Preparing for Christmas

We decorated the tree...

Kent made a necklace out of the tangled lights.

Ammon strung the lights on the tree while Addy supervised.

Kent couldn't wait to decorate and hung ornaments (too close together) before Ammon could get done with the lights.

We saw Santa and his reindeer...

Kent wants a motorcycle for Christmas.

Addy was a tad bit hungry at this point.

The Eastern Side

After we were done in Tacoma, we hopped a flight to Pullman for a few days. Can I just tell you that flying into Pullman should be considered one of the biggest luxuries (thanks again Aspen for the buddy passes). It felt so good to land and know we were only 5 minutes from home, as opposed to an hour and a half when we fly into Spokane. However, that is beside the point. We had a ton of fun at home, which consisted of the boys playing (no surprise there), shopping, watching TV (barely because the kids were so loud you couldn't hear anything), sleeping, and eating. Here is the photo montage of our time there...

The boys developed a new fascination with Grandpa's hats. They would try to knock each others' hats off by hitting one bill with the other. Pretty hilarious for those of us watching. This is a picture of Cade so graciously putting Kent's hat back on after he knocked it off.

This is what we call a Grandpa sandwich

Keeping the boys quiet for a little bit is possible with a little bit of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Sword fighting. I bought and then cut in half a pool noodle the last summer we were home. They were meant to be used as baseball bats, but alas we have two swords.

Kent officially played in the snow for the first time. He liked it, but got cold quickly. He is definitely his father's son. When Rachel asked Kent what the snow tasted like he replied, "Snowmen."

Riding the new member of the family

Naps with Grandpa

Much to Ammon's dismay, Kent likes to play with kitchen toys. These are mine from when I was growing up. Here the boys were having a tea party. Ammon is glad that these toys are 10 hours away in Washington.

The girls officially met each other.

Lastly, the boys thought it was pretty cool when Grandpa shone his flashlight through the boys' cheeks and they could see the light inside their mouths.

Mills Family Thanksgiving

Ammon's mom had mentioned last year that this year she wanted to get everyone together for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Well that posses quite a problem when there are 22 people scattered over the western United States. The other problem is that only Ammon's brother Jason, who resides in Tacoma, has enough space to house us all and he has to work Thanksgiving. So in order to solve the problem I got the ball rolling to do Thanksgiving over Veteran's Day weekend since we live the farthest away and no plans had yet been established. The unfortunate thing, was still everyone couldn't make it. We had however, 19 of the 22, which I thought was pretty good. I want to thank Ammon's sister Aspen for her generosity in sharing with us buddy passes that allowed 6 of us to get there without putting in the 17 hour car ride.

We had a great time at Jason's. Their new house was amazing and I have a feeling this won't be the last time it is used for a family get together. We ate, we slept, we barely had to take care of Addy cause everyone else wanted a turn, we ate some more, and played a lot. The only downside was Ammon and I were sick with a miserable head cold that we unfortunately shared with everyone else. My philosophy is that it isn't a Mills family get together without sharing germs. Normally we are the ones that end up getting sick (last Thanksgiving for example), but this time we took our turn at starting it.

While in the Seattle area I was also able to see two of my high school friends; Auntie Sarah and Allie. I love to just sit and catch up, and we were able to do just that. I wish I would have taken pictures while they were there, but failed to pull out my camera.

Last, but certainly not least, we also had yet another broken bone while we were there. We had a baby gate at the top of the stairs to keep a few of the one year olds from falling down the stairs. It was very sufficient in doing just that, however, we didn't take in to account the two year old, Kent, who could almost climb over the gate. On Sunday night Kent was at the top of the stairs asking for help down. Ammon was on his way to get him when he got impatient and decided to take matters into his own hands. He started climbing over the gate when it gave way and sent him tumbling down the long flight of stairs. Luckily Ammon caught him before he reached the bottom, but not before the damage was done. We immediately could tell something was really hurt by the cry that exited our tiny boy's mouth. It is the same cry that we hear every time he is hurt seriously. He was holding the upper arm and elbow of his right arm, and I knew almost instantly that it must be his elbow that was broken, if not the upper arm too. In no more than 10 minutes, we were on our way to the children's hospital to get him looked at. I was just thankful we hadn't napped him that day because the only reason he stopping crying on the way (30 minutes) was because he fell asleep. When we arrived at the hospital and woke him back up the crying started again, but for this I am thankful. Having a crying child is one sure fire way to assure your trip to the ER is expedited. We were in and out in a little over and hour. Kent only needed a splint (which was pretty much a cast) for two weeks, and the doctor said we could even take it on and off as long as his elbow felt fine. I am grateful that all we came away with was a broken elbow. Ammon, having witnessed the fall, said by the way he fell it could have been a lot worse.

Now time for pictures...

When the grown boys (Ammon and his brothers) were using the TV to play video games, the kids resorted to watching cartoons on the iPad.

Ammon's mom brought bags and bags of used clothes from Jason's family over from Rosalia for us to go through. We found a few great hand me downs.

Our nephew Grayson in need of a bath.

Meeting Grandpa for the first time

We were getting pictures of all the grandkids and thought we would try for one with just our two, this is how it turned out.

All the grandkids, none of them turned out perfectly, but cute group of kids nonetheless.

An impromptu family picture, the kids were done by this point.

Daddy's little girl

I volunteered to put jam on the kids' rolls, little did I know I would be sitting at the kids' table for so long.

Late night stories with Cousin Ashley.

Kent, Grayson, and me.

Jason let Kent play in his cop car and push buttons to his little hearts content.

Our broken boy, look at the size of that splint.

Our Two-Month Old

Well our little girl turned two-months old this past week. At her two-month well child visit she weighed 9 lbs 8 oz. We have a tiny one on our hands. However, she is going up in percentile, so that is good. She is still a little colicy, but we are managing. The doctor said she should outgrow it in the next month; I am not holding my breath. I swear Kent's colic lasted 6 months. She is currently eating the second most expensive formula on the market and I hope her expensive tastes don't follow her into her teenage years. We have been fortunate the the doctor's office has given us about $125 worth of formula for free, and they said the Enfamil rep will start delivering samples of Nutramigen to our door, gotta love that. At the first of the year our insurance will change and we hope we can get some of the cost covered by them.

More importantly, Addy is smiling like crazy and loves to talk to us (when she isn't fussy or sleeping of course). Recently our 5 o'clock feedings consist of 3 oz of formula then 45 minutes of bonding time between her and me. At first I would get irritated she wouldn't go back to sleep, but when that didn't get me anywhere, I started to simply enjoy the time with her. One day I will wish she talked to me more, so I should relish the conversations she has with me now. Speaking of feedings, she still wakes up 2-3 times a night, depending on when we go to bed. She normally eats about 11ish, then again at 2ish, and then again at 5ish. During the day it is worse, she gets hungry every 2 hours. I do my best to hold her off for 2 1/2 hours, but by that time she is pretty angry. I am just hopeful one day she will be eating every 3-4 hours. We love AddiLynn and can't imagine our family without her. Here is a picture we took on November 20th, he two month birthday!

It's about time...

for a new post. We have been gone for about a week and a half on vacation and I fell behind during that time, but it was all worth it. I will report on our vacation next week, but as for now I just want to post a little bit of randomness.

We pulled out the Bumbo, although her head is still a little wobbly, she loved it.

Ammon had developed some multitasking skills himself. During nap time on Saturdays I nap with the kids while Ammon plays games. However if Addy is awake Ammon is on Daddy Duty. I came out one Saturday from my nap to find this, I was amazed. I guess nothing can come between Ammon and the small amount of time allotted to video games.

This was the kids one Sunday night about 6, I guess church was tiring.

I took Kent to the children's museum in town the other day, he loved riding the horses.

Sunday best

A Happy Halloween

Before it gets to late I thought I would post about our Halloween. Ammon was in New Mexico last week so we did pumpkin carving a little early, the weekend before. Ammon's mom was in town which added to the fun. We only carved one pumpkin and that was enough. In fact one pumpkin made enough of a mess, I think we will just have a family pumpkin from now on, until the kids are old enough to do it themselves and clean up themselves (wishful thinking, right?). We all worked together...

Grandma cut the top off and roasted the pumpkin seeds. Kent made some much needed holes. And although there is no picture, I cleaned the pumpkin out, and...

Ammon carved.

The final product.

The next night we went to the ward party. The youth put on a little carnival for the kids and Kent thought that was really fun. The kids have also been wearing their Halloween shirts, that Auntie Sarah got them, all month. Kent asked to wear his "Halloween shirt" almost everyday. I would continually have to tell him it was dirty.

Don't mind Kent's smile, he is in the cheesy stage.

Our cute girl has started to smile.

Lastly, we actually trick-or-treated on Halloween night. Kent was in heaven. We dropped Addy off at my great-aunt's house and just trick-or-treated in her neighborhood. A lot of her neighbors are older and thought Kent was so cute they would give him handfuls of candy. Kent's bag was full in no time and Ammon and I were more than happy to be done. Although Addy didn't go with us we still put her in her lady bug costume. I recycled Kent's dog costume from last year since it still fit and we live in a different place. It was nice not to have to stress about getting him another costume. But don't worry I will let him be something different next year.

Our cute lady bug, you can tell she is thrilled.

Kent didn't want to sit by his sister, who was already cranky.

Then when we moved them together, Addy just flopped over. But hey, it was a good picture of Kent.

Kent trick-or-treating. Don't mind the one pant leg up and the unspotted bottom (the sweatshirt normally covers that area).

Happy about his loot.

Does your kid...

find the need to always wear a helmet? I think we have talked about Kent wearing my bicycle helmet in the past, but really he does wear it a lot. See...

I let him play in the sink while I was doing the dishes. I thought it was better he make a mess where I was in the process of cleaning than in the place I had just cleaned, the living room.

Obviously holding AddiLynn requires a helmet, backwards of course.

Playing baseball, equipt with a "mitt" (be it an oven mitt), bat, and helmet (backwards again). Now I need to teach him that when you bat you don't field, and vice versa.

There are times when he is helmet free, thank goodness. But helmet or not he is always making us laugh and marvel at how much he is learning.

He told me he was making mac and cheese. Obviously he found the perfect pan(notice every other pan we own on the floor), put in his coins (noodles) and was stirring away with his golf club (spoon).

When I went in to get Addy some more PJ's this is how I found Kent; fast asleep with Big Puppy perched right on top of him.

Recently we have been water coloring. Most his pictures turn out black because he feels the need to put the brush in every color, from left to right ending with black, before he paints the paper.