Chills

I am only a casual country music listener, which is a huge step, since all growing up I was a country music hater. However, I don't listen to it all that often. I also admit I was pulling for Bo Bice to beat Carrie Underwood in AI. However, even though she was totally singing off key in some of her final performances on AI, that girl has proved she has some lungs on her. This little video of her singing "How Great Thou Art" proves that exceptionally, brought tears to my eyes. It's a beautiful rendition and worth sharing. Enjoy!

Easter Sunday

There are many traditions that tend to go along with Easter. One such tradition is the Easter Bunny. In an effort to delineate between fun traditions and those things that really matter, we "asked" the Easter Bunny to visit our house on Saturday morning. We started the day out with the "Jelly Bean Jog", a local family 5k run/walk. By the time we got there, 10 minutes before the walk portion started, they had run out of everything but large shirts for the kids and the adults...


After we got home, we found everything that the Easter Bunny had left.






This morning, Adie got to wear her new skirt to church. She was kind enough to pose for a few pictures for me.


Chase, on the other hand, proved a little more difficult.

For Aunt Kati

Brett's sister, Kati, is a very talented quilter / crafter / creative person. I believe I have posted a link to her blog here before, but it's been a while so here it is again for those who want some inspiration or just like looking at pretty things. In any case, that's not really the reason for this post.

A week or so ago, Adie was learning about the letter "Q" at preschool. They made a quilt in class by attaching little squares of fabric onto some construction paper. She liked her little quilt but, once she got home, she decided she needed to embellish it further (this girl could do crafts all day long - she really got the wrong mom for that). She started cutting up her quilt and adding other pieces of paper to it and making it a whole new quilt. I told her she was becoming like her aunt Kati. So, Kati, this piece of art is dedicated to you.

For the Grandparents

I am stealing my friend's blog title. She does a regular "For the Grandmas" post. I don't know how regular this will be, but this one is going to be very long and mostly pictures of things the kids have been doing since, well, about February. You know me, I am just not really great at putting up consistent posts. It just happens when the mood strikes and time is on my side. So, I imagine most people will skim or skip this post, but I am sure the grandparents and great-grandparents of these two will be tickled to see every single picture so I am putting them all in anyway. I don't feel like bothering with collages either, so seriously, this thing will be long. Enjoy!


Making Bed Slides
I did this as a kid but I never taught her about it. I guess kids think alike. Adie started it doing everyday during quiet time. I thought it was great the first time, but after watching her jump on the mattress as it bowed beneath her I decided we should make it a very limited activity. I got some great video of her jumping and rolling down though.



Backyard Work and Fun
The backyard continues to be worked on slowly but surely. We always think this weekend will be the last one, but it never is. Chase is always a willing helper, much to Brett's chagrin when he does things like spill purple pipe primer all over our patio pavers :) Adie mostly prefers to play in the sandbox. Best. Toy. Ever. Even if it means lots of sand in hair and lots of sweeping.


Visiting the Butterfly Garden
Adie's preschool went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens where they have a butterfly exhibit that you can enter and have all sorts of butterflies fly around and land on you. Chase and I tagged along. Chase is now somewhat obsessed with butterflies. He gets very excited when he sees any picture of one and loves them in person. He even got excited when he saw someone's butterfly tattoo at the store yesterday. He also really enjoyed the fish pond there. Adie liked it too, but I think she liked being with her friends even more. She has loved preschool this year.


Feeding the Ostriches
Ostriches, you say? You better believe it! There is an ostrich farm about an hour from our home where you can go and feed them. I don't recommend trying to touch them though. They are not nice birds so we just dropped our food pellets in a tray and let them get it on the other end. This farm is actually so cute though. They also have goats, deer, donkeys and even lorikeets you can feed. We went with a few of our friends and it was a really fun morning. I didn't realize my point and shoot camera was on the wrong setting most of the time though so a lot of my pictures are really blown out :( That isn't supposed to happen with a point and shoot, right? That's why I prefer them. I don't want to deal with settings, just want to take the pictures. Oh well, we still got a few good ones.




Preschool adventures and sleeping in boxes
I mentioned above that Adie loves preschool. A few weeks ago they had storybook day where the kids got to dress up as one of their favorite storybook characters. I gave Adie a few options, like Sister Bear (she loves the Berenstain Bears), Pinkalicious or Winnie the Pooh. Thankfully, she chose Winnie the Pooh, which was a really easy costume. It's what Chase wore for Halloween. We had read the original chapter book of Winnie the Pooh a couple of months ago and we both enjoyed it. I'd only ever seen the movie and never read the original book. Super cute. Also, apparently going to preschool just wears her right out because the other photo below here is of Adie completely asleep with her head in a Build-a-Bear box. She fell out of her bed and her head landed in the box which was next to her bed on the floor. It didn't even wake her up at all.

Quick Utah trip
We made a fast trip to Utah. Brett had some business to take care of and my dad had just had a hip replacement surgery, so we decided to run up there quick to give him some company while he recovered. We didn't tell anyone but family since it was a shorter trip. We did try to visit with as much family as possible but I am just horrible about taking photos and then our camera battery died (didn't bring the charger) a few days in so I didn't take many photos. However, the kids got lots of grandparents time in and got to see some of their cousins and aunts and uncles who live in Utah which is always a treat for all of us, but probably most especially Adie. She is very sentimental about family. The whole ride home (14 hours or so) she would suddenly burst into tears and tell us how much she misses her family and wants to move Utah. Um, maybe someday, maybe....
2 Days of Easter egg hunts
And now we're current...our friends invited us over yesterday for an Easter egg hunt in their backyard. The kids had so much fun we decided to do a repeat today. Yesterday, Chase wasn't sure what was going on and I had to help him look for the eggs. Today, he knew what he was doing, but he didn't want to collect any eggs before opening them because he knew what he'd find inside. I had to coax him to continue but, in the end, I think all the kids were satisfied with the loot. I loved doing it a week before Easter. Next weekend is crazy busy so it was nice to have a more laid back time to let the kids enjoy such a fun little tradition.


There you have it. I think that's somewhere near 40 pictures. We've done other things as well and kept ourselves busy, which should continue until baby #3 is born, at which point I am making few plans until I get my feet under me again. Hopefully, I can be a little more current and not have to subject anyone to this much scrolling again. Good times are always happening at the Millar residence. Here's hoping the next pics can be of our finished backyard!

P.S. The annoying date stamps appeared some time when the kids were playing with the camera. I wish I'd noticed that sooner, but what can you do?