Parenting Practice

For the last two weeks (March 18 - March 31) I have been in Boise watching my Aunt Elise's little girls, while she and Mike went on a cruise to Spain. All I can say is they are so watching my kids (if I ever have any) when Jared and I go to Spain! => hehehe They had a blast, and I am so glad I was able to help them have this romantic/exciting/much needed vacation!
While they were on their little adventure, their girls and I had adventures of our own => The first Thursday I was there (the 19th) was their last day of school before Spring Break. I took them to school in the morning then had a while to adjust to the new house and thought of actually watching three girls. => Throughout the next couple days there were ups and downs, as excpected, but always fun along the way! Here are some pics I took of the kid watching adventure!
While Abby was at Gymnastics one day, I took the other two girls to Jack-In-The-Box for lunch. They wanted to go in and eat, then they were amazed at these chairs. (they were just chairs with a swivel table on it, but they thought it was the coolest thing in the world)

After gymnastics one day Sammy was playing 'Super Girl" in the van, and wanted a picture taken of her!
Another day Samantha had a friedn over. They were so cute playing outside! THey were so excited that it was the "first day of spring" The next couple pictures are from the same day. I took the girls to a place called "Planet Kids". To describe to all those who have not heard of it, imagine a McDonald's play place, and give it steroids => It was a huge warehouse like place that had this giagantic play place. The girls stayed in this place for over 5 hours, and when I pulled them away, they still wanted to stay longer!
They were so cute playing in these tubes! I couldnt resist the picture!
These girls loved the ball pit! They were so cute playing in there together!
Can you find Sam? =>
I am such a nice cousin => These girls wanted to get their face painted at the Planet Kids, so I let them! It was fun!

The girls ate slushies and pretzels at Planet Kids, and they discovered that the stools spun, so they came up with this routine! It was so cute!

How could I resist a Krispy Kreme store?!?!?! The girls had so much fun watching the doughnuts on the belt thing, and the donuts were so good!
We must have gone to Krispy Kremes at least five times while I was there. I know, not so healthy, but sooooo good!
One day teh girls found out I could do a cart wheel and the worm and all these other gymnastics moves, so we ended fun having a gymnastics day at home. It was so much fun! But I have not been that sore (the next day) since high school! It was intense!
Madison and Abby are way good at gymnastics, and Abby just loves it! Samantha did some, but she prefered to draw =>
Being there for two weeks, laundry is going to happen. There was one drawback tho, I didnt know who the clothes belonged to, and the girls are so close in sizes, I couldnt do it alone. So, I waashed and folded the laundry and sorted it into two hampers: tops and bottoms. Then I took it upstairs and had the girls sit (like in the pic) and I would hold one piece of clothing up at a time, and the girl who it belonged to would raise their hands to claim it. It ended up actually being fun! And the girls were excited to do it the second and third times! =>
We played so many games while I was there! These girls are addicted to "Sorry" and "Tennishoes among the Nephites" games. No joke, we played eaach one at least 5 times a day! And we did puzzles! I think this picture it so funny, Madison and Samantha did many of those puzzles (with help from Abigail) but the chicken one Abby is frowning at, was the incredible puzzle from heck (i dont think I can say the other word on a blog) => hehehe it took us four days to finish! And it was an amazing feeling when we finished it! =>
So, overall, I am pretty sure the girls enjoyed themselves, and I had a good time too. This was definately an experience. => It hasnt totally deterred me from having kids, just postponed the wanting them indefinately => I knew they were hard work, but I had never been responsible for kids for that long of a period before. I found a whole new meaning of hard work, and I understand how much harder it has to be when they are your own, and you dont have the light at the end of the tunnel (of going home) to look towards! I have a new found respect and appretiation for my Mom, and moms everywhere. And I am sure dads have a hard time too, and they need appretiation, but overall, moms are super heros!

Painting Party!

For our date night Friday, Jared and I decided to paint! Canvases were on sale at our local craft store (Porters) and neither of us are painters, nor expect to become one, so we figured this might be our only time to be able to paint on canvasses! => Originally we were going to buy one big canvas and both pain on it at the same time, just to see what we can make together, but then we decided we should test our individual skills first, so we got smaller (20 by 16) canvasses for individual painting. => We started them on Friday, then got distracted by swimming at a hot springs with some friends, then finished them on sunday! => It was so fun! I am leaving for Boise today to watch my aunts little girls while they go on a romantic cruise, but when I get back Jared and I are going to paint on the big canvas! I am so excited for that! This was such a fun date! I would recomend it! (as well as the painting on one together, but i havent quite done that yet) =>Let it begin!! => Jared beginning his beach/ocean masterpiece! =>

This is Jared's wonderful masterpiece! I think its so cute! He says it looks like a kindergartener did it => Can you find all 5 faces? =>
This is my little flower! => I tried to shade it, but I couldnt make my blue dark enough, I think you can see a little shading => (thanks again for the tips and help Gram!)
Yay! They are actually straight! => I hung them all by myself! No husband or tools (minus a hammer) =>! Yay!
This is the big picture! Looking into the living room from the kitchen! => And I dont think I did a post about this (I thought about it) Jared and I recieved the stereo system from my Grandparents house. They were not very cute, so I painted the speakers and shelf black! That was a fun project that took up a good amount of my time (which is good!) => So now you all get to see our sweet set-up! =>

Mini Vacation!

Yay! I love mini vacations!! Jared and I went to Utah this last weekend (Feb 28- Mar 1st)! It was short but it was well worth it, and so much fun! The point of going down was to get a bed from my aunt and uncle Camille and Matt. They were so nice to let us have their old bed, ours was killing my back!! => We drove down Saturday late morning/afternoon and went to Salt Lake to play around some! Jared had never been to Temple Square (other than when he was 5) and I just love it! WARNING: this is going to be a long post, we have many pictures, and I have even more things to say! =>

Our first stop in Temple Square was the Conference Center! We took a guided tour, and it was so fun! This is in the conference room, that seats like fifty billion people! (ok not that much, but a lot!)

On our tour we got to go on the roof! It was the first day it was opened this season! That was way fun! We lost our tour guide somewhere up there, so Jared and I went and looked around our selves and took pictures! I really am in this one! I am the tiny little speck dancing! =>

Little did we know you are not allowed to be on the roof without an escort of a tour guide. A security gaurd came and told us we had to leave the building. Can you believe it! We were kicked out of the conference center!!! => What a fun story! But me, being the little nerd that I am, asked the security guy to take a picture of me and Jared, WHILE he was escorting us off the premisise! => Arent I just a nut! => And how could the security gaurd say no to cute little ole me?!?!?! hehehe so this is the picture the security gaurd took of us! => I am so proud of it! =>

After being kicked out of the Conference Center, Jared and I decided to go terrorize the Salt Lake temple! We walked around and saw these cute doors, and just HAD to get a picture by them! => So we asked another security gaurd to take one of us (and NO we didnt get in trouble by him)!

Then as we continued our walk around the temple, I saw the statue places, and of course, the poser in my blood couldnt resist. hehehe This is one of my many poses on the temple! =>

We were also able to go in the tabernacle! That building is beautiful! I cant even imagine building that thing now days, let alone in the pioneer days!!
Jard and I in the Assembly Hall! They have the original benched in this building, and Jared could not sit straight in them because they are incredibly close together! It was so funny to watch him try! Too bad I didnt get a picture of it!
I love this picture! You can see the Tabernacle, Salt Lake Temple, and the Conference center! I think it is way cool!

Ok, I know I talk about Jared a lot, but how can I help it?!?! He is just so amazing! Well Another thing he is incredibly good at is taking pictures! He took these two pictures, I watched him! I love the pictures, so I just wanted to share them with you all! =>

After our little escapade in Temple Square, we headed down to Provo to play with Jess! And as a little treat we stayed with Nik and Dusty (who had never met Jared before)! It was so fun to see them again!! And Nikki has just the cutest kids! Too bad they dont know who I am! =<>

This is me and my cute cousin Raygan in her pretty church dress! =>
Raygan just HAD to show us her tricks on her trampoline! (jumping high) and look at this little cutie jump! (again, Jared is a great photographer! =>)
Me and my cousin Jess!!! Oh I love her!!! =>
After saying our regretful good-byes to our lovely Provo family, we went up to Mt Green to get our bed. It was stored at Todd and Corianns house. These are the two studly men trying to fit a mattress and boxspring on our truck!
The boys ended up taking the toolbox off and setting the bed on the bed of the truck. Todd was brave enough to go below and hook the hooks and tuck in the tarp! Way to go Todd! =>
And of course, it was a funny sight! =>
So, Todd might have needed a little help out => It was a tight squeeze! =>

Thanks so much for the fun mini vacation fam!! And thanks for sticking through this whole post readers! I promise, when we go on a real big vacation, I will do a slide show! => Have a wonderful day!!

Grandpa Miller's 83rd Birthday!

I am going on a post a day this week, now thats impressive! => Bu tI must admit, I am not very good at keeping up on the happenings, or I would not have to do one every day this week => On Febuary 21 the Miller family celebrated Gene Miller's eighty third birthday! It was quite fun! We had a delicious lunch, complete with Miller home-made rootbeer, and then the cousins played basketball. Happy late birthday Gene!

All the boy cousins would practice and practice when they were younger to try and beat Grandpa Miller at a hand squeezing contest. (Gene was/is a farmer and has an extremely firm grip)So of course, Jared had to try his luck, and for the first time in Miller history, it was a TIE! =>

The basketball extravaganza started with Jared and his brother Jakob playing the "I can make this shot and do it better than you" game. (I am sue it has a real name, but i dont know it =>

The game became 3 older boys (Jared, Jakob, and Brian) against 10 or 11 little boys. It was quite entertaining to watch!

Gene is just loving the game! He kept score and was just thrilled to watch all of them play. (Hailey is the cute pregnat lady watching her husband get beat by a bunch of little boys =>)

Hair Cut!!

As many of you know and have seen, Jared has not been cutting his hair. His whole goal was to not cut his hair the first year we were married. => He wanted one of those surfer/snowboarder shags! =>He started growing it, and around 4 months of growth I loved it! His hair is so soft and I loved playing with it, not to mention it look very handsome! Then it started getting long to the point of it being noticably long, and he still wouldnt trim it. lol He started getting really annoyed with it, he said he felt like a girl because he always had to do his hair before we went out. So Monday we went over to his old roommates apartments for dinner, but we ended up getting a show! They buzzed Jareds head! It was so funny! Here are some pictures! => The first one at the top of this post was taken one day before the buzzing =>


They are going to do it!!!! =>


In the action of cutting this long luscious hair! =>


A little detour in the process, they left a little curl... awww how cute!! hehehe =>


This was a two man job! Jed cut away the fluff, and Brett blended

The finished product! He is such a rebellious little man, I said smile and at the last minute he did this face, I dont even know what to call it =>
Look at all that hair! And this is even after the vaccuumed half of it up, then we decided to take a picture, so Brett swept the rest into a pile! Dang Jared had a lot of hair!! =>

My Handy Man!

I LOVE JARED! As I am sure you all know! => And if he is not amazing enough, he is an incredible handy man! He plumber the Twin Falls temple and is currently plumbing for BYU Idaho in their new building. And his handy talents do not go un used around the house => A couple months after we moved into this apartment, the pipes under the sink broke. I dont really know what happened except that I was rinsing dishes and all of a sudden my feet were soaked => Needless to say he fixed it in a heartbeat when he got home from work => (i had a picture of it somewhere but I cant find it)
Jared and I have a washer, but no dryer. So I would wash our stuff at home, then take it all to a laundry mat to dry it. Two weeks ago Jared went and got a dryer and suprised me with it! He is so cute! But there was something wrong with the cord (3 prongs instead of 4) And Jared didnt fret, he just took apart the back of the dryer and replaced it =>
And, as a third tale of his super handy man capabilities, Jared and I went to Twin Falls yesterday for his dentist appointment, but his Mom's sink was leaking very badly. So super Jared went to the store, bought a new faucet and stuff, and instaled it! => I am so proud of him!! =>
Ok, I am almost done gushing about how great Jared is. But as I was getting these pictures to put on this blog I found one of Jared cooking! He is an inceredible cook! And I just love it when he cooks! He doesnt do it often, but when he does, it is my favorite treat! => This picture is of a Saturday, when we both had a really long week, so we slept in rather late, and he made breakfast/lunch! It was so good! =>

My husband is amazing! And I am eternally grateful for him and all the things he does!!! I love him!!!!

Bad Habit Turned Romantic!

I have been married almost 6 months, and have known Jared a couple months over a year, and although that is not a very long time, I have discovered something! => Jared is perfect! He is more than I ever could have wished for, and he never ceases to astound me! And I can only tell you one bad habit he has. And tho this habit does bother me sometimes (especially when I get physically injured by it) => I have to be grateful for it. Because if Jared did not have this less than pleasing habit, he would be twinkled => But, as much as I may not appretiate this habit fully, I cant help but laugh and love my husband even more for doing it yesterday! => I know, you are all probably sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what this habit is. Well wait no further.... it is.......... leaving cupboard doors OPEN! =>I know, that is so horrible! => lol Well yesterday Jared went to work early in the morning as usual, and this morning I did not get up and make him breakfast like I sometimes do (I know I am so horrible) => So I wake up after he has left and I go out into the kitchen and what do I see, every single cupboard door opened!!! So I begin my routine of walking through the kitchen and closing the doors, and to my suprise, Jared had left little love notes on every one of the doors! And they all said various things, ultimately meaning "I Love You" He had used his habit for romance!!! Needless to say that made my whole day!! And I just had to share that cute story with you all! => I have the best husband in the world!! I love him!!!

This is how I saw the kitchen when I work up! => Talk about a potential hazzard! =>
And these are all my handsome's love notes!! Isn't he just a dream?!?!?! I LOVE HIM!!!!!

Family Fun!

I am always seem to never have pictures of anything, yet I always have my camera with me. Well this past weekend while we were down in Utah, I have 2 cameras with me at all times, and did I take many pictures.... nope => but here are the pictures that I did manage to take of my wonderful family!

I dont know what it is with boys an video games, but as soon as all of them were in the room together, Mario Cart came on and this is what you saw => And of course it was intermingled with some 007 action too =>
On Friday the siblings were talking buisness and then going to the viewing, so Jared and I took some kids to go see "Pink Panther 2" in the movie theater in Layton. Cute kids, ok movie =>
This is the only picture I have on the day of the funeral. The siblings went down to the church before, to be there for the viewing, but that was 2 hours long, so Jared and I watched the kids at the house then brought them down right before the funeral. This is when Cole asked Jared to help him put his church shoes on. =. And believe it or not, Jared was actually able to get the shoes on and tied like this, even with Cole laughing the whle time => I have such a talented husband!! =>
Sunday was the lucky day of delivering the furniture to the rest of the families. My dad rented a Uhaul trailer and the manly men were loading and delivering items all day! => They are so nice! This is part of one of the biggest entertainment systems I have ever seen =>
Can You see my dad back there? They were stuffing him in with the cargo! =>
Wow, this is turning out to be a very long post => These are three of my uncles, taking a break from all the heavy loading and plaing with their new swords. =>
The Charlies Angels pose! From left to right, Todd has the Robin Hood sword, Matt has the 3 Muskateers sword, and John has the Milenium sword, and behind them is Exscalaber (is that how you spell it?)
And the last picture I have of the whole weekend is my dad knighting Kaden with Esxcalaber, for being such a faithful and devoted moving-things helper! =>

I just love my family!!!!