Fantastic Photoshoot!

Abbie sent us pictures from our latest photo shoot. Here is a sampling. It is hard to pick just a few to show case on the blog, there are so many good ones. You will need to visit this link to see the whole set. They are pretty cute. But really, what do you expect with such good models? Don't forget the password is: Milles

Chronicling Our Christmas Celebrations

We were blessed to have many opportunities to celebrate our Christmas with our Families. Follow along to hear of our celebrations and festivities.

Christmas Eve:

Bethany had fun playing with all the Milles family!
She especially like mimicking Uncle Derek. He can be pretty silly.

We left well past Bethany's bed time. She fell asleep immediately in the car. I tried to remove her hat. But she continually pulled it down over her eyes. Pretty Cute!

Christmas Day:

The day start off by opening the presents Santa left for Bethany at our house.

Once she saw the kitchen, she didn't have much interest in the presents.
Who can blame her. Someone needs to cook around here!

She wanted to put her Elmo ornament on the tree right away!

Here is Bethany with her stash of goods from Santa.

On to Grandma & Grandpa C's House. Actually, Bethany was so in love with her kitchen, she had a little Christmas Melt down when we tried to leave. "NO COAT" "NO Grandma!" "No Grandpa!" It was pretty cute as melt downs go. I am just glad that Santa hit the nail on the head with that kitchen!

Eventually we made it to Grandma's and Grandpa's for breakfast. As the presents were distributed, it was hard to miss Bethany's stack! Wow...that is a lot of stuff! Bethany had no interest in opening the presents. She wanted to cuddle Grandpa & to inspect the other stuff that was already opened! Crazy Girl! Eventually we "tricked" her to open her presents.

After a nice nap, Christmas Evening was already rockin' and rollin'! Grandma and Grandpa M., Uncle Derek & girlfriend Sarah, & Great Aunt Pam and Uncle Chris came over for dinner and good times. Again, I was more interested in my kitchen than all the new presents around the tree!

Seriously...she had NO interest in presents! It was pretty entertaining to listen to all of the ideas we had to come up with to hoodwink her to open up her gifts! :)

Here is a rare moment: Bethany sitting and opening a Leap Frog toy from Grandma!
She loves it!

Uncle Derek and girlfriend Sarah were a lot of fun to have a round. Sarah is here holding Bethany's new Elmo Quilt Cover. It is pretty cute!

Another one of Bethany's favorite gifts from Uncle Derek---her AquaDoodle. She loves it! :)

We hope everyone had a great Christmas with their families and friends. We are grateful for all of the good times and celebrations we were able to be a part of. Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful presents. We also just wanted to bring to the forefront of our minds the real reason for the season (pardon the cliche!). But it is, after all, Jesus's Birthday! It is important for us to take a moment to appreciate the significance of that event over all of the pretty shinies that Christmas now-a-days can distract us with.

Presents & Playtime!

I've already gotten to open a few Christmas presents early. This one is from my sitter, Jan. She is always nice to us. She gave me this cool barn with animals! Nice to know that I can hit the other kids...and I still get presents! :)

Here I am going down this mighty adventurous slide at McDonald's!
WEEEEEEeeeee!!!

I always like to proclaim, "But-Fly!" When I sit here! :)

An Ultracool Ultrasound!

click the sonograms for a larger view! :)

Here is Baby2, as we so affectionately call him/her. I went for my ultrasound on Wednesday. Baby2 has all of the necessary parts in the right places. We got to see the 2 arms, 2 legs, a large tummy, head, heart and brain. We didn't look for any distinguishing features to determine if Baby2 was a he or a she. Don't bother looking, the sonographer said she didn't go down there!!!! Anyway, we didn't find out for Bethany, so it is only fair we don't find out for Baby2. No one can claim we have favorites! :) The dr. did up my due date a couple of days. But really, when he did that with Bethany it didn't matter. She still popped out on the latest due date I was given. So I am not holding my breath for an early arrival. (Although, one is more than welcome! I get up to 6 weeks paid off...I'd like to get as much of that as possible! :) )

My blood antibody levels remain at the same level. The antibodies are still present, but not at the "significant" level they were at the beginning of my pregnancy. That is a relief. I will still go for my monthly blood tests before my dr. appointment just to be safe. I have been doing my best to instruct my body not to fight off Baby2. I have all my antibodies standing down! ;-) They can redeploy in June!

We Wish You a Merry D'oh-mas!

Bethany loves her "D'oh" Santa. She loves to sing and dance with him.

P.S. for some reason Blogger puts a second video image on the blog post. I can't get rid of it. So...either ignore it or enjoy our cutie-pie twice as much!

Christmas is Here! :-)

Our Tree is finally up!

Please ignore the lack of a top...I am searching for one like.
I'm either really picky...or all the stores have a very disappointing inventory!

Going in for a kiss!

The first few days the tree was up, Bethany was in awe. Especially since the tree rotates. She will chase "D'oh" around the tree. Then, she'll get stuck when "D'oh" goes to the back side of the tree. She loves to Kiss, talk to, and give drinks to the ornaments. What a loving girl~

Can't forget Elmo!
Bethany loves her Elmo stocking. Especially since it sings (rather loudly!)!!!

Sleepy, Socks, & Straws!

Straws! Bethany has finally mastered the straw. Really, who knew that was a hard concept for little kids. I mean, they have the sucking reflex instilled in them from birth. So, then why is a straw much more different than a sippy cup or bottle? Within the past month-and-a-half, she has figured it out. She was close for a long time, but often would give up sucking before the beverage made it all the way up the straw. Now that she is a master of all straws...she wants nothing but a straw. We went out and bought her a couple sippies that have straws instead of the traditional top. She's so proud of it! :)

Socks! On one of the many occasions that Bethany removed her socks, her daddy very "helpfully" put them back on her. She was really puzzled by them being on her hands. Here she is trying to get them back on her toes! What a cutie!

Sleepy! For a couple of evenings, Cory has caught Bethany and I snoozing away whenever he gets done doing whatever it is that he is doing (usually housework, laundry, dishes, papers, etc.). This time he sneakily took a picture of us sleeping. What a not-so-flattering picture it is, too, I might add! I think the problem is that I often ask Bethany if she is ready for night-night. She will then reply matter-of-factly, "No!" So, I take it she's not ready...plus, I am too lazy to go upstairs to put her away. So, then we both end up falling asleep downstairs. Nothing like fostering good bed-time habits young!