So much to report!

First of all the news that everyone has been waiting for . . . WE ARE HOMEOWNERS! We FINALLY closed on our house on Thursday the 15th of May. Just a short 104 days since our initial offer. Whew. It feels good. We made it thru and now to the fixing of the house. The day after we closed (Friday), Brian and I went over and tore out all the nasty carpet and linoleum, and trim. Let me just say that it seems Bigfoot may have lived in this house before us. It was stinky, stained and just in need of some serious TLC. But it's all ours! Then at 2am Saturday we left for a week of vacation at lovely Myrtle Beach! We had hoped to get the house worked on and moved in by the time our vacation rolled around, but it didn't work out that way. Myrtle was wonderful. We are starting a tradition with Brian's family , every other year we are gonna rent a condo and go away for a week together. It was so nice to spend time all of us and swim until we were pruney. We had a condo right on the beach and a pool and hot tub in the back. We spent a lot of time in the pool! The ocean was still a little chilly. Our weather was fantastic and we had a great time.
We got home and the marathon begins. Brian has been over at the house everyday in the evenings after work doing stuff, and we had a work day on Thursday with our small group and got a ton done to the place. Oh, I forgot to mention, while we were in Myrtle, we had some wonderful friends doing some work to our little house to surprise us! You guys are such a blessing! Thank you and we love you! Anyway, we have a good bit of work to go, and we are living in a continual state of exhaustion, but it will all be worth it when we can move in this month. Hopefully, 2 1/2 weeks from now, we will be loading the trucks! We'll see.
Renee Byler and I had a garage sale this past weekend and try and unload a few things we didn't want to pack, and the rest is going to be a process to pack. I have started, and I feel like I am living in a blast zone. Ugh.
Now to the little girl . . . she is sooooo much fun! She is really trying to talk, and singing, and laughing and just being silly. She still has to learn more about sharing, but we'll see. Everyday you can see her learning something new. She is learning to clean up her tray on her high chair, and wiping her mouth and hands after meals, throwing things in the trash, ( and then of course getting them back out) she tries to feed herself with a spoon, but likes to dump it on her tray or fling it thru the air. That's fun. We are just really enjoying this stage. When Brian comes thru the door at night, she just lights and and says: "Daddy!" I think I love Brian's reaction to that as much as I love the fact that she is doing that now. She's just getting too big too fast. I better wrap this up before I get too weepy. Here are a ton of pictures and a couple of videos for you to enjoy!






























As you can see, she just didn't know what to do, so running in circles was the best option!


My very own doughnut!














Passing time at the garage sale . . .































This video was done just this morning. As you can see she is becoming quite a talker!

I think that's all for us for now. God Bless you all.
Much Love,
The Millers

Don't ask . . .

Before I launch into this update, I want to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, Brian, who is 29 today (I'm sure i'll pay for that come September). I am so thankful to God for blessing me with such an amazing soul mate and daddy for Mabri. Happy birthday, babe! We love you!

So, we are gonna update this depite the fact that I still can't tell you that we have closed, because we haven't. More stupid hold-ups, and to be honest I don't want to talk about it. Believe me, when we close on this house, you will know! We are hoping for next week . . . don't hold your breath.
Basically, we wanted to share the photos and what not that we have for the kid. She is learning new things everyday. She does pat-a-cake, she plays peek-a-boo (basically this means she's hiding her eyes and waiting for you to ask "where's Mabri?") she is dancing more and more, as you will see in the video, and she likes to spin in circles. She has a little toy vacuum that she likes to use and I am looking forward to the day she graduates from the toy one to the real thing. She is trying to talk all the time, most of it just sounds very intense, but sadly there have been no real words involved most of the time. There is, however one word she has learned beyond a shadow of a doubt: CRACKER. Day or night, she talks about crackers. Try and get her to say mommy or daddy, and she says "cracker" though she totally applies the word to the object, she just likes to say it randomly. She now has 14, yes 14 teeth. Her top eye teeth have come in and she is now working on the bottom ones. I, for one, am SICK OF TEETHING! Poor little girl has been poppin' em thru and I think we are ready for a break from it. She is just the smallest bit obsessed with cell phones. If you leave it within reach, watch out. She has her own, but would rather have ours. She tries to hold it up to her ear to "talk" but it sort of ends up on the back of her neck, and she just pushes all the buttons like mad, so if you have had a random call from one of us lately, it may have been her. All in all, we are really enjoying this stage of life. Mabri is so much fun, so full of energy, sass, emotions, and sometimes poo. Enjoy the pictures!











































Well, I think that may be all for now. God bless. See ya later.
Brooke for the Miller's

Sunny and 75 anyone?

hello everyone, man, this weather is just freakin amazing! We've been playing outside, and we had our first skinned knees of the year today. Mabri loves playing outside, and usually throws a fit whenever we come inside. She is learning lots of new words, like "nana" for banana, night night, uh oh, and love you. She is comprehending more of what we say to her, like "go get your cup" or "where is your blankie?" and she launches an all out search for them. She's getting more and more feisty, and sometimes throws a fit when something that she shouldn't have is taken from her. Yes, I know, it's hard to imagine, our perfect child, throwing a fit about anything, but it's true.
Ok, now Brooke here. Brian got it started for me. Well, update on the house. We are in contract, but are still waiting to have several documents signed by the same bank dude so that we can get on with it and set a closing date. We have extended our closing date to no later than May 6th, Lord willing, but that is not set, that is a hope. Let me just say that no matter who you buy a house from, it is not simple, but we certainly were not expecting to have to jump thru as many hoops as we have, but knowing it is worth it, we continue to act like the trained monkeys we are and jump. It's so long and complicated, there is no way we will ever publish the saga here, but if you really want to hear all about it, give one of us a call. Sorry for the news. We had really hoped to be able to tell you all that we have the keys, etc. on this update, but maybe on the next one.
Alright, time for pictures.































Reading a book to herself . . .













Learning to eat a "nana" like a big girl . . . and taking HUGE bites!













Hollywood!













This is Brooke for the miller's signing off. God bless and good night.

holy cow, we have a house.......

Yes, ladies and gents, it's true, 6 and a half weeks after sending our initial offer in, we are in contract to purchase 201 Prospect Ave. Mechanicsburg, Ohio, 43044. We don't have a closing date yet, but we're really hoping to close by the end of the month. It's a foreclosure, it was built in 1995, about 1100 sqare feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. It also has a full unfinished basement (man-cave, anyone?) The house is built on a hill, so the basement has a walkout in the back, which we love. We have a ton of work to do, but we are blessed with many wonderful skilled friends who are more than willing to help us. Basically, we'll need to tear out all the carpet and all the vinyl in the kitchen and bathrooms. So new flooring through-out, tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. Also, we're going to paint the whole inside, after we get the walls patched up. We have tons of things we'd like to do to the place eventually, but the flooring and paint is priority before we move. Also getting the roof patched up. We are really excited to be home-owners, and we feel very blessed to find this new of a house for a very reasonable price, and also we were able to get a really good interest rate. So here's a few pics of the place. We have some cleaning up to do on the outside too, but just think "potential" So if anyone is interested in getting your hands dirty that I havn't talked to yet, just let me know, and I'm sure we can put you to work.












































Mabri is doing great, walking and climbing over everything, and jabbering like crazy. She loves playing with her friend Addy, they don't always share the best, but we'll work on that. She's excited about the new house, might not know it yet, but she is. So that's what's happening in the Miller family, more pics will appear of the house as it's worked on. Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend.






The Millers

It's been a long winter so far . . .

Well, here we are on March 8th, we are stuck inside due to a level 3 snow emergency rating, and b/c we don't want to be arrested, we will stay inside. Thankfully, we are all well, which has not been the case since before Christmas. Mabri is over all her snottiness, and Brian and I are not sick either. A miracle has occurred.
We are still waiting ever so paitiently on word about a house we have put an offer on, and as of yesterday is was FIVE weeks ago we faxed in the first offer. It's a long ridiculous story, but we are gonna make it. We will let you all know when we know something.
Mabri is talking like crazy, trying so hard to communicate her thoughts with us, sadly we don't speak the same language yet. She is growing so fast, and walks really well now (yes, her arms have lowered considerably). She also has come to that lovely place where she can now choose to be naughty. We can tell her NO NO and she will stop to think about it, maybe try to touch the forbidden object really fast, and look back at us to see if we mean it. It's hard not to laugh at times.
Here are some pictures of the last few weeks:

First pigtails, or as close as I can get right now. This is the face we make when Mommy is pulling on my hair.














First time out in the snow. Let's just say she wasn't all that impressed. This was the best picture. The rest of them she looks really annoyed or about to cry.














This was hilarious. She had a very runny nose, and was eating cherrios, and for some odd reason decided to pick one up with her mouth, rather than her fingers. The rest is history. We had a good laugh about that one.














It's amazing how long her hair is when it's wet frim her bath. She looks so different.














This one is just my favorite one from the other day when she was looking out the window.













Ok. That's enough from me. I have sooo much vegging out to do during this lovely snow emergency. Hope you have less snow than we do!
Much Love,
Brooke for the Millers

Hey everybody, I'm walking!

Hey guys! I just wanted to post this little video so you could see this girl walk. And yes, her arms are always in the air when she's walking. Her father walks like that . . . we are gonna have to work on that but, not bad for a week after her birthday! As you can see, there is a good bit of wobble left there, but we have the gist of it. Have a beautiful day everyone!
Much Love,
Brooke for the Miller Fam

It's my birthday!!!!

Unbelievable. A year ago we were in labor, counting minutes between contractions, and getting ready to meet the newest member of the Miller family. Needless to say, the first year has gone by ridiculously fast, and we can't believe what an amazing daughter Mabri has turned out to be. We love her more every day. She is about 23 lbs and 30 inches tall. She has 10 teeth, including three molars, and as you can see, unbelievably curly hair. She is taking a few wobbly steps, and if Brooke and I sit about 6 feet apart, she can walk the whole way. She says momma and daddy, somewhat randomly, but we think she means it. She loves music, and is turning out to be quite a dancer.




It's been fun to see all her personality coming out, and as you can see her moods can change in the blink of an eye.





















































































We had a birthday party for her and her best friend Addison Byler a couple of weeks ago, and had a great time. That cupcake didn't stand a chance. Mommy had to dig bits of it out of her ears and nose that night.







































Mommy here now. It's hard to believe our little girl is one already, and I may have a meltdown on her birthday tomorrow, but I think I can speak for the both of us and say that it has been the most amazing year of our lives. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and we want to say thanks to each and every one of you for being a part of our lives, for being in our "village". We are blessed. Good night all.
Much Love, The Millers