Hunter Says Bye to the Bink

Last weekend we decided to take away Hunter's binki except for bedtime. I sat him down and had a talk with him telling him that he was a big boy now and he did not need his binki. He looked at me with a mad little face and said "I Baby!!!". I laughed so hard. It was the first time I had heard him put two words together and they happened to be those two words. It was hilarious!

However, it was amazing how quickly he started talking more. He was really mad for about a day or so but I was surprised how well he handled it. He is doing great without it now and saying all kinds of words. Tonight he actually said "Gaacciiee" his version of Gracie. It was so cute. I told him to go and get her and he was running through the house yelling her name. At bedtime I told him to tell goodnight and love you Gracie and he actually said it. Not very clearly, but it was adorable. Gracie's response of course was "Don't say that...you don't love me! I don't want you to say that. I don't love you." What a mean little sister and kind of funny given that at naptime she was kissing his cheek and telling him she loved him and wanted to snuggle him. Oh how cute sibling love can be.

Can't wait to hear what words Hunter says next!

Snowman Soup

Christmas Eve 2009
We shared the traditional German weiners from Gartners with some delicious bread and then broke open the Snowman soup from Nancy and had such a great time. The kids loved stiring their hot chocolate with the candycane and swirling the snowman marshmellows all around. Drinking the "Snowman Soup" was even more fun. They had such a great time and were definatly energized to open a few Christmas Eve gifts before going to bed for Santa. Such a great idea! We will have to make this a Christmas Eve tradition.

Trick-or-Treating

Halloween this year Gracie was a cute little fairy and Hunter was a Tiny Ninja. Trick-or-Treating this year was so fun. It was Hunter's first real Halloween that he knew what was going on. He was hilarious to watch as he ran full spead sprinting from house to house saying "treat" "treat". Then he discovered that he was actually collecting candy and when he got his first taste of an M&M in his bag he did not want to do anything else but eat. Gracie had a ball as well. This year she was actually able to tell everyone "Trick-or-Treat" and "Thanks". It was so cute to watch them. She really enjoyed ringing the door bells and knocking. We made it through most of the neighborhood before she finally wore herself out. They both ate way too much candy and woke up the next morning wanting to eat candy for breakfast.

Tanger 5k Run in Lincoln City, OR

Despite my lingering head cold and long week taking care of the family with the flu, we decided to make the trip to Lincoln City to participate in the Tanger Outlet 1st Annual 5k race. Joe, Randy, and James were all supposed to be running as well. In fact, Joe and Randy even had a bet going for $100 to the first one to cross the line. As it turned out neither one of them trained for the race and then Randy went to see his mom in Hawaii and Joe got the flu...needless to say it was just Susan, Andy & Cabella and myself that ran.

The race started in the parking garage at the outlet mall and went up to Devil's Lake State Park, back and through some of the local residential streets in Lincoln City. When the race started it was pouring down rain...this race wins the WETEST race award! The course was kick ass, up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill. The good thing was that it was not cold, just wet. The strong ocean winds actually felt good except that they were usually pushing against us. Andy and their dog Cabella took 10th place out of about 200 people. Way to go! Susan stayed with me through the race to help motivate me. Given that I had not ran in three weeks, was still trying to recover from my nasal congestion, and the challenging course, I think I ran pretty well (about my average). I forgot how good it feels to finish a race, and I was surprised that it actually felt pretty good to run in the pouring rain. Now I am looking forward to getting back to the training program and improving my time on the next race.

The Flu 2009

The flu was unavoidable for the Miller Family this year. Not sure if it was the Swine flu or just the seasonal flu, but whatever it was it was not fun. It all started one Fri. night when Gracie woke up crying with a high fever. By morning Hunter too had the high fever...and then progressed from there. Poor little Gracie had every symptom you could possibly have and a high fever that did not break for days. By the end of the weekend Joe was sick too.
We were trapped in the house for about 5 days and I was left to take care of them all. We slept...woke up...tried to get the little ones to eat...cleaned up...took a nap...woke up...lunch...clean up...bath...bed. Lots of snuggling, runny noses, trips to the bathroom to hold Gracie's hair while she vomited and lets not forget all the medicine. The flu was not cheap either...probably cost us about $200+ but we were just glad to get through it. Thankfully, we had our parents to bring us homemade chicken soup (the highlight of the weekend said Joe) and delicious apple strudle and more medicine. Lets hope that is the end of our flu experience for this year and next!!!

Some moments were better than others...when the kids felt all right they had a tea party in bed. How cute! Love the little snuggle bugs, and glad they are finally recovering!

Race for the Cure 2009

Wow! The 2009 Race for the Cure on Portland's Downtown Waterfront was the 3rd largest Race for the Cure in the U.S. There were 43,000+ people there and Joe, James, Randall, Gracie, Hunter, Grandma & Grandpa Rohling, and Aunt Susan and I were 9 of them. Susan, James, and I ran the co-ed 5k race. Even though the race started off slow, it was pretty fun and I finished within the time I was looking to finish in. After the run was over, we then walked the 5k with the family. There was sooo many people.

Here are a few of the interesting sights at the race:

Mt. Hood Jazz Run

During one of my recent trips to the track to train for the Susan G. Komen 5k, we discovered that Gracie has a passion for running. I had taken off for a timed lap around the track and did not know that I had a pair of little legs following me. When I finished my lap, Joe said to me "Look at your daughter." She was halfway around the track and just kept running. It was the absolute cutest thing I've ever seen. When she finished her lap she insisted on running another lap, and another, and this continued until she had ran a mile. After running an entire mile with those tiny little legs, I explained to her that it was time to go home. She replied with a "Please momma, just one more lap!" So...of course I let her do just one more lap. The next morning she woke up and said "Momma can you please take me to the track so I can practice my runnin'?".

Given that she had just recently ran over a mile, the next race I went to (The Mt. Hood Jazz run at Mt. Hood Community College) had a Kids 1k, so we decided to let her run in it. She did her little warm up stretches with all the other kids and then ran the race. Off course we ran with her (Hunter sat in the stroller and ate the whole way). About midway through the course she tripped, fell on her face, and split her lip open on the pavement. Poor Thing, her lip was bleeding but she still finished the race. She really thought it was cool that she got a goody bag at the end of the race, and her favorite thing in there was a blue toothbrush.

What a cutie...a track star in the making!