The Millers: 2011

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Presents and Presents

We were so blessed at Christmas. Wes & I counted 5 days in a row that we celebrated! It was great to be with all our family.

These won the greatest gift this year (perhaps you remember last year?)

Now for the back

These are the pajama jeans you have seen on TV. Mom gave these to Casey. Don't they look real? I love the ripped knee. They really do feel like pjs.

The highlight of Colt's Christmas was a real basketball goal. Unfortunately, Santa wasn't smart enough to clean up the trash and box in our garage. Colt said "next year I'm going to write Colt a letter and tell him to take his trash". Annie received 8 baby dolls and loves each one!

We have continued opening presents today!

Happy Birthday Annie!

If you ask her how old she is, she says "two" and hold up 5 fingers!

We celebrated with a waffle breakfast, lunch at Chucks (the child loves bbq, baked beans and corn) and a cousin cupcake party at the park! She has blown out candles four times and will do it again at the cousin New Year party at my parent's tomorrow!!

Cousin Party

Hanging out with Jack-Jack Christmas morning

Showing off her new Christmas dress

Emily made this one too!

Annie G is our little firecracker. She is a tease and loves to pick on anyone that pays attention to her! Annie is a good sleeper but still loves her "bop-bop" (paci) so I might change my mind in a few months. She is strong-willed and loves to sing and dance. This cracks me up because she is completely opposite from my grandmother, her namesake!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Apostles

With all the cute pictures, I have to tell you how much our life is a real life. About the spanking spoon I took the church last night. About the toddler that arches her back when I buckle her in the carseat.

This was my dose of reality this week.

As with most of you moms, I struggle with keeping Christ in Christmas but making learning fun. We've been going through the advent and talking about importance of Jesus' birth. On the way to school on Tuesday, Colt yells from the backseat "Mommy, where is fkjwldkfjl" (I had no idea what he was saying). I asked him to repeat it. Finally I said "Are you asking 'where are the apostles'?" Oh, my head swelled. Then my heart swelled. I thought we've arrived. I have a genius in my backseat that is concerned about Jesus' apostles. Then he answered.

"No mommy, where is that oppossom" he said. "We saw that dead oppossum on the side of the road yesterday and its gone".

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

My favorite pictures from 2011:

This isn't from 2011 but my grandmother (Annie) passed away this year and I absolutely love this picture of my grandparents together!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Attempts

Last week we attempted a family Christmas card.

I love that Buggy joined in!

My parent's also attempted their Christmas card

Great action shot of Colt!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Funny Farm

The only animals purchased at the auction were fowl- guineas, chickens, jungle chickens (really long legged chickens), geese and ducks.

This is how my parent's peacock felt about the invasion of birds

Let's get this straight- I'm the big man on campus.

This 3 year old hasn't stopped talking about how wonderful the auction was (the hotel they stayed in had an indoor pool too)

He also let the guineas out of their cage

My niece, Ray, is in the background. She braved the trip.

If you leave one guinea caged, the others will stay close by. If all are out, they kind of freak out. We decided we could corner and catch them. They all ran towards Casey (she must have missed the plan) and up a tree.

Evidently she really shares my feeling towards birds. Note the donkey in the background!

We opened the bird cage and Oliver the goat helped himself to food.

I swear he's a dog in a goat body.

Maybe Oliver is really a horse

Even Wes took a turn

After letting the ducks loose and them flying away, we had a family meeting on what to do with the other birds

Sidenote: We aren't sure why the girls like to take their shirts off, the boys never do.

Monday, November 14, 2011

A Taste of What's to Come

Wes, Colt, my parents, my brother & niece went to an animal auction last weekend in Tennessee. This is a annual event for my parents but Wes & Colt's first venture. Luckily, they sold 3 donkeys (don't worry we still have 12+) and one horse. Not surprisingly, the trailer was full when they came home. I have pictures to prove it and I'll post soon.

Here is a picture my mom texted me from the auction.

No, "Otis" did not make it to Opelika. I did hear there was a 3 year old that was devastated he couldn't bring him home. Our last 2 llamas were not the greatest pets so I'm not sure Papooh (or Wes) is ready to bring home another.

While I have your attention, I want to tell you about a website you must check out.
http://www.418stitches.com/

My dear friend Emily Gross started this last year. I'm stealing this from her website "The purpose of 418 Stitches is to generate a profit to give to various ministries working to "recover, empower, and reintegrate" those women and children caught up in "violence, abuse, and trafficking" (Hagar International: About Us). "

You can see on her website the profit ($679.93) that has been raised.

Annie loves her AU dress Emily made (Emily can't guarantee the nap!)

Actually, she played so hard in her dress at the tailgate that she slept through the AU/Miss State game!

Emily has super cute Christmas fabrics so be sure to check her out!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

This is the Song that Never Ends

Don't you hate that song? Casey use to sing it when we were little and it would be in my head the rest of the day. I sing this song everytime I see our tomato plants.

I think someone sneaks into our garden at night and gives the plants some TLC. They won't stop producing tomatoes. It just goes on and on.

Notice the dead leaves? Told you I stopped taking care of them.

We are also still getting peppers from the garden.

I didn't realize these were ready so much later than everything else. I'm sure one frost and everything will be gone.

With the time change our outside play time has been limited.

We usually start staring at each other about 6:30pm wondering what to do for the next hour!

I realized that I was obsessed with this tree when Annie told it "bye-bye" one day.

These little people insist on playing outside before we leave the house every morning (hence the bow, it doesn't last long!).

Friday, November 4, 2011

Bumble Bee & Fireman

Last weekend we tailgated before the Ole Miss game. It was cold.

Luckily I remembered the dress my kids properly. However, I forget to put them down for a nap before we left home. They found a pillow & blanket in someone's car and made a little bed. Tailgating really changes when you have kids!

Wes and I have enjoyed the candy our bumble bee and fireman collected Halloween night. We only went to 5-6 houses since they enjoy kids knocking on our door. Colt was really happy despite his expression in the picture.

Maggie Cooper gave me the idea of putting a bible verse on what we hand out at Halloween. I had some random nametags at work that fit perfect.

This little bee is obsessed with her costume.

She loves to help put away the towels in the bathroom. I think she has worn her costume everday for a week.

Below is a yummy recipe I have made several times. In our house is borderline healthy with the yogurt and oats. You probably have everything in your fridge or pantry.

Chewy Oatmeal Yogurt Bars
3/4 cut brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 (8oz) carton yogurt (I used blueberry)
1 egg
2 Tbsp veg oil
2 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups oats
1 cup add-ins (we had dried cranberries and mini choc chips)

In a large bowl combine sugars, yogurt, egg, oil, milk and vanilla. Mix well. In another bowl combine flour, soda, cinnamon and salt. Add dry mix to wet mixture. Stir in oats and add-ins.
Spread dough onto bottom of ungreased 9x13 pan.
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool on baking rack.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Haircut & Pens

No cute picture of the kids dressed in their Halloween get-up. That will come next week.

This litte bumble bee got her first haircut. I had my camera and was prepared for the precious, babybook pictures. Instead she screamed and tried to escape the whole time. I was promising this child everything- toys, ice creams, candy. When we left, Colt said "you promised we could get ice cream". It was either the ice cream shop or the bar and the ice cream shop gives away balloons.

Besides this being a picture of a day in the life of our playroom, this arrangement really has a purpose.

Colt is obessesed with pens- dog, cow, sheep and donkeys. I was obssessed with house plans as a child so I'm kind of intriged by his pens. This pen features a feeding trough (shopping cart). The blue chairs are to keep the rats & rattlesnakes out of the feeding trough. Its a crazy household!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Pumpkin Patch & Tailgate

Colt's class went on a field trip to a local pumpkin patch last week.

He enjoyed finding a big pumpkin

The patch also had a cow, goats and rabbits. Colt was confused that he couldn't go in the pen with the cow.

His class went in the stall with the goats and Colt came out and asked why the goats ran from him. He said "don't they know that I know goats".

Saturday we tailgated before the game. I was chasing children until Papooh arrived. I could finally bring my camera out then.

Dad was disappointed when it was time to go to the game.

Annie is wearing my old cheerleading dress. Its polyester!

We had a little birthday party at our tailgate and I made an AU cake.

Wes decorated it with a one legged turkey dingo (or something). Our tailgate group was on a softball team together in college and this was their mascot!

Monday, October 10, 2011

We Went to the Fair

I don't even think I need to explain.

Every county has a fair that is truly a cultural experience but one that should never be neglected. The food was good but scary. The lights were bright and flashing. The rides were entertaining. The prizes were cheezy.

Proof that we went and had a blast

The only tears shed were when we had to leave!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Conference & Creativity

This past weekend I went to the dotMom conference. It was excellent. Honestly, I don't know if hearing Angela Thomas, Vicki Courtney, Angie Brown & Pricialla Shirer was my favorite or a weekend with my girlfriends. I will admit that I am a registered stalker of Angie Brown. I emailed her yesterday and I think she's okay with it.
Mandi Rouse and I took a quick picture with Pricilla before she went on stage.

During the weekend there was lots of talk about what we do to teach our children about Christ (trust me, there was lots of talk, this was just one subject). I told them what I had created and Holly suggested I post it on my blog so other people can steal my ideas.
You probably remember that I'm not the "creative sister" so these are simple, simple projects.

I made a book of Psalms 23 (The Lord is my shepard...) so we can read it with Colt. He memorized the scripture in no time. Each page has a picture and phrase. I had the book laminated & spiral bound at Office Depot.

These are his fruits of the spirit cards. I put a ring on these so he can play with them in the car.

Every morning Colt wants to know what he & Annie are doing that day. Sometimes he becomes anxious about what is going on next week so I'm trying to teach him to take one day/week at a time (as I'm learing the lesson too!). Sunday- church, Monday- school then play, Tuesday- Honey & Papooh day, Wednesday- school & church, Thursday,- school & friend coming over, Friday- school & camp-out, Saturday- play.

Sunday Colt went on his first dove shoot with Wes. Yes, his gun is plastic but he had to take it. I wish you could see his belt. It has his name on it (really it says Rooster but that his preference).