He's Here!

Kyle Maxwell Miller finally arrived on Wednesday! I went into labor on his due date but he was born 31 minutes late :) That would have been our second baby right on his due date!! Oh well :) He is our first blonde baby but other than that he looks just like a Miller Baby. He is the sweetest little boy :)

Kyle Maxwell Miller

8 lb 7 oz 20.5 in

6/9/10

The kids are adjusting very well. Ryan is obsessed with the baby and has nicknamed him Buzz Lightyear Marks. Not sure why...but now Macey calls him Buzz too. Other times Ryan will call him mini Ryan because he has heard us say that is what he looks like! Whatever they call him, all 3 kids are very proud to have a new baby brother.

They even shared their special friends with him...Teddy and Monkey.

They quickly took their stuffed animals back...but said he could keep the blue and yellow bear that rattles.

More pictures to come!

Just Me and my Mom

Even though Macey is going through a huge daddy phase...I still love the little girl and will take all the cuddles I can get. (Ryan was practicing his photography skills!) We finally came out of a rough patch (3 wks to be exact) of sickness in our house. It ended with ear infections. My kids (and my life) were rotten and miserable! After a few days of antibiotics my playful, fun, silly kids were back! I sure missed them :)

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I am telling you this now because I might forget in 9 months. Next year I want the biggest, baddest, blowiest snowblower you can find. Because I am never shoveling that much snow again. I will never go out and shovel 3 times a day for a week again. I think my baby hates me and I know my back hates me. The only good thing was that I guiltlessly counted that as my workout for 5 days straight.

While I am making requests, I have a few people I would like you to add to your naughty list.

1. The 3 neighbors with snowblowers who rushed to the woman's aid because her snowblower ran out of gas mid-driveway. Nevermind pregnant lady blazing a trail with nothing but a shovel through the 18 inches of snow.

2. The 6 year old neighbor girl who thought it was funny to throw snowballs at me during one of my shoveling escapades. Then eagerly jumped in the 5 foot snowpile that I had already shoveled only to have it tumble back into the driveway. Lame, neighbor girl. Lame.

3. The snowplow who keeps minimalizing my obsessive efforts to keep my driveway clear of even one snowflake by creating a 2 foot barricade at the end of my driveway.

4. Whichever neighbor it is that I now know lets their dog pee in my yard on walks.

ps. I know that picture might look like a light dusting but that was the part of the driveway I had already shoveled! There was already another inch by the time Ifinished!! This was after the snowstorm was supposedly over.

Some mothers always say the right thing...and then some don't

Ryan has proven that he CAN go potty on the toilet, but that he most certainly chooses NOT to go on the potty. Potty training has not been very succsessful. In fact, I'm pretty sure Macey will be potty-trained first. Ryan went through a very promising phase in which he would tell me about 2 seconds before he was about to go to the bathroom (in his diaper) that he was going to go. I remember my sister telling me that her daughter did that right before potty-training. I was excited!! So every time he would tell me, I would rush him to the potty (like a good mother) in hopes we made it. He started telling me ALL the time that he had to go...and I brought him to the potty EVERY time thinking I would catch him.

One day, we started at Target and he said he had to go so we rushed to the bathroom to have him tell me "I just can't get it out". 5 minutes later we were wandering the store and the whole scene repeated itself. Later that day we were at the mall in Macy's and he said he had to go. I left Macey with my sister and RAN to the elevator, pressed the basement level and flew to the bathrooms. Out of breath we eagerly made it to the potty. "I just can't get it out again mom". I bit my lip. "Okay...let's go find Macey and Aunt Stephanie. We'll try it again later." Literally as we met up with them he told me he had to go again. The following is the frustrated and annoyed conversation I had with him:

Ryan: "Alright mom...My pee is coming....it's coming right now...a-ha there it is."

Ryan: (Pointing to his pee-pee) "Mom, do you know what's going on in here? I'm peeing everywhere. And I'm about to poop too."

Me: "Well Good. Thats what diapers are for."

Needless to say...he hasn't gone on the potty since. I think I could consider that a lost opportunity :) Now when he tells me he is about to go pee I eagerly (and hopelessly) suggest the potty...he says "No mom. You can just change my diaper when I'm done."

Is there a book on the wrong thing to say during potty-training?

More catch-up

No pictures on this post...we have all been sick so the camera hasn't made it out much. But I couldn't help posting because Ryan has been so sweet lately.

• Ryan is really into counting and categorizing. The other day we were all sitting in the family room and Ryan said "dad...we are the boys! There are 2 boys and 3 girls." Then after he thought for a second he said "no thats not right! There are 3 boys. Daddy...Ryan...and the super teeny tiny baby in mommy's belly!" What an observant little guy.

• During Christmas season we tried to focus more on Jesus than Santa because we wanted the kids to understand that aspect first. Well...we might've done too good of a job because now Ryan gets the two confused. We finally put the kitchen together that Macey got for Christmas and Ryan keeps reminding Macey that Jesus brought it to her. Then he will say that they have to wait until next year when Jesus/Santa (the two are used interchangeably) comes again to get more toys. I told him that Jesus is here with him all the time and then he thought that meant he was getting more toys. It is so sweet and cute.

• I think I might have a little OCD kiddo on my hands. Just this week he vacuumed the entire living room floor with our hand vac (our vacuum broke) and then went around and picked up any piece of dust/lint/etc. he could find with his hands and threw it in the garbage. Then he also spent 20 extra minutes in the bathtub the other night cleaning the walls and the tub with a washcloth. I told him that I had just cleaned it 2 days before and he said I missed some spots and he likes the tub shiny. Next time I'll give him the toilet brush too!

• It is so funny to watch kids...I can look at all of my friends' kids and give you 10 reasons why they are exactly like their parents, but I couldn't do that with my own kids. Until yesterday. Scott took a little video of me to test out my new ipod and when we watched it I laughed out loud and said "I sound just like Ryan!" It was so funny to hear that we talk exactly the same. For a brief, very brief, second it made me proud to think that maybe some of his good qualities do come from me after all :) But then Macey rolls her eyes at me and Ryan farts in the bathtub because he likes to watch the bubbles and I realize that they definitely get the bad too hahah. Although I should clarify I don't fart in the bathtub...I just laugh when Ryan does.

• Lastly, some things happen throughout the day that I don't necessarily want anyone, ok Scott, to find out about. For instance, if someone spills on the carpet I think "oh shoot, now scott is going to know I let the kids have food in the living room. Well the other day, Macey pooped (a downfall of the bathtub farting game) in the tub and I yanked them out so fast that they took off running naked thinking it was a funny game. Then as I was cleaning the tub I heard Ryan scream from Macey's room... "I'm peeing and I can't make it to the potty." When Ryan showed me where, I started laughing because it looked like he was peeing designs into the carpet. He was making circles and thought it was cool. SOOO then the next day Ryan told Scott all about it. Scott said "oh what did mommy do?" to which Ryan replied "she just laughed. She thought it was funny." whoops :) But really...what would motherhood be without laughter?

• lastly part II. Just a little catch-up on Macey. She is officially 18 months old and an incredible handful. She is learning to talk a little bit more. She now knows a few words, even though Ryan can interpret all kinds of things he thinks she is saying. All I understand is : mama, dad, ooh ooh aah aah (which is her name for monkey), bath, off, please, thank you, pretty (which she calls barettes and headbands) good, no (she really knows that one), yes, all done, and boom blox (our favorite game on the wii haha). We did have a sweet little conversation the other day. She has been really sick and she looked miserable one evening:

Me: Macey do you feel good?

Macey: no

me: Do you feel bad?

Macey: 'es.

Me: Do you want to go to bed early?

Macey: peese. ooh ooh aah aah (which meant let's get monkey and go to bed now!)

She's a handful but she melts my little heart too :)

Anyone miss me?

Well, blogger is being really obnoxious right now so this entire post is going to be backwards, and luckily for you, half of the pictures didnt show up. But oh well :) Why does it matter when I'm summing up the past 6 weeks in one post anyway?

Dallas
Scott and I were fortunate enough to go to Dallas for a mini 'vacation' while his parents watched our kids. The real purpose of the trip was kind of sad, as we went down for my grandpa's funeral. But nevertheless we had a blast. It was a great time seeing family and we managed to do a lot of fun stuff. Since I am HORRIBLE with a camera, this is the only picture I got (aside from a million pictures of the aquarium that we took for Ryan). This car became a very big joke between me and Scott..as well as the rest of the family. I made ONE little comment about how funny it was that we got an electric blue rental car and I am never going to live it down. But I wasn't the only one that thought an electric blue car was a bit of an eyesore....the hotel we stayed at was really swanky and it only had valet parking. The nice cars got the really close parking spots...jags, mercedes, bmw.... but our electric blue explorer got parked in the underground garage haha. We had to wait 10 minutes every time we wanted to leave the hotel. Anyway, things we didn't get pictures of: The Bodies Exhibit (which I would recomment to ANYONE...so cool), the Dallas aquarium and lots of shopping. We had so much fun and were just glad Scott's parents were willing/able to watch the munchkins for us.











Miss Independent
Apparently Macey was hungry :) I'm CONSTANTLY struggling with Macey because she would rather 'graze' and eat than sit in her seat. But this time she listened! She took Ryan's booster seat down so she could start eating.





And then climbed up on the table to get into her seat. I guess her 'gourmet' meal of grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit was just too hard to pass up :)

"Look Mom! I buzzed my hair!"

I ran upstairs for TWO seconds to plug my phone in its charger. From upstairs I hear "BZZZZZZ" and the rest of the next 30 seconds occurred in slow motion....I flew downstairs screaming NOOOO but I wasn't fast enough. There was Ryan holding Scott's travel razor/trimmer thing. Then he said as proudly as possible 'I buzzed ours hair all by mineself'. I stepped out of the room for a minute to gather myself and then.....started laughing uncontrollably. When I went back into the room Ryan said "Here...here's Macey's hair" and handed me a 3 inch section of hair. The best part was that when Scott got home, Ryan offered to cut his too :)

**You're probably wondering how Ryan got his razor/trimmer and how it ended up in the toy box. Scott was away on a trip and all I can think of is that Macey yanked it while Scott was packing.
Oh well...hair grows back :)

** side note: the wii has been a VERY bad thing for our family...at least as far as productive activities and bedtimes are concerned :) Ryan's favorite is to "rock out", as he calls it, on the drums for rock band.

Little Cutie Pies

In the messy basement....brushing his teeth? Hopefully we brushed his hair next haha

Little spunky squirt :)

Michigan
They were obsessed with the piano this year. It was the first thing they wanted to do when they woke up. It was pretty cute. They were so gentle and it was so sweet to watch them play. Maybe someday I will have a piano of my own so I can teach them to play for real!

Grandpa LOVES it when his little babies fall asleep on him. I think its his excuse to take a nap as well! Do all kids get bedhead as quickly as macey?

Hmm...sweater vest much? We didn't realize until after we came home from church that we all wore sweater vests haha.

Christmas

Here is Macey enjoying her chocolate fondue...right before she puked it all up.

Christmas morning was so fun this year. Scott, Michaela and I were up at 4am because we couldn't sleep...AND because I caught Michaela downstairs sneaking a peek at the presents!!!!!!! After that, none of us could go back to sleep. So Michaela and Scott went and got doughnuts and hot chocolate and then we waited...and waited...watched home alone...and waited some more until the kids woke up at 830. It was worth it....we had a blast. Macey couldn't contain her excitement. We got lazy and didn't wrap the rest of the presents so they were just sitting out and the minute she saw all of the presents she literally ran to the tree and started going nuts.

Don't mind that the tree only has decorations on the top 2/3. Macey had a lot to do with that :)

Newest News

Last, but certainly not least...We found out that It's a Boy!!

Two posts in ONE day!

Not a whole lot to say about these pictures. Just some fun!

FHE

Three things we learned during FHE tonight:

1. Scott and I were never meant to be architects, designers or anything of the sort. Ryan wanted to make a barn and thank goodness for that because we couldn't get the 4th wall to stay up. I also wish we could say that we gave Ryan the freedom to decorate however he wanted...but this was all me and Scott....

Because All Ryan wanted to do was eat the candy! This will be one of those blackmail pictures in 15 years...trying to say cheese but his mouth was too full of gumdrops.

2. Macey has a REALLY sensitive gag reflex. She threw up after Scott squirted Redi-Whip in her mouth. Poor kid...doesn't know what she's missing. Here she is finger painting with it instead.

3. FHE is fun :) Here are the babies hugging and admiring 'their' handiwork

One last thing....Can someone please tell me how Macey starts the day so cute:

(I know I already posted this picture)

...and then 12 short hours later looks like this? No sweater. No barrette. No pants actually. One sock. From now on the camera only comes out before naptime and definitely before the nightly chase/wrestle/tickle routine begins.