Continued...

December
Of course, December was a busy month. Dusty and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on the 4th. I love that guy more than anything!!
Myles has found a new love - the Dinosaur Museum. Or, as he says it - dinsor seam. I took him twice this month - once for his birthday. He just loves it!

We also were able to spend time with our good friend Pancho. He came the week before Christmas. We always love spending time with him and wished he was closer!

We had our 2nd annual Miller Family Progressive Dinner on the 18th. It was fun - and Pancho was able to be here again for it. We had the main course at our house - lasagna, yummy!

We were able to spend time with our dearest friends the Smith's a few days before Christmas. We went over and had pizza at their house and played games. Dusty and I are both so thankful for this family who has done so much for our family! This is Dusty and Kelsey playing air hockey.

And of course we celebrated Myles 3rd birthday. He turned 3 on the 23rd, but we celebrated on the 22nd. Anything we can do to make it not so close to Christmas! I sure love my little guy. He is such a smart, loving boy.

We spent Christmas Eve over at our house with my sisters family and my mom. We had a great time eating yummy food and making sugar cookies for Santa. The kids got to open a present from Grandma (and Grandpa) Rupp.

And Christmas was also wonderful. The kids got pretty much what they wanted and needed. I got a lot of stuff for the kitchen, and Dusty got a lot of clothes. We had lunch with Miller's and saw my mom that night. It was a fun day with family!

And, to end the year, Bree and I went to California (I'll post later) and Dusty took the boys to his friends cabin and had a great time.

Long Needed Update

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted anything. Life certainly took over, I guess. I think the easiest thing to do is give a month to month update on what's been going on in our family.

September
This was the beginning of my field show competitions. We had another great show titled "Shades of Conflict". It had to do with dealing with anxiety, etc. The girls had a really good season again and I was proud of them.
The kids started school the end of August. Bree likes it - Jack does not! I wish I could get him to enjoy school more!
Myles is growing up. It's just him and I at home now during the day. We sure have fun.
We celebrated Grandpa Miller's birthday.
Nothing new happening in September.

October
I finished up marching band. We won state again - it's such a great feeling after all the hard work the kids put into the show. Here is a picture of my staff and I:

I really do work with great people and they make my job a lot easier!
Dusty and I bottled more applesauce from apples on our tree. That's always an adventure!
We celebrated my mom and dad's birthday:

My dad would have been 70 on the 22nd. I still miss him everyday!
We carved pumpkins for Halloween and the kids had fun dressing up. Jack was Captain Jack Sparrow, Bree was the girl pirate from the new movie, and Myles was a dinosaur.

November
My sister-in-law Mallory took some pictures of the kids for me. They turned out really cute.

Bree turned 7 this year - so crazy!! We celebrated her birthday and Thanksgiving with the Miller's. It was a lot of fun.

We also had Thanksgiving at our house with my mom and sisters family. Talk about a crazy few days! But it was great spending time with family.
We also took the kids to Provo Beach Resort over the break. It is a really fun, clean place we like to go to. Jack was with Steve and didn't get to go with us.

My good friend Chase also cut and dyed my hair. I love it!

Dusty also enjoyed taking the kids up the canyon while I had winter guard auditions or camps. I'm glad he does that while I'm busy... :)

The last thing that happened in November was our family friend Jordyn moved in with us. We love her so much and she is so helpful with the kids. They sure love her!

I will post December in another post. This is a pretty long update already.

Birthdays

My birthday was on the 14th - and can I just say that birthdays are overrated! I really don't like them. I know - what a scrooge! Well, the one good thing this year was that our dear friend Pancho was able to spend the day with us. So we made it a double birthday, and celebrated both of our birthdays (his is the 30th of August).

I had a lot of people stop by as well to wish me a happy birthday. My best friend Kristina, Gretchen and Aubrey, Tabitha, a few people from my neighborhood (I think I am the ward project), Kass and Brielle, Hannah and Melissa, my mom, and my in-laws. I also got an awesome present. My nephew Aiden was born on my birthday. I am so excited to share a birthday with him - not so excited that now we'll have to celebrate... :)

We have known Pancho for 10 years now, and he really has become family to us. I personally love having him here so he can listen to me and give me advice. What a great friend he is.

I've always said that I don't have a lot of friends - simply because I offend people too much. So, the friends that I do have, I hold really close to! Thanks for sharing my birthday with us Pancho. We love you!!

Adrienne's Wedding

Adrienne got married on August 12th. It was a perfect day!

Adrienne has been adopted into our family - she even lived with us for a while. She is such a wonderful person - and she married a great guy. We love them both so much.

I was able to do the luncheon for them - with the help of my friend Terelyn. I think it turned out great.

The only bad thing that happened that day? Bree ended up going to the doctor, the hospital, and to instacare. Dusty had to take her because I was with Adrienne all day. She broke her arm - poor girl. (I'll post pictures later.) But other then that, everything was fantastic.

I am so proud of her. She is truly amazing. Love you Adrienne and Jon.
(I tried posting pictures but my computer is having problems!)

Jack's Baptism

Well, for those of you who know us well - you know the problems we had with Jack getting baptized. But, it finally happened and I am very proud of him for making his own decisions. He is such a great kid! He got baptized on July 23rd.

I made sure that morning to tell him that everyone coming to see him would be there for him and to make sure he thanked them. Well, without anyone telling him to, he stood at the door at the end and thanked every single person. Wow - I don't think I would have done that.

He truly is the kindest person I know. Dusty and I love him so much and we are so thankful for his kindness in our home.

Elder Fly, Elder Davey, and Elder James with Jack and Dad

Recent Events

This weekend, Dusty and I decided to get away and went to Cedar City for the Shakespeare Festival. I am kindof a theater "snob", so that's one of the only places locally I like to go. He had tickets for A Midsummer Night's Dream on Friday afternoon, and once we got there we purchased tickets for Romeo and Juliet (one of my favorite Shakespeare plays). They were both good, but we really loved Romeo and Juliet.
Saturday we decided we weren't ready to head home so we purchased tickets for Noises Off (it turned out to be an expensive trip!). Neither of us had seen this play before, and it was hilarious!! I am so glad we decided to go. Definitely the best of the weekend. I am very thankful that my husband will humor my love of the theater and take me ever year!

Jack is getting baptized on Saturday. As some of you know, he has waited over a year for this and he seems pretty excited. Maybe he's just more excited to get it over with - I don't know. But, I am supporting him in this decision and I am proud of him for making his own decisions.

And of course we have seen too many movies this summer. We've seen Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer, Cars 2, Monte Carlo, Green Lantern, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Mr. Popper's Penguins. The kids also went to X-Men and Winnie the Pooh with grandparents. I think the kids liked Mr. Poppers Penguins the best - and I thought it was pretty cute myself. Dusty and I have also been to movies on our own, but maybe I won't share which ones lol. But we did see Harry Potter on Thursday. Our good friends got us tickets to an early showing! It was awesome walking out of the theater at 11:30pm looking at all the people waiting for the midnight showing.

That is about it for now. Hope you're all having a fun summer.