IT'S A...

It's a BOY!!!!!!!
We had our 20 week ultrasound today and we are excited to share that we are having a boy! It took about 2 seconds on the screen to see him showing himself off we could tell right away. He was very cooperative and the technician got great shots and we got to see all of his perfect little parts! Amanda's mom watched Shyler during our visit since it was during nap time and when we got home she was teaching her how to say brother... sounds like bra- der, so cute!!!


He looks like he is blowing a bubble if you look close enough. We had fun watching him swim around and kick A LOT! He is an active little guy and is practicing for when he gets out and has to keep up with his sister.


Here I am at 20 weeks. I feel big and comparing to when I was pregnant with Shyler I am bigger and have gained a little more faster. Hopefully I don't gain a ton more. Luckily I am feeling well and not too much is happening except for getting full fast, so sad when something is so tasty! I have gotten over the super tired phase as well, but I do love my sleep!


We can't forget about our little princess, the other day she was so tired she fell asleep on me at like 11am before lunch and so I just put her in bed. She slept for 2 hours and then was ready for lunch. She has also been doing very well in her big girl bed. She stays in it for the most part, even at night when she doesn't want us to leave she will stand up and cry a little but then will lay down and go to sleep eventually. Hopefully that is not a jinx on us, and she keeps it up. In the morning we love that she gets up and knocks on the door and calls for us! Soon she'll be able to reach the knob, but for now we love the knock!


Sporting a fresh bang trim and an old hat from when her Great Grandpa Irwin ran for state legislature. She just loves hats!

A little of this and a little of that....

So I haven't posted in a while because I didn't think we had much to talk about, but then we had a super busy weekend and have lots to share!!!!

Starting on Thursday night we started painting our family room. We have slowly been going room by room painting and this was one of the last big ones we really wanted to do. We are almost done making it look pretty but the paint job alone is great! It is the same colors that are in the living room and kitchen because we figured it was all kind of open to each other and we wanted a nice flow. For those of you that have been in our house we also re-arranged too!


We have a kid, can you tell? We want to get those little bins to put in those 4 little cubby holes in the entertainment center. We also want to get slip covers for the couch and recliner so it will match a little better and new blinds for the window.

This wall had 3 wood shelves that we took down and patched up.


The view from the kitchen table


On Sat. I had to work, but Tim wanted to get out and enjoy our beautiful mountains. They left at 6:30 and drove to the top of Mt. Evans!

The Moon at 6:30 am

The mountain goats
Shyler sitting at the official marker, her first 14'er

Our little monkey mountain climber!

GO RAMS!!!! We can't forget that we had a fun Sunday night watching the Rams beat the Buffs!

On Monday we finished out a long weekend with a trip to A Taste of Colorado. We love going and enjoying the variety of food and looking around. We went with Tim's sister Karen and his mom and dad. We enjoyed a tasty buffalo burger along with a few other treats!

Shyler liked the ear of corn she split with her daddy

But, she LOVED the snow cone she got to split with her mommy, well more like took over!

Our final event of the long weekend involved the purchase of Shyler's new bed! She fell out of her crib last week and has been trying to climb out for a while. So after lots of thinking and a chat with her pediatrician we decided on a twin bed on the floor for now. We kept her up late while we set it up and washed her new sheets. Then I had to stay in there with her until she fell asleep. She slept all night and did really well and is super excited to have a new bed! She kept pointing at it while we were re-arranging her room and the bed was downstairs. We also rearranged so that when our next little one comes there will be a spot ready for the crib to go back.
Shyler also got her 18 month check up this week and what a surprise she is where she always is in the percentiles.
34 1/2" ~ 97 %
23 lb 5 oz ~ 25%
She is still our tall skinny girl!!!

Big yawn for the big girl!

Shyler's news

We haven't been up to too much around here at the Miller house, but we still have been busy. A couple of weeks ago Tim and Shyler got to go up to Estes Park with a coworker from out of town. They had fun playing at the park and brought home a big box of salt water taffy, yummy!

On the 23rd of July Tim and I went to a concert! We saw Taylor Swift at Cheyenne Frontier Days. It was for the most part a great concert, minus me fainting! So we were in standing room only and it was a little hot and I was a little dehydrated and I rested my head on Tim's shoulder and down I went, more explanation at the end of the blog. Props to the security guys they were real quick to help and lifted me over the guard rail since I had passed out again and walked with us to first aid where I got some water and powerade and was good to go! Luckily I passed out during the opening act, Kellie Pickler, and we were ready for Taylor Swift. After I recovered we hung out in the back and found a good place to sit if I got tired. It was a fun time and it was great to be out all night without little miss Shyler. We stayed at our friends Becky and Cody's house and woke up early for the FREE pancake breakfast, that was yummy too! We left Shyler for the first time over night and she did really well. She stayed with my sister Kelli in Fort Collins and got to play with her cousins and go swimming and stay up late! We're glad Kelli could help us like that and that Shyler was so good for her.

Here we are at the breakfast!

This summer I have been trying to keep Shyler busy because if not she gets bored, what a surprise. We try to go to park days with people from church, we have gone to the zoo and we go swimming with our friends from the breastfeeding support group. She also loves to play with other kids, and we are working on the no hitting and sharing with others.

Saturday was our ward pool party and she had a blast swimming with her daddy! She was mad when we took her out, but she was shaking pretty bad because she was so cold!

Our biggest news that Shyler wants to share is that she is going to be a big sister! She doesn't really show it yet, or know it, but she is excited!!!

Tim and I are excited too! So it has been fun, ok not fun, this summer dealing with the first trimester yuckiness but we're getting through it and I've become the queen of napping when Shyler naps! Today we are 14 weeks and we are excited about our due date of Feb 1, but we are hoping for the 2nd so we can have a 3/3 baby and a 2/2 baby!!! I love number patterns like that!

I look especially tired today because someone wanted to wake up at 6:30!!! Not my idea of fun! So another reason why I probably passed out at the concert with the other factors is that I have a little baby taking up all of my energy! Don't worry the doctor said the baby should be fine after my little ordeal.

Our new bathroom

Ever since we moved in we have not liked our bathroom, so for our 4th of July we bribed Tyler with a steak Bar-b-que and had him and Shannon come help us remodel our bathroom. We disliked the maroon counter top, wallpaper border and the rusted sink, and Tim really didn't like the shower doors. So out they all came and in came a new vanity, sink, counter top, medicene cabinet, low-flow efficient toilet, and shower rod.

We forgot the camera before we started tearing stuff out, so this is actually from last year before we moved in.
So you really can't see much in this pic, just that there are 2 doors and it was painted an off white and that the shower doors were framed in gold.

Ta da!!!! Here it is now! We ended up getting a white vanity, countertop/sink combo, and painted the trim white. We also added nickle brushed towel rods and already had the shower curtain that goes with the brushed look.

We are loving it 10 times more than before, and are so grateful for the Read's for their help with our project.

Not much is going on with our family. Shyler got to play with her cousin on the 4th of July when they came over for dinner and she has been getting used to the idea of her little swimming pool in the backyard. She really loves putting her suit on but is still getting used to the idea of swimming.






Tommorow is Tim's parents anniversary and we want to let them know how happy we are for them. They have been married for 30 years and we look up to them so much for the great example they are to us. They are enjoying a long weekend spending time together and doing stuff in Denver they don't normally do. On Sat they took Shyer and Calvin to the zoo!!! They all had a blast!

After a long morning at the zoo then we took Shyler to a wedding. She wasn't really into the whole ceremony, she thought playing in the trees and grass was more exciting, she liked the food at the reception, and she loved playing with the other little ones on the dance floor, but we are going to try harder to find her a babysitter for the next wedding we go to! We did think she looked pretty cute in her dress she finally got to wear that she got for her birthday from Great Uncle Bob and Great Aunt Karen.

Home again, Home again

Finally we are home again from our fantastic vacation to California!!! We had a great time! To sum it up we visited lots of family and drove a lot, good thing we had unlimited miles in our rental car. Shyler was so good and Tim gives her a gold star for the trip. We took her from place to place and most of her naps were taken in the car, not normally a good idea for her. Her are some pictures and more details of the trip...


Stop one... Amanda's brother Matt and his family in Lompoc, CA, Vandenburg Air Force Base, Pismo Beach, and Solvang

She loved the swings!! She insisted on trying out all 4!

Walking on the pier in Pismo Beach, we even got to see dolphins, and try some world famous santa maria style barbecue

We stopped at The La Purisima de Consepcion Mission just outside of Lompoc

The beach on base was COLD!!!

Amanda's brother Matt and his son Conner, showing us around the base

Shyler and her cousin Jordan swinging at a park, they had so much fun playing together!

The 3 little cousins

Stop 2... Amanda's sister Debbie and family, Reagan Presidential Library- Simi Valley, CA, Amanda's home town of Moorpark, Burbank, CA and the Griffith Observatory, and Huntington Library and Gardens in Pasadena

A section of the Berlin wall at the Reagan Library

The Air Force President Reagan flew on

Shyler's thoughts on the Moorpark tour... and also the start of her fever

We stopped by all of Amanda's old houses and schools and this was her Grandma Allie's house. Looks the same as she remembered, some of the others had been remodeled

Shyler at dinner. She sat there with her hands at her side and we had to feed her, she didn't feel good

When we got back to the hotel she went straight for our bed and curled up

The BEST sandwiches!!! A little hole in the wall Amanda's mom used to go to. Tim got a meatball sub and Amanda got a hot pastrami, the part that makes it so good is the chopped up pickles, tomatoes, and onions you can get scooped on top. Not a relish, just little chunks of each!

We stopped at the Griffith Observatory and got a good view of the city and learned a little about space and such. The most recent movie filmed here was, Yes Man with Jim Carrey.

Amanda and the Hollywood sign in the background

Shyler giving a speech... not really but she loved the little podium placard in front of the statue out front of samous astonomers throughout time

We went to this cool garden and library with Amanda's Sister Debbie and son Shane

One of Amanda's favorites, the rose garden with this statue thing devoted to love, or something like that

Tim ws excited to see some of the cool books they had on display like an original Guttenburg Bible (One of the people who invented the printing press) But another reason was to see the Corpse Flower. It was supposed to bloom and smell like dead flesh and attract flies. Well we missed the bloom by one day, too bad! Maybe in another 7 years, because that is how often it blooms.

Stop 3... Amanda's sort of adopted brother and his family in Carlsbad, CA

Shyler at the beach. Not a fan of the water, even when it's warmer out

We picked our own fresh strawberries

Stop 4... Amanda's friend Kat, The San Diego Temple, The San Diego Zoo

So breath taking, this temple is so pretty. We didn't get to go inside, but we had fun walking around the grounds with Shyler. It is a huge attraction to people because it is right on a major freeway driving into San Diego. We are pretty much standing at the end of the grounds with the freeway to our backs taking this picture.

So many pretty flowers on the temple grounds and all over CA

Our last night... Shyler got lucky and we were able to borrow a pack and play at every stop except the last one. So Shyler, Amanda and Oliver the cat shared the air mattress while Tim slept on the couch. This is how she woke up with her legs hanging over the edge!

Shyler seemed to like the elephants the best at the zoo. They also just opened a cool new area for the elephants that is ginormous!!

We thought it would be fun to turn our little one into a giraffe!

The famous Panda Bears, asleep of course!

We loved our cool rental car. We totally got hooked up and upgraded!! We were going for the cheaper level, but we couldn't pass up the brand new suv with only 142 miles on it!!! Plus it ended up being a great place to let shyler roam when we had to stop and to change her diaper! It's not so new anymore, we put 800 miles on it!!!!

We had so much fun and are so thankful to everyone who we saw and who took us in and took us out!!! We were able to have a fun, exciting, and affordable vacation!!!