Handprint, footprint art work

Happy Christmas Eve! This season has just flown by. As does most of the year. However, I have found this year, for the first time ever, that I want to slow the clock down and savor every moment. Having our son home I want to experience holidays (and every day events) to their fullest. Because of this I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the beginning of December...motherhood by itself certainly brings plenty of reasons to feel over whelmed. For some reason, this Christmas season just seemed to start with me already running around chasing my tail. I was determined to get it all done. And, though I didn't get it ALL done, I certainly achieved as much as I possibly could. The bright side to this has been many memories and new traditions have started in our household! I have always admired artwork made from children hand print, foot print (& thumbprints). Whether that is on paper, in clay, on glassware or canvas, anywhere where a moment in time is captured and preserved!! As most of you know, now a-days there are stores where you can paint on canvas or paint a plate, etc. It's hard to get out of the house and go to these places when you have a toddler in tow. So, I thought I would find some projects that I could do at home. I found canvas on sale at my local craft store 2 for $8. And, after choosing colors in the paint isle I spent several days at my kitchen table painting away. It maybe obvious but from left to right the feet are: Matt, Julia & Zachary. And, a little ornament adorns the top right corner with "The Millers, 2012". I had so much fun doing this that I'm already planning making one for Easter too.

After painting the canvas I just couldn't stop. I saw this idea on pinterest of making a cloth banner. The fabric is very cheap but the outcome seems priceless to me :)I couldn't help but pull out my sewing machine and add a little extra trim. I love love these!

Gynmastics Recital & Blue Ribbon Day

Recently Zachary had his first gymnastics recital. Mom was out of town but Dad and Poppi went to watch Zachary perform his routines.

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At the end of his rectial all the children were given individual medals of achievement. Little boys raise one arm to acknowledge their award. While little girls raise both arms (I'm not clear as to why)

Zachary was also acknowledge after a weekday class with a presentation the gym calls "Ribbon Day". On Ribbon day teachers award blue ribbons to the kids & give parents papers of accomplishment. Which detail the skills the children have mastered. Mom was excited to be able to witness Zachary standing on the block & raising his arm!

We are so proud of our son for his hard work & persistence in the gym!

More Elfin Magic

The Elfin Magic continues to be abundant in our household...this must mean that Zachary has been a good little boy!! Yesterday we went downstairs to see Elfie in a Hot air balloon, notice Zachary's underpants!

And, this morning Elfie dropped by with an email from Santa! Zachary LOVED it!! It's from a free online Santa Email (portablenorthpole.com) program where Santa says Zachary's name & pulls out a book from his libray with information about Zachary (his age, what he's accomplished this year, what he does during the day, what he wants for Christmas, etc.) He walks around the toy work room and shows the Elfs making gifts for all the children around the world. Zachary answered Santa's questions and responded right back to Santa...too cute!! Email from Santa

Crazy Elfie...

If the weather holds up we plan on driving around our local neighborhoods searching for Christmas lights, drinking warm coca' with our glow sticks in hand! We love Christmas!!

I have a LOOOONGGGGG list of crafty "to do's" all thanks to my love of the internet site called pinterest. I have been very very busy trying to get all this done. We have had so much fun with all these projects!! Cinnamon Applesauce Potpourri Can I say, "OMG OMG" well, yes OMG OMG!! This is so easy, smells absolutely delicious & Zachary LOVED to cut the shapes. We will totally be doing this again! All it is: 1 C Applesauce, 1-1/2 C Cinnamon & 2Tb ground nutmeg. OMG OMG!! so so fun!!

Stringing Homemade Garland We have never taken the time to do this before. I think as a child I remember stringing something one time but I'm not sure what it was. I thought the popcorn would be easier than it ended up being- the pop corn cracked and it was very easy to poke yourself. Obviously we didn't want our 3 year old to string with a real needle so I just made a faux one with tape on the end of a string. And, we had a lot of debate over what type of food he could string easily...we initially looked for dry noodles but couldn't find any that were colored so we stuck with the good ole favorite cereal fruit loops. Zachary would string one and eat three. Cranberry

Zach's "needle" fruit loop string

upclose & personal

Mantel

Focus on the garland

Gingerbread House Poppi gave us a gingerbread house at Thanksgiving. We sat down one evening to decorate it. Zachary absolutely loved this!! It sits in the center of our kitchen table and we have a lot of discussion over who maybe inside (Elfie is the big favorite). Zachary looks so proud in this picture :))

Snowman Door. This decoration was so easy, and it's one of those ideas where I think to myself, "why did I not think of this?" I made this with just card stock & punches. And, I hand cut out the carrot nose. Zachary helped put the buttons on the snowman and after we were done he said, "our house looks like Christmas" Now that, is what I wanted to hear :))

Thanks for stopping by! Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Elfin Magic

Happy Holidays! We have been busy at the Miller household decorating & looking out for Elfin magic to show up around the house. This was our first year with Zachary's Elf (named Elfie). We thought we would share the Elf activity going on in our home. Day one, we found Elfie taking a cotton bubble bath in Zachary's bathroom sink.

One morning Zachary found Elfie making shapes out of q-tips! And, Elfie made the letter Z too!

Zip-lining!! OMG, Zachary was amazed to find Elfie had tied a jump rope from the shower to the sink and was zip-ling across the bathroom!

Elfie loves books, just like Zachary! We found him reading a book to some of Zachary's stuffed "pets" (Zachary's name for his stuffed animals)

While I was out of town on a girls trip Elfie brought Zachary a Christmas tree for his bedroom!

It was a nice surprise for Zachary!

We caught Elfie in our pantry sipping syrup straight from the bottle! And, he brought Zachary his first gift from Santa! Jake The Neverland pirate ornaments for his tree!

Elfie was a little behind on bringing the advent calendar to our home. But, Zachary enjoyed searching for 1-12 numbers and indulging in 12 pieces of (very mini) chocolate!

Elfie brings festive coloring pages...

We quickly inserted Zachary's Festive Artwork in the special frames in our hallway:

We hope you all are enjoying this beautiful, magical time of year!

This past weekend we did my 2nd 5K fun run at lake Lanier called, Lanier Under The Lights. I had a goal to run as much as possible. Unfortunately I underestimated the course. I was not prepared for the hills. I am very pleased with our time, I am just a bit disappointed that we did not get to run as much as I wanted to. I injured myself in the summer by running down a hill. Since then I only run when it is flat ground. We met up with a few friends and we all had a fun time looking at all the Holiday Lights even if sometimes my chin was pointing towards my feet :) Even Santa joined in the race!

Though we enjoyed the race I would say I prefer morning races. We arrived 1.5 hours early to check in then my nerves were getting the best of me! I was ready to take off by the time our group got to start the race!! I'm excited to try another 5K soon. Any suggestions on upcoming races?

As promised, though as usual a little late, here are some recent pictures of our Fall Adventures. Our Fall fun begins with our annual pumpkin patch & fair day with Poppi. It is a fun way to get the season started! Pumpkin Patch

At the fair Zachary & Poppi took off! It was so adorable to watch Zachary be excited over all the activity this year. Last year he had NO interest in getting on a ride. But, this year he was ALL about the rides! His favorite was the motorcycles. But, he also got on a flying fish & air planes. I was set on him playing some fair games too. So, he went shark "fishing" & duck picking. We had the time of our lives! It was a GREAT day!

Welcome back to our blog, we are glad you are here! I've got some scrapbook layouts to share with you. I have been busy working on the completion of our China trip. I think the scrapbook is going to end up being two very large albums! I've been focusing on it a lot lately because I am almost done!! I saved these pictures for the last of my scraping this trip because they are so important to me. I feel like they could not be perfect enough, no matter how hard I try. I put so much importance on the pictures that I may never be pleased with them.But I realized there has got to be a day that I scrap them and move on to more recent pictures that are quickly piling up, creating a different kind of stress :)) . Gotcha Day was one of the most important days in my life, I will never forget it. I hope to express my love in these pages for my son. SO, enough already, on with the layouts! Gotcha Day. The very first moments with our son. Wow, they bring back all the emotion!

Nap, Zachary quickly fell asleep in my arms on the bus ride from Gotcha Day to the hotel!

Page 2, this is the complimentary page to the nap above. It shows us getting off the bus headed to our room & then our first official family picture for the VISA.

Our Boy, this picture so reminds me of all our day excursions. Zachary would stay awake as long as he could. He would keep his eye lids open until he could no longer. No matter where we were he was happiest when we were out and about. And, he is like that even to this day!

Forever Family, these pictures were taken in the lobby of the orphanage. I was so wrapped up in my son I didn't even notice the wall. Luckily my Father directed us to stand under the Murial. These are some of my favorite pictures of Gotcha Day.

There is a certain joy from a warm homecoming! So Happy together. These pictures are absolutely precious to me. They capture the first moments that our entire family sees Zachary for the first time!!

Home of the free, land of the brave. This land was made for me and you!

USA, Let's go HOME!! Perfectly captured, us relieved to be in familiar surroundings and anxious to get home!

Hello & welcome back to our blog! It's Fall Y'all!! Just yesterday, we went on our 2nd annual fall day with Zachary's Poppi (Matt's Father). We had such a fabulous day. I have so many pictures still on my camera that I will download soon. But, I didn't want to waste any time sharing the pictures we have easy access to. They were all taken with i-phones, isn't technology great?! The top three pictures Poppi took with his phone & he texted them to me (thank you Poppi!). And, these pictures perfectly tell our story of a wonderful fall day together! First we visited Poppi's local pumpkin patch and Zachary picked out way too many pumpkins. Pictures will show up here soon. But, until then let me tell you about our afternoon at the nearby fair. Last year Zachary would NOT, even with all our coercing, agree to ride a single ride (well other than the carousel). He was content to just watch all the excitement. But, this year was VERY different! Zachary ended up riding 4 rides, feed the petting zoo farm animals, played 2 fair games, shared Poppi's beloved funnel cake, licked melting ice cream from his fingers & watched Mommy & Daddy both take turns on the mechanical bull! Zachary riding his most favorite ride, it's all about the Motorcycle! Interesting enough, by the time he was on this ride he looked absolutely exhausted and uncomfortable. I was very surprise to learn it was his favorite of all his rides. I supposed I shouldn't be too surprised because the boy loves his motorcycles!

Last year Matt rode the Mechanical Bull for the first time. And, this year it didn't take much to convince him to do a repeat performance. The concentration was written all over his face!

I did it too! Yes, I was able to gather my courage and jump on that mechanical bull. I told the operator this was my first ever ride and it also was on my bucket list. So, please take it easy on me. Thankfully he did! The hardest part was getting ontop of the darn bull. The only way was to use the cushion as a trampoline jump and propel myself. In hind site, I should have used the handle to help pull myself up. Live and learn! I lasted 61 seconds! And, only got off because the bull stopped. So, does that mean I won?! Well, not necessarily...because in the process of checking this off my bucket list I pulled my inner right thigh, have cramping in my right side bottom, my neck hurts & I hope I can walk in the morning. But, as a friend said kindly to me, all athletes ache after a performance! LOL, love it!

After the successful bull ride, I went on a shopping spree. I picked up this cow girl hat! I felt the butterfly was very fitting!

We had such a wonderful day & we are all simply exhausted! We can't wait to do it again next year! Thanks Poppi for a fabulous day! xoxoxo PS: my necklace says "Boo Y'all!" :)) Happy Fall!