Carving Pumpkins 2013

This years pumpkin carving was so easy compared to years past because everyone could pretty much get the goop out and carve their pumpkin with little or no help. Man these kiddo's are growing up too fast. :(

Everyone got their creative juices flowing, or picked a stencil, and off to work they went.

Rosted pumpkin seeds are one of our all time favorite things to do after pumpkin carving. Yum!

 They did a great job!

Student Council

Avery ran for Student Council this past week. In one day we threw together this cute slogan, and made glow stick hand outs for her class. All the craziness was worth it because SHE WON!!! I'm so proud of her for trying out and for her willingness to serve her school. She will be one great leader!

We have been spending some time at the library because Abbie started meeting a tutor there a few times a week. The other girls and I just hang out for the hour and get homework done. This past Thursday Aliza was begging me to let her have a chapter book. I introduced her to good ol' "Junie B Jones" and she took off with it. I had to grab a pic because I can't believe this smarty pants is growing up so fast.

It's been good to have somewhere new to study. We actually have been getting a lot accomplished, so it's been great. Love these kiddos!

St. George Marathon

Micah ran the St. George Marathon for the second time last weekend. We met up with Micah's family on Friday evening, and Micah with three of his siblings and a niece all made it past the finish line Saturday morning. He did amazing especially considering he really didn't train much. Well, he already runs and bikes several times a week, but he never trained for the long distance. He ran the marathon in 3 hours and 26 minutes. This was one whole minute quicker that when he ran two years ago. Dan, David, Myndi and Tessa all made great time and looked great when they crossed the finish line.

This year they had a phone app that helped estimate when each of our runners would finish. It was a wonderful other than the fact that it didn't register Micah at the 13.1 mile marker so I thought we had more time than we did. When I realized he was going faster than I expected because the app skipped to the 20 mile marker we had to run to make sure and not miss him. The girls and I made it up to the street to cheer minutes before he ran past us. Whew! We cheered him on and then met up with the rest of the family to cheer everyone else on. I think they all did an amazing job.

Micah did walk funny for a few days afterward, but he is back to normal only four days later. His toes are very sensitive, and black and blue in spots, but those will heal quickly too.

I love this picture above with the photo bombers in the corner. Such cuties!

So fun to run with family. I loved sitting back and listening to them tease each other about their experiences together running. Micah is known for eating peanut M&M's along the course which they all laugh about. Especially because his other brothers are more particular about what they eat before and after the race. Tessa on the other hand, still being in High School, and running a marathon I think is amazing. What an awesome accomplishment at such a young age.

Aliza must have been taking pictures while we were trying to get in some Conference between activities. I had a few of these pictures of the TV screen on my phone that I thought were funny, but proves that we were trying to listen amongst everything else going on. All the men went to Priesthood session together which was neat because they haven't all been together for Priesthood in years. The women ordered pizza and watch the movie "Epic." My girls loved just running around with their cousins.

Sunday morning Emily and David fixed us a delicious breakfast, then we were headed home. We got home Sunday right before the second session of Conference was about to begin. I was thankful that we could sit and listen to the speakers and feel of the spirit before Conference weekend was over. Aliza and I worked on these cute pom pom crafts while listening. We had a wonderful weekend, and we can't wait until we can see everyone again.

Student of the Month

Not only was Aliza the first Student of the Week in her class, but she was also the first Student of the Month. We are so very proud of her, and she definitely has several teachers at the school loving her. I spend a fare amount of time at the school, and I'm always hearing good stories about this little girl. She is such a good student, and I love how she makes friends everywhere we go. 

Luckily since I am in charge of the Student of the Month luncheon's we had enough help that day that I could sit down and eat lunch with Liz. They had pizza, the assistant principal read them a book, they received a certificate, treats, and they took lots of pictures. It's was so fun celebrating with this little cutie.

Yard Sale/Century Ride

Kari Woodward in our ward put on a huge yard sale for a friend of hers who is very ill with breast cancer. It was not only nice for us to clean out our garage and rooms to donate, but it was a lovely event to attend. The family getting all the proceeds have two small children, and a lot of medical bills. It was so impressive how many people chipped in to help raise money for this family.

There were several people who gave of there time that day. Above is a man who made balloon animals all morning. Aliza was thrilled when he made her an Ariel balloon. Avery got a really cute blue Pluto that was huge. Abbie was also able to help out with the YW in our ward face painting, selling baked goods, and holding signs out on the street to attract people.

We literally ran from this event to get flu shots, and then over to a Walgreens parking lot to cheer on Micah and Kyle on their century bike ride. I was using an app on my phone trying to track where Micah was on the bike course, but the app would stop working every once in awhile. I was so worried we would miss them, but thankfully we didn't.

We made a few signs to help cheer them on. The Sondrup's were so nice to drop by and cheer them on too. Apparently, Micah was not having much luck with tires because he had three flat tires on this ride.

We had fun giving them high fives as they were passing through. They started their 100 mile ride at Town Square, went up and around Red Rock canyon, out to Lake Las Vegas and back to Town Square. These organized bike rides can be a lot of fun. Biking is definitely one of Micah's favorite things to do these days.

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!