Yesterday Jason, Anya and I traveled to Forest City to see the family and meet the newest member of the family, Aubrey. It was so much fun holding a little baby again, but it is crazy how you forget so soon how little they start out. She was so teeny tiny—it is amazing to think that Anya was about that size a year ago and look at her now! Aubrey pretty much slept the whole time we were there, but she did wake up for alittle bit in the afternoon and kick around on the floor. Anya thought she was pretty neat and wanted a close look every chance she got. Will be fun to watch them play together and with the boys in the years to come. Here are a few pictures of our visit with the Miller family.

Now that the move is over – save for unpacking all of the boxes scattered across our basement and garage – we’re back to life as usual. Anya started at her new daycare Wednesday morning, and it is a really neat place. They break the kids up into 3-4 age groups, and she’s in the “Early Walkers”. Her room has a nifty little round table that the kids actually sit IN, there are little chairs built into the table, and when I got there, they took her and sat her in between a bunch of other little squirts who were chowing down on bowls of Froot Loops. No sooner than they handed her the little styrofoam bowl of loops, did the boy beside her get ahold of it and pull it away, but Jenna, who is in charge of the room, gave it back to her only in time for the little girl sitting on the other side of her to pick it up and dump it on the table–which is where most of the kids’ bowls ended up anyway. Anya didn’t seem to mind and she dug in just like the rest of the kids.

Well, after a long week, we have made the move to Pleasant Hill. We owe a HUGE thank you to our parent’s and Joni for all their hard work in getting all our stuff (and alot of JUNK) over to the new house. We would have never been able to do it without them.

So, we have been here almost a week now and things are almost settled in. Jason has some office boxes to get put away and I have alittle work to do in Anya’s room and then we get to start on the fun stuff of hanging pictures on the wall and decorating! Anya had adjusted to the new house wonderfully. I think she loves the fact that she can wander wherever she wants without us constantly following her to make sure she stays off the stairs. My dad and Jason installed the baby gate and now the stairs are no longer an issue…which makes us sleep alittle easier at night.

Last night Jason and I got our first opportunity to enjoy the new backyard. After Anya went to bed, we went outside and played alittle aerobee (it’s like a long-flying frisbee) and it was so much fun to be able to have a place to run around and play. I anticipate alot of fun times out in the backyard!

Anya has been doing great at her new daycare. It sounds like she loves art time which makes her daddy very happy. Hopefully she got her artistic skills from him or she could be in trouble! Her teachers are very nice and are doing a great job of helping her transition into the new place. I don’t think we will have any problems, which I am very thankful for!

Well, guess that is all for this update. We will get some pictures posted of the new house once we get everything completely in its place!

Right now we are in the midst of moving and let me tell ya…3 words sum up the experience so far…HOT HOT HOT! Things are actually going quite smoothly, but I am not sure why we picked the hottest week of the year to move. Oh well…soon enough it will be over and we can work on getting settled!

We are so excited to tell everyone about the arrival of our new niece Aubrey Lyn. She was born on 7/14 and weighed roughly 7 lbs 11 oz and was 19 inches long. Both she and mommy Jill are doing great. All the boys in the family (including daddy Jason) are pretty excited about the new little girl in town. We can’t wait to meet her and I know Anya will love having a baby to look at…she seems mezmorized by them (I think she is just amazed that they are SMALLER than her…)

On Thursday, our little girl turns one year old….it is SO hard to believe! We had her big 1st birthday bash on Sunday with lots of family and friends joining in on the celebration. She loved all the attention, had fun opening and playing with her gifts and even enjoyed eating her cake. She didn’t make too big of a mess which was really no surprise as she has always been a fairly neat eater. I had my heart set on having a butterfly cake for her and decided to try my hand at making and decorating it myself after I found out that no one in town does custom decorating on cakes these days. I think it turned out fairly decent considering it was my first real attempt at this sort of thing and I figured if it happned to turn out horrible that she would never remember it anyway! Here are some pictures of her birthday fun…

In other good news, my Grandpa Arnold had knee replacement surgery today and everything went well and he seems to be doing good after the surgery. He is up in Rochester probably until Friday and then will head closer to home to do some physical therapy and rehab work.

Only 4 more days until Baby Miller joins our family up in Forest City. The boys are SO excited for their new brother or sister to come and I think Jill will be glad to have the day here too. I know it will be fun to have another little baby around!

Anya had her first 4th of July and what an exciting fun-filled days it was! We headed up to Ringsted bright and early Saturday morning so I could attend my 10 year high school class reunion. We had a very good turn out with nearly 30 of the 36 we graduated with attending the reunion. It was great to see everyone again and fun to get a round of golf in with some old classmates.

Sunday we had a mini-birthday party for Anya in at the shelter house at the Ringsted park. Because July is such a busy month for my entire family from Grandpa Arnold’s knee surgery next week to Baby Miller coming the week after that to us moving, we thought it would be easiest to have a little party for her while we were in Ringsted before all the craziness starts. It was very HOT, but luckily we were out of the sun and had a decent breeze keeping us somewhat cool. Anya was very lucky to have her Great-Grandmas Martha and Ruth, Great-Grandpa Arnold and Great-Great Aunt Dagmar be able to make it to her party along with G’ma Barb, Papa Jim, Jason, Jill, Zachary, Noah and Great-Aunt Lana and Great-Uncle Monty. She got some pretty fun toys that she is working on mastering and of course enjoyed being the center of attention!

Monday was another hot day, so we headed to Fairmont to check out the new aquatic center. Zachary, Noah, Anya, G’ma Barb, Jason & I met my Aunt Beth, Uncle Paul and cousins Hannah, Isaac and Rachel (who are here visiting from Washington) at the pool and had a fun time going on the water slides and playing in the water.

Today we celebrated 4th of July by having lunch at church with my family and then watching the big parade in Armstrong. Anya loved all the excitement of the parade and couldn’t take her eyes off every single float that passed by. She also enjoyed the candy we collected and didn’t leave Papa Jim’s side as he was busy feeding her Laffy Taffy! All the excitment pooped her out and she slept most of the way back. I have to admit that I am pretty worn out too from all our 4th of July excitment!

So, now the week is almost half over, so the weekend will be here again before we know it! This weekend we are having another birthday party for Anya, so it will be more celebrating around here! Somehow, I don’t think she will mind…..

Here are some pictures of our 4th of July fun…..