Maia and Meko

These two long videos will give you a great picture of how these two interact.  It's a love-hate relationship.  Maia loves Meko, and Meko loves, well... Meko loves her blanket and her window. 

Enjoy!

A Good Day To Go To The Park

The other day it was not raining and the sun was trying to shine so Maia and I took a walk to the park.  I think I am learning to adjust to these Portland winters.  Its hard for me to want to get out and play when it is all rainy out.  I have learned, however to take full advantage of the days it is not raining and get outside.  So that is what we did.  I decided to take my camera with us on this walk since there is so much budding and blooming all around I wanted to capture some of its beauty. 

So the first beauty I captured was this little girl who was having fun in the swing.  I wanted to get other shots of her playing, but I realized it is not very practical for me to try to take pictures as she is trying to be a dare devil on the play structures.  She is quick and I am not so much these days.

On our way home we came across some beautiful flowers.  Maia will point them out and say "See, see"  and then sometimes she will say "pretty!"  I told her I agree.  Yes they are so pretty and it was nice to be around bright colors!  I do believe these are camellias.  Correct me if I am wrong.  I am trying to make a point to learn my flowers.  Whatever the case they were sure pretty and made my day!!!

 Of course we had to stop by the cherry blossoms.  It just shouted out to me "spring spring it has finally arrived!!!"

 And then there are the nobby trees.  I love being in the park where Maia can just take off and run.  I think she loves it too because she just loves running from me with the occasional stop and look to make sure I am still coming her direction.  So  much fun!!

I have been thinking a little about spring this year.  I thought it would never come and it has with all its promises of new life!  It excited me to first see signs of the crocus showing its purple, orange, white, etc... prettiness  and then the daffodiles in their bright yellow cheerfulness, I just get excited for whats to come! Soon there will be strawberries, blueberries, all kinds of veggies, oh sun warm tomatoes, and I could go on and on.  I think you get my drift!!  I feel as though we make it through the winter to appreciate all the more of spring and summer.  At least I feel that way this year, especially as we await for this little guy to arrive in June.  I have not had lots of time to just sit and think about it, but I have been trying to be a little more intentional about it and it excites me.  I feel like pregnancy is not all that fun (at least for me), however, the aches, pains, and tiredness is all worth it when I think about welcoming this little life into the world!!

Lemons

I guess we have often heard the expression, "When life hands you a lemon, make some lemonade." 

 Hmmm....how about making a Lemon Pound Cake???  At least that is what ran in my head when I was given some beautiful lemons that came straight from a lemon tree in California.  I have a love for sweet things and a love for baking them, and so I decided lemon pound cake it is!! 

To sweeten things up I made a glaze with confectioners sugar and lemon juice.  Nothing like a little sweet tang to liven things up!

All glazed and ready to go!

 What a great way to welcome spring!! 

Happy Spring to you!!!

Note: recipe for lemon pound cake can be found: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sour-Cream-and-Lemon-Pound-Cake-2121 

Last night...

     ...Baby Brother was in Maia's tummy.  The day before he was in Mommy's.  He moves around depending on when you ask her.  Right now I can hear her up in her crib-- she just woke up from her nap, and is lifting her shirt up and pinning it under her chin.  Then she rubs her belly and says, "Baby!"  I guess that's appropriate, since this morning we went in for Mommy's ultrasound, and at the end Maia got to lay down on the bed and get an 'ultrasound' of her tummy too so we could see the baby inside. 

     On an unrelated note, here's a more recent video than those last ones of the kinds of things Maia does these days:

I'm asking her to 'cry' at one point, because she has this hilarious fake cry that she will do on cue.  But not today.  Maybe someday we'll get a video of it.  She'll even interrupt real crying to give her fake cry if we ask her too.  She also has a fake laugh, which if you listened carefully you heard her do in the video after Jeanette asked her to. 

     And here's a poor quality video of what Maia's doing right now: 

Okay, actually the video was of yesterday, but she is doing the exact same thing in her crib right now too.  Apparently Bear loves to dance while she sings, cuz he sure does it a lot!

Wink Wink!

This video is from almost three months ago, so you've got to realize that Maia has changed quite a bit since then.  But it's still fun to watch.  At the beginning Jeanette asks her if she is all done, and what she is saying back is, "No mama!"

Here's another example of her burgeoning skills:

What a cutie!

Green Box

Sometimes it is more fun playing with the container that the toys come in than with the actual toys.  We often find that to be true in our house, especially if it comes in a small box-like container.

Thus, here are some ways that fun can be had with such a container.

First of all, trying to fit yourself into the container.  Maybe you can't quite fit, but it is sure fun to try!

 Another way to enjoy such a container is to bring along your favorite blanket.  That is often fun because it makes the box seem extra cozy!  And it is always nice to have that blanket nice and close!

Sometimes it's just fun to put your special blanket in the box and  then take it out again and put it back in.   

 Next thing to try is to put the box on your head like a giant hat!  Ta-da!  Just like this!

 Here is a close up of how cute you can look!  Think I can begin a fashion trend?

 It's always fun to see how many heads you can fit into one container.  Do you think we both can fit??  Well at least we can make loud noises in the box and hear it echo!

 Maybe we can fit if we face each other.  Well it sure is fun to put the box on mama's head none-the-less!

 Whatever the case may be, it is just fun to find different ways to play with a single container!

And another thing is,

 Happy St. Patricks day!!! 

A Speculation v2.0

     Saturday night we left Ginya's UHaul at the Huffman's because we didn't want to park it on our narrow street, and then Jeanette drove me out to get it Sunday morning to drive down to Grass Valley.  Since we were making a stop at a coffee shop on the way, we decided to drive surface streets through downtown over to the Huffman's rather than backtracking a few blocks to get on the freeway.  But we forgot about the Shamrock Run.  (Or rather, Shamrock Fitness Walk as noone seemed to be in much of a hurry).

     We were stuck not moving through several lights, so finally we decided to make a left, and ended up in a bus only lane, with a bus driver yelling at us out her window.  Sometime later we got out of that mess and managed to turn onto the street we wanted to be on, and thought we were home-free, finally heading to the freeway.  But while traffic had been moving (slightly), by that time the Run (Walk) had started and traffic locked up.  We were trapped, with the route encircling us, and sat watching light after light turn green then red again.  Eventually the police paused the Walk to let some cars through, which gave us hope.  20 minutes later they paused it again, and we managed to make it through.  After an hour and a half of being stuck, we finally made it out to the UHaul so I could begin my long journey.  Two of us were pretty frustrated, though I looked back and asked Maia if she was stressed, and she shook her head no, then giggled. 

     Many hours later, on the road, I began to see signs warning of high wind from Yreka to Weed.  The radio kept intoning over and over again that 'high profile vehicles were not advised.'  I began to pray, and watched the spray off of vehicles in front of me to see if any of it appeared to be suddenly whipped around in a gust.  The wind never materialized, and I made it through that section just fine.  Later though, when I talked to Ginya and Ed who had travelled through that section a few hours earlier, they said that they had indeed hit incredibly wind and been blown all over the place.  When they stopped for gas in Weed they could barely walk it was so blustery. 

     So I wonder, what would have happened had I passed through there an hour and a half earlier like I had intended?  I can't know, just as I can't know God's reason's for many things simply because I don't have the prerequisite knowledge in order to understand.  But I do ponder whether leaving earlier would have caused me to end up in a ditch somewhere between Yreka in Weed in an overturned UHaul.  Did God have us get stuck in the Shamrock Run in order to save my life?  Likely this is not the case, as the fact that I can imagine this speculation means it is probably not the correct reason.  More likely perhaps is that He wanted to teach us patience.  But there is something to be gained from this sort of speculation.  I know, from history, from the lives of friends, and from my own experience, that God is a good God.  So what do I do with that when I get stuck in downtown Portland for no evident reason?  I can change my mind and decide that He must not be good.  After all, I did pray that He would get us out of there.  I choose instead to trust that in this scenario, while I cannot get at His reasons in order to know whether He was acting for my good or not--I choose to trust that He was indeed acting with my good in mind.  I have example after example in my life to lead me to this conclusion, and there are a number of possible explanations, albiet none that I can know for sure, that would fit this scenario and show Him to be Good.  I choose to rely on the vast majority of evidence, and trust that this person I know is not two-faced and acting inconsistently with who I know Him to be everytime I am unable to see why He is doing things. 

January and Feburary Snapshots

Its been a long time since I (Jeanette) have written anything on the blog.  So I thought I would update you all with pictures. 

On February 7th we celebrated Michael's 30th birthday.  We had a small dinner party at our house with some of Michael's closest friends here in the area. 

For Michael's Birthday I made him a Cheese cake.  Yes, don't count the candles because I did not have 30 on hand to put on the cake.  Ooops.  

We also got the chance to visit our friends Danny and Marci and meet their new little addtion Juliette in Janurary.  Juliette was named in part after me!  They live in Coos Bay, which is south central on the Oregon Coast, so we got to say a little hello to the ocean!!

Our little Maia loves the sand.  She can't keep her hands off of it when we are on the beach. 

Its so fun to have close friends having kiddos too!

Michael had requested Ginya's homemade potato doughnuts for his birthday.  Since we were overwhelmed with sweet things already on that day, Valentines Day seemed like a better day for doughnuts.  I was able to get that recipe and while Michael was working the morning shift Maia and I were hastily making doughnuts for him to come home to!!!  They were so good and the recipe made quite a large batch, so we were able to deliver some Valentines love to the Leighs and Huffmans. 

Although sometimes life seems busy, there are always those sweet times of cuddling.  Since our daughter is

a go getter these moments of her falling asleep on my lap are extra precious and should be cherished!

We also got snow in Portland!!!  Yes compared to many of you who live in much more snowier places, this was not much and it was gone just as fast as it came.  I decided to head over to Laurelhurst Park to capture some photos of the snow before it melted.  While I was there, there were many children (since even the forecast of snow causes school to cancel) sledding down the little hills in the park.  Yes we love our snow when we get it.

We even bundled up Maia in her snow outfit and let her play outside in our backyard for a little bit.  She had a blast with this cold, wet snow. 

Well, that's a snapshot of the Miller's adventures in the past few months.  We have had other adventures, but they will have to wait for another post!