Makadie is our little Photographer--or at least she wants to be!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Makadie's 1st Day of Preschool--Sept 15, 2008

Makadie has started preschool! I know what you are thinking--she's only 2! Well in this world we are living in kids are smarter and forced to grow up early (too early I think). We have a group of 4 Moms and 5 kids. We do Preschool on Monday and Wednesday mornings and take turns being in charge and running the show. So if it is not your week you just drop your kid off and come back 2 hours later! Makadie knows all the kids from Church and loves them all.

She also LOVES school! She was so excited on this first day she would not eat anything for breakfast. She has so much fun buying school supplies and her backpack. She is so excited to use her own scissors.
She was so EXCITED about her backpack she wanted me to take a picture of her backpack straight on! She wanted a princess one of course--but Coleman and I were able to talk her into this Hello Kitty one. We don't want everything she owns to be Dora or Princess--or pink and purple!
She is a delightful and happy student. She loves learning and is loving Preschool. Thanks to all the moms and kids in Preschool for making this such a good opportunity for Makadie!

Stake Pioneer Day Celebration-July 2008

We had a great time at our Stake's Pioneer Celebration this past July! Mia was able to come with us, the 2 girls had a blast doing all the fun Pioneer crafts! Two of their favorites were bead necklaces and rope making!

I had never seen rope made before. There were 3 stakes set up in a line. Then twine was wrapped around the stakes and bent in half and attached to one of the stakes tightly. Then a power drill was attached to the other end. The power drill was used to twirl the twine into rope! The girls had a blast!

Makadie is helping Mia with the bending part of Mia's rope making.

Makadie was very excited when her turn finally came! She was oozing with thrill~ I love her smile in this picture! Alma and Makadie have been buds since we moved to Lakewood so I also love this picture of the two of them!

There was a slide and a few swings. This slide really should have a HUGE caution sign on it. The angle of the slide combined with the height and the slippery smooth surface makes for quite the FAST ride. Makadie wanted to slide so I made sure she was safe up the ladder, she wanted to go down by herself--but paranoid mom made her wait until I was in front of the slide ready to catch her. I told her to go--and she did--she came down so fast that I BARELY caught her. If I would not have caught her she would have flew far away from the slide. Thankfully I did catch her. Both of our hearts stopped beating for a moment as we looked at each other waiting for our breath to come back. There really are no words to describe the experience I had, so I made Coleman catch her too! I did give him a warning that it would be fast. The girls really loved their necklaces! They also made bean bags, clay things (I am not sure what they were supposed to be but Makadie's looked like a hotdog in a box and Mia's looked like a shoe), nature rubbings with leaves and crayons, and a few other fun projects!

Camping at Green Mountain Reservoir Aug 22-23 2008

Towards the end of August we went camping with friends at Green Mountain Reservoir near Silverthorne, CO. We wanted to camp near water--which in this case meant no trees-- We usually camp in the mountains and forests so this was a little different--but still fun~ Christy and Archie, Jeff, Tammy, and Caden, our family, and 2 other families that were friends with the Goodells came! The other couples took off right after breakfast so we did not get any pics of them!

These are pictures of the sunset from our campsite Friday Evening~ We loved the colors!

We borrowed the Weaver's Canoe and Archie brought his sailboat. We had a lot of fun in the water and enjoyed the sailing lessons with Archie!

Coleman was crazy and wanted to go swimming in the FREEZING water!

He thought Makadie would enjoy taking a dip too! She was not too fond of the hanging over the water trick though!

She was okay as long as she had a firm grip on Daddy!

Coleman finally coaxed me into the water! He wanted to dunk me---but I would not let him! Luckily he is more afraid of me than he wanted to give in to Jeff cheering him on the bank to dunk me! It was cold enough holding onto Coleman and sharing the warmth of his body! (Oh yah--we know that we are WHITE!!)

Caden enjoyed exploring and playing in the dirt!

Makadie loved the sailboat! She did not get to go sailing but she enjoyed just being on it!

Makadie was able to go in the canoe and thought this was the best thing in the world! She kept asking if she could "peddle all by myself"~ She just laughed and shrieked and had a great time!

Rob and Jess came up on Saturday to play! They also brought their dog who enjoyed the canoe as well!

Anika enjoyed splashing on the shore! The water was way too cold for her liking to take a real dip~ Tammy had fun splashing with her!

Christy and Archie also brought a shade structure! It did get pretty warm on Saturday and we got creative on how we could all sit in the shade!


The only negative part of the trip was the crazy wind during the night! It was so strong and loud blowing on the tents that it was impossible to sleep! Thankfully Makadie and Caden slept just fine! The adults and Anika on the other hand were glad when the sun came up because at least we could get up! Everyone was exhausted by the end of the camping trip and I am sure we all slept wonderfully Saturday night in our own comfy beds without any wind!!

It was a quick but fun weekend! Thanks to everyone for coming and creating memories with us!

Anika's 9 month update!

So I have had this post saved as a draft for a while now--I just needed to bring the stats down! I finally brought them down to the computer so here are the 9 month stats of our little Anika who is now 10 months old!

Height: 27 3/4 inches
Weight: 16 lbs 14 oz

Each day Coleman and I enjoy our little Anika more and more! She is such a fun little girl. She loves to make faces and bob or shake her head. She makes us laugh and smile non stop. She is a super busy and active little girl. She loves to clap her hands, wave, pat her legs and tummy, and many more hand gestures. She is getting good at mimicking and copying. She loves music and dances to music when she hears it. She has been crawling for 3 months now so she is quite the pro! She has also been walking along things since about the time she started crawling. She is not walking yet but is will not be long. She LOVES playing peek-a-boo with a blanket or whatever she can find. She is a delight to be around and brings joy to many! She is a little shy if she wants to be, but once she decides she wants to make eye contact with you--you are in for a treat!

She still loves to put EVERYTHING in her mouth--but that also includes food! She is a GREAT eater and loves to eat! She is quite the babbler too! She can say mama and dada--but mama still just means she wants food! If you say where is Mommy she will look at me, and the same for Daddy and Makadie! We feel so blessed to be her family and pray constantly to be the parents that she needs us to be!

Need Help Remembering Chase

Dear friends and family,

When I left for college 10 years ago Chase was just a little kid. The times that I saw him during and after college were not as many as I would have liked. I think about him all the time and wish I remembered more about him. I have talked with some of you and know that you too wish that we had more memories of Chase recorded. I have decided to put together a Memorial Book honoring Chase's life to help with remembering and sharing memories of our Sweet Chase.

I need all of your help to make this book possible. Please write down or email any stories, memories, things you'd want to say to Chase--anything you would want to include in the book. It would also be nice to include the poems and songs that Chase wrote, so if you have those please pass them on. If you would like to write something by hand I would scan in your handwriting and make it a little more personal.

I also want as many pictures as possible. So if you have any please email or mail to me (and I promise I will get them back to you once I have scanned them onto my computer). We have very few pictures of all 4 of us kids together--so if any of you have any I would love to have it.

I also need your help in reaching other friends of Chase as well as other family members. Please forward this on to all you think might have memories of Chase to share. Since I was at college during his Jr High and High School years I do not know his friends, so I would not even know where to start to reach them.

This is a very special and important project to me that I will be sharing with our family and I hope that you will take some time to help me. With your help I know that this will be a priceless thing that will help us remember Chase as well as show our children what a wonderful person their Uncle Chase was. The book will be a hard bound professionally printed book.

This is going to be a big project collaborating all the pictures and stories, so please start thinking about this now and get back to me as soon as you are ready to share your thoughts. Also I would love the pictures as soon as you can send them as well.

My email address is roniandcoleman@gmail.com If you need my mailing address, please email me and I will get it to you.

I would like to thank you in advance for helping me with this special project and please forward this on or get others to participate.

Love,
Roni Miller
(Chase's Sister)

5 years and still going strong!

Five years ago on August 30, 2003 Coleman and I were sealed and married in the Snowflake Temple!

At times it is hard to believe that it has only been 5 years because we have done so much in the past five years! But at times it almost seems like yesterday and it is hard to believe we have 2 kids!

I made Coleman a fruit bouquet and delivered it to his office on Friday. We talked about not doing gifts this year, but I am such a gift giver that I could not resist. I tried to be good and thought that home-made would be OK! When Coleman called me to thank me for the fruit, he was surprised that I had made it. He said he thought that it was from a professional flower shop. That made me feel good! I was not sure how "professional" it looked, but it fooled the guys at the office. They were so impressed they told Coleman that he needed to do something pretty special for me. They said that it was daimond worthy. It was a fun project! Coleman's favorite part of the bouquet were the chocolate covered blueberries~

Not quite diamonds, but I loved them anyway~ Coleman is a very practical gift giver, and though I sometimes wish he was not so practical with romantic things, I always love the practical gifts he gives me! Thanks babe! I have wanted a pair of Crocs for a while but could never justify paying the price they are. I have almost bought off brands a few times but always refrained because I was afraid they would be cheap and not comfortable. Now I have the real deal! I am excited to try them out and break them in and see if they are worth all the hype!


Since we were not going to do gifts, we wanted to do something fun instead! It all came together at the last minute and we were able to have a fun Anniversary weekend after all--we did not think we were going to be able to! Tammy watched the girls for us Saturday morning and we went golfing. Coleman was on his High School Golf Team and loves to golf but does not go that often. I have never "real" golfed--only miniature golf--and if you are a "real" golfer put-put golfing does not count. Since this was my very first time we went to a Par 3 course. I did pretty good and we had a wonderful relaxing morning. After golfing we ate at the Clubhouse Restaurant. Coleman ordered the best Philly Cheese steak sandwich that we have ever tasted. It was AMAZING--Coleman was a sweetheart and let me eat half of his sandwich. It makes my mouth water right now just thinking about it! We will definitely eat another one there, soon I hope!

After golfing we picked up the girls and put them down for naps. We then went to some friends BBQ and pool party. We had a blast at the pool and enjoyed spending the evening in their backyard eating yummy slow roasted brisket.

*

Monday was Labor Day, the last day that all the water stuff is open in Denver. I have been wanting all summer to go to Pirates Cove--so we finally did! The Taylors and Goodells came with us. We got to the water park first and were waiting for the rest to show up. A lady walked up to Coleman and gave her a prepaid pass with 6 adult tickets on it. We would only need to pay for Makadie--we were pretty stoked! Then another family offered us tickets too---so we took one for Makadie and all got in free! I'll post more pics of this later! I just wanted to include a little since it was part of the Anniversary weekend.

After Pirates Cove it was quick naps again, then we dropped off the girls at John and Maureen's. They offered to watch the girls so that we could go out to dinner. We went to Dave and Buster's. It is a classy adult Chuck E. Cheese type place. We both enjoyed our dinners and had fun playing the arcade games. The fruit of our evening was a stretchy frog, a hacky sack ball, and temporary Dora Tattoos! They did have good stuff, but you needed a gazillion tickets! So we just got a few things for Makadie!

After all that arcade fun we went to Cold Stone in Stapleton near Mia's house. It was after 9:00 so we were not sure if they'd be open. We checked the sign and they said they were open--Yay!! As we went in they informed us that they were actually closed, the hours posted were summer hours and they now have different hours--Darn! So we walked out the door, they girl felt bad and came out and got us. She said she had already cleaned the marble cold stone, but could mix one in a container--Yay! So we ordered my favorite Cold stone recipe--Chocolate ice cream, toffee, chocolate syrup, and caramel syrup! When we went to pay we were paying with a credit card. She said that she already zeroed out the machine for the night so the treat was on them! We thanked her for our anniversary treat and took a walk enjoying our yummy free treat! We took a picture by the life sized bull on the street!

We had a really great weekend and have had a great 5 years!