THE NEVE 2008 GALACTIC REPORT

This year's newsletter is dedicated to Star Wars fans – our house is always full of them!

WillbeTwo Kenobi (Jonah) – Jonah is the joy of our galaxy. The “dark side” cringes because this Jedi brings light wherever he goes. He easily makes friends and wins admirers, drawing comments about how happy he is. With three older siblings, he's determined to be a big kid. In reality, he's a tiny squirt and has the doctor scratching his head as he still hasn't hit 20 lbs. He's always on the move and loves to be wherever the action is. His vocabulary is starting to expand to keep pace with his personality!

MASTER Yoda (Malia) – Spunky little fireball (must be a Rasmussen). Despite her short stature (4 yrs old going on 16), she's confident that she should be calling all the shots. The bravest of souls seeks shelter if she feels “crossed”, which is the most potent weapon against the “dark side” of the force. Malia enjoys her weekly Jedi Council meeting (aka...playgroup) where she's right at home with three boys in her group. Ironically, this tough Jedi Master never leaves home without a tiara on her head, play jewelry on her fingers or around her neck, and loves anything to do with princesses. Ahh shucks.

Darth Sillious (Zachary) - Zach loves to make any type of creature in the solar system laugh. His gentle nature and sense of humor really helps “lighten” certain situations. Watch out though because he can quickly change sides, especially when he hasn't had enough sleep. In order to sharpen his skills with “the force” he excels in First Grade, plays soccer and baseball, and participates in Karate. Even though he can't take a “Star Cruiser” or an “X-Wing” to school, he's quite happy riding the bus.

Can't Chewabacca (Seth) – Soon after the holidays, Seth will have to have seven baby teeth pulled from his mouth (orthodontist recommended) in order to make room for his permanent teeth. We hope over the holidays he enjoys “chewing” all he can. We hope that early action now will prevent future problems. When Chewie is not traveling the universe or protecting his friends, he can be found breaking a sweat at any of the following: baseball, basketball, soccer, karate, cub scouts or piano. While it can be hard picturing a Chewabacca playing the piano, he's picked it up well.

Princess “Grey”a (Taralee) – Dealing with epic battles between the divisions of the force at home, this Princess has earned more than a few (...psst DON'T say anything...she's still 29!) grey hairs - much to her dismay (we keep telling her she looks more distinguished, then we sleep outside for awhile). Training Jedi's is no easy feat, and leaves little time for much else. Princess Greya is involved as a den leader for cub scouts, throws neighborhood renowned birthday parties, makes homemade jam and salsa, cooks amazing cuisine, maintains a blog, and is really close to a breakthrough on cold fusion.

Jobba in the Hut (Phil) – Phil still works from home, sequestered behind the moon of Endor (his office in the basement). He's not getting much exercise during his stairway commute to work and might start tipping the scales at galactic weights. The benefits are out of this world, as he has lots of interaction with the most important people on the planet. When he does leave his cave, he enjoys coaching soccer, baseball and basketball. He can also be found meeting with the Jedi Council (aka, the High Council).

We hope all is well in your sector of the galaxy, may the force be with you in the coming year!

Love,
Phil, Taralee, Seth, Zachary, Malia and Jonah Neve

Another Halloween come and gone

The "ooh, ahh" effect is what I like to call it. I like Halloween because even though it is always a lot of work, I get rewarded with the "oohs and ahhs" over the costumes that I create. As long as I have at least one of my kids that gives me the "ooh, ahh effect", I'm happy. I just about wanted to throw in the towel this year because I ran into a lot of problems trying to figure out exactly how to make them and of course being down to the wire. I think I made things more difficult than they needed to be, but I seem to have a knack for that. I was happy with how they turned out. I made Seth's costume, which is Jango Fett, a bounty hunter from Star Wars. He was quite happy with the costume. We already had a Darth Vader costume and that's what Zach chose to be. Malia chose to be Ariel and she was happy with a mermaid costume that my Sis Jaynan made that I borrowed. Since Malia was supposed to be Ariel, I made a Sebastian the Crab costume for Jonah. Jonah actually really enjoyed his costume. I was surprised because I thought he would find his claws rather annoying. Malia was Ariel for a few Halloween events that we went to, but on Halloween night she decided she was going as a fairy instead because she had been dressed up in it all day. As long as she has a crown on, she's happy. I couldn't ever get her to cooperate very well for a picture (or anything for that matter)in the mermaid costume, so unfortunately I don't have a good photo. She wouldn't take off the shirt she had on underneath. Everytime someone commented on the cute little lobster while trick or treating she corrected them and explained that he was Sebastian because she was supposed to be Ariel, but she changed her mind an hour before. Probably more info than they wanted.

The weather was beautiful for Halloween and we had a great time. Jonah was so cute! He loves pumpkins and would go up to people's porches and give their pumpkins a hug. Then many times after getting his candy he would spin around until he got dizzy and fell down. We ended up with a ton of candy. The school did a candy buy back for extra PE time, so they boys took some of theirs to school (all the stuff with nuts that they couldn't eat anyway). Zach's class alone brought in 40 lbs of candy...good grief!.

My kids are already talking about what to be next year. (Actually I got them started on that.) Hopefully I'll get started on costumes earlier next year. Hey, there's always wishful thinking. For now, as fun as it was, I'm glad this Halloween is over. Too bad the candy won't be gone for a long time still!

Who doesn't love fall?

I seem to enjoy fall more and more each year. Maybe living in New England has contributed to that. Beautiful colors, pumpkins, and soccer are just a few of the things that come to mind when I think of fall, so I wanted to share what I tried to capture of fall this year.

Cape Cod

Since Seth had a broken arm most of the summer, we weren't able to go to the beach until Labor Day. We love the beach and are so glad that we live relatively close. We rented a cottage near the beach (one that we rented a few years ago and really enjoyed) and had a great finish to the summer. Then school started the next day, which was also pretty great... if you ask me!

March 2008

I hope you enjoy these photos of our family from the past month.

Birthday Boys

Jonah turned one on March 1st and Zach turned 6 on March 3rd. Here are some recent photos of our Birthday Boys!

Polar Express

This is long overdue, since we've all recovered from Christmas by now, although just barely. Nonetheless, I still wanted to share a bit about our Polar Express event. It was so much fun! There is a literacy foundation that has been doing the Polar Express rides for the past 13 years now in New Hampshire as a fundraiser for their organization. It is very popular and difficult to get tickets, unless you buy a hotel package through one of the sponsers, which we did to assure we would get tickets. We all dressed in pajamas, yes...Phil and I included. When we boarded the train there were chefs dressed in white coats and hats that served hot chocolate (which ended up spilled on our camcorder bag) and candy. They had lollipops for the kids that were allergic to nuts and couldn't have the nougat chocolates, which we were grateful for. The train ride took about a half hour and was pretty slow since it is done by a scenic railway company. They had a wolf statue along a river that looked real enough in the dark when inside a train. When the train arrived there were about 50 elves (all volunteers) to greet us. Way up on top of the mountain in front of us was a lone house all lit up that they explained was Santa's house. It was very cool. The elves then escorted us a short ways up a hill to what was a theater. On the outside it looked like it was made out of snow. They had a few painted buildings around it, but of course they couldn't create a whole city. It was a very very cold night, so we were glad to go inside the theater. A man came out and read the story to us and then they elves got everyone singing to get Santa to come down. He walked around and interacted with a lot of the kids and picked some of them up and even kissed them. He then picked someone out of the audience to come up for the first gift of Christmas. (it was obvious to the adults that he was planted there because his bath robe was the same bright purple as the story tellers robe.) He of course asked for the bell, but then asked for all the children to receive a bell from his sleigh. We then got back on the train, where each of the children got a bell. It was well done and such fun. I came away believing in Santa Claus! We didn't get many good pictures on our camera because we focused more on the camcorder footage when we had hands available to tape. Since it was dark, very cold, and we had two kids to carry, we didn't get as many good photos as I would have liked. I've included what we got. I also included some photos from the amusement park "Santa's Village" that we went to the next day. Imagine going to an amusement park all dressed in snow gear. We had to go inside every once in awhile to warm up fingers and toes, but there were plenty of things to do inside too. The kids loved swimming at the hotel too. We did this just before Christmas and it really made it all very magical. That is what childhood is all about and I got to experience it again for myself!

Day at Fenway

In August, Phil's sister Amy, invited us to her company outing...a Picnic at Fenway. Her company had rented Fenway Park for a very memorable day. The kids were able to run the bases, we were able to go in the Red Sox Club House (locker room), and sit in the dug out. They had the World Series Trophy there for people to see. The kids all got free Red Sox Jerseys. (Yes, the ones in our family photo). It was a very hot day...at least 95 and quite humid, but it was worth it. Too bad the kids were a little young to appreciate the significance, but someday they will. It was a once in a lifetime experience!