school at our place.

School was at our house this past Monday (co-op preschool with friends) and Zeb loved it. He thought it was pretty exciting to have school here- with his DAD nonetheless! and I'd have to say that things went pretty flawlessly.  But mostly because kent was around.  I don't know what I'll do next time I have to teach by myself!!  The real problem is our rascal, Ike. He isn't old enough to really do the crafts or activities with us but he desperately wants to. So instead of sitting patiently with us - he wreaks HAVOC.

We learned about insects and their six legs and two antennae and three body segments- and then we did a whole lot of the letter 'c'. We painted egg carton caterpillars that then magically transformed inside of chrysalises into butterflies.  Kent made that magic happen while we read books and danced 'crazily' and 'creepily'.

We also spent some time outside insect hunting and bug drawing with chalk.

 

 Zeb loves to learn and I'm so excited about it!  I can't wait to send him off to 'real' school :)

lots of catch up!!

I married the perfect man.  He knows that 'I'll be back by ten at the latest' means 'you don't have to wait up- but I'd love if you did and I'll probably won't be later than midnight!'.

 He also knows when I say 'let's go apple picking' - it really means 'let's go to the apple orchard so you can corral the kiddos and watch them while I take pictures'.

His last night in town we went to MacQueens for apple picking.  It was pretty toasty for mid october- but we still had a lot of fun.

 Most of the apples were either on the ground or too high in the trees for us to reach- so we just had fun running up and down the rows, playing around, and snacking on the occasional fallen apple.

Out of the zillions and zillions of apples all over- somehow Ike found the one stray dirty baseball amongst them. I'm not entirely sure what the pouty face is all about in this picture but I'm sure it was Zeb related.These kiddos have the best lower lips and matching sour faces to go with them.

Living near an apple orchard is a 'must have' on my list of requirements for our next place of residence.  I'm pretty sure that includes Dayton and excludes San Antonio.  I love the colors of fall harvests, trees, and skies.

 And Kent, Zeb, and Ike love the taste of Apple Cider Donuts.

 Zeb is getting pretty good at smiling for me when I ask.  He also just seems to be a pretty happy (although somewhat emotional) kid in general. He stills says the funniest things. Yesterday while driving home he told me: "mom, you are a really good driver".  I asked him if Kent was a good driver to which he replied: "he's getting better".  For what ever reason, he loves to comment on our driving on a regular basis.  He often chastises Kent for braking too harshly or not moving fast enough in heavy traffic.

 The past three days have been some of the best I've had in a long time!  Kent got home early friday evening and left tonight.  For some reason they got Columbus day off (another great military benefit- lots of holidays off!) and so he made it home for the looong weekend :)

To make things even better- it was his birthday yesterday!!  We've been celebrating all weekend, really. 

Saturday morning Kent took the kiddos and I ran a ten mile race with a friend. The weather has been much warmer than usual for this late- but it made for a great early morning race!

Saturday night we went to the 'Elephant Bar and Grill' kidless. It is one of our favorite places.

Sunday we decorated the house and woke up Kent to open presents.  I realize the wrapping paper is Christmas.  I am morally opposed to anything Christmas related (music, decorations, etc) pre-Halloween- but when your ox is in the mire- it's in the mire. I couldn't even find newspaper to use.

Don't mess with evolution (or kent).

Zeb and Ike are taking a ride on the 'birthday bull'.  Kent rode them around the house while they unsuccesfully attempted to blow party horns.

For breakfast we did nutella, cream cheese filling, and strawberry filled blini (crepes).  Ike loved it.

After breakfast we decided to head to the park but ended up at Kent's school.  There are lots of cool tunnels and the boys love to send race cars down the hallways.

and then Ike had a major meltdown. I'm sure it's because I posted last week that he had been almost tantrum free. The tantrum frequency is suddenly rising rapidly.

Here's Zeb 'really really sad' because Ike won't share his race cars.  Ike being required to share is what brought on the tantrum.

There's a big gully or ditch (or something) at the school that the kiddos loved throwing rocks into.

After church we had a great dinner and texas sheet cake for dessert. It was such a good day.

I'm so glad that Kent was rotating in Dayton for this month and not in Texas! We all totally lucked out that he could come home.  It was such a great weekend. I almost felt like it was my birthday. Married birthdays are the best because we both benefit!!

For the first time in two weeks I feel like I can finally breathe. I can finally sleep. and I can finally relax a little.  Besides the fact that I shelled out 500+ dollars to get shots and drills shoved into my mouth to get a root canal- I feel fabulous.  This week has been the longest that I've had since Kent has been gone to texas and Dayton- and it's ONLY wednesday.  I'm hoping the next two days sail by.

I've been trying all sorts of things to keep us super busy while Kent is gone- and for the most part being distracted has done wonders for us.  I started teaching my new 'run your first 5k' class at the Y this week and it is going to be a lot of fun! 

Zeb has been doing lots of play time with friends.  Here he is with his pals Kiersten and Audrey watching 'Misty Island Rescue'.  This particular part of the movie is really stressful (as you can see from the girls' faces) but Zeb already knows the outcome so he is trying to explain to his friends that everything is going to be okay. When he watched the first time he was actually crying at this part because he thought that Diesel was going to fall off the cliff.

This little guy is so so funny. He is twenty months old and pretty fun.  Zeb at this age was sooooooo hard.  It may have been because Ike was born just two days after his twenty month mark, though. He was full of screams and tantrums and nastiness. It was really rough for awhile there. I'm sure Ike will hit the stage at some point- but thankfully right now he's pretty darn good.
He loooves his blanket and 'bobos'.  here is is trying to eat a pumpkin muffin (healthy enough for breakfast, right?!) and carry everything at once.

 

weekend!

Kent got to come home for the weekend and we went up to michigan to enjoy the fabulous leaves and even more fabulous cousins.

We went to a pumpkin festival parade and the kiddos looooved it. 

 They also really loved all of this kettle corn.

There were lots of cool tractors (Ike couldn't stop pointing and yelling) and lots of candy throwing.

We also got to take part in amy's birthday festivities. woohoo for the birthday girl!  thanks for letting us enjoy the day with you, Amy!!

and here's the monkey with his new sippy that he got in Michigan. Take a close look at the words on it.

yep, the sippy says 'helen devos children's hospital'. It's not a good vacation for the millers unless somebody gets sick. and goes to the emergency room.  The kid had a full on freak out ear drum incident. The poor little guy could not get any relief no matter what we did. He was screaming and writhing and rolling and in unbearable pain trying to yank off his ears. It was the middle of the night and Kent said all he could think about was last year's nightmare before christmas.  He took Ike to the ER and after a quick dose of antibiotics and oxycodone he was out like a light.  Poor little monkey. Poor exhausted parents. 

Sunday after conference we drove back to Toledo where Kent crashed until 4 am and then drove on to Dayton to start his shift this morning!  Thanks, Kent, for coming to be with us!! and for being around when Ike got sick.

I've been meaning to post this for ages. It is delicious.  so so tasty.  I made it for our peach themed cooking group and it was a hit!  thanks for the recipe, mom.

• boneless skinless chicken breast halves 
• 1 tablespoon butter or oil
• 1 can (15-1/4 ounces) sliced peaches, undrained
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 envelope onion soup mix ( I used less)
• Hot cooked rice, optional

Directions

• In a large skillet over medium heat, brown chicken in oil and butter; remove and keep warm. Stir in the peaches with juice, brown sugar, orange juice and soup mix to the skillet. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce heat; return chicken to the pan.
• Simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes.  Serve over rice if desired. Yield: 4 servings.

Zeb had his first day of school this week. He was so excited and so ready!  And poor little Ikey screamed and WAILED as we drove away. 'Zeeeeeeebbbbbby!  Zeeeeeeeebbbbbby!".  I think he actually enjoyed the time without his bro once he settled down a little.

We are doing a preschool co-op with some friends here from church. It's only once a week and it's free and, so far, Zeb LOVES it.  I meant to take picture of the projects he brought home, but by the time we made it home Ike was cranky and we were all hungry. I'll get pictures next week.

Having Kent gone again is lame-o. More than anything I'm super bored again.  However- he LOVES Dayton and I couldn't be happier about that :)   I keep telling him that he doesn't have to love Dayton just for me so I'm hoping he isn't fibbing to me and he really does love it.  It's green. The weather is almost perfect. He said they have the biggest nicest cleanest Meijer that he's ever seen and that there's a Sonic right in front of Meijer.  There's no ridiculous traffic. Sounds perfect to me. Oh- and he loves the program thus far. That's a pretty important thing about Dayton, too. It's half civilian/half military so it gives him the best of both worlds and experience in both sectors.

And I thought I should include this picture. We found it on our little point and shoot that Kent used for a few shots. I think it's terrible of me- but it does show just how truly terrified I also was.  Plus- for those of you that think we were abusing our children- we did it to ourselves as well (and that makes it okay).

We have been super busy the past few days having fun, celebrating our anniversary, and getting Kent ready to leave again!  

We went to the family fun fair at the YMCA  and the kiddos had  a blast.  Zeb ended up with FOUR new 'pets'.  He played a bunch of games to earn tickets to get prizes.  'Mystic' the unicorn is his favorite?!  He's such a goofy kid.

 

 

For our anniversary it was just nice to have Kent HOME!  we went to breakfast at this crazy place in town.  We had thirty bucks in free gift cards (kent got through school functions) to a local breakfast place so we dropped the kiddos off at a friend's house and went to breakfast together.  I've also been wanting some nice candles for AGES and kent got me three of these fabulous ones from bath and body works for the price of one.  He knows that I love to get gifts- but it's even better if he gets a good deal on them :)
The evening of our anniversary I went to the general relief society broadcast and Kent cleaned the entire house and made a texas sheet cake.  It was perfect.  He also got up with the kiddos EVERY night he was home.  Strangely enough, the entire month he was gone to texas we only had ONE bad night- but while he was home there must have been at least six or seven!!  Kent says it's because I must just sleep through the shrieks and moans.

Today before church we went out to the park and FROZE.  I think it's time for me to put my flip flops away for good. 

These boys are so funny when they play together.  Usually Ike is trailing behind Zeb as he runs off from place to place.

I love this picture.  Zeb is showing Ike where they are on the map and where they need to go on their adventure! His imagination is EXPLODING.  He loves to go on 'adventures' at the park and draw all sorts of maps.

Tonight as Kent was leaving I told Zeb to say good bye to him one last time and he responded that "Kevin needs to say goodbye too, mom".  Kent asked him who Kevin was and he pointed right next to himself and said "He's Kevin, he's right here. His birthday is today and he's five years old".  I have NO idea where he got the name Kevin or when he started playing with him- but it kind of creeps me out.  He even made me put on Kevin's pjs and brush his teeth tonight. WEIRD.

And here's Ike trying his darndest to hang on to this contraption.  He didn't want anyone touching him while he hung there. I'm still shocked at how physical this kid is. he can already jump and get both feet off the ground! Zeb was at least two before he could do that! although he's not nearly as good with letters as zeb was. Ike still thinks that every letter is a 'b' and Zeb had already moved from upper case to lower case letters at this age!

best ten bucks EVER.

Have I mentioned that I have an unhealthy infatuation with "Groupon"?  The first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning is the new day's deal.  Sometimes I'll even get up at midnight to see what it is!

A few weeks ago we purchased a family pass to the African Wildlife Safari Park in Port Clinton for a mere ten bucks.  It's the best ten bucks we've spent in a long time. I would even venture to say that the craziness we experienced would have been worth FULL price had we paid it.  And I rarely think anything is worth full asking price!

I took hundreds of pictures- literally.  I've included a small (comparatively) smattering of them.  I hope that you they paint a small picture of the joy we experienced.  

Of all the pictures I took, this is possibly my favorite. It describes our day perfectly.  A mix of terror, amazement, and stupefaction combined with pure amusement (kent and I were amused anyway!). 

 

This one tells the story, too.

As soon as we entered the safari gates (think tall giant reinforced gates like those on Jurassic park!!) we were literally AMBUSHED by the most ridiculous herd of female elk you've ever seen.  Holy Smokes.  They need to have some warning that informs you to NOT unroll ALL four of your windows at once. We seriously were under attack from every side.  The kids were SOBBING.

Kent and I were beside ourselves laughing. We couldn't roll up any windows.  We couldn't drive forward or back because we were surrounded and we were all being squished.  I'll be honest- I usually laugh really hard when I shouldn't.  This was one of those times. I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't quite terrified myself.

Somehow I pushed giant elk heads out of the car while Kent tried his best to inch forward and inch the widows up.  After a few minutes of terror- we got passed the 'elk zone'.

Next came the little deer looking critters.  They are all from Africa so I'm assuming they aren't deer- but we'll call them that to make things easier.  These little guys were really cute and far less combative.  They loved nibbling on the free pellets we got to hand out.  They waited their turn and didn't try to steal fingers.

 

Ike definitely enjoyed these guys the most.  I think it helped that they were too small to fit entire body segments in our car.  Some of them could barely reach the windows.

 

Next came the llamas and alpacas. Or at least what looked like llamas and alpacas.They were nice- but Zeb was still scared by the elk behavior and didn't want any more animals in the car. He was full of all sorts of requests.   "Would you please just put up my window, dad?"  "can we please just go to the zoo instead, dad?"  "I'm all finished with the African Safari now, dad"

This guy was Kent's favorite. 

We quickly entered another danger zone.  All sorts of animals with really large horns and really big bodies. Buffaloes/bison, these giant things that looked like texas longhorns, and some unidentified antlered creature.

We were worried that this guy was going to damage the car. I bet his horn span was six feet.

And the buffalo/bison were just humongous.  When we went around a second time we made sure to keep our windows closed around these guys.  They were just too big and could have literally picked up our car.

 

They had carrots you could buy to feed the animals- but they were priced like gold.  Luckily I'd read reviews ahead of time and we'd come prepared with our own bags of carrots.

I'm really glad we did bring our own carrots- because they saved the best animals (the giraffes) for last and they would ONLY come to your car for carrots. They wouldn't take the pellets.

I could not believe how close we could be to the giraffes. They were AMAZING and SO BIG!!  This guy was trying to eat my camera.

Both boys actually really loved the giraffes until this one tried to lick zeb's stomach. He was all smiles until that tongue went crazy.

 He was really just trying to get the carrot- but Zeb was too scared to figure out that he just needed to let it go.

here's a shot of the giraffe coming in past me in the front seat to get a carrot from Kent. Check out that tongue!!  I was close enough to see the saliva.

and check out the eyelashes.  These creatures are really really amazing.  And so so big.

 Our afternoon was so much fun.  I'm pretty sure Zeb will remember it forever.  We figure since he's three- and the day was so eventful/traumatic/fun- it will probably be one of his first good memories :)

Our car is now in desperate need of a car wash and vacuum but we all had such a blast. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!