Blog going private....

I have decided to make my blog private. I still want all my family and friends to be able to access it, so please send me your e-mail address so you can follow our crazy life! Thanks!

Chill day

At 7:30am today it was negative 13 degrees and our high for the day was around 15 degrees. So what do you do on a cold, miserable day in a little town like Moscow where the only places to go are Walmart and the library? You have a "chill day"!

There are a couple rules:

1. no cleaning until 30 minutes before the husband comes home!

2. you can't look at your "to-do list"

3. can't do any laundry

4. you must relax and have fun.

The boys and I had a blast. We slept in, watched Peter Pan, decorated our neighbors door (she had her tonsils taken out this morning), made a paper chain counting down to Reece's birthday, made numerous forts under the piano bench, and started reading John Grisham's new book. Spencer came home for FHE and then we were off to Spencer's volleyball game. The boys were hilarious as usual--Benson flirted with the ladies while Reece ran up and down the court giving Dad high fives. To top off our fun-filled stress free day I put the boys to bed and went to Sheri's for dessert with the ladies! Now it's time to blog and off to bed! Good-night! :)

Little chef

While Benson was in the hospital Reece stayed with Grandma Miller and watched Ratatouille with his cousins Kylie and Hailey. He then would help Grandma cook and would act like he was "little chef". Anyway, yesterday he decided he wanted to help me cook. So we made chef hats and made Aunt Dani's famous magic bars for our neighbors. He's in a new stage where he wants to help with EVERYTHING. He follows me around all day helping me with anything he can. He's a mama's boy and I love it!

Snow skiing champion

Reece had his first experience snow skiing and LOVED it. He wasn't so sure about the idea as we were walking to the bunny hill so I had to put mine and Reece's skies over my right shoulder, and hold Reece on my left hip. It was a funny sight and I wish I had a picture. Once we got to the conveyor belt Reece was a little more excited and we were on our way. We had the bunny hill to ourselves for an hour. Reece was a little champion--he kept yelling as we skied down the hill "I'm going snow skiing". He was fearless and loved going fast. When we were done he told me we had to go snow skiing "tomorrow". He's such a great kid.

Grandma and Reece hanging out in the lodge while I got a couple runs in myself!

Benson in PICU

Instead of re-writing what happened to Benson--i'll just post a letter I sent to our family about Benson's condition.

Dear family and friends-
I thought I'd send an update on Benson's condition. Quick recap: Benson went into the ER Saturday night and was admitted into the Pediatric ICU unit because of severe dehydration and a high blood-sugar level of 480 (normal is between 80-120). After a couple hours of intense poking, drilling, and minor surgeries they were able to get the IV in and start the process of hydrating him (we are fortunate he is with us today--we almost lost him). After getting a blood sample it was apparent he has type one diabetes. He went through the typical process babies go through when they get diabetes (dehydration, very wet diapers, vomiting, and rapid breathing caused by the extra acid in his body). We had awesome doctors and nurses who helped us figure out the right amount of insulin he needs. We also had a really good diabetes education counselor who taught us everything we need to know about diabetes and how to control it.

The last 18 hours have been really good. Benson is back to his normal self and his blood-sugar level has been in the range we want it to be in. We were just discharged from the hospital (yea!) and are happy to be home with our little champion. He's a fighter and I am sure we can credit some of that to his older brother who is always playing or shall we say picking on him. We have had many miracles in the past couple days and feel fortunate to have Benson home with us. Thanks for all your prayers and support. You don't realize how much that helps until you are the one receiving the blessings. We have felt many prayers over the past couple days and are grateful for the end result.

Love you- Spencer and Juliann

Not only did we spend 5 days in the hospital, but on the 4th day we were in the hospital my sister Jamie got married and Spencer's sister Natalie had a baby. It was a crazy day and thank goodness we survived and had awesome nurses to help out with Benson and Nicki to take care of Reece!




Reece in his suit ready for the wedding!

Benson on the 3rd day in the hospital. This was taken right after they took all the cords and stuff off him. It felt so good to hold him free of cords.

Natalie, Kylie, and baby Jacob!

Jamie & Matt Jimenez!

Christmas in Boise

For Christmas Eve we got dressed up and went into the stable and read Luke 2. Nicole rode her horse into the stable and my dad and uncle brought the cows in! Spencer was the narrater! It was a lot of fun.

Christmas day we spent with my family and then in the afternoon we went to the Millers. This is a picture of Kylie dressed up in her princess outfit. She let me do her hair!! It was so fun!Grandma & Grandpa Miller gave Reece this car set which he LOVES!!

Grandma & Grandpa Dunkley also got him some cars--little boys can never have enough cars.

Benson was quite excited to have a toy of his own--no sharing with the older brother!

Let it snow...

Spencer couldn't find his hat and so he's wearing mine! :)

Reece and Laney! They are so darn cute together!

Snow angels!

Thanksgiving!

Spencer had a week off for thanksgiving (technically he had it off but he still had to study quite a bit) so we spent the week in Boise with our families! We played lots of games, saw the movie "Twilight" (which was awesome), found my sister's wedding dress!, and had a much anticipated relaxing week! We also bought something we thought we would never buy.... a mini-van! Yes, it is true! We bought it at Peterson autoplex where Spencer's Dad works. We are loving the extra space that mini-van's offer--it's actually a really nice van and drives really well. But, we think it's hilarious we have a mini-van and joke about it constantly. I told Spencer we need more kids to fill it up!! :) We are also selling our Honda accord--if anyone is interested in buying it see our ad on craiglists (http://pullman.craigslist.org/cto/947953737.html).
Every year we take family pictures during Thanksgiving. Usually the first or second picture turn out decent, but anything after that is a disaster. I think this is my favorite one. Natalie looks hilarious, Benson looks like an old man, and the rest of us have gone from real smile, to cheesy smile. Gotta love it.

Grandma and Grandpa Miller with Colby and Benson

SPencer's family has a tradition to go bowling after they eat Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving day!

Precious bothers!

The Millers new Hot Rod!!! :)

Happy Turkey Day!

Please read the following story and the procede with this post...
http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/585559.html
This turkey is my Mom's turkey. She raises turkeys each year and then slaughters them just before Thanksgiving. This big guy got out a week ago and ended up less than a mile down the road. The funny thing about the article is it states that there aren't any farms in the area, but they have a big sign in front of their house that states "Fresh Turkeys for Sale". I guess he decided that since he didn't receive a pardon, he was going to make a prison break.
This turkey may have "ruined" Thanksgiving but will make for a Merry Christmas!
(this is a post I stole off of my Aunt's blog--but I thought it was hilarious! This would only happen to my parents!).

Miller craft time-Thanksgiving style!

We did this for FHE on Monday. Reece was so funny. I asked him what he was thankful for and he said, "people". I kept asking him if he was thankful for anything else and he would say, "nope, just people".

Just chillin' with the boys

This was taken after Spencer spent 4 hours learning how to stitch a pigs foot! I guess they have similar skin to humans and so they practiced on pigs!

Best Buddies!

Benson dressed up to watch Saturday football!

What a stud!

It has been so cold, windy, and gloomy over here! It is dark by 4:15pm (someday it's dark by 3:30pm) and both the boys have been sick so we really haven't left the house. It's a good thing we have awesome neighbors to keep us entertained. Kennedy is 5 years old and comes over almost daily to play with Reece. They have become best buddies (and have been sick buddies this week). Their favorite things to do are paint, color, build towers, and read books on Reece's top bunk bed. Brandi (Kennedy's Mom) brings us dinner a couple times a week.

Seriously, it can't get better than that!

Just picking my nose...

Spencer and I were watching the USC vs. Cal game while Benson sat on Spencer's lap entertained by his cell phone. Reece was behind the couch playing with his cars. Spencer asked Reece, "hey Reece, what are you doing?" His reply, "just picking my nose!" I have to laugh every time I tell the story because he was so nonchalant about it. He acted like it was no big deal--just enjoying picking his nose. What a great moment!'

REMEMBER TO VOTE!

Happy Halloween

Picture taken by REECE!!

We had a great halloween. While Spencer was at school I had the WWAMI wives over for halloween crafts. We made spiders out of oreo's and halloween magnets for the fridge. We then attempted to take a nap but failed miserably. After 45 minutes of hearing Reece scream the ABC's I decided he was not going to fall alseep so I let him get up. We then took pictures of the boys in their monkey outfits because I knew if I waited until dark they would be grumpy monkeys. After Spencer came home we watched The Charlie Brown's Halloween special and got ready for our big night.

We had three parties we were going to attend. Our first adventure was Krystle's birthday party at 6:30pm. As we pulled into the driveway our car was suddenly quiet (which never happens with Reece and Benson). They had both fallen asleep and were out cold. We knew instantly this was going to be an interesting night. We decided to skip our second party (ward halloween activity) and go to the WWAMI halloween party at Eve's house. Our boys were so darn cute!

Reece became friends with the other Spencer who was dressed as Bam Bam and played with his club. Benson sat on mine and Paola's lap winning all the girls hearts. We then came home, put the boys to bed, and played speed scrabble--our new addiction. I would post the results but will hold off to keep Spencer from getting a big head! :)

Byers cabin

Spencer was able to sneak away from school for the weekend and join us for a little trip to the Cabin! Nicki stayed with us Wednesday night and we left Thursday after Spencer finished school. It was a very anticipated vacation! We relaxed...and relaxed....and relaxed some more! I finished the Twilight series which was AWESOME! We went on a paddle boat ride, made a bonfire on the beach, went hot tubing every night, and played lots of games! We also stopped in Coeur D'Alene at our favorite restaurant called Dockside. The food is so yummy and their desserts are irresistible. We were thrilled to pay only $2.25 for GAS!! CRAZY! Just two months ago we were paying $3.78.

The boys are so handsome together!

They make each other laugh constantly.

These are new pajama's courtesy of their Grandma Miller!

Love birds--still cheesy as ever!

Reece LOVES the beach

Boys and their walking sticks

Byers Cabin!

Grandpa with his little bears!

Grandma hanging with the boys