Littlest Fan!!!

Today, my Mama and Daddy are at the Bills vs. San Fran football game in Buffalo.  Mama and Daddy had to dress in layers because the temperature is only suppose to be a high of 36.  I don't know much about temperatures, but Mama says that is very cold.  The weather people are also calling for rain and snow.  Mama says that is yucky!  But it is great weather for a football game. It doesn't make sense to me.  

All I know is that I get to stay with Nana and Pop.  This is going to be the longest time period I have ever been away from both my Mama and my Daddy.  I promised them I would be a good girl.  I am a little worried though...I know, 7 month old babies aren't suppose to worry...but I am still worried.  Daddy says I want San Fran to win, but Mama says I want the Bills to win.  Really, I just want milk and I don't even know what "Win" means....But I did realize, when I looked in the mirror today, this is what I was wearing...

And I am pretty happy about it...

Go Bills!!!

Bath Time Fun!!!

Now that Sierra can sit up by herself, bath time is getting to be so much fun.  Our little pumpkin LOVES her bath time.  She has from the very first day we brought her home.  The pediatrician in the hospital told us not to give her sponge baths because they just make babies cold and unhappy. He said it was completely fine to put her in 2 inches of water, that her cord stub would heal just fine.  So we took his word for it and since day one of being home, Sierra has always been in the tub and she has NEVER cried while bathing.  Bath time is so fun for us and I am hoping that it will just continue to become more fun as she is able to move into the big tub and get some fun bath toys, etc.  As kids, we always loved our baths too. Like Mommy, like Daughter!

It is no secret that Sierra has A LOT of hair!  So I decided to have a little bath time fun too.

Enjoy the pictures!  Of course this didn't phase her at all.  As long as she had mister crabby to bite on, she was content.  I got a good laugh out of it though!

First Meal

Sierra enjoyed her first meal a few weeks back now.  She started out with rice cereal; we tried the homemade stuff, but it was still a little too chunky for her, so we used the commercial brand stuff that my Nana bought for me as a shower gift.  After a few days of cereal, we started her on avocado (homemade).  She LOVES it!  That is probably her personal favorite right now.  She starts waving her hands in excitement as soon as she sees the green stuff! :)  I am glad she likes it.  It is supposed to be really really good for her and her developing brain.

After avocado, we have done sweet potatoes, carrots, applesauce, and yogurt.  The applesauce is taking a little coaxing still.  I have started putting a little Cinnamon on it, and she has seems to like it more.  Brian did the applesauce homemade too, and he purchased the green apples from the store, instead of the red ones, so I think it is a little sour or tart.  I tried it and I wouldn't like it either, if I were her! :)  But there is a lot of it and we won't waste it, so in some way or another we will get her to eat it.  

Brian also mixed up some pears and she has yet to try those, probably this week she can try that.  Everything we have given her, minus some rice crackers and the cereal has been homemade.  I can not take any credit though, Brian has done all the batches of food so far; he is a champ baby food maker! :)  I am so glad that we have decided to do it this way.  First of all, it is SO much cheaper and second, it is much better for her.  Who knows what kind of color dyes and preservatives they are putting in those jars of baby food; and I don't know how long they have been sitting on the shelve in the store and before that in the warehouse.  This way, we know that Sierra is getting fresh, cooked, healthy food.  This way works best for us! :)

Here are some pictures we have taken over the past few weeks of the food making process (making homemade rice cereal) and of Sierra enjoying "real" food.

Thanksgiving!

Heavenly Father, on Thanksgiving Day 

We bow our hearts to You and pray. 

We give You thanks for all You've done 

Especially for the gift of Jesus, Your Son. 

For beauty in nature, Your glory we see 

For joy and health, friends and family, 

For daily provision, Your mercy and care 

These are the blessings You graciously share. 

So today we offer this response of praise 

With a promise to follow You all of our days. 

Mary Fairchild

We are so very thankful for our families, who love us and support us each and every day.

We are thankful for our beautiful daughter who brightens our day in so many ways.

We are thankful for each other, for the love we share and the friendship that knows no end.

We are thankful for our health and for our healthy families; we have spent too many Thanksgivings fighting a health battle.  Thank you Lord for providing good health to us all now.

We are thankful for all of our friends, especially all those that are reading this blog right now.  We love you and we pray for you daily.

Most importantly, we are thankful for our Lord and Savior.  For dying on the Cross, so that as long as we believe, we will not be separated from our Father in Heaven.

We pray that all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving.  Enjoy your families, enjoy your friends, enjoy the parades (always a favorite of mine), enjoy some football, and be sure to Thank God for all the wonderful blessings in your life.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  Psalm 100:4 NIV

Pure Innocence

Yesterday, I spent the morning in my 1st grade classroom at Atlantic Shores Christian School. The children were having their Thanksgiving Feast and I was so blessed to be able to join them. During the morning, the parents came in and decorated the room, set up the "dinner table", and brought in all the food and fixings.  They also planned a craft for the children to do in the afternoon. I missed that part because I had to go to class.  Bummer!

I was amazed at all the Mommy's, Daddy's, Grandma's, and Grandpa's that took time away from work and home to come in and share this special day.  This is something that I have noticed to be really lacking in the public school system - parents that are not available for their children or don't care enough to participate.  Now, don't start throwing nasty comments in my direction...I know all parents aren't this way; but if you look at the statistics, every year parents become less and less involved in their children's lives (especially when they are school age).  It is sad. However, yesterday God stirred up so much thankfulness in my soul as I sat and watched the joy on these children's faces when their parents walked in the room.  I am so grateful that I am able to stay at home with my child.  Putting our child(ren) first, I am sure that Brian and I will make it a priority to attend the important events in our child's life.  

One dad walked in our room about and hour early (he blamed his wife, saying she told him the feast was at 10am, not 11am) :) The fact that he was early though didn't effect his precious daughter.  As soon as she saw him, she jumped out of her chair yelling "Daaaaddddyyyy" and jumped into his arms.  It was the sweetest Father/Daughter moment.  She was so happy to see him, that he had made the time to come to her special Thanksgiving day.  Precious!  I look forward to the day when Brian and I can spend sweet moments like this with Sierra.

As the children were sitting around the table, they shared what they are thankful for.  It was wonderful to hear their pure and innocent comments.  If only we could all be as thankful as a 6 year old.  These dear children have not yet been let down by the world, or by people, they have not been abandoned or abused, and although they are young, every day in school they praise the Lord and are thankful for a loving Father in heaven that sent His son to save them.  It is innocence at its best!!!  I am thankful to be apart of their lives, even if it is for just a short season.

I forgot my camera, but I did get some pictures with the camera on my phone.  Here are some that I took....enjoy!  Also, there is a great video...be sure to check it out!

Our decorated room, the buffet table, and some of the parents.

My lead teacher, Courtney, read a Thanksgiving book to the children before they ate.

The children and parents enjoy the feast.

This is my lead teacher, Courtney and her son Jeremiah.  JD is in the infant care downstairs at the school.  So Courtney is able to go down there on her breaks and nurse him, visit with him during her lunch break, have him in chapel with her every Wednesday, and spend time with him in the classroom during events like this. It works out very well for them.  Jeremiah is only about 1.5 months younger then Sierra and he is super cute!  The kids love when he comes to visit the classroom!

Courtney, plays the guitar and sings...here are my sweet 1st graders singing praises of Thanksgiving to the Lord (sorry it is only 30 seconds...I promise after viewing it, you will be longing for more)!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Beautiful Friends

We are so very thankful for beautiful friends that we do not get to see very often.  Our friends, Brian and Kandi and their two children, Peyton and Olivia; plus Kandi's parents, Kim and Cliff all came for a visit this past weekend.  They are so very special to us and Peyton and Olivia just love Sierra.  I didn't take many pictures, but here are some that I did get...

We are so thankful for beautiful friendships that last a lifetime.  We love all our dear friends and love when we can be together and visit with one another.

They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. Psalm 145:7 (NIV)

Toys (and many of them)

This is what our living room looks like after a day full of playing.  

"How many kids do you have?" You might ask...Well, I am ashamed to admit that the answer is...yes, we only have 1 child!!!  

And...She is blessed with so many things to keep her content (too many, actually).  This should be a warning to all of you out there that are buying for that little child this upcoming holiday.  She obviously doesn't need ANY MORE toys!

We are very thankful for everything we have and for most of these toys which were borrowed from cousin Pierce or bought second hand from other children who were done playing with them.  We are so thankful!!!

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 

Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; 

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."  Psalm 100 (NIV)

Warmth

Brian has a friend, that has some land, with a lot of wood.  He split some for us and gave us a great price for a truck load and so now...this is how we plan to keep warm this winter, and try to save money on heating costs! :)

I am thankful for a warm house and a wonderful husband who doesn't mind stacking wood in our garage and building fires to keep us warm! 

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Psalm 107:1 NIV

A Day in the Life...

Busy Thursday at the Miller's Household...

• 6:30 am - After being up all night, Brian heads to a Leadership Prayer Breakfast
  
• 8 am - Sierra is overheard on the monitor and wants to get up!
  
• 8:30 am - Sierra is fed and playing / Karen is still tired!!!
  
• 9:30 am - Brian arrives home and takes over playing with Sierra
• 10 am - After a shower, Karen heads to her 5th grade classroom to get in some observation time
• 12:30 pm - Karen arrives back home to a sleeping Sierra and a sleeping Brian
• 12:45 pm - Karen works on some home work while both her babies sleep
• 1 pm - Sierra is heard on the monitor, she is ready to get up!
• 1:15 pm - Sierra is nursing and eating lunch (Carrots, Sweet Potato, Avocado, Rice Cereal, and applesauce - which, by the way, she does NOT like at all...we are still working on getting her on the applesauce train)
• 1:30 pm - Brian leaves to go get a truck load of fire wood - our cheap means of keeping our house warm because we don't like to turn on the heat! :)  (don't worry, Sierra has a space heater in her room, so she doesn't freeze, only we do!) :)
• 1:45 pm - Sierra is done eating and playing contently on the living room floor, while Karen tries to complete some more homework - Yes, we DO let our child play independently sometimes!  Trust me, it is good for her! :)
• 2:30 pm - Brian returns home.  We all spend some time chatting as he is unloading the wood and stacking it in the garage (and he cleaned up the garage and sorted through some junk...uh, I mean...stuff)
• 3 pm - Time for nap #2 - Karen takes Sierra upstairs and changes her and gets her ready for bed.  Yuck! Another poopy diaper...mommy always seems to get stuck with the poopy ones lately.
• 3:15 pm - Sierra is peacefully asleep and Karen goes back to her homework.
• 3:30 - 5pm - Karen works on homework while Brian is still working in the garage.
• 5 pm - Sierra is awake and wants to eat!
• 5:05 pm - Sierra nurses and is totally distracted by Brian who is trying to start a fire in the fireplace with the new (we think, wet) wood that he just got.
• 5:30 pm - Sierra is done eating and is playing in the living room.
• 5:35 pm - Karen is running late.  Kisses Brian and Sierra quickly and runs out the door - Daddy's doing bedtime once again tonight.
• 6 pm - Karen sits in class - Foundations in Education
• 7:30 pm - Brian puts Sierra to bed, she eats, they read stories, and they say her prayers...she ends up crying for over an hour.  Brian checks on her a few times.  She finally falls asleep around 9 pm.  (Karen's theory - she misses mommy and is sad when she doesn't nurse before bed!!!)
• 8 pm - Karen gets a break between classes - 15 minutes to speak with the professors, go to the bathroom, and schedule a time to meet with the group to work on our group project - is there any room in the schedule???
• 8:15 pm - Geometry for Elementary Teachers Class - not very exciting and Karen is fighting falling asleep. 
• 9 pm - Get up in the middle of class to go to the restroom again.  Anything to keep me awake!
• 9:50 pm - Class is over - yeah!!!  Usually we have class till 10:15 pm, so we appreciate getting out early. 
• 10 pm - Stop for some food...of course Karen did not have time to eat dinner before class!
• 10:30 pm - Eat dinner - hate eating this late...ugh...
• 11 pm - Brian is resting and Karen is working on more homework.  She has another assignment due by 11:59 pm. 
• 11:50 pm - Karen submits her final homework assignment for the day and with 9 minutes to spare - Praise God!
• 12:00 am - Signing off, so sleepy, need to go to bed so we can start all over again tomorrow!

AND THEN YOU ALL WONDER WHY I HAVE WRITTEN A BLOG POST IN A WHILE!!! :)

Simple Things

When you walk into the nursery to check on your baby before you go to sleep and this is what you see...

...How can you not Praise God?

She is too precious! And she absolutely LOVES her blankie!

PS - These pics were taken around midnight or later one night last week - I had to turn on the light to get a good shot...sorry some of them are a little blurry.

Today

Today is a SPECIAL day.

A day that is close to my heart.

A day that I will never forget.

A day to remind me.

Although I may not understand.

I have Hope in Jesus.

Someday I will understand.

A day that is hard for others.

But hard for me, 

In a way that others,

Can not understand.

Every day is hard…

But today is a SPECIAL day.

“Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

~1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)

7 Months!!!

"Is it so?", you ask.  Yeppers!  Sierra is 7 months old today...

I know, I know, even I can't keep up!!!

All I can really say is that we are overwhelmed with joy to have been given this wonderful little blessing of a girl who is so laid-back like her daddy, detail-oriented like her mommy, and Perfect in God's eyes!  

Here are some updated stats:

• Still nursing 4 times a day (thankful for that and still loving this gift that I am able to give her)
• Still napping twice a day (very thankful for that too, as this is the time when I get most of my work done)
• She is now eating baby food (mostly all home-made, thanks to Daddy!!!) :)  She has had cereal, avocado, sweet potatoes, and yogurt so far.  She loves it all, except she is still a little unsure about the yogurt.  Avocado is her absolute favorite though!

• She now has 1 tooth that has broken through and tooth number 2 is on its way in as we speak (or as you read)
• She is sitting up really really good now and starting to catch herself from falling every now and again; she is still working on that balance
• She just recently started getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth.  
• She moves backwards all the time; she hasn't figured out the forward motion yet.

• She is not fond of her sippy cup.  She either spits the water out, lets it dribble down her chin, or just bites on it.  Not sure how to get her to "like" the cup and I refuse to enable her by putting her water in a bottle (sorry Mom) :) I just think that defeats the whole purpose of the cup-training in the first place.
• She smiles all the time and laughs constantly.  It is pure joy!
• Her favorite part of the day is when Daddy comes home from work (on the days that he works) or when the cats actually realize that she exists and they walk over near her.

I know I say this every month, but really, Brian and I can not remember life without her, (granted our married life was only 9 1/2 months without her, but that is beside the point).  We are so totally in love with this little blessing and are honored that God has entrusted us with her life.  We pray for her everyday and hope that she will continue to grow strong and always know that she has a father in heaven that loves her so much more than those of us here on earth could ever imagine.  Please join us in praying for our little miracle.

Firsts....

• First Flight
• First Cold
• First Tooth
• First Meal
• First Head Massage
• First Solid Food Diaper – This was more of a “treat” for Daddy & Mommy!
• First time pushing up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth! J

Over the past two weeks, Sierra has experienced many “firsts”.  It is amazing how these little ones go from sleeping ALL the time to doing so many new things in a matter of mere months.  It seems as if you compare the first year of life learning with the learning that takes place for us as adults, they don’t even measure up against one another.  Life is amazing!  God is truly remarkable! J

I will soon be posting some pictures to go along with all these new adventures (minus the smelly diaper!)…Stay tuned!

Proud Girls Living in the USA

Sierra and I voted today!!!  

Democracy never tasted so good!

Literally...

*Don't worry, no "I voted" stickers or parts thereof were actually consumed during the filming of this post! :)