Millie's Family

Christmas # 3, 4, 5 and 6

2010-05-05T20:21:00.007-05:00

Christmas #3 was spent with Aunt Jane and Uncle Ron during the afternoon on Christmas Eve. We had a nice time visiting and eating a light lunch. The kids got to each open a few gifts. Later that evening we traveled to Holmdel, NJ to visit Uncle Tom and Aunt Kathy for Christmas #4. Millie and Josie enjoyed making a gumdrop tree and decorating a Gingerbread house before opening some gifts. Millie's favorite gift was a ladybug that lights up her whole room with the moon and stars. She uses it every night and loves it. On actual Christmas Day we celebrated #5 with Millie's Gram Crackers, Pop, Uncle Jim, Aunt Sheryl, cousins Jimmy and Josie, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Matt. We opened gifts for a while and then had breakfast. A few hours later we finished opening gifts and played with the kids and their toys and had a nice Christmas dinner. It was nice to stay home all day and relax. Millie got a doll Kaitlyn. She had asked Santa for her and he delivered! Christmas #6 was two days later up in Connecticut with the Dunwoody family. Millie loved playing with Annalise and Josie and singing Karaoke into a real microphone with Josie.

Trying to get a cute picture of Millie and Josie
the night we arrived. Pop jumped into the photo!

The second attempt. Just lots of silliness.

The stocking we all hung with lots of care. Mom got to
see all of her hard work in one spot!
All the stockings together for the first time.
Now she just needs to make one for herself and Dad.

All dressed up on Christmas Eve.

Millie and Josie holding hands again. They held hand almost the entire trip.

Opening a gift from Aunt Sarah.

Mama got a new coat!

Dad singing Karaoke. I was shocked and had to get a picture!

Millie with Annalise and Josie.

Singing Karaoke at Dunwoody Christmas.

Christmas # 1 and #2

2010-05-05T19:59:00.004-05:00

We began our Christmas celebration this year with Millie's grandfather Pon Pon down in Byesville, Ohio. We had some family photos taken of everyone, exchanged gifts and Becky prepared a fantastic meal. It was really nice to all be together. Our second Christmas celebration was later that day in Barnesville, Ohio with all of the Carpenter family. Millie enjoyed playing with all the cousins big and small. She loved the dress up clothes she got as a gift. Millie was not afraid to join in on the wrestling and played with some magnet dress up dolls with Abby and Cali. She really enjoyed herself and we enjoyed getting to catch up with everyone.

Swim Lessons

2010-05-05T19:52:00.003-05:00

Millie took swim lessons again in October and November for six weeks. She really enjoyed it and this was the last time that Mama would have to get in the water with Millie for her lessons. Millie graduated from the parent assisted class to the beginner independent class. This makes Mama very happy! Millie can float on her back with assistance for a long time now and also she can go underwater and bob up and down without holding her nose. She loves to swim underwater and the instructors try to keep Millie on top of the water instead of completely under water. She sometimes jumps into the water from the edge of the pool. Occasionally she is too scared to do it. Here are some photos of our little fishy.

Wearing her goggles.

Taking a break.

Getting in the water.

Halloween

2010-03-13T19:25:00.004-05:00

This year Millie had a blast at Halloween. Millie was two different fairies. For school she dressed up in a Tinkerbell fairy costume that she has had for a while. She looked really cute. I went to the party at school. She got to parade around the school and watch all the other kids K-4 march in the parade. After that she got to play games, do a craft and have a special snack. In the evening I took her to the next town north Hudson. She got to go trick-or-treat at the local businesses. It was a little crazy with LOTS of people, but she enjoyed herself immensely. She was the only kid to stop and talk with each person that gave her a treat. She was very interested in talking to each of them. The next day we took a trip to visit Uncle Jim, Aunt Sheryl and cousins Jimmy and Josie in Chicago. We carved pumpkins and did trick-or-treat the next day on actual Halloween day. Aunt Sheryl made Millie a beautiful Rosetta fairy costume and her cousin Josie had a matching Tinkerbell costume. Aunt Sheryl was "mother nature" and Millie LOVED it. She had a blast. We all had to wear coats outside. It was pretty chilly, but we all had a great time.

Dussel Farm

2010-03-13T06:42:00.004-05:00

In October we went down to Brimfield to Dussel Farm for some pumpkin picking. They had a lot for little kids to do there. Millie especially enjoyed the kid's "corn" maze. It was not made of corn though, but she really enjoyed all the blow up characters and trying to find her way out. They also had a full size bus filled with all sort of very scary Halloween ghosts and goblins. It didn't seem to phase Millie. I don't think she understood that they were supposed to be scary. We went on and off quickly because I don't like any of the "scary" of Halloween and just enjoy the harvest of the fall. We will skip the bus next year. We bought some local honey in addition to the pumpkin we let Millie choose. She really enjoyed it.

Fun at Maize Valley

2010-03-03T15:28:00.004-05:00

Also in the middle of October we went to the Church Family Retreat followed by some fun at Maize Vally Farm. At the retreat Millie and I got to take a paddle boat ride and watch some friends do the climbing wall and zip line. I had to convince Millie that she should wait until next year to try the climbing wall. So, at Maize Valley there were lots of activities for her to enjoy. Here are just a couple of pictures of some fun things we did. Millie loved climbing on the super huge towers of hay, taking a kids tractor ride, racing ducks, watching pumpkins being shot out of a cannon, pig races and a hay ride. We followed up this fun with a meal at the Hartville Kitchen with some friends.

Our First Fall Hiking Spree

2010-03-03T15:06:00.003-05:00

This fall Millie and I completed our first Fall Hiking Spree. Shannon hiked with us on a couple of occasions. We had a lot of fun and great exercise. Millie has recently become really interested in birds, so it will be even more fun come the Spring to hike. We completed eight walks between September and November. Most weeks we walked after church on Sunday's with a big group of friends or week night evenings with a smaller group of friends. We are hooked and will definitely continue with many more hiking spree's in the future.

Papa came this week for a 1.8 mile walk on a

Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day.

Hiking this night with Jonah, Nene and Alli (not pictured.)

A Visit to Pon's Pon's House

2010-03-03T14:36:00.006-05:00

Early in October we went down to Byesville, OH to visit Shannon's dad (Pon Pon) for a weekend. Pon Pon likes to take Millie fishing down at his pond. Millie loved the worms Pon Pon bought. She kept picking up the worms and then throwing them into the pond. We would yell "NO!" She kept on doing it. She thought it was so much fun. Mama helped Millie catch only one fish this time. Millie got too cold standing on the dock and wanted to explore. Shannon followed Millie around the pond's edge for about 5 minutes until she ended up IN the water and had to go inside and change. On our visit we also got to see Grandpa Harry's new purchase, and old Ford. We got to go sit in it. It was really fun. Millie also got to take a ride in the John Deer tractor with Pon Pon.

Standing in front of the Bruner Land Co.
sign where Papa and Pon Pon work.

Beckwith's Orchard

2010-03-03T14:23:00.003-05:00

This year Millie's class went to Beckwith's Orchard again with all the preschool classes. Unfortunately, it poured down rain the entire time! We had to stay inside and learn all about the orchard. Lucky for us, we went last year so we already knew a lot about the orchard. Millie volunteered to be the first one to pull the rope to ring the bell. This was a great field trip for Millie because she could eat the apples just like all the other kids. We learned how they pick, sort and wash the apples and lots more. Millie also volunteered to be a tree during a demonstration and decided she wanted to be a "granny smith apple tree." She also loved getting to wear her rain-gear!

Aviation Heritage Fair

2010-03-03T14:04:00.004-05:00

On September 12, 2009 I took Millie to Kent's Annual Aviation Fair. I had seen it advertised for the past two years and thought maybe Millie would enjoy it. We had fun seeing lots of different things. Millie really enjoyed going inside the old plane from WWII. She went in by herself and never wanted to come out. She enjoyed sitting on the seats inside. Millie liked getting to touch some of the planes and once she was allowed to sit in a few of the helicopter's/planes then she wanted to sit in them all. We will go back next year for sure!

2009-09-15T16:02:00.003-05:00

August 27th Millie had her first day of school this year. It was a gray rainy day all morning but it started to clear up by the time we went outside. Millie started the year riding the bus to and from school but now I drive her to school and she rides the bus home. It gives her 45 minutes more at home if I drive her. She has a really great teacher this year. She tells me a lot more about her day this year. Yesterday it was her turn to be the helper of the day. She got to be the "line leader." She had been waiting for 3 weeks for it to be her turn. All the papers coming home from school have Millie's name written on them in her handwriting this year. This is new and fun too. Here are some photos!

Horse Show

2009-09-15T12:42:00.006-05:00

Millie was involved in the annual Ronald McDonald House Charities Horse Show at Pegasus Farm at the end of August. She got to ride in three events. Games course, barrel and boot lace. She got a t-shirt and had to wear a number and was judged in each event by real judges. She had a great time riding and really enjoyed the award ceremony where she received two third place ribbons and an eighth place ribbon. She waited patiently for over 20 minutes while other kids received their ribbons. When they called her name and she went up to get her first ribbon she said, "It's my turn now to get my ribbons." Everyone there heard her. It was too cute! We are so proud of her! She is really improving. She can sit up very tall on her pony now and has much better balance. At first she used to fall over to one side quite a bit. She holds her reigns very well now and tells her pony to "walk on, whoa and trot." She has ridden four ponies to date. Stormy, Cocoa, Miss Molly and now Shazam.

Geneva State Park

2009-09-15T12:11:00.003-05:00

On August 1st we spent the day at the beach at Geneva State Park with our friends Kari, Madison and Morgan. It was a very relaxing day. Millie spent the majority of the time swimming with Mama and Madison in the Lake while Morgan played in the sand. Papa helped Millie fly a kite (but it was not as much fun as swimming.) We went on a walk on the beach to the rocks in the first picture and Millie and Morgan had lots of fun collecting bird feathers, rocks and anything else that looked interesting in the sand.

S.O.A.R. Playground

2009-09-01T08:44:00.011-05:00

Millie loves to go to the S.O.A.R. playground. There is really a great variety of things to do there besides just wings and slides. They have many musical things to play and different things to climb/stand/jump on. "Turning slides" are her favorite. On this day we went with our friends Josh, Jeanine and Jonah and there was a hot air balloon preparing to take off. It was fun to watch it get ready. There are four videos followed by some pictures below.

Fishing with Pon Pon

2009-09-01T08:25:00.004-05:00

The second weekend in July we spent the night at Pon Pon's house. Early on Sunday morning before church Millie went fishing with Pon Pon in his pond. Millie caught her first Blue Gill and Mama caught a Bass. Millie loved to touch her fish and look at it in the bucket after she caught it. I think she will want to fish again when we go down. She seemed to be really interested. Here are a few pictures.

Fourth of July

2009-09-01T08:17:00.004-05:00

Here are a couple of pictures from the 4th this year. We went to the parade in Stow in the morning. We had a nice time.

VBS 2009

2009-06-29T18:01:00.004-05:00

Here are a couple of pictures from the last day of VBS this year.

Millie and Jade during recreation.

Chalk Time

Bubbles

Singing songs at the program on Thursday night.

Making a telescope craft. The theme was pirates this year.

Zoo Trip #3

2009-06-29T17:42:00.002-05:00

Back to the Akron Zoo again. Millie and I had an afternoon with no therapies so we headed out to the zoo for a couple of hours one afternoon. Millie did an awesome job walking. We were there for about 1 hour and 45 minutes and she walked all of it but 5 minutes. We saw just about everything in the whole zoo. She seemed to enjoy the black bears, tigers, lions, red panda, bald eagles, jellies and tortoises the most. We went through the jellies exhibit twice. It was a big hit. She overheard an older boy talking about the playground and then she was on a mission to "go to the playground." She also took a ride on the train and sat in the red car. Red is still her favorite color. Next time she wants to sit in the green engine. Here are a few pictures.

Hudson Springs Park

2009-06-24T13:29:00.006-05:00

We took Millie to the park on a Friday night after dinner and she had a blast. She really loved swinging this time. Shannon was pushing her really high and she thought it was great. She probably spent close to half an hour swinging. We need to teach her to pump her legs now. Here are some videos and photos.

Sunflowers, Worms and the Sprinkler

2009-06-12T15:33:00.003-05:00

About a month ago, Millie and I planted some sunflower seeds. They are now doing really well and were ready to be planted today. When I told Millie we could take the sunflowers out of the cups and go plant them in the ground she was so excited and started talking about "planting a garden." As soon as I showed Millie the worms she lost interest in "her garden" and I ended up planting all the sunflowers myself. She kept wanting me to get more worms and then she was naming each of them. It was too cute. After we were done playing with the worms we turned the sprinkler on to water the grass we are trying to grow. Millie went right up to the sprinkler to check it out. Only seconds later she was soaked. She kept wanting to go back for more. The fact that the water was freezing and that it was only in the low 70's outside did not matter to her one bit. She loved it. I will have to remember to turn on the sprinkler a bit more this summer because it was a MAJOR hit!

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Broccoli = Garbage

2009-06-10T17:58:00.003-05:00

Tonight I chopped up some broccoli and had it on Millie's plate for dinner. She didn't want to try it at first, but I got her to swallow a bite. Later, after eating a few other things I covered the broccoli in tomato sauce and tricked her into eating two more bites. I tried for a fourth bite and then she noticed and said, "I want the broccoli in the garbage." This is great language for her. I was so happy she expressed what she wanted. Usually what happens when she does not want to drink something is she spills it so she does not have any left in her cup and she gets out of drinking it (even having to clean the spill does not deter her.)

Millie is doing a great job writing her name and a bunch of new letters this week. She is really interested in reading, spelling and writing now.

Millie finished school yesterday and they had a picnic at the park for her last day. They made some shirts in class with their name and a stamp of a frog (the teachers favorite.) Here are a few pictures.

Horse Rding at Pegasus

2009-06-07T16:07:00.003-05:00

Millie continues to love her horse riding lessons at Pegasus Farm. Here are a few pictures of her in action at the outdoor arena on Friday. She loves to make Shannon and I pretend to be a horse at home and she tells us what to do... "walk on, whoa, trot, etc." She talks about what she does to mount the horse often. It is fun. The white horse that Millie rides is named Miss Molly. She has been riding her all winter. There are two other girls and two other boys in her class. Millie is the youngest one. I couldn't get any good pictures of Millie looking at the camera and smiling because I took these photos during class from a little distance and zoomed in.

Memorial Day

2009-06-07T15:24:00.006-05:00

We went down to visit Pon Pon & Becky for Memorial Day. We had a quick BBQ followed by four hours on Salt Fork Lake. We took out a great boat that fit all 20 of us. Millie enjoyed helping Jim drive the boat, swimming and watching all her cousins go tubing. Then she said, "I want to take a turn." So Shannon took her tubing and they had a good time. Here is a video and 2 pictures.

Video of Millie and Papa tubing

Zoo Trip #2

2009-06-07T14:11:00.005-05:00

Our second Zoo trip was to the Cleveland Zoo. We had a blast! We did just about everything at the zoo that we had never done before. We started with the new Dinosaurs exhibit. It was really nice. The dinosaurs moved and had sound effects. Millie enjoyed looking at them. The T-Rex was a bit scary. We went to see a bunch of butterflies and also another indoor exhibit with birds. You could feed the birds some nectar. They were everywhere. They would come right up to you and Millie could see them really well. Of course, we got a picture of Millie in front of the baby giraffe, since we take a photo there every visit. Then Millie took a ride on a camel and LOVED it! She was smiling the biggest smile ever! She also went down the large slide they have there. She was too scared to do it last year, but wanted to try this year. Finally, after some hippos, donkey's, koala bears and more we ended our day with another first with a ride on the train to see the kangaroos. Millie has been playing a game at home with me for the past month. She pretends that she is a baby joey and that I am the Mama Kangaroo. So she really enjoyed seeing live kangaroos.

Touch a Truck

2009-06-07T13:55:00.004-05:00

A few weekends ago we took Millie to the library for a free event called "Touch a Truck." They had a cement truck, a huge semi UPS truck, fire engines, postal truck, tow truck, ambulance, police car and more. You could sit in all of the trucks and honk the horns and run around in some of them. They gave out some gifts too. Millie got a hat from the fire department. I enjoyed the ambulance the most. Here are a few pictures.

Soccer

2009-05-19T18:17:00.003-05:00

On Saturday we took Millie to her first organized sport soccer. Listening to directions with 20 other kids and balls moving everywhere was a challenge but she had a wonderful time. She did well dribbling the ball, but lost interest when there was only 1 ball and everyone had to chase it during the "game." Overall, she had a blast and that is all that matters. I didn't tell her ahead of time that she would have shin guards and the large socks to wear. She kept touching her legs at the beginning. I bet it felt really strange to have the shin guards on. She eventually got used to it. She wanted to go near the goal the second half of the practice, so we let her pose by the goal before we left. She liked that.

Beer and Mud

2009-05-13T19:03:00.003-05:00

Millie has been saying the funniest things lately.

Tonight at dinner she saw Shannon drinking iced tea and she blurted out, "I want to drink beer!" On occasion Shannon will have a beer with dinner and we have told her what he is drinking. So, then we had to tell her that she could not drink beer until she is 21 years old and that it is not for kids to drink.

Millie got a scrape on her knee a number of days ago and it is starting to heal now. I made a comment to Millie tonight that her knee was healing. I told her that is the name when her boo boo is getting better. Then she says, "I want to put mud on it." Well, about 18 months ago Millie had a lesson in bible class about the blind man that Jesus healed by putting mud on his eyes. So, she wanted mud on her knee.

Just a few of the funny things that she says in a day. :)

Timeout and a Tutu

2009-05-11T18:39:00.006-05:00

This past week when Millie was at ABA therapy with Ms. Kim, she got her first timeout there. Millie did not like it. Her exact words were, "“I wish my mommy was coming to Miss Kim’s house right now.” She also said, "I made a wish." This is amazing language for her. We didn't know that she really knew what a wish was.

We just discovered that Millie can read numbers "one to nineteen" and most of the color words, "red, green, yellow, etc." She seems pretty ready now, so we will be introducing a few more words. I have already been teaching her a couple of words when we are reading stories at night. So far she knows "to, said, and, the," and a couple others.

I have been on an exercise kick the past two weeks. I took Millie out in her wagon one night last week to take a walk after dinner. Now she is asking me every night to go for a wagon ride. Tonight she started asking before dinner. The past two nights she has sang the entire way. She sings her "Little Red Wagon" song from school every time for sure. Tonight she was making up funny lyrics to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell." Instead, she sang, "The stick picks the berry." and whatever else she saw along the way.

Thank you to Gram Crackers for the awesome princess PJ's that are featured in the picture above. Of course, Millie loves them. We will see if she wants to sleep with the skirt on or not tonight!

Zoo Trip #1

2009-05-03T16:04:00.004-05:00

Well the warm weather is finally here and that means just one thing for Millie. The zoo is open. This year we decided to just get a zoo pass. Millie visited 3 zoo's last summer. I am planning to take her to the Pittsburgh Zoo and hopefully the Columbus Zoo this summer along with many trips to the Akron and Cleveland Zoos. We may even get back to the Philadelphia Zoo again like last summer. On this day we just had a quick trip to the Akron Zoo. It is super close to home. The display of jellyfish are really neat. Millie got to see the Snow Leopard up really close. She has been remembering it and mentioning to me over the past two weeks. More Zoo posts to come!

Snow Leopard

Smiles with Papa

The cool jellyfish

Gotta sit on that big tree stump

Pink. That's the appeal. They smell really bad, but Millie doesn't notice.

Easter Morning

2009-05-03T15:08:00.005-05:00

On Easter morning Millie had to search for all the eggs we colored the day before because that silly Easter bunny had hidden them all along with her basket. She had some fun finding all the eggs, but an even better time opening the plastic eggs in her basket. Since Millie is on a gluten free, casein free and sugar free diet, Easter candy was out. She got a bunch of little animal shaped erasers in her plastic eggs. She enjoyed opening each of them and telling us what was inside. At church she got even more eggs in Bible class. "Resurrection eggs" with 12 different things surrounding the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. She really liked those eggs as well. After church we headed down to visit Pon Pon for the afternoon.

Easter Preparations

2009-05-03T14:39:00.003-05:00

Millie had lots of fun with preparing for Easter this year. She made some great Easter cards and helped color eggs. She did all the cutting and drawing for the cards all by herself. She liked dunking the eggs and talking about needing to add more vinegar. Here are a few pictures of all of our creations. Millie had a blast!

Easter Bunny Visit

2009-05-03T14:29:00.005-05:00

We went to the mall for a visit with the Easter Bunny. There are no pictures of Millie with the Easter Bunny though because they won't let you take any, but want you to buy theirs for $25 or more. So these are some pictures of Millie at a little play area in the food court. Millie loves to go to the mall. She has all of her favorite things to do. #1 is ALWAYS to visit the pet store followed by #2 A ride on the carousel. #3 Visit the bookstore and #4 Visit the toy store. #5 Playing on the bumblebee at the play area. This day we added a visit with the Easter Bunny. Total fun cost $1 for the carousel. We love it, and so does Millie!

Gram Crackers Turns 60

2009-05-03T14:09:00.006-05:00

The end of March we headed out east to Gram Crackers and Pop's house for a surprise 60th Birthday party for my mom. I got to see my childhood best friend Jessica and her daughter Cassandra. We stayed the night with them to keep the surprise. The party was a success. Mom was certainly surprised. Millie loved the airplane rides. She didn't even mind the 1.5 hour delay on the way home. (Probably because I had plenty of snacks and books. Two of her favorite things.) It seems like almost every time we go to visit we end up eating brunch at the Cock n Bull Restaurant where Shannon and I had our wedding reception. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Surprise!!

We got her!

Papa and Millie

Lighting the Big cake.
(I should say icing. There was 30% cake and 70% icing
on that thing! No one was able to eat their entire piece.)

The whole gang. Matt, Jim Dad, Mom, myself and Sarah.

Jessica and Cassandra with us. Cousin Annalise got in the picture too.

Spot where Shannon & I had some of our wedding photos taken.
Decided to get another shot there with Millie this time!

Cousins having fun together.

Holding hands. So cute.

21 of us eating brunch the next morning.

Learning to Ride

2009-03-27T05:40:00.004-05:00

Millie is finally learning to ride her bicycle without me having to push her. She adores her new bike helmet. It has princesses on it of course! Inclines are still a major challenge but riding on flat surfaces has shown great improvement from last summer. Her current bike is pretty small, we are going to have to think about a larger one soon. She keeps growing so fast! Here are a few pictures and a short video.

Jeptober

2009-03-22T14:23:00.002-05:00

That's right... Jeptober. Millie has been asking me the months a lot this week. She really wants to know every single one. The fascination started because Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and they really celebrated it at school. She made a super cool shamrock neclace and brought home a black plastic pot with pieces of "gold" inside. This was super cool for her. Then she wanted to talk about what the next holiday was and what month it was in. This started the interest in knowing the names of all the months. She has January through May down really well, but wanted me to show her the calendar this afternoon. I showed it to her and she wanted to go through all the months. On the second time through she was trying to remember the sixth month. She knew it started with the letter J and she got confused with September and October. So the result was Jeptober. We thought it was really cute!

Finally an Update

2009-03-17T18:15:00.004-05:00

I know, it has been 2 months since the last post. We have been super busy and never even posted about Millie's birthday party. Millie had a great party at home with a bunch of friends, Auntie Sarah and both sets of grandparents. She was so excited for the games. She wanted to play pin-the-tail on the donkey, hot potato and London Bridge. She talked about the games for a good month before hand. It was a great day. She even got to eat cake. We ordered a special banana cake made from Almond flour. She was happy. The photo above is from this past weekend. It's her 4 year old picture.

Millie's current interests include #1 Care Bears #2 Strawberry Shortcake dolls #3 My Little Ponies #4 Dollhouse #5 Playing vet or doctor with animals or babies. The weather was beautiful today and Millie got to ride her bicycle. She did a great job. Last summer she could not peddle at all. Now she is doing it all except on inclines. She has come a long way. Today she came home from school with a shamrock necklace that she laced and a little pot filled with plastic gold coins. She thought this was cool. She is very interested in talking about the days of the week. She has recently started asking the names of the different months and the holidays that fall in each month. You can just see her little mind trying to memorize it all like she does with everything. At ABA therapy last week Millie was getting ready to practice writing her name and she started to write the word animal all by herself. She wrote ANMNL. We were impressed.

Hopefully it won't be another 2 months before the next update!

First Time Sledding

2009-01-17T17:05:00.005-05:00

Last Sunday afternoon I took Millie sledding for the first time. She really liked it a lot! We went with our friends Kari and Madison. Millie ended up with quite a bit of snow in her face and snow between her coat and mittens but she didn't seem to mind. She kept wanting to go again and again. I was even brave enough to let her go alone with Madison. But then I had to run down the hill after them so I could help walk (or should I say pull) Millie back to the top of the hill again. This was the hardest part. Getting not only myself, but a heavy Millie in all her layers back up the hill. It would be nice to go again. Maybe when the temperatures reach 30 degrees.

Snow, Snow & more Snow

2009-01-17T16:35:00.004-05:00

We have TONS of snow outside. It was a good thing we went out and had some fun in it right away because the temps have been -7 plus nasty windchill's in the - teens for days now. I can't believe that 30 degrees is sounding really warm about now. Millie loves to talk about what we have done outside in the snow. 1- Had a snowball fight with Papa. 2- Made snow angels 3- Made a snowman (it was super pathetic. See photo below) 4- Went sledding with Madison and Kari. She enjoys the snow immensely.

Heading to the backyard to go down her slide. She loved that!

Can't quite remember to get on her back to make snow angels.
We even practiced on the carpet before heading out in the snow.

This snow man is only a foot high. He is actually in our planter.
His eyes and nose are berries from our holly bush.

Christmas Videos on You Tube

2009-01-17T07:18:00.005-05:00

This is dinner on Christmas Eve. Millie was so excited to go and see the lights that evening and finally Christmas was less than 24 hours away, she was tuckered out. She fell asleep after only a few bites.

In our last post it took hours and hours to download the video so I am going back to my You Tube account to add a few more videos from Christmas. Click on this link to view: http://www.youtube.com/user/suezq812

Super Belated Christmas

2009-01-15T13:58:00.007-05:00

Christmas with Millie was a blast this year. She enjoyed all the activities. She helped put many ornaments on the tree (they all ended up in the same spot right in the front, but it was so cute!) She got to visit with Santa twice. Once at the mall and once at the Pegasus Farm Christmas party. She talked more to the Santa at the mall. There were too many people watching at the party. We went to see lots of lights on Christmas Eve. She really enjoyed that a lot. We will be doing that every year. She loved making ornaments so much. I think Millie added to the ornament collection at least 15-20 ornaments herself. She seemed to make an ornament everywhere she went. We made a ton at home. She was still asking to make ornaments 4 days after Christmas, so this motivated me to get the tree down. I didn't want to make any more ornaments. Millie had a great time dressing up in all her new costumes on Christmas morning. She took hours to open her gifts. After unwrapping each one she wanted us to take the toy out of the packaging and play with it for a while. This was lots of fun. She learned a bunch of new songs this season too. Frosty the Snowman,(by far her favorite. She got to stay up late one night and watch the Frosty special on T.V.) Rudolph, Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger.

Video singing Away in a Manger.

Checking out the stockings.

What's inside?

Opening some gifts.

The new Barbie dolls, including a mermaid Barbie
for the bath from Aunt Jane and Uncle Ron.

A cheerleader, fairy, princess with heels.
She wanted to try it all on at once.

Cinderella. Her favorite princess.

The new dollhouse. Totally Awesome!

Playing with the dollhouse as soon as she spotted it!

Leaf Cleanup

2008-11-25T11:19:00.003-05:00

We spent an afternoon raking all our the fallen leaves on the 15th. It was a good thing because 3 days later it began snowing and we have not seen the grass since then. Millie was a big fan of playing in the big piles of leaves. She has gotten over it quickly with the arrival of the snow. She seems to say daily that she wants to go outside and make a snowman. It does not help that we have been reading a few stories from the library about snow, winter, snowmen, Christmas etc.

Horseback Riding at Pegasus Farm

2008-11-10T11:01:00.005-05:00

Every Friday morning Millie goes for therapeutic horse back riding lessons at Pegasus Farm. This past week the weather was beautiful so the class headed outside for their lesson. I was able to get some pictures. This day Millie is riding a pony named "Cocoa" because the pony she usually rides, "Stormy" was in pony boot camp. Apparently he has been having a difficult time listening and following directions. Millie really loves it. There is always someone leading her horse and an another person side walking next to Millie. There are five children in her class. Millie is the youngest.

Halloween

2008-11-10T10:51:00.003-05:00

This was by far the best Halloween yet! Millie was really old enough to "get it" this year. She dressed up as an animal doctor. She went trick-or-treating with her friend Jade like last year. She did a terrific job saying "trick-or-treat" at every house. One house was offering chips or candy. When Millie was asked which one she wanted, an immediate "CANDY" was shouted. It was really funny. Millie held her pumpkin almost the whole time. After one large block Millie announced that she was "all done trick-or-treating" so we headed home. She talked about wanting to go again for the next 2 days. I had to tell her that next was Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Carving

2008-11-10T10:39:00.002-05:00

Millie was excited to help me carve the pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern this year. She told me to give it a square nose. We took it into the dark bathroom to light it up for Millie to see and she wanted to stay and play with it forever. After 25 minutes I finally told her we would light it up at night when it got dark. She was super excited. She turned out the lights and had a flashlight in her hand the whole time. Then we sang the "5 Little Pumpkins" song about 5 times in a row. She could not get enough! The next morning the first thing she told me to do was "light it up." This was at 5:45am.

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Brandywine Falls

2008-10-29T13:44:00.004-05:00

On October 18th we headed out to Brandywine Falls to take a hike, see the waterfall and get some fall photos with the beautiful leaves. We went with our friends John, Cinnamon and Millie's buddy Jade. It was a beautiful day out, just a bit chilly, but the colors of the leaves and the waterfall were great. We will definitely have to go back again next year. We found a nice little secluded trail to walk down. The views were terrific.

Camp Y Noah & Maize Valley

2008-10-29T13:21:00.005-05:00

On October 11th we spent the day at Camp Y Noah for our church family retreat. We had lots of fun spending time with friends. Millie got to ride a horse named "Junior." She saw some pigs and goats and played lots of soccer. She enjoy kicking the ball into the soccer nets. She sang some songs for Mr. Mark, Ms. Jill, Ms. Dawn and Sean. She really had fun hanging out with her friend Jade. They had a blast talking a long walk and playing with leaves, sticks, etc. After the retreat we all headed over to Maize Valley Farm to take a hay ride, pick pumpkins, watch a pumpkin cannon and more.

Pumpkins through the Years

2008-10-13T19:05:00.004-05:00

It is so fun to look at how Millie has grown in the past 3 1/2 years. I have posted pictures of picking pumpkins from every year of Millie's life. The first year she was just learning to stand up. The second year she just wanted to run...run...and run some more. Last year she was interested in the pumpkins a bit more and wanted to touch every single pumpkin. This year she talked non-stop about the sizes of the pumpkins and the number of pumpkins. Actually she didn't stop talking the whole time. She picked up a pretty big one too, that was really funny to watch her try to juggle it. She noticed a rotting pumpkin too and wanted to touch it. It is amazing to see how much she has changed in these pictures, to see how little hair she had that first year.

8 months old.

20 months old.

32 months old.

This past Saturday. 44 months old.

A Budding Artist?

2008-10-05T15:27:00.004-05:00

Millie has a love for painting! When she gets a brush in her hand she doesn't want to stop! Last night after dinner I let her paint for 30 minutes. She would have continued for at least another 30 minutes more I'm sure. She always used to love finger painting. But because of the giant mess it would make I did not encourage it too often. For a time should would ask to finger paint two or three times a day. Now she gets to finger paint weekly at school so I know she is getting to do it often. The past few weeks she is always asking to paint with a brush and paints. Gram Crackers got her a book and paints with Mickey Mouse and friends to paint. She used up all the paint in her first 2 times we did it. So I bought her some more crayola paints to continue painting the pictures. She is loving it! I think she has used up 3/4 of the crayola paint now so we will probably be needing more paint again soon. Here are two pictures and a video of her hard at work!

Beckwith's Apple Orchard

2008-10-05T14:10:00.003-05:00

Millie's class went to an apple orchard for a tour on Friday. She learned how they pick the apples and sort them. They walked through the orchard and a corn maze. We learned all about the different animals that try to hurt the apple trees and how they try to prevent it. We learned all about the family that runs the orchard and their history and a lots of other things about the apple picking business.

She is Ready for the Cold

2008-10-05T14:03:00.004-05:00

Millie got a new hat and mittens for the upcoming cold weather on Thursday. This is the first year that she has not put up a fight to wear them so we thought we would get a few pictures. We thought she looked adorable and just wanted to share a few smiles. Of course everything is pink. We are still in a pink phase. I wonder how long it is going to last?

Pumpkin Festival Time

2008-10-05T12:23:00.007-05:00

Yes, it is that time of year again already. The annual trip to the Barnesville Pumpkin Festival. The winning pumpkin was 1,175 pounds! This year we tried something different. We did all of our walking around the festival during the parade. It ended up being a great idea. We didn't have to fight lines of people around every corner and could see twice as many pumpkins in half the time. Millie loved seeing the really large pumpkins. She was impressed. She got to go on a train ride and a mini Ferris wheel too. Lastly there is a video of Millie on the ride home. Becky bought her some Care Bears on Saturday morning. She has played with them all for a week straight now. They all needed to sit on her lap the whole way home last weekend. It was super cute!

Pegasus Fram

2008-10-05T12:12:00.002-05:00

Millie has been taking horseback riding lessons at Pegasus Farm thanks to a grant from The Arc of Summit and Portage Counties. She really loves it. We constantly hear her talking about her horse "Stormy" that she rides every week and the other horses too. These are pictures from two weeks ago after she got her boots and riding helmet on. We had to wait a little bit this day before riding so Millie got to play on the playground. She looked so silly playing with the big helmet on her head, but she did not mind. She just had fun!

She Loves to Cook!

2008-10-05T12:06:00.004-05:00

Millie loves to help me cook! Every week she helps me cook a couple of days. In these pictures she was helping me mix the batter and put the little muffin liners in the pan. She always helps me crack the eggs when I make scrambled eggs. She also always helps me make pancakes every week. She is very aware when I do ANYTHING in the kitchen now and she will talk about what I am doing the entire time. It is fun to have a little helper. Whenever Millie wants to help she goes and gets her little stool. Then I know she REALLY wants to help and there is no talking her out of it.

My First Barbie

2008-10-05T12:02:00.002-05:00

Millie finally got her first Barbie last month. She loves her. Barbie travels with us a lot now. I made her post for a picture before opening the box. She was a good sport about it. She looks like she is thinking, "Can't we just open this already?"

Sing Me A Song

2008-09-07T05:45:00.008-05:00

Millie has been doing a lot of singing lately, so I thought I should get it on video before the phase was gone. She has mastered lots of gestures to songs too, but is still shy to sing with a big bunch of people (in her class at school.) Millie really likes to sing "FAST." The first song starts out sooo fast but half way through she starts to sing it slowly and you can understand it better. In both videos you can hear her say, "I want to sing it faster" at the beginning. The first video is Jesus loves me. The second is Thumbody special.

Back to School

2008-09-01T09:27:00.003-05:00

Millie went back to school last Wednesday. We almost forgot to take a first day of school picture but remembered right before we got in the car. Millie was too excited to go to school and didn't really want to have her picture taken. So these are the best shots I could get. She has the same teacher again this year. She was very excited the night before when we went to the open house to see Mrs. Reiss. There are six girls and three boys starting the year in class 1AM. The first time in 20 years her teacher has had way more girls in class than boys. Millie went to art and gym last week and even wore big girl underpants to school and came home dry.

More Summer Fun

2008-09-01T09:02:00.005-05:00

We went to Maumee State Park at the beginning of August. We spent a lot of the time in the pool. We did rent some bicycles and had a really nice ride one afternoon. They also had a great nature trail in the woods and Nature Center to see some small animals. On our way home we stopped at the Medina County Fair. Millie had a wonderful time looking at all of the animals and sitting on tractors. She even liked the noisy roosters, turkeys and chickens. We enjoyed eating Italian sausage sandwiches and deep fried oreos.

Maumee State Park -
Bike riding, the beach at the lake and a picture in our room.

Catching Up

2008-09-01T08:44:00.003-05:00

Millie has had lots of fun this summer swimming and going to lots of playgrounds. She has been taking swim lessons and is picking it up quickly. She has turned into a major climber. Last year all she wanted to do was swing. This summer it has been all about climbing and sliding. Below is a picture of Millie swimming at Uncle Ken and Aunt Tonya's pool in July and one of the many pictures of Millie at the playground. We have found a bunch of new and better playgrounds this summer. Last summer we moved to our new house in the middle of July and didn't find many good parks. We have many to choose from now. We love our town and all the outdoor offerings here. Another picture is Millie in her old toddler bed last month. Millie loves to take all of her stuffed animals in her bed and play before going to sleep and sometimes she falls asleep on top of them ALL. Finally, we made the move to a big girl bed. She transitioned perfectly without any problems. Her newest trick is knocking on her door in the morning when she wakes up until I come and let her out.

4th of July

2008-07-26T20:56:00.004-05:00

Here are pictures from the parade we went to on the 4th of July. Our town does a nice job with their parade. It was the 50th anniversary parade this year so they went all out with the fire trucks. Millie saw her teacher Mrs. Reiss walking and enjoyed holding her flags and waving them. Papa wore a silly hat and that entertained Mama. Our friend from church Barbara Hobbs saw us and invited us to sit with her. It was a beautiful day. The temperature was perfect. Following the parade we went to a cookout at our friends Tracy and Ashley's house and then we went to Uncle David's house for an EXCELLENT display of fireworks. It was a really fun day.

Dreamnight at the Akron Zoo

2008-07-26T20:32:00.006-05:00

This was our best Zoo experience yet. We were invited to the Akron Zoo for free after hours. It was sponsored by Akron Children's Hospital for special needs kids. It was Millie's third stop on her Zoo tour this summer. Stop # 1 Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Stop #2 Philadelphia Zoo. We got to see a number of animals up close like an owl and a dragon. Millie rode on the train with Papa and we had her teddy bear go to the "Vet Clinic" where they check out your stuffed animal to make sure he is healthy. But Millie's favorite part was feeding the farm animals. A video and pictures follow.

Spreading her wings with Papa.

Getting ready to feed the animals.

Looking at the owl.

Mama and Millie.

A macaw bird. One of her favorites. This one was very noisy.

Getting her bear checked out at the "Vet Clinic." It was so cute!

Vacation Bible School

2008-07-26T20:19:00.005-05:00

Vacation Bible School was the last week in June. I got to help in Millie's room this year. They had a bible lesson each day along with snack, craft, recreation and singing! Millie loved the songs. The theme this year was Beach Party. Here are just a few pictures from the week.

Philadelphia Zoo

2008-07-26T20:01:00.004-05:00

This was our second stop in our zoo tour this summer. The first stop was the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. This zoo was great. We saw a lot of stuff they didn't have in Cleveland. Peacocks, spider monkeys eating tomatoes, Bald Eagles were just a few. And of course the usual elephants, lions, tigers and bears, giraffes etc. Millie and her cousin Josie took a ride on a work horse. It was gigantic. You could get really close to the animals. That was the best part. They were not so far away in the distance. Of course Millie loved it... there were animals. Need I say more?

A cute picture wearing cousin Josie's sunglasses.
Getting ready to see some animals.

A beautiful peacock. Millie thought this was neat.

Riding the work horse with Josie.

Sitting on the bench together.

This tiger was cool. He kept playing with the tire in the water.

Sesame Place

2008-07-26T19:36:00.005-05:00

We made our yearly visit to Sesame Place in June. Millie keeps talking about the carousel, the balloon ride and the cup ride. She especially loved the Abby Cadabby show with all of the characters. Last year she fell asleep right before the parade and missed the entire thing. This year she watched every second and LOVED it. Music, dancing monsters, she was in heaven. We didn't spend too much time in the water this year because it was a bit chilly. But that meant we got to do some stuff we never tried before. We will definitely be going back again next year. She had a wonderful time. We were there over 6 weeks ago and she still talks about it.

Millie wanted to stand next to the Twiddlebugs.

Taking a photo just after we walked into
the park with cousins Jimmy and Josie.

Millie loved looking at Elmo and the other monsters
made of flowers and bushes.

The monsters at the Abby Cadabby show.

There's Dorothy! We watched the Elmo's World Show too!

Riding the Carousel.

Getting ready for the parade.

Here they come!

The Living History Farm

2008-07-26T19:21:00.003-05:00

These photos are from our morning at the Living History Farm. We went here back in June when we went to visit my parents for a week. It was fun but way too hot.

Saying "Cheese" in front of the tree.

Following everyone down the dirt path to the barns.

Trying to grab some corn she was not supposed to touch.

We tried to get a picture with her cousins.

Looking at the sheep. It was nice and cool under the trees.

The Funny Things Kids Say

2008-06-07T19:18:00.003-05:00

Today Millie said quite a few funny things. She started off the morning saying "I want to eat salami" when I asked her if she wanted waffles for breakfast.

At dinner she proclaimed, "Papa is a hot dog man!!" because Shannon was eating hot dogs. (big surprise there, I know!)

And during prayers tonight she said, "thank you for my Wacky Wednesday book," "thank you for my dog book." (Does it surprise you that we read "I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words and Wacky Wednesday before bed?)

My favorite was calling Shannon a hot dog man because it is so fitting. He loves his hot dogs. Especially in grilling season.

Dress Up Day at Home

2008-05-29T15:59:00.004-05:00

Today Millie got some dress up clothing. She really loved it.
She especially loves pretending to be a butterfly. Here are some
pictures and a video of her wearing her new stuff.

Lions & Tigers & Bears Oh My!

2008-05-25T19:29:00.010-05:00

Friday was one of the happiest days of Millie's life. We took her to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Millie is an avid animal lover. She had the biggest smile on her face for hours. It was so fun! Millie talked (and giggled) for 20 minutes straight about the New Guinea Singing Dogs on the car ride home. It was hysterical! She must have said the word Rhino 50 times that day. We had a blast just watching her. Here are some videos and pictures.

A Great Follow Up

2008-05-25T19:25:00.002-05:00

Today Millie went over seven hours without an accident while wearing her "meow" underpants. That is the new name for her Hello Kitty big girl underpants. She has been making up little nicknames for lots of things lately. For example... potato chips are now "chipmunks" and bananas are "gorillas" which originated from gorilla bananas. There are others but those we hear everyday no matter what. Just thought I should post a success story concerning the potty after the post yesterday.

Potty Training Accidents

2008-05-24T13:30:00.003-05:00

Potty training accident #1 today was on the floor in the living room while playing with the Little People Zoo. She was having too much fun to stop playing and go to the potty.

Then we had a near miss while watching an Elmo show. She was holding herself, but adamantly denied having to go. I took her to the potty anyway and avoided accident #2.

While playing a fishing game after lunch we had another near miss. Millie struggled with all her might, telling me she didn't need to go, but she went right away when she sat on the potty.

But accident #2 would come. Millie was playing with her stuffed animals in her room. She had every single stuffed animal she owns on the floor beneath her when she had her accident. So lucky Mama got to feel every animal to see which ones were wet and needed to go for a bath in the washing machine. It was gross. Shannon just stood and watched.

I think I am giving up for the day and putting on a pull-up. We will try again tomorrow.

Horses, Fishing and More

2008-05-19T19:34:00.006-05:00

Millie had a very busy weekend on May 10th and 11th. First she started off riding old Blaze with Papa. She LOVED it! Especially the part when Blaze had to go potty. She can't stop talking about that. Next she moved on to the pond. She touched a worm and a couple of fish and then took a ride in the paddle boat. She liked sticking her arms in the water. Then Mama tried to teach her how to golf before we headed out to the playground for an hour.

Riding Blaze

Touching the fish

Riding in the paddle boat

Sliding at the playground

Inside a tunnel at the playground

What Will She Be?

2008-04-19T15:21:00.003-05:00

Lately we have be wondering what Millie will be when she grows up. She LOVES to play with her stuffed animals. She will sit contently forever outside and play with dirt/sticks/leaves. The latest is her love of food. Almost everyday Millie wants to "I want to butter the bread." One day a few weeks ago I let her help me "butter the bread" for her grilled cheese sandwich. Now she wants to do it constantly. And we can never stop there. We always have to make an entire grilled cheese sandwich. She loves to put on the cheese and put it on the stove to cook. Well last night I cooked her an egg. Today we had to "butter the bread" and "crack an egg." First she helped me make the grilled cheese and then she wanted me to "open the refrigerator" and "crack an egg." So then we fried an egg. This was at 3:00 in the afternoon. Then she watched them both cook on the stove at the same time and she did eat them both afterwards. So lately we think she may want to be a chef when she grows up. I think she is going through a growth spurt with all that she is eating. She ate 2 whole waffles, a banana and juice for breakfast. A whole PB & J, cranberries and drink for lunch and then the grilled cheese and egg for an afternoon snack.

Spring at the Playground

2008-04-14T08:00:00.004-05:00

Millie had a fantastic time at the playground. This year she loves to climb everything and go down all of the slides. Last year she would not go down any of the slides or climb anything. It is so much fun to watch her explore and be able to do lots of new things.

Easter Sunday

2008-03-26T18:18:00.004-05:00

Easter Morning we were all up before 6:30 am. Millie had fun looking for a few eggs but she didn't really look for her basket. We had to help her a bit. She wanted to eat the Special K cereal bar in her basket right away and look at the new Strawberry Shortcake books but she didn't care about the candy. (A few days later she realized that there was Reese's Pieces candy inside the eggs and had to open every egg every time she saw them closed. I guess she was hoping more would be inside each time.) Millie had a beautiful dress thanks to a Birthday present from Crackers and Pop. She looked beautiful, and only pulled out her pig tails twice at church. After church Millie tried walking in Shannon's shoes. She has just started having lots of interest in doing this. She looked so cute we had to get a few pictures. I think it looked so adorable because she was still wearing her pretty dress.

Lots of Snow

2008-03-12T14:48:00.004-05:00

Last Friday at noon it began to snow and it didn't stop until Sunday morning. I think we got 17+ inches of snow. It looked so beautiful. It snowed a TON early in the morning on Saturday. I had to be at church before 8am for a baby shower I was helping with. Luckily I made it there and back but I did get my car stuck in the driveway on the way home (see last photo). Millie actually kept on her mittens & hat long enough to find out that she loves the snow. She had a great time making her version of a "snow angel".

Wow! Look at all this snow!

Millie's version of a snow angel.

This was an early picture on Friday before it had really piled up.

Yes, that is my car stuck at the bottom of the driveway on Saturday.
Our nice neighbors helped Shannon & I dig out. Millie still had fun!

The Potty

2008-03-10T10:23:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday Millie was sitting on the potty and when I came back 1 minute later to check on her she had one foot IN the potty and she was trying to put the second foot in. The very next day she was again sitting on the potty and when I went to take her off the potty I noticed her socks were no longer on her feet. She said "socks in the potty." Then before I could fish them out Millie said "flush the potty." Before I could tell her "NOOOOO" the socks were gone. I guess Millie is not ready for privacy in the bathroom yet.

Belated Birthday

2008-03-04T10:57:00.005-05:00

OK, I should have posted these pictures weeks ago. I never can find the time to update the blog anymore. Here are a few pictures of Millie's Birthday party 2 weeks ago. Millie and her friend Jade had a blast! Jade wanted to help Millie open her gifts, and Millie didn't mind. She just wanted that chocolate cake and ice cream. Every year Millie loves to play with all the balloons before the party starts. This year was no exception. It was one of her favorite parts of the day.

First Day of School / Happy Birthday Millie

2008-02-15T16:56:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was Millie's first day of school, Valentine's Day AND Millie's Birthday. So it was a day with lots of picture taking. The first picture is Millie sitting on the stairs of our house. We couldn't take her picture outside because it was freezing. The second one is her ready to leave the house with her coat and backpack on. She had to bring Valentines for all the kids in her class. The third picture is all the goodies she came home with on her first day. They had a party. The 4th picture is Millie opening her gifts from Mama and Papa and the last one is her Birthday treat. She will be having a big party on Saturday with lots of cake and ice cream.

Where Has the Time Gone?

2008-02-07T11:18:00.000-05:00

Can't believe that we are a week into February already! I never got around to posting any pictures from Christmas. So here are just a couple. Millie will be starting preschool in only 1 week. She will be having a Strawberry Shortcake themed Birthday party with a few friends and family.

First Hot Chocolate

2007-12-17T14:48:00.000-05:00

Today we bundled Millie up in her snowsuit and took her outside. She almost looked like the younger brother in the movie "A Christmas Story." She could barely move. It was funny! She didn't want to wear a hat, but I got her to keep one on for a few minutes. Our plan to make a snowman didn't work out. The snow wouldn't even make 1 snowball, so we headed back inside for Millie's first hot chocolate. (Well it was not too hot, just a little warm.) She really liked it.

Trip to Orlando

2007-11-28T16:49:00.001-05:00

Here is a slide show with some of the pictures we took in Orlando 3 weeks ago. Millie's favorite rides were "It's a Small World," "Cinderella's Carousel" and "The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh."

Pumpkin Picking and Halloween

2007-11-28T16:31:00.001-05:00

I am trying to catch up on the blog. Here are a few pictures from October. Millie is helping me pick her pumpkin. She was a duck for Halloween. She didn't like getting her picture taken in her costume for the 2nd straight year, so I don't have any good pictures.

Millie at Maize Valley

2007-10-23T18:06:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures of Millie at Maize Valley. She had a fun time. First she saw some animals. Next she went on a kids tractor ride and then rode on a big tractor with me. We saw pumpkins being shot out of a cannon and finally did the corn maze. She liked everything. I taught her how to put her hands in her coat pockets because her hands were freezing.

Walking through the corn maze.

Posing for a picture.

Millie and Mama in the maze.

Wow look at this corn!

Getting ready for her ride in the kids tractor.

Finger Painting Fun

2007-10-09T17:40:00.001-05:00

Last week Millie got into finger painting. She made a huge mess, so the next time we did it outside. After trying to scrub the paint out of her clothing the first time, I stripped her down to her diaper this day. It was easier to clean. She seems to like this a lot more than coloring. Here are some pictures and a short video.

Here she is having fun making a mess.

Now she is upset because she didn't want me to take her picture.
She wanted to run around with filthy hands.

The Pumpkin Festival '07

2007-10-09T07:06:00.000-05:00

Time for the yearly trip to the Barnesville Pumpkin Festival. Millie really loved looking at the pumpkins with faces painted on them. She got to go on a few rides this year before the parade too. The king pumpkin weighed in at nearly 1300 pounds this year.

Visiting Pon Pon

2007-10-09T06:48:00.001-05:00

The last weekend of September we went to visit Millie's Pon Pon. After dinner Millie had lots of fun swinging while waiting for her Papa and Pon Pon to saddle up old Blaze. Millie and Papa took a nice little ride just as the sun was going down. Millie seemed to enjoy it. She was very interested when we fed the horses some apples.

Go Buckeyes!

2007-09-12T11:58:00.001-05:00

It is football season. That means Shannon watching the Buckeyes or listening on the radio every Saturday afternoon. The first week of the season we listened to the game outside. I set up a little tub of water with some toys for Millie to play. She ended up climbing in the tub and getting all wet. She had a blast and we got to be outside in the beautiful weather listening to the game. Here is a little video of Millie in the tub cheering for her Papa's team!

Beep Beep

2007-08-26T12:53:00.002-05:00

Millie went to her best friend Jade's 2nd birthday party yesterday. Unfortunately, Millie fell asleep in the car on the ride to the party and slept for the first hour and had a difficult time waking up afterwards in a new house with 15 strangers. BUT... when it was time for the cake she woke up. She had a chance to play in Jade's new car by herself when everyone was singing Happy Birthday. Then she got to eat yummy cake. She must have said "More Cake" 8 times. Afterwards she had fun watching Blues Clues with Jade, running around and watching a beautiful rainbow outside.

The Carpenter Cookout

2007-08-22T17:15:00.001-05:00

On Saturday we went to a cookout at Shannon's Uncle Ken & Aunt Tonya's house. We had a great time! Millie loved the pool and spent over an hour in the water. Shannon played some baseball and got to take all the kids on the 4 wheeler (especially Millie's cousin Cade who couldn't get enough of it). Here are a few pictures of Millie in action.

Our New House

2007-08-17T18:14:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures of our new house. We have an apple tree in the backyard that Millie likes to climb. We really like living on a corner lot. We have a large fireplace outside in the backyard. The neighborhood is great for walking, with sidewalks everywhere.

Trip to Geneva State Park

2007-08-07T14:49:00.001-05:00

Here is a slide show of our trip to Geneva State Park on Lake Erie. It was a beautiful day. We had such a nice time. Millie loved the water. She didn't mind getting a few waves in the face. She loved it when we took her way out in the lake to swim on her belly. Out friends Sean, Christina, Josh, Tracy and Ashley came along too.

Papa and Millie

2007-08-07T14:02:00.000-05:00

Papa and Millie are always wrestling, making funny faces, strange noises, and being silly with each other. Here are a few pictures of them at the Summit County Fair a few weeks ago.

Some Vacation Photos

2007-08-03T18:44:00.000-05:00

I know we took our trip over the week of July 4th, but we have been busy moving and unpacking. We went to the Aquarium and Sesame Place while we were there. Here is a sample of some of the fun we had!

Where Have We Been?

2007-07-31T16:08:00.000-05:00

We have been busy buying a new house this summer. We put our old house on the market May 28th and sold it within 6 days! We quickly found a new home (after looking at approximately 25 houses in 10 days) and we moved in on July 18th. During this time we also took a trip to visit Crackers, Pop and Sarah in New Hope, PA for a week. I will be posting a few pictures of our trip and some of the house very soon.

Talking Up A Storm

2007-06-07T10:37:00.001-05:00

Millie has suddenly been talking up a storm this week. Here are some of the phrases we have noticed. Most are from books.

PAPA LOVES YOU
OH NO SAID BIRD
TEACH HIM WALK
KISSES, ALL BETTER
GO BUCKEYES
SOME ARE FUZZY
ORANGE PUMPKINS AND PUMPKIN PATCH
UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS

First Ice Cream Cone of the Season

2007-05-30T11:57:00.000-05:00

We took Millie for some ice cream after dinner on Saturday evening. She really enjoyed it. She loved Papa's hot fudge sundae and she also loved Mama's vanilla cone. She kept going back and forth between both choices. Here are some of the pictures.

Boy was that yummy. I think I'll have some more.

Car Wash Helper

2007-05-05T12:32:00.000-05:00

Today we were washing our cars and Millie was playing in the yard. Then she saw the water and soap on the driveway and decided it looked fun to play in. She was already wet...so we just let her keep playing. She was having way too much fun for us to stop her. Here is the evidence!

A Beautiful Day!

2007-05-05T07:35:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day! Millie spent nearly three hours outside. She had a play date with Jade for a few hours too. The girls get along great together. They melted our hearts when they gave each other a big hug when Jade went home. It was so cute! Millie really likes Jade's mommy Cinnamon. She kept giving her lots of hugs and kisses too.

Millie's favorite new activity is to draw with her chalk on the bark of the tree closest to the house. It is really funny. We keep losing chalk in the yard. Millie's second favorite thing to do is to walk to our next door neighbor's and say "BARK" to every tree in their yard while touching the bark. They have lots of trees! Lucky for us they are super friendly and love Millie coming to visit.

Let's Color

2007-04-24T12:59:00.000-05:00

Today Millie helped me color a picture for some friends
of ours Jason and Ginger. Here is how it turned out.

Below is a video of Millie playing with her crayons before she actually started coloring. She likes to say the names of each color and just hold the crayons for a bit. (It takes about 20 seconds but she does start naming the colors after a little while).

Blanket Head

2007-04-15T18:37:00.000-05:00

This past week we have found Millie sitting in bed with her blanket over her head whenever we go to get her in the morning or from a nap. We have peeked in on her and noticed that she can sit for long periods of time like this. I guess she is hiding? Or playing peek-a-boo with herself?