Father's Day

So I've been a little addicted to pintrest lately and have been feeling very crafty. With Father's Day and Fourth of July coming up, I decided to actually take some of my pins and create them.

First up: Father's day Neck Tie Wreath.

I saw this idea and I thought it was super cute. I had a friend who also made one and she inspired me to actually get it done. It's really simple especially if your husband has old ties lying around. Luckily Todd had a few from his mission that were too funky to where anywhere else and this is an awesome way to preserve them. I had to buy a few from a thrift store so I think the whole project ended up costing 15 bucks, including the wire wreath. Step 1: Cut the ties 15 inches from the bottom (the fat end). Step 2: Wrap ties around wreath (My friend used a wicker wreath from dollar store and it looks equally as great.) Step 3: Hot glue in place. I ended up using glue in two places, one at the first fold over and another with the last fold over.

I used 17 ties. I left one of the ties uncut to tie as a bow. Overall I'm happy with the final project and It will be a fun decoration to bring every year for the week of father's day.

Project 2: D A D spells Dad

I saw this on pintrest as well and decided it would make a really cheap surprise for Todd since he already knew what his other present was. It was, the frame was 9 dollars and I'm sure you can find them cheaper than that. The Letters were 7 dollars. Ginny, my good friend, (happens to be the same friend who made the tie wreath) took the pictures. They turned out perfect, exactly what I was looking for. Luckily Ty was in a good mood and felt like smiling on cue. I can't blame Colt for being fussy, it was 95 degrees outside. They were both good sports and Todd said it was his favorite present.  Thanks Ginny!

Project 3: Neck Tie brownies

That's all it is. Our ward had treat tables set up for the fathers to enjoy and all I had that morning was a brownie mix. (yeah I kinda forgot about it) I figured there would be a lot of brownies so I want to make mine a little different and festive. So I cut them into neck tie shapes. I ended up getting 20 out of the pan which was more than enough because there was sooo much food brought.  I did try to make stripes on one of them using a toothpick and powdered sugar but that didn't work out very well so I ended up just sprinkling them with the sugar. Todd says they were good but I can't take credit for the way they tasted, it was just mix from a box.

Project 4: Forth of July Fabric Wreath

As you can tell, I was in a crafty mood this weekend and I decided to make another wreath. Again, I used an 18' wire wreath. I bought some festive patriotic fabric. 4 pattern at a 1/2 yard each. I did have some extra on one of the fabrics that I ended up using as a ribbon. 

It's pretty simple, really easy for kids to help with if they can tie knots. All you do is cut the fabric into 1' by 6' strips and then tie the fabric around the wire. 

I did two layers using every other wire starting with the inside wire. As seen as above.  I kept thinking I wasn't going to have enough fabric but Don't worry I have plenty left over. If you plan on making a fuller wreath (all four layers, I would do 3/4 of a yard. I think that should be enough.) 

 I think the final project looked great but I felt it need a little sparkle so I added some red and blue star garland (1$ at walmart)

Here are the photo's from the frame. Thanks again Ginny. You really did do a terrific Job

I don't want to end my father's day post with out thanking my wonderful husband who is an amazing father.  (Disclaimer: mushiness ahead)

Thanks Todd for putting up with my non-sensical craziness and for always loving me. You are such a great example not only for me but for our boys. They will  know how to love their future wives because they see how you love and care for me. Thank you for your hard work and sacrifice to support our family. I appreciate that you work so hard so that I can stay home with the boys. Thanks for putting up with my whining and complaining, it is okay for you to tell me stop sometimes but i know you won't because you care about how I am doing. You are such a good listener, even when you are extremely tired because you only got 10 hours of sleep in the last 72 hours. I love the fact that you still bring a smile to my face just by walking into the room. I am the luckiest girl in the whole world, thanks for all you do. Happy Father's Day!

Lastest Update

I know it's been a while but it's never too late. These first pictures are of Colt (Blue Strips) and Ty's blessing pictures. I they are very similar. I think Colt is definitely getting his own look but I feel that they will have similar coloring and will look very similar as boys. I don't think anyone will doubt they are brothers.

Colt (1 Month old)

Tyson (2 weeks old)

I love my boys. I can't help but admire my boys when I see them all together. Now that Colt is 4 1/2 months (this picture is old) Tyson is having a lot of fun. They have started to interact and Colt always has a huge smile for his big brother. Sometimes I think Ty is torturing but Colt doesn't seem to mind. He loves it when Ty is right up in his face making funny noises. We'll see how long that lasts. Ty has been fun to watch because he really does love Colt. I walked in to get Colt out of bed one morning and Ty was already in there sharing his blanket (big deal because it's his SPECIAL blanket) and snuggling Colt. Colt was as happy as could be. When mentioning the boys I love, I'm not going to forget to mention my wonderful husband. He is so fun to watch with the boys. I learn so much from his playfulness and concern for the boys. I would probably be in a mental institution if it weren't for his reassuring hugs and encouragement on those days when everyone seems to be crying, including me. With that just said, I love being a mother even with the times of frustration. It gives me a good opportunity to learn to be better. 

Tyson really love Easter this year. We went on a local easter egg hunt, sorry no pictures and every since then when he sees eggs he wants to find them. Luckily he hasn't taken them out of the fridge and hidden them. Sometimes, i don't doubt that would be something he would do. We also colored easter eggs this year and he loved it. We ended up with some very bold colors because Ty would drop the egg in dye 3 or 4 times even after we said it was done. It sure was fun to watch him.

I love this picture. This was Ty's very intense-show-the-colored-egg face. I have about 7 pictures, all with this same face but with different colored eggs. I know you can't really see the face but he was actually saying cheese, he just felt it was more important for me to get a picture of the egg than his cute face.

Another exciting thing Ty got to do lately was fathers and sons. It's a campout that members of our church went to that was for fathers and their sons. As far as I heard, Tyson loved it. He was a good helper with the tent and when they were done setting it up, Ty didn't want to do anything but sit in the tent. Todd said they spent their for 20 mins in the tent. Tyson loved roasting marshmallows and following the bigger boys around. One of his favorite things to do was play in this big pile of dirt.

I guess activities went to the late hours of the night, 11:30, and when it was finally time for bed, Ty slept like a rock. I'm sure Todd did too. I give Todd huge points because I'm sure he just chased a toddler around all night. It was my first night away from Ty, with the exception of having Colt. I'm not going to lie, I loved it. It was just me and my little colt man. He didn't complain or whine when I put in My Fair Lady and it was just fun to get some one on one time with him, something that doesn't happen very often. Anyways, Tyson sure looked like he had a fun time when he got home. He was covered in dirt and really upset when he had to take a bath. He is still talking about the fun time he had with camping with daddy. Sometimes when we ask him what he wants to do, his only answer is camping. Luckily we have a few campouts planned for this summer.

Some Family Photos

Just some pictures from our last family photo shoot. Thanks Diana.

Catching Up Part 2- Colt Christian Miller

So here's my baby story. My due date was January 4th and I had had an ultrasound on Dec 20 to see how big he was getting. I really want to do a vbac this time around. I didn't have a hard recovery with Ty's c-section but I really didn't want to feel limited. I know they don't let you even try a vbac after 2 c-sections and there are more risks with each kid you have. I didn't want to feel limited in how many kids we might be able to have. Anyways my doctor and I had been discussing the since we first met so that is why we had an ultrasound at 38 wks. At 38 wks he was measuring 7lbs 8oz. A good size baby. That's bigger than alot of newborns. But I was happy because that is actually small for my family. Anyways I had an appt set on my due date and I figured if I hadn't gone into labor before then they would set up and inducement date. My doctor was actually out of town that week (of course) so i met with her associate. He really didn't want to induce me, despite what my doctor said, so he told me that he would wait until I was 41 wks and then take another ultrasound to see if a vbac was even possible. I came home pretty depressed because knowing the size of babies in my family and knowing that Ty was 9lbs 3 oz at 41 weeks, waiting that long probably would give me no chance for a vbac. I called back that day and pretty much complained enough that they set me up for an inducement date for Jan 6th.

Ironically, I didn't need that because at 5:00 am, an hour before I was to go to the hospital, my water broke. I started having contractions at 5:30 and headed for the hospital. They put me on a little pitocin at 8:00 am and I got an epidural somewhere around being dilated to a 5 at 12:30ish. It took me just over an hour to get from a 6 to a 10 but we had to wait for my doctor (doctor's associate) to get there. So at 2:30 I started pushing and at 2:53 pm on January 6th Colt Christian Miller was born. I would say I would prefer vaginal delievery to c-section. I know there are risks to having a vbac but there really was no reason to worry. Every thing was as smooth as could be. Ty was an emergency c-section because he was wrapped up in his cord so tight. Colt didn't have any part of it wrapped around him. I'm just glad I was able to have a vbac and that my body went into labor by itself. Colt was born at 8lbs 14oz and 21 1/2 inches long. He was healthy with no problems or worries at all.

Catching Up Part 1

I have no excuse! I've been slacking. I'm finally going to update the blog. I've got a lot to update on too. I'm going to quickly skim over Christmas and New Years.

We had a wonderful Christmas. We were sad that we weren't able to make it to Texas where the rest of my family was spending their holidays. (I've decided never going to be in my third trimester during the holidays again.) It sounded like they had a great time and I hope I can be with them next year. So since we really couldn't travel anywhere, we did our own christmas. It was actually really nice and lo-key. We had a fun time watching Tyson open presents and enjoyed a nice dinner although it ended being to much for our little family. One of the traditions we want to carry on from my family is making gingerbread houses. So we did. Ty loved it! He mostly like eating the candies off of it.

Ty had such a good day. I think he understood who Santa was because whenever we'd mention santa he'd run to where he left the cookies the night before and say "cookies and celery reindeer"

I think he was also a little upset that there weren't cookies there for him in the morning. Another tradition I wanted to start was matching PJ pants. So here is a picture of the pants I made for our family.

Here is one of the many Toys that Tyson got and Loved playing with. Hotwheels track that goes in a loop. He also got a wooden train set that was a hit. It's now three months after christmas and he still plays with them. Yay!

New Years was fun. Sorry I don't have any pictures. My mom was able to be here for New Years. She was coming to help me with the baby so it was an extra bonus to have here for at least one holiday. Gramma really did become Tyson's best friend. He would want to play in his room with Gramma but close the door if I tried to come in. We had so much fun with my mom. Thanks mom for coming out and helping. It was so fun just having you here. My mom and Tyson made cookies and one of the things my mom does when she comes to help with baby #2's in our family is make matching aprons for cookie making. They turned out super cute and now Tyson has to wear his apron when ever we are making cookies whether he is helping or not.

Happy Birthday!

For Ty's Birthday we decided to celebrate by going to Chuck E Cheese. I didn't know if he was going to really enjoy it because he would able to do many arcade type games but he had a blast. I was actually really impressed with how cheap it could have been. We ended up buying a package with pizza and tokens but really you could go in there and just buy tokens. 20 tokens for 5 dollars and that's all you pay. It is 1 token for every game or ride and we had 25 tokens. We were there for an hour and a half, at least. It was a super fun activity and Ty still hasn't stopped talking about it. He loved that he was able to come home with prizes. It was definitely fun to watch him explore and I was glad that I could see he was enjoying his birthday celebration.

I think his favorite ride was the jet flying one that moved . Here he is with Todd, he really wouldn't take his eyes off the screen for a picture.

Here is my lazy attempt of a cars birthday cake. I had a much better picture in my head but when it came down to it, I just got lazy. I would love to decorate cakes but I don't have the patience. I was going to add green cactuses around the bottom egde but again I got lazy. Oh well, Ty's face was priceless when he saw all the cars on the cake and he is still trying to put them back up on the cake. As long as he liked it, I'm happy with it.

We officially have a two-year old!

I don't update my blog as much as I want to but I sure wasn't going to miss updating about my little toddler! He is definitely two! He has been acting like it for a few months with throwing his fair-share of tantrums. Although the tantrums can be rough, they are a small price to pay for the Joy that Tyson brings me and Todd everyday! He has such a sweet personality. He loves to give hugs and kisses and he is so good at saying thank you without being prompted. He loves his grandparents. He is probably more familiar with Todd's parents than with mine because we skype everyweek but I was surprised that after skyping with my parents last night he said "gramma and papa" opposed to the normal grandma and grandpa he says for Todd's parents. He is such a little talker. A few months ago, I would have thought for sure that he wouldn't be talking much by his birthday but in the last month or so his vocabulary has exploded! I can't list them all but here are a few of his favorites.

-two (for two years old)

- lineen queen (lightning mcqueen)

-Francesco (he actually says that one right)

-Thank You

-excuse me (or you. If Todd or I burb he will excuse himself, it's pretty cute)

-fox in socks (on of his favorite books)

-Daddy at work

-daddy at church

-Baby Colt (Our soon to be new addition)

-baby brother

-blankie

most of these he will use in sentences with a few added jibber-jabbers but it is so fun to be able to watch him grow and be able to understand and comprehend what I'm saying.

A funny story of last week, we were reading the picture scriptures together last week and all of the sudden he raised both arms over his head and yells, "fire!" in a deeper more defined voice. There was a picture of fire but I didn't know why he had to say it all funny. We laughed and he did it again three or four more times. He then pointed at the T.V. and from his toddler put together sentence I picked out "giraffe, fire, zebra movie" I realized that he was quoting the giraffe from Madagascar when he hits the sticks together and makes fire and then yells "fire" in the exact way that Ty was just yelling it. I thought it was hilarious because Todd and I quote movies all the time and I didn't know it was a hereditary trait. He'd only seen the movie once, maybe twice before.

I just can't believe that it has been two years already. Time really does fly and I have set a goal to make sure I don't let a moment pass by of enjoying my little two year old.