Miller Time...

Wisdom Teeth

2011-07-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

So, a year ago, my dentist said, "It's time to take out your wisdom teeth." I had an appointment scheduled last Sept, but accidentally ate lunch the day of the appointment and had to reschedule. Well, it took almost a year, but last Friday, I had all four removed. Two were impacted, one was sticking out into my sinus...ew! So, holy, moly....wisdom teeth out as an adults bites...hard. I lived on yogurt, and mashed potato flakes for about four days before I could chew anything. Today is day five and my face has started to unswell, but I still can't open my mouth to eat very far. You'd think it would be a good weight loss strategy, but I manage :-)
Adalie thinks it's the best thing ever because it's been one giant movie marathon around here...Nana, thanks for Peter Rabbit, it got us through.

This is me actually trying to smile.

I took this picture today, rocking the bruise.

Reason number 457 that I'm thankful for Sandy:
He comes home from working all day and wrestles with Addi (who has basically been holding still all day) for two hours. He's such a trouper and she LOVES it.

Summer that still feels like spring: Catching up part 3

2011-07-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

We were fortunate enough this summer to be able to visit Sandy's parents in California for a week. It was definitely a long drive, but we split it into two days which was a life saver. This is beautiful Mount Shasta....it was amazing to be able to look at if for so much of our drive.

This is Addi during part of our 40-minute conversation about why Jesus had to die on the cross. The two best moments were when she realized that even though Jesus in her book is on the cross, that he's alive, "Jesus, is alive...I can hardly believe it." and when she decided that she would give Jesus her blanket to help him feel better. I love three year olds.

We went to several parks during the week. This was our favorite. Addi loved driving the fire engine. Nana was a good sport and went along as her co-pilot.

The weather was beautiful and their deck is beautiful and the people are beautiful.

Pops, Addi, Nana

This picture is a little dark, but Adalie took it..not bad.

One evening we went to a Pops concert at the park. It was

fun to reconnect with old friends. This is the first documented eye roll...3 going on 13.

Addi helping Nana water the flowers. About 5 hours after this picture, it rained about two inches....sorry drowning flowers...oops!

Ok, short story....long....Sandy has gone back to school and is studying accounting. He's able to do a distance program through Linfield College that's 100% online. That's the great part. The bummer was that classes started during this week of vacation. So, he took a much needed study break to ax out some of this stump. He got a good chunk of it out too, but had to quit when his ax broke :-) good work love.

Addi and Pops playing games

Nana and Addi made some cake and Addi got to decorate it.

Nana even had some little cake pans and made Addi her very own

little birthday cake. So wonderful.

After a wonderful week in California, we drove up to Tillamook, OR for a Snavely family reunion. (Nicole's mom's side of the family.) We stayed in a couple of big houses right on a bay..wonderful. Here's all of us on the steps of one of our houses. I always love these reunions because not only do we get to see family that I dearly love, but everything is soooo laid back. Perfect vacation....minus the flu!

Dragon Fly on Tomato Plant

(I told you there would be more close ups of plants) :-)

Spring and summer that feels like spring: Catching up part 2

2011-07-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

Sandy celebrated his 30th birthday this year. I am confessing to being a bad wife in that I pretty much have two pictures from the festivites...let's go with that the festivities were too crazy to be shown here...yeah, we'll go with that.

We had a wonderful dinner of lamb shanks (thanks mom).

Sandy was given a grill/smoker that he had his eye on. He got several accessories/tools

and was seriously looking forward to grilling (more on that later).

Happy Birthday Love,

It was finally nice outside (read: not raining and over 55 degrees).

Everytime we go outside, Addi asks to go in the tree. Being 2, it means that

we get to hang out under the tree and make sure she doesn't break her arm....plenty of time for that later.

Ok, so looking back through my pictures over the years, I realize that I take a lot of close-up pictures of the flowers in my garden. Why do I not take normal pictures of my garden? Why every year? who knows...at least here are two instead of 50 :-) Though, I'm sure there are more to come.

Hurray, Sandy got to try out his new grill...this is an Elk tenderloin wrapped in bacon..yumm!

The last day of school, I went with the middle school classroom I work with to Silverwood. Silverwood, for those of you who don't know is a huge themepark out of Spokane. They've got about six giant roller coasters and a ton of other fun rides. Every year, we take about 15 people up for the day to play. That means we leave at about 6:00 am and get back at about 9:30 pm. It's a long day, but sooo much fun. For confidentiality sake, I can't show any pictures of the kids, so here are a few others.

From the top of the ferris wheel (that's about my amusement park speed).

Again from the top of the ferris wheel looking down onto the bumper boats.

My friend Shannon...hi Shannon.

This is another confession photo. This year we went on the second annual Wallowa Lake trip with my parents. For some reason, this is the only picture I have from the weekend...Add in front of a pig bbq...?????

An artistic phot that Addi took.

Addi playing with ladybug stickers

About three months ago, Addi asked me when her birthday was. I told her. Literally every day since then, she's asked, "Did you know my birthday is coming up?" or "Hey, Mama, have you been thinking about my birthday?"...everyday. She also decided that she wanted a strawberry/blueberry cake. Girl knows her mind. So, on the morning of her birthday, she got to help me make her birthday cake...so fun.

Addi helping me make her birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Girl

3 years old

Opening presents

Her great-Nana and Pappy bought her a Dora kitchen.

It was her very favorite present and still is.

She still asks pretty much everyday if I'll cook with her...banana cake.

Getting ready for cake

Digging in

It's hard to tell in this picture, but she's covered in marshmellow. We've had my parents over a few times for a bbq. Sandy discovered that the grill makes a great marshmellow roaster.

Spring: catching up part 1

2011-07-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

Easter Pictures:

Cutest ever...

Ok, mama, one picture is enough, can I get

out of this dress now?

She'll never forgive me for this hair :-)

Picture with Grammy and Grandad...knocking Grammy down :-)

The fam

What a difference a year makes. Last year I ended up decorating all of the eggs because Addi wold throw them on the floor....fun, but not conducive to decorating. This year, she completely got the whole process with the one caveat that it's super fun to drop the eggs in the dye (at least it's stays on the table).
The very serious work of coloring an egg.

Addi's favorite person to be is currently Mary, the mother of our Lord.

She says, "I'll be Mary, you be baby Jesus." Your job then is to cry and say mama...forever...she's not very pleased in this picture because I am taking a picture and not being a very good baby Jesus.

One of Addi's favorite places to be is on Papa's

shoulders....best ever.

When Sandy and Addi wrestle, it usually starts with her stepping (read: jumping) on his stomach or chest. Sandy thinks this is great and the wrestling commences. So, suprise, suprise for mama who also likes to wrestle when a 30 pound weight stomps in the middle of my chest..yikes...so, Papa is definitely the fun parent :-)

Best new fort...under the table.

Addi found the Xbox headset and put it on.

Before we knew it, she was talking away to "maggie."

I love that her pretend conversations sound so matter-of-fact.

Winter

2011-03-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

Well, hello everyone. Here is the (apparently) quarterly update for the blog. We've had kind of a lot happen this winter and today I have time to share some of our experiences and pictures. Enjoy

Addi started potty training this winter.

We started in the living room, but soon had

to move the festivities to the bathroom because

she would sit for an hour. Me- "Addi, are you done?"

Addi - "No, not yet." :-)

Our girl is solidly into necklaces, princesses

and all things pretty.

She's still getting the logistics down!

This is our winter trip to Tri-Cities (and our Target

that's an hour away...that's right). This is Addi on the

potty chair in the back seat. Note to self - if

we put the potty in the car, we need to have

a plan for when she's successful.

Addi's new dresser - that belongs to her mama

and her grandad when they were litte.

It's the perfect hiding place.

Not the first haircut, but I still needed to take pictures.

Don't judge me, those of you who cut your

own kids' hair :-) not all of us have very

good hand/sissor coordination. Trust me,

this is for the best.

She doesn't look like she's having a good time,

but that's just because she's looking at herself

so intently. When Brittany was done, Addi

asked her to cut her hair again.

I Love this picture!

Mama and Addi playdo fun

Addi "pretend" eating her playdo food.

Most of you know that in January, I had surgery for an ectopic pregnancy. Long story short, I was off work for two weeks. Somewhere in there, Jaime Riley came over with the kids to play. We had a wonderful visit, and the kids had a great time getting all dressed up. Dress up started when Jonas came out in Addi's tutu and her light up, sparkly shoes :-) Thanks Jaime for letting me take a picture!

In February, over my birthday weekend, Addi and I took a road trip to Eugene and Portland to see friends. As usual, most of the pictures are on Amy's camera, so I only have a few. I had so much fun beeing with my best friends that weekend. The highlight was probably when we realized that our plan to have the two - two year olds sleep in the same room wasn't going to work.

A brief transcript (we video taped the monitor because it was so funny.

Addi was crying, saying, "I need my mama."

Emma was in her crib saying, "It's ok, I need my mama. My mama's name is A---M--Y."

Addi - Oh, Emma, you're so silly.

(laughing for about 30 seconds)

Emma - "So, Addi, do you need your mama?"

(Addi cries)

At one point, Emma says, "Addi, just get out." She said this because Addi had been crying while laying on a mattress on the floor

Addi - "Oh yeah, I can get out because I'm not tired.....wait, I can't get out....I am tired (more crying).

Finally, about 45-minutes in, Addi finally crawls out of bed and comes to get me.

Lession learned: Two years old is too young for a slumber party!

These pictures are when we were playing in the nursery

at Grace while the twins were in preschool.

Emma and her baby.

Addi at the bottom of the slide

Then, we went to Portland and stayed with our dear

friends Jen and Brian. On Saturday night (my birthday)

we met up with some of my very favorite people ever..Brad, Kimmy and Ann

at Ruby Tuesdays and good times were had by all.

I miss you all and am so glad to have seen you

Addi wresting with Papa.

This ended with her rolling off to the side. She didn't

get hurt and it was very funny.

These next pictures were taken by Addi in

her first camera adventure.

Oops, Camera facing the wrong way.

We're learning to crouch down, so we fit into the picture.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T16:12:00.000-08:00

Making Dog Biscuits for Draco!

One of the best toys of Christmas

was Great-Nana's cane. Addi loved

to try to smush Grammy's toes....great game!

Uncle Tim and Adalie

"Sisters, Sisters, there were never such devoted

Sisters"

Best game every

Davis-Panther-Miller family Christmas dinner

The Rapunzel dress! Thanks

Dave, Cami, Tim and Heather

Dad's strategically wrapped shovel....sneaky!

Add in her new tent - Thanks Nana and Pappy!

Thanks Auntie Joy! The Tu-Tu's the thing

Uncle Joy's Wedding

2011-01-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

The explanation for these pictures is at the bottom (my computer refused to copy and paste). Enjoy!

Happy girl loving being on a plane!

Nana and Addi in Kona

Addi at her first beach! Not a fan of the sand

it turns out :-)

This is Sandy and his brother, Dale

being dashed against the rocks as they

attempt to snorkel.

"Ahhh! This is the life"

Joy, Warren and Lindsay right before the wedding

Sandy and I right before the wedding

Addi practicing to be a flower girl
the happy girl

the girl who needs a nap, but is still so cute.

Sandy eating dragon fruit It's like a very

sweet kiwi and it's magenta

Sunset in Kona

Ok, here's the family joke. Because of my dairy allergy,

I usually can't eat dessert. The helpful waiters often

offer me a bowl of strawberries. On this trip,

they brought me a bowl of strawberries, but this time

it was flambe with dragon fruit in a coconut.

They know how to do a bowl of strawberries in Kona.

A volcano crater. I don't think you can see them,

but there are people down there.

A piece of lava tht's been in the tree for

about 60 years.

Addi playing in the volcanic dirt.

Fun picture of sand

Addi watching a "sleeping" turtle

Addi getting ready to snorkel

The second snorkeling spot where we swam

with dolphins.

View from our balcony

Picture from the plane

Addi is still happy even after several hours flying home

Having fallen behind (by about 4 months) on the blog, I have decided to not catch up, but just skip a bunch of things and just start over now :-) However, Sandy's sister, Joy got married in August and I just can't skip her wedding....it was too amazing! So, here is our Hawaiian wedding adventure!

Our flight left Tri-Cities (about an hour from Walla Walla) at 6:00 in the morning - which would have meant that we had to leave at 3:30...not ok. So, we drove over the night before, stayed in a hotel and took the one minute shuttle to th airport. We have flown enough with Addi that we have our luggage situation down, so that was much smoother than it's been in the past. We flew from Tri-Cities to San Francisco to Kona. Addi did very well on all of the flights. If she had had her way, she would have walked up and down the aisles saying hi to everyone. As that is not every travellers' idea of a good time, she had to stay in her seat. On the flight to Kona, we were actually seated right behind Sandy's Aunt and Uncle. That was fun to be able to chat a bit on the way over.

Because of the time change, we took off at 6 in the morning, traveled for about 10 hours and arrived at 11:30 in the morning...how great. I laughed out loud when landed because all I could see were the palm trees and black lava rock. I laughed because it was so surreal to experience a tropical place first hand...amazing. It was also W....A....Y more humid than I had expected. Fortunately, I love it :-

This was the first destination wedding that we had been to. One of the perks is that the family has minimal responsibilities, so we were able to play for the full two days before the wedding. We walked around to the shops and went to our first beach. Sandy and his brother, Dale tried to go scuba diving at the first beach, but it turns out that it was all just rocks. Dale got pretty torn up, but not enough that it affected the wedding - (way to go Dale, taking one for the team :-)

Joy and Seth's wedding was beautiful! It took place on a grassy lawn overlooking the ocean. Addi practiced as the flower girl, but the wedding took place at naptime, so I carried her down the isle. Sandy sang (which was of course beautiful). Addi was just ever so slightly disruptive. She kept asking where papa was (singing), but soon settled down! After the wedding we walked up to the reception which was on a balcony overlooking a bay! After the sun set, we were able to watch the manta rays feeding..I mean, come on..it was amazing.

Over the next few days we were able to visit a volcano and go scuba diving a few times. The first day we were in a shallow bay, where the fish were so close - it was incredible. I knew people loved to snorkel, but wow! It was incredible. The second day, we went to another beach. The water here was 30-50 feet deep (a whole different ball game). At one point, someone said that there were dolphins out past the drop off. We swam out into the deep water (which was scary because we couldn't see the bottom anymore). There were about 30 wild dolphins that just swam around us. They were about 5 feet away. INCREDIBLE!!!

The whole trip was a blessing - Joy and Seth's wedding was amazing! Being in Hawaii for a week - also great!

Here are some of the pictures of our trip!

Swinging at Wallowa Lake

2010-11-06T21:44:00.000-07:00

First Annual Wallowa Lake Trip

2010-11-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

The weekend before Addi's 2nd birthday (in June) we went to Wallowa Lake with my parents and Sandy's parents. We stayed in an amazing "cabin". There were three bedrooms and three floors, so we each got a floor to ourselves. The highlights were fishing, the car show, the quilt show, playing the park, minature golf and really being able to spend time together for the first time since the California reception in 2004. Addi had a blast playing with all of her grandparents.

The first stop was at a restaurant that had

a Koi pond out front. Addi was so happy to be out

of the car...and to be chasing fish.

Where'd the fish go?
The fearless fishermen (not afraid of 5:00 in the morning while
on vacation) and their amazing catch.

Ok, so while the guys went to the car show (no photos)

the ladies went to an amazing quilt show. I know...I know

can quilt shows be amazing? Yes, yes they can. Here are

a few of the best. The first one was made about 100 years

ago all by hand. I wish this picture did the intricacy justice

(I wish I knew how to spell..intricacy?)

Whoa..color explosion...I like it.

I mean..what?!

The featured artist at this quilt show was a woman

whose name, I'm sorry, I don't remember, but she was

an absolute artist. All of her work is done by hand (without

sewing machine) and this one was particularly amazing.

Each state is made out that statet's flower.

Yes, that's an eagle coming out of that quilt...

In the Hawaiian style of cut-outs. I can't

begin to imagine how she did all that without a machine.

The next few pictures are of Addi playing in the park

with her Nana and her Grammy. She had soooo much fun.

Swinging

Addi: "I be an Addi dragon...Roar."

She looks all cute here, but really, Addi likes to

throw her body weight forward in these swings, so

it looks like she's about to do a header onto the ground.

Cute, but nerve racking.....Nana is cute too :-)

Playing swing-high-ten with Grammy.

Grammy, Adalie, Nana

Poor kid. Her parents made her sit on

the big chair to take a picture...

Miniature golfing. The highlight for Addi was

her first piece of gum.....don't tell the

pediatrician.

Us :-)

The whole fam

The cabin with most of us in front of it.

This is back home in Walla Walla. We took Nana to Andy's

Market and showed her the great shopping carts.

Adalie and Pops playing with her new Birthday toys.

She loves her "monkey pack" and enjoys wearing it

(as long as it's empty)

Birthday Morning - out to breakfast.

This one sounded fun..whoa, she loved having

whipped cream and chocolate chips for breakfast.

Addi and her 2nd birthday presesnt from the Miller clan.

Thank you so much

Pops, Addi, Nana, Mama, Papa

Summer Silliness

2010-08-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

One of Adalie's favorite games is "Run around the Rosie" which

means - run around the kitchen table. We put music on and run around

the table. The longest the grown-ups have participated is 30 minutes

but we're pretty sure that she could go longer. She likes to run "fra-gether" (together)

and "by self" which we finally figured out means that she wants us to run too,

but not too closely. :-) Ah, two year olds - so fun.

Yeah, so these tank tops don't work for us so well.

Ooops, Mama caught her in a cupboard

that she's not suppose to be in...

In mama's bag -

Nana and Pappy come to visit

2010-07-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

The first weekend of June my (Nicole's) Nana and Pappy came to visit. They had a blast with Adalie and told us several times how smart she is...(of course she is). She was in a major "cooking" stage and spent over an hour cooking food for them. They just laughed and laughed as she brought them food. My favorite part was watching them be such good sports and pretend to eat for that whole time.

Trip to the Park

2010-05-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

After church last week, Sandy, Addi and I went to the park. We played for a bit on the swings, and then went and looked at the birds. Pioneer park has a neat little aviary with a handful of really noise peacocks!

Addi was trying to hide from Papa taking the picture

Trip to Wallowa

2010-05-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we took the weekend and went to Wallowa Lake. Originally the idea was to go fishing for the Kokanee that are rumored to be in the Lake...big fat lie :-) We had a great time in spite of only watching the fish swim under our boat. Addi got to drive, which she liked a lot. Her favorite part by far was playing on the beach (big suprise). There are a couple of creeks that flow into the lake. One the campground end of things, there's a mini-delta where the water runs into the lake. She just sat right down and played for about two hours. She sat right in the water until I saw her and propped her up on a rock. She couldn't have cared less.

Hunting for rocks

"Look, mama, a stick."

2010 Balloon Stampede

2010-05-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

Walla Walla is one of the kick-off events for the balloon season on the west coast. Due to the weather the balloons didn't go up on Saturday. They did take off on Sunday and most of them landed right by our house. So, we walked up the street and watched. Ever since then, she has been asking, "Where A-balloons go?"...everyday.

Shower time

2010-05-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

Addi is often in the bathroom with us in the morning when we shower. Normally, she reads, but sometimes she opens the side of the curtain. When that happens, she gets a face full of water. A few weeks ago, she figured out that there are two layers to the curtain. She then would sit inside one and play with the water.

Adalie's favorite place

2010-05-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

Adalie's favorite place in the whole world is outside. She loves being in the yard, garden, anywhere as long as it's outside. She's just started sitting in the dirt and has so far only eaten one bite of it. She helps water the plants, and was helping weed when she pulled up most of the first batch of spinach....oops :-)
Sandy then got some fun pictures of her in the flower beds.

Waiting for Grammy on the back step

Watering the Lawn

On their way to the garden

Playing with sticks

Smelling the flowers

So happy to be outside

Anybody else's shoes

2010-05-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

With four adults in the house, there's usually at least one pair of shoes in the entry way of the house. Almost everyday, Adalie often ends up in one of our pairs. She still thinks it's the funniest thing and very much likes to show anyone else in the room.

Jammies and Grammy's church shoes are a great combo

Mama's flip flops

Easter Egg

2010-05-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

We thought that Adalie might be old enough to dye eggs this year.......silly us! The first egg we gave her, she dropped on the floor. The second egg, she banged on the table and then said, "More egg, please!" So instead of giving her all of the eggs to break, we kept dying the cracked one and giving it back to her.. Then we got smart and gave her some crayons. All in all it was a very funny adventure.

Addi's first egg

Addi's second eg

"Here mama, here's a crayon"

Picking more shell

Mama left alone to play silly games with the camera :-)

Hunting for Easter Eggs

2010-05-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

Growing up, we always did the Easter Egg hunt on Saturday because my parents lead worship on Sunday morning. We did the same thing this year mostly because Mama and Papa couldn't wait :-) We did a traditional easter egg hunt in the living room. At first, Addi had no idea what she was doing. After she found the first egg, she just sat with it. Once we convinced her to keep looking, she got the hang of it. The last egg of our hunt always include a riddle. We decided to do Blue's Clues - Addi's favorite show. She was so delighted that when she finally got to the slide, she just walked around holding the 'clues' saying, "Mama, look, found a clue."

Blues Clues

Addi's new slide. This slide is a lot of fun, but it's pretty steep.

She fell a lot at the beginning, so we put the pillows down.

Play-Dough

2010-05-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

I managed to be sick over most of my spring break. At first, I was super annoyed because I had been looking forward to hiking and playing with Adalie. However, I'm pretty sure that I needed the rest and am thankful for it now. Toward the end of the week, I decided to make Play-Dough! It doesn't smell as awesome as the store bought stuff, but I felt better about Addi eating it (which she of course did. Addi had a good time, but I'm pretty sure the adults had an even better time.

Grammy and Addi and the dough.

We're back

2010-05-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hurray! My computer, formerly infected by a very noxious virus, is feeling much better. And so, we commence the blogging catch up. It should be fun :-) Addi is sleeping for a bit...
Ok, We have finally been able to play with the Kaufmans - sinceour kids are hopefully done being sick for the year. They have an AWESOME tunnel. William loves to run into it and have it "eat" him up. Addi wasn't quite ready for that, but did crawl through the tunnel on her own for the first time.

Borrowing Elyse's pretty hat.

The Olympics

2010-02-22T20:39:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I LOVE a good theme party. It's been a very long time since I've been involved in an awesome one. Mostly because I've moved too far away from Brad. I decided that even though I don't live near my fun inspiration does not mean that I cannot have fun or that fun people aren't here....because they are. I decided that an Olympics party would be perfect. We planned and planned and made a lot of cupcakes and then we were ready. So much fun was had by all. The basic premise was that each family was a different country (real or made up). You pretty much just have to see the pictures for this one.

The most amazing thing EVER.

Five different flavors of cupcakes...that's right...Amazing.

BFFs
Our awesome shirts. We were the PRE or
People's Republic of Eugene...that's right.
Go PRE

Here's the back. I moved my hair too :-)

Goofy photo

Finland decorating their flag

Italy where I learned all women have facial hair.

Adalie and Jamaican Hudson

Our parade of Nations..that's right, I said parade.

Sandy humored me and played the Olympic theme song

on his trumpet during the parade. He's a very good husband.

The Jamaican bobsled team

The events begin as I rock the neck hula-hoop

Italy and the Republic of Riley go for the bonus

of a successful pass of the hoop...oooh, bold choice.

Eileen, Emily and Nicole

Bowling extravaganza

Katie showing Hudson some cross-cultural

diplomacy.

Addi watching and learning from Jackson

Hurray!

The Royal Family of Djibouti rocks the hula hoop.

The Rasta from Jamaica rocking the gold medal.

An angry Italian

32 pair of shoes

It takes awhile to blow out all of those candles.

Picnic dinner

Digging in

These are the medal recipients for:
Bowling
Tennis
Hula Hooping
Ski Jump and
Slalom

Republic of Riley

Thank you all for celebrating with me. I had a wonderful time.

Thank you.

Nicole's 30th Birthday

2010-02-22T16:33:00.000-08:00

I have been so excited about turning 30. I feel somehow relieved to be done with my 20s. They were great and all but I feel like my 20s were a lot of work and now I feel ready to live my life. Yeah, 30s will be great. For the last 5 years I have been telling Sandy that I really like suprises especially for my birthday. Sandy has attempted small suprises in the past and has done pretty well at keeping them. He just is such a gifter that he has a hard time containing gifts. This year he did amazingly well. So, here's the story. I took my birthday off of work to get ready for the Olympics. I worked on making cupcakes and decorating the windows. I had been working on the front window for awhile. At about noon, I told Sandy that I was getting hungry and asked if he was ready to go get lunch. He said he wasn't hungry and said that he wanted to wait. I said, "ok", but was thinking.."it's my birthday and I'm hungry." But I decided to let it go - we may as well eat at home because I knew we were going out for dinner that night. I continued working on the front window. Then Sandy said, "I think you need to sit down with Addi (who was eating lunch) and take a break." Well, I was a little more ticked, but went and sat down. I looked at him like, "Ok, now I'm sitting....hmph" The phone rang. It was Amy. She wished me a happy birthday. I was trying to chat with her, but was distracted by the doorbell. I asked if someone would get it. Mom and Sandy didn't move. Now, I was really annoyed...I mean sheesh. So, I went to open the door and hurray it was John and Amy. I screamed and cried a little to be perfectly honest. They were such a perfect suprise. Sandy had kept them a secret for six weeks. ( He said it almost killed him :-) And then I had to apologize to Sandy for having a bad attitude. They came in, got the tour and then we went to lunch :-)
Sandy and Jon took naps and played some video games while Amy let me drag her around Walla Walla. So, we ran some errands and came home in time to get ready for our fancy dinner. We discovered that rich people sit really far apart from each other at restaurants and they eat really good food :-) Then we came back to the house for cake and presents. They had brought a vegan cake from Sweet Life in Eugene. Lemon poppyseed with raspberry goodness...yumm! Here are the photos of the best suprise ever!!!

Prepping the decorations for tomorrow's Walla Walla Olympic Ceremonies.

Out to lunch at Stone Soup. It worked out that

Anthony Kaufman was there having lunch too.

Thanks for taking our picture Anthony.

So, Walla Walla has a very lively artists presence.

We have a lot of statues of all kinds of things downtown.

Here's the dog balancing a brick, lemon and walnut on it's nose...

oh yeah and Amy and I on it's back.

Jon and Amy ready for dinner.

All dolled up

Nicole and Sandy

I love this picture. Jon was making his "people take too many pictures" face

and Amy had just flipped her hair. (Sorry Amy, but I LOVE this photo.)

Ah, now the cute one.

Here's the yummy Sweet Life cake.

Amy made a chain of 9 monkeys. Good job Amy.

Then Jon made a chain of all of the monkeys.

Better job Jon.

Cake time

Presents

Very pretty bracelet from Jon and Amy (an Emily Rose creation..hurray).

Practicing the Wii

Jon flying like a bird.

I have to pay a lot of attention when I slalom.

These next pictures are Saturday pictures.

Mom and I getting ready for the party.

I love this picture. Jon and Sandy with their

gaming faces on.

Today, we heard Adalie in the monitor. It sounded like she was jumping in her crib and walking around. Then it got really quiet. Every once in awhile she would say a little something, but she was pretty much quiet. Then I heard a noise that I didn't recognize, so I went in to check on her. She had pulled some books off of the shelf by her crib and was reading to herself in the dark. Now she pretty much does it every nap time, which I think is great! She wakes up happy!Addi helping us clean up.

Adalie helping me make cupcakes.

Learning how to put on a shirt

2010-02-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

Addi has been trying to put on clothes lately. She hasn't had very much success, until this day. She got the shirt on over her head the right way. But, then she said, "stuck...stuck." She just couldn't get her head through. Ah well, it was a great try and she had fun.

Sunny day in the park

2010-02-22T16:11:00.000-08:00

During the first week of February, we had an amazing 60 degree Saturday. This is very uncharacteristic for Walla Walla for this time of year. So, we took advantage of it and went to the park. Addi is in her "no pictures please" stage, so this first one was her protesting. The park has huge trees, some of which have big branches that run parallel to the ground about four feet up. They're perfect for pictures.

She was better once she was on the ground.

Walking with Papa.

When we got home, we played outside some more.

Addi discovered the deck and after she

chased the cats off of it, she just chilled a bit.

First of the year

2010-02-22T16:02:00.000-08:00

Addi has found a new fun place..the stairs. She'll take a little toy or book and sit. Sometimes she visits with herself or looks for ants under the rug. (When she find them, she shouts "bug..bug" and then squishes them with her finger.

Addi's first piggy. She loves to pull them out.

This is a miracle pictures because Addi has decided that she doesn't want to be in pictures anymore; she only wants to see them. Whenever I try to take a picture of her, she says, "No, me see" and gets grumpy.

Second Christmas family portraits

2010-02-22T15:56:00.000-08:00

back: Dave,Grammy, Grandad, Pappy, Nana

front: Aunt Cami, Mama, Adalie, Papa

Cami, Eileen, Addi, Nicole
Sandy, Nicole and Adalie

Second Christmas Eve

2010-02-22T15:24:00.000-08:00

After our wonderful time in Grass Valley, we came back to Walla Walla for second Christmas. My (Nicole) Nana and Pappy came up from Adrian, OR and Cami and Dave were here too. We had Addi open a few presents on Christmas Eve because Grammy couldn't make her wait until the next day :-)

Addi LOVES clothes. She really loved

wearing this new coat from Uncle Wayne!

Bows are the best thing about Christmas.
We woke up on "Christmas" day and it had snowed.
Hurray!

Addi helping Grammy.

Adalie dancing with her new Elmo

(I'm pretty sure that this is Christmas,

but I'm too lazy to change it :-P

Addi trying on Grammy's new coat.

Yeah, she really loves clothes.

Christmas Adventure Part Four

2010-02-16T21:38:00.000-08:00

Addi is learning about "through" and having a blast

with it.

All dressed up and no place to go.

She was too sick to go to church on Christmas Eve, so we

saved her pretty dress for when the whole family gathered

a few days after Christmas. Here she's sitting with Uncle Bubbo

in their fancy duds.

The pretty Christmas table - with Addi in the background.

She still pretty much eats on her own schedule which was about

30 minutes before the rest of us.

Her new favorite place...Nana's bed. She loved to

be up there and have Nana cover her in pillows.

Sandy, Adalie and I

Sandy, Joy, Seth, Dale

Nicole, Adalie, Lindsay and Warren

Brothers

Sandy and Joy

Joy and Nicole

Sandy, Joy and Dale

Christmas Aventure Part Three..oops I skipped a day

2010-02-16T21:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas day brought baths in the sink and fun present time. We opened stockings and presents with Nana, Pops, Uncle Dale and the three of us. It was all we could do to keep Nana from giving all of her presents before everyone was there she was so excited :-) Then, Auntie Joy and Uncle Seth arrived about noon and we opened more presents. We had such a great time all being in the same place. We wish it could happen more often.

Addi in the bath in the sink.

Addi with her stocking. The post-it was the

best part for awhile.

The nose, the best place for stickers.

Addi sporting her new Tinker Bell bag.

Oooh, what's in here?

By the end, Addi had the swing of opening presents.

This is about the cutest apron EVER. Thanks Nana and Pops.

Arriving at Nana and Pops'

2010-02-16T21:14:00.000-08:00

On Monday, the 21st, we drove up to Portland, flew to Sacramento and drove to Grass Valley. It was a very full day of travel. Addi had started to get a stuffy nose and by the next day was full on sick. It took the rest of us a few days to catch up, but catch up we did. Somehow we always manage to be sick (especially Nicole) when we're in Grass Valley. Someday we'll need to take a vacation in the summer or I'll need to stop working with kids. Anyway, Addi was a trooper and by far the least whiney of all of us.

Eating yo-yos (Cheerios) out of her bib.

How did these yo-yos get all over the floor?

I will look at them and see if they go back into the bowl.

We finally went and bought some bibs because

she was liquifying with her cold. Ew!

Hurray for bibs, bears and the paci.

Christmas Adventure Part Two

2010-02-15T16:41:00.000-08:00

More fun with the Greens

Snack time.

After bath at the Miller house, we have Nakey time. It's time for Addi to run around in her diaper. She LOVES not wearing clothes. When the Green kids saw that she was having nakey time, they (Ethan and Macey) decided to have true Nakey time and ran around completely nakey....very funny.

Rocking out to Nakey time

Ethan and Macey doing some naked singing.

Close up of Ethan

So, I was sitting on the floor, taking pictures of the kids. All of a sudden, Ethan starts walking up over my legs. I said, "Whatcha doing buddy?" It turns out he wanted me to take a picture of his tummy. Here you go Ethan...your tummy.
I got a bunch of cute pictures, but seeing as these aren't my kids, this is the most appropriate picture. It looks like they aren't having any fun, but a second later they were laughing and squirreling all over the place.

Cute girls playing

I went to look for the girls, and Emma came out of the room with a box on her face.

Emma working hard to get in the box.

Emma in.

Emma all in

On Sunday night, our small group came over for dinner and hanging out. It was so good to see everybody especially Cedar (he's getting so big).

Jon, Amy, Sandy and I used to have a regular game night.'

We finally had a moment (after kids were in bed) to play a few rounds

of Sequence (all of our FAVORITE game :-)

Amy and I

Emma hugging Addi

Oh, and I had to take a picture of the weekend's diapers.

Christmas Adventure Part One

2010-02-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

Ok, so for Christmas, we had two weeks off. We actually left town on Friday the 18th and drove to Eugene. We had decided that since we were flying out of Portland, we could spend a few days in Eugene first. On the drive Adalie discovered that she is very funny and put her doll on her head over and over again. We laughed everytime. We spent a few days staying with the Greens. We managed to time it so that all three Green kids got sick pretty much on our way to Eugene. We decided to risk and and the three of us ended up sick for the rest of the trip. Amy is officially absolved of any responsibility - she gave us fair warning and we chose for danger. It turns out that Addi and Emma LOVE to put toys in their mouths and LOVE to share. Ah well, we're better now :-)

Amy holding a sick Emma and Addi who is so

happy to be out of the car.

This is one of my favorite pictures. Emma as the youngest of three can hold her own. She loved to give Addi hugs. Emma is (big suprise) taller than Addi, so she hugged Addi around the neck. Addi would say, "No, no....Mama." Over the few days we were there, Addi learned that if Emma was heading for her, she just needed to run in circles for a second to divert Emma. They had worked out a truce by the third day, but this picture is day one.

This is their band photo.

Emma is a goof.

Emma was showing Adalie how to use her cool toys.

Emma doing "the face."

Amy and I would be talking and think, "Hmm, we should check on the kids." So often, we'd go into Emma's room and see this. They played so well together.

Once Addi figured out Emma's hugs, she decided it was safe

to tickle her tummy.

Feeding four kids sure fills up the kitchen (Macey is sitting by Ethan)

On Saturday, Amy and I took all of the kids to the mall

to walk around. It was sooo great getting to do two of

our favorite past-times...walking and talking.

Addi walking around Grace.

Ethan

Emma

Adalie

Macey

Sleepy girl

Sandy, Nicole and Adalie in front of the big tree at church.

Yeah, she's an only child

2010-02-15T16:01:00.000-08:00

I already feel a bit bad for any more children we may have because we keep taking pictures just for fun. Ah well, sorry other babies, here's some more of Adalie.

Christmas Tree

2010-02-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

In early December, we went up to the Klicker homestead (*Eugene folk - think the River Road farms, but up in the hills). We went with the church crew and chose our Christmas tree.

Adalie debuted her snow suit. Since we were on a hillside,

the pictures worked better when she was sitting down.

She fell down a lot while walking...oops.

Grammy and Sandy putting the lights on

Nicole standing by our two-toned tree. The top half had Grammy's

pretty (and breakable) decorations. The bottom half had the

old-school quilted, dough and wooden ornaments. Addi

had fun pulling these off and playing with them.

A few more random pictures

2010-02-15T15:44:00.000-08:00

The smiliest girl

Getting s-l-e-e-p-y

I think this is a bit gros (even though it's clean)

but, it's so great for teething.

Around the house

2010-02-15T15:31:00.000-08:00

We are having so much fun watching Adalie's personality come out more and more. She seems to be a great mix of Sandy and I plus her own little self :-) She's basically a giant goof. These are a few pictures from around the house.

Addi sitting on the couch.

Reading one of her favorite books. She loves

the letter B...yeah, who knows? :-)

Before bed we usually have a wresting time.

Here she seems to be wresting with herself.

Quite the little reader

2010-01-03T17:17:00.000-08:00

One day, I was sitting on the couch reading the paper. I looked up and saw Adalie sitting on the bottom step reading the paper too. She is already quite the reader. She also loves to do what we're doing. Hurray for reading!

Sandy sings

2010-01-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

Sandy had the opportunity to sing in a couple of different venues this fall. He was asked to sing a short recital at a winery event. He and Leticia Page, a local soprano took turns soloing and sang a few duets. The evening was wonderful. Sandy sang beautifully and had fun getting back into his music. About a week later, Sandy performed again with the Walla Walla Choral Society. They sang part of the Messiah. He was one of four soloists. It was another fun evening. Sandy has enjoyed being a part of the local music scene.

After the concert. Sandy was given a boquet

(with pine cones in it :-)

Thanksgiving in Adrian

2010-01-02T20:42:00.001-08:00

This year we took Thanksgiving to my grandparent's house in Adrian, OR. I hadn't seen the house since it was finished, so it was a special treat for me. Addi did well on the drive which is always a plus :-). Nana and Pappy have a beautiful loft house. It was a little tricky getting Adalie to sleep when she could hear us having fun. There was a lot of "No, mama" and "Mama, up".
After the first night, she got it figured out and did pretty well. We had two full days of food and some good visiting. I was able to use our new camera (because I left the other one on the plane in October..sheesh) to take some good videos of Nana and Pappy telling family stories from their childhoods. I won't post them here, but they are treasures.

Addi on a rare break from her car seat when

we stopped at the grocery store to get ice cream.

We didn't have a cooler, so dad tied it to the top of the car

with the luggage rack.

Grammy and Adalie at Nana and Pappy's house.
Everybody cooking

Pappy carving the turkey

Our little family

Mom and Dad (or rather, Dad and Mom)

Addi's fun game with her new remote

Addi the helper

2010-01-02T20:20:00.000-08:00

Addi LOVES to help around the house. She likes to weep (sweep), do the dishes and laundry. This is the classic laundry picture and I just had to include it :-)

Ok, ok, I am blogging again :-)

2010-01-02T20:13:00.001-08:00

Mom and Dad have music practice for church every Friday night. Addi loves to participate. She sings, dances and tries to help play the piano with Grammy and the guitar with Mrs. Gonzales. Addi has started humming and singing to herself. I'm excited to hear the songs she comes up with as she gets more words.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

Last year Addi was only a few months old and not at all interested in being dressed up like a cow (last year). This year, she wasn't too sure about her costume at first. She kept grabbing at it, saying, "off." But we persisted and she soon settled in. We visited a few of the houses in the neighborhood - she did very well and even signed thank you (with a little help :-) We had a great time.

Our happy bee (with droopy wings)

Hat off

Hat on

Trick or Treat

Papa and his bee

When we got back to the house, Adalie

searched through the candy dish by the front

door and carefully moved some choice candy from

the dish to her bucket. She chewed on a few pieces

and definitely had fun shaking the nerds boxes.

New wings

First official Halloween candy

Telling Grammy about eating nerds

Yumm!

Oh, so funny....wait, that's gross!

2009-10-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, So Adalie has recently discovered pens and pencils. She has taken to drawing on everything - she really has no idea what's she's doing. That obviously doesn't work well, so Grammy decided to try chalk. They spent some of the afternoon drawing on her new chalkboard. Shortly after I got home from work, Adalie started eating the chalk. My first instinct was to say no and then I thought, "what could it hurt, it's just chalk?" Well, we discovered that Addi really likes to eat chalk....alot.

"Mama, are you gonna let me eat this?"

"This is what chalkboards are for"

"Haha, green and yellow chalk...yummm"

Ew, this was the last picture, because

we were done eating chalk after this :-)

Time for the first haircut

2009-10-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Addi's hair had finally started to be a bit unruly. It was time for the first hair-cut. We put her in her travel feeding chair, put on a video of elmo and I went to town. I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of her squirming or of her trying to get out of her chair (while buckled in). These first few pictures and the before :-)

Pre-Mullet stage

I don't really know what I'm doing.

Thankfully, she likes elmo.

On the downside, she will only look up :-)

The best part was that she was trying to see

what I was doing and kept turning her head.

Sooo, it's a little shorter on the left side...ah well.

This was the best shot I could get from the back

because she was done sitting.

Leaves and a one-year-old :-)

2009-10-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome Fall! Today we woke up to a blanket of leaves as a lot of wind came through last night. Grammy took Addi out to play earlier and we decided to go play again for the pictures (and the fun of course). Adalie was standing at the door saying, "walk" which means, "Hey Mama and Papa, let's go." She loved when we threw the leaves and even tried to throw a few herself. Even though Mom and Dad's camera is awesome, the pictures keep showing up very blurry in the blog - any suggestions?

This one is my favorite

"I'll try"

Buried by Mama and Papa and not

too sure about it.

Papa and the distracted baby

Mama too

Hello All

2009-10-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

In all fairness, I would have blogged sooner (well, maybe not), but our camera has gone to the great place in the sky where all good cameras go when they are left on an airplane (oops!) Thankfully, my parents have a camera, so we've not lost ALL of our memories :-)
Work has been going well for Nicole. I'm getting to know students and staff in all of the classrooms. This is a fantastic school district to work for. I feel completely supported which is awesome as this is a brand new position. I still find it hard to be away from Adalie during the day, but am thankful for the way things are getting busier. We've been having fun working on projects around the house. The garden is set for the fall and we're getting our summer things put away.

After the intense heat of this summer, it was nice to have

some September evenings that were comfortable. Addi's favorite

place to be is outside. She particularly loves flowers and the

neighbor's cat, Spot.

When you say, "Addi, smile," this is

what she does.

"Look mama, I did not eat that leaf."

"But I might eat this one"

"Mama, will you give me that worm?"

"Here spot, do you want it?"

Addi likes to help Grammy when she cooks.

So far, the sink is working well as a work

station.

This is the only picture we have of Adalie's first boat ride. We went to the Columbia (we ususally go to the Snake) to go fishing. It was SOOOO windy and wavy. There were a few moments where I was planning how to swim to the shore towing Addi. We all got a little grumpy - except for Adalie. She loved it.

Last Saturday, we went to Klickers. It's like Lonepine. We took a few pictures, climbed on their giant hay pyramid and got a video of my parents going down the big slide. I would post it here, but.....:-)

More helping

Adalie found the broom and decided to help. She is such a good helper.

She did pretty well and only almost poked our eyes out a few times.

Such a strong girl

Our big October adventure has already happened. I was able to go to the AAMFT (American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists) conference in Sacramento. We decided to make it a family trip. Sandy, Adalie and I flew down to Sacramento for the long weekend. We stayed with Sandy's parents and got to see the whole fam (shout out to Dale and Joy). I drove into town each day and was thankful for very manageable traffic. The conference was great and time with family wonderful. Adalie entertained us all. I don't have any pictures of this trip because on the way there, I left our camera under the seat on the plane (just one of those things....but man, it's a bummer). Lindsay and Joy took some pictures, so I'll post them when I steal...I mean get them from snapfish.

Hopefully, we'll be blogging more regularly now ( I know I always say that, but, we'll see). We are so thankful for so many things, but miss those we left in Eugene (and I guess Springfield :-)

My Favorite Meal

2009-09-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

These pretty much speak for themselves. I have to add that this doesn't surprise Nicole or I given the fact that her Auntie Joy is as crazy for Spaghetti.

The Yoga lesson

2009-09-10T11:18:00.001-07:00

Addi continually pulls the place mats off of the table. This is how we found her playing.

She'll raise her arms everytime we say "Reach for the Stars" because of her Skippy Jon Jones books.

Daily fun with our lil' angel

2009-09-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

Just a few quick images of our girl. I love the sink picture below. That was the only way we could get the dishes done and watch her simultaneously. Look at all those chompers! She's such a ham!

Look what I can do!

2009-09-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Addi visits with Spot

2009-08-15T20:58:00.002-07:00

My parents have found themselves pet-free for the first time in about 18 years. They are not without pet-friends, however. There are a few neighborhood cats that come to visit. One in particular is named, Spot..well, that's what we call him. I think his name might be MJ. Anyway, he comes to the window and talks to Adalie. She talks back to him.

Adalie and Spot

She watches him roll onto his back.

Addi's first accessories

2009-08-15T20:58:00.001-07:00

My (Nicole) Nana made me a scarf a few years ago. Addi has been playing with it for awhile now. When we first put it on her, she shrugged it off and wasn't too sure. Now, when she finds it, she puts it on and shrugs her shoulders and walks around with it.

"Hey, Mama, look what I found."

She also likes to pick the little fuzzes out.

Reaching high to get the scarf over her
substantial head :-)

Reading Corner

2009-08-15T20:25:00.001-07:00

Adalie has a few spots in the house that she has sort of claimed as her own. One of them is next to the book case downstairs. She will sit by the shelf and "read" her books for twenty minutes at a time. Then she plays and scoots around.

Playing in her corner.

Getting Tired

Being Goofy

"Mama, Whatcha doing?"

Reading to Mama. Sometimes she wants us to read
to her. Sometimes she wants to read by herself. Sometimes
she just wants to show you the book and then take it away.

Her scrunchie nose face.

Addi's fort

2009-08-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

Adalie has been doing a lot of exploring since we moved in with my parents! She did a lot of cruising when we first moved and in, so she spent some time walking along the walls. This is how she discovered that she could walk behind the couch which is up against the wall. She learned that this "tunnel" leads to the corner of the living room behind grandad's big brown chair. She likes to walk back there and hang out for awhile. She can reach her toy basket and likes to read or talk to her bear. I took this video over the top of the chair. I'm amazed at how she sometimes enjoys playing by herself.

Whew!

2009-08-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

This last week gave me (Nicole) a small taste of what is about to come. I had a full day training on Monday and another meeting today. I start next week with a few major trainings and then start with kids the following week. I am very much looking forward to it all, but will again miss spending so much time with my sweet girl and amazing husband. I am tired, so here are a few photos from the past few weeks and will hopefully work on this more this weekend. I have some very fun videos :-)

Grammy and Adalie playing the piano.
Addi loves to interrupt Grammy when she is practicing
for church. Grammy doesn't seem to mind :-)

"What is going on?" We went outside on the back step
during a thunder storm. Addi couldn't quite figure out
why she was getting rained on.

"What is Papa doing out there?"

Adalie loves her shoes (mostly to chew on them)

Addi, Where's your nose?

2009-08-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

Adalie has been very into noses for the past several weeks. She loves to point to other people's noses and even stuck her finger up the doctor's nose (Charming :-) In the last two weeks she has been able to point to her ears, eyes, mouth, hair and toes. She's just too cute.

Here it is

2009-08-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

So, I realized that I needed to get some videos of Adalie and all of the new things that she can do. Before we left Eugene, she had started taking a few steps between Sandy and I. After we moved, she hurt her ankle and had sort of stopped walking on her own (she still cruised like a maniac). Yesterday she just took off. It's amazing and now we need a baby gate :-)

A weeks worth of adventures

2009-07-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

We have been in Walla Walla for a little over two weeks. This last week has definitely been an adventure. Here is a little picture diary of this last week.

Last week, Adalie had been a bit grumpy and lethargic. In the morning, Sandy
noticed that she had a rash on her legs. I thought nothing of it because her skin is super
sensitive. But, by mid-morning, she was pretty much covered with spots and she had a fever.
We took her in thinking she had somehow contracted chicken pox. But no, she just had a virus. We waited it out and sure enough...she got better. Thanks new doctor.

Addi's spots

Adalie loves to pull these placemats off of the end tables,
step on them and then try to pick them up. It's almost
endless entertainment.

This series is one of Addi's favorite games. She loves
to peek around the couch and try to "get you."
This is her starting point..here she comes.

She rounds the corner

Oh, getting so close

And here she is

Whoa...too close :-)

Sandy got out the bubbles. Adalie was working hard
to concentrate on those bubbles...she just can't
quite grab one...

She still won't crawl, but she does this funny version
of an army crawl. She rolls almost all the way over
to her side, inches her leg up and the rolls almost
over to the other side. It's awesome.

Tim and Heather stopped by for a few days on their way
to Nashville. They brought their dog, Draco. He was great with
Addi. She loved to pet him and poke his nose (she's really into noses).
He would pretty much take it and when he's had enough, he would
just walk off. Such a sweety.

Tonight, the Kaufmans came over for dinner.
One the couch: Elysse (almost 2), Matthew (8-ish months), William (3) and Adalie (1)
Boy, I hope I spelled Elysse's name right..sheesh.

We also went fishing and I (Nicole) caught a HUGE fish. We of course, had forgotten all of the cameras, but I lucked out and had my cell phone with me. The proof is stuck on my phone. Trust me, it was awesome. I should mention that Sandy caught the most fish....good times were had by all.

Adalie's Walla Walla adventure

2009-07-21T16:17:00.001-07:00

Just a few pictures from our first week.

Eating Olives

Her funny portrait photo

Hanging out in the kitchen

Addi's new swing

"What are these people doing to me?"

Now, she's having a good time.

Addi discovers Grammy's bells.

Adalie feel and cracked her head on an end table in the
living room. She ended up with quite the bump on
her head. Poor thing.

Odd Neighbors

2009-07-21T16:12:00.001-07:00

One the first day we were unpacking, Sandy came in from outside and said, "Did you know that there are peacocks on your parent's neighbor's roof?" I said, "What" and went out to look. I took a few photos that day. We have since been able to get some even better photos, but they're stuck on my dad's camera :-) Anyway, these peacocks have been reported to the city, but nobody has come for them yet..so we have peacocks now! These pictures were taken right before a thunder storm and these birds were hunkering down under a tree on the neighbor's roof.

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And Then We Moved

2009-07-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

Whew! I'm writing this about one week after our big move to Walla Walla. It's a little surreal to look back. On Saturday July 11th, we began packing the truck. Due to a math error (as in we didn't do any), our truck was too little. Warren was able to do some engineering magic and Jon and Kento took apart almost all of our furniture...and it worked. Between the truck and our car, we fit almost everything. Warren did tie some laundry baskets and the pack 'n play to the trailor.
On Friday night, we slept on the floor in the apartment. This was the night when I realized that I am not 18 anymore. Sleeping on the floor is painful. Also, Adalie didn't sleep well in her pak 'n play, so she came to sleep on the floor with us. She then slept very well. The trick about sleeping with Addi is that she likes to sleep with her feet in the air. In her crib, this works out well. With us, it means that she sleeps with her feet on Sandy's face or my back. When we woke up in the morning, she was above our heads up against the wall. We were very tired, but managed to finish packing everything with Warren and Lindsay's help. The car was sooo packed that the rearview mirror actually broke off. We drove off and headed to Walla Walla. Addi talked most of the way (see video below). When we arrived we were supposed to call the lady from the storage place. We called all day and she didn't answer. I was very frustrated because we needed to return the truck. We eventually got ahold of her on Monday and moved our stuff in. It ended up being better because Sunday was about 100 degrees with thunder and lightening. Monday was about 65 degrees and windy which was perfect. We moved everything out of the truck. Moved storage stuff into storage. Moved home stuff back onto the truck, drove to the house and unloaded it again. Then we hooked up the trailor and took the truck back...whew! It took about three days to unpack and sort through everything, but we are settled in and beginning our new adventure in Walla Walla. Thanks Eugene!

Kenton and Jon taking apart our chairs

This is the truck...almost done

Adalie eating apples in the truck

Family Pictures

2009-07-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Warren and Lindsay came up to Eugene to help us finish packing the apartment - and the truck. We are so thankful for their help as we literally could not have done it without them. While they were here, I thought it might be nice to get some family pictures. I asked Amy Green :-) to take some pictures. We went back up to Hendrick's park which is just amazingly beautiful. Because of our schedule, we couldn't get to pictures until after dinner which is why Adalie looks a little (or a lot) sleepy in some of these. I love Amy's photos and am very excited to print them out. Thank you Amy! We had a great time and even sleepy Addi did very well. * The pictures where Adalie is frowning - those are just her "stank face." She furrows her brow as part of a game. She frowns and then smiles....just so you know. I would write little comments on each photo (which I love doing), but Addi is waking up...

The Park by Oakway

2009-07-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

On Memorial Day, we went to another park with the Greens. We went to the park behind Oakway. I realize now that I have no idea what the name of the park is. :-) It's a great park for little kids because there are a few things to play on and a big, grass field for running...sooo fun. We had a blast playing and taking pictures :-) We actually did get pictures of more of us than just the kids....but these are my favorite.

Addi loves to chew on her shoes

Adalie really loves to grab Emma's face. Emma generally
doesn't seem to mind. I think having two year old
twin siblings helps a bit.

Our happy girls

Adalie grabbed the back of Emma's shirt, "bit" her head
(which means, licked her head)
and muscled her down to the ground.

Down she goes....

Two happy girls

The Victor.....for now...

Can I bite you head again?

Emma was alright. She decided to eat grass

After we sat Emma back up, she thought she'd take a turn
and grab Addi's hair.

Adalie looks at her and gives her "the look."

Emma is unphased by "the look" and grabs again.

Addi can dish it, but would prefer if you not pull
her hair, thank you very much :-)

Taking comfort with Mama

The day ended well. Adalie and Emma are still friends...all is well.

Alton Baker

2009-07-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

During the last week of May ( I think :-), we went to Alton-Baker with the Greens. We walked from Autzen to the park, had dinner and fed some geese. I (Nicole) have finally conquered my fear of geese and had fun without having to run away :-) We had a great time just being outside. and the kids loved being together. Addi and Emma love to grab each other's faces. They're just so funny.

Adalie ready to picnic

Nose-to-Nose with Papa

New Family Photo

Day in the Park

2009-07-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

So I have some great pictures that Amy Green took - of us at a few parks. They are currently stuck on my external hard drive and I'll post them when I can figure out how to. These are a few pictures of the Miller family shortly before our big move. Hopefully, I'll be able to post about our big adventure sometime this weekend.

Here is our sweet girl - just talking away!
She's really quite chatty.

Adalie and Papa

We were trying to show Addi how to smell
a flower, but she just kept trying to eat them.

Just plain an awesome video...

Tim's Graduation

2009-06-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

Sandy, Adalie and I were fortunate enough to be able to go up to Bellingham for my brother, Tim's college graduation. It was quite a weekend. We took off from Eugene at about 10:30 and got to Tim and Heather's apartment at about 6:30 (Seattle traffic). The whole weekend was a back and forth - celebrating Tim's graduation and Adalie's first birthday. This is a long blog, so I'll just narrate it through the pictures. These pictures were borrowed from my parent's snapfish site. Cami has some more, so I'll probably post those too. She says, "they're the bomb!"

Four generations picture
Nicole, Adalie, Steve (grandad)
Pappy (Steve's dad) and Nana (Steve's mom)

This picture is dark, but so sweet.

Pappy and Adalie

Nana and Adalie
Nana wants all of you to know
that Addi is "so smart"

n
It turns out that Addi sort of enjoys being
the center of attention.....hmmm, I
wonder where she gets that?

On graduation day, we got to go see the clinic Tim
has been working out of - and meet some of his professors.
Pappy, Heather, Tim, Mom and Dad

Tim's picture now hangs in the new Audiology clinic
at Western..Yeah, he's famous like that.

The new building has bare concrete walls. So,
this year's class got to do a little 'hands on' project
to fancy it up a bit.

Dad, Tim, Heather and Mom

Cami, Tim and Nicole

The fam (minus to husbands) Dave was finishing up his school
year and Sandy graciously agreed to stay at the hotel with Addi.
One-year old nap times and graduation are not best friends.

We do this all time time....I don't know :-)

Yup, he did it.

Mom and Dad got these pictures from in the gym where graduation
took place. Nana, Pappy and I were comfortably situated in
an overflow auditorium (read: air conditioned, comfy seats
and we didn't have to stand when all the graduates walked in...
sorry Tim.)

Fancy-schmancy dinner after graduation

Ok, coolest fountain ever - apparently there is one of these at Disney Land. That ball is solid rock. It's being held up by a fountain of water that comes up underneath it. Because of the water pressure, you can move the rock around. And because of the way the ball is set in there, you can't squish your fingers...super fun. Sandy and I found it at a community college on one of our morning walks. We stopped by on our way to breakfast to show the fam....cool, moving rock fountain :-) (notice it was so cool, the guys stayed in the car.)

Sunday morning, we all went out to breakfast to celebrate Adalie's birthday.
She got a little talkative (i.e. loud)

Tim, Heather, Addi and Cami

Nana (Nicole's grandma) and Pappy got Addi this
super-soft bear. She loves it.

Snuggles
Birthday girl and .....graduation boy?

"Ooh, yes, shoes! Let me look..."
"Where's Addi?" "There she is."

Looking at the farm puzzle

After birthday breakfast, we drove back to Eugene (by way of Ikea :-) We had a great time and look forward to seeing the fam again this summer before Tim and Heather move to Tennessee (which I still am not sure how to spell). Thanks for a great weekend all.

The wonders of cruising

2009-06-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

Adalie has been having a blast cruising around our apartment. Here are a few pictures to document the adventures.

This was our first adventure with spaghetti!
Addi is actually a pretty clean eater.

She can suck up the noodles - it's pretty cute.

This is her fake whine face.

We had been gathering some boxes to organize our upcoming move.
Addi realized that they were great to help her get around until
one of her toys feel inside a closed box
"Hey, block, come back!"

"It's all good."

Wearing a pretty brown scarf

"Mom, give me that camera...seriously"

Fine, I will just eat this letter 'P'

Quick Trip to Walla Walla

2009-06-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

The weekend after Warren and Lindsay visited us, Adalie and I (Nicole) took a quick trip over to Walla Walla. I had an interview with the school district which they graciously moved to Friday. Adalie got to spend some time with Grammy and Grandad! She is becoming quite the cruiser and enjoyed walking along any furniture she could find. She also had a blast with Grammy's tupperware! Thanks Grammy! My mom and I also got to scope out some storage units for when we move in July - yup, the Miller clan of Eugene is moving to Walla Walla! This has been a lengthy process for us - with much time spent in prayer and conversation (Nicole's way of thinking :-) This is a bitter sweet transition for us and for now, we are happy in our denial that we will miss so many people. There will be more to come as the big move gets closer! Anyway, here are some pictures of...of course, Adalie!

Happy Girl with Grammy's Tupperware.

"Ooohh, a chair! I see you."

Adalie with Grandad and Grammy

First Presents

2009-05-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

Sandy's parents, Warren and Lindsay (Grandpops and Nana) came for a visit this weekend. They volunteered to watch Addi on Friday while Mama and Papa were at work. They all had a blast. (Thanks Nana and Pops). So many of our visits with family are short and it was nice to have more than one day to spend with them. We went on a walk, ran errands and did a LOT of playing. Adalie is getting better and better at standing. She cruises along anything she can grab and has taken some more steps (with help). On the first night they were here we did some early birthday presents. They gave Addi some blocks which she loves to dump out and chew on :-) The hit of the evening was something called a bug jug. It has four different bugs in it that Addi can pull out and of course, chew on! She loves it. Nana also made Adalie a card (which she laminated so Addi wouldn't ruin it by chewing on it...so smart). Fun was had by all! Thanks for the great visit.

Happy early birthday Adalie
(The card from Nana)

Opening blocks

Opening the beach towel and fun jungle bib

Papa is very excited :-)

Yay bugs!!!!

Bugs are no problem for explorer Addi.

First first birthday

2009-05-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Because we were able to celebrate Adalie's first birthday with Warren and Lindsay this weekend, we thought it only appropriate that we have the classic messy cake. The problem is that Adalie is not a messy eater. She doesn't put things in her hair...most of the time. So, when we gave her this amazing cream filled cupcake from sweet life, she just licked it. Once she realized that it tasted amazing, she grabbed it and went to town. She never did get very messy; just messy enough for some good pictures. Actually, by the end, she was most focused on the frosting that got all over her hands. She kept holding up her pointer finger, looking at it and laughing. She's such a goof. I tried posting a video, but it was too big. I'll try again later.

"Oooh, what is this delicious treat?"

"First, I will lick it."

"Hmmmm"

"What if I squish this?"

"Hey Papa, give that back"

"Yay"

"Big Bite"

"Cake is awesome!"