Miller Monster

We call him Miller Monster.  He growls, he attacks, and he takes down some serious food.  Tonight the little monster tried spaghetti {with a few veggies mixed in} for the first time.  Do you think he liked it?

This was after about four servings the size of the one above.  Spaghetti was followed by half  of a banana and half of a piece of cheese.  After dinner it was time for a quick game of growling, which Miller found hysterical.  He had toned it down a bit by the time I got the video camera out, but you'll get the idea anyway.

Little Drummer Boy

Our latest way to occupy Miller while I cook dinner.

He's the cutest drummer I know!

High Hampton Inn

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back about our trip.  We have had quite a busy week!

As I mentioned we went to the High Hampton Inn just outside of Highlands, North Carolina.  The inn was built in 1922 and they have striven to keep the historical integrity of the inn and surrounding areas.  It is so beautiful and rustic.  Very "Dirty Dancing".  We stayed in one of the cabins located on the premises and had so much fun just relaxing and spending time with family.  Our days were made up of sleeping late, shopping, pedicures for the girls, golf for the boys, hiking, Scrabble, and many delicious meals.  We left the little man with my mom and step-dad and I'm so glad that we did.  It was wonderful to stay up as late as we wanted, sleep in, and do as we please each day.  As much as we enjoyed it, we sure did miss him though!

Aren't these red rocking chairs and a whiskey barrel/planters so cute!  I want one of each.  Too bad I'd kill the plants though :)

 The entrance to the inn

This was the swimming/canoe/playground/layout/lots of other things area.  The water was FREEZING though and the weather was a cool 75 or so meaning there was really no need to swim.  We did enjoy sitting by the lake one day though.

The whole crew: Bryant, Me, Scott, Kate, Margaret, and Frank

This is the view from the inn.  We also hiked to the top of this mountain one day and this was the view:

Breathtaking.  Both figuratively and literally.  It was quite a haul up that mountain!

On another day, we went on a hike down a mountain to the bottom of a waterfall.  It was also quite a workout, but was totally worth it!

At the top...

and from the bottom.

Our last day we went into Highlands for lunch and a little shopping.  We ate at this adorable, delicious restaurant recommended by a friend {Thanks, Mrs. Ham!}.

I think Miller had a pretty good time at Pop and Gran's too.  

He helped them turn their foyer into a playground,

showed them that nudity and playtime can go together,

and rearranged their furniture.

Clearly that table looks much better blocking the entrance to the kitchen than it does in the living room.  Thanks, Pop and Gran, for taking such good care of our sweet baby boy!  I hope you've gotten some rest this past week!

We had to  at least bring him back a little souvenir since we didn't take him along.

A huge thanks to Margaret and Frank for a fabulous trip!  Thanks for letting us come even though we didn't bring Miller :)  We are so thankful for each of you!

Kisses

Hi there!  We just returned from a wonderful, baby-free vacation with Bryant's family in North Carolina.  Although it was quite a treat to stay up as late as we wanted, sleep in, and do as we pleased all day, we missed Miller terribly and were so excited to see him this afternoon!  A detailed post of our trip will be coming later once I wade through the piles of laundry and get us all settled back into our routine.  For now, I thought you might want to see what we'd been missing.  Gotta love those sloppy kisses!!!

Three Years Ago...

I married the most wonderful, patient, loving, providing, faithful husband a girl could ask for.  This post is actually a day late.  I had good intentions of posting something yesterday, but we were in the car most of the day and I just never got around to it.  We had a great third anniversary though and we actually have the treat of a few baby-free days while my mom keeps Miller.  Each day with Bryant is a blessing and I continue to be amazed at the Lord's faithfulness to us and to our marriage.  My prayer is that our marriage will please the Lord, draw others to him, and that we will fall more in love through the years.  I hope the first two have been answered and I'm positive that the third request has been fulfilled thus far.  I love you, Bryant!

Vote!

Don't forget to vote today!  That is of course unless you are voting for people I didn't vote for - then we'll just cancel each other out.  Kidding - get out and vote!  You can't have an eleven month old showing you up.

11 Months

Okay, so I'm about nine days late on this one, but Miller is officially eleven months old.  I'm not crazy about the above picture, but it was literally the only one I could get where he didn't look like this...

Miller is on the go and into everything these days.  He keeps me on the my toes and may call me "no" instead of "mama" because I say it to him so much.

 

He isn't walking yet, but he pulls up on everything and has started cruising from one thing to the next. 

He is also starting to enjoy his activity table.   You may recognize it as his former exersaucer converted.  This time the construction was much simpler.

Miller continues to bring us more immense joy than we could have ever imagined.  It seems like he hasn't changed as drastically {physically} in the last few months as when he was younger.  He has been in the same clothes for several months whereas before I felt like we were barely getting a few wears out of each outfit.  He is still wearing size 9 months, but I can't tell it won't be long before they will have to be packed away.  He still has not said a real first word.  I have heard him say "mama" and "dada" a few times, but not consistently enough where I feel like it should count.  He does however point to one of Bryant's mounted deer in the garage every time we get in or out of the car and say "duh" very excitedly.  It is so cute!  Another recent change is that Miller wants to feed himself and doesn't want me to feed him.  I still have a good bit of pureed food in the freezer so I'm trying to persuade him to let me feed him at least a little at each meal so that we can finish it off.  Plus, until recently when he got those four teeth, there wasn't a lot that he could gum on his own.  He's ready for more now, though.  I guess that's one more step towards independence :(  He is not drinking {much} from a sippy cup on his own though.  He'll take a few sips, but then refuse to have anymore.  At some point we may have to go "cold turkey", but I'm not quite ready to take away his bottle completely so we'll hold off on that.  For now, I'll hold on that every little bit of baby I can.

Fourth of July Weekend {and then some}

Last Friday we went to Gran and Pop's house on Lake Martin for the Fourth of July weekend.  We had such a great time visiting with family {Kate, Scott, Brad, Lauren, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Randy, and Morgan (my first cousin)}, eating LOTS of yummy food, taking boat rides, and just hanging out by the lake.  Miller was up during the night a good bit due to those four teeth he has coming in and I was so thankful to be able to pass him off to the grandparents at 7 a.m. and get a little more sleep.  So thankful, in fact, that when my mom suggested that Miller and I stay a few more days I jumped on the chance before she could change her mind :)  So, that's where I've been until today when she and Bryant drove halfway to "exchange" us.  I have been enjoying life at Camp Gran and have a feeling that tomorrow will be a rude awakening when it's back to the real world.  Here are some pictures from our stay.  Some of them were taken with an iPhone and therefore may not be the best quality, but they still capture some great moments!

Gran made Miller some "popsicles" with water and he absolutely loved them!

 Then we tried one with apple juice in it and...

 

 On our way to the fireworks show on the fourth.

Sharing some food with Gran.  Yummy ;)

Miller made some new friends at the mexican restaurant on our way out of town and they let him try on their hat.  He's thrilled, can't you tell.

Alright, time to go hang with the hubby a bit.  It's been a while!

Playing Chase with Daddy

I'm so thankful that Miller has such a fun, playful daddy! Miller loves to play chase with him and I love to watch!

Play Group

A few weeks back some of us started a play group to meet in Guntersville.  We started out meeting at a park by the lake and just hanging out.  Enter 100 degree temps and we had to change our location. Now we're meeting at people's houses and this week we took the kiddos swimming at Kendall's.  It has been such a blessing to hang out with other moms and it really gives us me something fun to look forward to every week.  I'm sure Miller will make some great friends too once he's a little more socially aware :)  For now, I think he was just excited to have new toys to play with and an interesting place to explore.  Here are some pics from one of our times together.  I don't think I was successful in getting everyone's picture, but I was close!  Thanks for hosting us, Lori!