Elia at 9 months!

Elia officially turned 9 months old last week and had her 9 month check up today. Still much smaller than the older two, she weighed in at 16.6 lbs and is 24 inches long. However, her growth has been proportionate and she is right on with her milestones, so she got an A+ from her doctor.

This has been a busy month for her as far as figuring out how to move. She mastered crawling (thanks to her endless desire to “undecorate the Christmas tree) and is now pulling up, standing and even “cruising” a bit on the furniture. Her desire to sit and be held flew right out the window when she discovered how much fun it is getting herself into places she really shouldn’t be. Our gate for the stairs has made its 3rd repeat appearance and we are back to shutting bathroom doors…ah, the fun of a mobile baby

Elia has really taken to food the last several weeks. She eats at least 2 helpings of baby food each day and has started getting table food–which she definitely prefers. She can really do damage to a soda cracker thanks to her barely-through-the-surface bottom teeth and veggie puffs are a favorite snack as well. She still isn’t a huge fan of her bottle, so the more food she eats the happier we all are.

I wish I could report that she is sleeping through the night consistently, but that is just not the case. She still feels the need to remind us of her presence most nights, but slowly she is getting closer and closer to morning before waking up. I am trying a few different strategies lately to get her over this night time party she likes to have, but it is a work in progress at this point.

The biggest change in Elia lately is her crazy personality that is coming through. She is still a drama queen (I want what I want when I want it….and if I don’t get it, you WILL hear about it) but when she isn’t demanding something, she is so silly and smiley. When she is excited about something, she throws her head forward and bends her knees up and down, so it looks like she is doing a dance–one of the funniest sights to see. She likes to try to climb over anything in her way instead of going around it and going for Anya & JP’s toys is way more fun than playing with the ones we want her to play with.

My favorite thing Elia is doing right now is when I come in her room in the morning to get her out of the crib she is standing up in the corner waiting for me with a huge smile on her face. It warms my heart every single time!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Elia from the last few weeks. Enjoy!

Gram Martha

As most of you know, last week my Gram Martha passed away and Thursday was her funeral. It has been a hard week for the Miller’s and we will feel her loss in our family always. She had a beautiful funeral, the weather couldn’t not have been nicer (who would ever predict a 50+ degree day in January??) and many family members and friends came to celebrate her life. It was so much fun to talk with people who knew her and loved her and hear things they remembered about her. There is no doubt that she truely left her mark in many people’s hearts.

For those of you that knew her, you know how difficult it is to accurately describe my Grandma. She was the perfect combination of sweet and spunky with just enough ornery–and it made everyone around her love her. For those of us that are her children and grandchildren–well, to say we are lucky would be an understatement. She didn’t have a big family, but her love for us was bigger than anything in this world–and we knew it. And the love and respect we felt for her is beyond words.

The countless memories I have of my Grandma will keep her alive in my heart until I see her again some day. She will forever be missed and never forgotten.

Rest in peace, Gram. We love you.

Here is a link to her obituary if you are interested in reading it.

Anya’s Big News!

After much anticipation (and lots of wiggling), Anya finally lost her first tooth last Friday (12/9). We knew it wouldn’t be long and she was so excited that it happened at school! I could tell the minute she got off the bus that she had lost it because she was smiling from ear to ear

So, Friday night she got to use the tooth fairy pillow that I had made for her and was excited to see what she got when she woke up.

It won’t be long until she is sleeping with that pillow again as she has another very loose tooth on the bottom!

Gingerbread Houses & Christmas Trees

Last weekend we had a very low key but fun weekend. Between football games and holidays, there hasn’t been too many weekends lately where we get to lay low and just hang out.
On Saturday the kids decorated gingerbread houses at Pennie Carroll’s yearly event. In true fashion, my kids consumed more candy than they actually used on their gingerbread house, however, I consider this a major step up from the kids around us that were sucking the frosting directly out of the decorating tube!! It only took about an hour after returning home for JP to drop his gingerbread house and shed many many tears over the loss of his newest creation. He eventually got over it and decided to eat any remaining pieces he could find. Occasionally he will tearfully bring up his “smashed” gingerbread house, but a little birdie at church told him they were going to decorate gingerbread houses again at AWANA, so that has given him something to look forward to!

After our eventful morning, we put up the Christmas tree and got it all decorated and ready to go. The kids had fun finding all the ornaments they have made and putting them in exactly the right spot on the tree. Josiah had a special affection for one poor tree branch that held over 10 ornaments by the time he was done decorating. For some reason, I always dread putting up the Christmas tree each year, and then after it is up and decorated with the lights and the star on top, I really enjoy having it to look at. So now I need to get some Christmas presents wrapped (my goal for this coming weekend) and then it will really look festive around here!

Thanksgiving 2011!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! We hope everyone had a very special holiday and counted their blessings over and over.

We had a great holiday with Papa Ronnie, G’ma Jeryl & Aunt Joni down in Winfield. We got to see lots of Jason’s extended family on both sides while we were there and had lots of time to just hang out and enjoy our time together. Josiah even got to ride in one of Papa Ronnie’s tractors!

For some reason, I didn’t really take any pictures while we were there. I do have one to share, so good thing it’s a cute one huh??

Elia is 7 months!

(sorry this post is a couple days late–Jason updated my computer and it took me awhile to figure out how to upload pictures onto the site)

Elia is now 7 months old and really starting to become active. No crawling yet, but that is not needed as she rolls (and rolls, and rolls, and rolls……) anywhere and everywhere she wants to go. It amazes me the places she gets herself wedge into and I once again discover how both exhausting and exciting having a newly mobile baby is!

She is also working on mastering sitting up unassisted and her favorite activity right now besides rolling is putting the paci in and out of her mouth over and over again. She has taken to baby food like a champ and although she is still sans-teeth seems to have a quite large “sweet potato” tooth It is a relief that she likes real food as much as she does considering it is still a feat trying to get her to drink 4oz without a struggle.

Here are a few pictures of her in the last month. Our baby girl is growing up so fast!

Happy Halloween 2011!

Sunday night was “beggar’s night” here in Pleasant Hill and the kids got all decked out in their costumes for the occasion.

Anya was “sweetie bat”, Josiah was “batman” and Elia was our little “tootsie”! They were all so cute and had fun running up and down our street collecting candy. The good thing about living on a street that most people don’t know exists is that everyone on the street gives you LOTS of candy because they don’t get many other trick-or-treater’s other than those already living here. Of course Anya & Josiah had a joke ready to tell and they did an excellent job delivering the funny!

Here are a few more pictures of our Halloween 2011!

Pumpkin Carving 2011

Last week we finally got busy carving up the pumpkins we got at the patch over the weekend. It was such a beautiful week outside and it was so nice to do the messy parts on the deck–couldn’t have had it any better. The kids did pretty good cleaning out their pumpkins but Anya was bound and determined for us to roast the seeds, so I had to do most of the seed retrieval (talk about a monotonous and somewhat frustrating task–who knew pumpkin seeds could be so slippery when covered in pumpkin guts)?!

Anyway, we got the job done and here are our final products:

Not too bad if I do say so myself. I am sure you can guess which pumpkin is Anya’s and which is Josiah’s! Wonder what Elia will want carved in hers next year?

Here are a few more pictures of us hard at work with out pumpkins!

Apple Orchards & Pumpkin Patches..it must be fall!

We are making the most of the long autumn season by being outside as much as possible. Yesterday after church we headed west with the Reuter family to Patch’s Pumpkin Farm in Adel for a day of pumpkin picking, hayrack riding, corn pool playing, cow-train riding fun. It was such a beautiful day to be outside and a great way to help Jason celebrate his birthday.

Last Thursday I accompanied Anya’s kindergarten class to the Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t quite as nice and at some points it was down right chilly–although I know that the kids didn’t feel the cold at all as busy as they were running from one interesting thing to the next. We also got to eat sack lunches and go on a tour of the orchard and the kids were pretty excited about getting to take some apples home.

Here are more pictures of our pumpkin patch and apple orchard fun!

Elia’s 6 month stats

This week, Elia had her 6 month appointment. She weighs 14.14 lbs and is 26 inches long–still the runt of our litter (both Anya & JP weighed well over 17 lbs at the 6 month mark), but growing nonetheless! She only gained a little over 1.5 lbs from her 4 month check but grew more than 2 inches, so she is putting all her growing into her height at the moment. A tall McArtor…..could it be??!!!!

Other than a double ear infection (that I had no idea she had ), Elia’s appointment went very well. She was all smile and giggles for the doctor and resident until it was time for shots. Of course she wasn’t a fan of them, but did recover faster than last time around has been back to her normal self despite the shots and ear infection!