Sunday Funnies: Brown Can

These are the characters that have been gracing our house over the past few days...

Tigger (complete with sound effects).

The Mouse Librarian (just a clever way to combine fun face-painting with glasses and a warm sweater;).

The UPS guy.  

(I found this costume on Craig's List and thought that because of his love of trucks, it was perfect.  Seriously CRACKS US UP!)

Happy Halloween!

(Can't wait to see all THREE creatures here next year!)

Friday Favorites: Hangin' with Tage

(a day late :).

One of my closest friends is Emily.  We spend a lot of time hanging out with Emily--talking, crafting, and eating her most delicious crispy-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside grilled cheese sandwiches.  Love, love, love and are inspired by her awesome family.

This summer, little Tage joined their gang.  He is one of the happiest little dudes ever!  Snuggly and smiley.  Almost never cries--a-maz-ing!

(T's face was so funny in this photo--he was SO excited to be holding baby Tage.  Not sure Tage was as appreciative of the moment.)

Baby Tage was born with a hole in his heart.  Technically called "Tetralogy of Fallot," there is a hole between the two ventricles that causes oxygenated blood to mix with de-oxygenated blood.  On Monday, Tage will be having open-heart surgery to correct the hole.  Becca and I will be hanging out, talking and praying with Emily at the hospital on Monday.

Praying for Tage and for the doctors as they operate on his little heart (the size of a walnut.)...



Emily posted this song on her blog--the words are so beautiful and perfect...

Happy 5th!

Yesterday was M's 5th Birthday.  We love you, M!

Update, Yarn Wreaths, & a Slight Obsession with Pumpkin

We are now un-officially NUMBER 5!  Crazy!  I woke up early on Saturday morning and I panicked--remembering that I hadn't sent copies of my passport or FDL to AGCI yet.  Ahhh...but, all is well today. :)

A fun little craft that I've been doing to keep my hands busy is the "Yarn Wreath."  My two "creations."

And, pumpkin is my latest indulgence.  I'm sipping a decaf pumpkin spice coffee (with cream and sugar) right now.  And for lovers of the pumpkin and chocolate combination--check out these recipes (I have no pictures of the finished product, because, quite frankly, they don't last very long around here)...

Take a box of this--

Substitute pumpkin puree for the oil. Stir in some mini chocolate chips.  Then top with this cream cheese mixture (I half it).

8 oz softened cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
dash of salt
1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips (yum---more chocolate!)

Bake as directed for muffins.

OR if you prefer a little more chocolate to pumpkin--try these super-easy Pumpkin Swirl Brownies.  Perfect for a cool autumn day special treat. :)

Sunday Funnies: Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the cupboard...

Friday Favorites: The House Inside Our House

A few weeks ago our neighborhood had a yard sale and one of our neighbors told me about a dollhouse that they had been thinking about selling.  M loves her little plastic houses and I'm always looking for things to engage her imagination.  Our neighbor offered to just give us this AMAZING dollhouse.  Check it out--

The House

(Yes, it's missing a door, and, you know, a few windows--but those are just cosmetic fixes. ;)  

This whole front opens to reveal rooms on the front side.)

The back of the house.

Some close ups of the very cool furniture with working drawers and cupboards.

The piano/living room.

The master bath.

The master bedroom.

Elania's (from Fisher Price's Loving Family) bedroom.

The guest bath.

The breakfast nook.

The kitchen (check out those appliances and dishes.)

A child-size perspective with T and his best bud, the very lovely Hannah (also waiting for her baby sister).

Isn't it so cool?  Would totally love to live in this house!  So, so thankful for it. :)

Harvest Week

First, another update.  Since last night we have moved another number!  We're NUMBER 8!!!!

Last week was Harvest Week in the Miller household.  Monday was Columbus Day and because M didn't have school, I thought it would fun to go apple picking at the orchard down the road--after all, what better way to kick off "Harvest Week?"

It wasn't as picture-perfect as I had imagined.  :)  Probably should have realized that because of the holiday, A LOT of other families had the same idea.  We had to park far away, there were no donuts, T had a stomach ache (referred to simply as a stomach by T), and, well, there were basically no apples on the trees.  A fact that I didn't realize until after I had paid for my apple bag and had tromped off with the kids into the orchard.  I flittered between wanting to just give up and go home or making the best of the situation.  After a deep breath and a look around I decided that some of the apples on the ground had to be just fine.  We collected a lovely peck of apples off the ground (while trying to avoid onlookers and laughing to myself when I heard parents scolding their kids to drop the apples they had picked up off the ground because they were gross) and enjoyed a grand hayride back to our van.

 M and T enthusiastically washed the apples for a pie and applesauce.

And then we aproned-up for the main event--Dough-making!  They probably played with dough, and maybe really more the flour than the dough, for the better part of an hour. 

While our yummy pie was baking, we made applesauce.  M and T used butter knives to chop up the apples.  And there may have been a bit of "a bite for me, a bite for the pot" going on.  But since it was just for them, no worries. :)

So love that they are little enough to need to stand on chairs to reach the counter. :)

During the week we also enjoyed some amazing chocolate chip cream cheese pumpkin muffins.  I have to restrain myself from making more because pumpkin is MY FAVORITE!

Caught this fun photo of M and me on a leaf-collecting walk.

Ahhh...LOVE the fall!

Update and Conference

So, last night while deeply entrenched in "Operation-Avoid-Folding-Laundry" Day 3, I checked my email one last time (Because, of course, something exciting could have happened since the last time I checked like 5 minutes ago).  But, this time there was awesome news!  It looks like we are unofficially Number 9!  And some of the blog friends that I've been following for the last year are in the bottom 3!  So excited for them!

In other adoption news, I am going (that is unless I'm traveling to pick up a special little girl) to the Created to Care Women's Retreat for Moms who have adopted or who are in the process of adoption.  Becca and I will be flying to Atlanta on February 4-6 for an amazing weekend of connecting with so many of the friends that we've "met" on blogs (and meeting new friends, too).  

As our numbers get smaller and smaller--I'm starting to feel the pressure to get all of the things done that I've been putting off.  This week I painted our office/4th bedroom.  I also cleaned out the pantry.  Dusted the blinds.  Oh, and I've been working on completing my CEU's.  In my typical fashion, I have successfully put off my continuing education credits that I have 3 years to fulfill until the last 3 months (sometimes I am truly amazed that we negotiated all of the adoption paperwork--most definitely not my strong suit.)  I think that I forgot to put this on the blog, but I also stopped working my one-night a week at the end of Sept. in preparation for the next little one and also to loosen our schedule a bit.  It's been very good.

Excited to see what the next week brings! :)

Cold neck? No problem!

At the end of the summer I took on learning how to knit.  Thanks to YouTube, I can now make scarves.  Lots and lots of scarves. :)

(I also learned how to make the pillow.)

I branched out a bit and added some embellishments for M and T.

M sporting my simple lace-stitch scarf and my one and only hat.

Have to say, I love knitting.  The idea of being able to create something out of a ball of yarn while I'm just sitting down to relax or on long car trips makes me quite happy. :)

Sunday Funnies: Rocket Ships and Jumping off a "Cliff"

Yesterday we went to a State Park to shoot off some model rocket ships.  Awesome day for such an outing.  And, might I add, that it is made all the more fun by having little children who think that chasing after (and sneaking through the fence into the golf course) and retrieving the launched ships is fantastic. :)

As we were leaving the kids had a blast singing on a stage.  And then in typical T fashion he just dropped off the edge.  Here's what we love about it--when you look at how they both jump--you can totally see their personalities.  T just nonchalantly walks off the edge like it's no big deal.  No sound.  Just a vision of him disappearing from sight.

M passionately throws her whole self into the jump and screams with glee the whole way down.  There is no mistaking who has just made the leap. :)

Beautiful Fall weekend! :)

Friday Favorites: Flowers from my Dad

My Dad loves flowers and he usually picks out a few for my sisters and me. 

These are some of the most gigantic mums.  They make us laugh because Dad's are so puny--his look like tiny marigolds. ;)

(Hair by Emily. ;)

And this most gorgeous iris blooms multiple times a year.  I took this picture yesterday.  Love the purple with all of the fall colors.  And the smell!  I think iris's are my favorite flower to sniff.

We also have a lot of grasshoppers hanging around for fun.  No, you would not catch me holding one.

Thanks, Dad, for all of the flowers that keep our house so beautiful and that always remind us of you. :)