P-A-R-T-Y

We celebrated the Miller family summer birthdays yesterday at Papa and Gramma's house. Happy Birthday to Calle, me, Uncle Tim and Noah! Noah's birthday is not until September 14th, but we thought we'd celebrate his birthday, too, while we were all already together.

Noah counting some of the birthday cash he received. He's saving up for a Wii Force Unleashed game, which comes out sometime in September. He can't wait to take his wad of cash to Costco as soon as it comes out!


Mark trying to light Noah's hair on fire along with his birthday candles. As you can imagine, every dad there was laughing and every mom was yelling, "Maaaaarrrkkk!!!"


Cole with Uncle James and Cousin Tyler. Cole absolutely and completely loves both James and Tyler and cannot get enough of them whenever we are together!


Tyler, Cole and Noah. Noah absolutely and completely loves torturing his mother and cannot take a picture without doing the rabbit years .... uuuugghhh!


Mark, Gramma and Cousin Evan just hanging out.


And sweet Abby and Papa enjoying each other.

We had a super fun day ... thanks Miller fam! Thanks for the pictures, too, Auntie Holly, since I forgot our camera!

(And, for the record, Ethan was actually at the party ... he just always has this way of sneaking upstairs and watching Sponge Bob every time we go to Papa and Gramma's house...)

First Day

The first day of school is always so exciting! It was so odd, though, just taking Abby to school today. She was totally fine with it. She is an amazing trooper, I think - always just taking in stride whatever life throws her way, never freaking out about anything ... definitely takes after her dad (for which I am very thankful)!


2nd grade here she comes! New outfit (from Costco, of course), new backpack (I mean messenger bag ... gotta be cool), and new lunch box. Isn't she so cute?!?


Abby and her new teacher, Ms. Hebert. The teachers all stand out on the front porch of the school on the first day to greet their students. We took the opportunity to get this sweet photo. Isn't she so cute?!?! Noah and Ethan gave hugs and talked to their old teachers ... and explained to them all why they weren't in school :-)


Abby in the community room waiting for community time to start. Every student in the school gathers together for 10 minutes every morning for announcements, birthdays, lunch menu, etc. Isn't she so cute?!?!?!!!


Our homeschooling curriculum still hasn't arrived. We were originally told we would get all of the materials 2 to 3 weeks before school started. Now we've been told they will arrive on the first day of school or before. Nice, huh? Really gets me into my "freaking out" mode because I wanted to have time to look over everything and get organized before their official first day (September 8th). Guess I better take some lessons from Abby on handling whatever rolls my way :-)

Since we don't have any books yet, we took today to get a bit organized with what we could do. So the boys read the introductions to all of their courses (which we could do online), labeled all of their folders, made an art portfolio, and each drew a self-portrait. Plus they practiced their music (piano & guitar for Noah, drums for Ethan) and their typing.



Aren't they so cute?!?! I mean handsome ... or cool ...



All in all, a great first day for everyone!

awesome day... rain and all...

noah and ethan size up the competition... we stretch... therefore we are... (ethan, behind noah, digging through the tunnel)

ethan(55) and Noah(9) listen to coach coleman before the scrimmage... action shot... noah in the mix... ethan the cornerback in silver, closest to the ref....(it poured the whole game)

me and my boys...

today... it starts...

we are leaving for the start of the tcyfl (thurston county youth football league) now... the jamboree... not really an official game but the first hitting against someone NOT on our team... this is a great time for the kids to practice on a real field and get ready for opening day 2 weeks away...

pictures to follow...

Just Wrong

Today's weather forecast: rain and a high temperature of 63-degrees.

Until a pumpkin spice latte is an option at Starbucks, that is just wrong.

Getting Ready

It's so hard to believe that it's almost time for school to begin again! Abby starts in just a little over a week, on August 28th. Noah and Ethan will officially begin their homeschooling year on September 8th (that is the start date for WAVA), but we will unofficially begin the same time that Abby does.

We haven't received the boys' curriculum yet, but we have started getting ready for the year by rearranging our family room a bit and getting a little work area set up for them. About 20-25% of their schoolwork will be done on the computer. So while one is working on the computer, the other will work at our kitchen table. Hopefully this plan will work as planned!

I am excited to see what this next year will be like for our family, but also a bit nervous when I think about trying to juggle everything that I will need to get done. I would so appreciate your prayers for us all as we venture into the unknown ...

Summer Olympics 2016?

The kids all did so great with swimming lessons this year. Each one of them improving so much. Noah, especially, had a great time. His teacher told us that he was a natural swimmer, and he certainly made everything new that he learned look incredibly easy. So we decided to sign him up for another session of lessons before the summer is over. He has graduated to the "seal" group this time, and had his first lesson in this group today. It will be a busy, exhausting couple of weeks for him, though, as he has swim lessons from 4:35 to 5:05, then has to quickly change into his football gear, and run over to the football field next door for two hours of football practice. Makes me tired just typing about it :-)

Noah has really enjoyed watching the Olympics this year, especially the swimming and Michael Phelps. Mark and I contemplated getting Noah into swimming more seriously, hearing that Michael Phelps started swimming when he was 11 ... until we heard that he then began practicing 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year ... I think we decided that maybe the 3-month football season was just right for us after all!

nothin' like a little fellowship...

sunday night we went to our friends the brases to share a meal with mike and brenda zook and their kids... these are some friends of ours from our multnomah days that now live in chicago... jeremy grilled for the kids hot dogs and val prepared a delightful dinner for the rest of us... keith and lori, also friends of theirs from collage came over too...


the food was great and the conversation encouraging... im so glad we were able to spend some time with them before they had to return to the windy city...


one thing we talked about was their desire to serve in new orleans(post katrina) and what it would look like on a day to day basis... (they are hoping to move there before the end of the year)... gwen and i were so blessed by this time and are excited to see how God will use them in this new city...

Summer Fun

Here are a few random pictures from the last week or so. I think I'm realizing that with football starting, summer is quickly coming to an end, and we better enjoy our last days of sunshine and free time!

Noah and Abby riding the "little loop" around our house.


Ethan and his friend Gabriel (from school). Gabriel came over one day last week to help Ethan conquer Smash Brothers on the Wii.


Abby, Cole and I went to a concert in the park in Lacey on Tuesday after piano lessons while Mark, Noah and Ethan were at football practice.


On Wednesday, the kids and I went to another concert in the park here in DuPont with Papa and Gramma.


And yesterday, Abby, Cole and I went to the new park that just opened in DuPont while the other three were (again!) at football practice.

Here are Abby and Cole on our way home ... shortly before I was, once again, awarded the mother of the year award. Why? Well, yesterday Cole had found his Cars knee pads in the garage and wanted to wear them on our ride. I told him that he never falls on his scooter and didn't need them (because I was SURE that about a block from our house, he would decide he didn't want them and I would have to carry them all of the way to the park and home again). He agreed and off we went. Well, of course, he fell twice! The second time was on the way home and he REALLY messed up both of his knees! So, in the end, I ended up carrying Cole, his scooter, and his helmet most of the way home. You'd think after four kids I would be smarter than this ...

A Happy, Heavy Heart

It seems like it was just yesterday that I did a post on going to see The Nutcracker with Abby and her best buddies Biz and Miki, and my best buddies Martina and Kerri. I mentioned in that post that neither of these families could ever move away because we love them so much and they are such a huge part of our lives ... and here we are, just seven months later, and the Grants have already moved away to Iowa and the Fears just told us yesterday that they are moving to Silverdale. I am so incredibly happy for the Fears. Wes has gotten a new job, which will be so great for their family. They are not moving far enough away that we will never (or hardly ever) see them again. And yet, they are moving far enough away that life will be different. We won't go to the same church anymore. We won't have playdates on short notice anymore. Martina won't help me get rid of the gray hair at 8:00 at night anymore after we both put our kids to bed. We won't get to watch 4th of July fireworks at their house in Tumwater anymore. Our kids won't take swimming lessons together anymore. Abby and Biz, Noah and Colton, and Cole and Matthew won't be in Sunday School, Awana, VBS, and kids choir together anymore ...

God has blessed both the Grants and the Fears and is taking care of their families. I really AM happy for them.

And yet, my heart is so very heavy. Biz is the fourth good friend that Abby will have move away from her in her short 7 years of life. Biz is her security blanket at church. They have been best friends for long enough that Abby doesn't remember life without her. She will miss her. Martina is an amazingly important part of my life. I will miss her. Mark will miss Wes. Noah will miss Colton. Cole will miss Matthew. Our family will miss their family.

Mark says that I am having a pity party. I'm sure he is right. But my heart is still heavy ... and happy.

time to celebrate gwen, martina and us...

gwen and i celebrated our anniversary and her birthday and our good friend martina's birthday last night at c.i. shenanigans in downtown tacoma...it was a beautiful night by the sound and the food was wonderful...
the clouds did come in at the end of the meal but the temperature was still enjoyable...
i had the french onion soup for my appetizer and it was amazing... they plated it on sea salt, and the bowl was a very large walla walla onion... incredible...
poor wes had to sit facing direct sun until the clouds came in at the conclusion of our meal... because of this inconvenience he was the lucky recipient of this large 'buttface ale' brewed next door at the local ram brewery ...

i dont think he minded the sun at this point...

what do you think?

it has started...