We are the Millers

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~I forgot it was Wednesday and almost forgot to post this. ~Ashlyn took my mom out to lunch for her birthday yesterday and it was the cutest thing ever.  She was so excited to take her Nana out. ~Everyone in our house is sick.  Except Ashlyn.  Somehow she has been able to avoid the plague in our house.    ~I find it funny that everyone is terrified of my son.  I know he's a handful but the fact that no one wants him one on one both amuses and irritates me.  If my 75 year old great grandmother can handle him and his sister at the same time, he can't be that bad! ~We weren't invited to any cool parties this year so we are staying in for New Years.  We are all sick anyway so I can't even guarantee that we will stay awake until midnight. ~My house is a disaster right now and I'm just too tired/sick/lazy to clean.  ~I'm so excited for 2016...

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~I went through a blog purge and deleted 200 blogs that either went private, got deleted, haven't posted in a few years or I just don't read anymore.  It took me 3 hours.  Social media can be such a waste of time. ~I changed our Christmas Eve box to the Christmas Eve Eve box.  We are never home on Christmas Eve because we have dinner with my Mom's side of the family so we don't actually get to enjoy anything in our box.  Not this year!  The kids will be able to put on their new matching PJs and watch the Christmas Thomas movie I got them. ~I'm a little nervous that the PJs in said Christmas Eve Eve box won't fit the kids.  I bought them last year after Christmas for like $3 each and they are both one size too small.  They look big so I'm hoping they will be ok.  ~The kids are driving me insane lately.  Bryan is going through a very serious tantrum stage....

My kids have a pretty specific bedtime routine.  While the timing is always flexible, the routine itself is pretty spot on.  They get a bath every other night.  On bath nights, they get their milk before bath, take their bath, get dressed, brush teeth, read a book and go to bed, all usually by 9pm.  On nights that they don't get baths, the routine is the same, minus the bath. Ashlyn's hair has been out of control lately.  It's been very dry and tangled and just a mess.  I asked for some help on IG and FB and got some great suggestions.  I've tried some already and they haven't really worked.  In an effort to help keep her hair from getting so bad, I figured I would try moving bath time up so that she wasn't going to bed with a wet head.  I thought this would help dramatically with the tangles. So we moved bath time up and hour.  Kids take a bath early but then get to go back downstairs for some milk and for an episode or two of their...

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~I don't know if my Mom's Christmas present is going to come in time.  I ordered it almost two weeks ago and it still hasn't been scheduled for delivery.  ~My husband and I are hooked on The 100.  It's really not a very good show but we've watched half the season already so now we are invested. ~We actually watched The Ridiculous 6.  I had been seeing stuff posted on Facebook about it so we checked it out.  It was so bad.  It was one of those movies where the funny parts were really funny but the rest was terrible. ~I need to change internet providers but I'm dreading it so much.  Our internet is really bad because of where we live and we don't have many options.  But I know how crappy switching can be so I'm not looking forward to it. ~I'm so over having a cat.  I love my Joey but he's old and lazy and has some crazy ideas about when it's appropriate t...

I can't believe my little girl is 4.  Instead of doing the basics like I always do, I asked Ashlyn a few questions.  I love that she can answer my questions.   What are your favorite things to eat?   ~broccoli, grapes, corn, peas, mac and cheese, spaghetti, noodles   What are your favorite toys?   ~my pink stuffed elephant that I sleep with every night, my horses, my new doll   What are you favorite things to do?   ~draw, color, play, have birthdays, go places   What are your favorite shows and movies to watch?   ~My Little Pony, Frozen, Charlotte's Web (she's been watching this a lot lately), Minions, Home, Daniel Tiger, Octonauts, Rescue Bots, Dinotrux, Dragon Tales, Dinosaur Train   Who do you like better, mommy or daddy?   ~both mommy and daddy (but she says if she had to pick one it would be mommy)   She doesn't have her 4 year check up for a few weeks but she's somewhere ...

I don't know how four years have passed so quickly but they have and I have a four year old. We started off the day with some donuts.  Ashlyn loved her donut, Bryan was really interested.   After donuts, blew up a bunch of balloons for the kids to kick around.  It's such a simple thing but they love it so much. We really just relaxed the rest of the day.  I cleaned up the house while the kids played and watched movies.  We ran out to get Ashlyn's Frozen cake in the afternoon but that was about it.   We don't do big parties for most birthdays.  We just do the big numbers, 1, 5, 10, etc.  But we did allow Ashlyn to choose a few people to celebrate with us.  This year she only picked a few people: her Nana, Gran and cousin, her Great Uncle and Aunt and her GKat.   We had spaghetti for dinner because that's what Ashlyn asked for.  We ate, had cake and she opened presents.  Pretty typical birthday party....

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~I've been on and off with blogging.  It's about every other week that I post only my SWW post and every other week I post an answer to a question or two.  It's still more blogging then I've been doing this past year. ~I am completely done with Christmas shopping!  Now I just have to wait patiently for everything to arrive so I can wrap it. ~The kids have been acting insane lately.  Running around the house like wild animals, screaming at each other, hitting each other, fighting non stop.  This better just be a little phase they are going through because, otherwise, Mama is going to need a lot of gift cards to the liquor store. ~I LOVE our new furniture!!!  I'm so happy we got it.  I wish it was a little smaller because I like open space but it really looks nice. ~I'm a little disappointed by our Christmas card this year.  I love the picture and I love the c...

Original List of questions:  Q & A Questions List If money was no object, where would you go on your dream vacation and what would you do? ITALY!! I've always wanted to go to Italy.  The only reason we haven't gone is because I didn't think I could tolerate the long flight.  I hate flying.  But if I could go anywhere, that's where I would go. I would want to see all of the cool tourist attractions like the Colosseum, the cathedrals and chapels, the fountains, the Vatican, the lakes, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Palatine Hill, Sistine Chapel.  There are just so many things to see and do. The Grand Canal is what drew me in to begin with.  Streets of water with gondolas as transportation just seems awesome to me.  Venice is probably where I would spend most of my time.  I would eat as much Italian food as possible, especially the pizza.  Blue Grotto looks like an amazing little place to check out too.  Getting into the...

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~This is my first private post.  I hate that I had to completely block off my life from certain people but I know it had to be done.  I'm just happy you're all still here with me! ~I have no idea if my email subscription is still working.  It stopped working because I had changed my blog name and had forgotten to adjust it on my feed burner but now it doesn't seem to be working at all. ~I'm almost finished with my Christmas shopping.  I love being done with time to spare! ~I always wait until I have purchased all Christmas gifts before I wrap them.  It's an organizational thing.  I like to separate gifts by person and wrap them all in the same paper for each person.  OCD at its finest. ~I'm a little too excited for our new furniture that is coming today. ~I was really surprised to see Home on Netflix already.  I wasn't sold on the movie at first but I gues...

I love my blog.  I love to write about things that make me happy.  I love to write about my kids and my family.  I love receiving comments.  I love that I've built some major friendships here.  I love that this is my personal space, my outlet. I love reading other blogs, too.  I love reading birth stories and seeing kid updates.  I love to see your fun trips and amazing adventures.  New homes, holiday traditions, fun toddler stories...I love it all! What I don't love is when people have no sensitivity about what they blog and post things just to be hurtful.  I don't like when people spread lies and I have to read about them on a blog instead having an adult conversation about issues in person.  I don't like when people air dirty laundry (theirs or mine) instead of being mature and keeping some content to themselves.  I don't like when people steal my blog name and pass it off as their own.  And I really don't like when peop...

Original List of questions:  Q & A Questions List Describe a typical day in your current life. I hate to say it, but our days are pretty boring around here. My husband leaves for work early every morning so he's gone before we get up. Ashlyn is usually the first to wake and she always comes to my room to cuddle for a little before Bryan wakes up.  Once we are all up, we get dressed and the kids get their milk.  They don't usually like to eat breakfast right away so we wait a little for that.  Once they do eat breakfast, Ashlyn usually sits at the dining room table coloring or doing some kind of craft.  Bryan either sits with her and colors or plays or he goes to the playroom to play.  Ashlyn will sit at the table all day long.  She loves to draw pictures and color. I typically clean while they are coloring.  I usually get laundry started or clean up the kitchen from the night before.  I'm always vacuuming the house becaus...

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~I decorated.  I needed to have some happiness in my home after the last few weeks of anxiety and family drama.  Now I want to wrap a few presents to put under the tree and put lights outside. ~An Amazon truck was stolen from our local facility.  I hope none of my recent purchases were on that truck! ~I have insomnia lately.  I'm tired but I can't sleep.  So I catch up on some shows or play on my phone.  Then I feel like crap the next day from staying awake so late. ~Date night was a bust.  We drove out of our area to see the movie I wanted to see because their website said they were showing it and when we got there, they weren't actually showing it.  So instead of going home, we saw a different movie, which kind of sucked. ~I prefer Instagram to Facebook.  There's so much less drama on IG.  (vmiller0918) ~I have way more storage on my new phone ...

Original List of questions:  Q & A Questions List List 10 things you would tell your 16 year old self if you could. 10 is just not a big enough number.  How about 16 things I would tell my 16 year old self if I could: 1.  You are not fat.  In 15 years, when you've had a few kids, you will kill for the body that you have now so stop worrying about whether or not you're fat.  You're not!  2.  These people you are surrounded by right now, they won't matter in 10 years.  Sure, you'll stay in contact with some of them, some will remain your friends, but most of them will not even remember your name in 10 years (nor will you remember theirs) so don't worry about them. 3.  Be more confident.  You don't find your confidence until you're much older and I can only imagine where you're be if you had found that confidence early on.  4.  Stop trying to grow up.  You don't know it yet, but there will come a day when you ...

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~I put up a few decorations for our Christmas card photos we had taken this past weekend and now I want to decorate the whole house.  I just can't help it.  The Christmas lights get me every time. ~We took about 100 photos and have maybe two good ones.  I guess I really only need one good one for the card. ~I know I should wait a little longer to order gifts but I can't help it.  I just want all of my shopping done.  Now! ~I bought my husband tickets to go see Gabriel Iglesias on Saturday and he doesn't want to go.  He sold the tickets to a friend.  Instead he wants us to go to dinner and a movie so we can avoid crappy traffic in Hershey.  Plus I've wanted to see The Martian since long before it even came out.  I still don't know if I should be offended or relieved.  ~My Christmas wants consist of stuff for our house.  Towels, home décor,...

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~I really want to get my Christmas tree out already.  My sister in law is coming next weekend and she always takes the photos for our Christmas card and I want it to be festive! ~I am so tired lately.  All I want to do is sleep.  All. The. Time. ~We went to our favorite buffet Saturday for my husband's birthday dinner with my family and I started my meal with a salad.  I mean, who gets a salad at a buffet? ~I could give two craps about Starbucks and their red cups.  Who cares people?! ~With Ashlyn's birthday coming up (right before Christmas), I've adopted the four gift rule for birthdays as well as for Christmas.  They have enough crap. ~I really, really, really, really, really need a hair cut.  It's out of control.  The kids are always pulling on it, it gets in my food, it's just all over the place.  I was considering getting it dyed as well, a pink...

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~I made my grandmother's cut out cookies and they were amazing.  I'm not good with cookies so I didn't expect much but now that I know I can make them, it's a dangerous situation. ~I really don't mind that it gets dark earlier.  I'm kind of a night owl so night time is always my favorite time anyway. ~I shared my big news on IG.  I couldn't help it. ~I don't really like the show Scream Queens but I can't stop watching it.  I need to know who the red devil is. ~I'm having a Partylite party in December and I can't wait.  I got so much stuff last time and I love their Christmas stuff. ~I can't wait to put my Fall stuff away and put my Christmas decorations out.  Yes, I'm one of those people.  I always try to wait until after Thanksgiving, though.  Respect the turkey. ~I'm trying to schedule a girl's dinner every month.  I had so much fun at...

We all say it at some point. 'I have no idea what I would do if that happened to me.' It's a little phrase that we say innocently, never actually expecting the bad thing to happen to us.  We feel bad for the friend or family, we grieve for them, with them but we still don't understand the extent of their pain.  And we never imagine to. And then it happens to us.  And we finally understand. And we feel bad because we could have done better for our friend in her time of grief.  We could have said more, done more.  But now we are a part of the club.  A club no one wants to be a part of.  We never expected it to happen to us.  My pregnancies were no walk in the park.  With Ashlyn, I had preeclampsia and was induced two weeks early.  Labor was long and hard.  I pushed for over two hours.  When she finally came, the doctors couldn't control the bleeding and it almost ended badly for me. With Bryan, the pregnancy was muc...

Original List of questions:  Q & A Questions List What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced? If you have been following my blog or my IG feed, I think you already know the answer to this question. The hardest thing I have ever experienced is the birth of my son at 16 weeks gestation.  I had a later term miscarriage but was able to deliver him, hold him and say goodbye to him.  It was the worst day of my life.  I'm still dealing with it almost seven months later.  I won't get into all the details here on this post but most of my Colson related posts are below. Colson's Birth Story Dear Colson These Days For My Husband Around Here It's Been Hard It's Your Due Date It Feels Like Yesterday What's the hardest thing you have ever experienced?

Check out Shannon at Life After I Dew  for So What Wednesday. So what if: ~I bought a tub of pre-made cookie dough from my nephew and I can't stop making (and eating) them.  It's just so easy to throw them on the baking sheet and pop them in the oven. ~I have been addicted to pasta lately.  And the worst kinds.  Buttered noodles, chicken rice, spaghetti.  My poor husband gets so annoyed since he is on a whole30. ~I have news.  Big news.  News that I kind of sort of want to share and kind of sort of don't want to share.  Wanting to share almost always wins out but we shall see. ~I'm so tired of cleaning up dog hair in the house that I'm actually considering shaving all of the dogs.  I know it's getting cold out.  I would get them sweaters. ~I'm making my Christmas lists and am searching for good deals on gifts.  You can never start too early. ~I am in love with how much Ashlyn has been drawing and writing lately but I h...

Original List of questions:  Q & A Questions List What is your love language? I think we have all heard of the 5 love languages.  I took the quiz 2 years ago and I just took it again and the results have changed quite a bit.  This is my most result email result: 11 Receiving Gifts, 8 Words of Affirmation, 6 Acts of Service, 4 Quality Time, 1 Physical Touch Receiving Gifts Don't mistake this love language for materialism; the receiver of gifts thrives on the love, thoughtfulness, and effort behind the gift. If you speak this language, the perfect gift or gesture shows that you are known, you are cared for, and you are prized above whatever was sacrificed to bring the gift to you. A missed birthday, anniversary, or a hasty, thoughtless gift would be disastrous – so would the absence of everyday gestures. Gifts are visual representations of love and are treasured greatly. Words of Affirmation Actions don't always speak louder than words. If this is your lov...

Original List of questions:  Q & A Questions List What are your favorite foods?  Share recipes. I'm pretty simple when it comes to food.  I'm also pretty picky.  More picky than my own kids.  The list of foods I like is much smaller than the list of foods I don't like.  My husband is the complete opposite.  He will eat just about anything.  This makes for interesting meals in our house sometimes. Most of my favorite foods are really simple and remind me a lot of home. Grilled cheese dipped in applesauce:  I think I got this from my mom.  It's literally just a typical grilled cheese sandwich that I like to dip in sweetened applesauce.  My husband thinks this is gross. I can't understand why. Lebanon bologna on white bread (Italian usually) with mayo:  this is one thing I eat almost every time I visit my Mom.  It's so simple and yet it's the one thing that always reminds me of home.  Lebanon bolo...

One of my favorite people is bringing back one of my favorite blog posts! Shannon at Life After I Dew  is bringing back So What Wednesday.  I always loved posting my 'so what's' every Wednesday so I'm happy she's bringing this back! So what if: ~We have been in our new house for almost two months and we still have projects that we need to finish.  I hate having dumb little lose ends but that's the way it goes, I guess. ~I hate having my hair up so I've had it down a lot lately and that annoys me too.  It's so long right now and I desperately need a hair cut but finding the time isn't exactly easy. ~I took the Love Language test for one of my Q&A posts and I got receiving gifts as my love language.  I know that seems kind of shallow but I do love me some romantic gifts. ~My husband is not romantic at all and, therefore, does not know how to speak my love language. ~I can't stand Halloween and I can't wait for the month to end...

Original List of questions:  Q & A Questions List What are your favorite/least favorite holidays and traditions? This is probably the easiest question on the list.  My least favorite holiday, hands down, is Halloween.  Spending ridiculous amounts of money on costumes for your kids (and yourselves) just so they can scour the neighborhood for candy that will only make them act like crazy little animals.  Going to haunted houses to get the shit scared out of you or spending way too much money on crazy decorations for your own house.  Spiders and cobwebs.  None of this sounds good to me. I get the appeal of cute costumes, I really do.  I mean what's cuter than an itty bitty baby in his or her first elephant costume?  Nothing really.  But that's about the only thing I 'get' about this so-called holiday. It's just not for me. My favorite holiday......Christmas!!!  And I get how that may be a little contradictory to my Ha...

Original List of questions:  Q & A Questions List List 20 random facts about yourself. 1.  I'm a stay at home mom of 2, a sweet boy and a sassy girl and I have one angel baby boy. 2.  I'm also a fur mama to 2 pugs, a black lab and a cat who will probably live forever. 3.  I drive a mini van and I hate it.  4.  I curse a lot.  Like a lot.  Like waaaay too much.  5.  I am not a morning person.  Not in any way.  My husband is.  6.  I separate my M&Ms by color before eating them.  7.  When I was a kid, I hated the color pink.  Now it's my favorite. 8.  I like teen-like movies and shows like Twilight, Vampire Diaries and The Originals.  And I get very angry when shows I like end.  Like Parenthood.  Best show ever.  (Also still a little emotional over McDreamy's death. 9.  I have weird questions like if babies can't talk and d...

I got this idea from another blog I follow a long time ago.  I've had this list of questions forever and now I think I'll finally start answering the questions.  One question per post in no particular order.  Feel free to answer the question yourself in the comments or give me some new questions to add to the list! List 20 random facts about yourself. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could. List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for. What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now? What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced? What is your dream job, and why? What are your favorite foods?  Share recipes! What is the thing you most wish you were great at? What is your love language? What do you think people misunderstand most about you? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years? What is your least favorite and favorite holidays and ...