Fun Stuff

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

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

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 trying 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

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!

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

Corbin


Makelle


Building a snowman


Playing with a snowman


Creating snowcastles


Filling up on hot chocolate

The perfect day!

Apple Pick'n

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

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 :)