(Workin' at the) car wash

Today Norah decided to help daddy wash the van. I think she ended up drinking more water from the sponge and getting more water on her clothes than she did on the van, but she sure had fun. And looked cute doing it.

She dried the sponge by sucking on it, so she needed more water.

This is our favorite, look at that smile.

Visiting the Rices

We just got back from spending a week with Shawn, Melanie, and Lydia. We flew out on the Monday after Easter and Norah, while quite squirmy, did a great job of traveling. We got delayed several hours on the way out though, so by the time we got there it was already pretty late.

On Tuesday we woke up to find Norah had herself a 102.9 degree fever. Amazingly, you would never have known that she had a fever for the first two days. She played with Lydia and had a great time. And then on Wednesday we all ventured over to Hershey World. It really is a cruel place for anyone who is a chocolate lover. Chocolate was everywhere, but you couldn't eat it. Lydia and Norah ended up taking the Chocolate Tour Ride about 5 times. They loved the singing cows!

Then Thursday came, and the ear infection. Norah went from a fun happy kid to little miss clingy. On Friday we ended up at the doctors office to get her some medicine, which of course, caused her to throw up. But this is all payback of course for when Lydia came to Minnesota and threw up all over our living room floor. Unfortunately we ended up staying at the house for those last few days because there was just no taking Norah anywhere. But we still had a great time and Norah loved spending time with Lydia (and auntie Melanie and uncle Shawn). We are just hoping that the next time we get the girls together they can both be healthy!

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures at the moment because our camera was broke. So once we get them from auntie Melanie we'll post some here.

2007: A Minnesota Odyssey

There has been quite a bit of excitement around here over the past week. It started off with a trip to the Wisconsin Dells. We spent three days over there with our small group just hanging out and enjoying the indoor water parks. Norah did amazingly well for her first time. She was always a bit hesitant for the first hour or so each day, but then she really warmed up to the water. When we were at the wave pool, she actually started walking toward the deep end. If I wasn't holding her hands she probably would have walked until the water was over her head!

The other big news is that I sold out and got a mini-van. We started looking back in September when we found out we were pregnant. So even though we won't be adding kid #2 this summer like we expected, we still went ahead and got one. We sold Jamie's Jetta to a guy from St. Joseph, MO last Saturday a week ago. So we were down to one car for a week, but this past Friday we headed up to the Cities and picked up a 2007 Honda Odyssey. Jamie is definitely big pimpin' in the new ride.

Norah being entertained by Addison.

Just checking things out.

Drying off after a nice swim.

Hanging with her best friend Ashlyn.

What up homie?

Norah reading her New Testament to daddy. (a budding theologian)

She absolutely loves brushing her own teeth.

Dancing Queen

More videos:

Fun in the Snow

This past weekend I went with two buddies up to Jamie's uncle's cabin to do a little ice fishing. We had a perfect day to do it. It was only about 6 degrees outside when we got on the ice, so we started out the day in the pop-ups, but by 9:30 or so the sun was out and there wasn't a lick of wind. So we spent most of the rest of the day fishing outside. The only problem, someone must have told the fish we were coming. There were five of us total in our fishing posse, but in the 11 hours we spent on the ice I think we only had about 15 keepers... and that was even questionable if take into account uncle Todd's internal tape measure wasn't quite up to par.

Last week we also took Norah out into the snow for the first time. She absolutely loved it!!! She would have stayed out there all day if we had let her. Here are some pictures of the action.

Her first few steps in the fluffy white stuff.

Chillin' (literally) with daddy

Gumby's great escape. This is one of my favorites.

Here are a couple of videos as well. The first one is Norah getting kicked in the head by accident when daddy was making a snow angel. The second is her playing and singing with mommy.

End of January Update

Not a whole lot of new info to share. We did start the paperwork this past week for our second round of adoption. Unfortunately there is a waiting list right now at New Life so it may end up taking awhile. Thanks to an old college buddy, we did start investigating the possibility of adopting from Haiti. We never thought of Haiti as an option, but in light of recent events and all the children that are now without parents we thought it was only logical to atleast look into it.

And Norah turned 1 this month. Its been fun watching her as she continues to understand more and more things. Tonight Jamie told her to go and get her blanket and come back, and she did! Now, we just need to work on that attitude problem she's developing. Now, what everyone really wants, more pictures of Norah.

Norah with her best friend Ashlyn

Norah getting a ride from her other best friend Hannah.

Norah playing at her new kitchen

And here mommy dressed Norah up as a stripper.

Caught in the act!!!

Norah's friends Sam and Owen came over to play.

And Norah likes to get down. She turns on this radio by herself all the time and starts getting jiggy. Tonight she had some dancing partners. Note Sam, he does a little break dancing to finish off his routine.

Someone Needed a Trim

Today we took Norah to get her first haircut. Her hair was starting to get completely out of control, so we need to trim it up a bit. Here are some photos from the event.

Just before the cut, showing her vampire fangs.

The final product.

Eventful Holidays

Jamie and I had quite the eventful holiday season this year. Jamie's sister and her family came from Utah for 2 weeks. They stayed with us for the first week and we got in lots of games. Poor Doug, he wants to beat Jamie so bad at Settler's, but she just keeps winning. And what makes it worse, she has no strategy whatsoever. Her only strategy is getting her numbers rolled everytime. Doug and Emily also got us a new game, Qwirkle. We've only played it once, but it seems like a lot of fun.

My dad also came into town for 6 days. It was nice having grandpa around to watch Norah so Jamie and I could get a few hours here and there of rest. It took her a day or so to warm up to him, but by the time he left they were best friends.

As far as presents go, Jamie went for quality over quantity. She didn't want a lot of gifts, she just wanted one, a new kitchen sink and faucet. So we got lots of Home Depot gift cards from the family this year to help towards the purchase. I was aghast at how much it would cost for a sink and faucet.... in my opinion it was ridiculously expensive and we didn't even get the "good" stuff. But its installed and working and I think looks great.

We also had some bad news. On Tuesday, Dec 22nd, Jamie and I lost our baby that she was carrying. She was 13 weeks pregnant at the time. We were hoping to spread the good news that we were pregnant at Christmas, but unfortunately God decided he wanted this child. Along with being physically difficult for Jamie, it was a very emotional and tough time for the both of us. We had both come to grips with the notion that we couldn't get pregnant and that God wanted to complete our family through adoption. Then we find out we are pregnant. So that took some time to wrap our heads around, which we finally did a few weeks before the miscarriage. So its been a whirlwind of emotions, but we thank all of you who have been praying for us and checking in on us. We truly do appreciate it.

Now, back to some fun stuff, pictures....

Santa's Little Helper

Reading with Grandpa Miller

Hello?

Opening gifts with cousin Ellie

Big Steps

Jamie got after me since its been so long since I last blogged. So, let me see if I can try recap the last few month or so of events. My mom came up to Minnesota to visit over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was nice because she volunteered to watch Norah one evening so Jamie and I could go on a date! After grandma Miller left Norah always sighs now when she sees grandma in the picture book.

Norah checking out the Christmas tree

Norah with grandma Miller

The big news is that Norah has starting walking! She took 2 steps all by herself for the first time on Saturday, then today, bam, she's walking like a pro. Check out the video evidence that Jamie was able to capture today.

Miller Update

Two weeks ago Jamie and I had an opportunity to share our adoption story. New Life Family Services, the agency that we used for the adoption, was having their once a year banquet and fundraiser and they asked us to give a short presentation on our experience. They put up several pictures of Norah while I was speaking and the crowd (about 400 people) absolutely loved her! It was a great night hearing about New Life and the amazing ministry they have. If you are on Facebook, you can become a fan, just search for them.

There is not a whole lot of other news here in the Miller household. We are starting to hunker down as old man winter is bearing down on us. The fact that it gets dark by 5pm totally sucks... its going to be long winter. Luckily, we have a little ray of sunshine that keeps us going. Here are some recent pictures, including some from our trip back to Indiana in October.

Grandpa with his girls

Norah showing off her pretty pink outfit

Little Pink Riding Hood

Norah and Lydia getting friendly at the Essenhaus

Back to Indiana

Jamie and I headed back to Indiana last weekend so I could attend my 10 yr reunion at Taylor. It was a lot of fun seeing some old friends who I have not seen since graduation and hearing what is going on in their lives these days. Its hard to believe that its been that long... I must be getting old.

My sister and her family came home as well so Norah got to play with her cousin Lydia for a few days. It is so fun to watch them play together because Lydia just loves Norah. She was always going up to her and giving her kisses. Since the whole family was back together, we decided to have some pictures taken. They turned out great. The pictures were taken by an old friend of ours and you can see a couple of the shots on her website, Traci Shupert Photography. Here's my favorite one as a teaser!

Basically, Just Pictures

There is not a whole lot new going on in the Miller house these days. We just continue to enjoy watching Norah grow and learn new things. The latest thing now is waving goodbye. She thinks she's so cool when she waves at people. She also has become pretty good at crawling down the steps, but going up is a whole different story. She only makes it up one step, and then chickens out and goes back down.

Norah with a magazine. I think she liked her twin on the left page.

Norah dominating the sippy cup

Check out the hangtime on that drool!

A cake at Norah's last baby shower.

The evolution story: Start with one puff...

... rinse it down with some crystal clear water...

... throw in some bananas, and you've got the makings for a mess.

The First Stair

Jamie took Norah and went out to Utah for a week to visit Doug, Emily, and Ellie. It was fun for me for a day or two, but I was definitely ready to have them home. Don't get me wrong, the sleeping through the night part was awesome and I didn't want to give that up. Rumor has it Norah learned several new things while she was away from home. Including this one that was caught on tape.

She Stands

Norah has learned a few tricks in the past week. She can now pull herself up on things, and she ate her first jar of baby food. She's been eating rice cereal and mashed up avocados and sweet potatoes for months, but this was the first store bought food. She's lightning fast and nothing is sacred to her, so we are continually amazed at where she ends up and what she has in her mouth when she gets there!

North Carolina

Two weeks ago Jamie, Norah and I went to Raleigh to visit Jamie's brother and sister-in-law. We had a really good time and got to go see some pretty cool sights. The first day we were there we went to Duke Gardens to have a picnic. After lunch we traveled over to Chapel Hill and took a look at the UNC campus (and bought some Tar Heel paraphernalia).

Sporting Dr Seuss like blue hair-do's

We also took a day trip out to the outer banks, which was really cool. We first stopped at Kitty Hawk and saw where the Wright brothers first took flight. I think I enjoyed it much more than Jamie did. From there we went straight to the beach, where Norah got to jump into the ocean for the very first time. From the beach we drove down the shore all the way to Cape Hatteras to see the light tower. It turned out to be a long day, but it was well worth it.

Norah petting Razor

Norah loved looking out the plane window

At Duke Gardens

Somewhere between Hatteras and Kittyhawk

Cape Hatteras lighthouse

And a few more pictures of Norah, since that seems to be all that anyone cares about these days :-)