Our Anniversary

Thursday was our 4th year anniversary, and Caleb has been so busy with work lately that we just felt like we needed some time away to relax and de-stress. So my mom took Corbin and Makelle for us and we went and stayed in Salt Lake for the night.

We went to dinner at the Melting Pot (a fondue restaurant) which was a really fun experience, neither one of us had ever fondued before. Also, I now want to own a fondue set one day and be able to make large pots of melted chocolate at home to dip random sweets into :)


That night we stayed at the Anniversary Inn, which was nice. Again, neither one of us had ever stayed at a bed and breakfast before, and I can't tell you how great it was to get woken up to a knock at the door announcing our hot breakfast was ready, rather than to a screaming child!

Caleb took the day off on Friday so we were able to sleep in that morning and then spend the day playing in Salt Lake. We went to the golf course and hit some balls on the driving range, practiced our chipping and putting then went and saw a matinee at the movie theater before going to pick up the kids and return to reality.



Corbin did great, he didn't seem to miss us at all. Grandma kept him very entertained with lots of fun activities and spoiled him like all Grandmas do.

Makelle we discovered still doesn't take a bottle very well. Caleb had been getting her ready for her night away from me by giving her bottles last week, but she only drinks when she is really good and hungry and then if anything distracts her, she immediately stops sucking and refuses to eat anymore. So if it is quiet and you can sit there uninterrupted for half an hour, you can get her drink almost her whole bottle. If anything happens though she stops, even if she has only had an ounce or so and won't try again for a couple of hours. Despite starving herself however, I guess she was a good little baby and hardly even cried, so I guess it didn't bother her too much.

Not so Pretty Penny

Corbin and I haven't been feeling well the past few days, so we decided to stay home from church today. (No it is not the swine flu, in case you were wondering :) And it turns out you do get blessings for attending church, such as, if you aren't home then your 2 and 1/2 year old doesn't have an opportunity to swallow a penny. Lesson learned.

The day started out great. Caleb took Corbin to the store yesterday and let him pick out a card (or a book as Corbin calls it, since he of course picked out the biggest, thickest one there) and some chocolates for me. It is a pop up card and Corbin absolute loves opening it and yelling "ta-da!" or "popcorn!" (Don't ask, we aren't quite sure where that came from.) Then Caleb let Corbin be a 'helper' and make me breakfast in bed. He is such a sweet little boy and really does enjoy it when he gets to help out and loves to do nice things for me.


So then later, I am sitting out on the couch nursing Makelle when I hear Corbin gagging like crazy and whimpering. So I set her down and rush back into our room to find Corbin sitting on our bed with the spare change jar, choking with blood dripping out of his mouth. Scary! After a few minutes of spewing blood and coughing, I throw him in the car and we speed over to the instacare.

We walk through the doors and without even giving a medical history the nurse says, "oh, I know him, he is the cute little little boy with asthma, that threw up after we gave him albuterol last time!" Never good when emergency medical workers instantly recognize your child.

The nurses make sure his stats are stable and he is breathing okay and then they do an x-ray to find the penny and make sure it isn't stuck in his throat. They never could find out where all the blood was coming from, either he bit his tongue while choking or the penny cut this throat on the way down, we don't know which.


(This isn't his actual x-ray, just a similar one I found online. I guess my child isn't the only one doing dumb things, because there were actually quite a few to choose from.)

Eventually the bleeding stopped though and he started swallowing normal again, so they sent us home to wait for it to pass. He has to go back in tonight for another x-ray to make sure it is moving through his system, but otherwise he should be fine.

Oh this child. He already has a longer medical record than Caleb, Makelle and I combined. At least his familiarity with the medical world has eliminated all fears that most children have and he is a good little patient and always very helpful and friendly towards the medical staff.

Sometimes it is hard being a mom (like when your child does stupid things and lands himself in the doctor's office) but then it makes it all worth it when he runs up to you with a giant card and says, "Mommy, it's your special day! I love you!" and then starts to sing Happy Birthday (since he thinks that is what you do on someone's special day... of course). I know everyone says that, but it is so true. Kids are the best, you can't help but love them, even when you are mad at them!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Today is Caleb's 27th birthday. We celebrated by making some of his favorite foods, BLTs and apple pie. Note: Do not put a wax candle into a warm apple pie, it will melt all over inside of your food :(


Corbin was of course a big help when it came time to open Caleb's presents. He got some books on tape to listen to during his commute to work, a copy of Atlas Shrugged (one of those books everyone should read at some point in their lives) and his dream gift... a new LCD TV.


He has been wanting one for years, our HOA recently upgraded our 'free' cable to a package that includes HD channels and our old TV has been on the fritz (it doesn't always turn on, sometimes you have to try a few times before it works). So we went to Costco and found a very large TV (we could watch Corbin, life size on this thing) for a ridiculously good price (they were selling off the old display model) and now he is forever happy watching his new flat screen.

Soccer

I have joined a soccer team with Caleb. Caleb has played since he was about 3. Half of our team has played since they were 3. I have not.

Back in August some of our friends got together and decided to sign up for an indoor soccer team. Half of the people had played before and wanted to teach their spouses so they joined a co-ed beginners league. I was pregnant at the time, so I couldn't play with them, but promised to join them once Makelle was born.

So now she is born and a couple weeks ago I hit the 6 week recovery mark and got the go ahead to start exercising again. At this same time our team switched to play on Monday nights because in Utah it is cheaper, since most people are at home with their families that night, and they have a hard time filling the teams.

However, there still weren't enough teams to sign up so there is no beginners league, it is just everybody combined. So we now play against good people, which the rest of the team does okay against. But while they were learning how to play and getting good for the past 9 months, I was sitting around gaining massive amounts of excess weight :)

So I now play with all good people, and am ridiculously out of shape and have never played soccer in my life. It is pretty pathetic looking, but dang am I getting a good work out running all over the place trying to figure out where I am suppose to be!

And surprisingly enough, Caleb and I haven't even gotten a divorce yet! It is actually a lot of fun playing together although, you can tell the poor boy gets frustrated when he gives me a perfect pass and no one is guarding me (it doesn't take the other team long to realize I am not a threat) and I still miss the goal. But he puts aside his competitive edge and is really patient with me and is trying to help teach me.

2 Month Check Up

Makelle had her 2 month check up today. Primarily for journaling purposes, but also for all you curious minds out there... she weighed 12 lbs. 11 oz. (90th percentile), was 24 inches long (95th percentile) and had a head circumference of 39 cm (55th percentile).

So I guess her head is a little smaller compared to her body, but that's okay, we love her anyway! Corbin actually had very similar measurements when he was that age as well, and everything eventually evened out, so I guess we just have big babies with average sized heads :)

At church yesterday one of the high priests (an elderly Japanese man) commented, "you blessed her today? she is ready to walk! so big!" Side note: Makelle was one of six babies blessed (and there will likely be that many next month as well, we live in a 'newly wed and nearly dead' ward) and she was by far the largest of the babies.

Everything else checked out okay and she is doing great!

Makelle's Special Day

Yesterday at church Caleb was able to bless our precious little girl. She was promised all sorts of wonderful blessings. I am so glad we have the gospel in our lives to afford us opportunities, such as this, to feel the spirit and see the Lord's hand in our lives. Blessing a baby reminds me how the Lord truly does know every one of us individually and has given us certain talents and abilities to help us throughout our lives, even beginning in our infancy. I never thought that I would be one of those girls that adores babies, but I tell you there is just something about them that brings peace and joy to a room. Makelle truly is a miraculous gift from the Lord and such a blessing in our lives already. We just love her so much!



Twenty-four years ago, my dad was able to give me a similar blessing and my mom kept the dress that I wore that day and gave it to me when I moved out and got married. Well I managed to not lose it for the past 4 years and now that I have my own little girl I thought that it would be fun to have her wear the same dress. However, I am slightly (or maybe highly) opposed to lace and frills, so I modified the dress slightly by cutting off all the lace and replacing it with ribbon and then adding some layers of fabric to add some length and make it look a little more modern. I was pleasantly surprised when it actually worked out and looked somewhat like I had imagined when I started the project! And of course Makelle looked gorgeous and so precious on her special day.



Both of our families were able to join us for church yesterday and share in our joy. Thank you to our parents and siblings who took the time to spend the day with us, it was so great to have everyone there with us.

Picture Overload!

Our neighbor helped me out and took some pretty cute pictures of Corbin and Makelle for me. Enjoy!

Silly Girl!

Caleb remembers liking all of the kid foods with animal names as a child, such as pigs in a blanket, birdies in the nest, etc. So I decided to try pigs in the blanket with Corbin awhile ago, and he actually liked them (a shock seeing how he won't eat meat). So today I decided to try ants on a log for his snack. (What an appealing picture :)


He ate these too! And they are made with celery, a vegetable (don't tell him that though, or we may lose his approval). So I was thinking maybe the cute animal names theme was really working for me and I should rename all vegetables and meat dishes until I was pointing out one of the "ants" and he looks at me and starts laughing and says, "Silly girl, it's not an ant, it's a raisin!" I tried multiple times to explain that no, he wasn't eating a real ant, it just looked like ants so that's what we call it. He never relented though, he decided he is just far too smart to fall for that, and there was no way he was calling a raisin an ant.

Randomness

I cut Corbin's finger nails yesterday. You would really need a video of this to truly understand how ridiculous the child is, but he basically walks around with his fingers spread out (similar to what you would do if you had freshly painted fingernails and you were waiting for them to dry) and refuses to touch anything for about 6 hours after you cut them. No joke.

Yesterday I also cut his toenails. While I was cutting them, he named them. I am not sure where this came from but he then referred to his toes as their new names for the remainder of the day. For example, after stubbing his toe: "Ow! My Wall-e hurts" or "I kicking it with my captain."


Also, this past week we watched Snakes on a Plane on TV. It is on cable a lot this month I think, it wasn't the best movie, but it was laugh out loud good to see their editing job. Normally when they edit shows for TV and there is a swear word they replace it with a gentler version of the same word. The "S" word becomes "shoot," etc. Well here they decided to go with what appeared to be any random word that started with the same letter. There were a lot of good ones throughout the show, but the one I remember best is when, in the center of an intense scene, they replaced "M----- F-------" with, "when I get off this Monday to Friday plane..." Needless to say it was hard to feel frightened or tense when you are laughing at ever little edit.

Friday night was our ward party. It was a talent show/dance party. Corbin got a glow-in-the-dark bracelet and learned the Macarena and the YMCA song. He was pretty good at "shaking his bum" and jumping. Again we needed a video of it, because he has quite the little moves.

Final tidbit... I have been trying to teach Corbin comparisons: "The dog is taller than the cat, but the cat is taller than the mouse." When asked to compare how big things are, "I am bigger than Makelle, Daddy is bigger than me, and Mommy is bigger than Daddy." Mommy is also bigger than Harm and Derek, the bed, the car, pretty much bigger than anyone or anything else. Either he doesn't fully get the concept yet, or I need to loose more baby weight than I thought.

Easter Smiles

We had a great Easter Holiday. Yesterday Corbin got to find eggs at our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt.


Then today we had a very considerate Easter Bunny who decided to let us sleep in as much as possible and came to our house mid-afternoon while Corbin was napping, instead of during the night. He left Corbin some great treats and hid lots of eggs that Corbin absolutely loved finding. (If you look closely you can see Makelle thoroughly enjoying the Easter egg hunt, while fast asleep in her car seat.)


Then we went up to my parents' house for a nice Easter dinner and Corbin once again got to go on another egg hunt with his cousin. It turns out he has a very competitive side! (Who would have guessed, knowing who his parents are :)


Makelle already out-grew her church dress, so I made another one and a matching bow. (This one even has a little bit of pink, I am getting there :) She is also starting to smile now, so I simply had to take another picture. It is so precious when she hears your voice and stops fussing and looks up at you with those big eyes and gives you a tiny hint of a smile. We love her so much.

Easter Eggs and Family

Yesterday we went up to my parents' house to dye Easter eggs. The little kit we bought also came with some paints, which Corbin thoroughly enjoyed. He also thought it was pretty cool that you could turn a white egg blue by GENTLY dropping it into a cup. He made a HUGE mess, but luckily we weren't at home, so no harm done -- to any of our things at least :)


My grandparents are in town this week, so we also got to spend some time with them last night while we were up visiting. They taught me everything I know about playing cards, dice and dominoes. So we had a lot of fun playing games with them.

They are my mom's parents, so we also took a girl's four-generation picture. It seems like the thing you're suppose to do... but even more I have a distinct memory of this picture of me with my mom, grandma and great-grandma from when I was a baby (of the picture, not of taking the picture, obviously), so I thought I would continue the tradition.

Mr. Potato Head

And he didn't even need any help :)

No. I'm not tired.

I don't know how other people do it, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to get my child to take a nap. And it is definitely not that he isn't tired:

Can We Fix It...?

...Yes We Can!


Our kitchen sink started leaking oh..., about a month ago. Caleb has been really busy with his accounting work this time of year and we have the new baby, so it has taken us awhile to finally get around to fixing it. Corbin thought this was pretty exciting and insisted on "helping" Daddy fix the sink.

Two Cute Kiddos

Today we got Makelle all dressed up for church, so I decided to take some pictures while they were both in their nice clothes. I know I am biased and all... but they are two cute kiddos!



I tried to wake her up, so I could get a shot with her eyes open...It didn't work out.

GOOGLY EYES!

Crusin'

Our kids have weird shaped bottoms. Therefore they have to wear Pampers brand diapers. We have tried every other brand imaginable, and regretted it every time. However, Pampers are more expensive than the Walmart brand, so to save money we try and buy them online with as many coupons and discount codes as possible. Which has nothing to do with the topic of this post... other than that our diapers order arrived today, in a large box.

When Corbin woke up from his "nap" (in other words when his two hours of quiet play time in him room were up) he immediately saw the box and climbed in. This inspired me to help him make a car. He seemed to like making it more than actually sitting in it, since "driving" the car only lasted about 5 minutes and then he was ready to move onto a new activity, but at least we had fun with the glue and paper plates.

Happy Chubby Baby‏

"Playing" with Baby Sister

So far Corbin seems to like Makelle quite a bit. He makes me move her all around the house with us so that she can participate in whatever we are doing. He always makes sure she has a toy (which sits on her lap while she naps and we play :) or tries to show her the pictures, or point out cool parts of a movie.

He is also pretty good at helping me take care of her... he picks out a new diaper (he takes his job pretty seriously, he doesn't just grab whatever one is on top of the stack, he looks through and finds a good one with his favorite characters on it) and throws away the old diapers.

And of course he is constantly trying to give her hugs and kisses. (I just hope she can survive his affection!)

I am told this stage doesn't always last and he will soon lose interest in her or start to get more jealous once the newness wears off and he realizes that she is a permanent addition to our family and that she takes a lot of my attention. So I thought I would capture his attempts to be her best friend, while it lasts.

Pictures!

Makelle Faith Miller


Getting cleaned up.


The pink bow :)


Our little girl... dressed in all blue. (I wonder who her mother is?)


Hanging out with Mom.


Hanging out with Dad.


Our new family photo.

She's Arrived!

At long last, Makelle Faith Miller was born at LDS Hospital today at 4:15 PM. She is a whopping 8 lb 6 oz babe measuring 21 and 1/2 inches. She has a little beatiful brown head of hair, and was born in need of a fingernail trim. Melinda and Makelle are healthy and well and will be looking forward to discharge tomorrow. Pictures will be forthcoming tomorrow or Wednesday when they arrive.

Hooray for epidurals!