are my very favorites:

A Little Christmas Humor...

2009-12-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are stressed out about Christmas shopping, here's a little Christmas humor for you compliments of Dave Barry.

CHRISTMAS DRAW!

2009-11-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

Here it is...finally...I still haven't gotten the go ahead from Jesse and Shanna or Jared, but I put them in anyway. If you all don't want to participate, just let me know and we'll re-do it!

Andy and Marla: Erin and Nick
Cindy and Scott: Jesse and Shanna
Jared: Andy and Marla
Nancy and Tyler: Jared
Jesse and Shanna: Cindy and Scott
Erin and Nick: Nancy and Tyler

Remember that the limit is $25!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!

2009-11-10T07:47:00.001-08:00

HALLOWEEN

2009-11-02T07:12:00.000-08:00

Britain was "Mommy's Little Monster".

THE BATS, GHOSTS AND PUMPKINS WERE DELICIOUS!

2009-10-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday I hosted Halloween cookie decorating. Here are some pictures.

I think Eric was more interested in reading his book.

RACE TO THE ANGEL

2009-09-14T09:06:00.001-07:00

WE MADE IT!

Tyler finished 2nd overall and 2nd in Men's walker with a time of 2:53:somethngNancy finished 1st in Women's walker with a time of 2:55:somethingAndy's time was 3:20:16?Jesse wasn't far behind with a time of 3:20:46?

Paul's best time 2:43:43

What We Have Been Up To

2009-09-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Eric played Minor League baseball starting in April--He played for the Dodgers. In June we found out he made the all-star team and got to play 3 games up in Salt Lake, where they were promptly eliminated--oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

Dan played T-Ball in May & June for the Pirates.

Britt felt left out so she took a tumbling class over at the rec. center. She does cartwheels all day long.

We went to Ruby Valley for a visit right after the 4th of July weekend and mom helped us make "cold" blankets for the kids. Eric's is "space", Britt's is Hannah Montana, and Dan's is Scooby Doo.

Not a trip any of us planned--all the grandkids.

We saw this antelope in between the pivots on the way home.

We left the next Mon. for Mass. to visit Scott's family, a trip we'd had planned for a while. Dan was looking for sea glass on the beach.

Horseneck beach--Britt and Josh making a sandcastle. Around here is where they spotted the 2 great white sharks a few weeks ago.

Back to school Aug. 20th. Eric is in 6th grade, Britt in 4th, and Dan in 1st.

Josh started pre-school throught the school district a week later. He goes Tuesdays and Thursdays and is doing really well.

Sorry so many pics.--I guess I should post things as they happen instead of waiting for months at at time.

Goodbye, Dad, Grandpa

2009-09-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

I think this is how I'll always remember Dad--in his work shirt, pants, boots, and hat--either behind the desk at the shop, out fixing something--always doing something--or helping someone get what they need.

The kids (especially Eric and Brittany...because they are older) will miss Grandpa coming through the door to give them a big hug when we come out to visit, or taking them out to do things when we're in Ruby Valley. Eric really misses him.

Dad would have been proud of the BYU football team so far this year. I can't help but think how much he would have liked to watch the BYU-Oklahoma game. I think he and Grandma Neff were probably allowed to take peeks at it--maybe even watch the whole thing! That makes me smile.

I think he had to go so fast because our family is so horrible at goodbyes--we drag them out forever--I don't think Dad liked saying goodbye.

It's still hard for me to believe he's gone......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED! ...yesterday

2009-08-27T13:12:00.001-07:00

Dad's Boots

2009-08-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

Nothing reminds me more of dad than his boots.

Jared's Jeep

2009-08-21T22:32:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd show off some of Jared's handiwork. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Pictures

2009-08-08T07:33:00.001-07:00

I've posted all the pictures I took at Dad's funeral here. Some of them are ok - it seems I cut off a lot of heads. I take no responsibility for any of the family pictures - they're Nancy Johnson's work. I tried to crop them as best as I could but what I think I really succeeded in was making them fuzzy. There are three different versions so you can choose the one you look the best in. Love you all! Nick and I will be back out to the Valley of Ruby in a couple of weeks.

PAUL E. NEFF 1943-2009

2009-07-26T04:15:00.000-07:00

RUBY VALLEY

2009-07-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the Neff/Jensen Reunion. This is the only family picture I took. I didn't remember to take the camera to all the major functions.

Britain's first tractor ride. He helped dad stack hay.

Britain's first camping trip. We stayed in the new trailer at Brigham's

Britain's first swim.

Britain trying out the new crib. We missed everyone who wasn't there!

If You're Looking to Buy...

2009-06-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Nick just wanted to let everyone know that if you all are looking for anything in the electronics department, he can usually swing you a pretty good deal at Conn's (which is where he works, just in case you're wondering). They're doing a "Deal of the Day" on the website (www.conns.com). Sometime this week they're doing a 30gb Zoom for $60. Apparently that's a really good deal. Not that I would know.

Anyway, he says he can also ship TVs less than 42 inches. He also has a couple of digital cameras that are dirt cheap.

If anyone's interested or needs anything else, give us a call and I'll put Nick to work finding you the deal of a lifetime...

BIRTHDAY PARTY

2009-06-21T14:38:00.001-07:00

IT'S PINATA TIME...

Britain had his cake and didn't eat it, too.

Britain opened gifts after everyone left. Thank you for the presents!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITAIN!

2009-06-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

Britain turns one on June 16th. Where did the year go?

2009-06-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to the air show at HAFB (Hill Air Force Base). It was the second time I had been. Andy and I went three years ago, while we were dating. There were a lot of people there (the news reported 290,000 people), but with the show in the air there wasn't a "bad seat in the house." The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold.

I heard that William Staten was in the crowd. Good luck trying to find him, we didn't.

The best part of the show were the Thunderbirds. Check out some video of them.

Is that a salute?...Nope, wrong hand.

Surprisingly, Britain followed the action, as you can see from this video.

Jared is Number 1!

2009-05-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Jared entered his first rock crawling competition this weekend in Delta, UT. He was entered in the "unlimited class". He came away with the first prize! This is sure to be on the front page of the Ruby Valley News.

There were 8 courses that all had to traverse. They started off with 0 points, and the object was to accrue the least amount of points. You received points for using spotters, reverse and for going over the allotted time.

He won this awesome rock, a $400 gift certificate to a driveline shop, $200 gift certificate to a 4WD shop and a sweet $100 bill (don't call asking for money - he already spent it on pizza). Way to go Jared!

SAY CHEESE!

2009-05-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

Marla got her braces off, FINALLY!
It only took two years.

Britain has two new teeth coming in.
That makes a total of four.

Britain in now wearing a helmet to shape his head. The doctors say he may need to wear it for about three months. What a great accessory for the summer.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Here's to getting your way, right away!

BRANDING 2009

2009-05-05T11:51:00.001-07:00

I hope you enjoy these pictures of branding. I didn't get a picture of Karson, so I had to improvise. We missed those of you who weren't there!

HAPPY EASTER!

2009-04-12T17:10:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday!

2009-04-08T15:55:00.000-07:00

I have really been delinquent in sending birthday wishes this year. So - who have i missed? Danny, Shanna, Karsen, Marla, Nick, Ethan, and last but not least, Jesse. I wish I had a photo tribute to everyone - but Jesse has been in my life the longest, so I have the most pictures of him.....probably because I happen to be in many of these pictures too.

Anyone know where this picture was taken? I think this day, Jesse got sunburned, and looked like lobster baby.

Ah - the sweet chocolate chip cake. Jesse's first birthday.

This is probably Lagoon? I like Jesse's polyester shorts, and little belly.
I have no idea where this is - but notice we are standing right by andy griffith's name. it must have been dad's doing.

AHHHHHH! Branding season. It's coming up - who's coming out???

Happy Birthday everyone!

Braces

2009-04-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

Eric is the proud owner of new braces.

He was in quite a bit of pain the first week he had them, but he's fine now. He's pretty upset about the things he can't eat--including chips and Starbursts. They just put the top on for now and in 3 or 4 more months will put the bottoms on.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Jesse & Ethan!

Special Post for Ian "Croc Boy" Livingstone and any other animal lovers in the clan

2009-03-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

2009-03-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

Shout Out

2009-03-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

We'd like to give a shout out to all the March birthdays - Karsen was 6 on the 17th, Shanna was 29 on the 15th, Nancy was 35 on the 6th, Marla was 39 on the 20th, and Nicholas is 31 today, the 22nd. I was going to go ahead and post pictures of all of them but it seems that the only pictures I have of everyone also include me. Go figure.

Happy Birthday, everyone!

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-03-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

In celebration of my birthday a week ago, please enjoy these stellar photos:

I'm right in the middle. I'm not sure what the occassion was - but you can see it must have been good because Jared opted to wet his pants rather than leave the celebration.

Tyler has enjoyed a lot of mileage out of this picture. He always wonders aloud "what were you thinking?" Well...everyone wants an awesome cowboy/girl picture, don't they? OK - I have no idea what we were thinking.

I'm sure most of you remember my old boyfriend Jared Ellis. He told someone once, after visiting Ruby Valley, that we dress like homeless people out here. I think we took this picture in response to that....so what if we do look homeless?
Speaking of homeless, this is taken at a homeless shelter. We were in charge of organizing boxes and boxes of donated clothes. They should have known better than to put me in charge of that. When we were finished, I had a whole pile of things I just had to try on. I just wonder what the ocassion would have been for wearing this hot little number.

You will notice that I am not actually in this photo - but I took the photo - and it was taken at my house. This was one of Andy's awesome birthday parties. Looks like a real barn burner, right?

I hope you enjoyed these. In the process, I found many, many more that I will be posting in the future. Stay tuned!!

SIGNS OF SPRING

2009-03-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

It was so warm yesterday (Utah warm not Texas warm) that we went to the park for a little recreation. Britain loved the swing. The higher he went the more he squealed.

FIRST FLOWERS TO BLOOM IN OUR YARD

Happy Birthday Danny

2009-03-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

Dan turned 6 on Feb. 26th. He's been impatiently awaiting his birthday since December--when Eric and Brittany had theirs. Happy Birthday Dan!

Go Figure

2009-01-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

The other day at the store Dan was trying to talk me into getting some Yogos because he saw on TV where you can win some money in the box.
I tried to tell him that he wouldn't win anything--the only reason they tell you you can win money is because they want you to buy lots of Yogos.
So we ended up buying a box and when we got home Dan opened it and found a $10 Discover debit card......so much for anything I said............go figure...............

Happy Late Birthdays, Late Merry Christmas

2009-01-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

Happy late birthday to Brittany and Eric in Dec. Also, a late Merry Christmas to everyone. Things have finally settled down and the kids are back in school. The kids did a lot of sledding over Christmas break with all of the snow we got. Dan knocked one of his teeth loose coming down the hill. He finally just pulled it out because it was bugging him so much.

Eric and Brittany start choir again next week. Josh starts a feeding class in the next week or two at Kids on the Move--will he ever learn to eat?!? We had to duct tape his pants to his shirt because he wouldn't quit taking his pants and diaper off.

Hope you are all having a Happy New Year!

P.S. Just for the record--I am no longer sure I can be a Jon Bon Jovi fan. He's putting on a fund-raising concert for Hillary Clinton so she can pay off her ($6 million) campaign debt. I say she spent money ( a lot, lot, lot of money) she never had, so its her problem to take care of. I also think we should do away with 2 year campaigns and give the millions of dollars they spend to people who really need it.

P.S.S. Also something I've been thinking about---Mom used to tell us that we could eat whatever we wanted when we grew up and had our own house. So I had grand plans of eating brown sugar by the spoonful out of the bag--also, orange juice concentrate by the spoonful out of the can. Now that I can actually do that if I wanted to, it doesn't sound that good............but my kids want to.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2008-12-30T09:31:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

2008-12-25T07:56:00.001-08:00

The Christmas Draw

2008-12-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

Here it is! The Christmas Draw!

Andy and Marla: Nancy and Tyler
Cindy and Scott: Andy and Marla
Jared: Jesse and Shanna
Nancy and Tyler: Erin and Nick
Jesse and Shanna: Jared
Erin and Nick: Cindy and Scott

LOVE AT FIRST BITE?

2008-12-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

Britain had his first taste of "food" yesterday. I think he has been ready to take the plunge for a couple of weeks. He's been eating like crazy. Now it is time to look forward to those wonderful smelling diapers

Christmas Shopping Tips

2008-11-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

This morning on the Today show, they were doling out Christmas shopping tips. Naturally, they mentioned my very favorite money saving site...and yes, I realize that I've sent you billions of emails about it. However, if you are planning on doing any of your Christmas shopping online, click here to sign up for Ebates.com.

They offer discounts at over 1,000 stores online (most of the time between 1-6% although a bunch of stores are DOUBLING their discounts for the holidays).

They track your spending and send you a check every three months. They are offering $10 for signing up before December 31. Of course, you have to use the site at least once to get the free money. Signing up is free...and a free $10...you can't beat that. And they, unlike other money saving sites, don't sell your email address.

Anyway, in case you couldn't tell, I'm kind of addicted to it. I've saved $100 since last April.

Speaking of Christmas, does anyone have an objection to drawing names again this year? Or do we want to do something different? Or nothing at all? Let me know what you think!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!

2008-11-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

THE BIG 40!

Halloween

2008-11-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween! The kids had fun last Friday. Eric was Dr. VonDoon(sp?) from Fantastic Four. Britt was a witch, Dan was a skeleton, and Josh was a deer hunter. They had a costume parade at school Fri. morning, but by Fri. night Dan had to switch costumes to go trick-or-treating in because his costume was too small and kept crotching him, so he ended up wearing his Harry Potter robe. We were out trick-or-treating for a good 2 hours because it was so warm. It started raining a little but was still pretty warm. The kids got quite a bit of candy, so I was able to confiscate most of the 3-Musketeers, Milky Ways, and Reece's for my own personal use.

So I guess now we're on to Thanksgiving......anyone got any plans yet? We're still working on ours.....

Idaho Halloween

2008-11-02T11:42:00.001-08:00

The three hard core Halloweeners.
Vote to determine what Shanna was:
A) A Greek Person
or
B) A Christmas Angel for the Christmas Pageant

Karsenbot

Ethan the Clone Trooper

Jesse, did dress up, but he covered himself up. Jesse wore a flesh-toned mesh shirt with tattoos all over it and handkerchief on his head. Sorry, no pic's of that.

2008-10-31T04:44:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUDY!

2008-10-31T02:22:00.000-07:00

SALE!

2008-10-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any of you live by Walgreen's but they have a great sale on Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Chicken soup - 5 for $4 (regularly $1.29/can at the regular grocery store). You have to have the coupon out of their circular, which they conveniently hand out right inside the front door! The limit is 5 but who says you can't go back again and again (especially if the checker named Ricky thinks you are the funniest thing on the entire planet and tells you that you can...)

At CVS, they have a good sale on Charmin toilet paper - $5.49 for Charmin Basic 12 roll pack.

Both sales end October 18th!

Deliciousness

2008-10-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few yummy recipes we tried this weekend!

French Bread (from my friend's Aunt Sandy. We made cinnamon rolls with the dough! So easy!)

We topped the cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting - 1 stick butter, 1 8oz package cream cheese, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 lb. powdered sugar, 1/2 c. pecans.

Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole (to low fat it up, we used low fat sour cream, low fat cream cheese, low fat cheddar cheese, and a couple of strips of turkey bacon...ok...so I mixed it with regular bacon, but at least it wasn't ALL regular bacon)

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY (OR THREE) MAKES

2008-10-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

As most of you have experienced, with the exception of Erin, we have had three seasons in one month. Just two weeks ago we were experiencing summer like temperatures, last week was the perfect fall weather, today SNOW! Check out the difference in our yard.

OUR YARD

2008-10-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Andy has spent a lot of time in the yard this past spring and summer. Here are a few photos showing the end result and some of the finishing touches. Remember, we started with dirt.

Our grass came in great!

There are flowers in the flower beds! Can't wait to see the bulbs in the

spring.

Trees are planted. Two peach and a maple.

The fence is up.

We even ended up with a wild tomato plant that produced some delicious cherry tomatoes.

It is exciting to have our yard done! We will be adding more plants in the future. Now on to the next project.....THE BASEMENT!

Erin is OUT of the Doghouse

2008-10-08T14:48:00.000-07:00

Mom has been doing a little fall cleaning. I guess she figures the smell can't get any worse because, after trying to trap the rat that was eating their pears, they had to resort to poisoning it. Well, hooray, the rat is dead. Now, he's decomposing somewhere. Nasty. Jared is lucky he's away at deer camp...although maybe it doesn't make any difference to him, I don't know. Anyway, after mustering all her courage, mom has tackled the task of cleaning under the stairs. This has been a pit that swallows everything you throw in it....mostly because you never want to venture far past the door. I know I haven't personally opened that door in probably 10 years. She has found, among other things, MY SLEEPING BAG!!! Nevermind that Erin took it to Africa like 8 years ago, never showered (even after a monkey peed on her head), and then slept in my bag. After she returned home, she apparently deposited it under the stairs (luckily safely in it's stuff sack), and never spoke of it again. You'll all be happy to know that, other than smelling pretty dingy, it is in good condition. After a washing, I do believe it will be usable again. The good news is that, since I never expected to find my sleeping bag, I have a new one, and this one can become Ian's.

Life 5, Neff's 2

2008-10-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't feel like reading, we thought we would begin with a photographic option which outlines our family update.

We don't have much to update, but thought we would do one anyway, because it has been awhile, and even though we don't have hurricanes in Idaho, we sure do have...issues.

Karsen has a full body bump - it's not really a rash, he just feels like a gecko. In his spare time he enjoys singing and talking nonstop. The recurrent theme revolves asking what he can have to snack on, and then eating one bite of it, repeat the process. He has a fondness for Twinkies (Jesse bought them).

Ethan is writing his first school report of the year on Maine. He fills his free time with taping small pictures of Star Wars Clones on his fingers and trying to get all the neighborhood kids to buy the toys he doesn't like anymore. In our house he refers to them as "crap" but on his advertisements he calls them "collector's items". Also, in his free time, he likes to tell his parents how they don't know what they are talking about.

Jesse just watched Iron Man. Jesse is feeling burdened by having lots of ideas and no money to complete them with. Also, Jesse tried to run around our neighborhood circle and nearly collapsed. His newest hobby, is mowing the lawn with glee and just firing up his trail buddy in the garage but not going anywhere. Even though he doesn't often go anywhere he wants you to know that he "gets about a 100 miles per gallon on this hog".

Shanna, in the last few weeks has: closed the hatch of the car's rear door on her own head, rolled over her own foot with the shopping cart, sliced her finger and finger nail with a razor blade, burned her arm on a pan, been stung in the finger by a yellow jacket while running her hand through her hair, and last, but not least, fallen down the stairs while carrying a plate of food. When she's not busy trying to kill herself, she enjoys sitting, sleeping, and contemplating her next big catastrophic accident.

Get Snuggie

2008-10-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

Last night, we saw an infomercial on tv. It's really a shame we didn't find this sweet product when we first moved into grandma's house. Maybe you'll want to consider giving them to your loved ones this Christmas. Check it out.... www.getsnuggie.com . I think you'll be impressed....especially if you find yourself yearning for a choir robe.

FIRST HAIR CUT

2008-09-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

Britain received his first hair cut on Sunday. We cut 1"-2" of hair off parts of his head. He looks so different now, more like a little boy and not so much like a baby.

BEFORE

AFTER

It is hard to tell in these pictures, but Britain does have a lot less hair.

Race to the Angel

2008-09-27T13:30:00.001-07:00

If you know dad's history in the race to the angel, you'll know the significance of this picture. Dad's first year in the race to the angel, he won the walking race. Seven years have passed, and Ricardo (on the left.....) has beat him every year. Well, we don't know what happened, but this year, dad walked slower than he ever has....and beat Ricardo by 4 minutes. Why was Ricardo dragging this year? Maybe someone slipped him something at the spaghetti feed the night before??? Maybe he's just getting old....or maybe his new tattoo slowed him down. That's the theory I'm going with.

HOUSE!!

2008-09-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Half our house came today. Check out our blog for pictures and more details!

Ninja Cat

2008-09-25T11:40:00.001-07:00

I saw this on Ellen the other day and thought it was funny. It's amazing all the things you get to see when you don't have to go to work!

Josh's surgery

2008-09-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

The kids are already trying to decide what to be for Halloween.....we've decided Josh will be Billy Ray Cyrus....

Josh had his eye surgery last Fri. at Primary Children's. We had to be there at 7:30 in the morning and he went into surgery around 10:45. The Dr. tightened the inside muscles on both eyes.

Josh was pretty groggy when I got to go in to see him because they'd given him some pretty powerful pain meds. when he started crying when he woke up. After he woke up and could hold apple juice and water down, they let us go home. I think we were home by 3 p.m. He slept for a few hours when we got home and then acted like nothing ever happened.....he was walking around acting normal. The whites on the inside of his eyes are pretty bruised and we have to put antibiotic drops in 4x a day for 2 weeks (pretty fun).

I'm so glad to have this surgery over--I've worried about it for weeks. His eyes don't cross anymore but they're still not aligned like they should be--time might help with that and then he'll probably have to have another surgery to tighten the other muscles.

Hurricane Ike Update

2008-09-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Hurricane Ike survivors...apparently not quite the badge of honor the Hurricane Katrina survivors claim.

We evacuated last Thursday to Arkansas following the mandatory evacuation order. We are now in Dallas waiting for our electricity and water services to resume (hopefully within the next couple of days, but they are giving themselves until September 30th).

We are waiting and watching millions of different websites to find when we will be able to go home. It appears that our house and my car received no damage and we are very thankful for that. YAY!

In the mean time, Conn's has put Nick back to work here in Dallas and I am busy walking all over the neighborhood closest to the hotel - such an important task. Hoping to hit Dealey Plaza while we are here to make formulate our own JFK conspiracy theory...

Anyone interested in pictures from Arkansas and Dallas, click here! There are also pictures of the damage in Beaumont on my blog.

Election

2008-09-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

You need to put an undecided option on the poll. You want to know how I usually choose who to vote for? I try to decide who is the least crazy. It is a little different when you're voting for president, but when you vote in Elko County, there's a good chance that at least one of the candidates is certifiable. Did you know Dave Neff is running for county commissioner?
Anyway, I continue to be undecided. I hear Obama is coming to Elko on Wednesday, but 1. I doubt I could sit through his speech with a 5 month old, and 2. He's just going to tell us all what we want to hear. People keep calling me trying to get me to vote for Obama, and encouraging me to visit his website to see what his plans are,,,,which I haven't done yet. I just want to make sure he's not going to try to shut down the small farmers and ranchers....you know....stuff we depend on.

YAY!

2008-09-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

I wanted to tell everyone how EXCITED I am that you all - sans Paul, Judy, and Jared - are blogging! It's nice to know what everyone is up to.

My current and only activity is keeping tabs on Hurricane Ike. The projected paths have ranged anywhere from Northern Mexico to New Orleans. Right now, it is again heading northeast, right for Port LaVaca, former stomping grounds of Elder Big Guy Neff.

We'll see where it is by tomorrow - there may be an evacuation here if it moves more than 100 miles closer to Beaumont. The good news is that they have already evacuated the prisoners down to the the state prison. They have not, however, extended the same courtesy to the old folks homes.

Hooper Neffs- Summer 2008

2008-09-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

YEAH! We finally got around to contributing to the family blog. You probably already know most of what will be said, soooo-just in case you missed it, here is a brief summary of our summer.

It all started off with Marla ending her teaching career after 10 years teaching dance at Kearns High School. After only one week off Britain was born (16 June). There was a brief recovery period from the C-section. Two weeks later we drove to Anacortes, Washington (San Juan Islands) for a Parker family reunion. With most of the family in attendance, we enjoyed a patriotic 4th of July full of family,fun, parade, and fireworks. The cooler temperatures were a nice reprieve from the 90+ degrees in Utah.

Andy spent most of the spring and all of the summer working in the yard. It is 85% complete as we have only the garden beds to design and fill. We purchased four trees this past weekend (Autumn Blaze Maple, 2 peach, Flowering Pear) to be planted soon. Andy did a wonderful job and it looks great!

Britain was blessed on August 3rd. Andy did a wonderful job with the blessing. We are grateful for all the support we recieved from family members. Our house had a hard time accomodating everyone.

Labor Day weekend was spent in Ruby Valley. We were excited to take Britain there for the first time. It was wonderful spending some time with family! The Elko County Fair and parade were a big hit. Andy and Marla took a short hike to the rock they got engaged on two years ago. It took some time remembering exactly which rock the blessed event took place.

Britain is continuing to grow and develop as he approaches three months. He weighs about 12 lbs. now. It is nice to hear noises come out of his mouth that don't have to do with a cry. He loves to bounce and swing. Recently he has discovered "bucking". He will kick his legs and rock forward and backward like he is on a bull or a bucking horse. Maybe he is taking after Uncle Jared. Britain's latest nick name is Bucking Bronco. He has strong legs and will stand up if you hold his hands. We feel Britain's greatest accomplishment is sleeping through the night. HIP, HIP, HORRAY!

I did it!

2008-09-05T09:06:00.000-07:00

I finally remembered my user name and password. It only took two days. I am currently donating plasma at bio-life plasma. Yeah I know its ridiculous but it paid for most of our new hog. I will post some pictures soon, or you can visit www.mytrailbuddy.com for a look. Its sweet more or less a kids motorcycle, but the hope was that we could all ride it. Turns out Shanna can't handle the beast and Ethan isn't old enough yet. I am also working on a trail 90 but its in rough shape, and could take a while. It runs, but not well, and most of the parts are rusted beyond repair or broken.

The kids are now in school. Its about damn time too. The last two weeks before school were pure hell. Ethan and Karsen couldn't stand each other, and I couldn't stand them. Peace is restored once again. Ethan is now in 4th grade and Karsen is in Kindergarten, and they both have a full day of school.

Shanna has also started her masters degree at Gonzaga. I don't know to much information about that yet, but Shanna can fill you in our next or ( real ) blog.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN!!!

2008-09-03T12:27:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Erin!!! The big 30!!!

Hopefully you have some big b-day bash plans. I remember when you were born--right after the fair. I think it was a Sunday but I'm not sure. We (the rest of us kids) had to stay at Gay and Duane's house on Maple Street while Mom and Dad were at the hospital. Then we got to ride home in the back of the truck on our new refinished couch (yellow, brown, and cream checkered) that we had picked up to take home (You'd get a ticket for letting kids do that now-a-days).

Happy Birthday Erin Magee (I'm not sure where we got that name).

It's the most wonderful time of the year...at least it's supposed to be....

2008-08-27T13:48:00.001-07:00

I just spent 20 minutes typing stuff in here and pushed some wrong key and lost it....so I don't know where it is but I'll see if I can remember everything again.

Eric and Brittany started school last week on the 18th, and Danny started kindergarten this last Mon., the 25th. However, to coincide with that, our family (except for Scott, who was in Colorado last week) had a puke-fest the entire first week of school...and into this one. I am so tired of cleaning up throw up (and other stuff we won't mention). I finally had to tell them that if they didn't make the throw up bowl or toilet they would have to clean it up themselves. Hopefully we'll be back to 100% soon.

Danny has done well in kindergarten so far....no crying or screaming. Eric's 5th grade teacher is Mrs. Hill--another first-year teacher, and Brittany's 3rd grade teacher is Mr. Blood, who has been around forever (he taught 3rd grade to the lady who visit teaches me).

Happy birthday Jared. I tried to call last night, but apparently Mom took the phone off the hook so they could have a birthday party in peace. Yes, 37 is funny...wait 'til you get to 38.

We were able to go to Brittain's baby blessing the first part of this month and see him for the first time--he's a cute little guy. We also got to see Andy and Marla's house for the first time, which is really nice. Andy gave him a great blessing.

One of our rabbits went missing for 2 days, much to my delight. I thought he was probably in someone else's back yard--dead. The kids went out in the back yard and wailed when I told them that. However, the very next morning he showed up in front of our house--darn it.

I've been canning lots of tomatoes and peaches and am just about sick of it now--I'm getting sick and tired of food prices and everything going up and up.

OK now I'm going to try to put a picture on here and see it it works.

Happy Birthday, Jared!

2008-08-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

Just a few VERY attractive pictures of the thiry-seven-year-old (37...that's FUNNY) birthday boy:

More Dave Barry

2008-08-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here is another article from Dave Barry - reporting from the Olympics.

Ian's Finest Hour

2008-08-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

i couldn't help myself. ian didn't have a nap this day, and had nearly fallen asleep during a story brittany read to us for family night. then, we went up to our house site to see the hole that was half done (see our blog for more pictures). tyler and i were ecstatic, and ian was at the end of his rope. that's about how life is right now.

Recipe Website

2008-08-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post a website with some good recipes . This is a recipe group from a ward somewhere in Pocatello - each month they have a different theme. I've found a few great (meaning EASY and DELICIOUS) things on here.

WE HAVE NEWS!!

2008-08-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

i haven't been posting much on this blog because i keep myself occupied keeping mine up. but - as you can see we have some exciting news! see our blog for details. http://nevadalivingstones.blogspot.com

July News

2008-08-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

I don't really know what I'm doing, but here goes......

After we got back from Ruby Valley from the reunion, we celebrated American Fork's "Steel Days". They had a kiddie parade (in 98 degree heat) with popsicles and prizes at the end. Eric, much to his amazement, won a new scooter there. The big parade was Sat. morning, and Eric was supposed to be in it and be one of the 100 scouts carrying flags at the beginning of the parade. However, our ward was the only one to show up, so he was one of 10 scouts.

We celebrated the 24th at the "Pavillion of Fire" put on at the pavillion behind our church by the elders quorum (Scott ended up being in charge). There was a huge thunderstorm/frog-strangler right before it started, but after 30 minutes everything dried out. We had watermelon and then fireworks when it got dark. Someone was passing out those little glowsticks to all the kids. I went to get Josh from Brittany and found him chewing on his. On closer inspection, I realized his mouth was glowing yellow, so I raced him in the church to the bathroom and tried to wash his mouth out. As I was finishing, Brittany showed up at the bathroom door with her eye glowing. The bishop assured me that they would be ok, because these things were made for kids. What??? They were both glowing like they were radioactive. But we didn't have to make any emergency room trips so everything turned out ok.

I've got Josh down to feeding him 3X/day and once at night. Its really nice not to have those other 2 feedings. I have to blend food into his milk to give him more calories. We're patching his left eye for 4 hours a day now and he's going to have eye surgery Sep. 12th.

We've had a few rowdy mornings when someone forgot to put the chair against the rabbit hutch door and the rabbits escaped during the night, so Eric, Britt and Dan have had to chase them down. Dan has actually gotten pretty good at grabbing them by the back leg and holding on for dear life until they quit kicking and thrashing around. We're thinking we must have 2 males because we don't have any bunnies yet.
Eric, Brittany, and Danny start school on Aug. 18th.

We were surprised yet pleased to get a late night visit last Fri. night from "The 5 Saden Sisters". They had just been to a dinner/show in Pleasant Grove and were on their way back up to Snowbird to party some more.
Maybe next month I'll figure out how to put pictures in here.

Make Your Own Glow Stick

2008-07-25T08:33:00.001-07:00

Here's something I just saw on the Internet that I thought would be worth a try either by yourself or with your kids: make your own glow stick!

20 ounce bottle of Mountain Dew (pour out/drink Mountain Dew until there is about 1/4" of drink left at the bottom of the bottle..I suppose you could also do it with smaller and bigger bottles as well)

Pinch baking soda (between 1/4-1/2 tsp)

3 cap fulls of Hydrogen Peroxide

Shake well.

I'm going to try it tonight and I'll let you all know how it goes. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it if it works. In the video it shows the guy writing his name by pouring it out onto the ground (I guess that means it's non-toxic). Perhaps I'll write my name on my neighbor's windshield.

Background Problems

2008-07-23T16:29:00.001-07:00

Sorry about all the changes to the background. The website I get them from is currently having technical difficulties. I'm trying to keep it kind of generic and not-so-girly. Turns out it's harder than I thought. There aren't very many manly blogger backgrounds out there. Perhaps we should start a website called "blogging for men". I think it would be a big seller.

Oh What Do We Do in the Summertime??

2008-07-22T17:17:00.001-07:00

Haying is in full swing now. Jared's pretty much a one man haying crew. The upper field is now finished (Tyler hauled some bales, and maybe Jared did too. I've been at home for a few days, and therefore out of touch). Some of the lower fields have been cut, but everything came to a screetching hault yesterday when it poured rain....i mean poured. I think half of grandma's shingles are now in a pile on the sidewalk.....pulverized into tiny pieces.

Anyway....we were talking about how all the fields here on the Home Ranch have names. We really need to name the fields at home. Who wants which field? Apparently, when they were naming fields here, jeanne was upset she didn't have one named for her, so she got a creek. Let's call the upper field Nancination. It has a nice ring to it.

Weekly Dose of Dave Barry

2008-07-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

Every week I get a Dave Barry article via email compliments of the Miami Herald. I thought this one was hilarious:

http://www.miamiherald.com/dave_barry/story/596289.html