Some October fun...

feels. like. fall.

i. love. fall. crisp days. kids want cider. or hot nilla milk. i always want chai tea. we wear pjs longer. watch the rain and wind outside. even close our eyes and listen to the drops on the skylihgts. little birdies on a feeder out the front window. bible. then books. lots of books. the coziest blankets. if its not raining. walking. walking is lovely. or a short bike ride. i have to wear a hat. or my ears hurt. ever get that? baby in a stroller. if we had a dog, dog on a leash. rubber boots. yellow. orange. brown. red. some green. soup in the crock pot. smells so good. mixed with the smell of fall flavored candles, they smell even better when they are a gift from wonderful welcoming new friends. quietness part of the time. kids squealing joyously the other part. singing from the hymnal. anxiously awaiting 530 when the man comes home. fall feels like the beginning. the beginning of colder days. of pretty lights and cinnamon. of the celebration of a little baby. our lord and king. who came just to die for us. so we can all have that new beginning. that new life. all of these blessings in a clearer light. each season. each day. new. i. love. fall.

We are settled!

I am so thankful for the Lord's provision once again! It still amazes me when we have been praying for something and He answers with such clarity. We have been wanting a slower paced lifestyle for quite a while and just haven't had the means. As most of you know, Thomas lost his job back in January of 08. That was a very rough and low time for both of us. No job for 3 months is a scary thing, I can't imagine those of you doing it for any longer! But praise the Lord He ALWAYS provides. I am so thankful we went thru that time. We both got a wonderful chance to see God work and to grow closer to Him. Our only source of income was from me babysitting. But we made it! Not only did we make it, but we made it without missing or even being late on a single bill! But as far as our dreams of slowing down, that seemed so far away. Both of us strongly desired to have me stay home, so me going out and finding a job was out of the question. We knew it was bad when T called 17 grocery stores within a huge radius of our house and NO ONE would hire him. At this point in tim Thomas had 13 years grocery experience!! So 3 months go by and still nothing. Then Thomas calls Super Supplements. Just to see, again, if they have any openings...You know that God is in it when a job you had been trying to get into 2 years prior just so happens to have an opening. Not just any opening but management. Now he was in management before, but making about 50% less! WOW. Wow. Thats all we could say. And within a a 6 month period he got a 4% raise, then a 3.5% raise, then any oppurtunity at a rural store, and another 5% raise! God is so good to us. It brings me to tears because we don't deserve one bit of it! Here we are sitting in a wonderful house, with lots of room to grow our family. And it has a yard! A Yard! We have NEVER had a yard before! And this one is HUGE! Thank you God! Thank you for always taking care of us, and for providing abundantly above anything we ask or think! We serve a great God. I am so excited to be in another wonderful church with great foundations! We can't wait to start serving in church and in our neighborhood. I know there will be trials and fire and low times. But God is still good and through Him we can do anything. So. Here are a few photos of another present from the Lord. Enjoy!

My little Lyla Jane. Getting so big!

My little darling is one!

Lyla Jane. You are so, so precious to me. And your Papa. And your big brothers. You are so sweet and strong and serious and smiley. We all love you more than anything. You are our little sunshine, given to us to brighten our lives. Thank you God! You are one. Walking. Talking {in your own language but none the less}. Cuddling. Very expressive. Just beautiful. Happy. You're so loving. You want to do just what your big brothers can do. You're girly yet you love the dirt. And rocks. And water. You love to climb. And you're brave. You love to laugh. You love to growl. You love to smile. You love to tease. You love animals. And shoes. You know just what you want. And you know that if you hollar just loud enough, someone will probably give in. It has been so much fun watching you over the last year. You are an amazing daughter already and we can't wait to get to know you even more over the coming years. God bless you little darling. And Happy First Birthday!

She's doing it!

Lyla Jane is now 11 months and she is taking off! She still prefers to crawl but she can walk!!

Summer fun is here! {even if the sun isn't completely cooperating}

June has brought a few sunny days but lots of fun activities!! We have been busy busy going from one thing to another. And the kids are loving it! We have been to the pool a few times, Woodland Park Zoo a couple times, lots of trips to the park, visited Seattle Children's Museum, BBQ's, dinners with friends and family, shopping at the outlets and some evening walks and bike rides with the family. We feel so blessed to have such great friends and family to be with! Now if the sun would just make a decision to stay out, that would be great! But, even if it doesn't we will not let that stop us from enjoying the summer!!

My little sleeping beauty

My guys are off hiking today! I love them!

Elijah's on 2 wheels!

no training wheels!

Miller family spring update...

As of late... Had a mini vacation at Peniel Ranch in Omak area {eastern WA}, Which was GREAT! It was so nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and just breathe in some fresh air and let the kids roam. While we were there a family "building" retreat was going on. A deck and small shed were built alongside many practical applications to building your family. We loved the environment and the people and hope to visit again soon! While we were there Thomas and I had many opportunities to just walk and talk about real things, it was so nice to be able to have such communication with out all the interruptions of daily life. We had a great talk about priorities and have recently implicated many different and new ideas into our life, to hopefully enrich our christian walk independently and as a family. We also recently attended part of a homeschooling retreat. This was a VERY overwhelming experience for me. But when we got home and were able to soak in what we found, we were also able to decide on a curriculum for Elijah!! We will be using Rod and Staff for his main curriculum and we are going to add in a separate math curriculum by Math-U-See. I am really excited for this new challenge! And so is Elijah :) As for Ethan and Lyla, they are both growing bigger by the day it seems! Ethan is such a funny little guy and Lyla is crawling all over the place and eating anything and everything in her path!! Oh, and one more biggie...Thomas broke his clavicle {collar bone} jumping for a fly ball while playing softball at a friends birthday party! Apparently the collision was pretty spectacular, flipping him all the way around and completely upside down before he slammed into the ground on the back top part of his shoulder! So now he is home from work for who knows how long {thankfully he has some PTO saved up} and I can officially add "nurse" to my list of occupations!! He is going through this whole ordeal with no pain medication. {that's my hunk} And is using supplements for inflammation and healing. The doctor from the ER wrote him a prescription for vicodin and said recovery of 6-8 weeks, Thomas is hoping he can give a good name to homeopathy, herbs and other supplements and have a faster recovery. We shall see. There is always something interesting going on in our home!

My FAVORITE thing about potty training!

Never A Dull Moment. 3

Well I thought we were done with the powder. Not. And this time he decided to add some diaper cream in there too. Have you ever tried to get diaper cream out of the carpet?? Not fun. He has now experimented rubbing in his own lotion, soap, diaper cream, arnica and ointment. He calls it all soap and uses it all like lotion. Needless to say all of my creams lotions and ointments are on a very high shelf...I know I should "train" him not to touch, but I don't want to deal with the messes when he disobeys! Hahaha! Ethan is my curious George in the flesh, or maybe Dennis the menace or Calvin...Not quite sure. He thinks he is 9, invincible, bigger and stronger. I am praying that I can train his strong personality to be a strength as he grows up. It is a really good thing he is so cute and so funny...he is my live wire and definitely keeps it interesting at the Miller home!

1929

John E. Stubb. My Grandfather is 81! He has seen a lot. He is an amazing man. Husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. I have never heard a negative word about him. He is strong in his character and loving in his manner. He is dang funny! He loves Mickey Mouse :) You can usually find him in his office with a glass of scotch and a good book or some jazz{playing loudly}, or out in the yard. Or maybe you will find him wandering around garage sales. I've heard he is quite the cook and a grand photographer. He's a home body. He once looked like a movie star, and I'm sure he is still a mega heartthrob for my Grandmother. They have been married over 50 years! Awesome. I plan to copy that! He is a giver and a lover, but I don't believe he would want all the attention and praise for all the good he's done. He's humble. He's so special and dear to my heart. And my little growing family's hearts as well. He is MY Grandpa Stubb. I. Love. Him.

Never A Dull Moment. 2

So, one of my very best friends just gave birth to twins via c-section! Their family has grown from 4 to 6 just like that. I am so excited I can hardly stand it!! So I have been spending a lot of time with their two older boys as they have been going to doctor appointments and such, and it has been so much fun! Well yesterday another friend and I went over to the Sconyers' house to watch the older boys and pick up around the house a bit before Sonja got to come home from the hospital. The day was fun and busy. Five boys 5 years old and under and baby Lyla. My little sweet Lyla Jane has entered the "I'm going to scream every time you are not holding me stage" as she is very near 7 months...not sure about you but it's still true for me, so far each of my kids when they turn 7 months old cry ALL the time until they start crawling...so as much as I want her to stay little and still...PLEASE START CRAWLING!! Anyway Kandi and I spent the better part of the afternoon cleaning and playing and taking turns with a fussy baby on our hip...and boy am I grateful she was there because I think I would have lost it. Having a baby glued to your hip makes everything a lot harder! Well a couple hours passed and Kandi and Parker had to go get back to the Smith household. Mind you Lyla also decided she did not want to take any naps. At all. So here I am alone, with 4 well behaved boys {thank God}, 2 of them are angels and I'm not talking about mine. And one extremely tired and fussy baby girl. I managed to get 5 loads of sheets washed, dried and folded {with Kandi's help} and got dinner on the table for 4 hungry boys and myself {with a baby on my hip}. During which my eldest knocked a plant off it's stand while they were throwing balloons off the stairs...the plant still stands, but with only half a pot...to this my son says, "I'm so sorry about that!" So we eat... Lyla finally decides Joshua's crib is cozy enough and sleeps for about an hour. During this time the boys and I are reading {EXTREMELY} quietly as not to wake up the little sleeping beauty. I am tired. But not too worn out. It's been a great day and Sonja gets to come home! About 6:45 I nurse Lyla for the 7th time {she usually nurses no more than 5 times a day...} and get a few things picked up and Adam and Sonja get home!! Sonja looks amazing by the way and is already walking around!! Praise the Lord! So I proceed to get my 3 little monsters ready to go home and see Papa. Lyla in the car seat. Check. Shoes and coats on the boys. Check. All bags, purse, water bottles, sheets by the door. Check. Uh oh, Lyla starts screaming. She doesn't like to be in her car seat unless it's moving. Meanwhile trying to get the boys to the door is going slow. Imagine Elijah with both legs sticking thru the railing right above the toy bins...Ethan on his way up the stairs to mimic big brother...I tell Elijah, "Okay feet out time to go." I turn to Sonja to watch a little yellow bouncy ball barely miss her head when...CRASH!!! HUGE CRASH!! My heart is now in my stomach and I turn to hear, "I'm so sorry about that too!" While Elijah was trying to remove his feet from the stairs he uses the toy bins for leverage...well it was a little top heavy to say the least. Now there are toys all over the living room. A screaming baby. And a little Ethan, who decides to disobey standing by he door like I asked, and instead climbs up the back of the couch, only to fall straight to the ground. Now he's crying too. Adam laughs and says one word. "Meltdown." Sonja and I are laughing too, although this hurts her to do so, there was really nothing else to do at this point. Okay now that it is after 8 we are finally out the door and in the car. We actually had a very quite drive home. Praise the Lord for that! So like I have said before. Never a dull moment!

Happy Valentines Day!!

I love...my God...my loving hubby...my 3 amazing children...my family, immediate and extended...the friendships I have...my wonderful church...that God saved a rotten sinner like me...that He saved my son...that my kids love the Lord...that He never fails to provide more than we ask for...that I have an eternal heaven to look forward to...I love avocados...pickles...chocolate...coffee...laughing...the sun...lemonade...facebook...flowers {speaking of flowers I got my beautiful bouquet a day early!}...movies...cuddles...reading...the fact that I have 3 kids, I'm still not quite used to it, and yet I know we're not done...shopping...doing nothing...and taking naps...anything sweet...I love the KJV bible...presents...puppies and kittens {now if they would just stay small!}...writing notes...receiving notes...talking...big smiles...tears of joy...teaching my kids...pedicures...picnics...that I have so much I love I couldn't possibly write it all down!