Kamea at 3

Dear Kamea,

You are a very sweet, thoughtful, and thankful little redhead. Each morning you wake up happy, we hear you climb out of bed close your door and run across the living room to our bedroom. Often you are carrying about 5 stuffed animals, sometimes you call out for help carrying all the animals. If we are still asleep, or just keeping our eyes closed you will sit down on our bedroom floor and play quietly. You are a picky eater and often like to eat the same things everyday. You start out everyday with milk, yogurt, and a banana. You love; turkey, cheese, string cheese, macaroni and cheese, applesauce, and fruit snacks. You do not enjoy getting your hair combed but you always sit quietly and endure when others besides your mom comb your hair. You have learned to pedal your new bike and get very excited. You love the snow and enjoy digging and shoveling it into your bucket. You have an advanced vocabulary and we enjoy your expressions and the way you describe events. When Daddy leaves for work everyday you must give him a hug, kiss, high five, and a fist bump and are very disappointed if you don't get the chance to before he leaves. You have wonderful manners and say thank you and your welcome without prompting. You have mastered using the toilet and can take care of it all by yourself. You love trains, dinosaurs, stuffed animals, horses, and books.

I especially love when you come up to me and put your arm around my neck and rest your head on my shoulder, you seem to know just when we need a hug.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Love Mom

Kamea is 3!

Kamea turned 3 on December 13th. She requested a T-Rex Dinosaur party. This is the first birthday that Kamea has anticipated for days and was so excited when I started to bake the cake and put up decorations. It was so fun to put together a party for her when she was so thankful and excited for the festivities. Kamea was given some great loot, thanks to all who came to share with us.

T-Rex Cake



Kamea was very excited when everyone sang to her

Blowing out the candles

Ready to open presents

Help opening from cousins

More Photo's

I wanted to get some photos of the girls for our Holiday Card. Because we were short on time I decided to put together a make-shift photo shoot at our house instead of using a professional photographer. The pictures turned out good enough for the photo card. You will see most of these on the holiday card.

Kenzi Clarice



This is when Kamea says, I'm done holding sister.

Snow!

Kamea loves the snow. We have had a couple days of snow already this winter here in Idaho. I often hear Kamea ask to go outside to play in the snow, she is content to just stomp around in the snow and to scoop snow with her shovel and bucket.

So excited to be outside in the snow



Kamea Dee Update

I wanted to post an update on Kamea so I can remember some cute things she is saying and doing recently. She has quite the imagination and spends most of the day playing with her train table and reading books to her animals. She has favorite stuffed animals for which baby sister brought her two new ones when she arrived. We were asking Kamea some questions about the bible recently, when we asked her who Jesus Mother was she replied, "Merry Christmas". We were also talking about Noah and were asking her who built the ark, she replied, "Legos". Kamea loves books and requests I read her about 100 a day. Her favorite at this point are anything from the series Llama Llama and Dr. Seuss. Kamea is potty trained, the other day before Kenzi was born we went with Ryan when he was driving around checking potato cellars, about halfway into the rounds Kamea pipes up from the back seat, " I certainly have to go potty." Kamea loves animals and is constantly asking about the neighbor animals; cats, dogs, horses, and cows. You can often hear Kamea pretending with her animal figurines and talking about Puma's, Jaguars, Chinchillas, and crocodiles. Kamea will turn 3 on December 13th and she has requested a Dinosaur birthday party. 

Kamea lined up her stuffed animals in the chair and was telling them stories.



"Mom, Bear and I are having a picnic with our soda!"

Kenzi Meets her Great Grandparents and Namesake

Grandpa Doug and Grandma Clarice spend the winters in Arizona, because of this we thought it would be awhile before they would get to meet Kenzi. However, because of a wedding reception and a funeral we got to see them when Kenzi was only two weeks old. Grandma Clarice is a very special Grandma to our family so it was only fitting to use her name! We love you Grandma.

Grandpa Doug, Grandma Clarice, and Kenzi Clarice



Kenzi Update

Kenzi is now over a week old, we have all been adjusting to a new baby in the house. Kamea is doing very well and is very concerned when Kenzi cries. My Mom and Dad arrived on Saturday, its been very nice to have them. We are relaxing and looking forward to Thanksgiving.

Tummy Time



Chillin in the bouncy seat

Time with Grandpa

Relaxed

Time with Grandma

While Ryan and I were in the hospital and for a couple days after Kamea got to have special time with Grandma. Kamea enjoyed helping with dishes, playing with Lady, and reading Go Dog Go! Thanks Grandma!

Look at the joy from being with Grandma!



Giving Lady some food





Kenzi Clarice Miller

Kenzi Clarice arrived on November 13, 2011 at 9:14 pm. She was 7lbs and 14 ounces and 22 inches long. I had a great experience with labor and delivery. My labor started early Sunday morning with just moderate contractions, they picked up around 2pm. Grandma Pam came and picked up Kamea around 6 and we headed into the hospital around 6:30pm. My body continued to dialate so I was able to start pushing soon and only had to push about 15-20 minutes. I very much enjoyed my experience with all the doctors and nurses. You definitely get good care at the smaller hospitals. We came home Monday afternoon and have been spending the days getting used to another baby girl in the house.

Resting in the Cradle




Bonnie Sikes with Kenzi



Barb Hofer

Kamea enjoying her baby sister

Still Waiting....

We are still waiting for our baby girl to arrive. My due date is tomorrow, I have a doctors appointment scheduled for Tuesday and if I don't have a baby by then we will be talking induction. So because of no cute new baby pictures I found this cute picture of Kamea and Ryan on one of many tractor rides!

Baby Shower in a Box

My wonderful family put together the coolest package. They got the idea for a "shower in a box" from Martha Stewart. It was so wonderful and special. It made this hormonal pregnant lady shed a few tears of joy and thankfulness for wonderful family. Each person had brought a gift, they were individually wrapped and tagged with cute sayings. Thanks so much to; Nettie, Annie, Jessica, Mom, Ant, Crystal, and Kyra it was splendid.

What greeted me when I opened the box



Each gift was individually wrapped and tagged

All the wonderful loot!

Baby Shower

My wonderful Sister-in-law Julie hosted a Pumpkin themed baby shower for me. We had delicious fall food; soup, rolls, salad, and pumpkin desserts. I'm not much into shower games so instead we had an activity and made hair accessories for little girl! It was a wonderful afternoon.

Pretty Table Setting



As a Shower activity we made hair clips

All the lovely guests

Opening Presents

Delicious food was made

Pumpkin Patch

No October is complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch. Burley pumpkin patches definitely can't compete with what we were used to in Seattle, but we were able to pick out pumpkins and take a quick trip through a corn maze.

Cute Spider



Cute Monsters

Wagon Full of Pumpkins

Pears

After peaches we canned pears. Much the same process as peaches but seemed to take longer to peel. After we did canning we also experimented with pear sauce canning and freezing. I'm looking forward to eating it and using it as baby food this next year.

Pears ready to Can



Grandma Teaching Grandkids the peeling process

Canned Pears

Peaches

I had every intention of fully diving into the "country life" when I moved to Idaho. This week I feel like I made a huge step. I learned how to Can. Ryan's Grandmother, Clarice, Julie and I spent a few days canning. The first day was peaches.

My grandmother used to use a pickled peach recipe so we experimented with that as well, I am excited to share those with my father and see how they measure up.

Peaches being placed into the jars

Peaches ready to be submerged in the Canner

Canned Peaches

Subject Matter Expert, Clarice-removing skins, Julie removing pits.