April adventures!

Life in the Neil household has been interesting the last month! Doug deployed to Guam for four months at the beginning of April. It was a 4am goodbye and he was gone... strange. Life as a single mom continues and we're very lucky that these deployments are what they are. He's in a safe place, only 4 months, and we get to talk to him everyday on Skype (for the most part). It's been a lot of fun hearing about his adventures thus far, though he's anxious for more to come... especially when we get to venture out to go visit him!!! That's right, one of the biggest perks (to me) of this deployment is that we are allowed to visit. So Emmalynn and I will be joining our dear friend Crystal Middents and her two kids to go out to visit Doug and Mike (Crystal's husband and a friend from my homeward I grew up with!). It will be quite the trek as we'll be taking military flights out of Travis AFB (near Sacramento), but looking forward to the adventure along the way, especially since we'll be able to visit the Smedleys and then most likely spend a couple of days on my old stomping grounds of Hawaii! It's amazing how everything is falling into place and we just hope all goes well. Though I'm not the best at keeping up on the blog (you all were supposed to be encouraging me since it was my goal!) =), I'll give updates as to how it all went down. We will be living there in Guam for about a month (as long as everything goes well)!!

Since Doug's been gone, Emmalynn and I have been trucking along, but having some fun adventures as well... We drove with our friend Jessica over to Dallas to join our youth for doing baptisms in the temple. It was a fun adventure and everytime I'm with our youth, I'm reminded how lucky I am to be so involved with them! I sure love our young women especially! Along our way back home to Shreveport/Bossier City, we always cross the Texas/Louisiana state line, so we finally got some pictures at the fun sign:

Speaking of our youth, we had a fundraiser for money to go to Scout and Young Women's camps in our ward. It was the most successful fundraiser I've been a part of, raising $3,500! It's a free spaghetti dinner for anyone who wants to come and right after is an auction consisting of donated items and services. I was excited to have bid and won a car wash and then especially a fun 2 1/2 hour country ride with the Judkins family on their gorgeous bikes... if Doug and I end up owning some of these, don't be surprised!

One of the biggest blessings in my life right now are such good friends out here. So many people have jumped in to help me and always offer assistance. Meredith Miller, one of my dear friends, has been a champ at helping me get better at working out and so we joined a 5K this weekend! It was a lot of fun, especially since Emmalynn was the 1st place baby (can't say so much for me!)!

Then of course was fun Easter yesterday. We enjoyed a nice dinner at the Miller's and whatever time we could soak up talking with family on the phone or Skype. This last week we took some Easter pictures of Emmalynn, especially since she turned 6 months on the 16th! I can't believe how fast the time has flown. She sits up on her own so well now, is starting to eat solid foods, and that personality... well, let's just say she's a riot and we will definitely have our hands full. We're sad that Doug will miss a lot of her growth since it's happening so fast, but feel lucky he'll get to be with her for a month in the middle of the deployment!

Of course in between December and now, we've had some good times that I've been wanting to blog about, but know that we've been well and happy. Hope all is well with all of you!