Better late than never.

In September we went to the Waterford Festival. It is a small town, that is exactly as it was in the early 1800's. We learned how early furniture, tools, and housewares were made, we enjoyed music and entertainment

We ate great food - from fresh made apple cider to Loudoun sausage to delicious caramel apples

We visited historic homes and saw how America lived in the 1800's. It really is BEAUTIFUL. The Fall is just breathtaking back here and I LOVE IT!

SO often jason and I will be driving down these gorgeous back roads and we will high five each other that we live here amongst all the beauty.

ALexis standing at an old school. She has this nervous face on because she thought we were leaving her here for school.

I believe most of the cousins were here today. they are watching some man do something with a monkey. Don't remember.

This is how most homes look out here. How could one not love this??

This reminded me of England. Love it and want to live here.

Love this scene of men dressed as men from the period. Gave me chills watching them.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this. If I could i would live in a house that looks just like this. Honestly. the moss on the roof is enough to put me on a plane and move me to the Cotswolds.

THis blog post is premature, i have not read through this list to edit it or make it grammatically correct. I don't have pics on this laptop, so this is just a rough draft,but at least i have this written. Phew, what a relief. I will post pics soon! OH I am so behind on blogging and i hate it!!! I just want to keep this simple and write a few thinks about the one year olds in my life!! First off, my love for them is as equal as it could get. I love them to pieces and i can't get enough of them!

MItchie

Angelic

SMILES pretty much 24/7. If you are looking at him he will be smiling.

ROSY dry cheeks all the time

LOVES fruit. ALL fruit. All the time

Not a big appetite at all

If I say no he get's embarrassed and bury's his face in the floor and cry's

He pulls matthew and ALexis hair often and hard

LOVES to slow dance and will go limp in my arms

8 teeth and two others moving on down

he will lay on mitchie or alexis by backing up and laying his head on them

He will try and kiss other babies

takes matthews toys all the time

antagonizer

MOMMA's boy bigtime

lover

precious as precious could get

choker

Gorgeous!

Matthew

delicious and edible

tank

solid

most expressive baby ever (especially this eyes)

Fastest crawler

Awesome thrower

Loves to dance and SQUEALS loudly when thrown in the air

fly's up and down the stairs

LOVES his blankie and makes the cutest sucking face when he even sees his blankie or anything to resemble a blankie ie shirt, baby wipe etc

loves his baba's and lays down as you are showing him his baba

Calls for daaaaaaaad all though the day

daddy's boy for sure

LOVES men and strangers

Let's Alexis carry him all around. He is 23lbs she is 29lbs.

chunky cheeks that you could seriously eat.

SMILES SO BIG

Gorgeous!

Alexis is just a doll

Age 4 has been way easier than three. SHe keeps me moving and smiling all the time. I could be employed by her 24/7. She is as sweet as ever.

Darling ballet student

LOVES her cousins and is so cute when you tell her that they are coming over. SHe acts 10 years older and becomes giddy!

Loves changing clothes

loves tying things on other things. NONSTOP.

Loves undressing her babies and makes me dress them.

likes to lick when she kisses your face. DON'T love that.

Is darling with the boys and is VERY concerned for their safety

SHe always warns me when something may be dangerous. SHe guards the stairs and blocks them with her legs if i am not coming fast enough to save them from flying upstairs.

Gets me things most of the time i ask.

SNORES very loud!

Does not know words to songs at all, like her momma.

says am i uhls for animals. LOVE that.

You are so cute, i could just eat you alive

Fine, I don't love you anymore.

I Love Jesus, he is my best friend.

She follows us everywhere we go in the house.

IT IS TIME!

JUST REALLY TIRED OF LOOKING AT THE OLD POST.  ENJOY SOME PICS OF MY MOST FAVORITE PEOPLE ON EARTH!  I am not even sure if anyone looks at this blog anymore, comment if you do, just out of curiosity.  It might make me start up again!

the old the new

The other day ALexis RAN in the house saying "Quick, mom you have to come see this, there is a HUGE snake, you won't believe it!" So i went out to the deck and she points and says "look at this snake, you have to get it off!" Click on the photo below to capture in great detail this huge snake. Love her!





Okay so now on to catching up...

SO hard to know where to start... Let's start at Owlettes. I hope i can find pics on here. Well a week after we moved here Alexis started Owlettes. It is put on by my sister's mother in law. We all go to her home which has a huge forested property and the kids just learn and live outdoors everyday for two weeks 10-1. They are all seperated by age into different groups. The screech owls are the babies Mitchie and Matty's age(which do nothing except be held looking cute) and then the elf owls are 3-4 year olds. Then there are stormy, eagle and ghost owls ( i think i got that right). The oldest group are about 7-8. Each day starts out with counsel where songs are sung, games are played, schedules are told. Then each group departs into their first activity. First activity for the Elfs was archery. They learned how to correctly shoot a bow and arrow and then they shoot the targets. They love it. After that they went to Horseback riding. They would either ride Midnight or ? . That was ALexis favorite activity. They help brush the horse and they learn how to be safe around them. They ride with a saddle or bareback. It is great. After that they went to trampoline/rockclimbing. The adult instructors would have certain things that they would have to do to earn badges for their camp vests. Many owlettes have vests FULL of badges over the years. The rockclimbing wall is very high and these little kids go all the way up. Very brave for them. Alexis did pretty well. She would get over my head a couple feet and then she wanted down. She didn't do it everyday becuase she would get easily distracted and play on the swingset with her cousins. Nicholas, her cousin who just turned 12 would belay her. After rockclimbing was lunch. We would go to the councel area and eat lunch that we would bring each day. After lunch was drama where they would learn songs and skits and perform at the end of the day at counsel.. She liked her drama teacher. In fact her drama teacher taught Julia Louise Dreyffus (?) in high school. AFter drama they would have arts and crafts and always do a really great craft from paper mache owl's to beading necklaces or painting treasure boxes. They would end with councel where the camper of the day was recognized and badges were passed out to each camper who met certain goals for the day. It was a great two weeks. The last day they put on a play that they had been rehearsing a little each day at drama.

It was such a great time. She loved it and she played with each of her cousins all day, everyday. I was so lucky to come right before Owlettes started. Mary, Jen's ma in law will also be providing horseback riding in the next couple of weeks every Friday for Alexis and all her grandchildren. Very exciting. My sisters took pity on me and allowed me to come late every single day so i didn't have to miss the babies ever so important morning nap!

After owlettes the whole Miller family went to Outer Banks in North Carolina. I didn't unpack my camera even once. LOSER! i had Jayne take pics for me. I regret it, but enough were taken from other cameras. It was so fun and so nice to all be together. 22 of us in one home. The house is only about 5 homes up from the beach so it is very conveniant. The home has a pool, so that was very nice. I spent most of my time at the house pool. This trip with 2 nine month olds wasn't exactly the most relaxing, but i was still glad to be there. I had to miss last years, becuase i was very high risk.

That post wasn't grammatically correct and it was very vague, but i did it and I am happy.



NEW POST

My baby boyfriends are the loves of my life. I swear i can't believe how they make me feel. I am in love with those two. They don't stop smiling. I walk in their rooms and Mitchy is either lounging his head on his tall stiff bumper with his legs bent, just chillin or he is pulling the bumper down desperately peeking over it to get a look at Matthew who is either perfectly silent or crying. Mitchie just doesn't want to miss anything. The second you see him he kicks every limb wildly and can hardly contain his excitement. When you sneak up on Matthew he is either rocking in the crawling position staring at his colorful bumper or he is squealing and shaking wildly with excitement. It is so hard to choose which one to pick up first. THey both are DYING to be held and I really try and keep it fair and switch each nap. The second i pick one up their focus becomes on their brother and they smile like crazy. I usually lay them right in the same crib for a few minutes so they can "catch up". OFten i can tell that they aren't ready to really sleep when it is nap time so i will let them lay in the same crib. A couple times they have fallen asleep that way. That is the cutest thing ever. A few nights ago i walked in a it was pitch black and Matthew was asleep along the side of the crib and mitchie was sound asleep perpinicular laying on matthew tummy. It was the sweetest thing ever. I got a picture,but it couldn't capture the sweetness of it. They love each other and really play all the time. Lately Matthew puts one arm on Mitchie's back and tries to bite his diaper. Mitchie kicks matty all the time in the face, head whereever he feels. ALL THE TIME. He has no zone that is off limits. He just kicks. Matthew cries for a minute and forgives him. They take toys from each other a lot. Mitchell more from matthew though. Matthew will cry at that too. Mitchie army crawls a lot better than matthew so i think matthew gets more frustrated because he knows that he won't win the battle against his brother when it comes to keeping the toy he wants. They both rock in the crawl position back and forth perfectly, but they can't seem to move from that position. I feed them whatever i find. I give them oats and bananas, today they had cheese, i mash a lot of the things we eat. Mitchell is a great eater. Matthew is good, but isn't as interested. He is probably 2 lbs heavier than mitchell, but has always eaten significantly less than his brother. Matthew has two bottom teeth and no signs of any more yet. Mitchie started way behind matty but now has 4 that are really coming in. I think his top two teeth are going to have a big gap! Alexis continues to be an awesome helper. I send her in in the morning to play with them in their cribs while i read my scriptures or make my bed. I always ask her to go babysit them while i am trying to finish something up. She NEVEr declines and loves them to pieces. She always mimics the things i say and in the same tone as me. "Hi mithci and matty, your just so cute, i could just eat you alive, yes i can, yes i can."