Early Morning

This was what time it was Monday morning, when Brianna decided that she needed a snack...... I let her talk in her crib for a while and then tried to rock her back but Cheerios were calling her name apparently, so off we went

Hanging out on the island, with some milk and cheerios, apparently life does not get much better. After snack, she promptly went back to sleep.

Our Snow Day

STIR CRAZY - the kids are out of control.

We have been in the house for it feels like eternity. They are going mad - to top it off, Brianna has a really bad cold and or sinus infection. Aly needs to get out some energy, otherwise it is going to be ugly.

This is from this morning when we played with the blocks at the island

This weekend we made valentines cookies - Brianna thought they were pretty good

This was from earlier this week when it was a little nicer out - today it is sooo cold and freezing rain.

Brianna's meal of choice this week - popsicles seem to be the only thing that I can get her to eat.

And this ....the ruckus that I am talking about. This is what happens while I am on the phone. Aly climbs into the baby carriage and then gets stuck. Brianna has her sunglasses on in case we decide to fly somewhere warm at a moments notice. Hmmmm... not a bad idea

Quick Shout Out to Erica

A quick congratulations to my friend Erica who ran the Miami Marathon on Sunday. She did awesome and she trained for her first marathon by herself, complete with an 18 mile treadmill run. That is reallly hard to do. Congrats Again, I am soo proud of you and look forward to many miles together when you return from the warmth.

We spent this past weekend baking cookies - I have a bunch of pictures that I will post later as I am off to the gym to bike some 18 miles or so.

Sugar and Spice

A quick post since I really need to go to bed. Two early am runs have left me beat. Here are a couple of new pictures, Brianna getting ready to go to school. She is so proud, she loves her Daddy and the fact that she can gets to ride to school with him is just a bonus.

Yes, this is the end I hope of the terrible twos. Although I heard that three can be worse. Aly informed me this afternoon, she was no longer wearing underwear. So commando we go, according to her - it is more fun riding the pony that way. Ohhh how I dread the teenage years.

Princess Dorina and the Bath

Yes, Princess Dorina is still alive and well in our house. She has even become bilingual. Today I was putting dishes away and Aly asked me to help her with the play dough. I told her to hold on since I was emptying the dishwasher. She said Ayudame - which is "help me" in spanish. Thanks Dora, for making my kid bilingual. Is is nice to know if I don' respond right away she will repeat it in Spanish.

Here is Princess Dorina - although this afternoon, she did decide for a short half hour that she would be a cat - go figure.


I have one rule -well okay, I have lots of rules. But in general we do not allow playing on the stairs. So when I told Aly that she could not play on the stairs, she let me know, she was on the floor.

Tonights bath was at 3 pm - I was looking forward to an early bedtime - Aly spent the better half of the time trying to convince Brianna that bubbles were good to eat. Unfortunately for Aly, Brianna prefers pizza, sorry kid she can't be fooled.

Blessed

As I was running on the dreadmill this afternoon, yes it was a measly 1 degree outside and I could not justify the outdoors, I was thinking how truly blessed we are as a family. The one thing that is probably good about the dreadmill is there is time for reflection.

We are blessed that we have two healthy children. At times, last week as I recall, I was looking for a boarding school for my "strong willed" almost three year old. However, as we made valentines this morning and she was talking about who she "hearted" in this family, I realized she does get it.

Ryan and I are blessed to have each other. Although we often overlook each others strengths, and December was one LOOONG month, we have really worked hard to appreciate and give each other time this month. Plus Friday Night Lights started back and we love that show.

Okay, enough sappy thoughts, while running I was able to think about all of the things to be greatful for in my life. 9.2 miles gives me a long time to make that list.

PEACE

This afternoon there was a major accomplishment in our house. Both girls fell asleep during nap time. NEVER EVER does this happen. Aly in general does not nap - she fights the good fight. Well, this morning, we played at Timbergyms, and they were beat.

I am savoring a little mid day peace and quiet.

Shout out to Brooke and Jen!

So I am assuming that Jen and Brooke are the ones who are at work at the ridiculous hour of before 7 am to see my wonderful tales of my life. I am really liking this map feature which allows me to see the cities where the website is viewed. Thanks girls for reading!!!

On a lighter note, in a moment of weakness, I signed up to be part of the St Anthonys Team in Training Triathlon. In April, I will complete and olympic distance triathlon in Tampa Florida. In addition, I need to raise $5000 - any ideas would be appreciated.

I am off to clean, since I only have Brianna this morning. Aly is at school.

Fried Balogna and Cheese?

No pictures just a quick story. I called Ryan last night to see what if he had any suggestions for dinner, since I was going out with some girlfriends. Any guesses on what he suggested?

Yep, that is right - he thought the girls would be excited about fried balogna and cheese sandwiches. Now, I think this is a midwest thing, you will have to correct me if I am wrong. A sandwhich at our house - includes three slices of balogna and three slices of cheese on a hamburger bun, add a little ketchup and viola - you have dinner. Hmmmm - no thanks

Needless to say, I cooked chicken, peas and carrots, and stuffing

Where did she come from?

Is it possible to have a high maintenance 2, well almost 3 year old? I went to check on Aly before bed last night and this is how I found her. Complete with her purple shoes and crown right next to her in bed.

Now the question remains, who did she get this love to dress in high heels and dresses behavior from? Certainly not her mom, since I depise high heels and spend most of my days in my comfy yoga pants and a sweatshirt. Ryan would rather wear sandals to any function, and he is not one to like getting all dressed up either.

This morning, she informed me that her name was now Dorina - because that is a princess name. My name was Iggy the Iguana - I guess that is fitting considering the way I was dressed. She also informed that she was going to wear her new tights - because they were beautiful. So this is how we left for school. I am just counting the days until the Prom.

Our Heat Saga Continues

So we have become fast friends with the Berlin Fire Department, or Kensington that is. It seems that our house has a carbon monoixde issue. Now, it should come as no shock since we believe that our house has been cursed since the beginning.

Our neighbors are on board - we have had so many problems we are not surprised to add this to the list. The fire department was here for a couple of hours on Saturday and again today as the readings were high. We have not found the cause but they are letting us remain in the house with the heat on. Keep your fingers crossed that it does not happen again.

SNOW, SNOW, AND SNOW

We have heat!!! Our heat was shut off yesterday due to carbon monoxide issues. It was a chilly morning at the Miller Household at 56 degrees.

We had a fresh four inches of snow for the morning so we enjoyed some sledding and outdoors.

Happy New Year

So these pictures are out of order, but we have been sooo busy that I figured I would at least try to get a few up. Our New Years was fantastic as we rang in the New Year with our friends from PA and NC. It was great to be able to have the kids play together and to see everyone. It had been too long since our last get together.

We spent New Years eve at our house, we put the kids to bed and then had a nice dinner. A couple of bottles of wine and the Wii, made for an interesting night. Of course in true Miller fashing, Ryan stayed up until after 3 am to make sure that he was the record holder in everything. Apparently that was his new years resolution.

The kids had a great time in the snow and on the Wii. My memory stick on my camera is full so more pictures will come.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

No Rest for the Weary

So it is official. The Holidays are exhausting. We arrived home on Friday night, just tired. I have a few pictures of NH but not nearly as many as I would have liked. We are hosting a small New Years Eve gathering so we have been quite busy preparing for that. It will be nice to see our friends from PA and NC that we have not seen in a long time.

I will post pictures hopefully tomorrow.

Christmas in CT

We celebrated Christmas this morning since we will be in NH for the actual holidays. Rather than lug the large things to NH we decided that we would ask Santa to come to our house a little early.


Aly had a great time with opening the gifts, she opened everyones for them. Brianna just loved to carry the bags around.

Dear Santa

We have been talking to Aly about Santa and everytime she sees Santa she gets excited. I don't think she grasps the whole concept of Santa but she has been soooo excited about Christmas. She does get the presents piece.

Yesterday I picked her up from school and she had a present wrapped for Mom and Dad once buckled in her car seat holding the coveted "present" she promptly unwrapped it and showed me what she made for us. Have I told you that I love this age?

So we have drafted a letter to Santa from Aly,

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year I want fruity snacks. I like Dora ones. My dad needs new gloves, I like purple ones for him, and new sunglasses for him since his broke.

My mom wants the sharing fairy to visit everyday between the hours of 3 and 7. I don't really understand why but she says that this will promote peace on earth.

Brianna needs sunglasses to because she keeps stealing mine. You can also bring her fruity snacks so that I can have my own.

Do you see why mom would like the sharing fairy to come?

I baked you some cookies yesterday. Mom still has peanut butter in her hair.

Thanks,

Aly

Getting Ready for Christmas

We have an extra special treat at our house these next few days. GRANDMA!!! My parents still have no power in NH from the ice storm last week, so Grandma came down to visit. Of course, we got right in the kitchen and started cooking. We made tons and tons of cookies. Aly helped decorate them. Check out the monster cookie she made for Daddy!

Brianna is getting ready for the stormy weather. Aly loved this hat too when she was little!

IOWA Recap

My sister Brooke reminded me that I had not posted the Iowa pictures. There are not that many since once sickness hit our family the camera kind of disappeared. Although Ryan is disappointed that I did not get snapshots of both girls puking on him.

I did however capture how adult like my husband can be as he is wrestling 3 or 4 of his neices and nephews. Now combined all 4 of them probably equal Ryans weight, and in true Ryan fashion he was not going to let anyone win. ***Please note the poor individual underneath -you can see his legs - Sorry Dallas***


Here are the twins. We visited Derek and Shelbys house in our second week and there were 5 girls ages 3 or under. What a madhouse. It was great fun to see all of the Miller girls play together. We are excited for them to come East this summer - hint hint.


This is a story in itself. This is the Iowa version of salad. Salad in the midwest takes a completely new meaning as it must include either whipped creme, or jello or both. This was strawberry pretzel salad. In the East we call it dessert.

This is one of the few pictures of the kids that I got. When we celebrated the Miller Christmas on Friday night. Brianna was fast asleep in her bed, so Aly got to enjoy opening presents without any little sister.

WE ARE HOME

I will post some pics tomorrow but I figured I would say that I survived the flight with Aly and Brianna by myself. It was not as bad as I had imagined that it could be. Thank you DVD player, Dum Dum lollipops, and M&M, I am forever greatful.

Where are the trees?

So yesterday we left Maxwell, IA and headed towards Cedar Rapids to visit Derek and Shelby and there three girls.  Yes, 5 girls under the age of 3 = a house full of craziness.  When we were driving, Aly wanted to know where all the trees were.  She then decided, it must be close to Spring.

If only the cold winters went that fast, Aunt Tara would be in heaven.

We head back to CT on Saturday.  YAHOO for my own bed.