Miller Family

Angry Halloween!

2011-11-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

For Halloween this year our family dressed up as characters from the Angry Birds video game. At first it was looking like I might have to let go of my control issues and give up the whole family theme idea because Makelle was dead set on being Princess Pink (her favorite character from Daddy’s make-believe bedtime stories) and Corbin was dead set on not being anything related to a princess—certainly not Prince Charming, but we couldn’t even talk him into a knight or dragon or anything. So I was already to give in and let them each pick their own costume when one Saturday afternoon as I was getting ready to head to the fabric store to buy lots of pink they were playing “angry birds on dad’s phone” and one of them commented that they wished they could be an angry bird and the other one chimed in that yea that would be cool and mom and dad can be the pigs and we can “get them!” So I jumped on that one and ran off to buy the supplies before they could change their minds, thereby securing one more year of family themed costumes. They actually ended up loving their costumes and running around the house like little summon wrestlers the rest of the month, bouncing off of each other.

Like always, Halloween seemed to last all week as we attended scary story time at the library went to a neighborhood kid party, attended the ward party, went to a family dinner in costume and then of course went trick-or-treating on Halloween night. Living in condos without many kids around we decided to let them go around with their cousins, who also happened to own a golf cart, which made for a pretty fun and efficient night gathering treats. We now have about enough candy to last until next Halloween, minus all the chocolate pieces that I may or may not have already eaten :)

Pumpkins

2011-10-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

For Family Home Evening we carved pumpkins. For the 4th year running we again had to force Corbin to touch the gunk inside under threat of skipping the carving, but this year Makelle jumped right in on her own and actually helped pull out all the seeds.

Corbin has now decided he is big enough to make his own jack-o-lantern and set out to create an elaborate design. Unfortunately, he sort of had a hard time understanding that you have to just draw shapes that are independent of each other and can be cut out, so he experienced a bit of frustration as time after time we kept saying, “nope sorry, that one won’t work.” He finally came up with a good design that worked well though and I was able to cut it out for him.

Dad helped Makelle create her red angry bird… she was so fun, working hard to trace her design just like Dad and Corbin were doing. I am pretty sure she thought she was doing all the work while we acted as her helpers, and she was probably right :)

After they finished their designs we made caramel apples while leaving Daddy to finish all the hard work of actually carving out the elaborate angry bird.

He did a great job and has far more patience than I :)

Soccer

2011-10-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

Corbin has been playing his second season of soccer this fall. He actually has been doing a lot worse than last time, but having a blast doing it! We signed him up on the same team as his best little buddy that lives next door and I have been the assistant coach, so I think he has been distracted from the actual game. At one point we looked up to see him playing ring-around-the-rosies with the other Corbin and had to roll our eyes a little. He did tell us at one point that he doesn’t like getting the ball as much this time because there is another kid on his team that is faster than him and he says that he always takes the ball from him after he gets it even though they are on the same team. He doesn’t seem to realize that he did the same thing to the other kids on his team last season. Oh well, it is all part of learning the game I suppose. As long he tells us he is having fun, we will try to control our frustrations at watching him run around crazy on the field rather than playing soccer and just let him enjoy it!

At his last game he got to meet Leo the Lion from Real Salt Lake and thought it was sooo fun trying to get the ball past him and score a goal during their practice session. I am pretty sure it was the highlight of the season for him.

Afterwards they handed out ticket vouchers to attend a Real game in Sandy and we took Corbin down on the South Davis Rec night and they let him march out onto the field with all the other little league soccer kids. He loved it! They made us drop off our 4-year-old in a little entrance tunnel area and leave him there alone for about 45 minutes while we waited up in the bleachers for the game to start. Needless to say that idea made me a little nervous so I found another parent of one of the little kids and we told them to be friends and stick together and asked some middle school girls to make sure they stayed by them. We were a little surprised to see just how well our plan worked when we saw them march out holding hands and laughing together as they ran around the field, surround on all sides by the entire yellow girls’ team, herding them along. He did great and had fun, it is just getting hard to accept how big he is getting and learn to let go a little.

Primary

2011-10-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

Corbin's class at church consists of 4 little boys that are by far the most active kids in the entire primary. This year their teacher has been Sister Brown, who somehow has done an excellent job at calming them down and teaching them the gospel. He is learning a lot, especially about how to be reverent while sitting next to your best buddies. They are a fun little gang and we are so grateful to Sister Brown for her patience!

Corbin Miller, Tyler Ormsby, Jan Brown, Koda Hildreth and Mikey Arbuckle.

Earlier this year I got called to teach the Sunbeam class, so I get to sit next to Corbin's class in the primary room and watch him (or occasionally glare at him :) during singing and sharing time, which has been fun. I have a cute little group of kids that seem far to young to teach anything too, yet they just amaze you every week with their understanding and sweet spirits.

Rosie Clark, Emily Jackson, Madi Pierson, Corbin Hancock and Camden Lawrence.

October Festivities

2011-10-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

To get in the holiday spirit (and to occupy their busy little minds) we painted Halloween masks for Family Home Evening this week. It was pretty cute. They LOVE to paint, but I seem to struggle with letting them sometimes… I just get too lazy to deal with the all the work of getting things ready and cleaning up after toddler painting projects. But they are getting better and Makelle actually kept most of her paint on her mask rather than on herself this time, so we may get to do more painting in the future… we’ll see how ambitious I get :)

Grandma Lloyd make the kids a Halloween count down calendar. Everyday, first thing in the morning we wake up to the kids yelling, “Mommy, look at what prize we got today!!” and waving some cute little trinket or treat in our faces. Let’s just say they definitely are enjoying the thrill of having something to look forward to each day. And surprisingly enough Makelle hasn’t even cheated and started taking things down prematurely either, so it also seems to be teaching patience at the same time! They do occasionally walk by and stop to inspect what is coming up and point out the things they are most excited about and what days they think will be the best. They really are at a fun age right now.

Conference

2011-10-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

Over conference weekend this year, we were all a little under the weather but still managed to get up and make a nice pancake breakfast. The weather is starting to turn cool and to get in the autumn mood we decided to go with pumpkin pancakes, a definite favorite at our house.

After wards we all cuddled up on the couch and spent the weekend listening to the words of the prophet and apostles. It was great relaxing weekend, which is just what we needed to get over this sickness.

Celebrity Look-A-Like

2011-09-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

We've been told...

Big eyes, ears that poke straight out and a bald head. He's so stink'n cute! :)

Scraaatchies

2011-09-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Caleb took Makelle out on a daddy/daughter date. She got all ready... picked out her favorite pink dress and everything, and then informed Caleb, "You not kiss me on the date with scraaatchies." So he had to go and shave for her.

Almost every morning on the weekends if we are still in bed when Makelle wakes up, she climbs into bed with us and insists on cuddling up next to you. Only problem is her curly little hairs get all frizzy during the night and she ends up rubbing her annoying little fuzzy head in your face. So we tease her about her "fuzzies" and Caleb rolls over and attacks her with kisses, making her laugh and scream all at once, because she HATES the feel of his morning stubble rubbing against her. There is an on going battle between fuzzies and scraaatchies at our house.

After they got back, I asked her if she had fun and she told me she got pink ice cream, but next time she was going to get purple. (She is SOOO girlie!) I told her next time she was going to stay home and I was going to go on a date with Daddy, and she immediately corrected me and informed me that I don't get to go on a date with Daddy, only her. That little stinker is moving in on my man :)

Legos

2011-09-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

We signed Corbin up for a free Lego magazine subscription, so once a month he gets a little 5 page Lego magazine that has a little comic strip, instructions for some little creation and a challenge to build something and then submit a picture of your creation and they pick the best ones to print in the magazine for next month. This month's challenge was to build a robot. Corbin gets REALLY excited when his magazine comes and immediately ran off to start construction on his robot. Then he brought it in and set up on the coffee table for a photoshoot. It was so funny, he took the first picture...

...and then uploaded it and noticed, "Our coffee table is pretty messy, I better clean it up and take a new picture so you can't see all that junk."

Over time his building skills and his photography skills seem to be improving :)

Slumber Party!

2011-08-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

The Lloyd cousins came to spend the night with us over the weekend. Who says we need a bigger house... this totally meets fire code, right?

Resigned to the fact that we won't be able to sell anytime soon in this housing market we recently went out and bought Corbin and Makelle a twin bed to sleep on. (As what was suppose to be a temporary fix until we moved, we had taken the side off the crib and Corbin was sleeping on there with Makelle on the toddler bed and Seth was just in a moses basket.)

I laughed when our neighbor, who currently has custody of her nephews, said the state came by and declared that the second bedroom in our condos is too small for two children and so she had to move them to the master bedroom... wonder what they would say about our three and their wall-to-wall beds?

Blessings

2011-08-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Caleb was able to give Seth a name and blessing during church. Both of our families were in town and we enjoyed a luncheon together after wards. It was so wonderful to spend time together and to celebrate Seth as the newest addition to our family.

It has only been a month and it already seems like he has always been around!

They require a TON of energy, but babies seem to drastically increase the love and kindness in a home. For one, I find that I raise my voice at the other children much less simply because you don't want to wake up the baby, but also merely being in their presence seems to radiate that peaceful spirit of love.

We are so grateful for this little guy!

Lazy Summer Days

2011-08-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

This summer has flown by! We have had lots of fun learning to ride bikes, going swimming, playing with friends and hanging out as a family. We have been loving the warm summer nights and getting to play outside and enjoy life.

Sethers

2011-07-24T14:37:00.001-07:00

Seth had a two week check up on Thursday and for journaling purposes he weighed in at 9 pounds, 3 ounces and was 23 inches long. In other words he is growing like a weed.

During the times he is awake, he seems very alert and attentive for a newborn. His eyes are always opened really wide and he seems to be taking in everything around him.

He is an excellent little baby, hardly ever cries unless he needs something. He hates pacifiers with a vengeance (much to sister's dismay, as she is almost constantly trying to force one into his mouth... which may have something to do with not liking them... hmmm).

Our only complaint would have to be that he thinks he doesn't have to go to bed until around midnight or one o'clock in the morning. Once he does go to sleep he is a good little sleeper, I can get him to stay in bed for almost 9 hours, only getting up to nurse him for about 15 minutes once or twice during the night, so he lets me get plenty of sleep... if only we could move his bedtime up a couple of hours so that he coincides with Corbin and Makelle's sleep time a little better. Oh well, all in good time.

He is such a little sweetheart and we love him so much!

Big Sister

2011-07-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

Makelle loves Seth... perhaps a little too much! So far I haven't had to throw away a single diaper yet, she is always right there, practically on top of him, helping in every way possible. (Whether you want her help or not :) Oh goodness she loves that baby so much!

Makelle moments to remember:

When Makelle first came to meet Seth in the hospital she was sitting on the bed next to me and patted my still rather large stomach and asked, "There 'nother one baby in there?" No Makelle, Mommy is just chubby now, but thank you.

Whenever Makelle talks to Seth and he doesn't respond for some odd reason, she tells us, "He's shy, Seth's just shy."

Sometimes though she will ask him a question and his head will bobble about in random uncontrolled motions and she will somehow identify whether he was shaking his head "yes" or "no".

Once Seth started crying and Caleb and I were both in the middle of something and must have not responded quick enough for her, because she picked him up on her own and set him on Caleb's lap at the computer saying, "He's crying! He's crying! Help him Daddy!"

I took Seth in for his two week check up and just brought Corbin and Makelle with me, thinking they could sit in the corner and play with their toys for awhile. Which worked until the nurse came in at the end and poked Seth's foot so that she could run his PKU test and when Makelle saw those 5 drops of blood coming out of her baby brother's foot and heard him start to cry, she totally lost it! She bursts into tears and runs over to me absolutely distraught to see Seth hurt and I could not calm her down. The nurse even tried to bribe her with a sucker, which only resulted in Makelle glaring at her... if looks could kill.

Babies

2011-07-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

Let's play Name That Baby. Can you guess who is who out of Corbin, Makelle and Seth's baby pictures?

Office Memo

2011-07-12T16:24:00.001-07:00

Caleb Miller has recently accepted a position with BasicGrey, a scrapbooking supplier located in Layton. His last day in the office will be Friday, July 15. Caleb has been a valuable team member at Tanner and has acted as Senior on many important engagements. His positive attitude, professionalism, and excellent relationships with clients have been a wonderful reflection on Tanner over the past 4 years. We will miss Caleb and Melinda, but wish them great success with this new adventure in their lives. Stay in touch Caleb!

Seth Greyson Miller

2011-07-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

I had a doctor's appointment in the morning were I was told I wasn't even dilated to a one yet and nothing was happening. My doctor scheduled me for some stress tests and arranged an induction for the following week then sent me home. A couple of hours later and I started going into labor.

We had planned to take the kids to Seven Peaks, since Caleb had the day off, but my back started hurting and Makelle was pretty ornery and tired, so we stayed home while the boys went off on an adventure. By the time they got home the sore back had turned into contractions. Caleb was suppose to play soccer that night so we thought he'd go to his game and then we could go drop the kids off at my parent's house and head to the hospital, but 30 minutes later I was starting to hurt, so we just skipped soccer and went in around 8 o'clock.

Well my doctor had left on vacation that night so his on call doctor had to come and deliver me, which meant that when we arrived they made me walk the halls for a couple of hours before they could determine that I was indeed in active labor and would official admit me. So it was close to 10:30 before I got admitted and he was born a few hours later at 2:49 am.

It was a lot more difficult having a baby in the middle of the night, that is a tiring process, but we are so grateful to have him here and that everything went well and he is healthy and happy (most of the time :)

7.7.2011, Happy Birthday Seth!

8 lbs. 12.2 oz, 22 inches long.

First bath.

New family photo.

Bonding with Mommy.

Father and son.

Ready to head home!

Proud to be an American...

2011-07-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

Nothing says Patriotism like blowing things up, right? To celebrate American Independence this year Sam and Benson were nice enough to pick Corbin up and take him to the parade for us (I just didn't have the energy or desire to attend :)

Afterward Sam and Benson, their kids and Celeste and Brian all met up at our house to go swimming, because you just have to on the 4th of July, right?

We went out for dinner, then continued the great Miller Family tradition and supped up some of those little tank fireworks, to pin against each other in an epic battle. It was a lot of fun for the kids, but probably even better for the adults.

We "built" the tanks, then went and watched the big city fireworks in Kaysville, then set our tanks off in the parking lot nearby.

(Makelle claimed to like the fireworks and would always ask for more when each one finished, but while they were going off she would cuddle up to Celeste and halfway cover her eyes.)

It was a fun filled day and we can't wait to light more explosives next year :)

Waiting Around

2011-07-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

Well Thursday came and went with no baby, so we have been sitting around trying to think of things to distract us while we wait for our little guy to make his big entrance into the world.

Lots of trips to the library.

Summer kids' movie program at the theater.

Swimming in the pool.

Water fights and homemade popsicles with the neighbors.

Trips to the park.

Art projects and coloring books.

Tons of reading.

Summer has been great so far and we excited for our little guy to join our family any day, which will make it all the better!

Baby

2011-06-22T12:02:00.001-07:00

This week I broke out all of the baby stuff in preparation for what will hopefully be our little boys' quick arrival. When Makelle was born Corbin really liked her and was sweet towards her, but he honestly never really got jealous too much. This time around I fear things may be different.

It was pretty much better than Christmas for Makelle seeing all of those little items come out. She immediately tried to climb into the baby swing, carried a little bottle around with her all day, spent a long time laying under the hanging mobile, batting at little toys, sat in the bumbo all afternoon, actually wore one of the baby jumpers as a shirt, tried to take her nap in the moses basket, chewed on teething rings, sucked on a pacifier... I don't even remember what all else.

All I know is she doesn't seem to understand that this stuff is not for her, so we'll see how she does when her little brother arrives. (Hopefully soon :)

Little Miss

2011-06-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Aunt Jan invited Makelle into her salon to get her nails done. For some foreign reason that I will perhaps never understand, she was absolutely thrilled with the idea!

For the most part she sat perfectly still... she got a little restless trying to wiggle her fingers at the end while she was waiting for them to finish drying, but I was amazed at how still she was, just staring with pure joy as Jan applied bright pink polish to her nails.

She is a shy little girl so she sort of clung close to Jan and wouldn't show off her little pink nails to the other girls in the salon, but once we got home she was excited to show her pretty pink paint and flower decals to everyone. Given that all of the kids in the neighborhood are boys, I don't think her pretty little nails were fully appreciated, but she didn't seem to notice.

As she was getting ready for bed she fanned her hands out and was staring at them when she randomly exclaimed, "I love them, my nails!" so I guess it was all worth it.

Quote

2011-06-09T12:56:00.001-07:00

"Mom, aren't you proud of me... I am not complaining about my chicken, even though it tastes disgusting and I don't like it, I am just being good and not even saying anything mean about how gross it is!"

-Corbin

Our Final Hurrah

2011-06-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

Caleb took work off on Monday and Tuesday, with the intention of taking the family camping. But we all got a little sick last week and were still recovering so we decided to take a couple of little day trips instead. The plan was to do something fun with the kids as a family of four for the last time before the baby comes (which will hopefully be soon :) so we spent Monday at Seven Peaks and Tuesday at the Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun to hang out together as a family and hopefully we formed some good memories that the kids will be able to hold onto in the coming months.

Seven Peaks was honestly a bit of a let down, but we own season passes, so we decided to try to look for the positives. (Mostly just a lot of their slides and the little kids' play area were closed, so hopefully it will be better next time.)

Caleb was able to take each of the kids down one of the big slides on a tube and they seemed to like that. Makelle seemed happy on the slide anyway, but got dunked at the end and the water was FREEZING cold, so she didn't ask to do it again.

I think her favorite area was probably the wave pool. She is so stubborn and independent that she kept wanting to stand by herself, but even little man-made waves were honestly just too much for her pint-sized self and she could only handle being about 2 inches deep in the water without getting knocked over.

We didn't get a picture, but Corbin surprised us when he walked over these little floating islands half jumping and half swinging from the balance ropes overhead to make it to the end. Considering the platforms moved and the distance between them compared to the length of his legs, we were impressed.

I've taken the kids to the Children's Museum a couple of times in the past, but this was the first time Caleb has been able to come with us. At first we all stuck together and the kids played with balls and delivered some mail, but then we let them each wander off to explore their own things and Makelle proceeded to spend the next 2 hours sitting in the entrance to the little play house taking care of her baby.

She did laundry, cooked dinner, put the baby down for nap, washed dishes, did some vacuuming and only left the house to run to the grocery store really quick and make baby a sandwich for lunch... pretty much all the things I dread having to do, she was overjoyed to pretend to do all morning long until we pulled her away for lunch.

Corbin on the other hand is all boy and pretend to be a firefighter, worked on the farm, built a couple of towers in the construction area and played in the helicopter. He told us his favorite things were delivering the mail and playing in the grocery store.

They also both seemed to enjoy making (well eating) some cereal necklaces in the little craft area. I think that they had a lot of fun, and were definitely tuckered out by the end of the day.

Caleb and I even had a chance to relax and read quite a bit over the weekend while we watched them play, so overall I'd say it was a successful couple of days hangout out as a little family, despite the canceled camping trip.

More good lines from the Kiddos

2011-06-05T16:25:00.000-07:00

The other day Corbin was working on a math worksheet and needed to write a six for the answer. But he accidentally started at the bottom and it turned into a nine instead. When I was looking over his paper, I pointed out to him that he did good, but that the six was upside down and sort of looked like a nine instead. He cocks his head to the side and sort of analyzes it for a second before responding, "Ya, I'm just gonna go with it though." Not only does that sound ridiculous coming from a 4-year-old, but when you write a nine instead of a six in a math problem, you can't "just go with it" and have that be okay.

Today after church Corbin was wearing his little knight shield and playing when Caleb asked the kids to pick up their toys. Corbin was sort of dragging his feet and getting distracted, so Caleb grabs their toy nerf gun and tells Corbin that he is gonna shoot him if he doesn't clean up. So Corbin ducks under his little shield and stays undercover while he works, but Makelle frantically starts cleaning and moving toys around, under clear distress, while begging, "please don't shoot me!" She has never worked faster, so Caleb let me know that he now needs a giant nerf gun that can hold more ammo for Father's Day.

Corbin-isms

2011-05-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

There is a cute little girl in our ward that is a year younger than Corbin. Apparently she has caught his eye because last week after church he told us, "My body thinks she's pretty and wants to marry her when I grow up." We tried desperately not to laugh out loud and embarrass the little guy, but seriously..."My body thinks she's pretty?" Oh boy, we are in for some fun teenage years with that kid once his mind gets on board with his body :)

Yesterday after church Corbin grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge. When he was finished he offered me a drink. After I was done, I handed the bottle back to him and said thank you, to which he casually responds, "Don't mention it." Somehow from the mouth of a 4-year-old, particularly one you take care of all day, waiting on his every need, that sounded a bit comical.

Ogden Marathon

2011-05-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

For the 4th year in a row, we spent the day up at the Ogden Marathon yesterday. Caleb ran the 3rd leg of the relay with his coworkers, which was 5.5 miles and included the only hill on the entire course. Being so busy with his work schedule lately he trained approximately 0 times, but somehow still did good and at least passed the other Tanner guy that was running the same leg as him.

This year we decided to get the kids involved and signed them up for the Kids K. Makelle finished 2nd to last... there were actually quite a few kids in her little age group, but all but two of them got carried or pushed in a stroller, so I was proud of her tiny little legs, running down that course. Corbin was so excited to run in a race and ran the whole time. He told me a lot of kids in his age group started running and then had to slow down and walk for part, but he kept running and passed them. He was pretty darn proud of himself, plus he passed a couple of bigger 6-year-old kids, so he did good :)

It was fun to see them get excited about being active and enjoying being outside. Although, poor little Makelle was out cold, full on asleep before Caleb even started the car to finally head home at about 1:30, so it might have been a bit much for her.

Sports!

2011-05-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

This summer we purchased the Salt Lake Pass of All Passes, which is basically a season pass to Seven Peaks water park. But it also included a bunch of perks, including tickets to 4 Real Salt Lake games--being our motivation behind buying them. We neglected to take any pictures, but the past month we have had fun attending Real soccer games and going to our first few Grizzles hockey games (which included much more fighting than I remember in NHL or high school games).

So far the kids have gotten pretty excited everytime we go, but that could just be because we usually meet Caleb or some of our neighbors there and the kids are starting to comment on how they miss seeing daddy at night. That and we got to ride the shuttle bus, always a thrill.

Then last week we went to the SUU Alumni night at the Bees. Caleb happened to be working at a client's that was only 4 blocks away so he was able to take a short break and come down to eat with us and watched the first three innings of the game. Corbin got a little into it, asking questions and trying to understand how baseball worked, but mostly the kids just got really excited about the watermelon. I have to admit, it was good watermelon!

We still have another soccer game, a few motorcross races and some Blaze, indoor football, games to look forward to throughout the summer, so this has become our sports fan summer.

It has been fun to get out of the house and hang out as a family, especially with two kids that can walk, use the bathroom and feed themselves, before the baby is born in a couple of months and we have to start over dealing with a stroller, diapers, bottles, spit cloths, etc. everywhere we go.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-24T14:54:00.001-07:00

On Friday when Caleb got home from work we were able to drive up to Midway and meet Caleb's Mom and brother and sisters at his Aunt and Uncle's condo. We played Bananagrams and Corbin learned how to make little crossword puzzles out of the game tiles.

They had a fun little Easter egg hunt for the kids. I helped Makelle fend off big kids and get a couple of eggs, but Corbin went out there all by himself this year and ran around the mini golf course collecting his own eggs. He is getting big!

The resort that we stayed on also has a carousel that kids can ride whenever they want, so we took the kids on that. We asked Makelle what animal she wanted to ride on and she said, "pink." So Caleb helped her find the bunny, which had some pink on it :)

Right before we headed home we got to go swimming, which was fun with all the cousins and got us excited for next month when our pool will open and we can swim as often as we want.

On Saturday night we drove home and got ready for Easter Sunday. Corbin and Makelle woke up and had a little Easter egg hunt before church and then spent the afternoon playing with their new goodies that the Easter bunny left them. Corbin got his first set of official Legos and Makelle, whom you'd think was a 12-year-old girl based on her gifts, got a little backpack, some make-up and a new hat.

At church the primary kids got to go up on the stand and sing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and "He Sent his Son." Corbin worked really hard all week to learn the words so that he could actually sing along and did a great job participating... now we just need to work on keeping our hands away from our noses while standing in front of a crowd :)

After church we were asking the kids what they talked about in their classes and Corbin told us he learned about when Jesus died and was resurrected. Then he asked us what we talked about and thought it was so cool to learn that we had all talked about the same thing as him! What a coincidence!

My favorite thing about talking about being resurrected with Corbin is that he will always tell you that his resurrected body can't get sick or hurt and that he won't be allergic to things anymore, how precious is his little testimony?

Blog Overload!

2011-04-21T10:35:00.001-07:00

I finally uploaded pictures to go with all the posts I have been saving, so if you have a lot of down time feel free to read through our happenings of the past month.

Egg-cellent Little Monsters

2011-04-18T02:06:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we dyed Easter eggs together.

First the kids stuck the eggs into the good old cups of colored dye then after they had dried we let them accessorize their eggs and make little monsters.

However, it turns out most glue cannot adhere pipe cleaners to an egg shell, despite having come in a kit that claimed otherwise. So after attempting and then failing to get three different types of glue to work we had to bust out the hot glue gun.

At which point Caleb makes my favorite comment of the night and declares, Alright this is where I draw the line. Once you pull out a hot glue gun it is no longer a fun holiday tradition, but rather becomes a full on craft project, and I don't do crafts! :)

But the kids loved it and we had fun making our little egg monsters.

Home Improvement Projects

2011-04-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Neither Caleb nor I have any interest in home decor or interior design of any kind. Thus our house has remained exactly how it was when we bought it. But with hopes to try and sell sometime in the next year we decided we should start to put a little effort into making it look nice.

Then, while Caleb was in Logan I had a lot of down time in the evenings by myself and must be getting that whole "nesting" sensation because I decided to just do it and ended up painting two rooms, re-framing and hanging doors on the kids' closet and redoing our fireplace.

There is no before picture but imagine the walls a brown color and nothing but the black fire frame sitting in the middle of the wall. For having no experience with tiling I think it turned out pretty well... it's amazing the things you can learn on the Internet!

When it was all done Corbin announced that we needed some Easter decorations, so we dug through our boxes and found some cheap grass and plastic eggs to put up, along with a few other random, brightly colored, 'springish' things... like I said, we have no sense of decor! But if Bean is happy, then we're happy, and hopefully sometime in the near future someone will want to buy that nice looking fireplace surround :)

Logan

2011-04-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

The past 3 weeks Caleb was working with a client up in Logan. It only took one night of driving the hour and half commute at 10:30 at night just to wake back up and leave again at 6:30 to decide that he needed to just get a hotel room and stay overnight.

Let's be honest--the kids really didn't even notice that he was gone as they are used to him not getting home until after they are in bed and already being gone before they wake up, but it was hard on Caleb to not even see his family all week so we took a couple of days and went up and visited him.

The kids got to swim in the hotel pool, which was good because Corbin was able to "swim" on his own by the end of last summer, but seemed to have sort of forgotten over the winter so our trip was a chance for him to relearn how to swim.

The continental breakfast was a highlight, of course because they got to eat sugary cereal and endless amounts of apple juice for breakfast... what a treat!

We also went out to eat a late dinner with Caleb one night at a local restaurant where they had vegan spaghetti on the kids' menu. I honestly think that it was the first time that we have ever ordered a full meal off a regular menu at a restaurant for Corbin. It made me so happy when his food arrived and he looked at it all weird and asked in a completely perplexed tone, "but why is the spaghetti white?" It took a minute for us to realize what he was talking about and then Caleb attempted to explain that Mommy is weird and only buys whole wheat pasta when she makes spaghetti at home. It was cute.

While we were there we stopped at the mall and let the kids pick out a pair of flip-flops. They have never picked out their own clothes off the rack at a store before... partly because Corbin doesn't really care, but also because they usually get whatever is on sale, rather than whatever they like. So I found a cute pair that was sort of neutral colored and I thought would be good for Makelle, but from the moment we arrived at the shoe rack she got her sights set on a pink pair, and starts squealing at the top of her lungs, "I want pink sannals!" Despite my efforts she could not be convinced to go with any other color and now owns some bright pink flip-flops.

On our way out of town I was able to drive a little ways out to Richmond to meet an old college roommate. It was fun to see her and her girls and get to catch up a little bit.

It was a short trip, but the kids thought it was so fun to sleep in a hotel and get to stay up late going to dinner with Dad and we all enjoyed our little semi-vacation.

Soccer Mom

2011-04-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

Well it is official. We have the SUV, the 2.5 children and now the kid in little league soccer--there is no denying that I have become a true stereotypical soccer mom.

This spring we signed Corbin up through the rec center for a Real Salt Lake Junior league. He is on the Raptors and ever since his first practice last week has been wandering around the house randomly shouting, "Gooo Raptors!" Last night was his first official game. His team met 30 minutes before the game started for a little practice session, but it wasn't looking good.

He appeared moderately bored and disinterested in the little drills they were making up. It was freezing cold and super windy and he and Makelle both seemed to just want to go home. But then the game started and he was in love! I guess the boy just needed some competitive motivation, because as soon as the other team showed up and they began playing an actual game he got so into it!

He scored the first goal of the game, another one later in the second half and got off a couple of decent shots in between. As long as his own teammates didn't get in his way, he actually did a good job of breaking out of the "bunch ball" group and taking it down field to shoot at the goal.

Afterwards he immediately asked when he gets to play another game, but said that he didn't really want to go to practice. We might have to work on that attitude a bit.

It was fun watching the kid play... his first extra-curricular activity, he is getting so big!

Sunday Best

2011-04-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

On Sunday after church Makelle comes wandering out and tells me, "Mommy, I got too much make-up, too much."

Hmmm... maybe just a tad bit too much sweetheart :)

Out of the Mouth of Babes

2011-04-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

We love conference weekend. Nothing like laying around the house in your pajamas listening to the prophet and apostles.

We have carried on Caleb's family tradition of eating a big pancake breakfast on Sunday morning, complete with strawberries and whip cream. (So basically the exact same ingredients that went into Makelle's birthday cake last month, is now our nutritious breakfast :)

We played conference bingo and got rewarded with a haagen dazs ice cream bar or popsicle when we got a bingo. (Good motivation to listen, no matter what age you are :)

This year we decided to have Corbin try to pay attention and take some notes. They were well worth saving... you may notice his recurring theme of swords which somehow seemed to appear in about half the drawings he made. Here are a few good ones:

Faith. Reading the scriptures will help me do hard things, like fight a ghost monster.

On Sunday we need to pick good things to do, like ask Mommy to turn on a church movie.

The prophet talked about temples.

Families. Mom, with the baby in her belly, Dad, me and Makelle, with her curly hair. Mom and Dad are showing Makelle how to sword fight since she doesn't know how yet and the parents are suppose to teach the kids.

Revelation. I am praying to ask Heavenly Father if the scriptures are true.

Wives support their husbands. Mom is helping Dad because he is getting bombed and his gun broke so she has to get the bombs with her sword before they hit him.

Kids are so awesome!

"I do it, work too!"

2011-03-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

I am making an effort to become less of a pack rat and not hang onto every one of my kids' drawings and worksheets as they grow up. So I have decided to scan in a few pages and record the kids' learning progress for posterity's sake. As such feel free to simply skim through this post looking at cute little kid handwriting and come back next time for some fun updates.

In an attempt to balance Corbin's desire to attend preschool with his friends and learn new things with my desire to not spend a lot of money or have a committed schedule yet, I started doing school work with the kids on a daily (well semi daily) basis this past fall. He usually enjoys it, plus then I feel better about letting him watch TV in the afternoons while Makelle naps so I can get things done around the house.

Depending on my ambition level on any given day it ranges from reading books to elaborate projects with accompanying themed songs and stories. Most days are just middle of the road though and we do a math and writing worksheet then work on reading a book together.

He's a smart kid and aside from being able to add coin sums (2 nickles and 3 pennies equals 13 cents) he has basically finished two of the kindergarten level books. (Though his handwriting skill is still that of a 4-year-old, if not worse, so we have to modify some pages.) So yesterday I started him on a first grade one. There is no way he can do the more advanced pages yet, but he made quick work of some of the pages at the beginning.

Since Makelle typically likes doing whatever Corbin does, she insisted on "I do it, work too!" So her daily work became playing with her shape sorter or having books about colors read to her, doing those little toddler wooden puzzles or coloring. Yesterday she got a hold of one of Corbin's older preschool wipe off workbooks and a dry erase marker and started coloring on it. Just to make her feel cool I told her to draw a line to the other slipper that matches and to my astonishment she actually did!

So I helped her finish up the page and then today we printed off our own matching worksheets so now Makelle does her work everyday too :)

And let me tell you, she is pretty darn proud of it!

Life

2011-03-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, this blog has basically become our little family journal, as I don't do very well taking the time to write things down elsewhere on a regular basis. As such I try to record the things that I want to remember, good and bad alike, for memory's sake.

On Sunday evening my mom called to inform us that my Grandpa Nash had died. He was actually feeling quite well, especially considering the health struggles he has dealt with in the past, and simply passed peacefully at home while reading a book and enjoying a typical, calm Sunday afternoon. And though it brought a sense of comfort to know that he died in a manner that he would have preferred, I still found myself brought to tears knowing that it will be sometime before we get to unite with him again.

The kids were already asleep in bed so we waited until Monday morning to explain his passing to them. Kids are always better at handling things than adults are. I am sure it has something to do with an inability to fully comprehend time. That is, just what it means that we will have to wait until we die, as well, before we can see him again. But I also think they just have a greater abundance of that simple faith that the Lord is over all and everything is as it should be and will work out in the end. I specifically want to remember Corbin's response, as his reaction and coping ability is a testimony to me of the Lord's plan.

First of all Corbin was quite fond of Grandpa Nash. From the time we first went to visit them after he learned how to walk he just sort of gravitated towards Grandpa. He would follow him around, attempting to help with whatever project or chore Grandpa was working on. Grandpa was a fair skinned, red head living in Southern Nevada and as such almost always wore a brimmed hat around when working outside. Corbin would always try to wear his hat or one like it, grinning ear to ear when he succeeded in getting a hold of one.

I am sure it could not have been too flattering but Corbin always referred to Grandpa Nash as "The Really Old Grandpa" rather than as Great Grandpa. Luckily, Grandpa was always light hearted about it and teased him back rather than taking any offense.

We would usually visit Grandpa at their summer house on Cedar Mountain and later in Hatch. There was lots of wildlife to feed and watch, a fun park for the kids to play in, lots of outdoor space to explore, fun games to play and four-wheelers to ride. But when I asked Corbin if he remembered Grandpa Nash, he immediately shouted out, "Yes! Remember he played swords with me and chased me!" On our last trip to Hatch it was nearly Halloween, Corbin was in his Musketeer phase, and somehow got my 75-year-old Grandpa to chase him all around, using rulers to sword fight. I love that that is Corbin's favorite memory of Grandpa, even over all the "bigger" things we did with them. It reminds you that life is all about those little moments.

When I told him that Grandpa had died last night, his first question was, "How?" Despite my attempts to avoid exposing him to violence I think that his only knowledge of death was when superheros killed bad guys or of people killing each other in the scriptures, so he was a little concerned. After I explained death as associated with old age he seemed a lot more accepting of it. I asked him how he felt and he quite simply stated that he felt sad because he was going to miss Grandpa.

I am going to miss Grandpa too. I am sad for the all experiences he won't be here for, but I am so grateful for all the time I did have with him. Not only did I get to have him around throughout my entire childhood, but he was close throughout my college years, he got to know my husband, he was there the day I received my endowments and he held my children in his arms. I am particularly happy that he got to see his grand kids in this life and that I will forever have fond memories of him playing with my children.

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

We woke up late this morning (the kids are still adjusting to daylight savings time) with no real plans for the day. Then midway through the morning Corbin's stellar memory set in and he started talking about how "remember last year when Daddy wore his blue shirt to work and he had no green and I got to pinch him when he got home from work?!" He was so oddly excited about the whole green holiday thing that we decided it would be fun to celebrate St. Patrick's Day after all.

So we called up some of his friends (well sent out a mass text in today's world, but same idea :) and made a fun green lunch for everyone. We had pesto pasta, green cauliflower, green grapes and an avocado milkshake for dessert. My kids were far too busy complaining about the chicken in their pasta and talking to their friends to actually eat very much, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it and the kids sure had fun playing.

(Horrible picture--not even sure what Makelle is doing there, but at least we'll remember our little get together 10 years from now :)

Happy to You!

2011-02-28T13:05:00.000-08:00

Whenever Makelle refers to some one's birthday lately she calls it their "Happy to You!" She seems to have modified the phrase "Happy Birthday to You" and it comes out sounding pretty cute!

Makelle's birthday is coming up on Wednesday and my brother's birthday was last week, so we decided to celebrate with one big family dinner yesterday.

It took her awhile to catch on that it was her special day, but by the end of opening presents and eating cake we caught her saying "Happy to Me!" a couple of times with a huge grin on her face, so I'd say she had fun.

We showed her an old children's cake book and despite my attempts to steer her towards the little cooking set or nursery rhyme themed cakes she got her heart set on a little make-up table she saw. So in the end we let Corbin pick out some pick fabric scraps and little girly make-up pieces and made her her favorite cake.

We also asked her what flavor of cake she wanted and she immediately told us "stawberries," so I made my first angel food cake and we celebrated Makelle's big 2 with strawberry shortcake. It was delicious, although she hardly even ate two bites of it before she wanted to get down and go play with her brother and cousins some more.

She got a lot of fun presents, but I am pretty sure her little baby doll got just as many presents as she did.

Corbin picked out some fabric and we made Makelle and her baby a couple of sets of matching pajama pants. And Grandma Lloyd made her baby a little doll blanket. Let's just say that baby has taken about 12 naps this morning :) and Makelle is still wearing her pajama pants (although we have changed sets of pajamas a couple of times).

Grandma Miller also sent her a cute little Princess dress up outfit, complete with her own pair of high heels. She loves it and immediately got all dolled up, prancing around the house.

We had her do her own little model walk down the hall... I think she may need a bit more practice before she'll be ready for the Paris runways.

So far today we've colored and read her new books, listened to stories on her new radio, put on lots of make-up and played happily for hours.

Corbin has been really nice about playing with her and her new girly toys, but he drew the line at allowing her to give him a make-over. It was pretty funny watching her try to chase him down and paint glittery make-up or apply some lip gloss to him, while he tried to follow the rules and nicely tell her "no thank you."

All in all I'd say she is pretty happy with her haul.

Precious Moment

2011-02-24T21:11:00.000-08:00

Makelle is getting pretty good at keep her "unerwares" dry during the day, but as soon as you put her in a diaper, she just stops trying. I think that is normal, but Corbin was so easy to potty train because I just kept him in diapers until he was basically fully trained, which means I really didn't have to clean up too many accidents during the learning process.

I actually remember him holding himself with a diaper on screaming, "I gotta go potty!" and people with us thinking it was pretty funny. But I think I am just going to have to accept that that is not going to work with Makelle.

The other problem is at this age, we had switched Corbin to a toddler bed, so I could expect him to start to learn how to get up and go potty on his own in the morning or during nap time, when we introduced sleeping in underwear.

However, until we are able to get a new house with room for a twin bed for Corbin, he will be retaining ownership of the toddler bed and Makelle is staying in the crib. So I don't know how to teach her to go potty when she is caged in.

Then today I was changing the sheets on the kids' beds (which I usually remove the mattress from the crib to do, especially with a growing belly, it just seems easier) and decided to leave the mattress on the floor tonight to see how she even did going to sleep without being locked in.

I actually only had to go in their room once because they were both crying about being hungry (there is always something :) but then they settled down pretty quick, so I snuck in to go check on them and this is what I found:

Melts your heart a little bit--and makes you feel bad at the same time. Corbin hardly even fits on that little bed anymore, let alone letting his sister climb into bed with him. At least baby doll looks comfy! They are so precious. I love that they are still such good friends (most of the time :)

Free Day at the Zoo

2011-02-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

The last Wednesday of each month during the Hogle Zoo's winter season they have a free admission day. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and get out of the house yesterday.

We wandered around and took our time looking at everything. It gets funner and funner (is that real word?) each time I take them there. They ask more questions and seem to latch onto something new every time and especially Corbin now loves to learn about science and nature.

This time both of the kids spent quite awhile staring at the dead insect board, which I think we have always just sort of glanced at as we hurried by in the past, but this year Makelle loved the butterflies and Corbin seemed really interested in learning which insects--and snakes that were nearby--were poisonous. He also liked looking at their little color dots and finding where they live on a large map.

We watched the trainers feed the elephants and got them to do a few tricks for us, which Makelle loved. "Elephant sitting down!" "I hear it!" "Big ears!" It was fun.

We also spent a good amount of time sitting and watching the baby orangutan. He was by far the most active zoo animal I have ever seen. We sat there for at least 30 minutes and the entire time he kept running around, playing with a cup, swinging clear across the cage and back, dragging a blanket around, putting a burlap sack on his head, and the kids' favorite, poking at, jumping on, tugging on and laying on his mom and dad; clearly trying desperately to get someone to play with him. It was so funny, I could have sworn it was Corbin in there... he acted nearly identical to my child.

It is so great to do something fun with the kids, while being able to teach them at the same time. And at least for now, they actually like being taught and getting to learn as they play.

Side note I want to remember: Corbin has been working on learning his right and left lately.(I swear you would think he could at least get it correct 50% of the time, but somehow I would say his shoes end up on the wrong foot 75-80% of the time and so I am determined to teach him so I don't have to intervene all the time.) At first we tried to teach him to remember that he writes with his right hand. Then earlier in the week when he was holding a pencil and trying to trace a right path on a worksheet, I asked him to think about what hand his pencil was in, at which point I realized he was actually holding the pencil in his left hand--the opposite of what he was doing the last time we had this little lesson. So he tells me, "I don't know what hand I hold it in, sometimes this one (holds up right hand) and then when that one gets tired of writing I put it in my other hand. No wonder the boy has such horrible penmanship! So anyway we switched to learning that your left hand looks like an "L" but on the right hand the "L" is backward. That seems to be working better and he spent our zoo trip with map in hand learning how to navigate to find the next animal he wanted to see. It was pretty fun to watch him as he learned how directions work.

Getting Braver

2011-02-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

After over 4 years of being a parent, I finally broke down and agreed to let the kids try their hand at finger painting.

Given their mom's "please don't ruin your clothes or stain our furniture" lecture that they receive almost daily, they both looked a little hesitant to smear paint on their fingers and go to town. But once they realized I really was encouraging this crazy idea, they started in and really liked it.

Corbin even started out his first painting by writing "I luv yu" which made it all worth it!

"I do it!"

2011-02-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

Makelle's favorite line by far is, "I do it!" Not even two and she insists on doing everything her self. (Everyone says she gets this from me, but I just don't see it :)

The problem is her capabilities are no where near her self perceived abilities. But she'd rather hang on to her self pride and walk around like a penguin for half the day than admit that she needs help. (Again, I just don't see the similarity :)

We're having another...

2011-02-08T10:15:00.001-08:00

BOY!

I had a birthday,

2011-02-08T10:01:00.000-08:00

Shout hurray!

I didn't take any pictures so I neglected to ever blog about my birthday this year, but it was a great one nonetheless.

Caleb actually left work early (meaning 6:00 :) and got home in time to go to a show at the cheap movie theater in Kaysville. We took the kids to see Alpha and Omega. Being married to an accountant with a birthday in January I think that this was the first year we have hung out on my actual birthday, so it was fun to get to do something with the whole family.

Then on Saturday my parents watched the kiddos and we got to go on a fun date and hang together all afternoon.

Sunday we went to my parents' house for dinner and an ice cream cake. Yummy! We ate fruit, salad, rolls, chicken cordon bleu and roasted vegetables.

So I got to enjoy a full week of fun celebrations, it was super fun.

Fun Stuff

2011-01-16T18:21:00.000-08:00

In recent news:

Makelle's pigtails finally have a "tail," albeit, only an inch long tail, but still we are making progress in the hair growth department, and she looks pretty cute!

Corbin has learned how to play the xbox with his Dad. Caleb hasn't really played since his brother, and gaming buddy, moved back east, but Corbin discovered the Ultimate Alliance video game with a bunch of action figures on the front and asked Caleb to teach him how to play. He was surprisingly good at maneuvering that guy around and could mash random buttons with the best of them during a fight, so now Caleb has a new gaming buddy.

Corbin is at that age where he likes to phonetically spell out words and is starting to write things on his own... only he HATES writing with a passion and is borderline horrible at it, so he has recently become excited to discover Microsoft Word.

For those needing a translation, he was making a list of his favorite things, "I like books" and "I like my mommy" he told me he was planning to type "I like TV" next, but got distracted when his sister asked me to read a book and he wanted to join in... it is number one on his list after all :)

Sweet Tooth

2011-01-07T15:17:00.001-08:00

Corbin has never really liked desserts or had much a sweet tooth. He honesty likes graham crackers more than suckers, that is his idea of a treat.

For example: Tonight after eating his dinner Corbin wanted to know if for dessert he could have some Grapenuts... with a little bit of honey :o ! I don't think that kid is normal.

Makelle however, is definitely a sweets girl! Oh my gosh she will eat anything with sugar she can get her hands on. And her hands are getting into more and more things lately.

I made a small batch of brownies and set them up on our counter, where I thought they were out of reach. While I busy in the other room she dragged the stool out to the kitchen climbed up to get them and sat down to eat a little treat.

We are going to have to keep our eyes on this one!

Potty Training

2011-01-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

The past month or so Makelle has been at point where if you take off her diaper and let her run around naked all day she will go potty in the bathroom everytime. We have yet to have an accident, except once when I forgot to leave the bathroom door opened and ignored her calls for help until it was too late. Oops.

Being morning sick and tyring to get through the Holidays I was too lazy to start actual potty training though, so I just let her do whatever she wanted. Some days she would be in diapers all day and some days she would undress herself and run about naked.

So with the holidays behind us and starting to feel better during the day time, I bought Makelle some underware and juiceboxes (my neighbors brilliant idea for a reward system that makes them need to go even more :) and we started in today. At first she just kept taking them off and trying to run about naked still (I probably shouldn't have let that go on for a whole month, but oh well). But eventually she has kept them on and dry all morning, and already gone potty four times... we may need to buy more juice boxes!

Snowboard Trip

2011-01-04T20:01:00.001-08:00

The week between Christmas and New Year's we went down to Southern Utah to spend some time with the Millers. We all ended up staying in a cabin up at Brianhead together and Corbin got to go snowboarding for the first time. He loved it!

We started out making him practice on a little hill by the parking lot and after he got good enough to go down and balance mostly on his own, Caleb took him up the lift and they rode down the bunny hill together.

We spent the rest of the week playing games, watching movies, reading books, visiting with family... all the typical relaxing vacation activities.

We wanted to take the kids out sledding the last day up there, but we decided to just hurry home and get back before the New Year's Eve drunk drivers hit the roads in full force and so that we would have time to do something fun to celebrate the New Year.

Then Corbin and I got carsick (well mine was morning sickness enhanced by motion) and threw up, plus the kids didn't get the most sleep that week staying up late playing with cousins and new toys so instead we got home, unloaded the car and the kids and I were asleep by 10:00. Lucky Caleb has such a fun wife! So he stayed up and did his own thing and watched the ball drop for us :) Yay 2011!

Santa Came!

2011-01-04T19:36:00.001-08:00

This year was the first time we stayed at home with just our little family for Christmas morning. It was divine.

Makelle got a doll and was beyond thrilled, she has toted that baby around with her ever since. She clearly doesn't understand the whole "Santa" concept and has no idea where it came from, but boy does she love that doll. Sooo girlie! Although I have to say we discovered it has an "on" feature that will make the baby cry until you give it its pacifier and when we tried to show her she started whimpering and backing away from it until she finally screamed and threw it on the floor. So I guess she does have some of her mother's lack of feminine traits in her :)

Bean got a cool Buzz Lightyear, that can do practically everything that the one in the movie can do (except come alive when we turn our backs... or does he?). We coordinated well with Santa and also got him the movie and he keeps asking if he can write Andy's name on the bottom of Buzz's foot. Not his own name mind you, he wants it to say "Andy," just like the movie.

His dad also got him a lightsaber so that they can imagine themselves as intergalactic warriors now as well as the regular earthling ones :) He loves that it changes colors when you hit stuff with it and we just love that it makes battle noises the entire time it is on. What a great toy!

We had a slow, lazy morning opening presents and eating a giant breakfast, which included half a case of fresh squeezed orange juice, thanks to Caleb. Then we went up to my parents' house and had round two of present opening. We stayed up there all day and the kids played with their new toys while we watched movies and played games.

It was great; best day ever.

Who eats just one pistachio?

2010-12-27T07:53:00.000-08:00

Corbin does!

Add one more to the list of Corbin food allergies.

milk*
eggs*
cashews
fish
peas
turkey
lentils
pistachios

*These two are still cause the most severe reaction though.

Mary and Joseph Dinner

2010-12-23T19:19:00.000-08:00

Caleb and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary this year. Thus far we have opted to always pick out a traditional gift for each other. The fifth year is something wooden, so I bought Caleb a small wooden dish set so we could begin to carry on his family's Christmas Eve Dinner tradition.

Tomorrow we are having a big get together with the Lloyd side of the family so we decided to have our own little pre-Christmas Eve dinner tonight with the kids. We ate all sorts of yummy foods that we guessed to be somewhat authentic biblical foods. Rice, fish, avocados, olives, dried fruit, nuts, cheese and grape juice. We also ate off wooden dishes with our fingers by candlelight.

(Corbin has no shirt on because before we could even say a prayer he managed to spill the grape juice down his chest. Authentic or not we broke out the sippie cups after that, how did Mary do it?)

The kids LOVED it! I mean, Makelle eats with her fingers every night, but for the rest of us it was a fun change of pace and a good reminder of what Christmas is all about.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

2010-12-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

Being pregnant has meant that I have been sick and unmotivated to do much this Christmas. So this past weekend we tried to make up for it and cram a whole month's worth of activities into two days.

We went out to eat, watched Christmas movies, read Christmas books, did some holiday shopping, baked a gingerbread house and saw the lights on temple square.

(I have no idea why the boy is wearing swimming goggles, some days I just don't ask :)

We are now officially ready for Christmas to come!

Coming June 2011

2010-12-18T19:08:00.000-08:00

I had to break out the maternity clothes today, so I guess it is time to announce that baby Miller #3 will be here in 6 months! I seem to have gotten chubby fast this time... I suppose all those holiday treats aren't helping, but we'll pretend it is all due to the baby :)

The Power of Prayer

2010-12-08T21:13:00.000-08:00

Lately Corbin has begun to use prayers to his advantage. For example, tonight he was asked to give the prayer, during which he stated, "thank you mom is going to stay and rock Makelle and talk to me tonight..." Let's just say no such promise was ever made or even discussed prior to his prayer.

Similar moments have occured here and there lately. "Thank you I get to play outside later... thank you I get to eat a treat tonight... etc." I guess if you have enough faith to thank Heavenly Father for things before they ever happen it will all work out. (So far Mom seems to make it happen anyway :)

Meeting Santa

2010-12-05T10:38:00.000-08:00

The kids each got to meet Santa at our Ward Christmas Party this year. I think we were fully able to capture their individual personalities.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

2010-12-05T10:20:00.000-08:00

We just didn't have the energy to go cut down our own Christmas tree this year, but we did make a family trek over to Smith's where we got to wander around the garden center and pick one out. The kids were beyond excited about the whole process and especially loved decorating.

(All of the ornaments somehow clustered together around the bottom 2 1/2 feet of the tree, but we "helped" rearrange them after the kids went to bed that night.)

And now our house smells like Christmas, I love it.

A Glimpse into Corbin's Mind

2010-12-02T11:35:00.000-08:00

We had tithing settlement on Sunday, plus we had to stay after for a little while as well, so we ended up at church for quite awhile and Corbin started complaining. Later at home, Caleb sat him down and tried to teach him that being at church should be a positive experience. After their discussion he wanted to make sure Corbin understood so he asked him,

“Corbin, is going to church a good thing or a bad thing?”

Bean looks at him, cocks his head to the side, ever so slightly, raises his eyebrow, as though he is really thinking hard about the question and then looks up, makes direct eye contact with Caleb and says, with full confidence,

“I think the word you’re searching for is ‘Temples’”

???

Let's just say we both burst out laughing. Glad to know you are really listening when we are making these concentrated efforts to teach you buddy.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T11:24:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving we went down to Cedar City to visit Caleb's mom. Rather than cooking and cleaning all day long we ended up going out to eat dinner at The Garden House, which was delicious!

We spent the rest of the time

playing games,

doing puzzles,

reading books,

visiting with family,

playing outside in the snow,

watching movies,

playing with toys,

doing crafts and

lots of relaxing.

It was a great holiday.

One Year Older and Wiser Too

2010-11-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

Corbin turned 4 years old on Saturday. To celebrate Caleb took him on a "boy adventure" (aka a father and son outing). They went out to eat at McDonalds... where neither of them like nor really eat the food, but Corbin loves to play in the play place area. Then they went to see Mega Mind in 3D, which was Corbin's first experience with things "popping out." He seemed to love it.

While he was gone Makelle took a little nap while I furiously painted away, trying to finish Bean's birthday present. We (well I) decided it would be a great idea to build him a toy castle to go with his dragons and knights that he really wanted, since I am too picky and couldn't find one I liked at a reasonable price. It sure sounded like a good idea when I started it, but it began to lose its appeal at 2 am on Saturday night as we were desperately trying to nail the whole thing together in time for his party the next day.

Come Sunday afternoon we went up to my parent's house and it was all worth it watching him play knights and dragons with his cousins and enjoy his new present. It was fun, hopefully he enjoys it for a long time to come.

Before opening his presents though we had our normal Sunday dinner with my parents, only Corbin got to select the menu. So for dinner we all had pancakes with whip cream, hash browns, hot chocolate, fruit and bacon.

He got lots of fun presents from everyone this year including new books, a movie, computer game, a cool inflatable pirate ship game, clothes, a knight costume from his sister, a dinosaur, a puzzle, his first nerf gun, and a wonderful new pet. I have to admit, I wasn't very excited when my brother told me they wanted to get him a fish, but the kids really seem to love Bullseye. Makelle especially will push their little stool over to the dresser and stare at that fish for hours, I swear.

Anyway, it was a great day, and I love that he hasn't asked to watch TV all week, he just gets up and spends the day rotating through his new toys.

Two of his good friends from our neighborhood happen to have birthdays a couple days apart from him so today we all went to Arctic Circle and ate sweet potato fries and played on the indoor toys.

We had a really fun weekend celebrating our wonderful little boy. The past four years have been great, having that kid around. He is so fun! Happy Birthday Buddy!

Aww... the first snowfall

2010-11-09T13:41:00.001-08:00

Corbin

Makelle

Building a snowman

Playing with a snowman

Creating snowcastles

Filling up on hot chocolate

The perfect day!

Apple Pick'n

2010-11-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

Despite it being November already it was still perfect apple picking weather today. My mom's neighbor was appled out and told us we could take anything we wanted that was left on their trees.

I took the kids with me thinking they could pick up the ones that fell on the ground while I climbed up the ladder and into the tree. No dice. Corbin would not stay on the ground. Every time I got on the ladder he'd start up the tree branches. Whenever I was up the tree I'd look down and he'd be halfway up the ladder... crazy child.

It was fun though and we filled six of those totes up with delicious apples. Tomorrow: homemade applesauce and yummy apple juice.

Happy Halloween

2010-11-02T11:28:00.000-07:00

In the past we have always been able to think of something related to Corbin's current interests to dress up as for Halloween and he's gone right along with it. This year I thought it would be fun (and easy) to just do traditional Halloween monsters (mummy, skeleton, witch, Frankenstein) but Corbin really wanted to be a musketeer.

I wasn't particularly thrilled about dressing Makelle up in a boy costume, since she already has no hair, so I ended up making matching dresses for us girls and tabards for the boys. Corbin went back and forth for awhile there trying to identify everyone... some days we were the four musketeers, some days they were musketeers saving the princesses, but by the end I think he settled on Caleb, Makelle and I as the three musketeers and he was D'Artagnan. So I guess it works, whatever we were the kids looked cute!

(I am pretty sure the motivating force behind wanting to be musketeers was getting to play with swords all night :)

With Halloween being on a Sunday this year we seem to have turned it into an entire weekend of festivities. On Friday we went to Caleb's office party where the kids got to hang out and go trick-or-treating around to his coworkers. Then we went up to our friends' house for a Halloween party that night. On Saturday we hung out and watched Scooby-Doo then went to our ward Halloween party where the kids played little carnival games, ate dinner and of course got more candy! After we left the church we drove up and spent the rest of the evening visiting with family. It was a busy, but fun, weekend.

Because of his food allergies, Corbin has never really been much a candy eater... but we certainly discovered Makelle's sweet tooth this year. It did not take her long at all to catch onto the idea of trick-or-treating as soon as she realized people were giving her loads of goodies. She never quite got in the full "trick-or-treat" part though, it was usually just "treat!" while smiling big and holding out her bucket. She knows what she wants and how to get it, that one :)

Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

This year my parents grew quite a few pumpkins in their garden so on Sunday we went down and let the kids pick out a pumpkin. Naturally, Corbin chose the largest one in the entire patch and Makelle ended up with a cute little round one.

Then last night for family home evening we ended up carving the pumpkins. So far we have always just carved one nice family pumpkin together that somehow relates to our costume theme for the year. So here is a little preview of what our costumes will be.

Makelle was all for digging out the gunk from the center of the pumpkin, whereas we had to force Corbin to touch one handful so that I could take a picture. For some reason that boy has always shied away from getting dirty.

Weekend in Paradise :)

2010-10-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Every summer we like to take a trip down to Southern Utah and visit Caleb's family and my grandparents, but Caleb has been working so much the past umm... 9 months or so, we weren't able to make it this year.

So after hearing Corbin ask when he would get to see the "really old Grandpa" for the umpteenth time, I talked to my mom, who agreed to accompany me and the kids down to Hatch for a quick visit.

Bean is really attached to my Grandpa, he doesn't see him very often, but for some reason he is quite enthralled with with Grandpa Nash. Luckily Grandpa is pretty willing to hang out with him, although I am sure he welcomed the peaceful calm after we left.

There is only so much to do in Hatch, Utah, but I think we covered pretty much all of it. Playing at the park, feeding horses, shopping over in the "big town" (Panguitch), four-wheeler rides, and of course loads of fun card games and chit-chat.

Messy Masks

2010-10-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

For Family Home Evening tonight we ended up painting Halloween masks. Needless to say I think the kids liked it.

Also... Makelle now has a patch of green hair that I think will likely take a few more days to completely fade out :)

Adams Canyon

2010-10-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

We have had the nicest fall weather this year so I was excited when my mom and Matt invited us (me and the kiddos, Caleb unfortunately does not get work off for UEA :) on a hike up Adams Canyon on Friday.

We started out at a little picnic area north of the trail head and within 10 minutes Corbin started asking how much longer we were going to hiking before we got to the waterfall. Not a good sign! I thought for sure we were going to have to stop along the way and let the kids run around while my mom and Matt went on ahead and we'd connect back up with them on their way down. But somehow we made it through the sandy dessert path that led back into the forest area and once we hit the rocks and trees Corbin started loving every minute of it.

The worst part was simply his desire to do everything himself. "Sorry buddy, we are climbing vertically up a bed of loose rocks, you have to hold my hand." In the end we somehow made it all the way up and it was fun to see his sense of accomplishment, I think he was pretty proud of himself.

It was pretty fun, and I am so impressed that Corbin hiked nearly 5 miles round trip. (I did put him into the kid carrier the last little bit when we got back to the boring, hot sand part again. I figured Makelle could probably walk the last little bit if he did get tired, but since we got a later start she fell asleep about the time he started saying his legs were tired. Luckily my mom was willing to haul a sleeping toddler through the dessert for nearly a mile for me :) It was a fun hike and let me just say, those kids slept well that night!

Corbin later told me that playing on this rock with Matt was his favorite part of the hike. Why do I bother? :)

Corbin Quote

2010-10-07T13:43:00.001-07:00

In response to asking if he can watch a movie, I reminded Corbin that he has to finish his daily assignments first.

To which he responds, "But Mommy, I don't do work during Halloween month. I just spend my time with my family."

Nice try kiddo, but we don't take off a whole month to celebrate Halloween.

Not to mention... how many 3-year-olds use phrases like, "I just spend my time with my family?"

Conference

2010-10-06T23:24:00.000-07:00

In following with our new family tradition, we woke up and made some delicious pancakes with strawberries and whip cream for breakfast. Then we laid around and watched general conference together as a family all weekend. I remember having a hard time sitting still and focusing for so long when I was younger, but now conference weekend is something we look forward to. It is so relaxing and inspiring. We love it!

Celeste was in town for her med school interview at the U, so we got to spend sometime visiting with her. Corbin still expresses his gratitude for her visit almost daily in his prayers, so I guess you could say he enjoyed seeing his Aunt.

This year I broke down and bought some overpriced vegan whip cream and let Corbin try some on his pancakes for the first time, and he is in love! The simplest little things, like watching your child eat whip cream for the first time is such a delight... obviously something I never would have imagined myself saying.

My favorite part was when Makelle took her first bite she looks up at me and says, "teat!" with a giant smile on her face. Yes Makelle, we are calling it breakfast, but let's face it, pancakes, syrup, strawberries and whip cream basically are a full on treat.

Tiny Little Miss

2010-09-30T15:25:00.001-07:00

Makelle is such a tiny little thing. This really hit me today as we dragged out the old Halloween costumes and I discovered that her costume from when she was 6 months old still fits her. Not like, "oh it was tight, but she was able to squeeze into it." I mean full on, a little loose in the front still, length fits different since she can stand up and walk now, but otherwise it's a perfect fit.

Should I be concerned?... grow Makelle, grow.

Vegas Vacation

2010-09-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

Last week Caleb had a training for work in Las Vegas. His company put him up in the Four Seasons , a super nice 5 star hotel, with a killer view.

My mom was kind enough to take our children for 4 days and I tagged along with him. It was the longest we have ever been away from them, and I have to say it was weird not having two little kiddos. The first day I slept in, took a hot bath, read my book, watched Man vs. Wild (it is my new favorite TV show lately), worked out in the fitness center and it was only 1 o'clock in the afternoon. It would have taken me a full week to find time to myself to get all that done at home :) So relaxing!

At night we were able to hang out together. We went to dinner and a show and somehow ended up spending our entire evening with senior citizens. After a night out with his coworker the first night, we wanted a break from all the noise, lights, smells and sights of the strip so we ducked into a Denny's where I am certain we were the only ones not getting 15% off our bill that evening. Afterwards we went to the Frank Caliendo show, which we had read extensive reviews about ahead of time. What we neglected to consider is that clean, comedic impression shows on the Las Vegas Boulevard apparently don't appeal to anyone within at least 2 decades of our own age range. He was hilarious though, and we had a blast.

It was nice to get away for a little while and enjoy sometime together without the demands of home and kids and work etc, but coming home we were so excited to hug those little guys, I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Beauty Salon

2010-09-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

Makelle is PURE GIRL! She loves accessorizing (rather scary for a tom-boy of a mom, but we'll survive :) So this week we bought her some nail polish and she got her first manicure. Caleb held out all the bottles for her to choose from and she of course instantly grabbed the pink, glittery one. (How does she know?) So we set her up and painted her fingernails pink for her.

For the most part she sat perfectly still and helped blow on them when they were drying. I told her to hop down and go show Daddy and she ran over to him grinning from ear to ear saying, "pitty, pitty!" (Meaning pretty, pretty.)

Then she immediately ran back and handed me the bottle sitting on the table, grabbed the paper, set in on her lap, and started saying, "mo, mo" while frantically signing more. So naturally we followed it up with her first pedicure. If anyone sees her this week, be sure to compliment those nails, because ~~boy~~ girl, is she ever proud of them.

Fun on the Farm (err... garden?)

2010-09-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

My parents let us plant some stuff in their garden and my grandma gave me an old pressure canner. The result has been learning a lot about cooking and storing tons of produce. We have bottled enchilada sauce, chili, white chili, tomatoes, green beans, and pears... so far. I have also frozen some bags of corn, carrots, pesto and zucchini. As well as dried plums and pears. We eat fresh fruits (from the wonderful Bountiful Baskets program) and veggies all day everyday, and I absolutely LOVE it! Here are some of the highlights of our abundant summer.

I was pretty focused on helping to can the green beans and apparently not being a very attentive parent.

As kids living on the farm, I still remember 'corn days.' There are several steps in getting the corn from the field to the freezer and everyone was always assigned a job based on age and ability. That combination always left me as the 'scraper.' My job was to take a butter knife and scrape the old cobs to get off all the little pieces still clinging onto the sides. This year, I decided to impart my extensive knowledge of corn scrapping onto Corbin. He lasted through about 1 1/2 ears before he got bored and wandered off. But don't worry, Makelle was more than willing to pick up where he left off. She also worked as an unofficial and unwanted taste-tester who ate massive amounts of corn, indigestible by her little tummy. Lovely.

The kids were pretty excited about this gigantic carrot that grew (I guess you really should thin those things out :)

Last year my parents gave me a juicer, which we LOVE to use for all sorts of veggie and fruit juices. In combination with our trusty blender we have been enjoying lots of healthy (and not so healthy) smoothies. Some of us clearly show our love of a good concoction more than others.

We have also enjoyed massive amounts of fresh picked, made from scratch recipes. Our favorites include spaghetti sauce (Corbin thoroughly enjoys squishing the tomatoes), salsa, roasted veggies, grilled veggies, flavored ice cream, pie, stir fry, homemade yogurt and tons of different salads.

Or Not...?

2010-09-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

We thought Makelle was growing up and becoming a big girl starting nursery. Then that night we went up to my parents' house for a family dinner and they had the baby swing out for 4-month-old Wesley. She must have thought it looked pretty great because not only did she climb in, but she sat there rocking long enough to fall asleep. Pathetic, yet cute.

Our Big Little Girl

2010-09-06T09:58:00.001-07:00

Makelle turned 1 1/2 and went to nursery for the first time. She is a clingy little Mama's girl, so we weren't sure how she'd do, but she loved it! Corbin held her hand and walked her down there (I think he was as excited as we were and definately more so than she was :) and when we got there the toys weren't even out yet, but she ran right in with the other kids and literally never even looked back. So weird to have two kids old enough to go to classes, we are turning into less and less of a young family.

Beat the Heat

2010-09-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

We have no central air at our house, but we do have a pool. Thus, we went swimming probably 3 or 4 times a week all summer long.

Not a bad life.

Yay Makelle!

2010-08-31T12:50:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Makelle went pee in the toilet! Being only 1 1/2 I am sure we are not ready for potty training, but she patted her bum and indicated she wanted to sit on the potty, so I let her, and walla.

She usually tells me when she needs her diaper changed, by patting her bum, and maybe a week or two ago she started doing it right before she messed her diaper. I let her sit on the toilet one other time last week, but she sat there for a couple seconds and then stood up and relieved herself all over the floor, right next to the potty. But today I was feeling patient and decided to let her have her fun and feel like a big girl again and she actually went where she was supposed to. This of course resulted in a massive amount of praise and a sucker. Good job sweetheart!

County Fair

2010-08-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to the Davis County Fair on Friday. We stood in the extreme heat all day for the opportunity to look at a petting zoo. (They wouldn't even let the kids touch the animals, despite the giant "Petting Zoo" sign hanging above them... how lame is that?) At least they had a cool fence that the kids could swing on, so all was not lost.

The kids also went on a pony ride. I couldn't get any good pictures, because Makelle had a death grip on my arm the entire time, but afterwards she started saying, "more, more!" and trying to run back into the arena. I asked Corbin if he had fun and he rolled his eyes and said, "ya Mom." I can't believe he is already getting to the 'talking to my mom about my feelings' isn't cool age.

After the ponies we passed the little carnival area and they talked me into blowing $4 on a little motorcycle ride.

Then we went onto the booths where some lady was selling cheap (as in cost and quality :) toys out of banana boxes and I once again caved and offered them more money, so they could each pick out one souvenir. (This is why moms shouldn't go the fair on their own, I needed Caleb for back up support when they pull their cute little faces out wanting something.) In typical Corbin/Makelle fashion Corbin went for the most boyish thing he could find and Makelle immediately gravitated towards the girlie accessories. So in the end we went home with some little action figures and a few new bracelets.

We ended the day watching the educational tiger show and seeing some dogs compete trying to jump the farthest off a platform into a pool while the kids ate a picnic dinner. Being a stay-at-home mom is the best.

Playtime

2010-08-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

This summer we have spent a lot of time outside playing and riding bikes. Corbin decided it was high time Makelle learn to ride a big bike like him. He is so good at always trying to teach her how to do everything he deems important.

Thumbs Up

2010-08-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Makelle was playing with Corbin's sunglasses the other day. We told her she looked cool and she promptly agreed.

Camping with the Walkers

2010-08-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

We went on our annual camping trip with the Walkers up by Causey Dam. They brought their canoe and kayaks up so we got to play on the water all day Thursday. Both of the kids kept wanting to get out of the canoe, so I finally tossed them both in the water. Makelle screamed until her dad pulled her back in, whereas Corbin decided it was incredibly fun to get pulled along behind the canoe on a little rope. It turns out a tiny little 3-year-old can create quite a bit of drag and make a lot more work for the parents left paddling inside. He also got pretty upset that I wouldn't let him dive off of the 20 foot cliffs like all of the teenage boys he saw up there over the weekend. Crazy child.

Corbin caught a couple of fish for the first time. He even felt the tug and reeled them most of the way in himself.

We borrowed the pictures from Harm and Derek's blog, but also couldn't help but borrow this text as well:

Melinda to Caleb: Why did you teach our son to play with fire?
Caleb to Melinda: I taught him the rules.
Caleb to Corbin : Do we poke people with our fire sticks?
Corbin: No
Caleb to Corbin: Do we pull our stick out of the fire?
Corbin: No
Caleb to Melinda: See?

We found our own private little grove next to our campsite, which was perfect for playing cards in and for caging the kids in, since it was virtually surrounded on all sides. Perfect :)

We played with glowsticks after it got dark. Useful, not only for entertaining adults and children alike, but also to ensure you can easily follow your pitch black dog, should she start to wander too far from camp. (This is suppose to say Makelle, you can sort of see it, right?)

Camping

2010-07-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

We took the kids camping this past weekend for a quick overnighter up Farmington Canyon. It was a blast. There is something so great about being surrounded by the outdoors, kids just love it. We did everything from hiking to relaxing around camp to cooking over a fire to roasting marshmallows to sleeping in a tent.

To Caleb's great annoyance, I may or may not have been a know-it-all and accidentally landed us wandering around much longer than planned on our little hike. Caleb of course, used this experience as an opportunity to teach Corbin about how the Israelites were forced to wander the wilderness for 40 years as a punishment for being wicked, thanks friend!

Caleb has a long standing love of IBC rootbeer... we like to practice the whole 'avoid the very appearance of evil thing' :)

Corbin and Makelle both had smores for the first time, they definitely discovered a new love.

Corbin has always been a great, deep sleeper and we could put him to bed anywhere. Makelle tossed and turned and whined ALL night long, apparently she doesn't like the rock hard ground. SOO girlie!

Fireworks

2010-07-08T10:41:00.001-07:00

We watched/played with fireworks a few different times over the past several days. The Walkers brought the kids some sparklers on Friday, we sat outside the stadium and watched the Provo fireworks on Saturday night and last night we had a bunch of people over for the annual Miller Family Tank Wars.

Pledge of Allegiance

2010-07-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

We attended the Andersen Family Reunion this weekend and Corbin worked really hard all week to learn the Pledge of Allegiance so that he could recite it for everyone with his cousins.

Next year we'll work on being in unison :)

New Favorite Toy

2010-07-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

I got tired of my wooden spoons always disappearing and of finding long sticks snuck into the house, so I gave in and bought the kids some foam swords--they are both in love.

(If you turn up your volume you can hear Makelle yell "cheese" when she notices the camera and runs off.)

Bonfire

2010-06-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

We swam most of the day today and then threw the kids in the shower and got them all cleaned up before deciding to take a mini trip up Farmington canyon for the night. It was fun to get out of the house and hike around exploring 'the forest' as a family. We even built a fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows before heading home for the night. Who knew kids could get so dirty so fast?

Little Fish

2010-06-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

You can definitely tell that Corbin has grown up with a pool every summer of his life, because he LOVES the water. This year he was actually old enough to take swimming lessons and start to learn the correct way to swim.

He became best friends with the all the other little kids in his class within about 2 minutes and got so excited to go swim with Miley, Collin, James and his teacher, Kayleen, everyday. He did awesome and passed off the requirements for preschool level 1 within the first few days (submerge head, blow bubbles, move arms and legs simultaneously, etc.) and then his teacher let him move up and start working on the next level.

At his level they basically work on teaching him the right form, while supporting him in the water. On his own, he can jump in and paddle far enough to get back to the edge, float on his back and sort of tread water.

Makelle made friends with all the younger siblings of the kids in Corbin's class. Somehow three of the four kids had family dynamics nearly identical to ours, so she had fun at his swimming lessons as well.

Everyday on our way out of the rec center we would have to stop and let the kids play on the rock wall. Corbin can climb maybe 2 feet off the ground on his own, but loves it and is so proud of his own mad skills :) Makelle jumps around on the landing mat, only her feet never actually leave the ground... I love toddlers, they are so fun!

So proud of this kid

2010-06-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

I am so impressed with how fast Corbin learns. He knows a few dozen little words by sight and can sound out most short, phonetically correct words. The biggest challenge is finding good books for him to read, because he has a ridiculously good memory and starts to regurgitate sentences the second time around, rather than actually reading anything. Thank goodness for libraries.

And so it begins...

2010-06-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

Good bye real world, the World Cup has officially begun and thus we won't be interacting with you for the next month or so.

Let's just say, Caleb is happy.

Rainy Day

2010-06-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

It rained on and off most of the day today. Lately the kids have gotten used to going out to play for at least a little while every day, so it took some extra effort keeping them entertained today.

While Makelle was napping Corbin and I worked on writing together. I was SOOO excited for him, as he is finally getting able to write his own name legibly (I know I am using the term loosely :) He has been trying to accomplish this for some time for the sole purpose of wanting to fill out his own name tag at the library during story time, like all the big kids do.

Proud Mom moment.

Party Animal

2010-06-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

Apparently our entire neighborhood was born in the late spring/early summer, because Corbin has been to a half a dozen birthday parties lately. Sometimes he has a hard time accepting that it isn't his birthday, but for the most part he does really well and has fun playing with all his little friends.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

2010-06-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

I think summer is finally starting to show up in Utah. It has been such a cold spring, we are excited to get outside and play!

Caleb took the day off on Friday and we went on a family adventure. I had to run in and meet with a client in the morning, so Caleb packed some oatmeal and took the kids to breakfast at Carl's Jr. (Corbin hates the food there, but LOVES their play place.) Then we all went to the Living Planet Aquarium.

Makelle is getting to the age where she finds things just facinating and will stare and point forever. Corbin is getting to the age where he wants to rush through everything and ran from exhibit to exhibit as quickly as possible. So it was an interesting balance trying to hurry Makelle along while slowing Corbin down and trying to teach them each something new along the way.

After the aquarium we stopped at In-N-Out on the way home, because Caleb can't drive past 106th south without getting one of their yummy hamburgers. Corbin developed a love of french fries dipped in cinnamon applesauce.

When we got home Corbin got to go the the neighborhood Popsicle Party to celebrate the last day of school. He obviously didn't understand what we were celebrating, but enjoyed running around with all the kids and eating popsicles.

Back at home we had a late nap and quick dinner before Caleb and I had to leave for our soccer game. We won. 4-0. It was a fun game, we (meaning primarily Caleb, not I) actually made good passes and set up plays. Much better than the whole team running around in different directions with everyone doing their own thing. The kids got to visit Grandma and Grandpa's house while we played, where they of course got spoiled and had a fun bonfire roasting marshmallows.

It was a long, but fun day. And it is so great to still have the whole weekend left. We love vacation days!

Makelle's First Haircut

2010-06-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

I trimmed Makelle's hair today. I don't think it really qualifies as her first haircut, since I only cut about 1 cm off of 10 different hairs, but all the same she looks pretty cute now--in a bald, boyish sense :)

It obviously wasn't long enough to need an actual cut, but there were a couple of spots around her ears where she was sprouting little wings. So I trimmed around the neck and ears to get rid of the couple of long fly-a-ways she had. As you can see it made such a HUGE difference!
Before:
After:

Family Outing

2010-05-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

It being a holiday weekend and all we decided to get out of the house and spend some quality time together as a family. So we took the kids out to eat at Applebees... they were surprisingly well behaved and it was actually quite enjoyable.

Then we all went bowling together. Corbin enjoyed it a lot more this time and was pretty excited when he was able to knock over some pins. He even held the ball the correct way (you make your hand like you are shooting Spiderman's webbing :) and would barely drop it down the lane. Approximately 5 minutes later it would strike a few of the pins after having ricocheted off the bumpers numerous times on the way down. He was cute.

Makelle was adorable. We let her use the little bowling ramp and she was so proud of herself whenever she would push the ball off the ramp. I am pretty sure she thought that was the extent of the game we were playing because she would clap for herself every time she pushed it off and then run to get another ball without ever taking note of where the ball was going, let alone how many pins she got. One-year-olds are great.

After we were done Caleb let the kids go play in the arcade room for a little while. Corbin played the kiddie games and got rewarded with some tickets that he spent on little toys.

Makelle quickly discovered the dancing game and couldn't have been happier. Oh boy what are we gonna do with this one?

Garden Club

2010-05-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

My parents let us plant a couple of rows of vegetables in their garden this year and I brought the kids up to help me work this week.

Makelle liked playing in the dirt, pulling all the twine out of its roll, and pretending to comb her hair with a dirty, chewed up--likely lice infected--comb that she found in the weeds of the abandoned lot next door.

Corbin helped count out and drop seeds, water and place little starter plants. He also roamed around with his sister and rode his bike for a little while.

I love hanging out with these two all day. They are so great!

(Corbin took these last two photos while playing with the camera... not bad.)

Cootie Bug

2010-05-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

Corbin loves playing games. We usually play together while Makelle takes a nap, but sometimes the whole family will sit down and play a thrilling round of Candy Land or Go Fish together.

Last night it was Cootie Bug, which happens to be Makelle's favorite game ever. You would think that she would like playing with the little bug pieces, but no... she LOVES rolling the dice.

I even tried to pacify her between turns with a random dice from our game closet, but no, it has to be that little red one. She freaks out every time she gets a turn to roll, she is so excited. It is fun to watch.

May 24th... Seriously?!

2010-05-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

He did it!

2010-05-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our 5th anniversary! To celebrate we went up to the Union Station and wandered around the runner's expo and then split a sandwich at Jimmy John's, which was delicious.

My parents took our kids for the night, but not to give us a chance to spend time together, rather because we had to wake up at 4:30 am and drive up to Eden, so Caleb could run the Ogden Half Marathon this morning.

He ended up with a final time of 01:55:45.3, which unfortunately is better than the time Melinda got 2 years ago. Nice job!

We need some Miracle Grow!

2010-05-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

Poor Makelle consists of 50% Lloyd genes, which equates to having NO hair. Yesterday I gave Corbin a haircut and jokingly asked if I should cut Makelle's hair too. To which he said I couldn't, because she doesn't have any. Then he questioned why she had boy hair.

So today I took a pea sized amount of gel, which ended up being a greater volume than the amount of hair I used it on, and gave Makelle her first ponytail. Look closely, you may need to blow it up, and then zoom in, but there are two tiny little pigtails on top of her head. Slowly but surely, we are getting there :)

Sidebar... we were in the car this morning and the sunlight hit Corbin's legs and made his tiny little leg hairs more noticeable. All the sudden he shouts out, "Look Mom, I am getting leg hairs! That means I am growing up and I am going to be like a Daddy, not a Mommy!" He was so excited to discover his manhood. For some reason it made me laugh.

Little Stinker

2010-05-13T20:38:00.001-07:00

I guess that is what I get for not draining the bathtub right away... apparently she was not ready to get out :)