Tanner's Baby Blessing

 Tanner had his baby blessing at church today.  Spencer gave him a beautiful blessing with Chad, my Dad, Grandpa Lloyd, Uncle Ryan, & Uncle Steve in the circle.  Spencer and I have had many conversations lately about how lucky we are to have so much family support.  We had a lot of people come to support us (we took up two complete rows) and all of them have been positive influences on us.  We both bore our testimonies about the importance of families and how influential they are on children.  We couldn't ask for better Grandparents, as well as Aunts and Uncles for our children, and for ourselves.  We also talked about the Plan of Salvation and how much happiness the gospel brings into our lives.  We truly are blessed people.  I cherish the testimony I have and know that we have a Savior, Jesus Christ, who loves us and died for us.  I also know that the Priesthood is real and that families are united for eternity through the sealing ordinance in the Temple.  I am a happy and peaceful person--thanks to the gospel and my family.

After the blessing we had everyone come to my parents house for dinner.  It was wonderful to have everyone over to celebrate sweet Tanner.  My only request was mash potatoes and Costco's chocolate cake!  Oooooo, was it delicious!                                  

                                     Tanner Chad was named after Spencer's Father, Chad Miller. 

                                                   Chad and Nicki Miller (Gma & Gpa) with Baby Tanner. 

                                                     Candice, Charlotte, Nicki, and Tanner

                                         Mark and Karen Dunkley (Gpa & Gma) with Tanner

 Spencer had some kind of flu so he wasn't feeling well.  But, he still did an awesome job with the blessing.

                                                                      Proud mama!

                                        Great Grandpa and Grandma Lloyd (my grandparents). 

 Baby Tanner! He was so cute in church.  He was smiling and cooing just before his blessing.  Then he got SUPER hungry and so I had to leave to feed him.  While I was feeding him he totally crapped his pants.  I didn't bring a diaper with me so I took him back into the meeting hoping I could wait until it was over to change his diaper.  My plan failed.  His ended up having an explosion and his poop went through his diaper, white shirt, and pants.  Way to go Tanner!

                                                                  Silly Aunt Natalie.

                           Natalie attacking Nicole.  This is a typical scene between the two of them.

                                    This is me prepping Tanner for ANOTHER photo session.

                 Reece is constantly in Tanner's face.  Its a struggle to keep him from mauling Tanner.



McCall Ice Festival

Spencer and I decided to take a quick trip to McCall for the Winter Ice Festival.  We went to our friends cabin, The Speirs, for some sledding and good fun.  We absolutely LOVE the Speirs.  They are an awesome family!  Spencer and I love chatting with Lesli and Ryan and our kids adore their kids.  It's an all around perfect match. 

                                           This is Benson being pulled on the sled by Spencer.

After we played with the Speirs we went to our hotel which was a huge success.  Oh, did I mention that my Mother is super awesome and called me just before we left Boise and asked if we wanted to leave Tanner with her?  Yes, she is awesome.  They were actually in McCall and so they stopped by the cabin and picked up Tanner for the night. 

The Hotel was super fun and awesome.  The boys think hotels are amusement parks.  We enjoyed some swimming and lots of fun ENERGY by the boys.  I told this cute Grandpa that his 4 boys were darling.  He then said, "ya, and their Mother is home pregnant, two weeks from delivery with their 5th boy. And they aren't even Mormon or Catholic". Hahaha.  I seriously laughed all night long. 

This picture is so AWESOME!! Reece was dancing in the mirror and Benson started dancing behind him.  As you can see in the picture, Benson's foot tripped on Reece's foot and face planted it on the floor--and I got a picture of it! It was only funny because they were crazy hyper and out-of-control.  We all laughed.

 Saturday morning we went sledding in McCall and checked out all the ice sculptures.  My Dad gave us money to buy the boys new hats because they had TONS of super cute hats. Benson picked out "Mr.Clumsy" from the smurfs and Reece picked out the alien from Toy Story.   

 Benson had a classic comment during sledding.  We tried to get him to sled with us but he refused--he wanted to go by himself.  So I convinced Reece to go on the sled with me.  Our first attempt was a failure.  We got half-way down the hill when we rolled over and thanks to my SLOW reflexes Reece face planted it on the snow.  Benson was standing next to Spencer and said matter of factly, "that's why I didn't want to go".  It was a pretty awesome comment--gotta love that kid.

 Benson insisted I take a picture of him with this golf ball. He usually hides from the camera so I was happy to take it.

                                        Our favorite: Buzz Lightyear!  To infinity and beyond!

EVENTFUL week!

Here goes to an eventful week in the Miller home (I'll go in order of events):
FYI:  As you read this keep in mind these are totally normal days for us.  It looks really stressful on paper, but in real life its just part of our normal routines.  It really isn't as bad as it seems.  I just wanted it in our journal for laughing purposes.

Reece: ER/Asthma Attack

 2 weekends ago we visited Spencer's sister in Burley.  She was super awesome and watched our kids while we visited the Twin Falls Temple.  Before we submitted our ranking list for residency we wanted to visit the Temple to make sure we felt good about our ranking list--which we did!  Anyway, we had a fun drive to Burley (Spence and I LOVE road trips because it gives us time to just sit and laugh together).  Once we got there Reece started having Asthma problems.  But it shouldn't have been a problem considering I had TWO huge emergency kits with everything we would need for both children--except Albuteral.  I couldn't believe it.  So Spencer had to pay full price for Albuteral.  We kept giving him more puffs and sooner than later he was up to 6 puffs, heartbeat was fast, and he couldn't breath--he was in an asthma attack.  I took him into the Emergency Room where they gave him steroids and he came right out of it.  At first he didn't want to go until I told him he could play Spencer's IPhone.  He was DARLING to the nurses and Doctors--he acted all mature and had great manners because he knew it was special to have the I-Phone. 

                                                               Benson: ENT/Hearing issues
If you've been around Benson for the past 9 months you would have noticed that he is constantly sniffing and clearing his throat.  Our Pediatrician gave us a couple rounds of antibiotics to try and get rid of it but they did nothing.  Well, for the past month if Benson is in another room I had to seriously yell at him in order for him to respond.  I thought he was using "selective hearing" and so I would get upset.  Recently I have realized that if I talk in a quieter voice he doesn't respond, but if I talk louder then he will listen.  So I asked for a referral to an ENT because when Benson was 2 he failed his hearing test due to his tubes being filled with liquid and I thought maybe the same thing was causing all these problems.  Sure enough--we took him to an ENT and his ears are completely filled with fluid and his hearing is impaired because of it.  I felt like a TERRIBLE mother for yelling at him.  He's on fluticazone and Singular to try and resolve the problem--if they don't work he has to get tubes in his ears.  We'll find out in 5 weeks.  At night I feel like a drug dealer because both Reece and Benson are on the same drugs--one is for Asthma and the other for Ear problems.

                              Benson is a charmer.  He'll raise his eye brows and then wink at you!!

 For a school project Natalie put together 12 diabetes kits for toddlers going onto the pump.  We then wrote about Benson and put a picture of these two silly kids on it!

  Tanner: ER/Croup

Tanner experienced his first trip to the Emergency Room on Sunday morning.  I woke up at 4am to feed Tanner and he sounded super croupy.  I was worried and so I brought him into our room so I could hear him better in case he started to have more problems.  Sure enough, an hour later Spencer and I started to get more concerned.  He had a seal like bark and was getting a fever.  We called the on-call pediatrician who told us to go straight to the ER.  Once we were there he was given some steroids and breathing treatment.  It took awhile for them to work, but eventually he started to sound better.  By Sunday night we thought he had made significant improvements.  Then Monday came...he seriously was screaming all morning, afternoon, and evening.  Apparently the steroids make babies irritable--VERY irritable.  My ears were ringing all day from his cry.  I thought he had an ear infection so I took him into the Pediatricians office around 4:30pm.  Apparently I was preoccupied with trying to keep my baby from screaming because it took me 15 minutes to realize I was sitting next to IAN JOHNSON.  We started talking and then a lady came over with her son and thought I was his wife--hahahaha--I certainly don't look like a petite college cheerleader.  They had just had their first child 3 weeks ago and were in for an appointment (she and the baby were in the car to avoid germs).  Tanner received two Priesthood blessings: the first helped him recover on Sunday and the second helped him go to sleep last night.  I am thankful Spencer has the Priesthood and can administer to our Children when they are sick.  I can't imagine life without it.  We have received countless blessings from the Lord through Priesthood blessings.

                              Juliann: banned from Famous Footwear

This is a HILARIOUS story.  I hope you're ready!  I a pair of boots for Christmas from Famous Footwear.  They were to small and so I returned them for a bigger size (I have massive feet--size nine and I wasn't even blessed with the height to go with it).  They had to ship the boots because they were out in the store.  The boots came and they were to big.  I then exchanged them for a different kind of boot which they had to order because they didn't have my size.  That boot came and it was the wrong size again.....this went on 2 more times.  During this process I got another pair of shoes which I exchanged twice before keeping them.  So I went to Famous Footwear with the determination to come home with my final pair of boots--I wasn't going to have them ship me some--I was going to find some I liked that were in the store.  I succeeded in finding the perfect pair.  At the register the STORE MANAGER who has worked there for 5 years said, "I've never seen this before.  But you aren't allowed to return anything to famous footwear for 60 DAYS!".  I laughed soooo hard.  Anyone who knows me and my shopping problems know that I'm a returnaholic.  I return EVERYTHING.  I have the worst buyers remorse so I spend more of my shopping exchanging or returning items.  Spencer thought this was hilarious and self-deserving. He's learned to take the tags off my clothes so I can't return them. 

                                                       Spencer: Cardiology

Spencer is currently in his cardiology rotation.  For the past couple years he's been debating cardiology as a specialty.  I think he's becoming more and more excited about the idea of being a cardiologist.  It's been exciting for him to work with the Boise cardiologist.  He's realizing it may be a perfect fit for him and our family.  We won't make our final decision about specialty until our 2nd year of residency, but for now I think we're heading towards the cardiology route (that means only 7 more years until we're done!!!).  At the end of this year he will have completed 9 years of school.  Time flies when you're having fun! 

Tanner Chad Miller-2 months old

 Tanner had his 2 month check up last week. 

He is a healthy and happy little guy weighing in at 13 POUNDS and 9 OUNCES!! 

Apparently his mama cow is feeding him well. 

 I switched all his 0-3 month clothes to 3-6 month today. 

 He's been a pretty awesome baby.  He gets fussy at night for about an hour,

but other then eating all day long he's an easy kid. 

He started smiling about a week ago--his best smiles are in the morning when he's super happy. 

He is loved by his brothers--especially Reece.  Reece is constantly in his face.  The other day he was a couple inches from his face when Tanner projectile vomited right into his MOUTH.  It was so nasty.  Reece didn't know what to do and since I started laughing hysterically he joined in!

                                             I love Tanner's mischievous grin in this picture.

                                                     This is the LIFE IS GOOD look.

 Benson wanted a picture with Tanner.  He told me today that I have 2 boys and a baby--Tanners not allowed to be called my boy quite yet!

                                       This was taken tonight.  Spencer was making him smile!



Snow day!

 We've been waiting for snow and it finally came!  Spencer has this obsession with getting the driveway clear of snow so when the car drives on it the snow doesn't turn into ice.  The house he grew up in has a steep driveway and so it was important that they shovel the snow before they drove on it to avoid slipping off the driveway.  Fortunately, the boys think it's super fun to shovel the driveway so I had lots of help.  Reece helped me before school, Benson helped me during school, and then I gave up after that because the snow was coming down faster then I could shovel.  We then had our friend Maggie over and the kids played in the backyard for about an hour.  Reece made a cool little hill and Benson made a tunnel.  Bensons hat got turned around and the flap that goes over his ears was in front of his face so every 5 seconds or so he would lift his head up, pull the flap out of his face so he could see, and then the flap would fall over his face again and he would get to work.  It was HILARIOUS! It makes me laugh thinking about it.

Reece's OCD tendencies got to the best of him.  He couldn't stand it that ice was left on our driveway from my tires (yes..it's true, I didn't shovel everytime I left the house and so the snow turned into ice) and so he spent 20 minutes by himself trying to chip it off.  I was cold and the baby was crying so I went inside.  But I was proud of him for working so hard! 

Grandkids pics.

 Okay, seriously...if I force my children into one more photo shoot they are going to never smile for me again.  But I couldn't resist this one.  My mom hired my awesome friend Sarah to come take pictures of her grandkids.  My mom now has 5 daughters and 4 very handsome grandsons.  She wanted a picture of them to put in her grandkid playroom.  I thought they turned out awesome! Plus, we had some fun while taking them. 

                                                        Tate, Reece, Tanner, and Benson

                     I LOVE this picture.  We kept telling them to sit up nice and tall--and this is what we got!
                                                                  No-neck-cheese balls!

                          And then the boys found the swords and wanted pictures of them acting like ninjas!

                                                                  Nice tongue Benson.

                    Isn't this the most ADORABLE picture ever?  I LOVE this pic of Tate.  He's so stinkin' cute.

And this is the ONLY photo shoot where Tanner has been asleep for us.  What a cute little chunk.