Jaxon is 4!!!

Can you believe it's been 4 years since our lovable hurricane joined our family? I can't either! Our almost Christmas baby turned the big 4 on the 20th of December. We had a family party for him. I made a Thomas the train cake (I dont do cakes) for him. It took me hours and it was, eh, not so pretty. But he was thrilled, so hey. Savannah said "Im just surprised mom made a cake!" I always buy them to save time ;) So before I post a few pictures, here are just a few things I want to say about my wittle boy!

- Jaxon came to us 2 weeks early, weighing in at 9 lbs, and was almost born in the car on the way to the hospital. He was so big when I was pregnant that he broke my sternum (which is still very crooked, thank you). Every ultrasound I had, they kept saying this baby was gonna be big. Thank heavens he didn't cook 2 more weeks!

-Jax was a happy little baby, until he hit about 13 months old...then he morphed into the busiest toddler you have ever seen. He could climb things that should have been impossible, and get into things I thought were safe. He still has not outgrown this.

- Jax is very outgoing and has a lot to say. He isn't shy at all, and he'll talk your ear off. He loves attention and will get it any way he can- good or bad ;) He loves to make people laugh and has an adorable sense of humor. He is so smart, and always has been. He's also very coordinated and rather aggressive, which makes his Daddy very proud. He has high hopes for this one!

-Jaxon loves trains, especially Thomas, more than just about anything. He plays with his trains day and night and gets excited when we see trains or even tracks when driving in the car.

- Jax, I am so thankful to have you in our family. You are such a light, and so full of life. We are all entertained by you. I love your amazing smile and your little laugh. Love you forever (even though you won't let me call you baby!)!!!

2010 in Review...

One of my many New Years Resolutions for 2011 is to keep up on my blog :) I didnt send out Christmas cards this year, which is very unlike me, but I thought I would post here what I would have put in a Christmas letter.

2010 was another wonderful year for our family. We continue to feel so blessed to have each other, our extended families, our friends, and the gospel in our lives. We cannot overlook all the blessings we are given each and every day.




Mason: Mason turned 11 in October. He is in 5th grade and still smart as ever. He played baseball this year, enjoyed a bit of golf this summer, and can't wait to start snowboarding now that the resorts are open. He gets to do ski club for the first time this season and he can't wait. He is also starting basketball in a couple of weeks. He has continued playing the piano (although I dont teach he and Savannah anymore, I now send them to someone else) and has progressed so well. I am so proud of him. Mason is such a graet help with the younger children. He is such a loving, caring boy and his siblings think he's amazing (as do we). He loves to help Jaxon build elaborate train tracks on his Thomas train table. Mason can build them so much better than anyone else. I have a feeling he'll be good at geometry!



Savannah: Savannah (7) is still our busy little bee. On Mondays, she gets home from school and heads straight to piano lessons. She is doing fantastic in piano as well. As soon as the kids are done with piano, we head into Idaho Falls for ballroom. She made the Pee- Wee gold team this year and has loved being a part of that. She recently took 2nd in the Cha-Cha and 3rd in the American Swing, at the Christmas Classic ballroom competition she competed in. She was very excited that she did so well. On Tuesdays, it's off to gymnastics. In typical Savannah fashion, she has excelled here as well. She started off the year at the top of her beginnner's class, and quickly moved into the intermediate class. Within a couple of months, she was moved into the advanced class. She can now do her backhandsprings, her roundoff backhandsprings, and almost has has aerials down as well. She is working on her back tucks, double back handsprings etc. She loves gymnastics more than just about anything. On Fridays, she has cheerleading. This is her first year in cheer and she is loving the heck out of it.




Savannah is the little mother of our house. I'm always amazed at what a little nurturer she is. She helps me with the little boys every day, and they follow her around the house. She is such a happy, lively little thing. She is still our itsy-bitsy girl and hasn't gotten much bigger. We like her that way :)



Jaxon: is still Jaxon :) He had his 4th birthday yesterday. Jaxon is still a big bundle of energy! He keeps me on my toes every day. He is old enough to crack jokes and say funny things and enjoy getting a reaction. Jaxon loves trains. He got a Thomas the train table this year with the wooden rail sets, and he has lived in the playroom since then. He spent half the year playing with the trains, and the other half dumping ketchup, yogurt, frosting, toothpaste and other various sticky things, over them, and running the trains through it all. He collects the Thomas train cars and that's pretty much all he asks for. He sleeps with them, takes them to church etc. He still hasn't outgrown the terrible Twos but I havent given up hope yet :) He is the life of the house and we love that kid! He makes us all laugh every day.




He is so smart and knows all his letters and their sounds. He loves to count, to spell and to learn new things. He also started preschool this year (he gets to be taught by Aunt Dana) and he looks forward to it every day.



Jayden: Jayden (2 1/2) is the little angel of our house. What a joy he is! Jayden walks around with a big grin on his face, always says please, and wants to hug and snuggle everyone, all the time.



He truly is the baby of the family in every way. With his big dimples, blonde locks, and adorable grin, he has all of us wrapped around his finger!




The little boys love playing and fighting with each other. They get pretty rough and beat the heck out of each other regularly. This is a new concept for me as my other kids never tended to do that :) But each of them holds their own, so hey, I guess that's what brothers do, much to their mother's chagrin ;)

Daniel: Dan continues to work for Docutech as the Vice President of Product Engineering. He has been there for almost 7 years now. He loves his job and the people he works for and with. We feel so blessed that he gets to provide for us by doing something he loves every day and working with such great people. We were able to enjoy a few fun vacations this year thanks to his job. In September, as a thank you to their management team, Docutech flew us to San Diego for a few days of fun. We stayed in a beautiful hotel, ate some delicious food and enjoyed touring the USS Midway, taking a Harbor cruise and relaxing and enjoying time with coworkers, away from work. It was so nice of them to do that for us. We recently returned from a 3 day trip to San Francisco. Dan was invited to the year end party for a client of his, so we decided to use a few frequent flyer miles to fly me out as well and enjoy a little getaway. We flew in on Friday, and then got up early on Saturday morning to do a 10-mile run over the Golden Gate bridge and around the Crissy Field area and marina. The run was gorgeous and we both enjoyed the sea level elevation benefit ;) We attended the party that evening and then spent time just not being in a hurry! Daniel also got back to the gym this year after taking a few...err...a few few...months off. He has loved becoming active again and lost 20 lbs. You can find him at work or at the gym pretty much any time of day. He didn't race with us much this year but I think that will be different next year. He has recently found his own love for running and now understands what all my raving was about. It's been nice for us to be able to take long runs together.

AnnaMarie: I've had another busy year as well. I continued to build my photography business and found myself busier than ever. Senior season was a blast and kept me running like crazy, August-October. Seniors are my favorite sessions though so I enjoyed every second of it. And then we went straight into families, so things never really did slow down. I am so thankful for the chance I get to meet and get to know a little about so many awesome people. I also returned to school for the fall semester. I took spanish, college algebra and consumer health. Grades have yet to be posted but going into finals, it looked like straight As. But it would be typical me to work hard all semester and then bomb a final and blow what would have been a 4.0 for the semester. Either way, I enjoyed putting my brain to work.



I continue to do triathlons and running races. I think I did 4 tris this year and maybe 6 running races. It really is a passion of mine and Im so thankful for a healthy, strong body that is capable of doing these things. In the off season, I've been enjoying some time in the gym. I am working with a trainer and focusing on strength training and body composition changes. I'm hoping it'll make me a faster triathlete. I am hoping that 2011 will be the year I complete my first half-ironman. The majority of my time, however, is spent with my amazing kids. I am so thankful to Daniel for providing for us so I can stay home with them and enjoy raising them. I can't imagine my life without that. They are each such a huge blessing to us.




As a family, we are headed to Disneyworld on the 31st. We though it would be a great way to finish off this year and start the new one. It will be the first time we have taken the whole family on a big vacation. The last 2 times, when we went to Disneyland in CA, we left the boys and took only the older 2 kids. This time, we are heading to FL and taking all of them. We can't wait.

Looking back on the year, it's just amazing how blessed we have been. We are thankful for all of you and the part you play in our lives.

Love, The Miller Family
Daniel, AnnaMarie, Mason, Savannah, Jaxon and Jayden.

Well hello strange Blogging world!

I haven't seen you for so long-again. And unfortunately I dont have time to do all the pics etc that I would love to, so here is just a brief update.

Mason and Savannah are finishing up school tomorrow. Mason is in the middle of baseball season. It's his first year of Cal Ripkin and it's been fun! Dan is his coach and they have a great team. They are 6-1 so far and only lost that game by 1 point. Mason got all advanced on his ISATS this year which he was thrilled about. He is growing like a weed and wears the same size shoes as I do!

Savannah is also doing great! She had ballroom tryouts a few weeks ago and made the GOLD team! She was so excited to make the highest team for her age! She can't wait for next year. She is also loving gymnastics and has her back walkovers down and almost has her back handsprings as well. She just had her 1st grade play, in which she was a penguin named Neatly and she did a wonderful job!

Jaxon is busy as ever! He is in primary and gets along well with the other kids. He and Jayden fight and play all day long, sometimes both at the same time. He loves to have one on one time with mom and snuggle a lot. He still loves his blankey and wants to be outside all the time (in Idaho, that's not really practical!).

Jayden will be 2 in a couple of weeks. He is the snuggliest, sweetest boy around! He really is the darling of the family. He love me to sing songs to him and he loves being held and loved. He loves kisses and is all smiles, unless he's fighting with his brother. I am so thankful that we have our baby boy!

I just did my first triathlon of the season on May 15th. It was Irongirl Vegas. I will do a separate blog for that to give you the details but it went well and I had a great time. Our next one is in 10 days in Utah. We (Daniel and I) are both excited for that as well.

Dan is staying crazy busy at work. He is still at Docutech, where he has been for 6 years now. He is always moving up and is lucky to have his head above water right now with all his responsibilities, but he loves his job and we are thankful that in times like these, he has such a secure job.

That's all for now!

First pic with my new lights

My new home studio setup arrived today. It's going to take some time to get used to how to use the lights and stuff, but here is the first shot I've taken and edited with my new setup. It's Mason (who doesnt really enjoy me taking his pictures, so Im glad I finally got a few of him). I'm sure there will be lots more pictures to come in the near future of all of my kids!

My New Website

I just launched my website for my photography business! It's nothing fancy but it's been in the works for a while and it's finally up and running. Check it out!

www.annamillerphotography.net

Halloween 2009

I do realize it's January. Better late than never right? Halloween, oh Halloween. As always, there is the neverending "What will I be.." debate. This is how it stacked up. As you can see above, Savannah chose a beautiful "ballroom princess" costume. She fell in love with it when she first saw it and I thought she looked splendid. We had a blast doing her hair and makeup and she pranced around each time she got to wear it- at school, at her ballroom party, on halloween. Mason wanted to be a soldier, but I could not find a costume his size ANYWHERE. So we settled on this Army ranger costume. It came with a hat too, but he didnt want to wear it. Nor did he want to pose for any photos, so that's why they are all of Savannah. So as for how we spent our Halloween time...

Let's start with Daniel and I, who had a crazy fun time at Hidee's halloween party. I kid you not, this was the most fun I've had in years! Hidee and Torrie put together and AMAZING, Amazing Race party. I dont know how they did it all.

We all arrived at Hidee's house, in costume. See the evidence below:











Daniel and I got some good laughs. He was (obviously) a Cheerleader, while I went as Octomom, with 8 babies strapped to my belly. Awesome ;)

After we all arrived, we were split into teams of 3 couples. Each team was given an envelope with a code on it that had to be deciphered. While we were deciphering it, one teammate was taken away. As soon as we deciphered our code, we were given a clue and headed out to our cars. The clue told us to go somwhere in Rigby with a beach (Rigby Lake). When we got there, we ran down to the beach where we found mounds of sand with glow sticks sticking out of them. We dug and dug (all the while racing the other teams) until we found a locked box. Then we noticed some twine leading into the water. We pulled the twine to find a key tied to the end. We used to key to unlock the lock box to get our next clue. We got our box and key and heard people hollaring. We headed toward the hollaring to find our missing team member, chained to the playground. We had to use the code we had deciphered to unlock our team member. Then we headed to "the mat". After all the teams were there, we headed off. We had several different challenges, clues. We got a phone number at the cemetary. When we called it, it was a local gas station, so we headed there and had to purchase something that was exactly a dollar to get our next clue. We had to tie ourselves together at the playground and go through an obstacle course. We had to find different addresses before the other teams to get a clue....so many things. At one point, we were all departing one place at the same time, racing, and Tracy backed up, right into a basketball hoop at the elementary, knocking it to about a 45 degree angle. That was funny right there. Because it wasn't me! Anyhoo...long story short, it was insanely fun! We came in 2nd place. After we got back to Hidee's, we had some food and enjoyed being kid free for a while. It was just the fun my boring self needed!

When Halloween night arrived, our kids wanted to spend it with their cousins. Mason and Savannah went trick or treating around Grandma Miller's neighborhood. Afterwards, they went roller skating with their cousins and aunts. I stayed home with the Js, who wouldn't have been much fun at that time of night. Unfortunately, Michelle, Dan's sister, blew her knee out rollerskating and had to have surgery on it! But the kids had fun ;) I wish I could have been there. I felt sad all night that I was missing it but the little boys were not in any shape to be in public that night!

Everyone had such a fun time this year. I am so thankful that we live near family. My kids get to enjoy their cousins on a daily basis. I didnt really have many cousins my age, and the ones I did have lived far out of state. So I am glad my children don't have to miss out on the joy of cousins!