The Whole Family

Aubree spent most of the morning on Saturday cleaning her room.

When she was all done she came and got me and said she wanted to get a picture in her room with the whole family.
So I got my camera and came upstairs to discover her idea of the whole family is a little different then my idea of the whole family.

If you build it.....

There is very little in life my husband loves more then baseball.

He has dedicated so much of his time volunteering to coach little league and club teams.

Not to mention his love of the Sox.

He recently began collecting baseballs and they began to take over the house.

Ryan built the coolest baseball rack/frame that he can display his collection (I was going to say his balls, but decided to go with collection instead).

All of you women that are reading this looking at the picture going,

"Not in my house!" or "Big Whoop",

please go find your husband, boyfriend, male co-worker, teenage son, etc and have them tell you how freaking cool it is!

Anyway, I really do love it, and I love that Ryan could do it on his own and only smashed 1- 1/2 of his toes while making it.

The Lizard Whisperer

Her agent is working on a contract for her magic lizard skills to be on after either the Dog Whisperer or the Ghost Whisperer.

Courage

Aubree received an award at school Friday for "Courage".

When she heard she would be receiving the award, she asked what does courage mean?
I started to rattle off the usual things that we feel she personally lacks courage in, like, riding your bike w/o training wheels, going upstairs when the lights aren't on, trying new foods....etc.

I began to also think about things in my life that took courage and having the courage to do those things has blessed me and made my life better.

I'm glad that I had the courage to be a single mom, to take a chance on a guy completely different from me, to quit a profession I had known for 13 years and start a new job, and most importantly, try and teach my kids that sometimes the right choice isnt the most popular choice, and to choose the right takes courage.

Wanting What You Can't Have

Most of us have something we want that we'll probably never have.

I'd love to have someone cook me and my family a healthy and delicious dinner every night.

But I can't afford a personal chef and Ryan just recently learned how to crack an egg.

So although it would be nice, I don't constantly dwell on it.

There are those in our family that spend their entire day wishing for something they will never have.

No matter how long you stare at it.

No wonder the lizard stays in the opposite corner most of the time.

Life Skills

Aubs has learned to tie her shoes!

I'm sure some of you are rolling your eyes at how annoying and braggy (is that a word?) I am being, but oh well.
We proudly present the world's most important moment!

So the younger has taught the older a valuable life skill that the parents have been trying to teach him for 3 years now.
It took Aubree about 5 tries to learn this, so her glory and praise apparently promted Karson, who has refused to learn (fine motor issue, ya know) to give it a go.

He's still working on it, but doing pretty good with a little kick in the butt by his little sister.

And yes, those are his size 5 monsterous shoes.

Blizzards, Santa & Cousins

What a fabulous vacation we had back east this year! So many fun memories!

We arrived in Boston after a long day of airplanes.

We had a lay over in Dallas, and Aubree took a picture with a Texas native.

After arriving, we went and met the kids newest cousin, Brayden Jack.

Ryan's sister Shannon and her husband Mike's first baby.

He was sooooo tiny!

I know everyone says that about new babies, but I can honestly say that I did NOT ever say that about mine. Karson's first shoe was a size 3.

Karson was trilled to find out that Mary and Leo's tree was a real. We've only had fake ones.

He immediately put himself in charge of checking the water levels (probably 10 times) daily.

Then we all were spoiled by Mary and Leo and opened gifts.

The Miller's had a family party one evening and Santa made a surprise appearance.

When it was Karson's turn, Sanata asked him who his favorite teacher was. Karson told him and Santa said "Oh, I remember her!" His response was so adorable, he completely believed him.

Karson also made himself at home behind the bar serving drinks (non-alcoholic of course) and made about $10 in tips!

Here's all the Miller cousins with Santa.

Family Picture by the Fireplace, where I spent most of my time trying not to freeze.

After a long night......

The Blizzard arrived early Sunday morning and the kids had a whole morning of snow fun!

All pictures you see were taken from the warmth of inside the home. I had 18 years of snow in Northern Utah, it is cold and wet and I find nothing about it fun.

Here's Karson and Aubree helping shovel.

Aubree taking one of her many breaks to make snow angels.

Karson at the height of his enjoyment!

Leo pulled the kids on sleds on the frozen pond across the street and over the snowy yard. He got a pretty good workout.

I did yell out a crack in the window to make sure he didnt cover his sister's head.

Aubree got her revenge.



It was almost dark and the kids talked us into taking them sledding. I did bundle up and shiver while the kids would have stayed out all night!

Here is Mary and Karson. If you could only see the terror on Mary's face!

Thanks for a fantastic vacation! Next year let's have everyone come to Vegas where it's 62 today!