Sink Bath

As I mentioned before, Oliver is quite the messy eater. One day he got so messy at breakfast that we had to give him a bath. Instead of wasting a whole tub full of water, we decided to give him a sink bath. Owen used to love these when he was around this age so we thought we would give a try. Owen, of course, wanted to help.

Oliver then got grabby and learned how to turn on the faucet. Owen thought it was hilarious.

Honestly I think a sink bath is more work with Oliver. Before we knew it the water level was rising higher and higher. Hey at least he got clean. :)

Yummy to the Tummy

It's no secret that our family loves to eat. Our boys have inherited this lovely quality and love any food that is placed in front of them. Oliver has been such a good eater since he started solid foods. He seriously has liked everything we have offered him. It's hard to tell in this picture but the carrots are dripping off his chin. This silly little guy is quite the messy eater.

This summer Owen had his first experience with corn on the cob. He loved it and thought it was so fun! (Please excuse his scraggly hair; it has since been cut.)

This picture is funny to me because evidently the color of the day was yellow..yellow wall, shirt, and food. Now if only Owen could actually say that this was yellow...

So What Happened was..

This is the story of a flat tire. You're thinking, 'Big deal..everyone gets a flat tire once.' Oh but friend I bet your story doesn't compare to the mess we dealt with this past Thursday and Friday. So come, let me to tell you a story...

Being the sweet and thoughtful husband that he is, Jeremy bought me a new watch for our anniversary to replace the one that I had previously lost. As most new watches are, they were too big for my little wrist and needed some links taken out. Jeremy graciously volunteered to take the watch over to the mall on his lunch break on Thursday. After much hassle, the watch was fixed and he left the mall and returned to his car. As he was driving off, he realized the car felt funny and pulled back into the parking deck. He checked the car and soon realized that the front passenger side tire was completely flat.

Having changed a few flats in his life, Jeremy quickly gets to work. He pulls out the jack and spare to replace the flat. Once the jack is under the car, he goes to use the tire iron to lift the jack and it doesn't fit. Evidently whoever owned the car previously did not put the right iron back in the car; therefore, Jeremy could not lift the car. He then proceeds to walk back to work (luckily just across the street). He then calls me and tells me I will have to pick him up after work. Once there, he decides he will use the jack from the other car to lift his car. Sadly the 4Runner jack is too tall and won't even fit under the car. We proceed home leaving our poor little white car to spend the night in the parking garage.

We return the next morning with another jack we had in the garage. We now lift the car and Jeremy proceeds to take the lug nuts off. He can only get off 2 of the 5; the rest have been screwed on so tight they won't budge. He realizes that they have been screwed on backwards as well. There is no getting these things off by hand (even after jumping on the tire arm). We must now call a tow truck to come get the car. I take Jeremy to work and return home to call around and find the best price on tires.

3 pm rolls around and Jeremy gets off work so we can attempt to leave early to go out of town. Jeremy has arranged for the tow truck to meet us in the parking garage and tow it to Discount Tires, who is going to give us 4 new tires (we needed them anyways). Tow company calls us and says regular truck is having issues with it's clutch so they only have flatbeds available. They want to know what the clearance is of the deck to see if their truck will fit in it. It won't. Jeremy must now pump up the tire to at least get it out of the deck (thanks Ma-Ma for our emergency kit!). Car is now out of deck and we wait for the tow truck. And we wait...and we wait some more. We are now calling every 15 minutes. We have now sat in the parking lot (with 2 kids) for 2 hours! Company has now promised to send a new truck and we ask if we have to be there when he arrives. They agree to let us hide the key in the car and leave. So we finally get on the road for Rocky Mount at 5:30.

Car does eventually get picked up and taken to Discount Tire. We called to check on it on Saturday and they were putting tires on it then. Monday morning we picked our poor little car up with her shiny new tires.

Who knew a flat tire could be so complicated?

7 years as Mr. and Mrs.

(not my favorite pic from the day, but 1st I could find)

July 10th marked 7 years of martial bliss for us. Some days it feels like we've been married forever and other days, we can't believe it's been 7 years. This year for our anniversary we decided we wanted to have a fun evening, not so much the romantic night out we always do. With having 2 young kids, we rarely just get to go and play together any more.

One thing we love about Charlotte is all the fun things there are to go do and see. One really neat place is the US National Whitewater Center. Not only do they have rafting, but they have rock climbing, kayaking, ziplines, biking, geo-traking and more. We decided for our anniversary that we would go ziplining. We felt like it would be a fun memory from our days at camp where we met.

Emily, one of Jeremy's awesome co-workers, volunteered to babysit for the afternoon so we took off to the center mid-afternoon. Because of time, we could only zipline but it was sooo fun. I wasn't allowed to take a camera so you'll have to just imagine it with this picture from their website. It's a 1,123 foot zip-line that takes riders off from the top of the 46 foot Mega Tower and fly over sections of Class III and IV whitewater rapids.

It was so hot that day and we had to wait a while, but it was worth it. Jeremy and I really want to go back and do more stuff. After that, we went and had dinner Cabo Fish Taco . Cabo has been featured on Food Network and we can see why. We both had these AMAZING tuna tacos! After dinner, we headed over to Amelie's for dessert. Because of the time, we took our desserts to go.

After the boys went to bed, we enjoyed our desserts on the back porch. While we were eating, I made Jeremy do a little reflection. Together we thought about 7 things we had learned in the last 7 years. Here they are in no particular order:

1) God always provides. No matter the situation God has always provided the money, the job, the wisdom, etc. that was needed.

2) Having lived in 5 different places in 7 years, we are great packers and unpackers. We can do it at super pace (hence the reason my house looked like we had lived in it forever just 2 weeks in). We have also learned not to be pack rats.

3) Our first year of marriage our small group read the book Sacred Marriage. The author stated that marriage was like a mirror; it helped you to see your own sin. This has never been more true. I have seen more of my own flaws, esp. selfishness and pride, come out than ever before.

4) We aren't cut out for small town living (sorry Mom and Dad!)

5) We balance each other out well. For example, he calms me down when I get worried or anxious and I help him get a little more excited about things. Also I help him be more social. :)

6) Life doesn't always go as had planned but everything worked out beautifully and better than we could have imagined.

7) We are never settled. Both of us are always looking toward the next stage or project.

We feel very blessed to walk this journey together and there is no one else we would rather do it with. I hope that we have many many more years together and are able to look back and name hundreds of things we have learned together. I love you Jeremy and thank God every day for you. :)

Baby's 1st 4th

Have you ever noticed how there is a shirt for baby's first everything? It's a running joke in our family about it and of course my parents found Owen a baby's 1st 4th of July shirt 2 years ago. Well it was Oliver's turn to wear it. What do you think? Do they look alike?

SO stinkin' cute

We may be kind of bias, but we think these boys are pretty stinkin' cute.

New Seating Arrangements

Our new kitchen has just enough space for our table and nothing else. Therefore, there was no room for Oliver's big highchair. Thanks once again to my good buddy Craig (as in Craigslist) we sold our highchair in a day (for the same price I bought it for 2 years ago at consignment). Oliver then took over Owen's in-the-chair high chair, which he thoroughly enjoys.

Now Owen is the proud owner of a big boy booster seat, which he also loves. He thinks he is such a big boy now.

It is so fun to have us all at the table together now for meals. Won't you join us? :)

4th of July

Jeremy and I both love having people over to our house, whether for a meal, a playdate, to watch a game, etc. For the last year, we lived in small townhouse and we had very little room to entertain. I HATED IT! But now that we have a huge living room and a great screened-in porch, we couldn't wait to have people over.

On July 3rd, just two weeks after being in our new place, we decided to have a 4th of July cookout. We invited our small group, some other friends and family over to cookout. I think in the end we had a total of 18 people over and it was so much fun. The kids had a blast playing in the sandtable, the blowup pools, the playroom, the sunporch...everywhere. Jeremy grilled an awesome Boston butt and we had barbecue, sides, and homemade ice cream a

nd brownies. Though it was hot, the fellowship was awesome and we had a successful first cookout. Thanks to Caron for catching these great shots of the kids while I was busy getting dinner ready.

Matthew provided us with some music.

Owen LOVES Katie and talks about her all the time. I'm not sure the feeling is always mutual.

Nori and Matthew trying to figure out the bubble gun

John teaching Banner how to play frisbee

Dinner was yummy...Owen and Caroline at the kiddie table

On July 4th, we had a great family day! Jeremy grilled sausage and biscuits on the grill and we played around the house, while Oliver napped. After he woke up, we all went to the Y for a little pool fun and lunch.

Owen loves the pool at the Y...it's a wading pool so he can walk around in it by himself.

The middle of the pool is filled with sprayers and slides.

Oliver wants to jump in so badly. Poor thing, I made him wear this big ole hat.

We grilled out again for dinner and praised God for allowing us to live in a country where we are free to worship as we please. We are so blessed to live in this country and afforded many freedoms that we often take for granted.

We hope you had a great 4th!

Miller Family Fun Day

My mom has a huge extended family on both of her parents' sides. For the last few years, my cousins have hosted Miller Family Fun Day on the first Saturday in June. (The Millers are my maternal grandfather's family.) It is fun reunion type of event with lots of food, family, and silly games. Most of the family still live in Beulaville, NC but there are a few of us who travel down east for the always hot event. Seriously can't we pick a day in the fall instead?

This was the year of new babies. This was the first time this side of the family had met Oliver and my cousin Tonya brought her new baby girl, Presley, and my cousin Ryan brought his little boy Hayes. We also had all the other big kids (I think more than 20!) It was a great day and as always we love catching up with our family.

Catching up

Christina and Annette holding two of the newest Millers (Oliver is on the left, Hayes on the right)

Nana (my mom) and Owen shooting the water gun at Papa (my dad)

Owen loved playing the baby pools. He took every adult he knew over there to watch him kick.

Playing with all the girls
Some of my great aunts with Oliver
Cousin Tammy with one of the newest Millers, Presley
Owen fell in love with this inchworm riding toy. Good job Owen..safety first!
More cousins
Daddy is dinner ready yet?

Oliver @ 7 Months

Month 7 already? Oliver is changing every day and has such a fun personality. My friend Caron said the other day that she has never seen a little boy change so much every time she sees him (and she sees him weekly).

At 7 months, he:

• weighs: 17 lbs 11 oz (we know this thanks to an unexpected trip to the doctor for what I thought was pink eye. Thankfully it was just a bad summer cold that had traveled to his eye.)
• is wearing size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothes. He is a lot longer and leaner than his brother at this age. He is wearing outfits Owen wore later because he needs to the length. Poor thing has lots of extra room on the sides though.
• is still breastfed and is now eating solids 2x a day. His food repertoire now includes: bananas, apples, avocados, plums, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, and prunes. He loves them all! He has also started to practice with puffs. He can get them in his hand but loses them in his fist.
• finally started sleeping through the night (it only took 2 nights of crying it out); now if we could only get him to sleep later. :)
• had his 1st tooth appear this weekend. He has been drooling non-stop for about a month now; he goes through several bibs a day trying to absorb all that excess saliva.
• is sitting up all by himself. He can also go from the sitting position down to his belly.
• loves water! He loves splashing and kicking in the pool and bathtub. Speaking of the bathtub, he is sitting up by himself in the bathtub with his brother.
• is inchworm crawling (puts his bottom up in the air then down enough times to move)
• is very ticklish and will laugh at any little funny face you make.
• has learned to defend himself against his brother already..pulling his hair is his latest move.
• has moved to the bigger carseat. He was just getting too heavy for the infant carrier and since we already had the seat from Owen, we went ahead a moved him out.