Being Thankful

At this Thanksgiving time it is nice to remember all the things I have to be thankful for, and Family is at the top of my list. Although I have definitely missed being with my side of the family this Thanksgiving, it has been fun to have a big Miller Thanksgiving with every family member present, which is quite an accomplishment considering that my in laws now have 26 grandchildren living in 4 different states. It was a lot of fun. And since everyone was together, we had a big family picture taken today. I took a few fun shots with my own camera that I will post.

Here are a few pictures of all 25 of the grandchildren with Grandma and Grandpa. Aren't they a good looking bunch? Just for reference, the two tallest boys are both 6'6". They are quite a tall group!

Elise and Maggie hanging out with Grandma.Steven and his beautiful cousin, Courtnee. Steven doesn't like many people (his list is about 5 people long). However, Coco was determined he would like her before she left to go back to BYU, and I think she succeeded. Chelle, Mandy, Sarah and Elise playing on the chairs between photos.My college age nieces: Ashlee, Kelsey, Courtnee, and Kim.

Ashlee and Mandy: There is quite an age range in the Miller grandkids, from 1 to 26. I love how all the big kids really play with the little kids and help take care of them when we are all together. It provides kind of a nice break for the moms.Martina and Sharilin, the smart aunts who thought to bring M&M's to bribe the kids to smile. I guess since they have "semi-adult" kids as they call them, they know how to work the family pictures with kids. They've done it lots of times.

King of the Mountain

Steven has decided that he is a climber. He climbs EVERYTHING. Sometimes he falls and gets hurt, but it doesn't ever stop him. So, several times in the last couple of weeks I have walked into a room to see Steven perched on top of his Racing Ramps Car set, like pictured above, only without his dad behind him in case he falls. And earlier today, I walked into the room to see him almost to the top of the green chair behind him in the picture. His grandpa was watching him and standing with his arm out close behind him in case he fell. However, he reported that he watched Steven climb on top of his car set, then from there climbed up onto the chair, and then proceeded to climb up the back of the chair until he reached to almost the top. This kid is driving me a little nuts. One of these days, he is going to seriously hurt himself.

One of those ideas...

Yesterday I had one of those ideas that in retrospect was probably not very well thought out. I decided that I was going to make Santa hats for my kids, and then take pictures of them wearing them for our Christmas cards. The first problem with this plan was that after I had just finished both hats, Elise "broke in" to the sewing room to "fix" her hat. She decided it was too big, and so she took the scissors to it to make it fit right. Luckily, she only cut the back and I was able to repair it with some iron on patches I had laying around. Phew, first disaster averted. The second problem was that I had this picture in my head of a photo of my two kids sitting posed nicely, wearing their Santa hats, looking at me and smiling. Did I forget that I have a three year old and a one year old, or what? Steven refused to keep his hat on, so the only pictures I got of him actually wearing the hat were the ones where I was holding his hands in his lap just below the range of the camera so he couldn't yank it off, while using the other hand to attempt to shoot a picture. A little bit tricky to say the least. Then he didn't want to sit in any one spot and kept crawling away. And every time I would finally get him to look at the camera and smile, Elise would inevitably be distracted by a dog, a squirrel, a bird, or whatever. So, she would of course be looking in the other direction. I would try to get her to look at me and smile, but she would give me a lame attempt at smiling without actually taking her eyes off of whatever she was distracted by. Lets just say there was a fair amount of loud talking on my part. Not yelling... I don't yell :-). And in hindsight it seems like a silly thing to get worked up about, but the whole experience was quite frustrating. Lesson learned: Have no expectations for how things will go when dealing with a toddler and a baby, and just enjoy the moment and be happy with whatever happens. Now here is the question: Do I attempt this whole ordeal over again, or do I just settle for a shot that was different from what I had wanted to avoid the frustration a second time around. Some of them turned out cute I think, just not what I had pictured in my head. They did have a few individual pictures that turned out cute, so maybe I will just use those. Somehow taking a picture of one kid is at least 100 times easier than trying to get two kids to pose, look, and smile in sync.

That's a Good Mommy

What happens when you have a slightly dramatic three year old who bumps their nose? She thinks she needs a Dora bandaid right on her nose, just to make sure to play up the drama. So when I got her one, she was deligthed. She kept looking in the mirror and smiling at herself, and she told me, "That's a good mommy. You made my nose feel all better now." What a goofball!

The Red Coat: Done, at last!

I have been making Elise a red velvet coat. It actually only took me a couple of days to finish making the whole coat, EXCEPT for the button holes. And then it just sat there for probably 3 weeks because I was afraid of messing up the button holes and ruining the whole coat, so I didn't want to try them. I finally decided to do them last night, and we'll just say I'm not real happy with the button holes still, but they are done, and the rest of the coat turned out cute I think. She'll just have to wear this coat buttoned all the time so nobody actually sees the button holes. I tried it on her this morning and she loves it. She calls it her Santa coat, and she told me we need to make her a Santa hat and beard to go with it. Hmmm... anyone have any ideas on how to make a Santa beard??? She did not want her picture taken, so all the pictures I took of her she is either making an angry face or running away from me, but I'll post them anyway just to show the coat.

Roasta Rica, Here I come!

My in laws left to go on vacation to Costa Rica yesterday, and Elise was determined she was going to go with them. I told Elise she couldn't go because we didn't save her a seat on the airplane. So, Grandma made the mistake of telling her she would ask the airplane man if there was an extra seat, and if there was she would come back and get her. Of course, Elise was convinced that there would be room for her, so as Grandma and Grandpa were loading up their bags, she came down the stairs in her jammies with her own little suitcase packed with toys and her tennis shoes in her hands, saying, "Bye Mom, I'm going to Roasta Rica with Grandma." I love the logic there. In her mind it is okay to go clear to Costa Rica on an airplane for a whole week with nothing to wear but jammies and the one diaper you have on, but it is just NOT okay to go barefoot or without your favorite toys. She was crushed when I told her she couldn't go. She was crying hysterically that Grandma said she could go ask the airplane man if there was room for her to go to "Roasta Rica." I told her I would miss her too much if she went, but she told me I would be fine because I could just take care of Steven, and Dad would take care of me. She was seriously ready to walk out the door with them. What a funny little girl.

Little White Lies

Today Elise kind of disappeared for a few minutes and I noticed that it suddenly got very quiet, so I went looking for her. I walked by the dining room and I could hear little crinkling noises mysteriously coming out of the room, so I said, "Elise, where are you?" I heard a tiny little voice come out from under the dining room table saying, "I'm nowhere and I'm not doing anything." I looked under the table and there she was chowing down on a stash of twix bars that she hadn't asked for. (Of course, the crinkling I had heard was her opening the wrappers.) This is the first time she has ever told me a lie... uh oh, I guess this opens a whole new chapter in life. A chapter where I can not really be sure if what she is saying is true or not. I think we'll have to have a Family Home Evening Lesson on telling the truth sometime soon.

On a totally unrelated note, I taught a Young Women's lesson a few weeks ago where the handout suggested in the book was a saying printed on a picture of glasses (Something about keeping your "eye" on the mark, but I can't remember completely.) Anyway, I thought if I could find some real glasses to attach the saying to, it would be more fun. So I went to Target in search of glasses, and I found these great coke bottle nerd glasses for $0.50 a piece, so I bought a bunch. I had two pairs left over, which Elise has loved playing with. Aren't my little nerd kids cute? For Steven, I actually had to hold the glasses on him while I snapped a picture because he rips them off so darn fast when I put them on him, but Elise walks all around the house wearing them all the time. She thinks they are great!

Russia Bound!

Congratulations to my mother in law and father in law who just received their mission call to serve for 18 months in Moscow, Russia under the East European Area Authorities as the medical directors. They leave March 2nd. This is esecially cool because the just returned from a three week tour of Russia a few months ago, and they spent a few days in Moscow at that time. Also, they served their first mission in Ukraine, so they already know a thing or two about the Russian language. We are very excited for them!!!

Mmmmm....Cake!

Steven had a great first birthday. We found out that he LOVES cake. Okay, so actually he only loves the frosting, but he really loved that. He likes ripping wrapping paper, so opening his presents was fun, and he likes the toys inside of the presents. He doesn't like birthday hats so much, but he got over that and is definitely a fan of birthdays. Here are some fun pictures from the celebration:



What do you mean blow out the candles? No way, I'm having too much fun eating my party hat!


What is this yellow thing on my plate?

I don't know what this is, but it sure tastes good!

Mmmmm... they'll never get me to eat vegetables again. Just cake, cake, cake!

Uh oh, it's running out. Maybe I can suck this little bit off of the edge of my tray here!

What is the deal with this empty plate? I demand more cake!

Steven loved opening presents. Tearing paper is right up his alley. Of course we had to get him something Winnie the Pooh for his Winnie the Pooh party, so this is a fun Winnie the Pooh phone we got him that he is opening.

We also got him a fun little racing cars set, but he likes putting his balls down the ramp more than the cars.

Thanks Nana and Papa for this fun basketball hoop. It sure made Dad happy to see me making baskets!
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for this little helicopter and ball pull toy. I love putting the balls in and out of it.
Happy Birthday Steven, our big one year old boy!

Happy Birthday, Steven!

It is hard to believe that it was a whole year ago that Steven was born. To think back that in just a year he has gone from being a newborn that we instantly fell in love with...

To a screaming all the time three month old who made us a little crazy....

To a still screaming a lot, but happy at least sometimes six month old who we were glad was starting to feel better...

To a nine month old who was into everything, and driving us a little crazy again...

To a happy, but stubborn and determined one year old,who we sometimes wonder about, "Where did he come from?". (Because of course, neither of his parents are stubborn at all.) Wow, what a year!

(I chose a picture of him with a sippy cup to show how stubborn he is, because just before he turned 11 months he one day, out of the blue, decided he was through with bottles and he just wanted sippies. He hasn't taken a bottle since. Now THAT is stubborness!)

Birthday excitement, or Election Day jitters???

Steven was up until 1:00 am last night!!! I just could not get him to settle down and go to sleep. I have not decided if he was so excited for his birthday (today) that he had to stay up to see it, or if he had election day jitters, but whatever the reason he was just so wound up. So, he helped me make his cake and wrap his presents. By "help" I mean he ate the crumbs off the kitchen floor from the cookie I dropped, and he majorly ripped the wrapping paper I was using to try to wrap his presents with. Lets just say that he's got the idea of trying to open a present down (even before they are completely wrapped. We were running short on wrap, so I had to "repair" some of the torn paper by taping it back together. And, his smallest present is wrapped very creatively because we had to make do with a VERY small amount of paper left after he opened it prematurely. Oh well. Here are some pictures of his Winnie the Pooh birthday cake and presents, and a couple of him staying up so late. By the way, I decided to do Winnie the Pooh to simplify because I have our Young Women in Excellence program tomorrow and it is a bumblebee theme. I made double so I am using a twin cake (minus the Winnie the Pooh candle, of course) and the same cookies for that. And he does like Winnie the Pooh anyway, so it worked out perfectly. I love it when that happens!.