Slacker Update

Yep. It is official. I have been a slacker, again. All well. If you have come back and are reading this I know you love me anyway. So, I will do the quick review. But, you are warned eight months takes a little to catch up on. Mostly, life is the same for the Miller clan. We go to work, spend time with our kids, eat, sleep, and repeat. The best time of day is bedtime routine. My kids go down with such little fuss and I love that 5 minutes with each of them where they let me kiss their heads without complaint. Mark started and finished his last semester of actual class time at SUU. He still has to do his student teaching after that WE are DONE! I say we because it takes the whole family to get through a semester of school. Mark took his Special Education test in April and passed with flying colors! Congratulations to him on all his hard work. He is starting student teaching Monday and has to do 60 school days. He should be done by November 15. Spencer is still growing like a weed. In March he grew almost a full inch. Crazy but like I said, a weed. He started going to Primary and he loves it! His favorite part about it is the Spotlight they do on a different kid each week. He loves his Aunt Sarah. She has been kind enough to watch both of the kiddos while Mark had school Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thanks again Sarah! Spencer also loves to read, paint, and watch Chip and Dale, Rescue Rangers. He is so excited for his birthday in a couple of weeks (I think mostly because I am letting him have his first friend birthday party). He has phased out nap time for the most part which is sad but good because he does quiet time and does a lot of preschool type activities by himself at that time. Katherine is so dang cute. And she is so polite. She is constantly saying "Thank you Mama, good morning Daddy, Hi!, Bye bye!, and please." We call her our own Walmart greeter because she says Hi! to everyone we pass walking down the sidewalk, at the grocery store, anywhere. She is speaking in full sentences and picking up new words daily. She loves Elmo, her blanket, when Daddy comes around, and her new favorite- creamies. Her hair is always a mess. I say always because I will do her hair but within minutes she pulls it out or plays with it. She loves to dance. She can count to 10 and is starting to count in the teens too. Me, well, I am a mom. Life doesn't really change for me. I am expecting our third child. I am due 12/12/12 (is that the coolest due date or what?) with a girl. We just decided on a name: Rebecca Rose. I was really sick the first few months but now I am not sick, just getting uncomfortable. We have had a lot of changes happen at work the past few months. We decided last year that we were going to have to let our big store/warehouse go. The overhead was slowly killing us and we decided it was too much work for the two of us. So, in January Mark renovated a store front on Main Street in Cedar for us. It is much smaller (about 1/5 the showroom space and 1/16 of the warehouse space). But, it has worked out so well for us. We get a lot more traffic through our store and more advertising being on Main Street. But, with this move has come some sad sacrifices. Our lights are spread from our little storage space on site, to a container 2 miles away, to out at our house (more info on that in a paragraph). Also, there is no space for the kids to come and stay all day with me at work. I have hated that the most but I know that sooner or later they can't be with me all day long. We are still living in our barn/shed house. It is great though. We have been adding on since, well, basically last November, and it is finished. Carpet is grand I tell you! The addition has a nice family room (13 by 24), a food storage room, another bedroom, and a mudroom/ storage closet. We also built a greenhouse on our property. The greenhouse is full of lights for now. But house by house we are getting rid of a few extras. We hope by next spring we can actually put a garden in the greenhouse. We are planning on living in the barn for a long time. I am sick of moving. Between the 5 moves in 2 years, plus moving our ENTIRE store and inventory this year and moving things around for the addition I am not moving for a long time. Last February we learned that Mark's mother had congestive heart failure (she is in stage 3 of 4). As of this week she has moved in with us so we can help give her the care and support that she needs. She is doing pretty well and I hope that we can continue to see her health improve. In April our ward was split. We, mostly I, were devastated to be taken out of our ward. But, the newly formed ward that we are now a part of is great! Mark and I serve as the 12 to 13 year old Sunday School teachers. We both love the youth and the challenge of teaching them gospel principles and doctrine. Spencer transitioned smoothly into the new ward, Katherine not so much. She loved having us as nursery leaders and had a hard time going without us there. Just another reason why I have learned it is okay for my children not to be with me all the time. The new ward is small but has quickly grabbed a big piece of our hearts. Well, that is all I have time for now. I will put pictures on here of some of our adventures and happy smiles by the end of next week. I will not slack off so much anymore. Thanks for reading a quick recap on our lives. We hope that you are having a wonderful day.