Wow! Totally missed the month of November! Oops.

Really quick & then I'll back-blog:
Halloween was fun. Abbie really enjoyed trick or treating. Keeley was an old lady, Lillie was an old man, & Abbie was a pretty princess... until trick or treating time at which point she went as a witch.

Thanksgiving was great. The Argos & Becksteads came over from TN (my Aunt & cousin) & the Maxwells came down from MO (another cousin). Grandma had come down a couple of days before & was here too.
The 2 days following Thanksgiving we had a Cooper family reunion in Carthage MO & that was a lot of fun.

Like I said, I'll back post about those so I can add pics.

As of yesterday Abbie is potty training herself. She's been a little interested for a while, but she peed on the potty all morning yesterday & then again last evening with only one accident during the day! She said she wanted to wear panties & I told her in order to wear them she had to pee in the potty. I guess she really wants to wear those panties! She's doing well this morning, but we have to be gone all afternoon, so she'll have to wear a diaper.

I'm basically ready for Christmas. I did the majority of my shopping on line this year. That is a great way to shop! I don't have to drag my kids around or find a babysitter so I can shop for them. The stuff is delivered to my front door & I didn't have to fight shopping crowds! I might be addicted. Just sayin.

It's a Wedding!

Ok, not really. But aren't they cute?!
Today we went over to Aimee's house so the kids could play & Aimee & I could hang out. The kids came out all dressed up & said that they were having a wedding.


So. Stinking. Cute.
Then Abbie came out as Little Bo Peep. Gotta love dress up time!

End of a Fun Season

Keeley's soccer team had get together at Mad Pizza tonight. The girls all sat together to eat & then went into the game room & played for a little while. Then Coach Angel gave them each a trophy for participating. They thought it was cool that the trophies were orange since that was the same color as their team jerseys. Keeley was SO excited to get a trophy! She thought it was the neatest thing. It was a fun season for me getting to visit with the other Moms on the sidelines and cheer for our girls. I enjoyed getting to know them.

Halloween & Trick or Treating

I took the girls over to the studio to have their pictures taken after lunch. They all did really well & the pictures turned out cute!
Trick or treating was lots of fun this year. Carrie brought her kids over & we had dinner together & then headed out. Keeley was an old lady, Lillie was an old man, Abbie started the day out as a princess, but ended up going trick or treating that night as a witch (the hat only lasted 2 houses), Louisa was a Flapper girl, & Lincoln was Charlie Chaplin. They were all so cute!

Abbie LOVED the whole experience. She loved walking up to each door & knocking & saying "Trick or Treat!" & holding open her bag & then slinging it up onto her shoulder & trotting off! She was SO stinking cute! Paul even managed to get off work from Best Buy early & join us for the last half of our route.

Happy Halloween!

I do have fun with this holiday. The kids & I enjoy having "spooky" dinners the week before Halloween. This year is no different. We've had a Frightening Forest, Scary Pizza, Mummy dogs, and Cheesy Jack-o-lanterns. Tonight....Brains! Mwuhahahahaha! Mwuuuhahahahahahaha!

We've also created a haunted salt dough graveyard. I can't keep Abbie from playing with that & keep finding little ghosts & tombstones laying in random places all over the house.

Instead of having a big Halloween party like we've done in the past, we just had a small family party this past Saturday night. (I say small, but with my family alone it is actually kind of large.) It was lots of fun. We had it at Mom & Dad's new house. There was a hay ride, chili dinner with ghoulish goodies on the side, pumpkin carving contest, scavenger hunt for candy for the kids (which was really fun! Better than trick-or-treating in my opinion), and the movie "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" played on a projector outside. Like I said, lots of fun.

Last night we made Haunted Houses. A few graham crackers, dark chocolate icing, & lots of various candies amounts to sticky hands, chocolaty faces, happy tummies, & cute creations!

Soccer Sweetheart

Keeley is playing soccer again. She played in the Spring & enjoyed it so we let her play again this Fall. She has lots of fun hustling across the field trying to kick the ball & is constantly smiling when she is out there. I love that about her.

A Baby No More.

I'm sad. My baby is out of her crib! She even helped carry it out of her room! We have a queen sized bed in there & she sleeps in it like she's the Queen of Sheba. I'm glad it wasn't a tough transition. I was going to keep her in her crib as long as I could but she kept asking to sleep in the "big bed" & didn't want anything to do with her crib.
Now, if she'd only potty train herself...

Not One, but TWO!

On September 14 Keeley lost her first AND second teeth! They were so loose that I was surprised that she hadn't swallowed them yet. Her grown up teeth were already partially in behind the 2 baby teeth, which I think made it a little harder for the baby teeth to get loose enough on their own.
The first one she pulled out on her own & was so excited! We took pictures & put her tooth in her little box for the tooth fairy.
Then we went for a walk & got ready for bed. When it was time to brush teeth Keeley wanted me to brush hers because she kept snagging the one loose one. So, I did. :o)
I really wasn't trying to get the other one to pop out, but that is exactly what happened. I was brushing & the next thing I noticed was that there was a tooth floating in the toothpaste bubbles! She didn't even feel it pull off!
Again we were excited & took pictures of BOTH her teeth & put them in the little box for the tooth fairy.
I told her that I'll bet the Tooth Fairy would be surprised because I was sure she hadn't seen two teeth on the same night before!

Ouchie!!!

On Paul & Lillie's birthday I was packing the van for our camping trip to Nauvoo (I'll have to post about that. It was fun.) while the girls were playing outside & in & around the van. I went into the house to get another load of stuff & in the amount of time it took me to walk into the kitchen I heard screaming from out front. I ran out to find Abbie with blood running down her chin. Keeley told me that Abbie fell out of the van's side door into the azalea bush. Great. Apparently she nose dived into the bush & a branch attacked her chin, just below her bottom lip.
I took her into the house with blood running down onto Abbie's shirt & pants & dripping on the floor & my shirt. Keeley brought me a washrag so I could wet it & apply a little pressure to stop (or at least slow down) the bleeding. There was enough blood that I knew I was going to have to take her to the ER. I just needed to see if the cut went all the way through her lip or not. Of course Paul was at work, so I called Heidi & Wayne to come stay with the big girls so I could take Abbie to the ER. I called Paul & told him to meet me there when he got off work. (This all happened around 7:30pm. I was finally leaving at about 8pm & Paul got off work at 9.)

I managed to get my poor baby calmed down a little bit by offering her an un-iced cupcake. (I know, I'm a great mom! My kids hadn't even had dinner because we'd had a late lunch.) Every time she would talk her cut would open up & bleed more. It was gross. We sat in the waiting room for about 30-45 minutes before heading to a room.
The ER nurse cleaned up her chin a little so they could get a good look at her cut. It was decided that she would probably just have it glued shut instead of stitches. YEA!

Paul finally got there while we waited for the Nurse Practitioner to come in. By then Abbie wasn't crying any more, but her lip still bled every time she talked. We entertained her by letting her play with some gloves. Paul had her pretending to be a doctor. It was pretty cute, even if she was wearing blood stained clothes.

Once the nurse practitioner came in she looked at it to make sure it didn't go all the way through. She determined that it didn't, but that it had cut the inside of her top lip also, along with scraping the inside of her nose. My poor little baby! I felt horrible. Paul held Abbie down so she could clean out the wound really well before gluing it shut. That hurt. Poor Abbie screamed during the whole process. I, of course, took some pictures.

We were able to leave pretty shortly after the gluing was finished & Abbie got a bunch of stickers. We got home a little after 10.

Needless to say, it was quite the adventure.

Well, It's Been a While.

I'm not sure what happened. Paul got home from his Initial Training with the Army & I quit blogging. Odd, I know.
Rest assured that we are doing fine. I've recently taken my first year of blogging & made it into a book. I LOVE it! I'm currently working on my second year. Because I've been doing this, I've decided that I really need to get back to blogging. It is essentially an online journal for my family.
Now I could sit here & bore you all with an extensive post bringing you up to speed on life in our Miller Mansion, but I will refrain. I'll simply give you a few points that will keep you from being lost if I mention them in any future posts.

Paul is working for the Springdale school district, part time at Best Buy, & the U.S. Army Reserve. This summer he was selected to become a Warrant Officer. He will begin that training in January.

Me, ummm..... Yeah, I got nothin'. I'm homeschooling Keeley, playing with Lillie & Abbie, & am the Secretary for the Primary at church. That pretty much takes up most of my time.

Keeley is doing great in 1st grade and is enjoying playing soccer through the Rogers Activity Center.

Lillie does some preschool stuff when she feels like it, is trying to be a good big sister, & loves her Tumbling class she does at the Activity Center.

Abbie thinks she is a big girl & can do anything they do. She is starting to talk in sentences using more words & is a very fun little girl.

That should do it!
Stay tuned for more on my life that I call "Miller Mania"!

Paul is HOME!

Finally after 9 months of training Paul is home. I was able to drive to Fort Gordon and attend his AIT Graduation on Wednesday the 28th. It was a very nice ceremony. The best part about me being there was that we were able to leave as soon as he was signed out & had all of his gear loaded into the van.
We drove part of the way home that night & finished the trip on Thursday. The girls were absolutely thrilled to have their daddy home. Poor Abbie didn't know who he was so she cried when he held her. She's warmed up to him now though.
Paul has this week off before starting back to work at Springdale schools on Monday. We're enjoying some family time this week.
I'll post pics of graduation soon.

Paul at Fort Gordon

Paul is now at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia. He was there for 3 & 1/2 weeks before his AIT (Advanced Individual Training) classes finally started. During that waiting period he did various details like cleaning the barracks or the headquarters building, buffing the floors, raking lines in the sand. He was able to "phase up" from a phase 4 to a phase 5. That means that he has more privileges now. He can leave base on the weekends, have his civilian clothing to wear on off duty hours, he got to move into a smaller room (one with 6 men instead of 12), no details on Saturdays (which will be nice so he can use that time to study now that he's in classes), and no formations on the weekends except the recall formation on Sunday nights. This past Friday night he & some of the guys went off base to a Mexican place for dinner.
He is enjoying the classes. Right now the class is over stuff that he is familiar with & they test out of it tomorrow. Then they start some harder stuff. He's looking forward to learning some new stuff. His goal is to graduate as an Distinguished Honor Graduate. In order to do that he has to score a 90% on all of his tests, pass his final PT test at 70% in each category, and not get any disciplinary write ups. It'll take some studying, but I know he can do it.
He is able to go to church on Sundays. He is lucky because the church is literally just across the street from his barracks. At Fort Jackson it was about 2 miles from his barracks & he had to walk it a couple of times there. They've had him teach Sunday School the past 2 weeks & asked him to teach it again next Sunday. I'm glad he's doing a good job at it, but I worry about him not having time to study for his classes.
Here are a few pictures that he's sent me over the past few weeks:

Unhappy about having to clean, clean, and clean some more.

In his Class A uniform. (He had to pass a Class A inspection to phase up.)

Back in his "civies" after phasing up.

On fireguard duty one night.

One of the guys he lives with, Flanagan. (No one has a first name in the Army.)

Flanagan, Ludwig, & Miller