Mili Bear AKA Super Urkel

Wow....it has been almost a week since I have posted. Don't know where the time has gone but I am posting now because Mili is sleeping and it is quiet in my home (something that happens very few times a day).

The pictures above are of our sweet Super Urkel. Mili has found that she is in control of her clothing now. She knows how to take off her diaper (we keep pants or a onesie on her at all times or we would have a mess if you know what I mean), she can obviously pull up her pants (at the waist and at the bottom of her legs), she can also take off her shirt (not often does this happen thank goodness, we would hate to have a streaking daughter). Oh and I forgot, she also knows how to take off her bibs (this would not be a big problem if the faucet would stop running ). We are so tired of soaking wet shirts around here. Mili seems to be a continuous faucet (we think she has her mother's salivary glands....they are double everyone else's.....the dentist even says the suction has to work overtime for me).

Last week we had a night from you know where with Mili. She kept getting up and crying and wanting out of her crib and so on, etc. etc. etc. So, Brian and I were strong and kept our promise not to take her out of the crib (we didn't want this happening every night). We got about 4 hours of sleep that night and it was quite a chore to stay awake the next day (poor Brian at work). I am happy to announce that Mili is again falling asleep on her own and sleeping thru the night. I am hoping this will continue.

Mili is also starting to talk some. My favorite thing she does now (started last night) is say NO DEAL. We are big fans of Deal or No Deal (don't have to worry about language or in appropriate behavior for Mili's eyes and ears). If you have watched the show you know that the person normally waves their arm horizonally across their body and says "NO DEAL". Mili waves her arm and says "NO NEAL". It is so cute and she did it each time after a person on TV did it. She was so proud of herself that she could say what they were saying (this is exactly why we don't want her watching anything and everything that comes on the tube).

We took a trip to the Doctor today (no worries, everyone is well, thank God). Mili got her flu shot. She did great! Cried for a second until she saw the Elmo (or Melmo as Mili says it) band-aid. She stopped immediately and then was mad at me because I covered up her Melmo band-aid with her pants. I was never so thankful for an Elmo band-aid (Mili doesn't know any other characters from TV). I love the trip to the doctor's office. The trees, fences, two lane roads, farms, fields, pot holes (gotta take the bad along with the good), houses on grassy hills all reminds me of home (Arkansas).

I am sorry that I keep jumping from one thing to another but I feel like it has been forever since I posted. For those of you that don't know already, Brian accepted a position here for another two years starting in January. Oh my baby is awake....hold.....will be back.

Okay, back again. Mili is so adorable these days. When she wakes up she is so loving and just wants to be held (I hate to stop what I am doing and hold her.....yeah, right). She has learned what it means to love and even says she is sorry (in sign language) when she hurts us.

I guess I have hopped from one subject to another enough for today. I will go now and let your brains rest from too much talk about Mili Bear. She is so much fun, I can't help but share. That is what I started this blog for is to share Mili's life with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousin, and friends back home in Arkansas. I am doing my job, right?????

Love to ALL!!!

As you can see the weather is getting cooler here. Mili is understanding what it means to bundle up a little bit now. She likes to keep the hat on all day. She is a little hat lady (I should see if the red hat society needs a mini mascot). I have a feeling we have a Miss Priss on our hands with the hat, shoes, and purse issues. It could be all my fault since I thought she had to have shoes to match every outfit when she was an infant and also put hats on her a lot. Oh well, it could be worse. Last night we had an argument about which shoes she wanted to wear to church. She wanted to wear these shiny ruby red shoes (dress shoes) and I wanted her to wear her white tennis shoes. She was wearing red corduroy overalls and I ended up letting her wear the shoes of her choice. At least they did match the outfit and I have vowed to say YES when I can because I am sure there will be plenty of times that I must say NO.

We had a rough night last night with Mili. Got about 4 or 5 hours of sleep and I need to get some now. I love you all. Good night.....I hope to sleep tight.

A BE-A-UTIFUL DAY!!!!

Who couldn't LOVE God's wonderful creation. We went to the park Saturday to take some fall pics of Mili (and mommy and daddy). Mili was in leaf heaven. She loves picking up the leaves and throwing them to see them float down (I have to pick her up to see them float from more than two feet off the ground). The trees looked like they were on fire. I didn't want to leave the park, it was so beautiful. The wind was a little sharp but it was not continuous.

We had a blast. I hope to teach Mili that you don't always need money to have a good time. We want her to use her imagination.

Hope all is well with everyone back home in Arkansas. We love you all!

Leaves are Falling

Just a few pics of the view outside our balcony the past couple of days. I had to hurry and take pictures before all the leaves fall off the trees. The wind tends to be stronger around this time of the year and all the leaves fall off when they are still colored. It makes for a beautiful sidewalk covered with red, green, yellow and brown leaves (God's artwork seems to be the kind that takes my breath away). It was all good until the lawn care guys came today and blew the sidewalks off. Bye-bye leaves (as Mili says to everything....when we watch the squirrels and they run away or up a tree, when I put away something, when she leaves the house, she says bye to everything). I am hoping for more leaves to fall in the next few days so I can take some fall pics of Mili outside.

Hope you enjoy the pics and I hope you all are enjoying the fall weather. Don't forget to stop and smell the crisp air and gaze at the lovely colors in the trees and watch the sun rise or set. They are all part of God's handy work and are beautiful. I am much happier when I stop and "smell the roses". If your life is too busy to stop and enjoy God's creation, you need to get rid of some of the technology in your life and spend some time in creation.

I am now stepping down off my soapbox.

Hugs and Kisses

The TREASURE has been found!

Whoooooo……I am so glad tonight is over. The things I will do to keep 6th, 7th, and 8th graders busy for an hour. We had a treasure hunt tonight. I got the crazy idea to do this off of my friend Kamrin’s blog. One of her advertisements was about treasure hunts at birthday parties (thanks Kamrin). I decided to make one up myself with bible verses being the clues. The clues were hid all over the church campus (minus the construction zones-we are building an activity center……can’t wait!!!). The students got a flashlight in their first clue and a bible on the second. The rest of the clues just listed the address to the verse and they had to look up the verse then pick out the word or words that they knew they could find on campus. We kinda had to help them along because just like always Alice over planned (too many clues….not enough time).

The planning for this event this week has been crazy. Last Friday is when I decided to do this tonight. I had asked for some boxes from some of the staff and they brought them on Sunday. I forgot them at church and they were thrown out. Yesterday was my shopping day and you guessed it, rain all day (pouring rain). Through the rain I have found that I am capable of doing multiple things at one time. Hold an umbrella (golf size) get Mili out of her seat, and carry the diaper bag. Coming out of the store and into the apartment was quite the effort with many bags plus all the above. Mili just thought the whole thing was fun. I am happy that she was laughing instead of crying (I felt like crying). I finished all my shopping and planned to bake cup cakes last night (the “treasure” was cup cakes and frosting with decorations). It took me longer than I thought last night to make up the clues so I had to bake the cupcakes this morning. By mid afternoon I had all the items boxed up (didn’t want the students to see any of the clues). The plan was for me to hide all the clues while my partner in crime, Eric, watched the students inside. On a normal Wednesday night we are the only group of kids outside after 6:45 pm. Guess what? Not tonight. It was such a great day today (76 degrees) that every class wanted to be outside. This was a problem because I needed to hide clues where the other kids were playing. I hid the other items that were not on the playground and then waited until they were leaving to hide the others. On clue number 3 or 4 one of the students found the treasure (they couldn’t open the lock on it without all the other clues…..the combination was on three different clues). The end result was that we had a blast and I definitely got a workout. I was literally chasing my team to keep up with them. If I do this again some day (in the far away future) I will give myself more time to plan out everything. I wish I would have brought my camera to photograph their faces with icing all over them. They had fun decorating their cupcakes and eating them.

Next week I am planning on using that comparison of the pumpkin or jack-o-lantern and a Christian. I will have to plan for this as well but not as much as the treasure hunt. I am really starting to fall in love with these students. God has put a special place in my heart for middle school students. At least that is what other people tell me because they think I am crazy; I think they are missing all the fun.

Well I am about typed out and worn out from planning, hiding, and chasing down kids. It is bedtime for me.

Love to ALL!!!

Fall has arrived!!

Just thought I would post some pics of our sweet thang with a cute fall jumper on (thanks to Dani Lee.....it was Emma Grace's....I am sure at a different age since it is a size 3T). Our baby girl looked like a GIRL for the first time on Sunday. The people at church loved her jumper and thought she looked so grown up. I may not put it back on her for that reason (smile). I know she must grow but it would be nice if she would stop growing taller for just a few months so we can keep clothes on her. I thought that the growth spurts stopped after 12 months but she is not slowing down.

Can't complain too much she is happy and healthy and we are so thankful for that. God has really been blessing our family with some decisions that we needed to make and He has made it easy for those decisions to be made. Some people would look at our family (with one car, living in an apartment, don't have lots of material possessions, just make it from pay check to pay check) and think that we should be so unhappy but we are soooooo blessed and very happy (besides the fact that we are so far from family and friends).

I am planning a treasure hunt for the middle school students at church for Wednesday night. I think I get more excited about planning things for them than they do actually doing the activities. I am thankful that God gives me this outlet for my creative juices (otherwise, I think I would explode).

Hope you enjoy the pics and look for more updates on the family soon.
Love to all!!!

In a nutshell (or a basket)

As you can see, Mili has been playing the last few days in a small basket. She is so creative with her playtime and sometimes I just enjoy sitting and watching her when she doesn't know I am. In one of the pictures she is signing "more" because she wants me to take her picture more. This is starting to be a trend everytime I get the camera out. I love her cheesy grin and the way her eyes squint up when she smiles (just like her daddy's).

Mili is learning to shake her booty (little Baptist girl dancing). She bounces everytime she hears music. She wants me to get up and dance with her. Her energy is contagious and I love that about her. Sunday at church one of the ladies said, "You know what I love about Mili, she always makes you feel important....when you walk into the room with her it is like she hasn't seen you in a long time and she is thrilled to see you." When I hear comments like that it makes me want to have more children. I have said before that I love how Mili makes people smile when we are out in public.

Things have been going well here and we are gearing up for a visit from Brian's parents in November. I don't think I have ever tried to hurry things along this fast. We are excited to have company. We haven't had company since Aunt Bec came in May (hope you are doing well Aunt Bec, we love you). We just relaxed over this past holiday weekend (oh, I had a crop at the church on Friday night.....I love me some scrapbooking).

I guess that is all for now. I would have posted before now but the internet was down.
Love to ALL!!

Catching Up!

So Sorry to all of you that thought something must be wrong in our family since it has been so long since I posted an entry. We are all doing fine, so fine that I guess I didn't have time to blog. Since I took on the task of teaching middle school on Wednesday nights and helping during small group time for Sunday mornings, I have been spending a lot of time studying for both lessons every week.

Two weeks ago I went to an all day crop (scrapbooking) at church. I love to go to these because I get a break from all the responsibilities of motherhood and Brian and Mili get time alone. It also gives me a chance to develop relationships with women of all ages. The best part is preserving all our memories of Mili in her scrapbook. The pictures above are some of the newer pages I completed (the empty spaces are left for journaling). The two last pages are old but I think I completed them after our last visit home and don't know if my family has seen them yet.

Last week I broke my toe (I think, not sure what that feels like). It turned blue, purple, and eventually black. It is much better now and yesterday was our first time in a week to take a walk as a family again. We (Mili and I) normally take a walk every morning (weather permitting) and every evening (if not at church or bible study) we take a walk as a family. Brian is waking up early and working out every morning (six days a week). I am so proud of him. We are eating healthy in our house and it feels good.

Mili is learning all the motions to different songs. She is the cutest when she hears the first few notes of "Oh be careful little eyes what you see" she points to her eyes then her ears and then she stomps her feet (she forgets the hands part) this is all before the first word in the song. When the Zacchaeus song comes on she points down with both hands and then claps her hands. It is so cute how she loves music so much.

I am sure there is more to share but I am too tired to think of it right now. I hope to keep the blog more up to date now. Love, hugs, and kisses to all!!!!!

I wrote this last night but had problems uploading the pics so I gave up until today.