H town New Years

We went down to Houston for New Years this year and had a blast with our friends, the Butlers. We also went down for some more dental work for me. (all is well and on the right track, and as of now we do not have to pull my tooth phew!) Anyway, not only was Christmas fairly warm here in Dallas, but New Years in Houston was 80 degrees. I also decided that Houston is now a city I will ever live, it is just too humid and my hair looks horrible there. Brian even backed that up, so I know it was bad. I just cant live with bad hair every day.
OK... SO... look at this next picture, If you were thinking "who is that little girl with the ponytail? She looks so familiar yet not so..." think again, because you are seeing something that is a day that will go down in history. NATALIE'S FIRST PONYTAIL! It is a little trashy as only the top will all fit, but hey it is pretty impressive. I have been waiting for 4 1/2 years for this!
But the boys got lots of sleeping in, which always amazes me that the men always get the naps. You know what I am talking about, we are all tired but somehow the men can just sleep wherever. The women probably might could too but they are always worried about what the kids are getting into. so ya the men slept, and watched A LOT of football.

I know there were quite a few people who went to tropical places this holiday, but we didn't. You would have thought we did though, since we were able to go out swimming on New Years Eve day and be totally not cold. Dont mind that we didn't bring swim suits for our kids, so we improvised!

Brian and I have had a lot of "arguing" about traditions this year. What we want to make OUR own family traditions, and what we want to keep the overall Miller/Rawlins traditions, plus our very own ones. So we decided on our very own family tradition, which I think is the first one we want to make officially ours, going to Chucky-Cheese for new Years eve. The kids had so much fun, and so did we. They LOVED playing the games, even though they didn't get most of them, it was a riot for them to have their own coins and spend them on whatever they wanted to. At the end when they brought their tickets up to get a toy or whatever else they have, of course my kids always go for the one small section of candy. Natalie was really mad that her 84 tickets couldn't buy her a bag of cotton candy(200 tickets) so she settled for a tootsie roll and a blow pop. What a rip off! But really it was so fun! She calls it Chuck-eese, and she has been asking for it every day since.

So then later that night, we met back up with the gang. They had almost their entire family in town and so there were A ton of people. We all layed all 13 kids down for bed and then stayed up until 3 playing games, eating chocolate fountain yumminess, and having too much fun. We tried for a group shot, I need to work on that one.

5....4...3.... picture (again didn't time that right!)

REVERSE CHARADES. Holy Smokes this game is so much fun. I had never played, but I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

And things got crazy when the head shake picture game was introduced!!

So the trip was very fun, we already miss you guys!! We got home to mend up the last of our sickly family. Everyone got sick on Christmas eve and Day with really nasty colds, and I thought they would have all gone away faster than they did. Unfortunately we were all sick in Houston and Courtney even got it. She has this horrible cough that scares me so bad. She is a sweety though, since she just smiles between coughs. Boots is a constant green goblin drip, and Natalie has an ear infection. Brian and I are keeping up with our homeopathic medication we found(thank you only store open) to keep our heads from exploding. But we are all on the up and feeling better.

Natalie got back into Dance class today since the break and still loves it. I thinking I need something to put boots in though, he is driving me wild. I SWEAR that he is getting crazier and busier by the minute. If you know him and have spent time with him, you probably think I am lying because a kid cant get much more lively than him, but I am not. He is nuts and today I almost pulled my hair out!

I also have been thinking about my New Years resolutions. Let me just say that 2010 was a wonderful year. Lots of growth happened in our family physically, spiritually, lovingly, and on and on. I feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful year. Brian's business is doing fabulous, we added a wonderful member of our family, we traveled to lots of fun and exciting places (Chicago, Calgary, Utah, BC, Hawaii x2, Houston, and I am sure there were more!), and just grew to love each other so much more. My testimony has grown immensely and my love for my Savior as well. This year has brought new light and new wisdom and I became a little more tender. I am grateful for all I have been given!

So with 2011 starting up, I would like to work even more on these same things. I want to be more spiritual, more fit (lose my baby weight, and some), kinder, more loving, more patient, a better wife and mother, and just be a better me. There is a lot to work on, and I know it will be a slow day to day thing. I am really not good at resolutions, so I will just take it a day at a time!

So for now... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Blue Christmas

I sang "Ill have a blue Christmas without you" to myself this Christmas. I mean, I had a great Christmas with our little family but it wasn't the same as the usual BIG family Christmas we have in Calgary, full of tradition and busy busy busy. I just missed my family a lot!

So Christmas eve we went to "ICE" which is a huge indoor ice sculpture display a posh hotel here in town. We went with our friends Jeremy and Aiden and really had fun. They keep it 9 degrees F in there and so you need to wear a parka that they provide, especially if you are going to go down the ice slides. Well we had to wait in line to get in and so in the line waiting, we all got a little warm, especially because strollers were not allowed so Courtney had to be held. Anyway, by the time the parka's had to go on, Natalie was sweaty and wouldn't stop screaming/crying over being hot and sweaty. We finally got her to calm down after we were inside and she say how cold it really was. Everyone was freezing rubbing their hands together inside and I just laughed, and I actually thought to myself how nice it felt in there. That Canadian blood is still there I guess! Nat insisted on taking her parka off half way through, and she was fine with her little red nose.
So this year they did a Charlie brown theme, so all the displays are made entirely out of ice and there were all of the characters and so much more!! including a slide out of ice.

That night we went out to dinner at Kobe steak house, which is a timpinyaki type of cooking place. The kids loved it, although boots didn't eat anything! That might be a fun tradition to start!

We headed home for some carol singing, led by Natalie, and then a very fast nativity reenactment. BOOTS did not want to get into costume, so Natalie made up for it by really going all out in hers! She was the perfect Mary, and boots was silly Joseph. Stuffed animals filled in as the wisemen and of course Simba was baby Jesus. She really had fun! Next tradition: Opening Christmas jammies. I tried really hard to find Christmas stripes but it was near impossible. I will search early next year! So they walked away with these. Natalie's is my favorite since I used to wear these when I was little girl, and she adores the robe just as much as I used to!

Santa came and really left some awesome stuff! It was so much fun to see the kids faces in the morning when they investigated all of their new toys.

I really wanted to make some home made Cinnamon rolls, or have scotch Stew (the Miller tradition) but I just ran out of time and so we had NORMAL breakfast, how much does that suck?!) Later on we headed into Rawlins for a Italian feast and more presents/hanging out. It was a very chill day! Boots got sick and then Natalie did too, so we have all been battling the head cold/cough for a few days now.

Now we are getting ready to ring in the New Year! We will be headed down to Houston to celebrate... and get my tooth checked on of course.

Court is now 3.5 months old and has started to roll around. OK, not around, but she is rolling over. This is the youngest for our children, so exciting!! She is such a happy baby and just is always smiling and cooing. Her giggles have just started and they are adorable. She is spitting up a ton though, after every meal you can guarantee a puker. I brought her in to see if it was acid reflux, but alas the Dr. told me it was nothing since she is chunking up and she is not fussy at all. happy spits i guess!! So she always is pretty smelly and in need of a change of clothes and a bath.

We also took boots in for his Orthopedic visit #2. So he has had this limp ever since I was in Hawaii. We have done blood work, xrays, MRI and now we are seeing a specialist to try and get it all figured out. Nothing has come from it yet but we are in the process through some medication he is on right now, anti-inflammitories. Anyway, little sport is so good about taking his meds, even though he hates it and he claims he is all better. Love that kid. anyway...

So there you have it, Merry Christmas from all of us!!

The Eve Eve

Today we headed over to Aunt Kathleen's house to do gingerbread houses. Boots and Av mainly just ate candy, but Natalie loved doing her house, then eating it. Kat and I also had fun doing our mansions! They are time consuming, but something about making your own is super fun! And bonus for me, I didn't like any of the candy used, so my munching was a minimum!
My camera, of course, died right after I took a picture of boots with his house. Notice the half eaten tree.
The little babes are getting adorable. Today they were making each other laugh and giggle. They will be trouble but right now I will enjoy their sweetness.


Later tonight we went caroling to a few widows in our ward, and I know they loved it. jingle bells and Rudolph were the song picks from the kids, but I would have preferred something more Christ-like. The whole point of us going out was to get into the real spirit of Christmas, and Santa and reindeer defeat that purpose.
I was struggling feeling in the spirit, and we needed to get out and do a little something for some people we love! Needless to say, I am now in full swing. Service has been the focus for me this week, and I am feeling so happy. Presents are wrapped, cookies already sent out, MOST Christmas cards out, and as I type Santa is putting together something special.

We got a fabulous cookie bouquet today in the mail from Nana and Grandad and so dessert was yum-o! Here was my place, hot chocolate, cookie, and my dc. MMMM winning combination! Although my new favorite drink is no longer Diet Coke, it has been replaced with... drum roll... vanilla coke zero. This is so strange, as I usually really dislike the taste of coke. But it is sooo good!

So Merry Christmas Eve, eve. Tomorrow will be filled with love and goodness and I cant wait to start a few little traditions of our own.

I'm thinking sleeping all in the same room, dinner out on Christmas Eve, and we will see what else comes from it!

side note, we took booters back to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon today and was re examined after a medication he has been on for a few weeks. We are going to do 2 more weeks of this medicine and then go off and see how it effects him. He has been walking more normal, but yesterday he was limping around really bad all day so that worries me again. Sitting in the Doctors office though, made me rethink having more kids. I know they are all young and with me 24/7 but it was a nut house. I dont know how I was able to concentrate on the Doctor while I was a jungle gym, and when I tell them to stop something in a setting like that, it is like they hear "jump higher, run faster, be a little more crazy!" AHHH! I dislike going anywhere with those 3 alone.

back it up

A few weeks ago, my parents came into town for Courtney's baby blessing. They were here for 3 days, which was totally dreamy. I love having them come and visit, they really should just move here!! haha

Anyway, fun weekend with Nana and Grandad and a beautiful baby blessing from Brian.

I tell ya, My dad and Boots have a special something going on. They are a match made in heaven those two, and I love it. I am so grateful for their friendship already!

I still have some more posts to catch up on, but I feel like I have no time. I remember there being times people say that about blogging and I always have said "there is always time to blog!" but really I am so busy and tired that there really ISN'T time to blog.

So upcoming is Hawaii~!! FINALLY! Oh and new Family pictures....I will try to get to that tomorrow since then there will be Christmas right there!

Speaking of, does anyone else have the issue of too much fun stuff for the kiddos? Man, I just keep getting things thinking that they will just LOVE this or that. first of all, this isn't saving anything for next year, and second of all... they aren't being nice enough to get them all! I actually took one of Natalie's biggest things back. There will come another time for it I guess! But I am so excited for Christmas. I was feeling a little blue and down about not being with my family and not ever seeing Brian like I would like. Well we have been trying some extra Christmas spirit things, like service, caroling, wrapping, Miracle on 34th, and tomorrow is gingerbread and more caroling. It IS working to get me in the spirit of Christmas though. The only think missing now is my Miller Family. :(

I just want to top this post off with these 3 gems. The 3 cousins back in October, Courtney about a month old here. She slept through the entire shoot, and Haley (blue shirt) started to cry through it all and Courtney just layed there limp. She is totally known for her 3.5 short months as being the sleeper. She still sleeps almost every time she eats.

The Next picture is about month later, in November, around thanksgiving. These 3 are going to be trouble!!

Almost 30... minus one

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN! We love you so much!! Hope you had a great day cooking a great dinner and putting the kids to bed!! haha Really though he is the cook around here and we had our friends over for a little party and needed good food, so obviously he cooked! (btw, the ribs were divine hun) And truly he is best at putting the rug rats to bed, even though booters took HOURS to go to sleep tonight.
December is flying, I have been meaning to blog so so many times this week and then something came up and then something else came up and so on... which is why I think I found my first one of these:ACK! A grey hair. I had seen something glittering right behind my bangs for a little while now but thought it was just the angle I was looking. Yesterday I decided to investigate. My nightmare came true, I have a grey hair. I never thought I would be one to care about stuff like this but very honestly, it freaked/freaks me out. DE STRESS JENI, no more grey hairs allowed!

So what have we been doing? Baking, playing, dancing, singing, wrapping, and shopping. So basically a lot of fun things, just so busy that I forgot to have much fun doing it all!

So first off, we bought some cans of snow. Sounds classy doesn't it?! Well when you live in Texas and your husband can go play golf in shorts on December 18th and your kids can play in the backyard for over an hour in just their underwear, classy again I know, spray snow in a can is pretty awesome.

When will I ever be able to get a picture of the 3 of them together that is actually a framable keeper? Not for a LOOOONG time I am guessing! Still gotta love those busy busy munchins.

So then I baked. Baking really isn't the same without my momma around to talk/sing/play with, but it was still semi fun to have the help of 4 little hands. One of my favorite holiday treats is whipped shortbread. I look forward to it being around every year. This year though, I think I whipped it a little too long if that is possible. When I took them off the cookies sheet it was a crumbly pile of goodness for me to chow down one. But no cookies!So I move on to #2. Chocolate crinkles. These turned out just fine, and boots can back me up on this one.... one of these cookies is not like the others:

And last, Sweet Natalie has started a 2.5 hours 2 days a week dance class and she is in heaven. a dozen little girls her age, in tutus, all into the same things she is? AHHHH it is awesome. Tap, Ballet, storytime, craft time, and tumbling. It is radical. We are on break for the holidays but Natalie is loving it, and watching her show me a few moves cracks me up! I cant wait to see her do more as she learns the routines!

I am falling asleep but wanted to get this entry up before the start of this week. I am really looking forward to this week, since we will be having Christmas here in Texas for the first time in our marriage. I know the kids will like it being in our own house, and there is something exciting about having our own stuff, but I cant lie... I am super sad that I am not with my family. I miss them so very much and just am having a kinda hard time being away from them. Ah, I guess I'll get over it, but in the meantime, I will pout about it!