LOVE conference weekend

My two most favorite weekends of the year are when we get to hear from our Prophet and the apostles during General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

These are my reasons why:

1. The messages are SUPER uplifting. I am reminded of why we are here on earth, our purpose, and am given so much guidance and direction in mine and my families life.
Read them here: http://lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2011/10?lang=eng

2. It's RELAXING!! Life stops for a weekend and I am able to enjoy being with my family--the spirit is present in our home because our children are actually CALM and NICE to each other for almost the entire weekend! :)

3. PROJECTS!! We always do fun projects (usually involving cooking and making blankets) while listening to conference.

Here are some picture from our fabulous weekend

Saturday:

Patch quilt for my sister Jamie's little bundle of Joy!!! So CUTE!

ZEBRA "GO BSU" cake!

This was SO SUPER delicious and I totally stole the idea from my sister-in-law Clarissa!! I had extra cake and so the boys made their own zebra cake and LOVED it! They thought it was super fun to make--and they had OODLES of sprinkles covering their cakes.

Sunday:

Our awesome friends, The Speirs, invited us to walk around Albertson's Park with them in between the Sunday sessions of Conference. It was a beautiful day and the boys definitely enjoyed getting their wiggles out with their buddies.
Check out the DEER in the background.

HELLO TENDERNESS!Wiggles? What?Seriously, every time I bring out the camera they both go into ninja mode. This is a typical moment at our home.

Lucky for the boys there were MANY places to climb which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Jamie's much anticipated baby shower!

We threw a fun baby shower for Jamie a couple weekends ago. She has seriously been looking forward to her baby shower for YEARS!! She has always wanted a baby and now that she is pregnant she is going CRAZY!!! She can't help herself from buying clothes and all the fun stuff that babies need. It's seriously a dream come true for her so it was fun to shower her with all the baby goods!!

The picture frames said:

"Once upon a time", "There was a handsome prince", "He was loved",

"By his family and friends", "and they all lived", "happily ever after!"

Natalie has turned into a DIVA! & Kristi thought she could give me competition--I clearly won!
Jamie and Grandma Lloyd! And Jamie receiving fun gifts...

Jamie's in-laws surprised her and came for the Shower from New Mexico. Kristi & Tanier

The pregos with due dates:

Caitlyn (today)

Me (8 weeks)

Jamie (13 weeks)

Sarah (baby born last week)

Crazy sisters--pics from the shower.

We took sister pictures at Jamie's baby shower and it was quite the experience. Actually, it was nothing out of the ordinary meaning it was very comical. Miss Natalie is full of personality--as you can see in the pictures. Unfortunately, Nicole was at a choir retreat and so our pictures aren't complete without her.

I love this picture. It looks like I'm ringing Nat's neck (which is kind of true), Kristi looks constipated, and Jamie looks lost!

Benson-isms

Benson is our little comedian. It's almost like we have a mini-Spencer (Reece) and mini-Drew (Benson) in our home. Drew and Spencer have been best buddies since they were little munchkins. They are HILARIOUS when they get together and have similar personalities to Reece and Benson.

Here are some of the latest Benson-isms:

1. Benson and I were walking to St. Lukes to visit my Grandma Dunkley who just had knee surgery. As were we walking through the parking lot we saw my Dad. Benson got into his car and said, "My bum is on fire, my bum is on fire". My dad said "what"? Then Benson said, "well, not really, just pretend".

2. Today after church:

Benson: I want a cup of noodles-oh ya, oh ya (in a singing/ cool voice).

Spencer: Benson, where did you come from?

Benson: I come from Jesus.

3. Yesterday he was playing in the front yard on his easy-rider when I told him to come inside.

He started laughing and said: No, not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin.

And this is his pre-school picture. He's such a goofy kid it's hard to get him looking normal! :)

Pic below: Before school on Thursday.

They both LOVE school and have wonderful teachers!

We feel very blessed!

My Mom took them to school on Thursday.
For some reason I love dropping Reece off at kindergarten. He acts so grown-up. He usually jumps out of the car, tells Benson and I that he loves us and to have a good day, and then takes off running to his classroom so he can drop his back pack off before he goes to the playground. It's such a precious moment. I am lucky to have two awesome boys!

Girl party for Whitney!

I have an awesome Friend named Whitney who has been battling Colon cancer for the past three years. She is a total ROCK STAR and is the strongest lady I know. She is a fighter and is ALWAYS thinking of other people (even when she is super sick). She was in the hospital a couple weeks ago and when she should of been thinking of herself she was thinking of everyone around her. She called to tell me about Reece's kindergarten orientation that I missed to give me the goods and get me caught up.

We had a girls night at her house a couple weeks ago and it was so fun to be around her. My mom said it perfectly, "Whitney always looks so happy". She is a true gem! love ya girl!

Sarah and I have been best friends since 5th grade. We have all kinds of great stories we could tell about wetting our pants together, starting that "yucky"puberty at the same time, clogging, and many crazy college stories. We both are expecting boys only 9 weeks apart. She was due yesterday and I am due in 9 weeks.

Non-ghetto look + awkard prego picture = Juliann Pregnant.
For some reason I feel so awkward when I take belly pictures.
I guess that's obvious in this picture.

1st Miller camping trip!!!!

Obviously I dressed for comfort, not beauty. Bogus Basin is in the back of the picture. My only desire for the summer (next to having the boys learn how to swim), was I really wanted to go camping. The only camping gear we own is a tent--so we've been waiting to live closer to the parentals so we could use their stuff! Finally our opportunity came and we were able to go on our 1st MILLER CAMPING TRIP and it was a total SUCCESS!!

We went with our awesome friends, the Speirs! Lesli is one of my best friends here in Boise and Ryan and Spencer are two peas in a pod. They have three boys which fit perfectly with our two boys! We left on Spencer's 29th birthday and came home the next morning.

We camped out at Morris Hill which is right above Bogus Basin. We set up camp, ate a quick dinner and set off for a fun family hike. Reece was in heaven following Isaac around and then we stumbled across a huge mountain of rock which was heaven for all the boys. It was on the peak of the mountain which made the scenery beautiful. Benson found many "special" rocks and sticks which has been his fetish as of late.

Our camp ground was sweet and gave the boys plenty of opportunities to go on "adventures" (that's what they called them when they went off with Isaac to explore).
I was super worried we would be cold and so I literally brought more stuff for camping then I did for our 3 week stay in Seattle. The boys were PLENTY warm but ended up looking like this when we woke up (pic below). Side note: when we got in bed the boys were asleep and Spencer got into his sleeping bag only to find a HUGE HOLE at the bottom. I started laughing SO HARD I almost wet myself a dozen times. I actually laughed all night about it.S'mores were a HUGE hit. We had chocolate that Reece could eat so it was a family success. Most of the Speirs clan!! They are super fun!

I LOVE this picture of Benson. Lesli was telling them funny stories--but apparently Benson was in his own little world. The boys were so excited to sleep in the big tent that they asked to get in their beds after they ate 2-3 s'mores. It was fun to see them so excited about camping.

I told Spencer that God sent us all these boys and so it's our

obligation to become a camping family.

Let the good times roll and bring on the camping!

Birthday Girl-Natalie

My youngest sister, Natalie, turned 11!! We had a big party as usual. I have picture overload for this post, but it's for the journal--so have fun!

Recap of her party:

Each girl got a feather put in her hair

Then they decorated boxes for their lockers

Ate PIZZA!

Had delicious cupcakes made by her favorite sister-Juliann!!! hehe

Did their traditional run across the swim cover

Then went for a dive into the swimming pool.

Her party was a hit!! Happy Birthday Natty.

Dr.Spencer Ivan Miller--so handsome!

I LOVE this picture of Spencer. He had to get a "professional" picture for UW to hang on their alumni wall and for residency applications. I think he looks so handsome. I've seriously googly-eyed it over and over again.

We have a lot of fun news to share. Spencer is submitting his residency application tonight!! That means we should start hearing from residency's and getting interviews set up. We both are giddy about this year and all the possibilities that lye ahead of us. We are applying to about 20 schools and so we could be anywhere from Seattle to North Carolina and Ann Arbor to San Antonio.

We also found out that Spencer was elected into the University of Washington's AOA (Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor society). It's a big achievement to receive this award. To be honest, it came to us by surprise because we feel like so many of our friends deserved it and we didn't think there would be room for us. But, Spencer has worked hard and we are all proud of him for this honor.