Welcome home Miller family!

 A lot of people have requested photos of our home so I'll post just a few. We've been unpacked since the first week we moved in, but the decorating has been a different story. It's taking me forever. So I might have to post pictures of our rooms and the basement at a later time when i'm done making it look "Miller like"! And P.S. Spencer came to Rochester and picked out our home (I saw pics of it on the computer) and just for the record--he did an outstanding job. I LOVE LOVE the home. I love all the storage space, the yard, the open basement, and the kitchen!  This is a first--but I actually LIKE to COOK!!

 This little nook is just off the kitchen next to our kitchen table.  The kids LOVE this room.  They usually eat lunch here.  They've turned it into a zoo room, art room, and car collecting room.  It's a hit.

                                       This is the view from the front door when you first walk in.

                             The front door is on the left side of this picture.  You can see into the kitchen,

                                 and then the hallway goes to the master bdr and Tanner's room.

Upstairs bathroom--I love the paint color.  One of these days i'll get matching rugs (maybe next yr)!!

Friends and parade!

Spencer had a day off!!! Yea! His schedule has been pretty good, but he only gets one day off a week while he is inpatient.  Every other month he switches from inpatient to outpatient so his schedule can get a little tricky.  But we aren't complaning because it's far better then all the other programs we interviewed at.  We feel so blessed to be here and Spencer comes home happy every night so we are one happy family!

Tonight we went to the Byron parade with some of our friends.  We are so blessed to live here.  There are so many wonderful and fun families that are residents/fellows who have lots of kids and are in our ward.  Tonight we went with the Hull and Thurston familys.  Both families moved to Rochester the same week we did.  They are awesome families and great friends.  Here are some fun picture from the parade.

 Reece was dang cute.  Everytime someone would go past us he would wave his arms up and down so they would throw candy at him.  Since he is allergic to most of the candy, he would collect it off the street and then pass it to the other kids.

 Benson was elated because they threw out string cheese--his favorite snack!!

Jennifer, Ju, and Nellie

And the awesome kids! Love this picture.



Visitors!!!

 We had AWESOME visitors this week.  My sister-in-law Clarissa drove from Omaha with her two boys, Colby and Ethan to play with us for a couple days.  We seriously had so much fun.  I wanted to cry when she left.  The boys played their hearts out in the basement with all the toys and on the trampline with the sprinkler and otter pops.  It was so nice to have the kids entertaining each other so Clarissa and I could chat.  We didn't do anything outrageous, we just stayed home and played.  And we honestly had a party.  A BIG one.  I am one lucky lady because unlike most people--I actually LOVE my in-laws. Spencer has a great family.  They are fun and for some reason have accepted me and all my craziness.  Thanks for visiting, for making me laugh, and for being my friend!! Come visit again!

The Boys

 Summer time update!

1. Reece loves taking care of Tanner.  He is constantly in his face, making him laugh, and is a great little babysitter while I take a shower or need an extra hand. 

2. Best buddies: The boys have been awesome friends lately.  Two factors play into this awesomeness; 1) they are in a new place with lots of room to play and explore in and 2) their Mom isn't taking them from one thing to the next so they actually have time to play!  It has been so much fun to watch these two little boys laugh, explore, and play.  Their favorite game is called "Cars 1-2".  They play it all day long.  They are really happy here in Rochester--which makes me happy! 

3.  Little Tanner is just darling.  He's my little buddy that is almost always attached to my hip.  Some fun things about him are: 1) he's 8 months old! 2) he freaks out into these loud/screaming giggles when I take pictures of him 3) his first tooth on top just broke through his gums 4) he refuses to roll over and eat food (he will only nurse for the most part) 5) when he's mad or super happy he straightens his arms like in the picture below which is hilarious! 6) he's dang cute but likes to wake up multiple times during the night and then is up bright and early at 6:30am.  Fortunately for him, he is one darling little boy so you can't help loving him.

The boys are enjoying there summer and so am I! It's been fun and relaxing.  Just how Summer should be.

UW Medicine Graduation

Spencer is such a stud.  He really is my most favorite person, best friend, and loverboy!  What a package! He's also talented, intelligent, is many peoples "shrink", has great insight on many topics including religion and everyday life situations, and is just plain awesome. He worked so hard during these past four years.  The first two years he spent day and night reading and memorizing text books.  And the last two years he spent putting all that knowledge into clinical practice.  It's been so fun watching him become a doctor--a GREAT doctor! He put in so much effort, hard work, and dedication.  The best part of this whole process is that he absolutely LOVES what he does.  He comes home HAPPY and that is what is most important to me. 

Graduation really was awesome.  I don't know how else to explain it.  I cried throughout the entire ceremony.  My Dad said it was the best graduation he's been to.  I kept looking around the arena at so many of my dear friends and reflecting on what Spencer and our family has accomplished in 4 years.  It was an emotional experience.  I feel like we all have grown and hopefully become better people through it. 

We've had our ups and downs--but when I look back on the experience I would do it all over again in a heart beat (I'm not sure Spencer would want to relive the first two years--they were brutal).  We met the most amazing people and cherish our memories we share with them.  

I'm so proud of Spencer! Way to go Babe!  You worked so hard and accomplished so much. 

CONGRATS!

Here are a load of pictures from our weekend: (don't mind Spencer's black eye! He got it playing Frisbee)

 Check out how darling Natalie is!

 Spencer's parents gave him a Cardiology stethoscope for graduation! He was super excited.

 The boys playing the IPhone.  I don't hate many things--but I DO HATE ELECTRONICS.  They are so addicting to my little boys.  We seriously will never own a playstation or whatever those games are called.

                      I feel pretty lucky to have the best Mother and Mother-in-law! They truly are amazing.

                                                  Spencer receiving his M.D degree

Welp...do I need to say more?  We're somewhat crazy.  Still searching for the calm Miller family picture.

                                       This is me crying...yes the tears lasted for an hour in a half.

                           

 

 

 Our best friends, Traci and Brad Hansen.  We became friends the first day we moved to Moscow.  They are a great family.  Brad, Blake, and Spencer spent many hours studying together--they have some pretty awesome stories from those first two years of studying.

                              My dear friend Paola!  We became friends our 1st year of school

 I forgot her name, but she interviewed Spencer for Medical school and was one of the ladies that got him into University of Washington! Thank you forever!

                                                         Chad and Tanner Chad Miller!

Tender picture of Spencer and his Mom.  He was fortunate to be raised by his parents.  They were huge influences on him and definitely played the biggest role in Spencer becoming the person he is today.

Little Tanner

I feel terrible for little Tanner.  So far he is running down the same road Reece went when he was a baby.  He had a severe reaction to Bananas on Friday which gave me a lot of anxiety.  Usually I deal with this stuff pretty well, but I've been a little more concerned with Tanner's episodes; mostly because when Reece was this young his excema was only moderate--not severe.

Tanner has refused to eat solids until last week.  He literally kept his lips tightly closed and shook his head back and forth when I tried to give him solids.  Luckily this week I've gotten him to eat a couple bowls of baby food.  On Friday I gave him half a container of bananas.  His face started to turn red with lots of hives.  I wasn't to concerned because he gets hives almost daily when I nurse him (or even at random times during the day when he's not eating).  Unfortunately, the hives got bigger, his face became a deeper red, and all of the sudden his face was super inflamed and he was mad.  I took him into the shower and gave him benadryl.  Then I started freaking out because it wasn't getting better.  I then put all the kids in the car (they were still in their pi's) and started for the hospital just in case we needed extra care.  Once we got to the parking lot I checked on Tanner and he was laughing, holding his toes, and his face wasn't nearly as inflamed as it was 15 minutes prior.

So that brings us to today.  I fed him breakfast (pears and nursed him) and then his excema went crazy. I started to panic once again and called the pediatrician.  We were fortunate to get one of the Mayo pediatricians that trains the other residents (wow....she was amazing).  He obviously has terrible excema, food allergies, and we wouldn't be surprised if he ended up with asthma as well.  We'll keep our fingers crossed he doesn't get that.

Rochester, Minnesota

Hey Friends!

I know many of you are wondering how the Millers are doing far far away in Minnesota---so here is an update (I'm slightly hyper right now so hopefully this isn't to annoying):

1) House: Spencer went to Rochester a couple months ago and picked out a house for us (I helped by looking at pictures online).  Not only is he the greatest husband ever--and A great doctor (he is doing his first shift as we speak right now so I'm a little giddy for him)--but he is extremely skilled at picking out a home that is perfect for our family.   Our home has tons of storage space, a large backyard, big kitchen, and lots of room for the boys to run around in.  We feel very blessed to be here. 

                                                    The boys and I in front of our home.

2) Neighbors: Awesome!!! Is all I have to say.  There are little boys in every direction surrounding our home.  Can it get any better???

3) Ward:  We are in the coolest ward!! Seriously.  It's amazing.  They call it the "resident" ward  because half the families are residents or fellows. I think they said there are around 25 families who are just like us--meaning in residency with kids.  The girls in the ward are darling, fun, and very accepting.  We had three invites to parties today--we feel very loved.  And...they called me as ward organist...not a surprise.  The primary is hilarious because both Reece and Benson's classes are huge and full of BOYS!! Benson's teacher is diabetic which is also a blessing.  It makes me giddy thinking about our ward--I have a feeling that we are going to absolutely love it here in Rochester. 

4) Residency:  Spencer is on his first shift right now.  I was following him around the house being slightly annoying telling him how excited I was for him when he said, "well, you're giddy for me to start residency, and I am worried I am going to have to save someones life tonight."  I stopped annoying him by taking one last picture and sending him on his way! I'm excited for Spence to start residency.  We've had many people tell us how amazing this program is--including how family friendly they are.  Most programs you never see your family--this program had the best schedule out of all the places we interviewed.  He will still be super busy--but he will also have time for our family. :)

I'm seriously a dork....a real one.  Spencer thought it was rediculous I needed a picture of him before he left (notice his "my wife is crazy" look on his face).  I thought I'd ramp up my dorkiness by taking a picture of him getting into his car!!! Hahaha. It makes me laugh thinking about it.

I also should add that he only gets to wear scrubs when he in on the night shift or in surgery.  The majority of his time he will be wearing a suit.  Mayo is one of the only hospitals I know of that requires their doctors to wear suits.  Spencer said that is the only downfall he has found so far.

 

                       Spencer has his own clinic two days a week on the 17th floor of this building/hospital.

5) Blessings: Spencer and I feel so blessed.  We have prayed for the past 4 years that we would be sent to a place that would be best for our family and best for Spencer's training.  We have definitely landed in the right spot.  The Mayo Clinic is a unique place.  It employs 1/3 of Rochester and bring in 15 times the amount of residents living here.  So the whole city is pretty much run by Mayo.  People are so friendly and kind.  When we first moved here we had numerous neighbors stop by to introduce themselves--one neighbor even brought us an Amish pie from the farmers market.  Our boys are happy here and so am I.  We look forward to the unique opportunities that are ahead of us and hope to survive the crazy winters!!