My sister, Candice and her baby girl Charlotte came to visit me and say good-bye, they are off to Virginia for 3 years. Totally going to miss them like crazy. We always were able to see each other at least a couple times a year but this is the start of not being able to see each other for WAY TO LONG:( I always have the best time with here and will miss her like crazy!

Colby and Ethan love to take Andy on walks, they really missed him over the summer. When we got back in Utah we had to make up for the whole summer without him. The boys got to be super heroes while walking Andy, best of both worlds. Gotta love boys, they are the best!

Posted in: 2012, candice, colby, ethan, riss on Monday, November 5, 2012 at 0 comments  

We did something different this year, and it was AMAZING!! My older sister and sister in law (side note, I use "in-law" to clarify, I really don't like the term and, of course, think of her as a sister)  were in Mexico, on the beach AND living it UP! Soooo My mom decided to head down to S.L.C. and have a Mother's Day date with Candice and myself! SO SO BRILLIANT. What a thinker!!  :)


Candice and I met my mom at the hotel in S.L.C. during the lunch hour. We stayed at a lovely hotel that was close to the new mall, City Creek (great mall, Utah is finally getting it right). We walked to the new mall and had lunch at Kneaders, than went shopping! Shopping where I didn't have to bring snacks for anyone or say "I will try this on so fast", or bribe! Sooooooooo verrrrry relaxing, we took our sweeeet time.... in every store! This was fabulous and so was the company! After our great shopping excursion we later rode the tram back to the hotel (a couple blocks but since I have never done it, it was fun and not scary. I am branching out :). Before we left the mall we of course grabbed all of the catologs at Hardware Restoration, then went back to the hotel, drank Diet Coke and Mountain Dew while soaking our feet in the hot tub. Awwww, so nice and refreshing.








 Later that evening we walked around the temple grounds and headed to our reservation at The Roof. So lovely! I think that was the first time for all of us and we were seated with a perfect view of the temple. We made a later reservation in the evening so the blinds were going up as we were seated. We saw a great sunset! They had a piano player there, she was great. She played all of the good stuff, Les Mis, Phantom, Clair De Lune; it was perfect. They had great creme brulee, so in other words- it was perfect!! We came home, tried out a fun face mask and watched HGTV.
Sunday morning we woke up and went to the Spoken Word and sat on the 4th row. I have a SUPER mom and am SO very thankful for her. Candice and I had a blast!!!!

Posted in: 2012, candice, millers, riss on Friday, June 1, 2012 at 2 comments  

Boise is always a blast. Candice and I have been able to see each other a lot these last couple of months and it has been so much fun. Colby and Ethan love Charlotte. Alright so Colby is great with her and Ethan and Charlotte clash some BUT by the end they were playing great together. Her they are giving her some L O V E!

( AND of course, Colby with no pants, I know we are working on that, my kids would be great at a nudist colony:)



Ethan has had a rougher time lately. With Darrin being gone for 3 weeks, me constantly working on the house and yard( 5 acres..is TOUGH) and trying to get packed for Omaha, busy- is an understatement. I headed up to Boise for a little fun! By this point Ethan has had it, and is exhausted. He had a rough time going to sleep and when I was checking up on him... this is what I found. He is in my suitcase!!! He had fallen asleep like this. The funny thing is, there were paper and things on the bottom, so it couldn't have been comfortable it's a duffel bag. Exhausted after his tantrum, he is still a keeper!



I am trying to organize all of my pictures and my conclusion is... I have almost none of myself or Darrin. I always wished my parents had more of themselves, but now being a parent, I have noticed it is hard to remember. This is before church. I also discovered posed picture with both kids smiling are nearly impossible, from now on it's going to be candid!



The munchkins exhausted from lots of playing at Grandma's!! On our way back home:)

We had a great time in Boise! We stopped at Nat and Cob's house to play with the cousins and spent the night there. Natalie showed me that there is stuff to do in Burley............ well they have a great mexican food place and yogurt shop:) 

Went swimming at the Dunkleys! Oh, how I love that they heat the pool to 90! Awesome! Not so awesome that Colby freaked out with his swimming lessons, like hysterical- thanks for getting me through that, Ju! Ethan loved them, and Colby did too, well after he was out of the pool! Swim lessons are going to be fun this summer!!

Lot's of yummy food, Idaho Pizza Company and Westside will be missed, best garden burgers ever!!! Of course my moms food.

The bunk beds, along with the trampoline, books, bath time, grandpa making them awesome breakfasts every morning and me getting to sleep in, why do I ever leave???

P.S. Juliann, love the moves at night............ Candice thought we were soooooo FUNNY!!!!!!!!

Posted in: 2012, candice, colby, ethan, millers, riss on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 2 comments  

My parents just bought a bunk bed for when the the grand kids come visit. Who doesn't love a bunk bed? This one is great because both beds are full size. I really want one! Probably should have a house first:) When it's Darrin's night to tuck the kids in.......I often find all three boys tuckered out!
Colby and Ethan love the trampoline. I loved having one growing up and it is nice because it is in the ground. Much safer. The kids and I always have a blast on it.

This Christmas we went shooting, I love shooting. Soooooo much fun. Kayle has a handgun which is super powerful and had a nice kick to it. Darrin really loved this bad boy and Kayle would start from where we were shooting and take a ton of shots walking and jogging up to the target. I swear it was like watching some undercover agent/ James Bond kind of thing. Pretty sweet! Darrin was great at knocking off all of the targets we lined up.
( We also (each couple) bought an airsoft gun and we would print off a target and have competitions in the basement, I love those things!!)




The day we went shooting, it was freezing! By the end, Candice and I would warm up in the car and only get out when someone else was nice enough to load up the guns:) This gun we borrowed from the Dunkley's, it was super fun. You could load 2 shells and when you pulled the trigger the smoking shell would fly out, how awesome! I really want this bad boy, it's kind of heavy for me so I would leave the gun down until the skeet was thrown than lift it and aim. My shot might improve if I held it up the whole time!

Candice and I had a blast. Her official gun stance, that's how people shoot right? We had all of the fun while the guys were nice enough to go set up the targets( thanks to Darrin's massive pop addiction we had plenty) P.S. The guns not loaded, We do practice gun safety!!

I am shooting my dad's 22. I think this is my favorite gun. It is super lightweight and no kick, I am more comfortable with this one so my aim is a little better. Candice, my dad and I would have competitions to see who could knock down all of the cans. My dad hit every single one. Let's just say Candice and I had fun! :) At least I have swagger when I shoot!! HAHA

Posted in: 2011, candice, christmas, dad, millers, riss, vacation on Friday, December 30, 2011 at 1 comments  

When Candice and Kayle stayed with us for a couple weeks, we went shooting a couple times. I fell back in love with guns. We sold our guns when we moved to California for Disney passes, I think I want them back! We had a blast. Kayle is great to go with. I totally trust him and he gives me lessons and teaches me all about gun safety. I would NEVER go shooting with someone I didn't fully trust. We had a great time, that hand gun is POWERFUL! Thanks Kayle, Darrin and I had a great time!

Posted in: 2011, candice, darrin, millers, riss, us on Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 0 comments  

We had a great Thanksgiving. My parents have always wanted to drive down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway, aka Highway 1- I didn't know that is what Californians call it, such useful info :) My parents drove to see Candice and Kayle first than everyone came here for Thanksgiving, it was a blast. We played games, ate great food, went hot tubbing, woke up for Black Friday shopping, it was great!!!! The only sad thing- I didn't get any pictures, I was to busy playing. I did take one of the boys and my dad. My parents love buying them adorable pj's. I think these are my new favorite.

Posted in: 2010, candice, millers, thanksgiving, us on Sunday, November 28, 2010 at 0 comments  

Darrin is in his busy season at work, at first I thought the busy season was a couple of months but I am pretty sure busy season for him is like 9 months out of the year. This last month has been especially hard, when he is in the field him and Bryan will wake up at 3:30-4 and get done close to 11 or midnight. Yeah, CRAZY hours. My hubby works really really really hard, and the kids and I appreciate everything he does for us. He was going to Vegas again, they do a lot of work in Las Vegas, I decided to be brave and travel with the kids. I have been on tons of flights with the kiddos but I have never driven farther than the beaches and San Diego. I decided to be brave and drive the 6-7 hour drive to Monterey to visit my sister Candice and her hubby Kayle. I am extremely proud of myself that I went and did something like that on my own. That was a long drive but it was nice to explore a new area and hang out with family. I had a great time in Monterey and had a blast hanging out with my sis.

Posted in: 2010, candice, colby, ethan, millers, riss, vacation on Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 5 comments  

Yeah- for Aunt Candice. She was able to spend 3 weeks here. We had a blast. It is not that often you get to hang out with your sister for that long, especially now that we are married and don't live by each other. I am sad that she has to be away from Kayle for 10+ weeks but we had a blast together. Colby is quite her little admirer.




Sometimes I wonder if he is around his mother too much. He has seen me do one too many hair cuts and colors. Here Colby is seriously combing through Aunt Candy's hair.




Here is Colby getting ready to go to the pool. What killer hair! Why couldn't I get that...

If you notice closely, he has to have his most genuine smile... he is "secretly" going through Candice's purse!

Posted in: 2010, candice, colby, millers on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 1 comments  

From coming home to the hospital, we had 5 days in Utah until we moved to California. Now understanding how different life is with a new baby, away from family and after a super hard delivery... we should never have moved that soon after. I am glad my mom could stay with us those 5 days until we left to California. It was so nice to have her take care of myself and Colby. Aunt Candice came out and helped take care of us also, such a nice sister. It was hard to leave Candice, always being so close to her, it was hard.





 The delivery was so bad that a week later I was still on a high dosage of pain killers and always carrying around my "doughnut" to sit on. Darrin took a picture of us at the hotel on our trip down to California. Looking back I don't know how we survived. I do know that God gave me a great baby. Colby is the easiest going baby, he never cries and is a very happy baby. Exactly what I needed to make it through.
Looking back, I had post partum blues and was having a hard time with the move. One major change in life is huge but this was 2 right in a row. I am so lucky I found some great friends quickly. I know I was looked after in California and will never forget that.

Posted in: 2008, candice, colby, darrin, millers, riss on Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 0 comments