Happy Birthday Day!

We celebrated my Dad's Birthday on the 18th of February and we just celebrated my Grandma Favatella (my dad's mom's) birthday on the 3rd. It is always so much fun to get together with family! I am so lucky to have such an amazing dad who is so supportive. I always joke that I am a total daddy's girl, but really I am. I talk to my dad almost every single day. He really is such a great dad and he has totally embraced being a grandpa. I feel so lucky that my girls have such a great relationship with him (even though Audrey is a little scared of him...ha ha ha!)

Also I feel so lucky to have such an awesome Grandma, she has always been so supportive and would do anything for her kids and grandkids and now great grand kids. We were also so glad to see my grandpa who had been in the hospital for a few days, getting over a really bad case of Pneumonia. We are so glad that he is home and love him so much as well!

Dad's Birthday

Derek and Ash with the girls.

Derek and Ashley are so adventurous they are going on a 3 month trip to south america next week. We are really going to miss them and hope they have a safe trip!

My mom and dad...don't they look so good?

Our silly little family...notice my girls are a little grubby. As soon as they get to nana and grandpa's they get comfortable (ha ha ha!)

Tyler... he is going for the just rolled out of bed look (i'm pretty sure he had just rolled out of bed, ha ha ha!)

Grandma Favatella's Birthday

My Aunt Suze, Aunt Kathy, and cousin Whitney...cutting the cake!

Grandma and Grandpa Favatella

"the little sister!"

My grandma just turned 76...but she will always be 30 to us!

Lydia loves anything having to do with birthdays, she has already started telling me what she wants for her birthday...sprinkles and licorice (ha ha ha, this will be an easy birthday to shop for!)

I wonder how long it will be before I can get a family pic with everyone smiling?

My cousin J and his wife emily...they are always so cute with my girls, probably because they have two of their own too!

Dino Day!

Well Chris had to work on Saturday which meant Liddy, Auddy and I were going to make the most of our Friday (since Friday is usually cleaning day, so we can make the most of our Saturday with Daddy!) Anyways I have always wanted to go to the Museum of Ancient history at Thanksgiving Point, and I knew Lydia would be in heaven. So we had lunch, packed up and headed out. To say the least it was so much fun. We spent 1 1/2 hrs going through it. Lydia loved to roar at all the dinosaurs, and she kept saying "look Mom!" at anything she saw. After we were done we went into the souvenir shop, I told her we needed to go home and she let me know very clearly that she didn't want to go yet, I tried to bribe her with a new dino toy and she was not having that so I finally relented and she chose going through the museum again over getting a new toy (ha ha ha!) So yes we went through the museum twice and everything was just as fascinating to her as the first time. It was fun the second time too because Audrey woke up so it was fun to see her get excited about seeing new things as well. To say the least I think we will be heading back to the dino museum another day...when we have an entire day to kill (ha ha ha!)

This was a "Momma Look!" moment...I'm not even sure what that is.
Here is her doing a "ROAR!"

Oh goodness how I LOVE that little girlie!

I actually loved seeing all the dinosaurs too, I loved the Museum of Natural History when I was little (that may be our next adventure...if that place still exists!)

"SCARY!"

She really enjoyed playing with the dino's...and when other kids came Lydia was so good to share!

She only played in the dirt for about 2 minutes, she got her hands dirty and instantly wanted them CLEANED...I think she is somewhat of a clean freak, like her mama!

That is Lydia making a FISH FACE

She is pretending to be a shark. She actually loved the shark so much we had to call Daddy so she could tell him all about it.

She spent close to an hour playing in the dino dig section. She had so much fun!

No I didn't forget about little A...she finally woke up!

You start the museum by going through a "Black hole"I think you can tell by both of the girls faces that it was a bit scary (ha ha ha)

No Lydia we can't take him home.

Lydia is my little buddy...she is so
sweet!

Chris and I are never in pictures together...which is why it looks so great (ha ha ha!)

So lucky to have two little girlies!

Love These Girls!

Red boots!

Lydia Loves her RED BOOTS...

Need I say more?

Adventures in Toilet Training!

Well we started potty training right after the dance recital, way back in December. In my heart of hearts I thought that would give me two full weeks to focus on potty training and that by January she would be totally potty trained (yes I had completely unrealistic expectations, ha ha ha!)

Anyways here we are into February and I am still having potty training woes. Lydia does great with #1, we are even to the point that she does the "potty dance" And she will even ask or tell us she needs to go to the bath room. #2 is a totally different story. For some reason she was good at first and then within the past two weeks she has decided that she will NOT go #2 on the toilet. She literally holds it in until when she finally needs to go it is so painful. I have also tried just about every thing I can think to get her to go.

#1. Bribery...she loves the game "hungry, hungry, hippos" and she loves getting her nails pointed so we tried using those two as bribes, I even told her about a new game called "Gator Golf" and she acted excited about it, but not enough to go to the bathroom.

#2. Down right scaring her: I have a friend that told me she used to tell her son that the Gypsies would come and take him if he didn't go to the bathroom, so I decided to tell her the police are going to come and get her. I even went as far as to ring the doorbell and tell her the police were here to get her. I stopped that after Chris scolded me telling me that I was villianizing the police and she should see them as the good guys not bad guys. So it didn't work and I decided that Chris was right.

#3. The medical route: I tried using my DoTerra oils and telling her that the medicine would make it all better...she acted receptive but didn't go.

And Finally I tried #4 positive affirmations: We started talking to her poop and telling it to get out of her bum. We would tell it that it would have a great life in the sewers with all the other little poops (ha ha ha!)

It has even gotten to the point that Chris and I decided to let her run around without underwear, we thought she won't just poop on the carpet so she will come and tell us she needs to go. I was cleaning the house, Chris was down working on the computer and Lydia was playing in her play room. About 20 minutes later Lydia came up and said "look mom!" I looked and didn't really believe my eyes, all I could think was that Chris was playing a really sick joke on me. As I got closer I realized that our rational was WAY off. Yes she had pooped and to top it off she brought it up stairs to give to me. I freaked out and told her to go and throw it in the toilet...dry heaving the whole way there.

Finally after many discussions with several parents (a friend who is a pediatrician as well) We have decided to cool it. We don't make a big deal of it, and if she says she doesn't want to go and we can tell she needs to we just put her in a pull up and pretend we don't care.

Then we had a break through...after Church she tooted, which is usually our first signal that she needs to go so Chris said Lydia let's go potty. Usually she has a HUGE melt down, throws herself on the ground and freaks out. She finally just surrendered, went to the bathroom with Chris and a few minutes later she went. Now I'm not getting my hopes up by any means but it is progress...and to say the least "I'll take it!"

Anyways to all you parents who have been there, and lived to tell the tale....I would LOVE to hear your advice!

Had to add this pic...Audrey loves BATH TIME!!!

My Other darling little girlie...notice the painted nails! Yesterday when she went we rewarded her with every reward we could think of (ha ha ha!)

Four months and Food!

Well as of tomorrow Audrey is 4 months old...this is seriously such a fun phase! She is so smiley and giggly and interactive. We went to the Dr. Office for her check up and her shots (hate those dang shots, they break my heart!) We got the go ahead for solids so she tried rice cereal for the first time yesterday, it went about how I expected...she was more interested in looking at the spoon than actually eating (ha ha ha!) Here are here 4 month stats.

24 1/2"-30%

15 lbs-90%

16 1/2cm-75%

Here are some things about Audrey at 4 months!

Smiles: I know I am her mom so I am totally biased and I am with her all day but I have never seen a baby smile like Audrey does. She is always so happy, and really she smiles at anyone and everyone ALL the time!

Sleeping:Well I have to hand it to her she is a great sleeper. She goes down at 8:00-8:30 usually and she sleeps in until 6:30 am and then goes right back down until 8:30-9:00 am. Now if I could just get Lydia to sleep in that late I would be one happy mama. She takes pretty good naps too. She always takes a great morning nap after bath time and usually sleeps for about 2 hrs. Then the rest of the afternoon she takes a couple more naps (not usually as consistent about time as her morning) and she only sleeps for about 1 during these naps. We are transitioning into taking naps in her crib, she will sleep really well in her swing but I sort of feel like she needs to get used to the crib since at the rate she is going she is going to out grow the swing before I know it (ha ha ha!)

Sisters: Audrey is OBSESSED with Lydia. It is almost like they have their own personal joke going on all the time because any time they are together they are laughing. Audrey watches her like a hawk and won't take her eyes off of her if she is around. Lydia loves to entertain her by making silly faces and googly eyes for her. I can't wait for the day when they can play together and really become good friends.

Exersaucer/Front pack/bumbo: Well it is official she loves to see what is going on. Much like Lydia she likes to be in the middle of the action, and enjoys being up right. She will stay in her exersaucer for about 20 minutes at a time. She will play with the toys and loves seeing herself in the little mirror. She also spends a lot of time in the front pack, getting things done with two kids can pose a bit of a challenge, but with the front pack I have my little assistant on my front and my other by my side (usually Lydia follows me around with her Sep stool..i.e. step stool.) Yet again she loves being apart of everything. We cook, clean, and I have even gotten ready with her in that....I won't say that I looked very good after getting ready but it worked!) She isn't as in love with the BUMBO as LYdia was yet...I have brought her down in the studio and she did sit and watch the girls dance and loved it then but if I try to put her on the counter or bed while I'm cooking or getting ready she isn't as in love with it (ha ha ha!)
The Roll Over:Well she rolled over last week and I refer to it as THE roll over because it has only happened one time (ha ha ha!) Of course I was so excited and so I have had her on her stomach numerous times just waiting for her to bust out the roll over again...but to no avail. At this point she actually loves being on her tummy (ha ha ha!) Lydia used to just get so mad she would roll over almost instantly. Audrey will actually stay on her tummy for like 10 minutes before she even remotely acts like she want to lay on her back...so we are working on mission roll over for the next little while!

HANDS/Binky: This little girls LOVES her hands, if there isn't a binky in her mouth you can find her hands. I have to laugh because it isn't one finger or a thumb it is practically her entire hand and it is different fingers...one time she had this huge smile on her face sucking on all her fingers except her middle one...it looked like she was flipping me off (I tried to get a picture but by the time I got back with the camera she had the entire hand in her mouth (ha ha ha!) She also loves her binky too but it still doesn't compare with her hand (ha ha ha!)

Vocal Chords: Audrey is definitely starting to learn how to get her way. She very rarely cries (usually when she is hungry) but she is starting to really use her voice. She will sqeal, and scream. She laughs, and coo's. I love hearing her little baby talk language. Usually in the mornings I wake up to her talking to herself in her crib. She isn't crying or anything just talking (ha ha ha!) It cracks me up because it sometimes wakes Lydia up and on the monitor I will see Lydia standing right by the crib and talking to Audrey. She usually asks Audrey how her sleep was, and if she had sweet dreams...and it leaves me laughing!

Overall: I am having so much fun with Audrey. She is such a great baby, and such a great addition to our family. I love seeing her develop and grow and look forward to the day when Lydia and Audrey will be such good friends (hopefully that happens sooner than later!) I feel so blessed to have her in our home and love the sweet spirit that she brings with her. We love her more than words can say!

Baby Cash is here!

Well we couldn't be more thrilled by the arrival of baby Cash Colby Miller. I'm sure if you don't know Meg and Colby personally you feel like you do, due to my blog (to say that we love them is an understatement.) Anyways Colby and Meg have waited a long time to become parents, and it has been a very bumpy and trying road...but their little guy is finally here and we couldn't be more excited for them!

Cash was born Tuesday January 25th 1:17 pm he weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 191/2 inches long. He did have some complications due to fluid in his lungs and underdeveloped lungs as well, so he is in the NICU at the IMC. But he is in great hands and has been getting better each day. He is a little trooper for sure.

Anyways we are so excited that Cash is here and we love him already!

Doesn't she look like a natural!

I couldn't believe all the things that Cash is hooked up to...it looks like a launching station I kept waiting for it to start counting down to blast off (ha ha ha!)

The Miller Family!