Santa Babies!

Okay, maybe they aren't really babies but they will always be MY babies!

Today we FINALLY took our pictures for our Christmas card.  I'm not sharing our family picture- you'll just have to hope you're on my Christmas card list to see it (ha,ha... honestly, email me if you don't think I have your mailing address so I can send you one!)  I considered putting a pciture of the kids in Santa hats on our card, but then decided against it so I figured I would share them on here!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So I still refuse to start decorating for Christmas before the Thanksgiving holiday is behind us.  It is getting hard to follow this rule though.  Katelynn has been singing and learning Christmas songs at school for at least a month now and comes home singing all the verses to songs each day.  (She is actually correcting me on my incorrect way to singing them too!)  Anyway, Turkey Day is over now so we got all the decorations out and went to town today decorating!  We will have two trees this year so the kids got plenty of decorating time!

Disclosure:  No one got dressed today except Katelynn (who is sporting her Christmas dress we bought her this week  I think this is the second day she has worn it already this week!).  It was a PJ day all the way, and while I considered dressing Justin just for picture purposes, I decided against it.  We were just too comfy in our jammies to bother!

Oh.. and how could I forget?  This is the first set of pictures I have posted since K's haircut.  I convinced her to get her hair cut, and she is so mad at me now.  She wants it long again.  I love it this length, but she is really not happy about it at all!

A Riding We Will Go...

Off-roading that is!  Jonathan got the itch back to head out on a four wheeler a few weeks ago when he got an offer to go riding with some friends and ride one of their bikes.  As soon as he got home, he decided he wanted to sell his motorcycle (which I wasn't sad about at all!) and get another four wheeler again.  Of course, he already has purchased his new four-wheeler and the motorcycle still sits here for sale!  He bought one this passed week and headed out this weekend for his first ride!  He is riding the ATV I wanted for so long when we were both riding.  I have to say I'm a little jealous and getting the itch to get back out there myself!

This trip was a little different.  There is a new (new since we were riding last) ATV park in South Carolina that rents out golf carts to use on some of the service roads of the ATV trails.  Our next door neighbor took her two kids and I brought our kids and we each rented a golf cart and took the kids out on the trails.  I have to admit that I was surprised at the trails we hit.  I expected to just be driving on dirt roads, but there were some rocky areas, and even one huge hill that I stopped at and hesitated to drive up because it was pretty steep!  It was a lot of fun, and I couldn't believe my kids lasted the entire day out there!  I thought for sure they would get tired of it much earlier.  Katelynn was content riding in the golf cart.  She mentioned how cool it was that she was allowed to ride in the front seat next to Mommy while I drove.  Justin, on the other hand, wasn't that excited about the golf cart.  We rode trails that met with Daddy and every time he seen Daddy, he was itching to get on the four wheeler.  Luckily, we have a kid-size helmet (still a little big for him) that we had brought in the car so when we went back for lunch, I tried out Jonathan's four wheeler and gave Justin a ride.  Then at the end of the night, Jonathan gave Justin another little ride around the parking area.  I have a feeling I am going to have a hard time holding Justin and Jonathan back from Justin riding as soon as he is old enough (which won't be as old as I would prefer I am sure!)  He LOVED the ATV!

All the Kids on the back of the golf cart (Max, Justin, Erika, Katelynn)

 Mommy and Justin on Daddy's Four Wheeler!

 Daddy and the kids during a pit stop on the trails

 Justin's last ride of the day as the sun was setting!

 Daddy showing off as he starts to do a wheelie (I missed the shot where he was up the farthest)

 Another shot of Justin riding with Daddy.  I love how he is holding onto Jonathan's legs!

So, as my friend Kelli would have said back when we were all riding, "Look Who's Back... Back Again!"  The Millers have returned to four-wheeling!  It will take me a few more years before I jump in again, but after the itch I felt this weekend, I think it's safe to say I will return to riding too.  I can guarantee you though that I'll be a wuss when it comes to safety.  You won't see me doing any dangerous hills- that's for sure!

Birthday Trip to the Zoo!

It was my mom's birthday this weekend so we decided to meet them halfway between Charlotte and Atlanta to spend the day with them.  It was the perfect day for the zoo- around the 70's so we did an afternoon at the Greenville Zoo and then had dinner at Red Robin.  It was a short trip but so nice to see my parents for a while!

Katelynn pretending to feed the giraffe

 Grandpa and Justin strolling the zoo.

 Lions- Oh my!

 Justin posing in the zoo safari jeep!

 Such a cheeser!

 Grandma (the birthday girl) and Katelynn!

Happy Birthday, Mom!  Hope you had as much fun as we did!!

Time to Order Christmas Cards at Shutterfly!

Wow.. how has time snuck up on me so quickly that I already need to be getting my Christmas card ready to get mailed out?  I cannot believe Thanksgiving is a week from today, and then I know Christmas will be here soo fast!  I just started looking today at what to do about my Christmas card pictures.  I need to get some family shots of all of us taken this weekend (wish me luck on getting everyone to smile at the camera at once), and then I think I have quite a few cute shots of the kids together or seperate.

Where will I be ordering my cards this year?  Shutterfly of course!  I order my prints from there pretty often too, and although I am years behind on scrapbooking all the pictures I take and post on our blog, I do upload and print them from Shutterfly quite often to keep up with which I wanted put in scrapbooks.  I started looking today at Shutterfly's choices of cards and there are sooo many to choose from for really great prices.  Right now the cards are 20% off, and hopefully they stay that way until I get our family shot done this weekend!  Thankfully Shutterfly has plenty of options from one picture cards to several pictures on one card (because you all know I can't send out a card with just ONE picture, right?)  Last time I ordered my cards from Shutterfly, they arrived so quickly and were great quality.  I can't wait to see how they turn out this year!  I just have to decide which one to get.  Here are two that I like (but there are many more too!)  I also need to decide on a size card I want.

I am pretty sure I will go with the first one.  That way I can post a family shot of all four of us, one of each kid seperately, and one of the two kids together.  This is why I love Shutterfly so much- they have so many options to accomodate all the pictures I want to share with friends and family.  This is the only time a year some of my family see pictures of my kids so I need to be able to send more than one picture!

I may also be ordering some desk calendars or photo mugs as gifts this year.  They have some really cute optoins on Shutterfly!

If you want to see all the choices Shutterfly has to offer for your cards, you can go HERE.  I can't wait to get everyone's Christmas cards this year!

Return to our favorite place: Discovery Kids!

I finally took the kids back to Discovery Kids today.  Seriously there are no pictures that can do this place justice.  It is just such a neat place!  We explored the rest of the building that we never made it to today, and the kids had a blast in the airport imagination area.  They also created arts and crafts and found the dress-up area behind the stage.  We were there for over 2 hours again, and it never seems to be long enough.  Neither one of them were ready to leave!

Katelynn and Justin in the car outside the bank teller window.  (This was right before we were leaving.  Can you tell it was Justin's nap time?)

My crazy little man!

Dr. Katelynn working in her vet shop.

Besides rabbits and dogs, she also made this little mouse feel all better!

Not a great picture of K, but I h ad to show you this- they even have x-rays of the animals for the kids to view and help fix them!  They seriously thought of everything!

Dr. Justin puts a dog back in his cage after undergoing his medical treatment.

Time to fix some cars!  The kids both worked on pulling off the wheels of this car.

Here was one of the faves of the day:  the airport.  Again, they thought of everything!  They had a security checkpoint where you walked through and it beeped, a security point for luggage and then once you were done, there was a cart to load the luggage up on and push it to the plane where there was a compartment for the luggage to be stored.  They had the walkway to the plane, and even a flight attendant station with times and destinations that could be changed by the kids.  It was a super cute setup!

Katelynn going through security with her luggage.

Justin attempted to carry on all his luggage.  I'm pretty sure they didn't let him board with his load, but he was trying!  Anyone need someone to help with luggage?  This is your guy- he was lugging three big suitcases up the runway.

My little guy loves that firetruck!!

Justin attemped to be a farmer, but it didn't last long!

The pediatrician's office.  Have I metioned how much Justin is in love with babies lately?  It is the cutest thing ever.  He will find a baby in any grocery store or public place we are, and right after pointing the baby out, he says, "Hold You, Baby?" (His way of asking if he can hold the baby.)  We go through the same few lines EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.  I tell him he can't hold the baby, and he then says, "Baby, lap?" (He wants the baby to sit on his lap.)  I say no again, and he says, "Why, Mom?"  For which I reply that we can't hold babies that we don't know.  He and Katelynn have been playing with baby dolls a lot lately.  It just melts my heart to watch how much he loves to hold the babies!

Isn't it the cutest thing ever??

Of course before heading home, we had to hit up the supermarket again!  The biggest issue there is there are only three shopping carts, and everyone wants to push one.  The kids had to wait their turn and use baskets in the beginning.



So, who wants to come visit us in NC and come play with us here??  It is a super fun place!!

Mr. Fix It!

I love how interested Justin is in everything his Daddy is doing!  Today Daddy decided to let Justin take apart and destroy one of his broken toy cars.  It was a little risky with the small parts, but Justin thought it was the best thing ever!  He really got into it and tried really hard to do it all by himself.

1st School Pictures!

So, we finally got Katelynn's school pictures back.  Honestly, I don't love them.  I like her smile in the one and the pose in the other.  There was one more picture to choose from, but she was biting her lip in that one so it was not even worth getting.  I will just have to keep trying to get good shots of her with my own camera!
(And by the way, seeing these pictures has made me decide even more that we are going to cut her hair.  She will barely let me brush it let alone style it, and seeing it long in that one picture makes me realize her hair will look so much healthier long and shorter.  Now I need to make her a hair appointment!)

Big Red Firetrucks!

So yesterday we went with Katelynn's preschool to the firestation and then afterwards tried out a new Discovery Place Kids that just opened up (which is the coolest place EVER in case you're wondering.. more pictures to come from there another day!).  Can you believe though that I had a fun-packed day with the kids planned, and I FORGOT my camera!!  Ugh.. I'm so disappointed!  So, I used my crappy phone camera and got at least a few pictures to share.  My friend took some from her camera so maybe I'll have more to share when she sends them to me!

The firestation tour was pretty cool though.  They talked to the kids about fire safety and stressed how much the kids should not be afraid of fireman should they be stuck in a situation where the fireman were trying to save them.  Justin loved the tour (I think more than Katelynn), but he wasn't willing to get down and move away from me for many pictures.  Katelynn (as you will see from the first picture) was paranoid the entire time that they were going to have loud sirens go off that would hurt her ears.  At first, she wouldn't even go in the firetruck because she thought for sure it would make a loud noise!  Silly girl!

Katelynn is in the red dress with black polka dots.. notice how she wouldn't even get up as close as her friends were at first?

Not all of K's class attended this field trip (most of the time a few do not because each child must come with their parent on field trips.  No field trips are bused or anything.)  Katelynn is hiding in front of the two firemen in the middle behind the girl in the pink jacket.

 Justin of course had to investigate the bit of water on the floor of the garage!

 The rest of the pictures are from Discovery KIDS!  They have sooo many fun imaginative play centers for the kids!  I am in love with this place.  This was a real firetruck that Justin LOVED!

 Katelynn tried on the fire gear... it was so heavy that she almost fell over (and her friend DID fall over!)

 I am pretty sure the pretend-play supermarket area was one of the favorites of the day.  It's actually set up just as a real grocery store and the kids walk around and pick stuff up off the shelves and go to the cash register to pay. 

Sadly, this is all I have from my phone.  It doesn't take pictures fast enough and it blurs half of them.  We will be going to Discovery KIDS on a weekly basis so I'm bound to share plenty more pictures from there another day!

Trick or Treat!

I think it is safe to say this was the best Halloween we have had to date.  As soon as we had Katelynn, holidays became more fun, but this Halloween was SOO MUCH fun because Katelynn was super into it all, and Justin loved it too! 

We started our evening at a friend's Halloween party.  The kids had food, a bounce house to play in, and of course cupcakes!

 We headed out to trick or treat in our friend's neighborhood that was hosting the party.  (Sadly, Justin didn't get to wear what I thought was the cutest part of his costume (his feet) because he wanted to walk too and he couldn't walk in them without tripping).

 Jonathan and I switched off on being festive and wearing a witch hat.  :)

After only a few houses, we realized why Justin was so willing to ride in the stroller for a change... he was eating his candy- wrapper and all!  So much for the "parental check" of the candy before eating!

After doing a block at our friend's neighborhood, we headed home and hit the houses around our house.  We ran into some of the neighbor kids we know.  Below is Katelynn and Carlee. 

 This is the third year in a row, we have trick or treated with our next door neighbor kids.  My kids love being able to follow the older kids around!

 Max (Ninja), Erika (genie/belly dancer), Justin (frog), Katelynn (witch- minus the hat that she would not trick or treat in!)

 We didn't get in the house until almost 8:30!  Let's just say we are all exhausted this morning.  Before going to bed though, we had to check out the loot!

In all, the kids had a blast!  Katelynn says her favorite part was going to the "spooky house".  There was a house that had their garage turned into a haunted house.  Katelynn didn't go in the garage, but she waved at one of the scary creatures and got candy from the woman who took pity on those that were too scared to go in :).  Justin by far just loved the candy.  He couldn't even wait for it to be opened!  He started saying "Trick or Treat" on our second round of trick or treating at home.  It was quite cute how he was running from house to house yelling trick or treat!   It was a super fun night!