The Miller Family

Brenna's 3rd birthday-Under the sea party

2012-01-24T23:20:00.003-07:00

Can you believe my little Brenna turned 3 today!!! We had a fun "Under the Sea" party. How did anybody plan birthday parties before Pinterest...and how does anybody afford them after Pinterest? he he

My awesome step dad Terry made this awesome cupcake tower for us! LOVE IT!

Awesome daddy running the fishing game.

Waves...more of Terry's awesome craftsmanship.

The birthday girl wanted to be a mermaid for the party. I learned something from this experience...when you make a kid a costume and you have to try it on them 20 times and then make them take it off again they don't like it. :) She LOVED it once it was finally finished though.

The food. You can't really tell from the picture but there are swedish fish candies swimming in the Jello.

Thanks for your help Nanna!

Fun friends!

The invitations.

Playing under the sea ring toss.

Playing in the sand.

My friend Barbara made these AWESOME jellyfish...aren't they great?

Top picks of 2011-by the Miller family

2012-01-01T23:56:00.000-07:00

Movies:
#1: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

#2: Warrior

#3: Crazy Stupid Love

#4: Limitless

#5: Source Code

T.V. Shows

#1: Modern Family

#2: Parenthood

#3: Whitney

#4: The Office

#5: Chuck

Books

#1: The Help-Kathryn Stockett

#2: The Glass Castle-Jeannette Walls

#3: The Pillars of the Earth-Ken Follett

#4: The Guersey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society-Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

#5: Something Borrowed-Emily Giffin

YouTube Videos

#1: Beyonce Clown

#2: Michael Buble SNL

#3: Mommy's nose is scary

#4: Twin Talking Babies

#5: Jimmy Kimmel Halloween Candy

Brenna's Dance recital

2011-12-17T22:16:00.006-07:00

Brenna had her second dance recital this last week. I felt kind of silly having my 2 year old in dance class...but today I was watching the video from her first dance recital (here) and I am amazed at the difference. She's not ready for Juilliard by any means, but I think she is actually learning something! I am so proud of my little girl! (It takes Brenna a little while to come out on the stage...but there is a HILARIOUS little girl in her class that you can watch in the mean time :)

We have the most awesome friends and family who support our little girl!

Oregon coast trip

2011-12-15T14:17:00.025-07:00

We took a fun family vacation to the Oregon Coast right after Thanksgiving. We rented this AWESOME beach house.

This walk through shark tank was like...my worst nightmare. I was having a mini anxiety attack and Brenna came up to me and said: "it's ok mommy, it's just sharks, they are nice, hold my hand." How sweet!

We went to the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), so fun!

Adria's newborn pictures

2011-11-21T23:25:00.007-07:00

Brenna's 2 and 1/2 year pictures

2011-11-21T22:56:00.018-07:00

Happy Halloween

2011-11-03T21:43:00.004-06:00

4 weeks already!?!?!

2011-10-20T22:26:00.014-06:00

I can't believe my baby is 4 weeks old today! And I thought time went fast when I only had 1 kid. I will admit...the adjustment to having 2 has been a little insane. Adria REALLY likes to be held and does not like to sleep at night. My house is a disaster and washing my hair seems like a luxury these days but we are adjusting. One thing is for sure though...I am completely in love with my new little one.

Welcome baby Adria!

2011-09-24T16:34:00.012-06:00

Adria Grace Miller joined our family on September 22nd, 2011 at 1:22 p.m. She weighed...ready for this...9 pounds 5 ounces and was 22 inches long. I had debated trying natural childbirth this time around but when we were 3 days passed her due date and digging into my precious maternity leave we decided to induce labor. I was not interested in trying natural childbirth while on Pitocin so I opted for the epidural. Everything went incredibly well. We checked in at 6:30 a.m. They started me on Pitocin about 7:15, they broke my water about 9:00, I got my epidural about 10:00 and she was born at 1:22. The funny thing is Zach took a very modest video of the delivery and we watched and realized I only pushed for 1 minute and 45 seconds. It was wonderful!

This is me the night before she was born:

Holding my band new baby girl:

Meeting big sister:

(This is so precious because Brenna wanted to bring her flashcard of the letter "A" to teach her baby sister that that's what her name starts with)

Day 2:

Proud daddy with his girls:

Pre-school

2011-09-12T22:11:00.005-06:00

My little girl started pre-school this last week. I can't believe how big she is getting! She just loves her teacher Miss Melissa.

Fun family Labor Day weekend

2011-09-10T21:14:00.013-06:00

Since I am way past the point of comfortable/safe travel Zach's awesome family came to us in Boise for Labor Day weekend. We had a blast! Brenna absolutely adores her cousin Brielle if you can't tell from the pictures.

The big girl bed

2011-08-31T15:20:00.010-06:00

About 6 weeks ago we decided Brenna was ready to make the transition to the "Big Girl Bed". We re-decorated and made her room really fun and cute.

More details about her $100 room makeover here

She has transitioned very well and is loving her new found freedom. And Zach and I love to sneak in her room during the night and see what adventure she fell asleep to this time.

Brenna's 2 year pictures

2011-08-25T22:43:00.006-06:00

My awesome sister-in-law Victoria took these wonderful pictures of Brenna for us. I just love them!

more material from my little comedian

2011-07-28T22:49:00.012-06:00

We took Brenna camping for the first time about a month ago. We had been there maybe 10 minutes when Brenna says to me: "Mommy, I want to go home...it's dirty." That's my little Princess for you. She got over it pretty quick and we ended up having a lot of fun.

Brenna has made up make believe names for everyone in our family (completely on her own). Daddy is 'Princess Guy-man', mommy is 'Princess Lady' and she is 'Princess Waterhole'. Don't ask me where she comes up with this stuff.

She comes walking into the room with a ball the other day and says "Daddy, I'm going to teach you how to play sports."

I got to babysit my cousins little boy for a couple of days. I tried to keep them apart when they had to go potty (mostly because I didn't want Brenna to get any ideas about trying to pee standing up :) Well, we had an incident at McDonalds and there was no way I could avoid Brenna seeing Payton go potty. She just looked at him, then turned to me and said "He has a pinkie on his bum."

We were driving down the street the other day and Brenna says: "Do you love my daddy?" I replied: "I love your daddy so much" and she says..."Thanks mommy." That just melted my heart.

Stitches

2011-06-18T23:31:00.004-06:00

My poor Brenna had a little tumble on some stairs at the playground this last week and had to get stitches in her head. :( I have made it through my 26 years without them and my poor daughter had to get them at 2! The worst part about it was they made me hold her down while they stitched her up. Thank heavens my mom was with us because I don't think I could have handled it by myself. I am also SO glad that it was the back of her head and not her face so no body will be able to see the scar!

Tamarack couples trip

2011-06-13T22:13:00.021-06:00

We celebrated our 6th anniversary a little early this year. (Since I am going to be HUGE for our real anniversary in August). We rented a cabin in Tamarack with some of our best buddies. We didn't bring any kids so we got to stay up late, sleep in, hang out and play games like we were young again. :)

Bike rides around Lake McCall.

Lots of rockband.

Fun at the hotsprings.

Lots of yummy food!

Pedicures at the spa.

Dancing with the Kinect.

Fun at the zoo

2011-06-05T01:11:00.007-06:00

Brenna's first dance recital

2011-05-24T22:28:00.008-06:00

Brenna had her very first dance recital last night. She was so adorable! Her class performed 3 numbers. She was darling in the first one, she wouldn't even go out on the stage for the second,

and she cried all the way through the third one.

But of course we were very proud of our little girl!

Mesquite

2011-05-23T22:17:00.007-06:00

We took a little trip this last week to Mesquite and had a blast! Brenna had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa Miller and Grandma Bradley and we sure had a wonderful time with them too! I was very nervous about the airplane ride but Brenna did awesome. Mesquite was gorgeous and we made some wonderful memories.

It's a girl!

2011-05-16T23:02:00.005-06:00

We are so excited to announce that we are having another little girl! We have unofficially known for almost 2 months now but they confirmed it with 95% certainty at our 20 week ultrasound last week. We are so excited! Neither Zach or I had sisters and we are just so glad that our two little girls will have each other.

They also let us know that our little one has all of the necessary parts and organs and everything looks good for a normal delivery. I love this picture of her tiny fingers, I can't wait to hold that little hand!

A graduation and an embarrassing moment

2011-05-02T21:42:00.006-06:00

My little brother Jordan graduated from BYU-Idaho this month with high honors. He is only 23 and he spent 2 years on a mission. I think that's pretty impressive. He got his degree in Psychology with a minor in International Studies. We made the trip up to Rexburg for the graduation and had lots of fun!

While we were there I had my first truly embarrassing mommy moment. The graduation ceremony was held in the BYU-Idaho center, which is basically just like the big conference center in Salt Lake City. It was very quiet in there and we were trying to keep Brenna quiet. I mean nobody even claps or anything, it's basically like church. I brought some coloring books and crayons to try and help Brenna get through. Well she was coloring this cute little kitty picture from Cinderella.........

......and all of a sudden she starts YELLING "mommy I'm coloring it's gina!" (as in it's girly parts :) Over and over! I tried to quietly distract her while also trying to be invisible. I can see where she got that idea though.

Can you tell I have a 2 year old?

2011-04-01T22:37:00.002-06:00

This is what I came home from the bookstore with today. The lady seriously said "good luck" to me as she was handing me my receipt.

Kids say the cutest things

2011-03-06T21:44:00.007-07:00

I have to share the cutest thing Brenna said to me today. We have been working on the sounds that letters make lately. She is doing really well but just can't wrap her brain around a few of them. Like the letter "W" for example. This is how our conversation went:

Me: What does "W" say?

Brenna: B...B...B....

Me: "W" says...W...like W-W-Water.

Brenna: B...B...B-chocolate milk.

I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my cheeks.

I sure love my little girl who is getting to be not so little anymore.

Baby news

2011-02-20T22:26:00.003-07:00

We are excited to announce that we are expecting baby number 2! We are due September 19th. I am getting through the morning (I mean ALL DAY) sickness and fatigue alright. Thank heaven for Saltine's! The crazy thing is how big my belly is already. When I was pregnant with Brenna I literally did not put on maternity pants until I was 20 weeks along. Now I find I am already struggling to button my pants at 10 weeks. Please tell me I am not the only one that had this experience? Brenna likes to tell everyone she is going to be a "big sister" although I don't think she realizes this means she wont be the complete center of attention all the time anymore. :)

My little troublemaker

2011-01-17T23:18:00.003-07:00

You know those moments as a parent when your looking at your child thinking....I should really be disciplining you right now.....but what you are really doing is laughing your head off? Well, we just had one of these moments tonight. We have a strict rule that when Brenna goes to bed she does not get up and we don't go into her room. But tonight after 2 HOURS of her yelling "mommy, daddy help me!" and such I finally broke down and went into her room. This is what I found:

PJ's on the floor, diaper on the floor, Brenna naked in the crib. I didn't even know she knew how to take her own clothes off yet. Guess I'm gunna have to start putting her to work. :)

Dance Class

2011-01-17T23:17:00.006-07:00

If you have had a conversation with Brenna in the last 2 weeks then I can almost guarantee she has told you about her new dance class. She absolutely LOVES it!

I'm so proud of my little ballerina!

My husband the terrorist and my daughter the drama queen

2010-12-19T22:23:00.008-07:00

The terrorist:

Why did I receive this terrifying package in the mail the other day? Oh because Zach tried to sneak this knife on an airplane. Ok, not intentionally. He had the knife in his bag from a camping trip and forgot to take it out before trying to take the bag on an airplane. Woops. Looks good for the security crew that they caught it though.

The Drama Queen:

Brenna comes running up to me the other day yelling "mommy Fancy's eating the Christmas tree!" I go in the living room to check it out and Fancy is drinking the water from the tree holder.

As you can see she was terrified of Santa Clause. :)

until he busted out the candy...good thinkin' Santa

Brenna really likes to take baths and would probably stay in there for hours if I let her. Usually all I have to do is drain the water and she is ready to get out. But the other day even after the water was all gone she insisted on staying in the tub.

Top picks of 2010-by the Millers

2010-12-02T22:26:00.026-07:00

We are going to start printing our blog in book form as a kind of family journal/scrapbook. I thought it would be kind of fun each year to make a list of some of our top picks so that we can reminisce in years to come. I only intended to make a list of 5 per catagory but I just couldn't narrow it down anymore :)

MOVIES:

#1-Inception

#2-Salt

#3-It's Kind of a Funny Story

#4-Knight and Day

#5-Eclipse

#6-Robin Hood

T.V. SHOWS

(Shows we watched this year on DVD, I like to get hopelessly wrapped up in the story so I have to start at the beginning :)

#1-Modern Family

#2-Lie to Me

#3-The Unit

#4-Parks and Recreation

#5-The Office

#6-Chuck

BOOKS

(other than #1 these are Kimberly's books picks, I thought I should make that clear since some of them are kind of girly:)

#1-The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins

#2-The Life and Death of Charlie St. Cloud-Ben Sherwood

#3-Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale-Donna Jo Napoli

#4-My Sister's Keeper-Jodi Picoult

#5-North of Beautiful-Justina Chen Headley

#6-Darby-Jonathon Scott Fuqua

#7-The Summer I Turned Pretty-Jenny Han

YOU TUBE VIDEOS

#1-Antoine Dodson

#2-Antoine Dodson-Remix

(this guy is seriously funny enough to command the #1 AND #2 position :)

#3-Killer Lizard attacks news man

#4-David after Dentist

#5-But....he's gay!

#6-Andy Sandberg-Great Day

#7-Baby dancing to Beyonce

The big girl potty!

2010-11-18T14:31:00.002-07:00

I only watched 1 episode of "John and Kate plus 8" in my life. And in this episode Kate was showing the pictures she had taken of each of her kids the first time they went poo poo on the potty. At the time I thought it was the weirdest thing to do. UNTIL....Brenna went poo poo on the big girl potty and I was all of a sudden yelling to Zach to grab the camera! I am just so proud of my not so little girl!

I love autumn!

2010-11-14T21:30:00.016-07:00

We got our first snow flakes today so I thought I would reminisce about what an awesome autumn we had this year!

Linder Farms pumpkin patch with Grandma and Grandpa

Our annual murder mystery party hosted by our awesome friends Mike and Barb. This year it was at Mystique Boise, isn't it gorgeous!

The Farmstead pumpkin patch with our best buddies

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-03T22:47:00.011-06:00

I always thought I liked Halloween, but this year topped them all! Brenna was SO CUTE and SO CLUELESS. We practiced knocking on the door and saying "trick or treat" for a whole week beforehand. But when the day came she would knock on the door and just say "please" or "candy". And after she picked a candy from one bowl she refused to put it in her pumpkin, but instead carried it in her hand and then dropped it in the bowl at the next house and grab another piece. It was so fun.

We went to a fun Halloween parade with our buddies. Rylee and Chloe were princesses and Paige was Strawberry shortcake.
Dallin, JD, Michelle and grandma Melly were here for the fun too!

The first hair cut.....and we need a pool.

2010-10-14T22:55:00.011-06:00

The time has come to kiss these "luscious locks" goodbye. :)

Brenna did so great!
I think it helped that the lady let her hold the squirt bottle. She kept squirting Zach in the face....
...which she thought was hilarious.

About the pool....Well, Brenna has been asking to put on her swimsuit and go outside lately. Hmm, I am grossly under-prepared for this request. This is what I have come up with.

Which works OK........until she wants Mommy and Daddy to go "swimming" with her.

This one makes me laugh because lately when we say "Brenna, will you do your new trick?" She throws her hands up in the air and says...."Tah Duh!" Love that girl!

It's time for a video-Brenna age 20 months

2010-10-03T13:53:00.003-06:00

Recently I was watching a video of Brenna's first steps and I was realizing how much she has changed in just 5 short months. So I decided to bust the camera out today and record a few of her skills and show a bit of personality. She is so fun and so smart!

Touching the stars

2010-09-27T23:18:00.001-06:00

I overheard the sweetest little conversation between Zach and Brenna the other night.

Brenna (with arms stretched out): Touch the stars. Reach! Please!
Zach: Oh, I wish you could sweetie.

And I was thinking, "Oh, I hope you never stop trying."

It is so sweet how kids can just make you see the world a little differently sometimes.

A new sister!

2010-09-27T23:01:00.011-06:00

Zach's little brother J.D. got married recently. Yay! I just love getting new sisters.

This is Michelle.

She is sharp, beautiful and just so sweet. It's going to be so fun having her in the fam.

The wedding was awesome. Our camera was being repaired so I stole these off my sister in laws blog. (Since this is my journal/scrapbook afterall)

A home for all my projects-Introducing my OTHER blog

2010-09-22T23:09:00.008-06:00

As many of you know I am a craftaholic. The combination of me being excessively cheap and a busy body has lead to a lot of homemade stuff popping up around my house. Since this is my family blog/journal/scrapbook all in one I decided to start up a separate blog to keep track of all the crap I am making. My super talented buddy Ashley and I will both be posting a lot of of our projects/recipes on this blog. If I haven't told you all about my freezer cooking technique you will want check that out too (I only cook once a week, but we eat homemade meals everynight. Jealous? I thought so.) Come check us out here: everydayexpressionsfromkanda.blogspot.com We would love it if you would become followers. :)

Here is a sneak peak at a few of the things I've been working on.

"Daddies Milk" and other funny stories

2010-08-22T22:18:00.006-06:00

This week there was a Coke can like this sitting on our counter and Brenna pointed at it and said "That's Daddies milk". I just laughed my head off. Oh, he should be so proud. :)

Brenna and I painted our toes together this week. One night my dad and his wife were watching her for us. Brenna kept pointing at her toes and saying "Toes cute", then she would point at Brandie's lovely painted toes and say "Toes cute". Then she made my dad take off his shoes and when she saw his toes she said "Uh oh". :)

We went to dinner the other night and the hostess is like "Can your daughter color with crayons or will she eat them?". I turn into the proud mom and I'm thinking "my daughter is really advanced, she knows what to do with crayons, eat them...phaw." But instead I said "She loves to color." I look over not 2 minutes later when I heard a big crunch and she has taken at least 4 bites and was just gnawing away. Well now I feel sheepish. In my defense, she does not USUALLY eat crayons. This happened to be a really late dinner and she was very, very hungry. :)

This is how Brenna counts: "....2, 3, 4, 5, 6,...8, 9, 10". She will NOT say 1 or 7.

I love this little girl! She makes me laugh every single day!

Cancun!!!!

2010-07-25T21:18:00.066-06:00

To celebrate our 5 year anniversary we decided to take a little trip to paradise. We had the time of our lives! If it wasn't for our sweet little daughter back at home you might not have been able to drag us out of Mexico. We stayed at the Sun Palace, which is an all inclusive couples only resort in Cancun. Zach's brother Derek and his wife Breanne came with us and we had an absolute blast!

Here's a little run down of what we did, with pictures.

Day 1:

We were treated like royalty from the first second we got there. They handed us ladies flowers, took all of our stuff up to our room, and took us upstairs to where we got to pick our pillows from the pillow menu, choose the scents for our room etc.

Here is our gorgeous room!

Here is the view from our balcony

The water was seriously turquoise and as warm as bathwater. It was amazing!

We ate like pigs the whole week. This is the room service dinner we ordered, a couple hours after dinner the first night. We are all in our robes because we have our swimsuits on underneath because we sat in our jacuzzi tub later.

Day 2:
The first full day we mostly hung out on the beach.

Breanne got stung by a jellyfish the first day. :(

We went kayaking in the afternoon:

Then we took the bus up to the Beach Palace for dinner (when you stay in a Palace resort you can eat and/or play at any of the Palace resorts, Cancun has 4 of them).

Then back to our resort for a Micheal Jackson impersonator who was amazing!

That night we watched a sea turtle lay her eggs. It was so incredible, I was honestly choked up! You are not allowed to take pictures with a flash because the turtles get scared away so these are not great. But they are like 4 feet long, they are HUGE!

The turtles are protected by Mexican law so every night they dig up the eggs and transfer them to a safe nest. Our resort alone gets an average of 10 turtles per night and they each lay around 100 eggs. It is crazy that they are still endangered! This is us holding the eggs.

This is a picture of the hole the turtle dug (taken the next day). You can see her path to and from the ocean.

Day 3:

We visited some Mayan ruins called Tulum. They were amazing!

These little buddies were everywhere all week.

Don't worry, this one was domestic. The guy tried to charge us $20 after we took the picture. We talked him down to $5.

Then we headed over to a place called Dolphinarus where we swam with dolphins (when I say we I mean everyone but me...I have quite a phobia of sea life and this was just not my thing). It was sure fun to watch though.

That night was karaoke back at our resort.

Day 4:

We kicked off the day with a zip-line tour. It was awesome! It was a course made up of 7 zip-lines that snaked through the jungle.

After that we went horse back riding while Derek and Bre went 4 wheeling. I was the most experienced rider in the group so I got the less obedient horse. The funny thing is I haven't been horse back riding since my senior year of highschool. :)

That afternoon we all got massages at the spa.

Then more awesome beach time!

That night was an awesome Brazilian dance show.

Day 5:

Sadly this was the day Derek and Bre had to go home so we just hung around the beach that morning.

Then Zach and I spent the afternoon at a waterpark.

Then we headed back to our resort for a romantic beach side dinner. The food was absolutely incredible. The pictures don't even do it justice.

That night was another awesome show.

Day 6:

Another day with lots of R&R and good eatin'. I gained 7 pounds in one week on this trip! Luckily I had lost 4 the week before in preparation. :) 3 pounds was very very worth it he he.

We went over to the Moon Palace that afternoon.

I got a facial at the spa, but Zach didn't have quite as much fun. :)

Then back home for dinner (by this point in the trip it really did feel like coming home when we came back to our resort)

Day 7:

Our last day, sniff sniff.

We rocked at pool volleyball (I think it helps when you are the only sober people playing :)

Another massage for both of us...we were so spoiled.

They pour salt in your wounds by cutting your bracelet off when you check out. This just reminds you that no one will be bringing you pina coladas on the beach or breakfast in bed when you get home.

The Hike from Haides and a family reunion

2010-07-17T00:57:00.014-06:00

At our family reunion a couple of weeks ago we were told there was a "nature walk" to some pretty water falls that we could go on. You just ride a ski lift to the top of a mountain, walk "sideways" over to the falls and then it's a nice easy stroll down the rest of the mountain, about 1 hour for the whole experience. Zach and I were like "yeah, we could do that in between Brenna's nap times it will be fun right?" ummm. . .wrong! As we were riding the ski left up I was thinking, wow this is going really high.

2 hours in we are not even at the falls yet, and this is no nature walk! I mean we are hiking down very steep hill, taking our shoes off to cross through streams of run off water and I didn't bring lunch or spare diapers for Brenna!

Here's the happy hikers at the beginning

middle:

late middle:

and end:

The rest of the reunion was so fun though!

This is Brenna's cousin Maddie. Here was a conversation her and I had: Maddie "How old are you?" Me "How old do you think I am?" Maddie "Umm, 16?" Me "I love you!"

After the 6 hour car trip home Brenna had leaked out of diaper so we brought the car seat in to wash it and she sat in the car seat for another hour and a half! Crazy kid!

Eclipse

2010-07-06T21:42:00.007-06:00

I guess I must be a Twi-Hard as they are calling them because I am actually going to blog about Eclipse (yeah I know, I'm a 25 year old mother :) Who cares? First of all, I thought they did a GREAT job with the movie (best one yet in my opinion).

I discovered these books early, way before they made the first movie, and I have been on team Jacob since the get go. This movie just reminded made me remember why. If you haven't read ALL the books stop reading now :)

First: Edward is way too controlling. I know I know he is just trying to protect her. . .but disabling her truck to prevent her from going to the reservation to see Jacob? Come on, that's a little much. Keeping secrets from her because he doesn't think she can handle things. No thanks. I prefer Jacob's let Bella be Bella attitude. You want to ride motorcycles, why not?

Second: Edward left Bella (in book 2) which in my eyes is unforgivable. Once again, trying to do what was best for Bella. Sure. But he didn't even so much as come back to check on her and she almost got killed by vampires (would have if it weren't for Jacob).

Third: (Assuming we don't know what happens in the last book) Bella can live a fairly normal life with Jacob. They can age together, have children and eventually die the normal way together. She can also continue to see her mom and dad.

Fourth: I never felt that Bella fell in love with Edward for the right reasons. It seems a lot more like infatuation to me, propelled by the fact that being a vampire he draws her in with his beautiful looks, voice and smell. I think it seems a lot more like true love when you fall for someone despite all your efforts not to.

Fifth: My stance on team Jacob was solidified when the casting choices for the movie were made. Come on, it's not even close, sorry Rob.

a little miller family update

2010-06-22T21:38:00.011-06:00

First off, a few things about my sweet little Brenna:
-She is starting to speak in a few sentences such as: "Where's the puppy?" "That's a bird" and "I want my purple"
-She is obsessed with shoes and ALWAYS wants me to put them on her feet for her.
-She still has only 6 teeth, 4 in the front and 2 molars. Weird I know.
-She thinks everything round is a clock, except she pronounces it without the "L" so it sounds like a dirty word.
-She loves to point at peoples buttons and yell "butts". Today at the post office she lifted up her shirt to the guy behind us and pointed to her belly button and said "my butt". I quickly explained that she meant her belly button and we both chuckled.
-When I point at myself and say "Who's this?" she says "Mommy". When I point at her and say "Who's this?" she says "The baby".

What's been happening in our lives:

My brother Tyler got home from his mission to Mexico.

We had a fun family trip to my Grandma's cabin in Island Park

I had my annual girls trip with all the ladies in my moms family

How do we look in "H" cup bras?

The moments you wonder if it's worth it. . .and the moment's you remember why it is

2010-05-09T19:31:00.016-06:00

The moments you wonder:

Yeah, that's poo poo in the bathtub. A regular occurrence lately.

She insists on feeding herself, so I must insist that she eat naked, I am just not up for that much laundry. :)

That is cottage cheese in her ear.

Poop in the crib. I came in to find her rubbing her hands and feet in it. Thankfully it didn't get to the mouth.

The moments you remember:

When you find her trying on mommies shoes.

Practicing to be a dental hygienist like mommy. She will seriously follow me around saying "Ahhh" unitil I let her put the flashlight in my mouth.

Seeing a whole new side of your husband. He would die if he knew I posted this. . .but the other morning he was telling me about a dream he had where Brenna got kidnapped and the tears were just rolling down his cheeks. He was already the sweetest guy in the world, but she transforms him into a huge softy.

When she pulls tampons out of my purse and says "Cheese" I can see why she gets confused. :)

Just seeing this adorable face everyday!

extreme home makeover at the miller house

2010-04-18T21:36:00.001-06:00

I forgot to update my tax forms at work to let the government know I had a dependant. . .so let's just say we got a really sweet and unexpected tax return this year! My house was in desperate need of some new decorations so we decided to put a little bit of the money towards updating a bit. I am turning into quite a do-it-yourself-er so I stretched my little budget by making a whole bunch of stuff myself (with the help of my awesome hubby of course). I wish I would have gotten a few more before pictures but just use your imagination, it was pretty bad. :)

Before...some really ugly and dirty shutters I bought on Criag's list for cheap

After...a lovely partition (by the way...have you priced out partitions? One like this would cost a couple hundred bucks easy)My friend Ashley taught me this awesome technique to give the faux aged look, and it cost hardly anything.

Before (I forgot to get a picture of the real deal so I swiped this similar one off the internet, 1 only used 2 to make 4 candles) newel posts aka banister spindles. I got them super cheap at the re-store.

After: candle posts

Before: Plain ol' books

After: Cute but oh so affordable decorative books

My entry way before. . .completely bare. And now:

Before: I really wanted a mantel shelf, but man are they spendy. So, my awesome step dad and brother Mike made me one out of styrofoam. . .

After: It took a ton of work but this shelf cost me about $20 when it was all said and done.

Before: ugly thrift store pillows

After: cute fabirc = cute pillows.

I also used the fabric to re-cover my lamp shades, spice up my curtains, and framed some for the wall above my bed.

Before: I forgot to get a before picture again. But I got a plain white lamp on clearance for $5 (looked something like this)

After: I used some cool black and white pictures and mod podge and made this:

Before: A dvd tower we were about to get rid of. . .

After: A headboard for the guest room

Here's my guest room now

My table and chairs before:

And After:

My dining room wall before, yuck (this picture is from Brenna's b-day party, hence the streamers)

And after:

Here's the final product of my dining room

brenna's first steps

2010-04-11T21:54:00.003-06:00

Brenna was being so cute tonight so I said "hey zach grab the camera and let's record her cuteness". And guess what. . .we caught her very first steps on film! Of course it wouldn't be a little earlier when she was wearing her cute dress and flower in her hair but rather after dinner when she's just in her leggings and shirt bib. . .but hey it's on camera!

1 year and family pictures

2010-03-07T17:49:00.011-07:00

We got Brenna's one year pictures back this weekend! We have the very best photographer in the world, thanks Scott! I got the idea for these little skirts on SYTYC and I just couldn't stop making them cuz they were so stinkin cute. Man I love this little family. I am a lucky gal.

meet antonio. . .the newest member of the miller family

2010-02-05T10:30:00.002-07:00

Don't worry, this is NOT a clever little way to announce that I am pregnant. I am not. I do however, have a new addition to my family that I love, well not as much as Brenna, but a WHOLE lot! It is my Irobot Roomba vacuum cleaner. That's right, a hands free automatic vacuum cleaner.

He is brilliant! At night when we go to bed all we have to do is push the "clean" button. He then proceeds to vacuum my entire downstairs all by himself, yes he goes in and out of every room, under my furniture, transitions from hard floor to carpet and back. He then puts himself back on his base to recharge. Did you gather that I am SLEEPING while all of this is happening? In the morning he is fully charged and ready to vacuum my upstairs while I eat breakfast. (By the way this little smartie senses drop offs so he doesn't fall down the stairs). I think I might have died and this is heaven? Why the name Antonio you ask? Well, Zach calls her Shanae. But I call him Antonio. It makes me feel like I am rich and he is my hottie pool boy. :)

Happy birthday Brenna!

2010-01-25T22:03:00.008-07:00

Brenna turned 1 year old yesterday! How, bitter sweet! We had a fun little birthday party for her at our house on Saturday with our awesome friends and family. It was a blast! We let Brenna attack her birthday cake, which was actually her first real taste of dessert. Needless to say she loved it!

Brenna is such a fun a fun and happy little girl. I sure love being her mom! Her skills include climbing the stairs, speed crawling and walking with her push walker, playing peek-a-boo, clapping for herself and saying "yeah", saying "wow" "uh-oh" "what's that?" "mama" and "dada".

a "do it yourself christmas" this year

2010-01-07T09:51:00.009-07:00

I got this brilliant idea this year to make handcrafted gifts for everyone. It seemed like such a great idea, until I got started and realized how hard it is to get much of anything done with an 11 month old wanted to do whatever mommy is doing. In the end I think things turned out alright.

I made 4 of these fabric Christmas wreaths:

I bought some old shutters on Craig's list and converted them into neato home decor:
such as this headboard for my in-laws

this fireplace guard for my dad (it will sure be nice to not have to worry about Brenna's curiosity about the fireplace when we go over there anymore ;)

this mail sorter for my little brother and his wife (I also made one for us, I just cannot seem to stay on top of organizing my mail!)

And finally a scrapbook calendar for my mom. If any of you are into digital scrapbooking you should really check out my friend Christine's print design company , they print digital scrapbooking and it is the best quality and a really great price.

lemon face

2009-12-25T23:27:00.003-07:00

Please do not think that I am a horrible mom but I just had to share this because it was SO funny! We were out to dinner with some friends last week and we let Brenna taste some lemon. The funny thing is how long it takes her from tasting it till she makes the pucker face. You might now be able to tell in the video but the second time she went to taste it she gleeked so bad! Oh being a mom is so fun.

a month of firsts

2009-11-18T13:26:00.007-07:00

November brought some fun first time experience for us:

Brenna's first ponytail (if you can call it that). I was able to force the few semi long hairs she has up front into an elastic. As you can see, she loved it.

My first couponing trip. Original total $31.57, I paid $7.34. Speaking of coupons. Since I have started getting into this whole coupon craze, we have had a bit of a disagreement at our house on how the word is pronounced. How do you guys say it? coo-pon (like a coo coo clock) or kyoo-pon (like a cue ball in pool)? Please vote in the poll to the right and help us settle this once and for all!

Brenna's first snowfall. I got this precious little video of Brenna seeing snow for the first time.

Wardrobe makeover

2009-11-18T13:06:00.003-07:00

Can you guess how much I paid for all of this at Old Navy today?

For Zach:
1-jacket
1-sweater
4-polo shirts
2-t-shirts
For Kimbo:
2-t-shirts
5-layering shirts
1-sweater
2-cardigans
For Brenna:
1-long sleeve shirt
1-sweater

Give up? Full price for these items $369.07. I paid $64.09. Hold the applause please. I just stumbled upon a great sale where they are taking an additional 50% off of clearance items. Now the dilemma, start wearing them now or save them to unwrap on Christmas. hmm.

doc martin's got nothin on me

2009-11-07T22:36:00.009-07:00

Yup, homemade shoes. I am either really cheap, really crazy or really bored. Maybe a little of all 3. I got the idea for these mod podge shoes on a craft blog and had a blast making them. The best part is after it was all said and done I only spent about $2.25 per shoe! And you thought Zach was going to be mad at me for buying 5 new pairs of shoes, ha! Not at that price! I originally got the idea from a blog called "Oops, I craft My Pants" . I found a tutorial on how to make them on "Make It and Love It". I found the shoes on clearance at Wal-Mart for $1.00 per pair and I used some cute fabric and outdoor mod podge. It turned out to be a pretty simple project and they are surprisingly comfy.

5 products i am glad i discovered

2009-10-22T21:33:00.008-06:00

#1-Lime Away
I cannot even tell you how many hours I used to spend scrubbing my showers and bath tubs! It wasn't until Zach and I were moving out of our last apartment that I discovered what I now call my "magic potion". I do not scrub anymore, EVER! When my tubs, toilets or sinks start looking a little grody, I just pour on some magic potion, then return 15 min. later and wipe it off, wala, just like new!

#2-Parents Choice Diapers
Ok, so Brenna had a major "leakage" problem for months. Being the new naive parents that we are, we just assumed we needed to get nicer aka more expensive diapers to remedy the problem. Every shopping trip we would spend a little more getting a "better" brand each time. We tried every brand under the sun, almost. Then one glorious day at Wally World we were standing there wanting to cry as we were preparing to trade in our souls for diapers when this lady walks up, grabs the Parents Choice brand and says "try them, trust me". So we went on a limb, spent HALF as much as we were about too, and we haven't looked back since! I can't say enough about these things, they don't leak, they don't ever feel squishy and they don't stink the second they get wet.

#3-Quaker Oatmeal Squares
Tons of fiber, very tasty, and they don't get soggy, I swear! Aside from the absence of sogginess the very best part about this cereal to me is how long it keeps me full. Lately I have been forgetting to eat lunch because by the time my tummy growls I look up at the clock and it's time to start dinner.

#4-Clear Play
No longer do we watch violence, sex or foul language in our movies. You must be thinking. . ."so the Millers are only watching PG movies now huh?" WRONG! We actually don't even check ratings anymore at all because our magical friend the Clear Play removes all the garbage for us as we watch. It's a simple matter of a special DVD player, a few dollars a month and less than 1 minute every so often to download filters. Thanks to our friends the Porters for introducing this wonderful technology to us.

#5-Fat Free Snack Packs
Let's face it, I have a major sweet tooth. As Jim Gaffighan would say "Oh, your blaming it on your tooth? Cuz it's going straight to your butt." I have tried everything under the sun for a low calorie chocolate substitute, my college roommates can attest to this fact after having to sample many disgusting failures. Tootsie rolls are close, but they contain trans fat which I can no longer consume since I took chemistry and nutrition and learned what that really means. Enter Fat Free Snack Packs, only 80 calories and absolutely scrumptious.

Anyone else discovered products you can't live without? I would love to hear about them and give them a try!

well, i am officially a statistic

2009-09-30T09:39:00.004-06:00

This week I joined the many ranks of new mommy's that can't take their hair being yanked on or just flat out don't have the time or energy to care for the long flowing locks anymore. I cut about 12 inches off and will now be saving lots of money each month on hair care products :) I will post a few before and after pictures. Thanks to all of you who voted a few months ago on which style I should choose, I couldn't have done it without you (well, I probably could have, but not with near as much confidence).

Six month pics!

2009-09-02T14:42:00.007-06:00

One crazy month!

2009-08-27T12:42:00.018-06:00

We knew we had a crazy couple of weeks ahead of us. So just out of curiosity when we left our house on July 23rd we reset the mile counter on our jeep. When we arrived back home on August 23rd we could not believe what the grand total was. 4,258 MILES! I was curious to see how far we could have gone had we focused all f the energy and gas towards traveling in one direction rather than back and forth from home to various locations. I punched some numbers into mapquest and here is what I discovered:

With the miles we traveled we could have driven from our home in Boise across the country to Miami, Florida and then up to New York City and still had 100 miles to spare! So here is a little rundown of what we did in this crazy month.

First: Zach and I alternate years on who gets to plan the anniversary celebration. It was my turn this year. I knew we were going to be in Utah already for the weekend so I stole him away a couple of days early and we went to Snowbird, UT which is where we went for our honeymoon. Brenna stayed with my mom and we got a condo at the resort just like the one we had 4 years ago. It was so fun!

Then: we went over to Salt Lake City where my new sister in law Jennie went through the Salt Lake Temple. Jennie is from Utah. She met Mike at BYU-Idaho. She is majoring in health sciences and he is majoring in graphic design. Her mom is a 2nd grade teacher and her dad is rocket scientist (literally).

The next weekend was Mike and Jennie's wedding in the Mount Timpanogos temple in American Fork, UT. It was wonderful. They are such an awesome couple and their reception was absolutely gorgeous! Then back home for work on Monday.

The next weekend was family trip to Island Park with my in-laws. We stayed at my grandma's cabin which is always fun and we went to a show at Mack's Inn Playhouse. Back to Boise.

The next weekend Brenna and I went to Pocatello where Mike and Jennie had an open house while Zach headed up into the mountains of Utah for a hunting/camping/fishing trip with his brothers.

Then finally we went to Pocatello one more time. Thursday we had a bridal shower for my newest sister-in-law Victoria. Friday we were up to Idaho Falls where Victoria went through the temple and then Saturday back up to IF again for Jordan and Victoria's wedding.
Victoria was born in the Philippines and raised in Tennessee. Victoria's dad is retired from the military and now works for the post office and her mom is a nurse. She and Jordan met at BYU-Idaho. Victoria is majoring in art with a minor in graphic design and Jordan is majoring in Psychology with a minor in buisiness. Their wedding was beautiful as was their reception.

Should I cut it?

2009-07-01T15:05:00.009-06:00

OK, I have to face the harsh reality, now that I am a mommy, I only have ONE hair style: straight. If it is a hot day or I have to work you might get lucky and get a ponytail. That is it! Brenna is getting awesome at grabbing my hair and yanking on it as well. So, I decided to do a virtual make-over to see how I would look with something a little shorter. I picked my top three and I was hoping you guys could help me choose from there. I did a free trial of a program so it would not let me change the hair color or save the images. So I took some pictures of the computer screen, high tech, I know.
Here is the first one, very short
#1

Here is the second, short and straight
#2

And the third, short and wavy
#3

Fun in the Sun

2009-06-05T12:19:00.010-06:00

Brenna had a fun time outdoors this week. First I took her to the zoo with my cousin Brooke and her son Jaden. We had a good time.

We also went to the beach and went Jet Skiing with our friends Mike and Barbara and my brother Jordan and his fiance Victoria. I was ever so careful not to get sunscreen in Brenna's eyes. I did however, put sunscreen on her hands which she then proceeded to rub right in her eyes. So needless to say she did not have the greatest time at the beach. We did let her walk in the water a little which she did not care one bit about but it was fun for mom and dad.

Just talkin' and laughin'

2009-04-11T11:38:00.004-06:00

Brenna is in the really fun cooing and smiling stage. This is a cute little video clip of her babbling and she laughs at the end of it. It is the first time I have caught her laughing on camera. I am proud of myself because although she thinks I am hilarious, she doesn't find the camera funny and usually wont even smile for it.

We usually have to change Brenna's entire outfit one to three times a day because of "leakage". Well if I can tell a blast is coming I will strip her down to save the outfit. Zach came into the room during one of these moments yesterday and he thought it was so funny so he snapped this picture. I must admit, it does look like she is sitting on the toilet. :)

Brenna's Blessing

2009-04-01T19:32:00.005-06:00

We spent last weekend in Pocatello with our families. On Sunday we blessed Brenna. Her grandpa Terry got her the most gorgeous dress and her daddy gave her a beautiful blessing. A lot of our family was able to be there and it was really fun.

Here is Brenna with her some of her grandmas.

Zach's brothers came up for the weekend too so we were able to get all the cousins together.

Nursery

2009-03-18T13:39:00.003-06:00

I finally finished Brenna's nursery (I know she is almost 2 months old, I am just really on the ball :) Anyways, Zach cut the letters out of styrofoam so it only cost me like ten bucks to do her name. Which is awesome since you can pay like four bucks per letter at the craft store! It is kind of sentimental to me because the dresser and the shelf on the wall were in my room as a little girl.

Havin' fun

2009-03-11T17:28:00.004-06:00

Well, we have been having a great time lately. Brenna just gets more fun as the days pass. She is such a happy kid and she smiles all the time now. Her record is 7 hours straight sleeping at night and hopefully we will get the full 8 soon. Thanks to all the moms who suggested "Babywise", it has worked wonders for us!

We have also enjoyed some fun travel the last few weeks. We spent about a week in Pocatello visiting our families. We got to see Brian Reagan live which was awesome! We just got back from a relaxing weekend in Island Park with Derek and Bre. I have been reading Twilight out loud while we drive and don't tell him I told you but Zach is really liking it. I knew he would! :)

Good book suggestions anyone?

2009-02-11T14:53:00.002-07:00

So I find that I feel like I am feeding Brenna ALL DAY if I don't have a distraction. I have been reading while she eats and that works great. My problem is I go to the library and just walk around and can't figure out what to check out. I would love to try some of your favorites if anyone is willing to share. Thanks!

2009-02-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

More Brenna facts

2009-02-07T13:52:00.005-07:00

Wow, Brenna is 2 weeks old today and she is not even the same kid! She is growing and changing every day. I feel so blessed because so far she is such a good baby. I actually have to wake her up to eat every 5 hours at night. She really never fusses unless she is hungry or has a messy diaper. We took her to the pediatrician this week and she is in the 95th percentile for height (big surprize with her giant parents :) the 75th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for head size. I am absolutely loving motherhood!

I know they say babys can't smile for a couple of months but I have video proof that Brenna smiled at 9 days old! This clip is a little long but she smiles sometime in the middle. Maybe I am just a proud mom but it sure looks like a smile to me!

Welcome baby Brenna!

2009-01-27T11:38:00.003-07:00

Well the Miller family officially has 3 members now! Brenna Claire Miller joined us on Saturday, January 24th. My labor went very smoothly. They broke my water at 1:00 and by 3:30 she was crowning. I had to wait an hour and a half before they would let me push because the doctor was in surgery with another patient. At 5:00 the doc came in and I was holding my little angel at 5:31. I could never have imagined that I could love someone so much! Zach was so wonderful through the whole experience and is already the most wonderful father. Brenna has brown hair like her daddy, we were shocked that she has hair at all since both her parents were bald for a long time. She was 8 pounds 5 oz and 21 inches long.
Her birth day was so fun because she was surrounded by people that love her. She had 3 of her grandma's and 3 of her grandpa's there along with 4 uncles and her would be God parents (if we were catholic :) the Hermansen's and her future BFF's Rylee and Chloe.

Our Puppy Fancy

2009-01-14T22:11:00.005-07:00

Anyone that knows me will probably be surprised to hear that we got a dog. If that suprises you than it will be even more shocking to hear that I completely love her. Of course she is Zach's new best friend in the world. She is an English Pointer and is 10 months old. Now, we are not the type of people to dress up our dog, but she was in heat about a month ago and we didn't want her bleeding on everything so we put these little pants on her. It was just perfect because her name is Fancy. Now she is our little "Fancy Pants." :)

What's new

2009-01-14T21:37:00.005-07:00

Well I guess it's about time to update my blog since I havn't posted since September! We just barely got the internet at our new house. I am VERY pregnant! In fact at my doctors appointment today the doc said she thinks the baby is coming this week! I have had several requests for pregnant pictures of me which I am not so happy to show but I guess that it's part of the process. I feel awesome though and I can't wait to meet my little daughter!

new house

2008-09-17T11:27:00.001-06:00

We made an offer on a house this week and just found out it was accepted! We should be moving in October 1st! It's an adorable 2 story 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, brand new! It's an ally load style meaning the garage is in the back which I love. We worked a deal where the seller pays about 3% down on our house, our closing costs, and gives us money for a new fridge. I can't believe what a buyers market it is right now! We have a guest room now so feel free to come and visit anytime!

baby news

2008-09-16T12:38:00.001-06:00

We are excited to announce we are having a baby! We are due January 24th. It still feels pretty unreal. We had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. They discovered that our baby has all of it's limbs and vital organs which was a great relief because I had been having nightmares about missing parts, extra parts, you name it!

They were having a hard time determining gender because I am carrying the baby VERY low. We were starting to loose hope that we would find out at all when the ultrasound tech. said "Oh, there we go. . .it's a girl!" Zach started crying which made me start crying. We are very excited and also very nervous about raising a little girl!

about us

2008-09-16T12:05:00.000-06:00

We live in Meridian, Idaho where I work as a dental hygienist. I work in an office that is open evenings which alows me to sleep in and still work full time. It is the best schedual I could ever ask for! Zach works with his best friend Mike and Mike's brother Dave devolping/flipping and selling web sites. He is also going to school full time at BSU where he is finishing up his degree in social work. He then hopes to go to grad school to become a marrige and family councilor. We are both just really happy and think life is great.

our story

2008-09-10T12:39:00.000-06:00

Zach and I went to Highland High School together. We had joint friends but did not really know eachother. We say we actually "met" when he came to Johnny B. Goode's and I was his waitress. We ran into eachother again at a Highland choir concert. My mom and I were there to watch my little brother Jordan. I made the comment to my mom that "Zach Miller was back from his mission and looked good." Later Zach went with his best buddy Mike to the bank where Mike's wife Barbara worked. My mom was there and Barb introduced her to Zach and Mike as "Kimberly Hyde's mom." My mom said "Zach Miller, I have heard of you, my daughter has a crush on you." Maybe she was persuaded by the spirit to say that because I had only said he was "looking good." She then mentioned to Zach that he ought to try out for the play "Grease" at Mystique. I saw Zach when he was at Mystique to tell them he was too busy to audition for the play. He invited me to his little brother J.D.'s basketball game. Well, somehow Zach found time for the play after all and he was cast as Kinickie who is the boyfriend of Rizzo who I played. This was the perfect setting for us to date and fall in love. "Grease" ran for several months and just before it closed I got a pleasant surprize when Kinickie got down on his knee mid show in front of a live audience and asked me to marry him. I couldn't have asked for a better love story!