Sister Snuggles

Claire sure loves her sisters and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual! I am so lucky to have such fabulous helpers around. They are amazing with Claire and I couldn't do it without them. Girls are fun!!

Another Bookworm

Grace has always loved reading but now we have another book lover in our house and I couldn't be happier. Jenna's reading has come so far just this year. She is in the top reading group at school and she is becoming quite the little reader.

Claire's Half Birthday

Claire will be six months old this week. It's amazing how quickly time passes. She is such a fun addition to our family. We are in love with her blue eyes and fat cheeks and fuzzy head. We even love her elf ears! She has learned to sit up and is really trying to crawl. She can pull herself along and has managed to make it to her hands and knees several times this weekend. Her sisters think it's great fun, although once she can get to and destroy their stuff they might not find it so entertaining!

Happy Holidays

Our holiday season was busy but fun. All of Devon's family came to Arizona for a Miller reunion, which was fabulous. Not only were we not alone on Thanksgiving but I didn't have to make Thanksgiving dinner. I've never cooked a turkey before because my parents always do it. I've heard it's about the easiest thing in the world to cook but daunting nonetheless. It was wonderful to spend a few days with our aunts, uncles and cousins we don't see very often. And we even had a nativity and gift exchange since we wouldn't be together for Christmas, which the kids really enjoyed!

We made gingerbread houses with the girls one night for Family Home Evening. I have no idea what possessed me to tell them it would be fun to add coconut for snow. We were cleaning up coconut for days.

We had our traditional Christmas Eve of jammies and pizza but we were sorely missing my parents! Every year my siblings spend Christmas Eve with their in-laws so we get Gammy and Papa all to ourselves that night. It was strange to be doing all of our normal Christmas Eve activities in their house without them.

Here are the cookies and milk the girls left for Santa. Notice the paper plate asking for his signature. Apparently they were hoping this would verify his existence.

On Christmas morning the girls were thrilled with new bikes and clothes and had fun opening all of Claire's presents as well! We spent the afternoon at my brother's house with my family, again minus Gammy and Papa, and again very strange without them.

We also reminisced about last Christmas when we revealed to the girls that we had a baby on the way. This year we got to enjoy Christmas with our long-awaited baby and it was wonderful!

Hope your holidays were filled with joy and family as well!

Grace's Adventures

Grace has done a lot of fun and new things this fall and I haven't taken the time to post about them until now.

Grace's ELP teacher gave them the assignment to build a bottle rocket. I knew Devon would be much better suited to this type of undertaking so I put him in charge. He and Grace spent two nights building a rocket that did, in fact, fly into the air. Super fun! (And I'm really glad I didn't have to do it.)

She also had her first piano recital. I tried to upload the video for the grandparents but it's not working so you'll just have to imagine her fabulous performance.

Grace decided to participate in orchestra this year and tried out the violin. Their first concert was this month. Before they started I expected to be wishing for ear plugs but they were actually quite good! Again the video wouldn't work. Sorry grandparents.

I can't believe she is even old enough for all of these fun things. She is an amazing big sister and huge help to me. One of her favorite things is to snuggle Claire on the couch. And she and Jenna are not only sisters but great friends and really enjoy playing with each other, which is such a blessing for all of us. Love you Grace!

Giveaway

My fabulous blog design was done by my sister-in-law Erin. She is having a blog design giveaway to celebrate the one-year anniversary of her business, Designer Blogs. Click here to enter the giveaway.

New Discoveries

Here are a few things Claire has discovered at the ripe old age of five months:

• Her mouth makes really fun noises
• Her feet are pretty tasty
• She can't sleep without her binky and no matter how many times, day or night, she wakes up and cries for it her mom will come put it back in her mouth (any suggestions for nipping this one?)
• People are highly entertaining, especially her sisters
• Eating with a spoon is tricky
• Rolling over is a good mode of transportation
• Toys are not edible, despite her best efforts to make it otherwise
• Staring at a camera is much more interesting than smiling at it
• Hair is overrated, just ask her dad
• A little slobber never hurt anyone
  

Not really the best angle for her ears. Looks like she might fly away, huh?!