Miller Family Christmas Party

Ken, Brynn, Carson, Ella and I braved the snow and the hill up to Rick and Mindy's house for the annual Christmas party. We got in a little trouble because we kept Ella out past her curfew! But, she had a blast with all the Miller cousins!



Kim and Ella enjoying their dinner. I think Ella ate almost a cup of barbeque beef!




Ella and Keeley. They may be 4 months apart, but pretty close in most statistics.



Time for presents!



What's in mine?



Ella got a cute toy dog that can have her clothes changed and hair/tail brushed. She brushed a few people's hair in addition to the dog's. Thanks for playing Todd!

And Just a LIttle More Christmas Frivolity

Drew had to stay close to work on Christmas morning so we all headed to his house for breakfast and presents. Amber did a great job with the sticky buns - her first try, and we brought over the strata and Mountain Man breakfast. That's a lot of hungry people to squeeze in around the tree and just presents in general.

Here's a few pictures of the morning.



Ella on her new interactive horse.



Drew trying out Ella's new skirt



Drew and Jason having a good laugh (probably over something dumb I said)



Brooke and Justin checking out the cow with the missing leg. Brooke had fallen in love with this cow costume at our Trunk or Treat, so I was able to find one and was planning on waiting until they had a baby to give it to her. Since they were getting 1/4 beef for Christmas from us, I took the costume, tied one of the legs up inside it, and attached a picture of a cow minus a leg to it for their present. It took a minute to figure out what the costume was all about, but it was pretty funny once they did.



Chase and Jessica. It wouldn't be Christmas morning without Chase's Mickey Mouse santa hat.



Jason, Brynn, Jess and Chase

All Aboard!

We waited until the Sunday after Christmas to go to my mom and dad's with the kids. We didn't get everyone there, but most of us made it. Grandpa gave all the kids wooden puzzles to do (Carson still hasn't quite figured his out... and I broke mine right out of the box.)

Ella, got the granddaddy of all presents! They had bought this for her for her birthday/Christmas, but waited until Christmas to give it to her so she would be old enough to 'get it'. And did she ever! She's so tiny, though, that she would have to put her foot in the window of the engine, and pull herself over the top to climb aboard. This train is seriously about 10 feet long and quite an accomplishment to get all the pieces around a corner without losing one or having a serious derailment!

What a Funny Baby

Ella came to play one evening just before Christmas and I decided to put her in some Christmas jammies I had bought earlier in the year. Amber had once wanted some red flannel drop-drawer jammies for her, these aren't quite the same, but cute anyways.




We were watching Ever After and she was mesmerized by the big musical number in the park.



This is Ella's "on top of the world' look - and my current screen saver at work. It makes me smile everytime I look at it.




Playing with grandpa (see Amber's blog for the John Deere hat picture from that night)





She has now discovered the play room built under our stairs in the kitchen/great room. Yesterday she zipped in there as soon as her mom put her down and she was busy playing with all the food toys in the kitchen. Ken used to think I was nutso for keeping all the Little Tykes kitchen toys along with all the Fisher Price food that the girls used to play with when they were little. He doesn't think that now - and the memories we all have of the FP food whenver she (or the Miller neices and nephews) plays with it are worth storing them for about 20 years!

Christmas 2009

With school just ending, a fast trip to Vegas for the NFR's and Christmas was right around the corner, it seems like the holiday's just fly by. Good thing I took some time to put up most of my Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving, or they would never make it.

Bob and David came to Utah for their second annual 'Check on the parents after Christmas' visit. Wouldn't you know, Ken was in Florida again this time, so he has missed it both years. But, we were able to gather some of the kids and my cousin Joyce joined us for a fun-filled Sunday afternoon dinner with lots of noise and laughing. The down side of all of this is that it gets my mom extremely tired and even more confused than usual. I was able to get a few pictures of us all though -



Here's mom trying to enjoy the chaos.



How dang cute is he?




Chase, Brynn, Carson, Brooke
Me, David, Bob, Dad, Mom and Joyce
(Jason's behind the camera)

I love the weekend when the boys come to visit! The years seem to dissapear and who would guess we weren't kids anymore?