5th Annual Christmas Cookie Decorating

We held the annual cookie decorating contest again this year. The winner was once again Emily, who continually trounces everyone with her artistic talent. We added gingerbread houses to the repertoire this year. Some of them looked really good, others, well, you can see for yourself.

The winner, I believe a "Christmas in Killarney" cookie

Nice work Abby!

Partially constructed houses... waiting for the final layer of icing and decorations

My favorite. Kiwi's bombed out and abandoned WWII home

A Tough Day

We just got a call from our social worker this afternoon and found out that Thaddeus' birthmom has asked for him back. We knew that this was a possibility, but I'll be honest, we didn't expect it. And that is probably why this is hurting so bad right now. I am reminded of Proverbs 4:23 where it says, "Guard your heart, for it is the well spring of your life." I definitely did not guard my heart this time around like I did when we got Norah and we are paying for it now.

Jamie and I have spent the last hour crying and trying to deal with it, but we firmly believe that God is in control. We certainly appreciate all the prayers from everyone so far and we certainly could use more as we heal our hearts.

We love you all.

Ryan and Jamie

More Pictures

Things have been a little crazy around here, so pictures are a little delayed... sorry. We didn't get home from the hospital nearly as early as we had planned, plus Jamie has picked up a pretty nasty cold, so we are just a little out of sorts at the moment. But nothing like some pictures to set things straight.

You can see how small he is because the pacifier is as big as his face

Norah, what did you do?!?!

One Crazy Day

So if you've been following the weather in MN you know that we are just coming out of the monster snow storm that dropped around 14"-20" of snow on us. That is great and all, but yesterday we got the call that the birthmom that had picked us went into labor, so we needed to come up to the Twin Cities. So, at 9:30am Jamie and I started the white knuckle drive up to the hospital!!!

We got to the hospital around noon today since we were told that was when we could go up and see the baby. When we got here though we found out that the plans had changed. The birth grandma wanted to spend more time with the baby, so we moved back the meeting to 5pm. That meant we had lots of time this afternoon we needed to kill, and so began "the adventure."

Jamie wanted to head to Target to look for a few more infant outfits and also to get some flowers for the birthmom. So we headed out. The first part of our journey took us down Lake St. We passed more retarded drivers in that short 1 mile stretch than I have ever seen in my life. Every cross street had about 2' of snow from the plows and every Civic, Malibu, Celebrity, and other tiny little car known to man tried driving through these mounds of snow. The result were totally predictable. The few that actually looked like they had a chance of getting out were gunning their engines and spinning their wheels.... all while pointing into the main street. We were just waiting to get T-boned by one of these morons.

We spent the next 4 hours driving around town with pretty much the same results. Target didn't have any flowers (strike one), so when we got back to the hospital we headed straight to the gift shop. The good news was the gift shop did have some nice bouquets. The bad news, it was closed even though the hours posted clearly showed it was supposed to be open (strike two). So we quick headed to the truck to find a floral shop. Bad move. The first place we stopped was some "world market." They used to have a flower shop, but not anymore, or so they said (strike three). We called about 3 different flower places and they were all closed.

Now it's 4:55 and we need to be back for our meeting at 5:00. Enter Lake St into the narrative once again. Its now bumper to bumper in every direction. Instead of the few morons we saw on Lake St previously, it was now packed with them. We needed to make a left hand turn to get back to the hospital, but every single street was blocked from a stuck car. At one of the blocked streets there was a brawl. I assume because of the blocked car, but two guys were just wailing on each other. Two other guys jumped in to try and break it up. At the exact same time, there was a guy on the right side of Lake St with a snowblower launching ice and snow into the middle of the street. So its just pelting the truck like its a hail storm. And while this is happening, one of those stuck cars is high-topped beside us but is rocking back and forth trying to get out. He finally got traction and lurched forward, stopping approximately 3 nanometers from the side of our car. I'm not making any of this up either.

After passing five consecutive streets that were blocked I finally saw an open street. Note its well past 5pm at this point. I'm waiting for a car to let me turn through the bumper to bumper traffic when a Kia Sportage coming from the other direction decides he wants to take my open street. Do I even need to tell you what happens next? That's right, he doesn't even make it 5 feet into the street before getting stuck.

We did finally get back to the hospital. And we did get to meet the newest member of the Miller family. I'll blog more later about him and our experience with him, but for now allow me to introduce:

Thaddeus Tell Miller

born on 12/11/10 @ 3:48pm

5lb 13oz

19.5 inches

Moments of Joy

Norah, like any almost two year old, has her moments that make us want to pull our hair out. But at the same time she is just so stinkin' sweet. Let me provide you with a few examples:

#1 - Yesterday I took Norah with me to the gas station since we had to get gas for the snowblower (which didn't work, so I had to shovel all 10" by hand, but don't get started on that). Since its only a few blocks away I let her sit in the front seat in mommy's "big girl" seat. As soon as she sat down she looked at me, smiled, and said, "I big goil (girl)".

#2 - A little later we went on a Menard's run. Some of you may be familiar with the music of Casper Babypants, well, we had it playing in the van. The second she heard it she asks for "Monkey Wiver (River)". This is the same song she made us listen to on repeat from South Bend to the north side of Chicago (I was about ready to jab my eyes with a fork on that trip). Like that trip, as the song ended she starts yammering, "gen, gen (again)." Mommy always tells her to be patient, so when I told her that it was going to start again as soon as it ended, she says "I payshun (patient)."

Below are a few more older photos, obviously as there is no snow, since I have not downloaded any photos recently. Enjoy.

Living large on the bigwheel.

Classic scrunched face smile

Check out my hot ride boys!

Go To Work

Nearly every time I drop Norah off for daycare it takes her several minutes to warm up enough for me to leave. She gets so excited to go to Heidi's when we are still at the house and she recites everyone's name who will be there: Hannah, Chi-Chi (Malachi), Zackson (Jackson), and Kaden. But for whatever reason once we actually get there she never wants me to go.

However, today we reached a milestone. Today when I dropped her off I put her down and then dropped to my knees to try and play with her a bit knowing she usually needs that. Only today she looked at me, put her hand on my shoulder, pushed me, and said, "work daddy. work" So I got up and left. Its weird, I've been wanting that to happen for the last 12 months, but now that she wants me gone I'd kind of like to stay :-( My baby doesn't need me anymore, sniffle sniffle.

Norah always grabs my hat and puts it on like a homie

She was so proud of herself double paci-ing

Norah and Hannah in my grasp