Life is Flying By!

Boy is life moving along at such a fast pace. Part of it can be that I am weeks from having our little boy. Knowing a life changing thing is happening soon, makes the days go by even faster when sometimes you don't really want them too. I have so many things on my list of things to do and when that happens, I tend to completely freeze and do nothing. So frustrating. One huge thing was taxes and I was able to get them done earlier this week. I also want to make a handful of baby ABC albums and get them listed on Etsy. Partly to clean out my paper supply that I have now, partly to make the money because those said supplies are just sitting and waiting for the opportunity to be in someone else's house,  and partly I need one for my little guy when he is born. I love having those for my boys and they LOVE looking through them all of the time. Plus I still have Paparazzi stuff mixed in there. I should be more motivated to make a huge push before the end of next month, but its been the opposite. I am just so tired to do much of anything beyond the daily grind. Then I just have little things here and there that I want to catch up on and do. We'll see what actually gets done. Oh ya, we need to start getting Brecken's room combined into Gunnar's before baby comes so I can get his clothes out. That should be fun. :/

I am currently 33 weeks pregnant and these pictures were taken about a week ago. Jeff is too funny and took one way close. You never know what you will get until you play back the pictures. I'm starting to feel bigger by the day. I can feel it. I am already way past the weight that I was when I delivered both of my boys. We'll see how it all comes off...I never obsess or worry about it. I just find it interesting how it all plays out with each child. I am currently down to 2 week appointments so that makes time fly by too. I am starting to get very excited about this little guy and completely content and happy about having another boy. If we just have the 3 boys, I will be completely happy with it. I have lots of little nieces to love on. We are so stuck on names. We have it narrowed down to Trenton and Walker. Jeff is all for Trenton and I am all for Walker. Neither one of us will budge much. We decided that we will have to wait and see what he looks like before we make a decision. His middle name with be Kulaniakea. It is very much a family name on my side. I love  having deep rooted family middle names for all of my boys. All of their first names are completely random. March 27th is coming very quickly when I go in first thing for my c-section.

Gunnar is an absolute pill lately. Mindy was telling me the other day that he has been so good. Well he is to other people. He really needs to get out of this stage he has been in for like the last 3 years! I hope his 7th birthday coming up matures him a little. I love him so much though and he is quite the funny kid. He is so full of energy and I wouldn't want it any other way. He still says things in funny ways like sunbeep for sunbeam or radio for rodeo or The Morax for The Lorax. Makes me laugh every time. One day while playing in the snow, he hauled in something awesome from the garden. He pulled up the gigantic kale plant that was growing out there! It was huge. I called Heidi all excited that she could have some for soups. After closer inspection, it was frozen and kind of yucky. That wouldn't really work but it was fun to see the big thing. It should be interesting to have Brecken and Gunnar in the same bedroom. The age gap is 4 years and they just don't really understand each other quite yet. We plan on making the transition when school is out in May as to not interrupt either one when Gunnar has to get up for school. Brecken will still sleep in most mornings.

Brecken is quite the love bug. He has always been my cuddlier one out of the two. I love it. He still demands that I rock him at night. Jeff likes to say that I created a complete monster. So right now Jeff has taken over that part. Gunnar likes to say that Brecken is in training right now with dad doing it because when baby comes, he can't always have that. Brecken totally breaks down after prayers when Jeff takes him but gets over it quickly and falls asleep. It has been entertaining to hear Jeff try to sing songs to Brecken while rocking him. Jeff will sing more of the hymns because he doesn't really know the primary songs. Brecken requests Christmas songs every night. I think he will know all of the words to Silent Night by the time Christmas comes this year. He's close. Brecken's speech is blossoming more and more every day. It's fun to hear him talk. He has a little lisp when he talks and gets really animated with his hands if he realizes that you have no idea what he is talking about. He still says "gago" for anything liquid. It is the strangest thing. Just a random word he made up. He is also a super busy boy, full of spunk, but you can tell he has such a tender heart as well. He understands that there is a baby inside my tummy. Yesterday he told me, "Mom, you big" as he patted my tummy. He makes me laugh. He still loves his time with Cami twice a week. They are both coming into their big kid personalities and get into fights quite often about random things. Brecken figures he can overpower Cami while Cami is hitter and goes that route. Makes for some interesting days sometimes. Also makes me very aware of boys and girls in general. Boy are they different! They are best of buds though and I hope they stay that way. I'm excited to have our baby so close to Mindy's. They will be even closer than Cami and Brecken in age! Cami has been invited to a therapy playgroup and Brecken was accepted as well as the "normal" control child they are supposed to have. They love going once a week! They will get to go until Cami turns 3 this fall. The entire transition when this baby comes, watching Cami and school things for Gunnar will be very interesting.

When I see these two little guys together, I have such a hard time imagining what our third little guy will look like. Gunnar has medium brown hair, with blue smiley eyes. He is such a skinny mini and tall. Brecken on the other hand is a blondy so far with round eyes that seem to change from blue to green regularly (I was like that as a kid and eventually settled on green). He is one stocky little guy. He is average in weight but you wouldn't know it because he is built like a solid concrete brick. He is heavy! What will boy #3 look like. Will he take after one of these guys or be completely different. Maybe we'll have a very dark haired little boy. It will be fun to see how similar or different he is.

The First Snow

Christmas Day while we were at my aunt's house, it started snowing and never stopped. Snow was on the ground and the boys were itching to play in it. A couple of days later I finally relented and went out there with them. They love the outdoors!

 Brecken ate tons of snow. You would have thought he was hungry or thirsty or something with the amount that he ate.

 Attempting to explain to Brecken how to make a snow angel.

 And he ate more snow. And more snow. And more snow.

Then we went inside to get warm and work on our inside chores after a fun time outside.

Merry Christmas 2012

Christmas was fun this year. Brecken is at the absolute best age where everything is just so magical and exciting! It never got old and just made it great for all of us. We were so excited to get the tree up, the decorations all up and the lights on the house. It was great.

It was interesting to watch everyone post their Christmas pictures on social media. I was blown away with the amount of "stuff" many people had. It was crazy and just confirmed to me that stuff does not make you happy no matter the quantity one gets or appears to have. Plus, where are you going to store and pile all of that stuff?! So many people also do not purge afterwards. I've gotten to the point where stuff drives me nuts! Unorganized stuff really drives me nuts especially when it comes to kids toys.

So last year I instituted a new thing for Santa. Santa would give one thing they need, one thing they want, one thing to wear and one thing to read. They get Christmas Eve jammies from mom and dad and then usually a couple of family gifts (movies and/or games) and maybe something else from us. And then of course a couple of random things in their stockings. With these categories it still looks like they came out with more than enough. Also coming up with categories and a game plan allowed us to shop for what we were wanting to give the entire year and find things at the best deals and the best quality we could afford. Thankfully this year Jeff was on a kick and wrapped everything the night before Christmas Eve so it was done!

Gunnar lost both of his upper front teeth. So all he wanted for Christmas was his two front teeth. I sang that to him when he lost the second tooth and he looked at me like I was crazy!

These were from mom and dad. He got the bug sucker upper from this series for his birthday from a family member and loves it! So throughout the year, more of the set would pop up on clearance. I would slowly collect them and as you can see Jeff does not know how to remove price stickers apparently.

Brecken wants to be like us in every way and we all have Camelbaks. Naturally he would not because he was not that big until recently. Jeff was determined to make his "need" his very own Camelbak. I was so excited when I found this one, hardly used, on craigslist for $25! It had been on there for about a month and had not sold so I asked them if they would take $20 and they did. This was a total score for a Mini Mule and I was shocked that it had not been sold prior. It was meant to be in our house. He was SOOOO excited about it. The orange version of Gunnar's blue. Just like Gunnar...

Gunnar received the construction version of this for his birthday years ago and loves it. Recently he has really gotten into following instructions to create these. He loves this and claims it was the best Christmas ever because he got this. This was his want.

What do you get a kid that is the second boy and really does not need anything. I found this truck on Amazon and thought he would love it. He does and it is pretty fun. It comes with a little drill that unscrews about 7 large screws that take the truck apart so he can put it back together. In time, I think he will really get into it. This was his want.

After Gunnar saw that everyone else had slippers, including Brecken, he wanted a pair. He was thrilled that Santa brought some. This was his one thing to wear.

Gunnar desperately needed a new alarm clock. He got our old one and it was doing some really dumb things. He slept with the radio on every night but if you reduced the sound, the station would be fuzzy so it was always pretty loud. Thankfully it was all Christmas music for the month of December. Plus when school gets out, the two boys will be sharing a room and Brecken sleeps to the ocean sound. So I wanted an alarm clock that could also be on the sleep mode and play nature sounds. I was so excited when I found one and Gunnar loves it! It was for sure a need!

This was probably the stupidest thing I have ever bought and totally not typical of me to buy. Brecken and I were at the store sometime in December and he spotted out Caillou from about a mile away on an end cap. We went over after I figured out what he was talking about and he latched on to this guy. He talked to him and studied everything about him. I let him put Caillou in the cart all around the store next to him. He loved him! When it was time to checkout, I snuck him on the belt and told him that Caillou had to stay at the store. Brecken was completely fine with that. Now, both of my boys at 2 years old, would not get into TV at all except for Caillou. I have no idea why. The kid is like 4 years old, talks like a baby and like Heidi points out, the story on the tv screen never goes to the edge. I can tolerate the show and my boys are mesmerized by it but Heidi just doesn't get it. It makes me laugh. I knew Brecken would be so happy and he is. Reminds me of Brent's My Buddy doll when he was a kid. Remember those? Brent LOVED his buddy! Brecken sleeps with this every night and hauls him around often. This was from mom and dad.

Diesel even got stuff in his stocking. One was a much needed bone that he happily chewed while we carried on Christmas morning.

Jeff and I never buy anything for ourselves. We buy things throughout the year and don't need a holiday to give us permission to go crazy on buying things that we can smartly shop for and buy when we actually need them.

We had a great Christmas morning. We don't encourage or push our kids to wake up early. We just let it happen and it did around 8:30am when Gunnar woke up. It was pretty funny. He obviously scoped everything out and then woke us up. Then went and got Brecken who was so disoriented. He went onto the family room couch and turned on the tv to watch a cartoon. He had no idea what awaited him in the front room. When he did, he was excited!

Later that afternoon we headed to my Great Aunt Nancy's for the annual Christmas Day party. It is always fun spending time with my dad's side of the family and we love seeing everyone. Christmas this year was exciting and great and I felt totally relaxed and on top of it which was kind of crazy.

I am so blessed with what I have and surrounded by my fantastic husband and boys. Blessed to be able to have a third little guy in March. Have fantastic siblings and parents and great friends to spend time with. We are greatly provided for and very blessed overall.

It's A...

BOY! 

Oh yes, you read that right. Another little dude will be joining the Miller clan. Was I over the top thrilled...nope. I was a little shocked and a little sad. We had a girl name picked out, I already had two boys, so having a girl just seemed logical to me. I was sad for about a week about not having a girl but then the following week things changed. I was watching Cami like I normally do and she was just getting over the flu bug, she was especially whiny both days because she wasn't feeling herself still but man she changed my perspective really quickly. I just don't know girls at all. I am so used to boys and I am realizing they are more my speed. They always have been. In school I was more drawn to my guy friends then girlfriends. I just couldn't tolerate the unnecessary drama. I think I wanted a girl so bad for two things. I wanted to use the name we picked out and I really just want to see what a Jeff and Kristi Miller girl looks like. That's all really. So thank you Cami for being you and making me realize that I am completely okay with having nieces.

When we found out what we were having with Brecken, we took Gunnar to the store and picked out an outfit. We did the same with this little guy too. Brecken LOVED the monster shirt but Gunnar LOVED the camo pants, so we put them together and made an outfit to make them both happy. This is what the little guy will come home in. Gunnar was really into this robot outfit but we were not about to buy both. We do not need anymore boy clothes at all. We are set.

Right now I am 24 weeks and feeling great. I don't even feel that big at all which is great. Many people at church are just now figuring out that I am pregnant because I really don't look it for as far along as I am. This little guy always has a dance party at about 8:30/9ish every night which is fun. Gunnar loves to give my belly hugs and kisses and is excited for a baby. Brecken is slowly starting to catch on and will give my belly raspberry kisses over and over again. The other day, he turned to me, I thought he was going to give loves and instead he head butted my belly super hard. That was not fun at all. He had a little lesson about being soft. I had to laugh when I read Mindy's blog because I knew that she liked yucky Spaghettios but I had no idea that she liked sour things too. Heidi did with Cami and I like sour patch kids with this baby and Brecken. Funny the similarities and it didn't make a difference whether they were girl babies or boy babies. Speaking of Mindy, she is finding out what they are having tomorrow and I can not wait to find out!!!

The last month and a half has been so busy but for some odd reason I feel ahead of the game. Not sure why. The gift buying is all done, I've made treats for all of the people that needed them. I'm feeling pretty good. We've had busy fun days with cousins and siblings and just over all silliness.

Gunnar and Brecken got it in their heads that they were going to play school. They got winter/rain boots on, lunchboxes together, hats and vests...silly.

A box provided hours of fun. They thought they were so silly.

Brecken walked around for days with this hat on saying he was a worker. Funny kid.

I caught these two reading books on the steps. I had to laugh because Cami was literally telling Brecken all of the right colors and shapes. Brecken is so clueless. 

I made these for our Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching families. They are little oven safe ramikens and homemade flavored popcorn. Yum!

We made these for one of Jeff's brother's family for Christmas and for our really good friends the Sartell's. I'm not going to tell you what is inside...yet. I would hate to ruin the surprise, but it is fun. I bought empty, new paint cans from Home Depot, spray painted and poly'd them.

I made these for Gunnar's teachers at school and for a hostess gift to a party we were going to. They were fun, easy and super cute!

I better get back to my projects. For a week that looked calm compared to others last week, turned into a really busy one when I started filling in the calendar. I can't wait to post some of the super fun things that I am excited to give as gifts this year!

And Then There Were...

You know those people that can get their kids to take the cutest pictures together. Not ours. They are crazy. They are either fighting each other off the entire time or one of them is doing something goofy or not paying attention. Brecken is at the age where you take one picture and he is done looking at you. So most of the time you have to take like 7 pictures all at once really fast. This series was really funny.

Get it?

Fall Is All Around Us

Fall marks leaf season for us. We have lots of trees which are awesome but produce lots of leaves in the fall. Many people look at our leaves and tell us that they are so glad that they do not have trees/leaves but they sure are missing out the rest of the year. The shade that it provides is priceless. Our energy bill is SO low because of them.

One of our front yard leaves drops so early. I love it! And the boys were so thrilled to help Jeff rake them up and get them off the grass. Like super excited! I was happy to stay inside by myself. Here's to many more days of leave raking as the leaves continue to fall.

Wow! Has it really been that long since I last posted. I find life so interesting. When Gunnar was a toddler, I found blogging and blogged all of the time. It was fairly new then and not widely known. I had friends and family all over blogging and that was the way that we stayed connected. I didn't want to miss the day to day happens of what was going on with Gunnar and I didn't want to miss that of the blogs I followed. Then Facebook came around and it seems like everyone uses that as a "journal" of sorts to share their happenings which is a total shame because, really to me, it is not...I'm trying to think of the right word...archival or long term memory keeping. That just sounds funny, but hopefully you know what I mean. I've come to realize that there is a time and season for everything. My season right now is 2 busy kiddos (poor Brecken hardly exists in our family), running a business and being a wife and mom (and all that entails). Holiday time is so busy with Paparazzi that I even had to put my Etsy shop on a long term vacation right now so that I could survive. Holiday time is also my busiest time for my shop as well but something had to go if I was going to keep my sanity and be successful so the one with long term benefits won out. I was sad. I did shed and internal tear for that decision but I know that it was the right one. All of this is much like blogging. There is a time and a season and the every day or several times a month posts are of the past right now. It sure nags at my mind all of the time how I need to get on here but I do what I can do. Finally I just sat down. Cami and Brecken has destroyed my house, thankfully they are napping (they are awesome nappers and buddies), I have apple pie filling that has been staring me down to be canned for days, I need to make Paparazzi phone calls, heck, I'm still in my jammies (I deemed this jammy day much earlier today)...the list can go on and on. But I just needed to sit down and start this.

He insisted on wearing his bike helmet to do this. We were laughing so hard!

And we did it over and over again. After a couple of tries, this boy was seriously getting the hang of it.  He knew to put his hands out for balance and everything. He will be ready to board in no time.

The mastermind behind this. The purple thing is the base to a Little Tikes Zebra that rocks when hooked onto it or rolls around when off of it. 

Our boys are daredevils. Straight up crazy, fearless little things. The fun we have some nights can be completely random and unplanned. It is interesting listening to mother's of girls talk about the differences of boys and girls (Heidi-haha). She did not realize how crazy boys were until we hung out all day on her day off a while ago to go Halloween costume shopping. I was standing around the JoAnn's cutting table f.o.r.e.v.e.r. (no joke like an hour) waiting for my number called so she decided to take Cami and Brecken around the store to keep them occupied. She eventually wondered back laughing because she did not truly realize how busy Brecken is. With Cami she can tell her that she is going to far and she can't be seen. Cami sticks around. Oh not Brecken. He looks right at you and walks the other way. Then you get to chase him down. He is just so busy. Gunnar and Brecken are both that way. They just are. Boys and girls are just so different. Maybe my boy and her girl are just so different. Who knows. I hope she has a boy one day...and I am just glad that Brecken and Cami have a buddy in each other.

I was looking for pictures and realized that I didn't even post that Gunnar headed off to 1st grade this year. He was pretty excited, I was over the top excited and Brecken was lost for about an hour before he realized that he wouldn't have to battle his brother throughout the day. Brecken was just so thrilled that he knew where Gunnar's school was and that he gets to see the school bus on most days. I think Gunnar likes the idea of school and then it gets old really quickly. He is super smart little kid, but would rather be doing other things. Jeff likes to say that he is a whole lot like him in  that area. I'm glad, because I was not like them as a student. We've had our fair share of challenges this year, and we are still battling them. I am just hoping one of these days, things click and he enjoys school and acts like he should there.

I convinced him to let me drive him to school. Not really sure why I wanted to. I just did. Remember last year he rode the bus to school on the first day as a Kindergartner. Man that boy is a brave one.

Our boys are just so different. They don't always play nicely, or get along. Not at all...part of that comes from the 3.5-4 year age gap, some of that comes from just being siblings more specifically brothers. I read on one of the ecard things you see on Facebook or Pinterest one day that having your first child makes you a parent, having your second child makes you a referee, and having three or more makes you a bouncer. I totally feel like that! I am always breaking up their two problems with each other. They can have their sweet moments too. The more I look at them, the more I think they look quite different. They have different eye shapes and face shapes, their hair color and style is different (Brecken has these large curls), Brecken is just stalkier and can tan like nobody else. He is our true beach bum with his tan skin, blond hair and totally laid back, slower personality. He is busy for sure but just so Hawaiian. He takes after my side of the family for sure. My aunt said that they used to call my dad the White Hawaiian. She said Brecken is the white Hawaiian. I had to laugh at that. 

Brecken was obsessed with this necklace and wouldn't take it off. It just solidified his Hawaiian ancestry in him.

Going totally cool style on me...

So what has kept me from updating my blog and keeping me busy in my free time. Paparazzi for sure! The end of summer was the most insane time of year for me other than the holiday season. I had 3 local fairs within a months time. It was intense to say the least. The first fair that I did was a very local, small county fair nearby for 4 days. So small and the big highlight was a rodeo. There were literally less than 10 vendors and boy were the days so incredibly long and hot! The weather was well over 100 those days for whatever reason. It was miserable with a few fun moments. It was so incredibly unorganized too which made it hard to be there. But they had the best people watching. Jeff did come out and visit with the boys which helped. 

Owyhee County Fair-this was the smallest amount of inventory I have ever had at an event. It was so weird and I was a little worried.

Canyon County Fair done with 3 of us all together-it was fun!

A short week or so later I did the Canyon County Fair for 4 days with 2 other team members. It was so much fun. The days were just right, it was indoors (however the air conditioning broke the first day and it was miserable. People were telling us that the sheep barn was cooler then here...nice). This was our first run with a larger 10x20 booth. Now that we have that set up down, we can replicate it over and over again. I think I also liked the fact that I was about 3 minutes away from my house. It was awesome. The first night I got home, Jeff asked if I left early. Nope, I just got home that fast! This fair also has concerts with fairly big names every single night. Buy a ticket into the fair and you get into the concert for free. Love it! I was able to take the boys around one of the days that I didn't have to work. It was fun! Perk to having a mom that goes to all of these things. They are always visiting me or I take them. Jeff also took them so they went twice!

I'm not sure where my picture went for the last fair, but it was the Western Idaho Fair, our big state fair. It is 10 days and very long. Thankfully 4 of us went in together. I worked 5 days and we always had two people there which helped pass the time. During this time Gunnar started school which made things even more interesting. Why the big fair is even during the time all the schools start is beyond me. It leaves all of the older people coming out during the day, making for some slow days. With all of this going on, I was SO exhausted. I felt like I pretty much shut down for a time. I received so much help with my kiddos. I really appreciate my family, friends and Jeff for sure. September did not provide any slow moments either but that has to be for another day.

I am so thankful for what I have. I have a great husband, two great boys, even a great dog (thankfully he does not dig or bark-he's a good boy). We have more than we need and then some. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with a knowledge that families are forever and the most basic and central unit of the church. Knowing this makes getting through the little day to day trials that much easier.