wolf.anniversary.birthday.birthday.roast.a little fishy.beach

sheesh. i will try & keep this short & sweet.... busy month for us. May is the "big" month for nate & i. we had our anniversary on May 30th. #9 for us. then on May 31st is my birthday then on June 1st is Nate's birthday. so here is a recap of how it all went.....

cayden had a proud moment...

he earned is wolf in scouts. i had to post on this cause he was so happy & proud of himself. i must admit he worked really hard to get this. way to go cayden.

o.k. this is me taking a picture of myself after working in the kitchen & surprising

my husband on our anniversary... i had so fun planning this one out.

{thanks brittney for the fun idea}

i wanted to be creative. thought out. personal. & special. it was my turn to plan our anniversary. so here is how the night went. i got a babysitter 2 weeks in advance...the day of may 30th i dropped my kids off at the sitters by 1:00 pm and picked them up at 7:30 pm. what a nice break so i could set up for our date night.

welcome to "lovers lane restaurant"

table reserved for 2.

the view of our table.

our menu.

here is my date. he was surprised. very happy. thankful & said the food was great & would recommend the restaurant to anyone. :)

next
getting ready to go to the movie theatre.

we picked up our tickets to see "bride wars" & "mall cop"

great movies & we had killer seats.

wow, the treats & drinks were tasty & very well priced. can't complain there!

next we had a hotel suite waiting for us. the best in town.

seriously "no kids allowed" ;)

this is what my "hot" date saw when we got to our hotel room. [sorry if you can't read it]

we got spoiled.

even see's candy on the pillow... yum.

all i can say was... it was such a fun time & well worth the effort.

till next year.............

next day my birthday. me blowing out my "fake" candles. :)

thanks nate for getting me my favorite cake. {german chocolate}

also nate & the kids got me the wii fit. what a great day. everyone made it so special.

i have a great family & many wonderful friends.

me on my birthday. nate got me beautiful flowers.

my fav is yellow roses & pink gerber daisies.

next day is nate's birthday. i made him a giant cupcake for his birthday cake.

~love target for all the fun cake molds. :)

make a wish...

next, off to the end of the year residents annual roast.

Nate & his class were in charge of "roasting" the 4th year OB/GYN residents who just graduated.

all i can say is i can't wait to go next year & see what they "roast" nate on.

nate worked so hard this last month planning & pulling it all together & it sure paid off. he worked so hard on making the night a success & trust me i laughed so hard my cheeks hurt on the way home. good work nate.

me all dressed up for the night.

the shoes...

the way home from the "roast" what a wonderful evening.

marlee also had her end of the school year program the same night as the "roast"

we both felt so bad the we couldn't go. her friend's mom took a lot of pictures of her & we were able to get a video of her performing.

the name of her program was called "sounds a little fishy"

she did a wonderful job & i hope she knows how sad we were that we couldn't make it but, she sang her heart out & remembered her part perfect. we love you marlee. you did a great job.

a weekend of relaxing & fun at the beach.

ocean shores 09'

marlee covering up daddy.

cayden having fun building sand castles.

garrett & me. {love the look}
this is about how fun garrett had.....

i think i am caught up with all of our fun events...

xo,
heather

o.k. o.k....

so i know it has been a while since i updated. here are just a few pictures {i know mom it is sort-of for you} but, anyways here are a few things that we have been up to.

~first off to San Antonio texas for Makena's baptism & baby Parkers blessing. we had so fun with our cousins and seeing grandma & grandpa brasher. if i'm being honest i will admit i will never fly there again by myself. on the way home i had a 9 hour flight... "what i said to myself" i swear it did not take that long to get here!!! oh yeah ummmmm i had 3 lay overs but, still got to stay on the plane. first stop from San Antonio was Nashville Tenn. then to Chicago then to home, Seattle Washington. yeah garrett was crying for about 4 of the 9 hours on the way home.

i can't complain of the trip cause we truly had a blast but, come on i could of gone to Hawaii in that time! ;~) mental note**** look at your itinerary before you take 3 kiddos by yourself & make sure it is a DIRECT flight!!!!!

beautiful makena

could he be any cuter.. baby parker

the cousins

me, becky, jen

the famous alamo

k. there is a huge space here cause we went to Utah for spring break....

yep that is right forgot my camera!! seriously it made me so sad. We had such a wonderful time & it was a much needed break.

thanks mom & karen for a wonderful Easter party. you know you are the best right?? :)

Easter '09

my sweet little girl & my BFF

marlee just finishing up her gymnastics meet

girl time

garrett just learning how to feed himself.

xo,

heather

p.s. stay tuned Cayden has his first loose tooth!! :) that is a HUGE deal around here. he will be 7 on thursday and has not lost one tooth!! YEAH.

ABC's of the last 2 months

Hello friends & family i'm back. i'm sorry it has been so long since i have blogged i sort-of forgot how to do this again. my New Year theme for this upcoming year is "take time to realize." As a busy wife & mother, especially when your husband is a 3rd year OB/GYN resident i have forgotten to take time to REALIZE 'finding joy in this journey.' I loved Pesident Monsons talk on "finding joy in the journey." He talks a lot about change.... "Nothing is as constant as change."
Time never stands still; it must steadily march on, and with the marching on, and with the marching come the changes. President Monson goes on by saying, i plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by. Instead, find joy in the journey-NOW. i love the part when he said, rather than dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future. Stresses in our lives come regaurdless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important-and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they MUST know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Adapt to the changes in our lives, that we may REALIZE what is most important, that we may express our graditude always and thus find joy in the journey.

Now with that said, the last couple of months i have stepped back and have found joy in the journey that i'm on. Nate has been on nights for the last 2 months. it ends Dec. 29th. :) The kids & i have been lucky to see Nate for 45 min. each day. He has had Saturdays off and i have cherished every min. So what has the Miller family been up too for the last few months???

Aging

Busing the kids everywhere. birthday parties for friends.

Cayden learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. computer problems for a good month. corn maze in october... so much fun right, Amy {we got so lost it was too funny}
christmas caroling.

Date nights. decorating christmas cookies over at a good friends house. thanks carrie.

Evening wear. Nate had a work christmas party that we went to 2 weeks ago. we got to dress up all fancy.

Fireplace. the kids love to sit in front of the fireplace to keep warm & watch movies. {it only lasts 10 min then they get too hot}

Garrett learned to walk & is everywhere now. Gymnastics for marlee

Halloween. we went to Utah for my moms annual Halloween party. it was so much fun to see everyone all dressed up.

Itunes. we have loved buying new music for our ipods.

Juggling balls in the air. i mean 3 kids. i have the up most respect for single moms cause it really is not that easy.

Kiss the boo-boo's away. marlee & garrett have my clutzy genes in them... don't forget kissing nate before he heads to bed at 9:30 am & then wakes up at 4:30pm & is off to work again. then i can kiss him good-bye :)

Late nights working on christmas projects

Marlee cutting her bangs to the scalp the end of Sept.... they are finally growing out a little bit. you can tell from our family picture they look a whole lot better.

Nate getting accepted TODAY to the MFM {maternal fetal medicine}program at Madigan Army Hospital. i'm so proud of him & his accomplishments. We will be staying in washington for his 3 year fellowship. We ranked staying here #1 and he got it!!! YEAH for Nate. So what this means is that he will finish up his year & 1/2 left in general OB/GYN then he will do a fellowship in MFM which means he will be a high risk baby doctor when it is all said & done! :) Congrats babe!!!
Night float... almost over!! horray :)

Opening christmas gifts early {sorry jolene we peeked early :)} Our family had our own christmas this last weekend it was so fun to be together with nate on saturday and do christmas eve & then we did christmas on sunday morning before nate left for work. Nate is driving the kids & i to Utah this friday for Christmas then he will catch up with us when he finishes night float.

Parent teacher conferences for Cayden & Marlee. They both are doing really well in school & love it so much!

Quiet time.. ahhh i love that time of day.

Reading. Cayden has been reading like crazy & has been doing great!

Snowing, snowman, no school. it is snowing here in Western Washington. i have never seen it snow so much since i have been here the last 2 1/2 years. Scouts for cayden. he loves it so much. we go every tues. night from 7-8pm. he has so many great friends from school that he does it with.

Twilight... need i say more. i loved the movie. i even got nate to go see it with me.
Thanksgiving. first year i cooked the whole meal by myself... Nate was with us for 2 hours before he had to go to work. it turned out yummy. t h a n k f u l.

Ups & downs. i think we all have those days right!??!

Vitamins. 1 a day. my kids never forget to remind me.

Watching movies

X-ray... well sort-of. i am going in on friday morning to get an ultrasound & mammogram of my left breast. i went in for a yearly check-up last week & my doctor found a lump in my breast the size of a grape. i am scared but, feel that it will be o.k. the doctor thinks it might be one of those benign cysts... that is what i'm hoping for. i will keep you posted.

Yummm that is garrett's favorite word.

Zzzzzz

i hope this brings you up to date of what we have been doing. I am greatful for change. i love my family so much. i love my friends. xo

Photography 101 {AKA Northwest Adventure Trek}

Despite Nate being "post-call" we all decided that it was about time we enjoyed some of the Pacific Northwest. What a better place than Northwest Trek. Only one slight problem, we brought Nate's camera...The first picture above turned out okay. For the next few pictures, here's a sampling of my finest work from the day {copyright pending and all rights reserved}.?Moose?
This is the antler's of a beautiful bull elk.

that's a bison
another moose
yeah, i'm not sure...
peek a boo


So at the half way point in the day, Nate looked over the pictures I took. We reviewed a few things about his camera {things that make it the dumbest camera ever!} but nonetheless, I think I got the hang of it and between him and me we got some pretty awesome shots of the wildlife and a few keepers of the kids! Hope you enjoy. What a great day it was. Oh and by the way if you couldn't tell from the pictures, yes it did rain most of the time we were there--gotta love August in Washington!