Stuff

Micah and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary in August. We chose to eat at a yummy Italian restaurant, Maggiano's that overlooks the Strip. We ran into a good friend in our ward and their family eating there which was fun. Dinner was delicious and we had a great time together. We were doing everything we could to not make eye contact with an older man walking around playing his guitar and singing to couples in the restaurant. When approaching our table he asked if we were celebrating, and we both lied and said no. I felt bad about lying, but I also hate those awkward singers and then you have to tip them for not wanting them to sing to us anyway. I was afraid that I would giggle and he would be offended anyway, so we lied. As we were about to leave the waiter brought out cookies with candles to wish us a Happy Anniversary. Micah and I looked at each other thinking "how did they know it was our Anniversary." We hurried and blew out the candles and hid them so the guitar singer wouldn't notice, and then the waiter came to let us know the bill was taken care of. Our kind friend in our ward had payed for our meal. Such a generous thing to do. We then walked over the the Paris hotel because we had never been there before. It was a wonderful evening, and I can't wait to spend many more years together.

We were trying to take a picture of ourselves with the water fall behind us when a man came up and about ripped the camera out of my hands to take the picture for us. That was a very nice thing to do, but I think you can tell by our positioning and the look on our faces that we were a little surprised. 

I spoke too soon about school being great. We had a rough Monday morning this week. Both Aliza and Avery were having a hard time getting out the door. I think it was just a Monday thing, because they have been fine the past few days. We officially started ALL of our after school activities this week. Aliza is still taking tennis once a week, and now has a gymnastics class on Friday's. Avery is taking a dance class with four of her friends which is fun because it includes Jazz, Hip Hop, Ballet and Tumbling. Avery has also started back with violin lessons, and we are debating on doing the orchestra and group violin classes. She doesn't really want to, but it's such a good experience it's killing me to not do them. She also tried out for the school's choir this week. Abbie is doing tennis twice a week and we are looking into a math tutor. This accelerated math class is hard for all of us. :) With homework and church activities our lives are very busy right now.

Abbie made this pillow for Ava while at my parents home this Summer. The cat likes it, but I am not too thrilled with the cat these days. She has brought us three rats this past week. We have an empty home at the top of our street that has been empty for years. Micah saw a rat on the roof last week, and now the cat is bringing us treats. Really, it's great she is catching them, but she tends to want to bring them in the house. Micah let her in the house yesterday and she had one in her mouth. He quickly cornered it and was able to throw it back outside. I was at home last week and saw the cat playing around with one in our back yard. We also had some coolers outside drying that I saw the rat climb on. I was so disgusted that I thought I would just run outside and save our coolers from the rat, but as soon as I opened the door the rat ran inside. It ran under our couch and I didn't' know what to do. I was surprised at how many screams came out of my mouth, but tears and screams were coming out. I called Micah in tears because I couldn't get it out by myself, and I couldn't leave my watch because I didn't want it to run into any other part of the house. He told me he had a meeting, but he did come home to save me. He wasn't too happy about having to come home, but I was very appreciative. I don't know what I would have done otherwise. He advised me when we spoke on the phone before the rat came in to just leave the cat and rat alone......and I should have listened to him. I will be calling the HOA today about our rat problem. YUCK!

We enjoyed Labor day by going to the Children's Museum, and then a BBQ at a friends home that evening. They opened a new Children's Museum this past February, but we hadn't made it over to see it yet. Micah had gone on an 80 mile bike ride that morning and still came with us. I was so grateful for his help considering it was very busy that day.

The new Museum was so much fun. This tornado tunnel was one of our favorites from the old Museum they brought to the new one. Aliza was brave and even did it by herself.

They had a very large art area that kept our girls attention for a long time.

Aliza especially loved the Grocery Store, Veterinarian station, and pretend Bank. They even had an ATM that you make your own code which then you use to put money in the bank and take it out.

This past week was the Iron Man Championships in Henderson. This is always a fun weekend because it brings in travelers from all over the world, and they run and bike right by our home. they start off swimming at Lake Las Vegas and make their way to our area. Micah and Aliza walked right outside the neighborhood to watch them and Aliza made them this sign. Micah was laughing because he didn't catch the misspelling until they got home. So cute!

I finally got my matching fridge I have been wanting. Our old fridge was giving us such grief. The fan kept going out which in turn would melt all the ice, then the ice would melt out the front of the fridge. We had to replace the front portion of our fridge once due to rust. We had them come fix it, but it just wasn't working well. The freezer was just building up ice because the fan would go out which then made the freezer door hard to shut because we couldn't keep up with it. Anyway, long story short don't ever buy an LG fridge. Micah convinced me to not do the ice and water in the front of the fridge which I thought would be a big deal for me to not have, but it's been fine. There is a water dispenser inside the fridge and it keeps the water so cold that I rarely get ice. This also keeps down on the water spots on the front of the fridge which is nice. Micah also convinced me to get the counter depth fridge which I was nervous about because it cuts down on so much space inside the fridge. We did put the old fridge out in our garage for now for extra space which is nice. Especially for the extra freezer space. So far I am loving this fridge and all our appliances match now. Yeah! We did order a silver cook top too, but they haven't installed it yet.  Slowly our kitchen has transformed. I love it!

Back to School 2013

Another year of school is here. The girls started back to school on Monday, August 26th. They will be starting their third week back in school this week, and everything has gone really well so far. Everyone is enjoying being back with their school friends, and the homework hasn't' been too terrible...yet.

We had our usual back to school dinner and Micah gave the girls each a beautiful blessing before starting the school year. We are so blessed to have the Priesthood in our home. I know those blessings really give each of them comfort when starting school can be such a stressful day.

I can't believe Abbie is in her second year of middle school. At the end of the school year last year her counselor pulled her aside and asked her if she would like to be in a Broadcast Journalism class. Abbie is very talented at writing, and this journalism teacher had hand picked 20 7th and 8th grade students to be in this class. Abbie has been loving this class which involves not only writing, but doing a morning broadcast each day for all of the students. It's kind of like a morning announcements, but on TV. They came up with the name "Mornings at Miller" broadcasting from "Studio B" (with having Bobcats as their mascot.) They officially start broadcasting this week, and Abbie is loving it. She is also doing well in all of her other classes and is really enjoying her school friends.

Aliza is really liking her teacher Mrs. Rose, but is still complaining that school is "way too long." I know after a few more weeks she will be adjusted to the longer time period. She has already adjusted to getting up earlier because on Saturday's she is now up at the crack of dawn. This little girls is very outgoing, and has so many friends. I really miss her hanging out with me most of the day, but I also know she is in good hands at school. It's nice at the elementary school because they let you request teachers. Over the past years I have gotten to know many of them. So, I did pick her teacher, and I love her sweet, kind personality. It's going to be a great year for Aliza.

This has been Avery's best year yet adjusting to a new school year. She is a big 5th grader at the school, and they have them rotating classes as if they are in middle school. So, she has five different teachers. I know most of them well with Abbie having them a few years back, and Avery is doing really well keeping her homework organized which is a hard adjustment rotating classes. She keeps saying that she is liking school, so it's going to be a great year for her too.

In fact these girls have done so well that Aliza and Avery bot got the "Student of the Week" award in their classes. We were so surprised that they both got it in the same week on the first week of school. Way to go girls!!!

Aliza's teacher wrote that she received the award for helping the other kids in her class especially those new to the school. Last week she said "my teacher always picks me to do EVERYTHING." I just had to laugh because that is a very good thing in my eyes. Aliza is a great leader and example!

Avery received this award for finishing her work quickly, and offering to help her teacher when her work was done. Considering the size of Avery's class I am very proud of her getting this award so quickly this year. She is a such and amazing kid!

Scipio

We were able to take a trip this Summer to visit my parents who moved a few months back. They were looking to move away from the city and found a beautiful home in the small town of Scipio. On our many trips to Salt Lake over the past few years I don't think we have ever even stopped for gas in this small town. 

Their home is beautiful and spacious. It's lovely just sitting out on their back patio in the evenings and enjoying the country air. We were able to get out my dads BB guns and shoot some pop cans. I have so many memories of shooting these guns with my dad. My parents owned a home in Redmond Utah when I was growing up. My dad grew up in the home, and we spent many weekends and Summer days there. I remember spending hours and hours shooting at pop cans. The girls did pretty good for their first time shooting.

Aliza needed me to help her shoot, so this is what she did while she waited. Silly girl!

We spent one day traveling to Richfield which is where my mom is from. I wanted to go see my grandparents old home which looked so awful compared to when my grandparents lived there. The new owners have old broken down cars where my grandpa used to have a beautiful, big garden. It was still fun to drive by, and my mom gave us a good tour of the cemetery where her family is buried. I have such wonderful memories of my grandparents that it was fun to visit for the day.

While at my parents we had my mom help us make a poodle skirt for Abbie. Abbie did a great job cutting out the pattern and sewing it all together. You will have to wait until Halloween to see the finished project.

We took a day trip to Provo for some back to school shopping and pedicures.

My parents own a golf cart that the girls love to drive around on. It works out perfect in this small town because they can just drive all over. They drive around on all back roads looking at the horses, barns, old cemeteries and whatever there is to see. After seeing all of these fun, old buildings I decided that we needed to do a impromptu photo shoot. Here are a few of my favorites......

St George Phillips Family Vacation

We are very blessed to have a wonderful family.  Each year we are able to take a vacation with the "Phillips" side of the family. This Summer we spent a week in St. George together, and it was so much fun.  Thank heavens for my sister in-law Emily who took pictures because my camera is broken. I stole a few pics from her to remember the trip.

We spent one day at Sand Hollow Reservoir.  It was a very HOT day, so being in the water was a must to keep cool. The kids enjoyed playing in the sand, jumping of cliffs, paddling around in paddle boats, and John brought real boat to take the kids out for wake boarding and rafting.

This picture below I love because we spread out all our stuff and camped out for the day. I love remembering what it looked like. The scenerey all around was so beautiful with the red sand and rocks. Great company and great food made for a wonderful day. 

One of the days we made the adventure out to Zions National Park. I have never been there, so we picked a trail with a water fall and water pools at the end. Yes, everyone complained about how hot it was, but I thought it was a fun adventure. We ate lunch at a quaint little restaurant, and rode busses to and from the hike. 

It turned out once we got there that you actually couldn't get in the pools of water at the end of the hike. It was a great disappointment considering it was so hot outside. There was a slight waterfall at the end to cool off a bit, but nothing big. I still thought it was a fun day. The kids enjoyed getting soaked inthe water.

Micah and his brothers, sister, and niece Tessa spent every morning either running or riding their bikes. We saw the movie "Turbo", and of course the women did a short shopping trip which was my personal favorite. I wish I would have taken a picture of some of the crazy clothing finds that kept us laughing and laughing. There was an organized race for the younger kids which is the picture below. Kennedy, Aliza, Brooklyn and Shad raced across the grass and back.

Next up were the bigger kids.........

A fun three legged race and a silly string fight were some of the highlights of the trip.

Micah's mom is really good about coming up with fun family things to do together. We were all asked as a family to come up with a skit with the theme of "Super". We were all given Superman shirts, and our girls were dead set on doing a skit they saw on a show called "Studio C." Basically we came in with our capes and then did a silly dance with musical recorders. All we asked Micah to do was manage the music and give us a grand finale with him running in with a cape on. He messed up on both, but oh well. We couldn't hear the music and he somehow missed his cue to come in at the end. I don't think he took it as seriously as his little girls did. Everyone else's skits were very fun and clever. It's always fun to just laugh and be silly together.

Most of our days were spent at the many pools the condo's had for us to swim in. I loved this picture below because we have quite the crowd when we all get together. I know my kids LOVE spending the whole week with their cousins. Those relationships are very special. It was another memorable year, and we can't wait until we can all be together again.