Summer Catch Up: A Day at the Redwoods sans Kiddos

While on a trip up to Redding, my parents offered to watch the kids for a couple of days if Chris and I wanted to get away without them for a bit. That is definitely not an offer anyone needs to make twice. We took them up on it and went to the Redwoods on the coast for a day and a half. It was a lot of fun and a much needed break. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Summer Catch Up: Cameron's Blessing Day

On the day Steven was blessed I didn't take hardly any pictures. We had to be at church at 9am so there wasn't much time before, and then he puked all over himself at church so that was that. I only have two or three not so great pictures of him in his blessing outfit. I was a little bit wiser this time around and took some pictures of Cameron the Saturday night before he was blessed. That ended up being a very good thing because the morning was crazy trying to get everyone ready to go, and my Grandpa choked and ended up in the hospital before church was even over so things were a little chaotic after church. I didn't even take one picture of him that day so I am very glad I at least have the ones from the night before. Here are a few pictures of him in his blessing outfit.

Summer Catch Up: A Big Huge Cousin Post

One of the kids' favorite parts about this past summer was being able to spend some time with their many cousins from both sides of the family.

At the beach to see the tide pools with a few of their Miller cousins:

Cameron, meeting his older and wiser cousins, James and Matthew:

Swimming fun with a few of their Strong cousins:Elise and Ashley, cousins and buddies:

Steven, playing with his partner in crime, Hannah. I'm pretty sure he taught her everything he knows about being naughty. Sorry, Kathryn!

Summer Catch Up: Boating

Is it really October already? I haven't posted hardly any of our pictures from summer yet. How did that happen? I think maybe I will do a few "summer catch up" posts this week.

While we were on one of our little Redding excursions we decided to take the kids out on the boat. Steven had never been, and it had been a while for Elise. Chris and I both skied and wake boarded, and man did I hurt the next few days after that. I'm pretty sure I hadn't done either since before Elise was born, so it was fun to give it a go again. Elise and Steven both went tubing with Chris. Elise was all about slow and steady, but Steven was a little speed demon. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, but it did make me a little nervous. He kept putting his thumb up for "Faster Papa, faster!" They both had a great time, and Cameron had fun hanging out at home with Nana. Thanks Mom!

Dancing Diva

Elise is loving her ballet class. It is a ballet/tumbling class until December and then it will become a ballet/tap class for the second half of the year. She is having fun trying to learn to do a cartwheel right now. Her favorite part of ballet is when the teacher gives them each a scarf and lets them dance freestyle to the music while she sets up the mats to switch to tumbling. And she is having a lot of fun practicing at home with a ribbon. Don't tell Chris, but she has even gotten Steven to ribbon dance with her. Of course he does it Steven style, with no shirt and a toy gun holster which you may recognize as part of his Woody costume he refused to wear last year.

So Sleepy!

I have a bunch of pictures I have been wanting to post, and as I was looking through them I realized that there was a theme. A lot of them are sleep related. It was a very rough week last week that didn't involve much sleep, so I think maybe I am daydreaming of sleep a little bit too much with all of these sleepy pictures.

Like father, like son..... Chris and Steven taking a nap on the floor in front of the TV.

I just love it when these two take a nap at the same time. Who couldn't use a little free time (maybe for a quick nap myself)?Cameron has decided he doesn't like napping, so he just gets cranky and cries until he finally falls asleep. The other day I was doing dishes and Chris brought him down crying and said he couldn't get him to sleep and he needed to do a few things so he set him in the high chair. It got quiet and I thought Chris took him back upstairs with him, but I looked over and he had just completely collapsed and gone to sleep in the chair.

Little Ballerina

Elise starts ballet today and she can't wait! I hope it is as fun as she is convinced it is going to be.

I May Have Been Wrong

I was thinking that Cameron was for sure the chunkiest 3 month old ever, but as I was looking back at some pictures of Elise at 3 months I decided I may have been wrong. It is a toss up who was chunkier. Here are a couple of pictures of each. Are there any votes for who weighed the most at 3 months? I'm actually not sure what the answer is, I will have to look in Elise's baby book to see just how much she weighed at 3 months to decide who was bigger.

And just for fun, another look at my two chunkers plus a picture of Steven at three months. He was definitely not even in the running for biggest three month old around, but he was cute and it is fun to look at all of their pictures and compare how they looked at a certain age.

I Think She's Convinced

Elise was not too excited about having to wear a uniform to Kindergarten. I think the main strike against them was that they didn't include any pink. I tried to convince her that uniforms would be fun and told her she could wear her second favorite color, red. She wanted none of it. This morning it was a little chilly so I pulled out a new jacket I had picked up a while back. She saw the red bows on the coat and told me it was her favorite jacket ever. She immediately began singing a made up song about how she loved cute uniforms that she got to wear to school. I guess I should have pulled out the jacket to start with :-). The weather has warmed up a bit this afternoon, but I'd be willing to bet that when I pick her up in fifteen minutes she will still be wearing that jacket. What do you think?

He Sleeps Where?

Yep, Cameron sleeps in our closet. I sort of mentioned this in a previous post and I've had a few people ask about it, so I thought I would explain. The plan is that he and Steven will eventually share a room, but since Steven is not such a great sleeper I am afraid he will wake Cameron up at night. We originally had his portacrib next to our bed, but Steven comes into our room at night when he wakes up at night, and besides that Cameron is sort of a loud sleeper and was constantly waking us up even when he was sleeping. So one day I was cleaning out my closet and it dawned on me that there was totally room for a portacrib in there. And it has more windows than many full size bedrooms so you shouldn't feel to badly for him. The only bummer is that once he is asleep it is a pain if we need something out of the closet, but other than that it works great. I think we will try moving him in with Steven in a few months to see how it goes, but for now this is great. Here is a picture of Cameron sleeping in the closet, and a few of the windows in his "room" so you don't feel too sorry for him!

How cute are these kids?

I may be a little biased, but I am pretty sure that these are three of the cutest kids around.



And this one slept 12 1/2 hours last night. At 6:30 Chris went in the closet to check on him (yep, he sleeps in the closet - maybe that's a subject for another post!) and he was laying there awake and happy and not making any noise at all. What a good boy he is.

Just a quick sidenote, this morning Elise told me she needs "a day off" and let me know that she would be watching TV all day long. I told her she would defintely not spend the entire day watching TV, so she decided that maybe she would add a little dancing into her day as well. I guess Kindergarten can tire a girl out. It's a good thing she has clear until Tuesday to rest up!

Happy Birthday, Elise!

Happy Birthday to our little drama girl, Elise. We love you!

Elise is such a fun girl to be around. She loves to sing, dance, and is always so full of energy. Unless, of course, you ask her to do something she doesn't want to. Then she is very quick to give us her favorite excuse which is that she is "too tired."

Steven follows her around and copies everything she does, and I'm pretty sure he thinks the whole world revolves around her. Elise is a great big sister to him. When we drop her off at Kindergarten in the morning Elise holds his hand on the playground and takes him with her to do whatever she is doing. When she was playing with a couple of friends one day at our house I heard them tell Steven he couldn't play, and she was quick to tell them that he could too play, and if they didn't let him then she wasn't going to play either.

She can be a little dramatic, but she always makes us laugh. Just today after school she said to me, "Oh good, I feel like I'm having a good birthday now. Earlier I wasn't feeling like I was having a good birthday." When I asked her why she wasn't having a good birthday she told me it was because somebody cut in front of her in line at school so she was crying. I, of course, trying not to encourage so much of the drama, told her that we don't cry at school unless we are hurt. I told her that someone cutting in line was a silly reason to cry, and she should just let things go sometimes. She looked at me very seriously and said, "But Mom, I was hurt! I was hurt in the feelings!" She is a laugh a minute and always good entertainment to have around.

She is a little overly sensitive and her feelings are sometimes too easily hurt, but she is also a very empathetic person and always wants to make sure everyone else is feeling okay. She gets very upset at school if kids call someone by a nickname they don't like or leave someone out.

It amazes me how fast she is growing up and what a big girl she is becoming. We love you Elise!

Reason to Celebrate!

If your thinking my reason to celebrate is that it is my first born's birthday today, you would be wrong. Obviously we will be celebrating her birthday, but the real reason for me to celebrate today is that these two champs both slept clear through the night last night!

One was up at 5:00am and the other was up at 5:30 am this morning, but if they'll sleep through the whole night, I'll take it. It was Cameron's first time ever - way to go Cameron! And as for Mr. Steven, well it was probably only his 15th or 20th time ever. For being almost three that is not very many times, but I'm thankful he chose to do it on a night that coordinated with his little brother so his mom could get some real sleep! Maybe they're turning over a new leaf!

First Day of Kindergarten

Elise started Kindergarten this week. She was so excited and wondered why all the parents were hanging around and why her mom wasn't leaving yet. I, on the other hand, was surprised that I was actually fighting back tears. Now that she has been going a few days I am fine, but there is a big difference between 9 hours a week of preschool and 30 hours a week of Kindergarten. Steven and I both miss her while she is gone. I was a little nervous about her making friends since I didn't think she would know anyone in her class. However it turned out that a little boy from her preschool class was also in her Kindergarten class. When she was playing in the yard before school started the first day, she and another little girl noticed that they were twins and were so excited that they were immediately friends. Granted, they wear uniforms so being twins was not that unlikely, but they thought it was very cool none the less. So far she has really enjoyed the whole Kindergarten experience. And one fun thing is that her school is literally a 3 minute walk from our front door so we get to walk to and from school each day. And I have to admit, I may have gone out of my way to drive by the school two or ten times on the first day just to see if I could get a glimpse of her on the playground, but I never managed to catch her.

Elise in front of Mrs. Platt's room before school on the first day. This is where they hang their backpacks each day.Inside the classroom on the mat next to her "twin." They both had pigtails and everything.

In front of our house with her brothers before school:Sporting her new Kindergarten backpack and lunchbox: