35 Years Ago Today...

my hubby was born!!!!! Happy Birthday to the most wonderful husband in the whole wide world! Here are 35 reasons why I love TJ!


1. He makes me laugh!

2. He's totally hot

3. He is a great Dad! My kids are so lucky to have a Dad like him!

4. He works sooooooooooo incredibly hard for our family.

5. He has a testimony of the Gospel and loves the Lord.

6. He is a very pragmatic person. He's reasonable and level headed and helps keep my drama in check!

7. Contrary to what he would say about himself, he's very smart.

8. He can sing (its hot!)

9. He can play the guitar (hot, again!)

10. He loves to watch movies...even girly ones!

11. He understands that sometimes mom's need 'me' time and he doesn't complain when I take my 'me' time!

12. He likes Hawaii as much as I do!

13. He loves his family...like his mom and dad and siblings

14. He loves my family

15. He takes Natalie out on Daddy/Daughter dates

16. He's helping coach Natalie's basketball team

17. He's been helping Brady prepare for his 1st karate tournament

18. He helps coach Jackson's football team

19. He HATES missing the kids events. Like this weekend he'll miss Natalie's basketball game to be at Brady's karate tournament and its making him so sad!

20. He cries in the movie Rudy when Rudy gets accepted to Notre Dame (don't tell him I told you!)

21. He is passionate about football

22. In 12 1/2 years of marriage there's only been 1 time that he hasn't eaten what I've made for dinner...and what I made was really gross!

23. He loves Disneyland/Disneyworld

24. He loves to go on vacation, just like me!

25. He's got a good heart!

26. He honors his Priesthood

27. He serves well in every church calling he's ever had, even if it means waking up at 6:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, which, let's be honest...isn't his favorite!

28. He did everything in his power to move us back west from Chicago

29. He says he's totally not handy, but he can pretty much figure out how to fix anything...if he really wants to!

30. He's pretty artistic and creative and can help the kids with school projects way better then I can!

31. He calls or texts me everyday just to tell me he loves and misses me

32. He plans surprise getaways for just the 2 of us

33. He's a bit of a nerd at heart! eg) he likes comic books, super heroes, magic tricks

34. He likes to bring home little surprises for me! Whether its a new down comforter for our bed or In N Out Burger for just me and him, he's always very thoughtful and giving

35. And last but CERTAINLY not least...drum roll please...this might be the most important reason I LOVE TJ...He puts up with me and all my crap!!!!!!!!!

Happy 35th Birthday TJ! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

ME vs. FOOD--an epic battle!

Food...I LOVE food. It really is a problem for me. Like right now I just finished eating my lunch. I had a normal size helping of homemade mac and cheese, which, by the way, was DELICIOUS, and here I am wishing for more. But I can't have more because I'm on weight watchers and if I eat another helping that takes up all my points for the day. So what do I do? I munch on carrots and wish that I was a naturally skinny person who didn't have to watch what I eat!

Now, munching on carrots isn't too bad. I like carrots, they're yummy! However, what I really want to be munching on is Kettle Cooked Salt and Vinegar Chips! YUM!!!! Its a darn good thing they're not in my cupboard cause believe you me...I would be shoveling them down my pie hole as fast as I can if they were!

To add to the problem of loving food so much, I'm also hungry, like, ALL THE TIME!!!!! Part of this is due to the fact that I have Thyroid Disease. Ironically the medication to control the disease that can cause you to gain weight causes extra hunger. One of those catch 22's of life. If I don't take the medication then I'll gain weight. (Not to mention eventually die) But if I do take the medication I'm starving all the time. Hmmmmmmm, what's a girl to do! Add to all of this my natural huge appetite and the fact that I'm a Miller and I'm pretty much screwed unless I can keep myself under control!

Which is why I'm on weight watchers! I gained a bit of holiday weight and need to get it off, but I also do ww from time to time to get myself under control and back on track with healthy eating! So far I've lost 5.4 lbs and I have just under 7 more to go. I'm working out 5-6 days a week so that's helping too!

I guess it'll just be a constant battle for the rest of my life! ME vs. FOOD!!!!!!

2 Little Turkey's

Reecey LOVES her cousin Brooklyn. They are attached at the hip and are inseparable. While we were in Denver the two little Turkey's got into a bit of trouble one night....

THEY CUT THEIR OWN HAIR!!!!!!!!!!

That's right. They each cut their own hair. They didn't cut each other's hair, they cut their own hair. Fortunately it wasn't too bad and with a little trip to Val when we returned to Utah Reece and Brooke look as good as new! (Brooke's was a little worse then Reecey but Val worked her magic and with a part change and a cute little asymmetrical bob you wouldn't even know there was a hack job underneath!)

Silly Girl!

Before

During

After...with an added touch of bangs!!!!

I was actually going to take her to Val to get a haircut soon anyways, and even though I wouldn't have had her go this short I love it!!!!!

To see Brooke's hair you'll have to visit Lindsay's blog!

Post Christmas-New Years in Denver

The day after Christmas we jumped in the car and headed out to Denver to spend post Christmas-New Year's with the all the Brinks! This had been planned for a couple of years and we were excited to all be together!

The drive over was uneventful with clear roads and since we packed a lunch we made it in less then 8 hours! It was fun to arrive and see everyone and to find out that TJ's sister Alison and her hubby Phil are expecting their first baby! YAY!!!!!

Here's a rundown of the week!

On Natalie's birthday we went bowling! It was so much fun to see the little kids be so excited when the pins fell down and to see the bigger kids enjoy some friendly competition. Our nephew Daniel was particularly hilarious as he'd never been bowling before! He would scream, jump, clap his hands and giggle with excitement every time a pin would fall down.

Brady and his buddy, Uncle Matt! Brady loves Uncle Matt and told me that they are good buddies! Brady also told us that a good name for a bowling alley would be "Balls verses Pins". I thought that he was right!

Taylor looking so impressed!

LouLou and Reecey! I could not get Reecey to look at the camera...silly girl!

Me and Teej, looking spazzy as usual!

Uncle and Nephew...Josh and Jack

After bowling the kids went to the park. It was sooooooooooo nice in Denver I forgot it was even December!

As you can see Reece wore herself right out!

That night we had dinner at Red Robin...of course we did!

Natalie with her birthday sundae! YUM!

Then we went back to LouLou's and Papa's for presents and cake!

While we were in Denver it FINALLY turned to Winter. We got a hit with a big snowstorm. Apparently it was the first time this winter that it snowed in the city and the local news station was calling it 'LAST BLAST 2010'. Answer me this...why does every big snow event have to have a name. Pretty silly if you ask me! Anyways, it started snowing in the middle of the day so we sent the kids outside to play. Daniel had seen snow but had never seen snow fall so he was especially delighted....and, of course, hilarious!

As we were sitting in the family room watching the snow fall, Lindsay told Jackson she wanted him to go roll around in it without a shirt. He was reluctant until offers of money started coming! In all he earned $6.05 for rolling around in the snow, shirtless!

Josh also rolled in the snow but I was videoing him, not taking any still shots!

This is just a random picture of Miss Savannah. She always pulls one leg out of her leg hole in her jammies. Silly girl!!!!

Another random picture of Josh dressed up like a nerd. As Lindsay said, this came way too natural for him!

Cute, silly girls. Do we like that my 3 year old is drinking Dr. Pepper?

So onto New Years Eve! I LOVE just hanging out on New Years Eve, eating good food, hanging with my kids, watching Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve, playing games and watching our traditional episode of 'Friends.' This year was super fun because we taught the older kids how to play our favorite card game, Nertz. For those who don't know what Nertz is, I describe it as a cross between Solitaire and Speed! Its way fun, super intense, and a bit complicated but the kids picked up on it pretty quickly and had a great time playing!!!

Cute Madison tried soooooooooooooo hard to make it until midnight, but just couldn't keep her eyes open!

As always we had a GREAT time in Denver and as always the time went much too fast! Now here we are back into real life...school, work, homework, carpools, sports, etc. But I guess if we just partied all the time, we wouldn't have much to look forward to, huh?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Christmas 2010

This Christmas we had the chance to spend it with just our family. Not that I don't love being with extended family, but it was so fun to make memories with just TJ, the kids and I! It really was a perfect, magical, Christmas!

We started Christmas Eve day by a yummy breakfast at Mimi's Cafe! We had done this the only other time we ever had Christmas with just us and so we decided to do it again! Mimi's omelets, pancakes, muffins, O.J. and last but certainly not least HOT CHOCOLATE! I swear Mimi's has THE best hot chocolate EVER!

On Christmas Eve we invited our friends, the Collins, over for some soup and other Christmas Eve festivities! They also have a Christmas Eve jammie tradition so it was fun for all the kids and teens to get to open 1 present on Christmas Eve. Before they left for the night we shared our traditional "Teach the Children" story with them.

Bad lighting...sorry

Brady putting an ornament on the tree as we read Teach the Children

Reecey's turn

After the Collins' left we got a surprise visit from Kirsten who brought all the kids a present! So sweet! Thanks Kiki!

After Kirsten left we watched the cartoon version of Grinch (another tradition) and then read the accounts of the Christmas Story from the Bible. Then we sent the kids off to camp out on the floor in our bedroom so we could make sure none of them snuck out to try to catch Santa!!!!

Christmas morning arrived with all the magic and excitement that we hope for!

The kids anxiously waiting to be allowed out to see the loot that Santa brought!

Lined up youngest to oldest--another tradition!

This little Blue's Clue's book ended up in Jackson's stocking because as a little boy he had us read it to him so much that he had it memorized! We have him 'reading' it to us on video and it is so cute it is physically painful for me to watch! Anyways, over the years and more kids the original Good Night Blue book got destroyed and thrown away so TJ and I bought him a new one and put it in his stocking...along with everything that Santa had already put in it.

Reecey with her Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder

TJ with his new electric guitar and amp! Now he can start a band!

J.B. opening a new hoodie. It doesn't take much to please this kid, but we did surprise him with a cell phone and you should've seen his face! He wasn't sure if it was real and if it for him. I had written his phone number on the box and so I asked him what was written on the box. He read back the number to me and I said, that's your number! He then jumped up and tackled me with a huge bear hug and then ran over and tackled his father with a big bear hug! It was fun! And its a good thing he's got unlimited texting because he's gotten non-stop texts since he sent out his phone number to all our family and the few friends of his who also have phones! The teenage years should be fun!

I'm not even sure what she's opening here but the expression on her face is priceless!

Reecey doing her puzzle

Brady scored this year with the Lego's. He and TJ are making his lego Millenium Falcon here!

All of Brady's creations! He built all day long!

After presents we ate our traditional Scotch Stew for breakfast and also added Cinnamon Spice pancakes to our Christmas morning breakfast repetoire! Then after a day of playing with new presents we went to see Gulliver's Travels that night, came home and packed our suitcases for Denver.

It seriously was such an awesome Christmas! I am so thankful for my wonderful hubby and fantastic kids who are really really really fun to hang out with! I am one blessed girl!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Every year at the kids school the 3rd grade classes perform a Christmas play. Usually its A Christmas Carol but this year they mixed it up a bit and did The Night Before Christmas.

They started working on it back in November and Natalie auditioned for a speaking part! She got the role of Dancer the Reindeer and she did awesome! She had her lines memorized in about a day and had so much fun practicing them for me and telling me all about the days' rehearsals. She's quite the performer and informed me that she's interested in being in more plays. Now if only I could get her to sing in front of people again!

This is Dancer pulling some major attitude and telling Rosie the Reindeer that Dancer and her reindeer friends are Santa's favorites!

This is Natalie's bestie, Maddy, singing! She did so so so good and was so brave to sing a solo in front of so many people!

Curtain Call!