Alistair's First Christmas

Finally the Christmas Posting !
After a morning of opening presents at our home (5am) , we made our way to Grandma and Poppa McNeill's for more presents and breakfast.

Had to take a Family Photo in front of Aunt Judy and Uncle Dave's waterfall in their backyard.
Gave up trying to get Alistair to look at the camera for us. Maybe next year.










Alistair was chillin and watching people eat in a borrowed chair.





Sporting one of the many "first Christmas" outfits courtesy of the Doxey's .













Grandma McNeill holding her grandson and in yet another "first Christmas" outfit! Gotta get them all in before its over .










soooo tired....sooo hard being a baby at the Holidays. Had to put out the

Sign for Santa to stop by.
The Checklist read :
My room is nice and clean
I say my prayers every night
I promise to be sound asleep
I go to bed on time

Daddy opening his presents while baby sleeps on his chest.










Love the little poop shoot



















Catching some more zzzzz's with Popa

I think we can chalk it all up and say to was a great "first" Christmas. Though Alistair slept through most of it, I hope he remembers how much we enjoyed dressing him up and taking so many pictures of him.

Sorry it took so long putting up this blog, lots and lots of work cleaning up after this holiday .
Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and remembered the TRUE Meaning behind this amazing day.

Christmas Lights Fantabulous!

So Monday Night we decided to go drive around with the family and see Christmas lights.
We pulled up the list of the most spectacular on AZCentral.com and got everyone snuggled in the jeep with some Hot Cocoa from Starbucks and drove around. One of our stops was this amazing exhibit of Lights!
The owner of this home has been working on his yard since February and we can see why. Among all the homes this one tops them all .
Hope you enjoyed this video as much as we did watching it.

Mariner's First Visit !

Last week Alistair got to meet his Mariner (Grandma Watkins) for the first time. Flying in on a 6 hour flight from Florida was all worth it when she finally got to meet her first grandchild. We laughed and cried the whole time she was here and as you can see from the pictures they are in love.

After church on Sunday we picked out our Christmas Tree and went straight home and decorated it.
We hung up our ornaments that Jeff and I made each other through the years and even had Alistair's first christmas Ornament hung.
When we all weren't paying attention Mariner hid the Pickle ornament in the tree so when Christmas Morning finally comes the person that finds it gets to open the first present !









Alistair got to meet his Great Great Uncle Peter and Great Great Aunt Bettina. I'm pretty sure they liked him.






Mariner's promises to visit us every six months and even bought us a webcam for weekly updates with her new baby grandson.
We miss you already !

Turkey Day !

So much to be thankful for ...............................






Family








Friends






Food



This year we enjoyed Alistair's First Thanksgiving with Family and Friends at our home. Everyone helped with preparing the food and giving me a little baby break by passing around our little butterball .

As you can see he's barely smaller then the 12 lb turkey we consumed that day, and was putting up quite a fuss when this photo was taken.

Jeff prepared the Turkey in a Honey, Brown Sugar Brine overnight and then Grilled it for 4 hours then next morning....one word "delicious" !

We had THREE types of potatoes (sweet potatoe casserole w/marshmellows, Flemings Steakhouse Scallopped Potatoes and by request Traditional Mashed Potatoes).
After some Football and some Wii came dessert... Jay and Amie are some amazing cooks , they made THREE pies (Pumpkin, Shoo Fly and Apple Pie).

Soooooo we all had a Food Coma as you can imgaine. Regardless I am truly thankful for what I've been given this year and can't complain about a thing

A weekend of fun

Another picture and video update

Its a punk thing, you wouldn't understand!

Nap time.

Crazy new colors and sounds

We put Alistair in his play gym for the first time. He got kind of excited and smacked the rings a little bit, then I think he got a little overwhelmed. I think he likes it though =)

Do you know the Muffin Man?

So our second weekend went pretty good as parents. I think it hit a bit of a "baking Bone" in Jeff cause he decided to bake some honey wheat bread for sandwiches.

I must say it was really good and I was quite impressed. We are still evaluating if making the bread verses buying the bread is more money conserving, so we'll let you know.

With a little help from William Sonoma in the kitchen, there's nothing the "muffin man" can't bake !

Alistair's wardrobe (entitled "I Love my World") are compliments of Aunt Marguex and Uncle Money.....thank you !!!!!!

Baby's Firsts

Due to family tradition and celebration of the new person living in our home now, I thought it best to start things out right with a pot of SAUCE !
This sauce takes half the day to make and smells up the whole house. I couldn't help but remember my days as a child coming home from school or waking up from a Sunday afternoon nap and smelling this amazing sauce.
I sure hope Alistair continues the tradition some day with his new home or welcoming his first child.


Jeff took this napping opportunity to give Alistair his first "Man"icure , our little man has some long fingers and equally long nails, must be all that calcium I drank and ate (ice cream and chocolate milk)

Falling in Love All over again!

November 12, 2005 Marks the day I met my amazing Husband. Its been 4 crazy years since that night I decided to go on that "blind date" my aunt Bettina and Jeff's Mom set us up on.
I must admit it I was not totally ready or even willing to date anyone and just thought I would go out of the convinence that it was the same place my friend was having a Birthday party " Big Bang" in Tempe. http://www.thebigbangbarstore.com/
I couldn't believe what I saw walking up the sidewalk in jeans and a white t-shirt. We had spoke on the phone and he was told that I was new to the area (Scottsdale) and I needed to be shown around, soooo not true. He told me he was a pilot and I half believed him. He told me he was Indian and Scottish/Irish ....I was like ewwwww weird combination. So much to my surprise he was a gorgeous tall drink of water with a ton in common with me. Who knew ???!!
Since this day we became so deeply in love and instantly wanting to spend our lives together. January of 2006 we started a contract to build our house , November 2006 we got engaged, March 2007 we were married, then this month we welcomed our first child.
There have been a ton of hardships through the past four years, in fact we are still facing them currently. All in all we have managed to stay the best of friends and the love keeps growing and growing with each new journey.

" When you know , you know"!

I'm truly blessed with such a man as he and I wanted the world to know its so worth it once you've found it.

I love you Powder !

9-months and I'm free!

Well after the hospital stay things are starting to quiet down a little in the McNeill house. Mom and Dad are still not getting as much sleep as they would like but its fun to keep them up. We have had some really great friends and family members who have been taking care of the little thing to let Mom and Dad spend some more time with me.

Here I am trying to figure out what to do next... sleep or poop!

Whatcha lookin at?

Here I am practicing my Vogue pose

LALA... Can't hear you mommy

Then there is my new best friend. She is always sniffing my head with that cold nose. Its worse than the Dr's stethoscope!

Homeward Bound ,Safe and Sound !

Packed up the little family around 5pm last night and got the last ride in our matching PJ's. All the nurses nominated us " the cutest mommy and baby " to go home last night. I admit I was a little nervous about going home and leaving all the wonderful help and drugs behind and doing this new "mommy thing" all on my own, but as soon as I got the in the car with my amazing husband and new son I was overwhelmed with happiness.

I'm pretty sure that Jeff and I were cut out to be parents, I'm loving every second of this experience so far.

Hospital inspected the " carseat safety" of how we were putting him in, I was learning a whole new trick to this unfamilar thing.









The seat was a little big, but he'll grow into it , I'm sure of it!






My handsome little man was all snug in the rug like a bug ready to get to his new home.

Finally our baby was home in his bassinet , ready for the action of making mommy and daddy never sleep again.

He truly is our amazing gift and we love him so much!

Alistair Travis Mcneill

At 1:02am Tara gave birth to Alistair Travis McNeill after 11 hrs of labor. He weighed in at 7lbs and was 20.5 inches long.








His first check up was great and scored 9 out of 9 on his test!!!











His heart rate was great!












His first beanie, to get replaced later with a denver broncos beanie for all those cold winter games.










First family portrait!!!













Chubby cheeks!











Excited grandparents!

Almost here!

Well little Alistair is almost here. We went to the hospital at 3pm this afternoon and he should be here any time now.

Grandma is sitting bedside eagerly waiting delivery.

Will he be Wearing this Friday?

I couldn't resist this adorable costume I found at Pottery Barn Kids this Saturday on my first day off bedrest. The question is will he be here to Wear it? He's been so very calm these few days , only one short visit to triage on Saturday night after walking the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall. I was experiencing very intense contractions about 4min apart with back pain, so we really thought this was it. We were wrong when he decided to make us look like fools and stop contracting for me.
He's weighing in currently at 6lb 10oz on Monday morning and I think if I go full term he'll be at a possible 10lbs....I sure hope not anyway.
Dr. says she'll induce us by a week early due to the pupps I've been blessed with (rash) I'm trying to build up some strength and energy for the labor ahead, being on bedrest has really caused me to be really weak and tired.
Somehow I have this feeling he'll be here soon , so I'm getting a bit restless and doing alot of walking and drinking raspberry tea.
I've really had an easy pregnancy up until 33 weeks , so I'm grateful for that. Thanks to all the calls and people checking in on me , its really been encouraging to know I have team of fanastic Alistair fans !!

Pumpkin Carving Time

Jeff choose a Celtic design, after all Halloween is an Irish Holiday





Halfway there , pumpkin's material is plastic and hard foam, it will share many years with us



Great job Honey ! Happy Halloween Everyone

Operation Incubator

soooo....I now have the most important job in the world! I am now an incubator for our son till his birth. Doctors orders from the hospital are to lie flat on my sides and only to get up to use the restroom and shower. Of course there is the one a only outting to the Doctors office to be checked every week. None the less Alistair will be coming in the next week or so and this will all be worth it. As of now I am 60% efaced and 2cm dialated. He's weighs approx 5 lbs and is quite long for his age. We spoke with the NICU Dr. Stevenson and he calmed some fears regarding Alistairs possible stay. Being an icubator on my birthday will be trying and difficult, but my wonderful husband says he'll be making the day special regardless.
Speaking of my husband ..... What a man! He really has proved his love for our little family by showing ultimate patience and care for us while we are going through this little period waiting and being completely incapable of doing my normal daily activities. From being my nurse's assistant in the hospital for three days to my Rock at home! I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he will be as good a father to our son, when he finally arrives.
Been catching up on reading,crocheting and watching some "Baby Stories" on TLC. Being an incubator has been HARD for a very impatient and a little OCD woman as myself ,but its also been a learning experience .
So ready to be the mommy to our early little pumpkin , how great it is to share the same birth month as your child :)
Stay in tune for the ARRIVAL!