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)