Ben is 10!

Ben is an absolute sweetheart. He loves everybody and everybody loves him. He can turn a stranger into a new friend before you can blink. He is a great big brother to Emma & Mark. One cute thing about Ben - last week we put up our Christmas tree. We have gold ornaments and we have some plastic balls and some glass. As we were decorating the tree I kept hearing balls bouncing on the floor. After the fourth time I tuned around to find Ben bending over and dropping two balls simultaneously six inches from the floor to hear the sound they made when they hit. This was to see if they were glass or plastic. He would then know whether to hang it up high or low on the tree. Thankfully none broke before I caught his very discerning experiment. I love him so much, he makes me laugh. Our family would be so boring with out Ben here to keep us laughing. He is always full of interesting facts. I love when he shares his new-found knowledge with me.

We are so blessed to have Ben in our lives.

Abby is 12!

Abby is a great gift to our family. She is always willing to help and even volunteers to help do things. She is also extremely creative. She makes the cutest games for Ben & Emma to play. She made them a whole packet of original games to play during General Conference. I think I am going to submit one of the really cute games to The Friend magazine. Her creativity goes to crafts as well. She makes the most darling cards and gifts. She is always making us encouarging cards.

Abby has a very sweet spirit. I find her up in her room reading her scriptures or her personal progress books. I could not ask for a better big sister and role model for her younger siblings. We are extremely blessed to have her in our family.

November

November brought Ben's 10th birthday and a trip to Connecticut to see our dear friends the Scharmans for Thanksgiving.

All Ben wanted for his birthday this year was a new bike. So we went out to dinner as a family. He picked Red Robin. We then went and got him a new bike. It was relaxing and fun to spend time together after a crazy season of sports. I am really enjoying having a more flexible schedule.

Our eight hour car ride to Connecticut went very well. The children, especially Mark were very good and we did not hit any real traffic. It was so good to see the Scharmans again. We hiked at a nearby park that has a waterfall on Thursday while the the turkey was cooking.

Mike & Clark trying to relax:

Mike didn't get too wet afterward:)

On Friday we went to an old cider mill and got the most delicious cider and apple doughnuts.
Then Mike, Abby, and Ben got to go on Clark's submarine. Mike loves submarines. He reads (on purpose) books about them.

On Saturday we went to Boston. I had not been to Boston since I was a little girl. I LOVED it. It is a beautiful city. It is clean and pretty. There is a lot of historical things to see and yet it still is in a big city. We got to see the USS Constitution, which Mike also loves. He has a big painting of it in his office.

Doesn't Mark look happy?

The children saying,
"Yeah, we are on a really old ship!"

We then went to Bunker Hill monument. We (as in four adults and eight children) then climbed the tower that has 294 steps.

We then went to the Old North Church and Paul Revere's house. We got there too late to go inside his house.

That is the Old North Church in the background.

October

I thought I should post before the end of the year!

By the way, here is a picture of Abby, Ben & Emma on their first day of school. It was raining that day so this is the first picture I have ever had to take inside on the first day of school in 8 years.

Abby turned 12 in October and Mark had his first Halloween (technically his second).

Abby's birthday was really fun. She got to have a friend birthday party this year. She planned inside and outside games. It rained that day so we had to do the games inside. She wanted cheesecake again for her cake and I got a recipe for stabilized whip cream so it would hold it's shape for days, from a friend (thanks Krisanne). We even used the left over whip cream to squirt on top of their strawberry drinks to go along with their pizza. I got her a basket of "big girl" stuff a couple of days before on her real birthday. She got razors, shaving cream, lip gloss, mascara, and some more chlorine shampoo and conditioner for swim team.

She also got her traditional birthday gift of assorted hot chocolate and a box of 80 creamers.



Here she is the morning of her birthday with Ben.



She was a really sweet big sister and let her little brother and sister hang out with her and her friends.




Here are Mark and Mike at the Church's "Trunk-or-Treat".


He's a monkey (I'm talking about Mark not Mike).


Here are the children on the night of Halloween. I could not find my camera so I had to use my iphone. Sorry for the bad lighting. Emma is a table, Ben is a robber, Mark is a monkey and Abby is a black-eyed "p" (with the help of makeup - not anyone's fist).

We Love Our Brilliant Children

Mark's First Birthday

Yes, I still want to blog. Yes, I have three children in three different sports right now. Yes, I am getting their uniforms clean right before they need them. Yes.......

Mark had a really great first birthday. He is just now finishing up his "thank-you" cards.

He is absolutely precious. We have the best time during the day to be together just the two of us. He still takes a morning and afternoon nap. I love to go and rock him and read to him with out any other noises in the house. He is rather sad in the mornings to see Mike go and then to see the big yellow bus take Abby, Ben & Emma away. I guess I am just not as cool.

My First Olympic Distance Tri

Well here I am finishing my first Olympic distance triathlon a couple of weeks ago. I had a CRAZY summer and did not get to train as much as I wanted. BUT.... I did finish so I can check that off my list!

It was a 1 mile swim, 25 mile bike (in the Shenandoah mountains - which meant at least 10 miles were uphill - there aren't any hills to train on in Chesapeake :) and I finished off with a 10k. Let's just say the 10k was not pretty at the end. I wish I had Lisa McKee there pushing me a long again.

Mark's Trick

Mike wanted me to post this:

Emma turned 8! Ben has had 27 stitches this summer! and Mark started walking!

My baby girl turned 8 at the end of the July. She wanted a fun "glamor" party. So we invited a bunch of girls and played pass the cell phone ( a version of musical chairs), dress-up relay tag, guess what glamor tool is wrapped up in wrapping paper and we did makeovers for all the girls and took their pictures and put them in their party bags filled with other glamor accessories. It was a lot of fun but I am glad it is over.

The next day was her birthday and she got to get baptized on her birthday which is pretty cool!
This is a picture of Emma, Mike & I, my mom and dad (Rexanne & Karl) and Mike's parents (Dave & Dea).

Last Wednesday I thought it was the start of our more relaxing summer. I had a good run with Schylar Robertson in the morning and then we went straight to the beach. We had a blast playing at the beach. When I got home I literally thought "Wow! This is what summer is supposed to be about." Thirty minutes later Emma accidentally hit Ben with a golf club. He was very brave considering all the blood. I took him to President Merrill's office to have him stitched up. Now he has seen a plastic surgeon 6 times in his life. He had 15 stitches put in and needless to say we now have a rule no one can stand near anyone who is swinging a golf club.




To end on a happy note... Mark started taking a few steps last night. He has walked later than my other children probably due to the fact I am not pushing for his extra freedom and that the children are happy to carry him where ever he needs to go.

4th of July

I thought I should put some 4th of July pictures up before it is the 4th of August. When we lived in our old house I asked Mike to build a swing set for the kids during the 4th of July weekend. It ended up being 104 that weekend. Since we are in a new house with out a swing set I suggested the same idea - "Why don't you build a swing set this 4th of July weekend?" Thank goodness it was in the low 80s.

Did he do a great job or what?

Our Trip to Utah....Back in June!!!!

I know, I know....where have I been? I have been trying to keep my head above water. It doesn't seem to be working though. Any suggestions?

We had a great time visiting Mike's family and we also got to see my brother's family (Michael) and his new baby boy - Landon. Wow! I can't believe they have three kids now. Michael is going to the Y and is living in the married housing there at Wymount. We told somebody that, when we got back to VA and they said they called those apartments the "bunny hutches".

We got to take a tour of the LDS studios - where they film lots of stuff.....Mike's cousin works there and gave us an awesome tour. Here is a picture of Mike and Mark taking really good care of the costumes.

Of course we had to go to Cafe Rio!


We went down to St. George with all of Mike's family. Mike and I love St. George. This was the second time we have been, and we loved it even more. This is us at Snow Canyon.

This is Ben after he did a "Michael Phelps" butterfly (without goggles) into the corner of the hot tub in the pool. The funny thing about this is that Mike and I were already at the "instacare" place getting Mark's ears looked at when Mike's sister (Kym) called telling us Ben needed stitches. Mike wanted him to get the stitches done there and I wanted him to get them done in the ER at the hospital in the same parking lot - with a plastic surgeon because it was on his face. When Mike saw the gaping hole between his eyes he agreed that Ben needed a plastic surgeon. The doctor said he could see the bone. Ben has been to the plastic surgeon three times in his life now.


We had a chance to stop at Cedar Breaks on the way home. It was gorgeous and cold.

We also hiked up the Y at BYU. WOW!!!! that is a steep climb. It was a beautiful view once you got up to the top.

I Love Half Birthdays

This is what I have been doing instead of blogging - making and eating cupcakes ..... too many cupcakes :)

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

That is why I am not putting any pictures of me doing my first triathlon after Mark has been born. I am 20 pounds heavier than I was from my last triathlon. I could feel it when I was racing, but I had no idea I looked that bad in a bathing suit until the professional pictures were emailed to me!!!! I will not be buying any of those race pictures. My race went great though. I wanted to finish in less than 1:30 and I finished in 1:25. That includes the time I spent running back to the transition area after I forgot to put on my race number. I will not forget that again. I felt like an idiot running back for 3 minutes through the starting corral and everything! Well, at least I did not get disqualified.

I did this race with my dad, which was totally fun! Thanks, Dad for doing this with me.

Instead here is a Easter picture of the kids I had done last night.

Mom, I don't have any Looks!

We started doing family scripture time during breakfast because the night time was not working with all of their extra-curricular activities. I have each of the children read three verses and then explain what it means. Sometimes I have another child explain if I think they were not paying attention. You would not think there would be enough time in 9 verses for a fight to occur. I am here to tell it is very possible. Sometimes someone is reading too fast then another time someone is reading too slow. Yesterday I couldn't help but giggle.

Ben was reading and he got carried away and when he read the part, "Hosanna to the Lord..." he sang it in the most sweet little boy voice. Abby started laughing which hurt his feelings. Then I told them they need to pay close attention because it is going to say "Look!" a lot of times and we need to pay attention to those parts.

Ben said, "Mom, I don't have any Looks!." Which made all of us started laughing - which then hurt his feelings again. Needless to say Ben needed lots of hugs yesterday.

Shamrock Marathon 8K

If I were in school it looks like I have failed, but I am taking this as a victory. I finished faster than my training times. I am still not as fast as I was before Mark was born, but I am going to get back there.

LAURIE MILLER #2411

CHESAPEAKE, VA

Age: 33 Gender: F

Distance	8K
Clock Time	56:53
Chip Time	54:17
Overall Place	3850 / 7089
Gender Place	1863 / 4289
Division Place	300 / 679
Age Grade	44.6%

How Long Is 6 Weeks?

Six weeks is 42 days, 1,008 hours, 60,480 minutes and 3,628,800 seconds. This is how long I went with out a dishwasher. The repair company could not find the right part and when they thought they did have the right part they came to install it, with much jubilation from me, only to be greatly disappointed when it was not the right one.

This occurred over Christmas and New's Year's. I had 30 people over my house for Christmas Eve, then had 4 relatives from out of state come stay for a week. I had a New Years' Eve party at my house and all the while did I think to delegate anything to my children? NO! Not until the dishwasher was fixed did I have an epiphany.

I realized my children were quite old enough to help in the kitchen. Since we have 3 older children I have delegated dishes (loading & unloading the dishwasher and hand washing any pots), counters (wiping all counters, table and Mark's high chair tray), and sweeping. I made the rule that the counter person had to go before the sweeping person to avoid any fights!

This has been going on for 2 months and I can not believe I was so slow to think of it. I sometimes have to help them finish if they have not finished before their extra-curricular activities. So far they have been doing a great job and I feel much relieved.

This is what I found this morning upon opening the dishwasher after Emma loaded it last night.



So I think I need to go over loading instructions again!

Personalities !?

As I watched my two oldest children go out to the bus stop this morning, I was struck at how different they are. I love them both so much for what they are and what they bring to our family.

Abby calmly walked out to the end of our driveway with her cute messenger bag slung across her shoulders. I knew each of her binders was organized to the hilt with each paper placed where it belonged in each color coded divided area.

I then saw Ben running haphazardly out to the bus (which was waiting for him) all the while putting on his gloves and hat. He was running with his back pack unzipped, I could see crumpled papers shoved into his binder and backpack.

The funny thing is they both make straight A's!

A Quick Mark Video - 2

A Quick Mark Video - 1

Why are there only 24 hours in a day?

This is all the time I have for now.

Enjoy!

I Think I Still Have A Few Extra Hormones

I saw this ad in a magazine and thought it was so cute. I did not notice until the second glance that the blanket was in the shape of a woman's body. It made me melt inside even more! O.K. maybe I did have a few glistening tears but just a few :)

Wii Are Family!

My parents got a Wii Fit for Christmas and the grandchildren love it. This is all of them practicing their yoga "Warrior Pose".

I love it!