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10 ThInGs I'm ThAnKfUl FoR

Thanksgiving season always makes me reflect a little over the past year and put things in perspective. So this year I've decided to jot down just a few of the things that I am most thankful for.
1. My family. While I am so grateful for my husband and daughters, and couldn't imagine life without them, I am also thankful for the family I grew up in and the family I inherited when I married Eric. I love them all equally and cherish each one of them. I love my parents for their unfailing support and love. They have always believed in me and been my biggest cheerleaders in life. I am so thankful to have such awesome parents. I love my sisters for their constant humor, optimism, charity, unfailing love and support and their awesome comedic timing (not to mention their willingness to babysit). I'm thankful for my two sisters-in-law. They are wonderful mothers to my neices and nephews. I'm grateful to my brothers-in-law for their funny comments and easy-going attitudes. My in-laws are amazing and so supportive. They've become such a great set of second parents. My two little girls are the most beautiful, sweet natured, stubborn, smart, tenacious, vibrant little souls I have ever met. They are so full of energy and optimism and they make me try that much harder to be a better person. I love them with my whole heart and soul.
Finally, I love my husband for the man that he is. I have been blessed with a loving, kind, and caring husband and father, who honors his priesthood and protects his family. He amazes me with his work ethic and his devotion to his daughters and me. I'm forever glad he's mine!
2. My home. It only takes a moment of watching the news or surfing the internet to see how little some people have. I am so incredibly grateful for the home I have to provide to my children and I never take for granted the fact that it could all be gone tomorrow.
3. My health. I thank my Father in Heaven every day for the health that I have and for that of my family. I pray that nothing ever changes that!
4. My testimony. Just watching my children grow in the gospel is a huge testimony builder for me. Their little spirits shine so brightly! It gives me a much greater understanding of just how much my Heavenly Father loves me. It gives me such a sense of calm and peace.
5. My neighborhood. We have a great neighborhood family.
6. My friends. Eric and I have been blessed with meeting some of the most genuine, awesome, kind hearted friends since we've been married. We've been fortunate to be able to continue those friendships and strengthen them over time. We love them all dearly!
7. My trials. Yes, I really am thankful for the challenges I've had. How else would I learn to overcome them if I didn't have to go through them? Also, they build character, wouldn't you agree?
8. My hobbies. I know this sounds silly, but I do know people who have none. NONE! Yikes, that's just plain scary to me. I would be a crazy person if I couldn't get lost in a good book once in a while, or draw, or sing, or play the piano (on occasion-I'm not that good), or cross stitch, or crochet, or just sit and watch a really good chick flick now and again!
9. My optimism. I am definitely a "glass is half full", the "cloud has a silver lining" kind of gal. I CANNOT see the worst case scenario or plummet into the depths of despair. It's not me, I won't do it. There is always a way to make things better. One of my favorite sayings is, "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it."
10. My businesses. I've been given a lot of opportunities to meet new people and help them in ways that others can't. I've learned that sometimes business and family don't always mix, but when they do, it can be the best experience for both of you. I've learned that you always treat people the way you would like to be treated and hope they will, and then learn to live with the fact that most of them won't. I'm grateful for the lessons learned and the opportunities I've had to help someone and make their lives a little bit better!

Halloween 2009

Better late than never, right? It's only halfway through November (how did that happen, by the way?) and I'm just now posting about Halloween. Wow!

Anyway, here's the fam! We're a motley crew aren't we? We have Sharpay-from High School Musical for those of you who are not familiar with those movies (aka Haylie), I'm my usual-a witch (what else would I be?), the Joker (aka Eric), and the green-haired witch (aka Mikaela). I realized I didn't even get a pic of our awesome carved pumpkins this year-I'm really slackin'!
These were taken at Eric's parents' house on Halloween. We got pictures with all the cousins this time. Woo hoo!



I love Halloween!

Going Batty!

I wish I could say I was creative enough to think of this on my own, but everyone would know I was lying so I must admit that I stole this idea from my friend's blog (thanks Becky!).

I was looking for something fun to do with the girls since the weather was less than spectacular the weekend before Halloween. I found this simple and fun idea and the girls LoVeD iT! We painted miniature pumpkins black and after they dried we painted on a pair of eyes and hot glued wings and ears to make "bats". They turned out so cute!

I think this may just become part of our standard Halloween time fare. The girls had so much fun and we ended up painting 13 pumpkins. The best part was it kept them busy and focused on something other than teasing each other...YES!

A small sampling of our labors. They turned out so cute.

Finished Product!

Well, here they are in all their glory. The results of our fun day at Color Me Mine are in. Here we have Haylie's scary "Carrie" prom-themed princess, Mikaela's purple-haired mermaid (I helped her a LOT with this one, otherwise Haylie's would look like a professional job compared to Mikaela's) and my cupcake container. I'm thinking next time I go, it'll be a girls night out! Lots of fun and easy to do. If you haven't been, go check it out.

Spooktacularly Thrilling!

Last Saturday was our annual trek to see Thriller. We went to Kingsbury Hall this year and it was definitely worth it! I LOVE this show. I decided to bring along little Haylie for the first time. I know she's only five, but I figured with me and Nana Sue and all her aunts there, she'd feel pretty safe if she got scared. I am happy to say the girl loved it as much as I did and keeps asking when she can go back. She was a little leary of the "zombies" walking around before the performance started and even covered her eyes a couple of times, but for the most part she was a brave little soul.


After the show I convinced Haylie to get her picture taken with a few of the zombies. I walked her over to a male dancer, thinking he looked a lot less freaky than some of the girls (just a drawn on scar on his face) and Haylie flipped. She wouldn't go near him. Now the girls, on the other hand, seemed to suit Haylie just fine. Check out the blood and gore! This is what she felt more comfortable around. Silly kid! Pretty wicked makeup though (coming from a makeup artist point of view!)

The Punkinaze!

After our jaunt to the pumpkin patch we took the girls down the road to the Punkinaze! The girls had a great time running through the corn maze (after all, they are "children of the corn"-as I'm sure you've all heard me at one point or another refer to them as such). They played in a huge vat of dried corn to search for candy, went down the slide so many times I lost count, and basically ran Eric and I in circles for the better part of an hour. It was lots of fun!

PuNkIn' PiCkIn' TiMe!

One thing I love about the fall is all the COLORS! I love the leaves, the crispy weather and especially the PuMpKiNs! Without them, it wouldn't feel like fall. Eric and I took the girls to one of my favorite pumpkin patches and let the girls pick out some pumpkins to carve. As you can see, there's quite a few to choose from.

I think Haylie was having more fun just trouncing through the mountain of pumpkins.

Mikaela kept picking ones that were as big as her. We had to talk her out of a few just so we could actually lift them.

Halloween at the Dinosaur Park

Earlier this month I convinced Darby to venture back to the Dinosaur park with me and the girls. We all went last year and had so much fun that I figured if I lured with lunch at The Greenery she might just decide it was worth it. She did!

The girls love the park at Halloween and had been asking me for weeks when they would get to go again. They were pretty happy girls when we finally went. I love how they decorate the park for Halloween. The weather was great and it wasn't crowded so we got to enjoy lots of time in the museum and park without feeling rushed.



The "bone collectors".

Anyone who knows Mama Sue knows we hear this frequently. Darby and I laughed our heads off when we saw this. Love ya, Mom!

Colbie Caillat Concert

Darby and I went to the Colbie Caillat concert last Friday night with Dallin! Sooo good. We took Frontrunner down to Salt Lake, it was the first time I've ever ridden it and I must say it was so nice not to have to deal with freeway traffic. It was absolute torture driving back from the zoo last Friday and the last thing I wanted to deal with was more traffic going back down. So, thank you Frontrunner, for keeping me sane so I could enjoy the concert even that much more!
And thank you sisters, for the good time, as always! I love concerts. I can't wait until Thriller!

Boo At The Zoo & Color Me Mine

Last Friday I loaded up the girls and headed down to the Hogle Zoo for a fun afternoon of animal watching. My good friend Melanie and her daughter Olivia & son Jack met us and we took the kids to see all the new baby animals. My favorite was the baby elephant. Haylie seemed to be more interested in the baby giraffe. Mikaela just liked it all. I hadn't been to the zoo since Haylie was born so it was nice to see all the changes they've made. I was pretty impressed.


I also took the girls to Color Me Mine last Saturday for the grand opening in Ogden along with Melanie and Olivia (awesome suggestion, Mel!) The girls had a great time picking out figurines to paint. Haylie chose a princess and Mikaela found a mermaid. I helped Mikaela paint hers, but let Haylie go nuts with hers. I'll post pic's when I get them back from being fired. I also painted a cupcake container for my sister since it was her birthday last week, too! So fun! Because it was their grand opening the store had a goody table set up with lots of yummy treats and punch. It didn't take long for my girls to find it. I swear they have a built in sonar for all things sugar. They certainly got their fair share. Oh well, at least it didn't go to waste, right?

Sleeping Beauty

This is what happens when Mikaela tells me she's not tired. I leave the room for five minutes and come back to find this. That's my cricket!

Give It To Mikaela, She'll Eat Anything!

We stopped in for dinner at one of our favorite places-Javiers (yummers). Eric almost always orders their fried ice cream for dessert, and this is what happens when we're not paying close attention to our child-she finishes off the whole thing. Good grief! Apparently she's a fan of the fried ice cream.

Dancing Queens

Haylie-far right in (what else?) pink!

My little Cricket Mikaela!

These pic's kind of bite since I had to take them through a window that looks into the dance studio. They're so cute though! This is the first year for both of them and they seem to really like it. Haylie took one class over the summer last year, but it wasn't anything formal. They both have pretty good teachers (although Mikaela's teacher seems to be a little obsessive when it comes to the outfits they wear to class-hello, it's practice lady, not the Nutcracker!)

I can't wait to see how the recitals turn out. My cute little dancing queens!

My Husband, My Hero!

Yes, this picture is old, but it's one of my favorites! This is typical Eric-chillin' with his girls, having a grand old time!
It's nice to have such a good guy for my husband-really nice. He listens to all my worrying and crying and nagging and all my crazy questions and usually just goes with it. He helps me out when I have trouble figuring out what I'm doing, worried about, stressing over, etc. He is an amazing father and the girls love him so much (although, they sometimes feel the need to torture him, but he gives as good as he gets). He is such a hard worker and everything he does is for the good of his family. I sometimes take him for granted, and I always feel bad about that, because he really does try hard to make our lives a little better.

I feel so blessed and also a little lucky to have such an amazing man in my life. I never thought I'd find anyone as good as my Papa Jim, but Eric has really been a blessing to me. I think we balance each other out nicely. I only hope when our girls get older that they find someone equally as good, who treats them with respect and dignity and honors his preisthood. Heavenly Father certainly broke the mold when He made him. Thanks Dad and Mom Miller for raising such a good man.

I love you, Eric!

Fun at the Gorge!

What a cutie!

Haylie got to help the tour guide at Flaming Gorge Dam

For our farewell to summer, Eric and I took the girls on one final camping trip to Flaming Gorge. The weather was beautiful and the girls had a great time playing with their friends. Alan and Angie joined us with their three girls so there was plenty of drama, PMS, and last but not least giggles! Eric got his Elk while we were up there so he was a happy man!

The happy hunter!

Anna and Haylie were pretty impressed with the elk head.

We also had a fun time taking the dam tour! The scenery was gorgeous and the tour was really interesting. At least the kids got a little education while we were playing!


Mikaela gives dad the sign of approval after hunting.

A fitting end to another fun summer!

We Have A Kindergartener???

I guess Mikaela thought she was heading to school too.

Okay, Eric and I have both had five years to prepare for this day, but I can tell you, it definitely snuck up on us. I really cannot fathom that fact that I have a child in school. It's just so unbelievable sometimes.

Haylie was so excited. She has been ready to go to school for quite some time now and she's a smart little cookie so I really don't worry about her fitting in. I worry about her not shutting up. The girl can talk. Seriously! I told her teacher to keep an eye on her, otherwise, Haylie might just end up taking over the class.


Haylie didn't want us to bring her to school the first day. She wanted to ride the bus with the rest of the kids. We were a little disappointed, but then decided she'd have to figure it out sometime so why not get it over with on the first day.

She's ready to learn!
While I admit I did get a little teary eyed as I walked out of the school building, I didn't exactly have a melt down (thank goodness). I guess I was more prepared than I had originally anticipated. Eric held it together too. I think he was just as excited as Haylie was. While I'm happy that she's enjoying something new, I'm not so sure I'm ready to start doing homework again. Now THAT is going to be an adventure.

Random Summer Photo Ops

They're totally cool!

Downtown 25th Street. They have all these horse statues painted by different artists with various themes. Of course, my kids want to be photographed by the one that looks like it has money plastered all over it. Haylie asked me where our "money horse" was. I told her to look in the mirror when she got home. She gave me a blank stare. Figures!