Quote of the day

Millie to Ben: " You can play by yourself with Jesus and I'll play with God."

millie

Have i mentioned that millie sleeps with books?  She snuggles right up to them with her puppy and drifts off to dream.  She loves books.  You might think that she secretly reads them instead of going to bed....but no.  I will hear her flipping the pages for a few minutes and then she tucks the book of choice under her covers and nite nite.  I love that about her.  I like to think that she got her love of books from me...but who knows.  Just 2 days ago was millie's "gotcha day".  This was the day 3 years ago that we finally got to take custody of sweet millie....sweet, little, malnourished, barely could hold her head up when we met her millie.  What would we do without our millie?  I tell her she's my sunshine.  Tonight we were laying in her bed and i told her that i wanted to laugh a lot tomorrow (i felt like i was really tired today and too grouchy) and she said "let's laugh right now"- so we both started trying to make ourselves laugh and you can't help but get tickled when you hear her belly laugh!  Another thing about millie is that she talks all the time...and i mean ALL the time!  But it's funny, what i use to find unnerving i actually find endearing...most of the time:)  She's so curious and she has to be sure that someone acknowledges that she spoke....even if she has to repeat it 15 times....and she will:)

I love how sweet she is to ben...she will always give up anything she has to make him happy....and she'll do anything she can to help him out. 

 They were playing in his room the other morning and she ran in to the kitchen to throw something away and ben hollered "millie the phones ringing" and she said "it's ok, i'll call them back"...so hilarious....sometimes they remind me of a little old couple.

My millie.  I am so thankful for her....when she's wanting to use all of my bathroom products, when she's trapping john campbell by sitting on an upside down laundry basket, when she tells me that when she's bigger she is going to be a cowgirl and ride bulls,  how she always wants to snuggle, when she's "reading" john campbell a book and doing all the voices,  when she's talking non-stop, when she's helping me cook, when she smiles that adorable smile in those precious glasses.....and especially when she sleeps with books....my millie.....i sure do love my sunshine......i'm so glad God let us find each other.

Sunday

Ben has started pre-school 3 days a week this year and so this has meant everybody is getting pretty use to getting up early these days....of course if you know my kids at all you know they have always gotten up rather early anyway!  But i really like the routine we are in.  So since we were all up early this morning we had a ton of time before we had to get ready for church.  It was so nice...we went for a walk/bike ride/wagon ride down to mr.keith's pond and we were pumped because one of our neighbors dogs always walks with us and we finally remembered to bring him a ball to fetch in the water....the kids loved it!

Worshipping with our church family was great...ben and millie stayed in the service with me and they did pretty good.  When we went to the bathroom right before it started ben came out of the stall laughing and he showed me that he had forgotten to take off his play shorts when he put on his church shorts...he had 2 pair of shorts on!  We were cracking up!

After nap and room time we played outside the rest of the day and all 3 kids crashed hard tonight...and i think i am going to too:)  

Well hello!

awww...eating lunch on the back porch so he watch big brother and sister play...he LOVES them!

making pizza dough
ben used to always say he wanted to be a "cook chef"...now it's a tow truck driver

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  Our summer has been wonderful!  i can't believe it's already September.  Last month John Campbell turned one...and started walking.  He walks all over the place now with his dimply legs....he is so cute!!!  Man i love that little guy so much.  Sometimes I just can't believe I get to be mommy to my sweet babies!

Anyway today was a lot of fun.  We went to a little friends birthday party this morning and ben and millie had a great time.  When we got home, after lunch and millie and john campbell's nap, william, kaleigh, sam, and gracie came over and played outside for a while.  It's so fun seeing them all growing up....the girls were screaming while i drove them on the golf cart as the boys ran after them with a sword, gun, and a shovel!  (not sure what the plan was with the shovel:)

Tonight when i put ben to bed i said " i love you ben"...and he said" i love you sweetie pie."....such a stinker....i'm laughing just typing that.

millie

Tonight when i was laying down with millie before  bed we were watching john campbell crawling around her room...when he started to crawl out of her room millie said "uh-oh mama, he's heading out of my room"....and i said "where do you think he's going?"...to which millie replied..."florida"...haha!

yo

never know what you're going to get at the grocery store!
making zucchini bread
i love this picture.
best buddies...most of the time:)
us trying to get a family picture at a rangers game!

Wow it's been forever since I posted!  We have been super busy...Mike's had a light few weeks and we have even been to the beach with my family!  I haven't loaded my pictures on to the computer of that trip yet but hopefully soon.

Today was a great day at home....I was really tired because i went to bed late and then  the baby got up randomly at 4 and then millie got up at 4:45 so i had to move her back to her room...and then at 5:15 ben came in with a bloody nose...but other than being a little sleepy we all had a great day.  They were super excited to get to ride their riding toys and to eat on the porch.

We had to run to staples this evening and in the car on the way home ben said, "mama, are we hard?"...my heart sank....i thought to myself....have i made him feel like i think it's so hard to be his mommy?...so i asked him, oh so concerned, what he meant....and he said "  I mean are we hard or can like monsters and dinosaurs eat us?"....i laughed so hard...he was really more wondering if we are crunchy!!!!  

Our Day

Today was a great day!  I worked out at the gym and then me, ben and millie headed to swimming lessons while mike and cam had some good time hanging out.  The kids are doing amazing.  A month ago ben wouldn't even put his head under water and now he will go down in the shallow end and pick up a ring.  Millie will even go down to the bottom of the deep end!  Crazy!!!!

After swimming lessons we came home and the kids ate lunch and had nap and room time.  When they got up ben and mill helped me make some zucchini bread.  Between the Hamiltons and Rehoboth Ranch I have a ton of fruits and veggies so i have been wanting to try this recipe for a while.  They each got to make a loaf and it turned out really good. (I have some pictures but mike has our sd card reader so i will load them sunday.)

We played outside for a while and i helped ben water the plants on the front porch....it's one of his chores:)  

John Campbell is into everything these days!  He loves to crawl all over the house and getting into everything!  It's pretty hilarious because you cannot turn your back for one second.  There is no telling how many finger sweeps i've done making sure he didn't put something in his mouth.

Something cute ben said the other day....  he went with me to pick up our produce from rehoboth and while we were loading up our stuff i was telling him what each vegetable was.  On the way home he was trying to remember what all we had gotten  and he said "...and we got peppermints...".....instead of bell pepper.....so cute!

Something else going on in our family....for a while now mike and i have talked about as followers of Christ if we REALLY believed what we say we do wouldn't we live differently?  When a person first becomes a Christian they seem to have this period- usually if they are a little older when they believe- where they are "on fire", so passionate to change the world for God's kingdom......and we appreciate their zeal but we "know" that their radical talk and lifestyle will eventually diminish and they will start to settle down and live the...and i hate to say it....average american Christian life.  Why is that? How is it if our treasure is in heaven we are SO quick to become obsessed with the temporal?  If the road is narrow and the way is few and i look around me and everybody looks like me and acts likes me and spends their money like me....am i really on the narrow road?