Merry Christmas

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!!

hey everybody-

so today is mom's 60th birthday, and we celebrated it last night by surprising her at dinner with our little family, tiff and fam, jamie, uncle brule, aunt cherlyn & terry, brule, brad, henry, beau (holly's brother) marilyn, and mom's good friend tania. we were sad that josh and fam, and kristin and fam couldn't be there, but you were definitely in our thoughts. Everyone collaborated and sent us pics of mom so we could make a slide show of her life thus far. It was great and we really appreciate everyone who sent tiff and i pics, especially uncle brule and kristin. pete did a great job and put in lots of hard work so i hope you all enjoyed it. the party was lots of fun, tons of good food, cookie cake, and ice cream for the kids. riley was all hopped up on sugar and had a great time playing with abbi, elli, gabe and of course baby henry :) the adults had a pretty good time too, with the aid of lots of wine instead of lots of sugar(wink wink). especially tiff, i wonder how she's feeling today . . . if you know what i mean :) anyway we all had a great time, mom only cried a little during the slide show which i was surprised about, i expected more sentimental tears, but i think she was still in shock from the surprise of everything. tiff had to help mom blow out the candles . . . and we didn't even put 60 of them on the cake :) she got some great gifts, but more importantly i think she had a great time . . . here are a few pics, i'll post more when i collect them from everyone. lots of love !

Typical Week in the Miller Household

Hey everybody ! So I know I haven't blogged in awhile but that's because, as the title suggests, it has been one of those typical weeks in the Miller house. Last week we had to cancel a playdate with Riley's friends because I had a touch of the stomach flu :( On Friday David, Riley, and I went to my 5 month check up where we had our ultrasound. Of course we had just decided that day that it might be fun to know this time, and lo and behold the baby is breech and the tech couldn't see anything but it's butt :) typical Miller. And while we were a little disappointed we couldn't help but be elated because the baby is healthy, right on schedule, and everything looks good. Not to mention the fact that we got some really cute pics and even a few minutes of video, which is always great. So afterwards we celebrated with sundaes from Culver's, my favorite and then headed home so Riley and I could get ready to go to Disney on Ice. Thanks to Aunt Tiff, Abbi, and Elli who shared their extra ticket with us so Riley could see her first big show. I was a little hesitant thinking she wouldn't last the whole 2 hours, but she did amazingly well. The show was Finding Nemo, you can check out some cool pics at www.disneyonice.com , and Riley was so excited for all the characters, especially the big whale. When it came on stage she was clapping and shouting "Hi whale " and then when the whale made it's exit she shouted "Bye whale, love you, see you tomorrow." So cute! So between all the dancing, music, clapping, and excitement the time flew by. I'm sure the $10 cotton candy and $10 sno cone helped to move things along ( thank god the tickets were free!) All in all, everyone had a great time. David stayed home and rested because he had to work all weekend . . . again. Yes, I was a little bummed, but we all had fun together on Saturday night when we went to help Brody celebrated his 2nd birthday. It was a fun night filled with lots of sugar and lots of unwrapping. Then David worked a 12 hour day on sunday . . . (hint of bitterness?) but hey i did get to see him on tuesday. apparently it takes an ice storm for us to spend a whole day together, and how did we spend it you might ask . . . well we started off the day all making breakfast together while Riley sat in the kitchen with us. As soon as breakfast was done and we were going to sit down to eat, she proceeded to vomit all over the kitchen floor . . . enough said for the rest of our day on tuesday. At least the new Harry Potter movie came out on Tuesday to salvage part of the day:) Regardless of the past week, Riley has a little more pep in her step today, so it's on to last minute errands for the holidays and baking cookies for my cookie exchanges. I hope all is well with everyone, will write more again soon:)

Goofy things that make me laugh :)

So thanksgiving was great, we had lots of great food at the Hillebrand's and at Mom's house, of course we ate to much and went to bed early. That's what holidays are for right? Riley is starting to feel some cabin fever already, along with Enzo, so I just thought I would share some silly pictures of things we've caught them doing. Like almost every day for a week when I went in to get Riley from her nap she would be wearing her socks like gloves, and refuse to take them off long after she was done sleeping. Enzo has been sleeping curled up around the christmas tree, which i still need to get a picture of, and they have both been mauling David as soon as he gets home from work. Riley and Enzo have been taking turns going down her slide, and one of Riley's new favortie things is playing with all of her toys in that silly rubber ducky infant bathtub that we used at her birthday party. Other than that all is well here, I have an ultra sound next week, so I will write more then :)

Riley Jane turns 2!!

well the big day was sunday, but we celebrated miller style and partied all weekend long! Nicole came in town for to visit this weekend so we went to the festival of trees and a parade on saturday morning. the festival was great, riley loved looking at all the pretty trees, shaking her booty to the upbeat christmas music and of course the huge stuffed animal tree that i am posting a picture of. yes riley is in the pic but she kind of blends in with all the animals. the stuffed animal tree was pretty cool, but her favorite thing was the choo choo train display. she thought it was "thomas and friends" in person. she kept pointed and yelling "wow look at that . . . here comes thomas the train, choo choo thomas." then we hit the parade downtown which started about 20 minutes late, so needless to say we didn't make it thru the whole thing b/c riley was just done by then. riley opened her present from nicole early and got the book "bad dog marley!" which is riley and enzo's new favorite book. afterwards we squeezed in lunch and a nap just in time for riley's friends anthony, brody, celia, and megan to come over and celebrate with her. her party was all things curious george and we had 5 kids 2 and under running amuck thru the house . . . it was great. we made it even more challenging by trying to get a picture of all 5 kids sitting together on the couch, wearing their curious george masks. yes we were all asking for it :) but what we got in return was a rather amusing sequence of pics, i just post one, but they were all pretty funny. no one would leave their masks on or stay on the couch at the same time. so all the parents would throw the mask on the kid, toss them on the couch and dive out of the way for nicole to snap a pic. too funny :) after riley's 1st party we headed over to grandma's to celebrate uncle peter's 34th birthday with good food and lots of laughs. riley normally says uncle peter really clearly, but on saturday uttered something that sounded a lot different than peter. i started laughing and said "riley just said something that sounded a lot like uncle plus a naughty word," to which elli, yes elli, responded "yeah it sounded like uncle penis" at that point tears were streaming down almost everyones faces. happy birthday uncle peter! the next day we hung out and watch "mary poppins" and had a relaxing day until riley's next party with all of our family in town started. which was almost more tiring than the kid party since we are all like a bunch of big kids anyway :) daddy helped riley open her presents, which after the first couple she kind of lost interest, but don't worry josh and anne, david will put that chef outfit to good use !!! great grandma helen was there as well and riley kept bringing her a new baby doll with bottles to feed, it was really cute. i only hope that excitement for a new baby lasts until spring. aunt kristin and fam also sent riley a birthday present which was a knit hat that kristin made, we cheated and let her open it early, but it is adorable, she loves it, and has worn it everyday since she got it, whether we are going anywhere or not. her other new obsession is the happy birthday clifford doll she received from aunt tiffy and fam, she has been sleeping, eating, and playing with it night and day, and singing happy birthday to him every morning! too cute!!so thanks to everyone for making riley's 2nd birthday memorable and fun, she loved everything she got and has spent the last two days making the rounds and playing with all of her new stuff! sorry the pics are kind of out of order, i'm cramming to get this done before riley wakes up from her nap :)

So Riley does this really funny thing that I thought I would try to catch on camera this past weekend while playing in the leaves. We like to play "what does (blank) say?" a lot, and one day a few weeks ago I asked Riley what does Enzo say? and she answered by panting like Enzo, and then said "What does Mommy say?" It was pretty funny so I said " I don't know Riley, what does Mommy say?" and the answer she gave was "Mommy says I love you!" so then I asked her "What does Daddy say?" and she says "Daddy says Hi sweetie pie!!" I think it is adorable of course, so hopefully you can hear it on the video . . . you'll have to turn it up pretty loud to hear her. I ask her about a couple other animals too, just for fun. Hope you enjoy :)

Trick or Treat . . .

Smell my Feet! Happy Halloween everyone!!! The big day is finally here!! Riley has been so excited for trick or treating and to wear her monkey costume, she has wanted to wear it almost every day for the last week. While David was home recovering last week we went to buy pumpkins, but everyone was too tired for carving so we decided to paint them instead. Riley had a great time picking out her own pumpkin and painting it as well. What kid doesn't love to get all messy :) Last night was our night for trick or treat so Riley got all dressed up and we went out along with her cousins Abbi (American Girl, Kit) and Elli(Cutie Pumpkin), and Aunt Tiff(amazing creator of both costumes, and Riley's banana bag :) ). Her favorite stop was our neighbors house where she got to say hi to Miranda and check out their huge spider web. Riley was way excited to run around with the girls and we worked hard on saying "trick or treat" this past week, which she actually said multiple times while we were out. Unless she was really excited for what candy they had, then she would say "want some candy" instead. But she did tell people "thank you" and then later on started telling people "thanks, have fun!" which she must have heard somewhere along the way. We only went for about a half hour then called it quits, we were holding the big kids up from getting candy faster because Riley had to stop and pick up acorns along the way as well:) She had just as much fun passing out candy at home though, and even more fun telling the lit up jack o lanterns "happy birthday!" because they all had candles inside. So all in all it was a great time, we all stayed up too late, had too much sugar, and some of us are kind of noticably grumpy today because of it . . . not that i'm naming names or anything :) Happy Halloween!

Oh No!! David hit the big 30!!!

This past weekend was full of fun and craziness for us . . . david and i celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner. Just the two of us, like adults, at a fancy restaurant and everything. Although the conversation still turned to discussing things such as naptime, pottytime, playtime, and such, it was at least mixed in there with adult topics as well. The food was fantastic, so great that i ate way too much because i had to top it off with cinnamon ice cream and chocolate cake with hot fudge inside. mmmmmm . . . it was delicious. david topped of his meal with two cannollis, which compared to mine i told him was like eating two cream filled stale donuts :) more importantly this past weekend we celebrated david's 30th birthday!!! we taught riley how to say "happy birthday daddy!" and we celebrated by inviting over a bunch of people for beer, snacks, and a bonfire in the back yard. lots of friends and family showed up, and lots of little tots for riley to play with as well. all the kids did great playing outside, running around, eating cookies and s'mores, and riley pooped out pretty early so then it was movie time inside. meanwhile the adults got to chat and hang out and eat lots of good snackies provided by my mom and david's mom. all in all we had a great time, it couldn't have gone better, the weather was beautiful, and i got to kick everyone out at 1am. i was exhausted, and i'm pregnant, and i feel no remorse what so ever about playing the bad guy. the only thing i regret is not getting any pictures of the party, but it was all outside and dark so i didn't think any would turn out anyway, but i had to take a cute pic of david and riley opening up his presents the next morning. we were all feeling a bit rough but in good spirits. however the good spirits didn't last too long . . . riley ended up with a fever, achy, grumpiness, etc. sunday night followed by a trip to the emergency room for david who was suffering from an abcess tooth that was causing him severe pain and quite frankly made his face look as if he had botox the night before while i was sleeping. the e.r. doc gave him some good drugs though to help with the pain, followed by a trip to the dentist the next morning for a root canal. so he has had a few days off of work to recooperate, his face is still puffy, but the pain is subsiding. riley's fever is gone, but she is still in that grumpy, achy, i just want mommy to hold me all day stage. hopefully the next few days will be filled with mommy recoop time, so i can gear up for the next weekend at the miller household :) till then . . .

What's New??

So what's new with us? Just the usual work and play and all the things in between. We've been to the zoo a few times of course, gotta love those free days :) Getting ready for halloween and picking out costumes and such. This past weekend kristin and her family were in town and they stopped by for a quick visit. Riley had a hard time sharing some of her favorite stuff, but we are working on it:) It's hard when you are the only kid there all day, and then people you don't get to see very often are over too. Riley got to have lunch with her cousin Duncan, yummy spaghetti!!!! Riley's favorite! We also got to meet the newest addition to the family, kristin and mike's daughter Beatrice. She's a cutie, but Riley wasn't too interested. She pretty much said "cute baby, cute shoes," and went back to playing. Our friend Chad was in town for the weekend as well and made the mistake of making fun of David for doing girly things with Riley, like playing tea party. Well Riley heard the word tea party and went on a mission to get her teaset and (after some prompting from mommy) enlisted Chad to play tea party with her. So of course I had the camera handy for that :) The other two pics are just things I thought were funny, like Riley being goofy before bedtime, pretty much a nighttime ritual, and Enzo cuddling up to the big bear in Riley's room. David's been really busy at work, I have been having a great time with book club, Riley's new favorite thing to sing "twinkle stars" pretty much all day long, and of course Enzo's newest passion is the dog park :) We are all pretty excited for Halloween, Riley chose a monkey costume at the store and Tiff made her a really cute banana bag for trick or treat, I will post some cute pics closer to Halloween. Until then, I hope everyone is well.

Enzo's first trip to the dog park

We are so excited, a dog park finally opened up in the area!! Now we have a place to take Enzo and get him all tuckered out. That guy has a lot of energy to burn and although our backyard is a decent size . . . it just wasn't cutting it. We were a little worried going in, especially when we pulled up and saw there were about twenty other dogs there, but Enzo did great. He was just so excited to get in there and play, he played great with the other dogs, and he ran his butt off. Most of the dogs just hung out and played fetched . . . but Enzo had to scan the perimeter of the whole park, which is pretty big. I swear he did it in record time too :) We were supposed to take Enzo last week to play with the Miguel's dog, Wrigley, and the Gott's dog, Snoop, but we had to cancel. We were pretty bummed that we had to miss all the fun, but when we took Enzo today we actually ran into the Gott's there anyway:) So Enzo got to play with Snoop, and Riley got to play with Anthony. We hung out far away from the big pack of dogs, but after the initial excitement wore off Riley had more fun playing with the tree and Anthony than anything else. I think David had just as much fun as Enzo, he was running around almost as much as the dogs. My favorite pic is Enzo chasing David :) After Enzo stopped panting long enough to drink some water, we took the kids to the kiddie park for a little while. Everyone was so pooped we all came home and took naps, a perfect Sunday. We can't wait to take him again!!

Summer fun and rainy days

So I finally logged on to blog thinking it had definitely been awhile and I needed to catch up on posting pictures . . . and then i realized with astonishment that it had almost been a full month . . . lazy me. Kristin even just had a baby and was only absent from her blog for less than a week. I have no good excuse for this lapse in time other than the lazy days of summer slipping by me. I apologize to those of you who have been checking regularly only to find the same old pics staring back at you, and for the rest of you . . . well it probably doesn't matter either way :) Over the past few weeks we have had a lot of rainy stormy days where we have been cooped up inside playing games over and over again, and probably watching a little too much tv as well. But on the days where the sun was out we tried to take full advantage by going to pools, having playdates, playing outside, going for walks with enzo, etc. There has also been those days where Riley just can't stand being cooped up anymore and decides to put on her rain boots and hat and convince mommy to go "outside, outside . . . now mommy!!! outside!! . . . pplllleeeeeeaaaassssseee!" followed almost always by a hug and a kiss . . . now how can i say no to that. tiff took some really cute pics at her house on one of those rainy afternoons, after elli introduced her to an umbrella just her size, with a puppy dog on the end no less. she was so excited it has gone everywhere with us for two weeks solid, rain or shine. she is also a little motor mouth lately, but in a good way. david and her have taken to calling eachother "sweetie pie" so has soon has he gets home from work she has to run to the door and say "hi sweetie pie," then he returns the favor. it's just about the cutest thing i have ever heard, right below "luv you mommy, luv you daddy, luv you enzo" which we hear every night before bed. well i know it's not much, but it's all i have for you right now . . . and hopefully it won't be another month before i write more :)