Christmas 2010

Christmas was awesome this year! Nate & Josh came and it was so fun to get to spend some time with them. They had us in stitches most of the time!

Traditional Christmas Eve matching jammies!

Amanda's favorite color is orange and the main thing she wanted for Christmas was a camera, so I was really excited when I found an orange camera. Unfortunately, it broke 2 days later and the repair bill was just about the same amount as the camera. So, we need to find her a new camera that is very DURABLE and inexpensive. Any suggestions?

These are the gifts we got for Nate & Josh (we also got them movies). Nate says his frame is kinda girly. Come on sisters, defend me here...it's not too girly, is it?

This is the scarf we gave Mom. She's wearing it with the hanger still on, in case you're wondering what the black thing on her shoulder is.

Amanda made these "God's eyes" at school in Mrs. Cleveland's class. (How many of us have had Mrs. Cleveland for Spanish? She's been there forever!). Grandpa decided they'd look good as earrings! What a goofball!

We give the girls an ornament every year so they will have a little collection of ornaments when they leave home. This year, it seemed like a car ornament was appropriate for Eliza since she turned 16 and started driving.

Amanda played this Wii game,"Just Dance", at a birthday party and loved it. It is seriously so fun!! And good exercise.

Eliza fell in love with this purse one day when we were out shopping. Isn't is cool?

Josh admiring his new knife. All I can say is...boys are weird! :0) Just kidding, Josh.

Amanda has started loving football and being Tim's daughter, her favorite team is the Washington Redskins. Her 2nd biggest wish for Christmas was a Redskins jersey.

Does she look way cute in it or what?

One of Eliza's biggest wishes for Christmas was a class ring, and this is it! Her birthstone is actually a clear crystal, but she wanted the stone to have color, so she picked this pretty blue. I love it!

Mom bought these elf hats and "forced" these guys to wear them. Aren't they great??

The girls got so many awesome things for Christmas. They got gift cards to their favorite store, Barnes & Noble, from Nana & Papa Bear & Julianna, Tammy & Heather and Grandma & Grandpa Swallow, so they had a heyday shopping at Barnes & Noble! They got 14 or 15 books between the two of them! We're so lucky to have such a wonderful family and to have had such a great Christmas!

Thanksgiving Day

So, this year we stayed home for Thanksgiving and Mom went to Ohio, so we were on our own for Thanksgiving dinner! In my life, I've only once ever made Thanksgiving dinner, so I wasn't sure how well it would go, but the girls and I were up for the challenge. We had to go back and forth to Mom's house about 5 times to use her double oven and to borrow stuff we didn't have or forgot, like brown sugar and a turkey baster. But despite a few bumps along the way and being totally exhausted by dinnertime, we actually had a blast and laughed all day. They did NOT want me to take their pictures, since we all just kindof rolled out of bed and got started early that morning. But they don't realize how beautiful they are ALL the time!!!


We have a tradition every Thanksgiving of adding to our game collection. When the girls were little, we always bought one "big people's" game and one "little people's game". Since the girls have gotten older, we obviously just get two big people games, but I went a little crazy this year and got THREE games AND a movie (How to Train Your Dragon - AWESOME!).


After we recovered from dinner and some of us (not me) had naps, we played UNO Attack and Phase 10 Masters and had an awesome time. Way fun games! It was one of my best days ever, just getting to be with my hubby and girls and eat and play and laugh!

Eliza on a Powder Puff Football Team!!

Janesville has started an awesome tradition of every year having a powder puff football team. Each grade has their own team of girls and they are coached by the guys in their grade who play football. They have just one evening of the teams playing each other and it's a lot of fun to watch. Also, the boys have volleyball teams that are coached by the girls. It's so cool. The kids really have a great time with it!

Eliza's team huddles before the game begins for last minute strategizing and instructions from their coaches.
Eliza is standing in the center of the field, waiting for the play to start.
...And she is DOWN!
Waiting to hear the call from the ref...
Eliza with one of her good friends - isn't she darling?
Eliza's team with two of their coaches. I love this picture - they're so cute!!
This picture made me laugh so hard. Are we seeing a bit of Eliza's evil side?

More Volleyball Pictures!

I found more volleyball pictures - and these are during games! Yay!

Young Women in Excellence Sept. 29, 2010

The girls participated in a wonderful Young Women in Excellence Program to be recognized for their accomplishments in Personal Progress and to just have a nice spiritual evening together. The Young Women Theme for 2010 was "Be Strong and of a Good Courage" and the symbol the YW Presidency chose for that theme was the butterfly. The girls and their leaders did a fabulous job and it was a beautiful evening.

Eliza and one of the other Young Women started the night off with a duet.

Our Young Women's group sang a BEAUTIFUL group song.

My mom is the 1st Counselor in the Young Women's Presidency, which is SO awesome! She is in charge of Personal Progress, so she handed out the Personal Progress awards. I'm so proud of her and the work she does with the girls. She's amazing!

For each of the girls who read the Book of Mormon, Mom made them a beautiful white satin pillow with the temple embroidered on the front. Here's Mom handing Eliza her pillow and other awards. Amanda earned a pillow also. I'm SO proud of them!

Eliza is showing her Individual Worth Project, which was a spiritual experience picture journal. She had heard that President Hinckley said we should have a spiritual experience every day. So each day for two months she recorded a spiritual experience she had that day and then found a picture or took a picture to go with it.

Amanda is showing her Faith project. She made two stitcheries - one that says "Live in such a way that those who know you but don't know God will come to know God because they know you." and the other one says, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

I'm so proud of the girls. They're really amazing!

Amanda - School Volleyball

Some cool pictures of Amanda in school volleyball last fall (Sept-Oct 2010):

In warm-ups, her friend spikes the ball to her... (Amanda is in the center of the picture in the black uniform.)
And she dives for it!
Also in warm-ups, the setter sends her the ball... (She is #10.)
...And she goes up for the spike! Isn't she awesome?!
None of the pics from game play turned out all that well. But, eventually, there will be some posts of her in AAU volleyball that will hopefully provide some good pics and videos during games.

Eliza at the Wheel

For those who have not yet witnessed Eliza driving, here's a pic. Notice her eyes are still on the road! Good girl!

Big Toe Talk

Tim gets a big kick out of the fact that Eliza and I are very expressive with our big toes. When I put on my makeup or fix my hair, my big toe goes up. When Eliza is concentrating like when she's studying, or when she's telling us something she's really happy about, her big toe pops right up! So Tim decided to get some pictures of our big toe action.

Eliza is very happy!

Eliza is SUPER HAPPY! Two big toes up! Amanda joins in on the happiness.

A family celebration! Can't you see how happy we are?

Big Toe High Five!

Some cute pics of the Miller kids

While searching through all the pictures of our Utah trip, I found these darling pictures of Heidi & Joseph's kids and just had to include them. Enjoy!

Rebekah looks like such a little angel here!
Not so much here...
Awwwwww. Rebekah's such a good big sister!
I don't think Alex is too happy with the other kids...
Here's a close-up of his face from that picture! He's so cute when he's angry!