What we've been doing

I really have no excuse as to why I haven't done a post in forever... You know how you do a few fun things, and then get overwhelmed, and just don't post. Then that cycles on for a long time till you end up making some attempt to show that you have actually been doing stuff the last few months?

This is all the way back in the end of Sep. Mill and one of her best buddies (our back yard neighbor) swimming. I just love how she grabbed his goggles and wanted to wear them the whole day.

My Sis. Kelly and cuteie Ollie came out in beg. of October. We had a great time, and after a couple days of getting used to each other the kidd-o's really liked each other alot!

K. and I made these doughnuts from BHG (October) magazine. Easy, and YUMMY!

Trip to the pumpkin patch!

My friend from H.S., Bonnie, lives in TN. too so she came for a short visit. I kinda think her girl and my girl look a little alike

Mill's thing for October was making cookies, or making cakes. Every morning right when she's get up "Mom? make a cake?"

Just a cute little childrens garden area

After several times of "just missing" wicked we finally got to go. It came to memphis and was GREAT!

Josh went to Florida for a "conference" but apparently had enough free time to get a surf lesson from his friend/classmate John.

Millie has a thing for "Bicycle Helmut's". Don't really know how that got started. She doesn't have a helmut though, so she'll get her little plastic shopping basket (that came with plastic food in it) and put it on her head for a helmut! Love it!

I really missed fall after 3 years of lame memphis falls so I took a trip to utah for a few days. One day I went with some of the Girls I used to coach on a fav. run in the provo canyon. So pretty!

While in UT. we celebrated Mill's birthday with my family- this is a bad photo of a sheep cake (from family fun mag. )

We of course had to take our annual "Fall Sisters Trip to Gardner Village"

Mill's birthday present. She was/is obsessed with slides/climbing so we splurged and got her one of these.

Bad photo: Mill's birthday with giant cup cake cake (again) and some mini cup cake pops.

This past year has been a bad year for running, but I decided to run the Race for the cure anyways... My grandma passed away this last year and she'd had breast cancer so it was fun to support the cause and do it in memory of her. there were 19,700 runners- somehow I came in 4th female. Same as last year.

Our halloween costume, Mill was a little harvest fairy, she had a orange tutu that you can't see very well, but she looked adorable- oh, and my new hair cut. Lindsey cut it while I was in provo. took off about 7 in!!!

At the zoo- mill really likes the animals, but equally loves being able to run all over and be crazy.

Southern college of Optometry 5k- we both ran :)

We got this new and it's been super fun because then when one of us is running, the other one can pack up millie and bike along. She likes it ALOT better than the running stroller!

It's getting cold outside so we get bored... but she loves this "crazy hair" now

Our Thanksgiving meal. We had it at our house, had one of Josh's classmates over. It was such a great thanksgiving! it was our firs one "alone" and it was SO fun to be able to plan our own dishes, and have a good time making them all! we had some good stuff- but the pulling the neck out of the turkey experience was not so great.
again, getting cold outside, we get bored and creative. Millie's Cinderella doll started swimming in my glass of water. Then all of millies people from her manger scene wanted to swim, so we had to get a bigger swimming pool, then we even had to add a 3rd pool. By that time it just looked so fun, so millie insisted on putting on her swimming suit and swimming with them... she was sitting in the bowls and trying very hard to imerse herself in the water.

A week ago Josh ran the St. Judes Half Marathon. Millie had a good time tracking him all over town and met up with him after he finished. He won. surprise surprise, and ran a time of 1:08.0

so, there you have it in a nutshell. Hope you are all having a great christmas season so far!

Halloween dinner!

I LOVE Halloween foods! Each year I cannot resist making a few fun things for the special day!

Breakfast:

spider web eggs: (martha stewart) Add a bunch of blueberries (frozen) at the same time you add the eggs. boil 10 min., take eggs out, crack with spoon, and return to pan- put in fridge (still in water) to cool down to desired temp.

Saturday Night Dinner:

Mummy Dogs

Carrott Fingers (kraft)

Devilish eggs (martha stewart)

Sunday Night (HALLOWEEN) Dinner!

Candy corn Jello (martha stewart- only I'm going to just make mine in solid layers)

Breadstick bones (Kraft?)

Bat meat pie (Meat Loaf) and Ghost potatoes (martha stewart)

Dessert:

We have to bring cupcakes to the ward trunk or treat, so we're going to try these 2 out:

Brains (martha stewart)

Witches feet (BH &G) boots made of tootsie roll.

Made thse fingers for a halloween party this week- only take about 10 min. from start to finish

Happy HALLOWEEN!

Halloween Owls

My sis Kelly came out to visit a couple weeks ago (I'm way behind on posting so I'll probabally post on that a bit later) we made these cute owl pillows! We saw a photo online of some like this and created our own. Only took a couple hours.

1. cut out pattern of desired size (we used some type of upholstry valor, the original used cordoroy but we didn't have any on hand)

2. top stitch felt eyes, and beak

3. iron edge of wings under and topstich them in place (I like to stich 1/4 inch from edge of wing and then press under along the stich- helps the press look nicer)

4. sew right sides together

5. Flip, and stuff

6. hand sew on feet.

nose awareness

This photo was taken in the "china" that I spoke about below. I'll probabally get in trouble from someone for such a picture... so sorry, but it was just so funny. I was taking pictures of her because she was trying to hug him but then all the sudden she started picking her nose (she is at the phase where she is figuring out she has a nose that she can stick her finger up, and there are boogies inside! ha ha)

China Baby

Millie Loves 'Mulan' For awhile she wanted to watch it everyday (which didn't happen but it didn't stop her from trying.) We got this little chineese outfit when were were in china a couple years ago and she has finally grown into it. We put on her 'Mulan cloths' and She loved it!

At the Zoo there is a "china" area, it is enclosed with some chineese architecture, and is decorated with chineese things inside... they have pandas and some other chineese animals. When we go there I tell her "we're going to the China part", and then I told her "Mulan lives in China" so then on our way home she was telling me "Mulan, china, live!" so about a week later we went over to our neighbors and our neighbor, trying to involve millie in a conversation, asked "Where's your house Millie, where do you live" and millie instantly replied "China!"

Delta Fair

We went out to the "Delta Fair" last week. Got a chance to rub shoulders with your typical southern fair go-ers..saw some good mulets and stuff. Josh and I were a little dissapointed that they had cancelled the rodeo and osterich racing, but I'm sure Millie was happy that she didn't have to sit though them!

Mill's first Merry-go-round ride.

They had a bunch of big tractors you could go sit on

The only event they hadn't cancled was this Banana Derby. These little monkeys would sit on the dogs back and they would race around the race track...

Brave Girlie. Pretty positive she'd try to pet any animal that got within her grasps

well, lets be honest. I was a little bit upset about this fair (pay $10 a ticket, then all the events are cancled, pay $3 more for all the rides, pay to see the "worlds smallest woman" who turned out to be a just a midget sitting on a little couch ha ha! I have seen the T.V. special on the real worlds smallest woman and that sure was not her!... ANYWAYS...) The shining star of the Delta fair was the deep fried goodies. Josh got himself some deep fried oreos and I chose a DEEP FRIED TWINKIE! so good. Warm, sweet, fattening, sprinkled in powdered sugar. May sound grose, but I tell you, you would love it! (they also have the deep fried candy bars but twinkie was to hard to pass up. ha ha.)

Helen Trip

Josh had a short break before beginning the next semester so we took a little trip to Helen Georgia. Helen is a small town at the base of the smokey mtns. (surrounded by state parks) it ws re-done by a german architecht (about 50 years ago) to be a old German style town. Lots of little shops, antique stores, authentic restaurants, and other cute little things to see and do.

We visited Helen's "Cabbage Patch Babyland General Hospital" and saw the birth of a Cabbage Patch! (I loved cabbage patches when I was little, so this may have been as much for me as it was for Mill. ha ha)

This is a Shop/restaurant that had it's roofs covered with grass and the goats would hang out up there during the day! (see the goat just to the R. of the 'goats on the roof' sign?)

We read about this place online and had to make a stop. Delicious boiled peanuts. Josh had been telling me about boiled peanuts for years, but this was my first real experience with them.

The highlight of the trip for Mill was this Lolly pop from "Hansel and Gretel's Candy Kitchen" to bad it was broken when we opened it up!

baby Ollie

Kelly, this is specifically for you. Millie really liked Baby Ollie's 'bob movie' from your blog. She will randomly say "baby owie; Bob" but then when I started asking her what baby Ollie said she started telling me "me-a- ha" or "boo-a-ha" and then "Bob" I have no idea what "me-a ha" is, but she uses that same word every time I ask her what baby ollie says, so it must mean something! ha ha.

Greer Family Reunion

A couple weeks ago we went to the McAdams Family Reunion in Greer Az. (It's a really small, pretty town up in the mountains) There were 29 people - 15 kids. We loved being up in the mountains and enjoying the fresh mtn. air and the scenery of the west! We had a good time seeing fam- Mill has 4 cousins within 6 month of her so she had a blast! She loves to be a show off to anyone who'll give her attention so she liked to play with the kids who were a little older.

That's Mill in the Back pack. We borrowed it from some friends in the ward. I thought Millie would hate it (she generally hates things that restrain her in any way) but she LOVED it! after we came home she was constantly requesting "bag! bag! and wanted me to carry her around the neighborhood.

Millie, Rachel and Nate on the big red "swing"

Some of the fam.

There was a little creek out back and the little kids loved sitting on the bridge and throwing rocks in! (millie and rachel)

We got our pictures taken and the photographer brought some props along so some of the girl cousins dressed up like princesses. Mill wanted the fireman's hat though, but was still in a grumpy mood as you can see.

They had a horse tire swing that was one of the highlights for mill.

We saw several snakes and frogs and Horn toads. Millie loved looking at them and quickly touching them... but didn't want to hold them. But these last couple weeks she will randomly hold her hands out- cupped, and say in a really high voice "come on tiny Frog" then she will scream excitedly and laugh like it is sooo funny. She cracks me up.

Nesbit Blueberry Plantation

My parents came out for a visit last month and we had alot of fun sight seeing etc. One of my fav. activities was the Nesbit Blueberry Plantation. Pick your own, and eat as many as you want while picking! With Millie on our side I'm sure we got our money's worth (Blueberries are probably her all time favorite food and she must have eaten a pint of them while picking!)

They give you these buckets to tie around your waiste so you can pick with both hands! The blueberries were delicious, but I think I enjoied the experience just as much as the berries. As stated on their website "their was rain last night which makes for plump blueberries, and a good "plunk." I agreed, what a good sound those berries make as they "plunk" in an empty bucket!

don't know how long this will be up for, but check out my little sis, the airbrush model. ha ha! (article on the left of the site, video on the right)
http://www.abc4.com/content/about_4/gtu/featured_on/story/Airbrush-Makeup/gtqeup9FH0WdkaHaHc1q4A.cspx

Happy 4th headband

Just made this head band for mill to wear on the 4th. It took like 15 min. and turned out okay I think. I just cut different sizes of felt circles (about 4-6 per flower). Added a couple cirlcles of patterned cotton fabric. Hot glued all the circles together, hand stitched on random buttons I had lying around. I cut of the waiste band of some old baby tights and glued the completed circles on that. Hope you have a happy 4th!

We are in des moines Iowa (a Wonderful city by the way) for another year of USA national championships. Josh will be running in the steeple finals on sun at 12:50. (Prelim races were on thurs; he looked good, and comforatable.) You can watch his race live at flotrack.org (then go to videos and coverage) You will also be able to watch this race on ESPN or NBC. This is the link to the T.V. schedule. http://www.usatf.org/events/2010/USAOutdoorTFChampionships/ He's had a hard year with injuries and stuff- taking off September to February, but he's worked hard to get back into shape and has been feeling pretty good lately! He is the defending champion from last year... so it should be a good race. But, I think with all things considered Josh just feels lucky to be able to even make finals this year! Nice job Josh! We're proud of you!

Outings

I'm a little behind on blogging, so I had to combine a few things we've been doing under the heading "outings". So- a few nights ago we went to this cupcake place called Gigi's. It was so super good and really hit the spot! I totally recommend going there- they have like 20 different flavors that change according to the day. (IE: Chocolate malt, Italian cream wedding cake, cookies and cream, Mallow cream, Peach cobler, texas milk chocolate, southern comfort, etc) Pictured below is Midnight Magic- only drawback was a little too much frosting- BUT that it worked out perfectly that we have a little frosting monster living in our house, so any extra frosting was quickly taken care of!

There is a new culinary arts school a couple miles away. One of my dreams is to attend Culinary arts school... this one had an open house and the students and instructors made all this delicious food for you to sample! It was all free, and all yummy! (This is a real pig, I do like ham, but I think if I would have breathed in and smelled the scent of this I would have been sick)

We finally went to see the ducks that live in the fountain of the peabody hotel. Each morn. the ducks are marched out to the lobby fountain. They spend the day there, and at night the Duck master comes out, rolls out a red carpet (and stairs) and marches them out of the fountain, into the elevator, and up to their night quarters.

Magnets

I made a post a couple weeks ago with the "jesus loves you note" being held up by some cute magnets that my sis. made me. Lots of people liked them... If you are interested in gettin' some for yourself I had her post them on her blog- http://sunnykellybeck.blogspot.com/2010/06/butts-and-mags-buy-them.html they are .75 or 3 for $2.00! She has alot but here's a photo of some of them.

Almost, but not quite

Do you remember this Delicous stuff?

It used to be .89 cents at Albertsons and we would beg our mom to buy us some everytime we were there. I would usually chooose boysenberry or raspberry and sip on a bottle savoring the flavor for several hours- to make it last as long as I could. Wikapedia says it "was extremely popular in the 1980s and early 90s, but fell out of favor in later years"- but not to this girl!!! I have been searching for a bottle of this delicous stuff for years!

Found this drink at target (by the deli) and was hoping it may be like Clearly Canadian- it was!!! Not quite as good of course but had a similar deliciousness! After this bottle was gone (to quickly) I searched online and found you can purchase Clearly canadian at www.DrSoda.com ($1.89 a bottle, plus shipping, but it's worth it! that's what I've asked for for my birthday. Don't know if I Can wait!