The Here and Now

Hello!  Its been awhile!  I have missed sharing life via blogging and so I decided to its time to get back on the saddle.  I was thinking I could do a recap, but then I would never do a recap because it would mean lots to recap, so I am just going to get to the here and now.  Its the end of March.  And it has been sunny and will continue to be sunny through next week!  At least according to the weatherman, who I should not put my full confidence in.  Its weeks like this that I need to remember when it is June 15th and it is still cloudy and cool and rainy, the sun does shine in Portland.  Spring has been beautiful and never ceases to amaze me!  I think that is also why these sunny days make it so amazing.  Its like the Wizard of Oz.  The winter is the black and white segment and then we go through a tornado and the sun comes out and its all colorful and beautiful.  Everyone comes out and there is life all around.  Parks are full of people, the bike paths are full of bikers besides the resilient commuters who made it through the black and white winter, and there is just color everywhere!  Pops of yellow, pink, red, white, purple all amidst the green foliage that surrounds us here.  Signs of new life!  Easter is here and we are reminded of New Life.  The beauty in that surpasses all new life in Spring.  We are getting to celebrate the reason for New Life in Christ and that is a beautiful thing!

So besides the beauty of Spring, we have been enjoying life as a family this week.  Michael has been off of school for Spring Break, so it has been nice to have him around without too much stress of school work hanging over his head.   We have had some mini family adventures and one lead us to the rose garden.  However there was no roses at the rose garden, it was a fun place for the kids to just run around.  And boy did they ever.  Maia had a bright pink dress on and she was probably the most colorful thing there. 

I just have to say I love this picture of Maia singing on the stage.  This is her free spirit singing and dancing not caring who is around and what others are thinking and wanting to sing because its fun to sing and dance on a stage.  I pray that never changes! 

Well there you have it.  A little update on what we are doing right now.  Yes our adventures are not extravagant, but it does not take much to be an adventure and when you are on it with these two little kiddos!  Happy Easter!

A little recap

 Now that Fall is in full swing, I thought it would be time to share a little of the adventures we had this summer.  We had a fun summer with Michael being off from school, we just felt we got some good family time in.  And we did!  We did some stuff around the Portland area.  We even got to join Michael on a work trip down in Florida in June.  In July we went to California and camped with family and friends.  Also on that trip we rode our bikes 245 miles in 23 1/2 hours (we slept for 30 minutes).  In August we did a little camping tour of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.  On that trip we rode the Ferry to Victoria, BC and enjoyed our day there visiting Buchart Gardens and exploring the area.  We even got to go again with Grandma Jo and did some exploring of the downtown area.  What a fun time we had as a family and with family and friends.  Lots of memories made.  So here in a nutshell is a few snaps taken from our adventures. 

This was at Hurricane Ridge

At Buschart Gardens

The Wheels on the Bus

Paxtons most favorite book/song is The Wheels On the Bus.  I think we sing it about 1372  times a day.  Ok that may be a little of a exaggeration, but lets just say its a common tune here in the Miller house.  The best, however, is when Maia gets into it with him!

cookies, costumes, and candy

Halloween!  We had lots of fun on this day including the day before.  We did a little cookie decorating.  Which was fun to get Paxton into it.  He was more passive and allowed his sister to pretty much decorate his cookie while he ate all the decorations off.  So of course Maia took that opportunity to continue decorating his cookie.  As Maia gets older she gets more and more excited to bake and cook.  A girl after my own heart (this is Jeanette writing by the way :)). 

 On Halloween night we went trick or treating with some friends.   A lady bug and a mermaid joined us.  Its always so much fun to go with friends.  Maia loved the fact that she got candy and even started asking for two candies.   hmmm...well we got lots of candy lets just say.  It took Paxton a little time to warm up to the idea, but once he realized what was instore she was not shy anymore. He would just grab a handful of candy.  Did I mention that we got a lot of candy??  So yes a very successful Halloween indeed.  Maia does not really remember her candy or care unless I mention it.  Paxton, however, knows exactly where it is and will point asking for  "anny"  and I have to distract by giving him something else like.....a banana.  He was a monkey you would think it would work.

Dancing Pumpkin!

 So this Fall Maia was part of a pre-ballet class.  As you can imagine, she absolutely loves it!  I have to be extra attentive during class so I can know what positions she is talking about.  Its like we are both learning something at the same time.  I never took ballet and now I am learning so much.  We practice together at home and she loves telling me what position to do.  So much fun!  The class before Halloween they got to come dressed in their Halloween costumes.  This year Maia was a pumpkin princess.  Really we just had a orange dress we found at a vintage store and I made a stem crown and wallah!!  She thought it was the best!  I thought she was pretty cute myself.  So here are a few shots of my Pumpkin Princess dancing! 

First position.  This has been a hard one for her and she gets so excited because she can do it now!

Her little class!