lemon face

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

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

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

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

#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

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!

One crazy month!

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?

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

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'

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

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

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

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! :)