Pirate Pride

We received the following letter from Noah's school last week:

To the Parent/Guardian of Noah Miller,

It is with great pleasure that I announce that your child is receiving a medallion as an Outstanding Student at Pioneer Middle School. He/she will be recognized at our Pirate Pride Assembly. Each student was selected by his/her teachers on the basis of Academic Excellence, Improvement, Leadership and/or Citizenship.

Today was the day of the assembly, and we were SO proud to see Noah receive his award. He was selected by his Language Arts/Social Studies teacher, Ms. Nixon. She is probably Noah's favorite teacher, so it was nice to see that the feeling is mutual :-) The awards were given with the entire 6th grade in attendance, so it was great for the kids to be recognized in front of their peers.

While Noah has always done very well academically in school, we have always stressed that more important than a grade on a piece of paper, is the character that is being developed. So we were thrilled for Noah to be recognized today for his positive attitude and leadership skills - two great character traits that he definitely possesses!

We love you, Noah, and are so very proud of you!

Blessed

More Conversations with Cole

Cole: "Mom, whose picture is on the nickel?"

Me: "Thomas Jefferson."

Cole: "Were you alive when he was president?"

Conversations

Today at lunch...

Abby: "Let's go around the table and say what's the one gift we want for Christmas this year."

Noah: "Lego Rock Band!"

Ethan: "Spore Hero!"

Abby: "Zhu Zhu Pet!"

Cole: "A trip to Texas!"

Noah, Ethan, Abby, and me: "What??!?!?!"

(Side note: We know no one in Texas, have never taken the kids to Texas, or ever talked about going to Texas.)

Let the Decorating Begin

Happy 6th Birthday Cole Henry!

Happy Happy Birthday Cole!

We are so thankful that God has blessed our family with you.
You are amazing little boy, and our prayer for you is that
you grow to love Jesus more and more every year of your life.

Happy Birthday Daddy! (And Happy Early Birthday Cole!)

Happy Birthday to the best Daddy and husband ever!
We love you tons and are so thankful for you!

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast

Each year all of the kindergartners get together to celebrate a Thanksgiving feast. Hard to believe it's our last one!


Cole and his buddy Caleb
(And, yes, I made the hat. And, yes, Noah informed me
that it looked like Abe Lincoln's hat with a buckle.)


Cole's feast


Boots and Boots

All I want for Christmas is...

my two front teeth...and the two missing teeth beside those...and the two missing bottom teeth...and the other one that is loose now and will most likely be gone by Christmas...

Happy Halloween!

After the boys' football game on Saturday, Mark and Wes took Ethan, Abby, Cole, Biz and Matt to the DuPont businesses to go trick-or-treating.

After dinner the whole gang went trick-or-treating around DuPont. A first for our kids, and they had a blast!




Our nerds!


Cowboy Cole, Spooky Nerds Ethan, Nerdy Noah and Cheerleader Abby

october update...

this past weekend we did some fun, october-ish things... in no particular order... here they are... on sunday we made a trek to voodoo doughnuts in portland oregon... pictured is me with their famous bacon maple bar... yes it was as good as it looks...

the kids loved their choices also... ethan and noah went for size... abby and cole went for sprinkles... everybody had a good time...our friends from port orchard, the fears joined us for the trip... had a great time...

ethan, noah, myself, and friends chris, philip, miles and mike trekked out to the ocean for razor clamming... we went to ocean shores and clammed on the north beach... weather was crazy, but we had a great time and got alot of clams... a tradition we are starting to really love... (october 16th)

on saturday, after the football game (ill talk about that later) we went to port orchard to hang out with our friends the fears... we went to this neat little park where a replica train runs... it was so fun and the weather held up for us... a great evening with great friends...

gwen and martina enjoy a starbucks drink to take the chill off...

on friday we had our friends the brases over and had a great time which started with this incredible dip...Franks Hot Wing chicken dip courtesy of charity ... miles's wife and great friend of ours...

1 block soften cream cheese (8 oz)

1/2 cup blue cheese dressing(or ranch)

1/2 cup Franks Hot Wing Buffalo Sauce

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese(or crumbled blue cheese)

1 can of chicken(12.5 oz, drained from costco) or 2 cups cooked and diced chicken
soften the cream cheese... add the buffalo sauce, cheese, dressing and chicken... stir it all up... add the chicken and stir... bake at 350 for 30 minutes... itll come out bubbly hot and delish!!! we used staceys pita chips, celery and wheat thins to scoop up this warm to your toes treat!!!

the boys football team won this past weekend in the second round of the playoffs against the team they lost to in the first game of the season... it was so fun to see how our boys have improved this year!!! we won 19-13 and advanced to the game to play for 5th or 6th place overall( out of 12 teams this year in our league) so our last game is satuday, 1:30 at ingersoll stadium at olympia high school!!! come cheer us on to a strong finish!!! we are playing the capital cougars... should be a great game...

and last but not least by any means... andrew... we got to see him sunday, at his starbucks in portland... he made a mean tea for my journey home...

A Little Bragging

So I had Cole's first ever parent-teacher conference this past week. And, I'll admit, prior to the year starting, I will a little bit nervous about how Cole would do in kindergarten. He's never been in any preschool or montessori before, and he's, well, kind of a talkative, busy little guy who really, really likes to have fun.

I've been volunteering in his class on Wednesday mornings, and he has seemed to be doing really well while I'm there, but I wasn't super confident he was doing as well when I wasn't around :-)

But, I had a really great conference with his teacher! She said he is doing really well academically (scored 105 out of 107 possible points to place him in the highest level reading group), and he is also just a really focused, settled student. Seriously?!?!? I mean, I knew he had the potential to do well academically, but focused??? Settled??? So amazing. I tried not to grin too much, but it was hard not to. I was one proud mama!

Kindergarten Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Steilacoom Photo Shoot

hawks 26 rams 0...

no... not a typo... we won the game!!!

it wont let me upload pictures... ill do it later...

great game, great feeling...

Fall Photo Shoot

hawks 0 - t-birds 26

game two... another tough loss....

after falling behind by a score of 0-26... the silver hawks came out and shut the powerhouse t-birds down in the second half...
ethan (#55)played wide receiver and d-line... noah (#9) center and d-line...

so, with two games down... our record is 0-2... but my friends... there is a lot of football left to be played...

GO HAWKS!!!

hawks 0 - blazers 18...

i'll have to be honest... if the outcome had been different, this post would have been done saturday night... our little hawks had a tough loss against the blazers from timberline...

noah #9 played center(pictured above) and defensive line... ethan #55 played tight end(pictured above ) and some defensive line during the game...

abby made a wonderful sign for her brothers...
noah (getting tackled) have a kickoff return for some significant yardage... this was the highlight of the game for me.. seeing my son run with the ball... very cool...

so... next saturday we play game 2 of the 2009 season... and we will pray for a different result...

: )

Football Schedule

For anyone local interested, here is the boys' football schedule for this year. They are the Hawks Major Varsity Silver Team.

GO HAWKS!!!!!!

Ethan's 1st Day of School

And, finally, Ethan's first day of school! I am homeschooling Ethan again this year, and we are also using WAVA (Washington Virtual Academy) again. The beginning of this year is so much easier than last year, just knowing what to expect and not having everything being new and scary. However, even though Ethan is in 5th grade, he is doing 6th grade science, history and art this year... so we'll see how the 6th grade science experiments go as the year progresses :-)

And, yes, he is barefoot in the front door picture, because, well, he isn't going anywhere :-)

Cole's 1st Day of Kindergarten

The last one! Our baby started kindergarten today!

Our conversation when I picked him up:
Me: How was your first day, buddy?
Cole: Great!
Me: What did you do?
Cole: Stuff.
Me: Who did you play with at recess?
Cole: You know.
Me: What did you do in class?
Cole: Stuff.

Boys! So goofy! Good thing I have one daughter who will give me an account of every minute of every day!

2009 1st Day of School for Noah & Abby

Noah began his middle school career today. He left home at 7:45 am with his friend since kindergarten, Isayah. Mark stalked him on the way to school, following in the minivan (how embarassing!) to get one last picture. And we used the excuse of bringing in a check for his lunch, so that we could get one more photo of him at school. Mark asked Noah if we should come have lunch with him at school, but only received a "you wouldn't really do that to me, would you?" look! Abby started her 3rd grade year today, too. Her day didn't start until 8:55, although she was up and ready to go at 6:45 this morning! Her teacher is Miss Durr, who was also both Noah and Ethan's 3rd grade teacher. She is absolutely amazing, and we are so thankful that she will be teaching Abby this year. Mark & I were comparing Abby's back-to-school photo this year with last year, and I cannot believe how much she has grown up! But, she still quickly accepted the offer to join her for lunch, unlike her big brother :-)

jamboree 2009...

GO HAWKS!!!

saturday was the football jamboree for noah and ethan at tumwater high school.... this picture noah was tackling a ball carrier from rainer... ethan, his brother was on the ground with the assist for the tackle... i have the privilege of coaching them again this year...

we start games on the 12th of sept.

ill post a schedule soon...

Pirate Day

Noah attended Pirate Day at Pioneer Middle School today. He rode his bike there with friends, and Mark & I met him there later. He saw tons of old friends and learned lots of new information. He is so excited to be back in school. Mark is calm, yet excited for him, too. I am ... I don't know what I am ... my mother's heart is filled with too many emotions to put into words. I can't believe my baby is old enough to be in middle school, and I feel like this is the beginning of starting to let him go. Yet, I am proud of the young man that he is becoming, and I'm excited to see how this new adventure will cause him to grow and mature. I am praying God's protection over him. I am praying he will make wise, God-honoring choices. I am praying he will show the love of Jesus and be bold in his faith. And... for Noah's sake, I am praying I don't cry on his first day of school.

Summer Fun

We had so much fun on Anderson Island this summer. We were hoping to be able to get over there one more time before school started, but we are seriously running out of days! With football already going strong three days a week, it's hard to fit much of anything else in.

Hawks Major Varsity Practice

Port Orchard

Another fun Sunday in Port Orchard...our new favorite get-away spot...mostly (ok only) because of some really great people we know who live there.

2009 Hawks Football Practice

The first of many football pictures of the season, here's Noah (the center) practicing tonight.
GO HAWKS!!!

Our New Favorite Books

So, Abby has been getting these "Elephant and Piggie" books from the library all summer. And, to be honest, I've kind of given her a bad time about them, telling her they were WAY too easy for her, and she should get something more at her reading level. But she insisted, "I really like them. They are so funny!"

Then today...

We made a quick trip to the library, and Abby and Cole picked out two new books they hadn't gotten yet ("Watch Me Throw the Ball" & "I Love My New Toy"). Noah then read them both aloud to me (cool and funny voices thrown in at no additional charge) in the van as we drove to an afternoon birthday party. And I now totally understand why Abby always wanted to get them. They are hilarious! The illustrations are simple, yet fantastic and full of expression.

If you have little ones (and maybe even if you don't), and you've never checked out Mo Willems' books, you really should.

it's that time again...

today is the first day of football practice for the 2009 season...

we our pretty excited here at the miller household...

(pictured above: noah and ethan last year at the jamboree)

16 Years!

The Braces Are Off!

Ethan: "This is the life!"

(Thanks to Dr. Dhane for the awesome goodie basket!)