Christmas 2010

 Setting out cookies and milk for Santa. Eddie hangs on to William's letter to Santa.

 Carrots and Oats for the reindeer.

 Look at the facial expressions he makes for a calculator (above)

...and then chocolate (below).

Brian Graduates from Troy!

Brian graduated!

William Math

William: I know that 26+26 = 52. Wanna know how? 'Cause 20+20=40 and 5+5=10 and 1+1+2 and 40+10+2=52.

Well, that's one way to do it...

Errrrr.....

I had been doing so well! Looks like I fell off the blog wagon in November. What are the chances I can finish our 2010 strong? I would say slim-to-none. All is well here. I will try, really I will.....

Thanksgiving

For the very first time I got to cook Thanksgiving dinner! Tonya and I prepared all the dishes. I was quite proud of the spread.

Family Pics

Time for the Annual Miller Picture. Every year we do the exact same pose, sometimes switching up the location. I was determined to get a more original shot this year! I love the pictures we got that day.

Veterans Day Parade

 William marched in the Montgomery Veterans Day Parade. My dad and mom led the parade dressed as General and Mrs Montgomery, following them was the color guard, dressed in Revolutionary War Uniforms with William as their drummer.

Brian and Sandy get engaged!

Grandma's Birthday

For Grandma's (Jud's mom) birthday we spent the weekend at the lake with Grandma, Grandaddy, Jay's family and our family. It was such a nice weekend to spend together. The boys made Grandma a cake. 

Everyone took turns icing the cake...

...and adding sprinkles.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Soccer! (Take Three)

Welcome to William's third year of soccer. We took off last year and he has moved up a league, so it is a little different that we remembered it - and much better. This year we have seen kids with actual talent and kids who want to play. It is a whole different world than beginner soccer.

William's team is the Klein Plumbing "Sharks". Two of the boys on his team were in his class in 3 & 4 Year Old Preschool at Harvest and were also in his Kindergarten class. The fathers of those boys are the head coach and one of the assistants. Jud is the other assistant coach. So far it has really been a great team.

Jud had to work late on picture day, so he didn't make it into the team photo. Next season...

In addition to the two boys I mentioned earlier, there is also another boy who was in William's kindergarten class on this team. None of the boys go to the same school this year, so it is nice for them to be able to see each other at soccer. 

William Scores!!

Well, lookey there!

I am caught up! Just in time too, since we have soccer starting next week. William has moved up a league so get ready for some exciting soccer action (hopefully with video?) to be posted in the coming months.

Ms Tricia's Class

Hey, Look! I'm a preschool teacher. This is my awesome bunch of 2 year olds at Harvest Preschool. We have a class blog: harvesttwos.blogspot.com if you want to see us in action. There is also a link on the right hand side of this blog. Check us out!

First Day of First Grade

School started August 10. We drove to school to do the customary picture in front of the sign and picture with teacher. Normally he will ride the bus. Miss Foster is his teacher, she graduated last spring with her masters degree and seems to be a great teacher so far.

Two hours after the first day started I got a call from Jud (I was doing sorority recruitment stuff). He was headed to school to pick up William and take him to the ER for stitches. Some kind of scissors accident. He ended up not needing stitches - just got taped and bandaged up. Day 2 wasn't nearly as exciting.

Holy Beegeezees!

I have almost caught up with this blog! I am not going to lie. I didn't actually post anything between January and July. I have been busting my rear the past week and back-dating the entries to make it LOOK like I have stayed on top of this, when in reality, I am a huge slacker. It is now the first of September and the only things I have left to post are our first days of school in mid-August (William's as a first grader, mine as a two-year-old-preschool teacher) and Jud's new job (which I don't have any pictures for).

So, stay tuned for the pictures of the school stuff. I will go ahead and throw out the Jud news in this post to save you the suspense in case it takes me awhile to get everything caught up (even though I am SO CLOSE!). Jud is now an accountant at Borbet Manufacturing. Borbet is an international manufacturer (based in Germany) that makes rims for cars. They supply many major car manufacturers (Volkswagon, BMW, Mercedes, etc). On his 6th day of work he was informed that he would be leaving early the next morning on a flight to Mexico to meet with a client (4 day trip). He has learned a lot already on the job and really seems to enjoy it.

New Room

William's room was redecorated into a Space theme around Christmas time, but we had been putting off doing the mural that he requested. William wanted to paint planets on his large blank wall. We finally did it! He says he wants to add stars and comets and such. I say less is more.

Oh, Yeah, And We Fished

So the point of the fishing charter was to fish, and I didn't even mention that in the previous entry. Jud caught the first fish (a trout), which made him happy since it was his birthday and all. However, that was about his only fish he caught. William and I pulled in several more, although we threw the majority of them back since we really don't eat fish. 

This is William posing with one of the bait fish. Using said fish he caught two black tip sharks which he hooked and I got to reel in. Somehow the shark managed to get the hook lodged in its side and then proceed to wrap the line around its head, so basically we lassoed the fish instead of hooking it. That takes talent. Much more talent than traditional fishing.

Toward the end of the trip we saw some birds having a field day over an area of the bay, so we took the boat over to investigate and managed to catch quite a few ladyfish in the process. The boat captain kept our ladyfish to use as bait in his traps where he catches baitfish. 

Ok, so there is the fishing part of our trip. The dolphins were still the highlight.

The Coolest Thing Ever

For Jud's birthday we went on a charter fishing trip in the bay between mainland Florida and St George Island. It was a very laid back 4 hour trip and we split our time sight seeing, watching dolphins, fishing, and attempting to catch a big shark. I actually made it all 4 hours without throwing up! Miracle of miracles. I didn't even feel nauseated. It was a great accomplishment. 

The best part of the ride (for me anyway) was all the dolphin activity. They were such great performers. I am pretty sure they wanted to be paid in fish for their show, but I hope they enjoyed their volunteer show nonetheless.

Nightly Crab Hunting

Each evening we went searching for animals after the sun went down. We (and I say "we" although I didn't participate much because the mosquitoes were brutal and had it out for me - I would come in after a few minutes covered in red splotches and horribly swollen and itchy) caught several crabs - both white sand crabs and blue water crabs, as well as some other marine life including a needle fish (looks like an eel with an alligator head and sharp teeth), a jelly fish, and more sand fleas than we can count.

Bikes, Beaches and Birds

We rented three bikes and rode up to, and around, the state park at the far east end of the island. The entire ride was about 8 miles. By the time we got back to the house, we were all so exhausted and hot that we got into the pool fully clothed. There aren't any trees or shade along the roads here.

This is the view from the balcony off the kitchen. There were more dolphins than we have ever seen on a beach trip cruising the shores the entire trip. They would all swim west in the mornings and then turn back east in the evenings.

In addition to the dolphins, the sea gulls were also quite abundant. Within seconds of bringing bread onto the deck, they appeared in full force. They would take food out of our hands and even dive down into the pool (below - not shown in picture) to retrieve a piece they may have missed mid-air.

St George Sights

After a visit to the top of the light house we played on the playground for a bit before heading back to the house. The top of the light house is completely glassed in, except for a few spaces for air circulation. It was pretty hot and stuffy, but the views were beautiful.