Halloween wasn't that long ago, right?

Trent is obsessed with Thomas, so I assumed he'd want to be Thomas for Halloween.  WRONG.  He wanted to be Spiderman.  What?!?!  I didn't even know he knew who Spiderman was, and he obviously did not.  I asked him what Spiderman did, and he said, "He kills spiders."  Nice.  I decided to splurge, spend $25, and buy both the Thomas costume and the Spiderman costume... and he still said he wanted to be Super Why the day before Halloween.  That was an opportunity for the life lesson "We don't always get what we want, buddy."

He wore his Thomas costume to the Fall Festival at school, because it was very warm outside!  

He was Spiderman on Halloween night.  Miller was a lamb.  I'm thankful I still get to pick her costumes.  Surely I have another year of this, right?!

The more children in a picture = less children looking at the camera:)  At least they were all cute in their costumes!!

9 months and funny pics

So, I haven't been a very good blogger. Life has been busy, just like this little girl.  She is cruising the couches, refuses to sit down in the tub, and loves all cords, outlets, fireplaces, etc.  Trent has always been a rule follower.  At nine months of age, I am calling it... Miller will be my child that pushes the boundaries.  If she didn't get 90% of her personality from me, I could probably say more about it:)

She has four teeth, and I expect two more any day now.  You can see the ones on the bottom, and the top middle ones have cut through as well.  The top two have a pretty big gap between them.  I see braces in this girl's future:)  She is very social and loves to wave, laugh, clap and "dance." She is very unhappy before bath time, but she is a different child when you put her in the tub.  She loves water.  After a bath, she's wild for about 5 minutes.  Then she takes a bottle and goes to bed.  Unlike her brother, she's not big on cuddling and/or rocking.  I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I guess it saves me time at night.  She still thinks Trent is hilarious, and he loves entertaining her... until she grabs one of his trains, and then it goes downhill.  

A few weeks ago, I woke up to Trent saying, "Miller, get off me!"  I looked at the monitor and saw this... Yes, Miller is crawling over him.  Apparently he'd gotten in her bed to play.  We had a long talk about not doing this again:)

Here's another funny one... just another Saturday night at our house.  Miller had pulled the tool bench down on herself (no worries- she wasn't crying) and Trent was jumping around shirtless swinging his shirt in the air.  Fun times;)

... 8 months ...

Miller turned 8 months old on Wednesday, October 17th.  Wow!  I would say I can't believe it, but since she's EVERYWHERE, she gives me reality checks on a daily basis:) She is pulling up and trying to "cruise."  She loves anything she's not supposed to have and anything her brother is playing with at the time {I feel like I said this last month, but it's most definitely still the case.}  We lowered the crib, because she was a flight risk.  She's tough about falls and bruises but quick to scream when she doesn't get her way.  She is a charmer in public and will smile at anyone who will look at her, much to her brother's dismay.  She attracts people to the buggy, and then he has to talk to them:)

Who told me that dressing girls was much more fun?  Oh yeah, everybody!!  You were all correct:)  The above 8-month pictures were taken yesterday before our visit to the pumpkin patch, so stay tuned for that post.

And of course I can't forget about big brother.  He LOVED wearing his Alabama jersey last weekend and was thrilled that it had his name on the back.

He was also pumped about dressing up as a farmer for school this week.  He didn't even mind that his overalls were too short-- another Mom of the Year moment:)

Happy Friday!!

It's not easy, but it's fun... Beach September 2012

First, thank you all so much for your kind words on my last post.  I didn't really think anyone was going to judge me {at least not you sweet souls that read my blog} but I sure appreciate the kindness... and I'm thankful that I'm not alone in this waking/eating situation:)

Now, onto the beach.  We went a few weeks ago.  As you've probably experienced, everything about the beach is a little more difficult with young children... the packing, the driving, the eating, the sleeping, the photo sessions, etc.  We decided a couple of years ago that staying for a week helped justify all of this effort, and it's worked out pretty well.  We had a great time, and I can't wait to go again next year!

Here are a few million pictures from our time at the beach...

This is not really related to the beach, but I dread the time change!  I don't know what we are going to do when it's dark outside at 5:00.  We spend a lot of time outside.  Miller is MUCH happier outside- at least most of the time.

Finally, it's official.  Nothing in our house is safe.  She's everywhere.

And I do mean everywhere...


Time to Miller-proof the house!

Just life

Trent fell last Tuesday.  He cried a lot, but I figured he was just tired.  I couldn't even find a knot where he hit his head but iced a random spot as much as he'd let me.  Apparently, I was wrong.  He hit his eye.  These pictures were taken almost a week after the incident... but the day before his school pictures.  Fun stuff, huh?

Doesn't this last one look like some odd eye shadow?

Thankfully the injury didn't slow him down for long.  He was back in the dirt soon enough.

Little sister isn't scared to get dirty either.  She didn't mind crawling on concrete, but she eventually decided she'd give her knees a break.

Thank goodness she still falls back on her bottom after this move.  At seven months old, her favorite toy is anything that is in Trent's hand, which is a train 99% of the time.  She enjoys door stoppers, outlets, and cords of any kind.  She also still wakes up in the middle of the night.  YES SHE DOES.  At over 20 pounds, she still wakes up for a bottle.  And I give it to her.  It's probably not the right thing to do, but giving her a bottle keeps me up for about 12 minutes, because she goes right back to sleep afterwards... and I do too.  I fear that letting her cry it out in the middle of the night will result in less sleep for me and possibly even wake up Trent {who has a sound machine and is across the hall from her, but this girl can get LOUD.}  I'm going to try to work on this bad habit over Thanksgiving when I don't have to get up and go to work in the morning.  Please don't judge; an exhausted mama is not a happy mama.  And at this point in life, we are praising God that He gets us through each day; and most days are pretty good.  Count your blessings.  You'll feel blessed!

7 months

Miller was 7 months old yesterday.  Her 7-month pictures were super hard, because she decided to start crawling two days ago.  God bless me us.  She pushes herself up to a sitting position, and then she goes... not very fast or very far... but I know it's only a matter of time before the house is destroyed she's completely mobile.  She only tumbled out of the chair once during the photo shoot, and I managed to reach her before she hit the floor.  That explains the lack of terrific chair pictures:)

She was much happier on the floor.

Big brother didn't understand her issue with the chair.  He said, "Let me take a picture with Teddy mama."  {Teddy is actually his bear, and he's unamused that Miller uses him for her monthly pictures.}  He nailed it on the first shot.  {Yes, those are rain boots-- in the house.  At least it actually rained yesterday, since rain is not a criteria for him wearing the boots!}

I don't want to speak too soon, but it appears Miller's reflux is FINALLY getting better.  She's actually worn the same outfit all day for the past few days.  Woohoo!!
She had her first ear infections {yes, both ears-- not big fun} while we were at the beach last week.  We visited the Emerald Coast Urgent Care for the second time {Trent had an ear infection at the beach a few years ago.}  She weighed 20.5 pounds, and she's on Amoxicillin for 10 days.  She already seems to be feeling better.  Happy 7 months baby Miller!!

PicMonkey

I am a little behind, but I just discovered PicMonkey, and I love it!

Here are my Miller collages...

I am working on some of Trent too, but these days he likes to tell me, "Mama, that's enough!" before I get a good one.