Mandisa ... gotta love her

Here is Kayleigh singing Mandisa's "Only the World". I went to Women of Faith a few weeks ago and we heard Mandisa there. She was incredible and we have been jamming to her music the last few weeks. Kayleigh, my little singer, has picked up on her music. :) Enjoy

A few video's for a laugh..

This is a video that Kayleigh and her classmates sing each day prior to going to the hall to walk outside. She was singing it the other day when I got to school to pick her up and I just had t0 video her singing it as it was just too cute!!

Words if you can't understand them are " My hands are on my hips, I am standing straight and tall, my eyes are looking forward and I am ready for the hall" :) Enjoy!!

A BIG GIRL BED!!!

I noticed last week that Kayleigh was quickly outgrowing her toddler bed. She is just getting to big too fast!! :( So Kyle and I talked and decided we had better look for a "big girl bed" this weekend. We started out Saturday morning and went shopping. We just needed a new mattress so that was a pretty easy find. I was up on Omaha Saturday afternoon for an appointment and looked for the bedding. When I got home we put everything together. She was pretty excited to sleep in her big girl bed last night and was excited to go to bed. :) I wanted to stay with the same color scheme in her room as I just can't paint over her mural. My brother (the gifted artist that I know he is..but I am biased) drew and painted the mural you see for us when I was pregnant with Kayleigh. He did a Winnie the Pooh mural in our Old house for Madelyn's room when she was a baby and I think I cried more about leaving that wall than anything in our old house. :) Every time I look at it it warms my heart thinking of the week he spent with us painting that. He put so much love into make sure everything was just right when he did it. He is sort of a perfectionist..but it is something that I treasure so much.

So there you have it.. we are 3 and now in a BIG GIRL bed. Makes me sad to think she is growing up so fast! But I guess that it what being a parent is all about. Letting your kids grow up and giving them wings to teach them how to fly. Surely isn't easy to let them go.. and makes this mommy sad.. but I love watching them grow and it surely won't be without tears from this mommy I am sure.

Ahh.. Crap!

Okay so the title of this blog probably isn't the best but it fits with the story. So yesterday my mom (Grandma Silver) and my brother came down for a visit. Grandma Silver had a car accident Feb 13 and broke her ankle. She is still in her cast. Madelyn got off the bus yesterday and was surprised to find Grandma Silver and Uncle Bri there to greet her. She started questioning Grandma Silver about when she was going to drive again as she just got her new car. Uncle Bri chimed in and said something to the effect that she wasn't going to drive for a month. Grandma Silver responded by saying "Ahh.. he's a piece of crap!" WELL... in the words of my mother.. Tall stalks (of corn of course) have big ears!!
As luck would have it, (or maybe not so much luck) Kyle took the girls to school today and on the ride into town, Madelyn is explaining the events of yesterday afternoon and telling her Dad about what has happened. She gets to the part of the story of what Grandma said and states, "I'm not going to say what Grandma said Dad, but she said ah..he's a piece of starts with a c and ends with a p."
Oh my! My Kindergartner can spell too!! Well that is partially because she is doing weekly spelling test. Maybe that wasn't such a great idea!

Okay now onto Kayleigh's story.. The other night she is going through nighttime ritual and giving kisses before bed, she has this "funny" thing where she gives a pretty sloppy kiss to you and thinks it is funny. Well I decided I would do that to her and she puckered up to give me a kiss and I gave her a bad one.. :) She laughed, grabbed my face on the cheeks and pulled me toward her and said "don't give me a weak one! Give me a kiss!" Who could argue with that??

That is all I got for funny stories today... HA!! Until the next funniest moment..

I have apparently decided to join the ranks of most "cool" and "hip" mom's and have decided to create a blog. I have found recently that it is just to hard to remember who we told what goofy story about the kids too. So hopefully this will be a way to have you all jump on frequently to check out what the latest story is in our crazy lives.

For those of you who are new and don't know our entire story thanks for reading, I will bring you up to speed. Kyle and I were married August 12, 2000 so this summer we will celebrate our 9 year anniversary. It is amazing to me how fast time flies sometimes. We got pregnant about a year and a half after we got married and unfortunately we lost that first baby on Feb 14, 2002. As much sadness as that brings to a couple, I have come to terms with God's purpose in that event. We were blessed to get pregnant again 2 months after our miscarriage and Madelyn Jo blessed our lives on December 11, 2002. I am convinced we wouldn't have Madelyn had we not experienced our miscarriage. Although there is not a Oct 14 (my first due date) that doesn't go by that I don't think of how old that child would be.

Madelyn was quite the stubborn child prior to her arrival. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Though this proved to be a challenge with my pregnancy I managed to make it through, with the last 4 weeks being strict bed rest. I remember at the time BEGGING Kyle to let me go down the street to the grocery store to get milk at 11 at night, just to get out of the house. Sad as that is, it was true. I was begging for a trip to the grocery store. I remember Kyle holding the phone saying "Don't make me call the doctor." After 4 days of labor (not all of it intense hard labor), two failed inductions and a c-section; she blessed our world at 5:02 PM. I remember that day like it was yesterday, you see Kyle and I don't ever find out what gender of child we are having. (strange but true) So the moment that Madelyn was born Kyle stood up and was taking photos, and he was the one to tell me we had a little baby girl. It was so special and I wouldn't trade that moment for anything in the entire world. He started jumping up and down in his scrubs (looking all McDreamy) and told me "Its a girl! It's a girl" followed by a flood of tears instantly soaking his scrub mask. Wow! I didn't know something like that would be so significant it would bring a tough guy like him to tears! It was precious to see how this precious child who was only seconds old already had her Daddy wrapped around her finger. Madelyn has been so much fun to watch grow into the little lady she is today, she is now 6 years old. Entering Kindergarten this year was a whole new world for us I don't know who was more worried about it me or Madelyn. I remember being at the bus stop the first day, watching how scared she was to get on the bus. I had to give her the "thumbs up" you can do it, while I just wanted to scoop her up and take her home. After the bus left I turned around got in my car and BURST into tears. I had to call my mom for the "pep talk" that this really is the way it is suppose to be, letting your kid grow up. It has been fun but also proved to have its challenges. I think our biggest task has been making sure she stays challenged. However we have been blessed that we have a wonderful Kindergarten teacher to partner and work with. She has recognized the need to challenge Madelyn and kept us on our toes. I am happy to report Kindergarten is AMAZING for this 6 year old. She loves every bit of it and always has great stories to report. She is a great leader and the "little mother hen" of the class.

Now onto my handful...February 24, 2006 the Miller family was once again blessed with another girl. Kayleigh Jean was born at 7:42 AM. Once again we didn't find out what we were having and this time around Kyle was just certain that we were having a boy. This time we had a scheduled c-section (I wasn't about to go through 4 days again of labor) so it was smooth sailing. I even enjoyed Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake at 11:30 PM the night before, considering I couldn't eat past midnight it wasn't a bad deal. It was funny as Kayleigh was born she came out crying, Dr. Heidrick said "it's a girl" and the look on Kyle's face was priceless. It was one that said "Oh good, She is okay... she??What?? we were so close!!" Ha! But this little girl too has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger. Kayleigh is now 3 and I would swear to you she is going on 20! She is such a handful at times that I think she will make up for any timidness and shyness in her sister. She loves to sing and dance so I think she will likely be on American Idol sometime in the future. Ask her to sing you the Apple and Bonono's song! She is the one who doesn't think first, just does and then thinks about the repercussions. I can't wait until the teenage years for that to come full circle! I know when we went into the ortho Dr after Madelyn broke her wrist we told them we might as well set up an account as I am certain we will be back with Kayleigh before to long. Since she turned 3 she has graduated to the "big kids playground" at the daycare which includes tunnel slides we like to go down head first, monkey bars and rock climbing walls.. well you get the picture. Stay tuned for the stories with that! Kayleigh I think will probably be as close to boy as we get.. she is all tomboy. She would much rather play in the dirt, and play with the boys than squeal at the sight of mud or feel of anything yucky. She would probably be the one to start kicking or playing in the dirt, adding water and making it mud. She talks way more about the boys in her class than any of the girls.. which I haven't quite decided if that is a good thing or a bad one. Since she turned 3, she has moved up to the 3's room at daycare and has rejoined her best buddies, Carter, Brodie and Dane. We hear a lot about Carter, Brodie and Dane and how they are her friends. Now don't get me wrong, you can still get her frilly and dress her up in a dress and paint her nails but that doesn't last long with this kid. Potty training with her was probably my biggest challenge, but I have to share this story. So we are a few months from her 3rd birthday and we are working hard on potty training. We have the potty part it is the poopy part that we haven't figured out. It got so frustrating that it was so hard not to yell at her after she would go and hide in the corner and poop her pants immediately after she had just pottied on the potty. Well we had to bring out the big guns, divine intervention. I actually had never even thought of praying about potty training as we were going through all of this. But one night at my Wednesday night Bible Study I just had it with the patience of this. Every time I would turn around I would hit a roadblock with her. So I thought, even though this is "little" on my list, what can it hurt to pray about it? So I added it and one of the gals in my group prayed for me as we closed that night. I am not lying, or kidding you when I say that is the night everything changed. We pooped for the first time at church, we started pooping at school (which she had not been doing and would have 2-3 of those accidents a day) and we pretty much flipped the switch and had no more accidents. I tell you that it doesn't matter how big or how small your request, always take it to the Lord! It is amazing how he can even turn 2 year old potty training kids around and saved this mom from a funny farm visit! Kayleigh is always, saying or doing something that makes us giggle to our toes, so stay tuned for many stories to come with this goofy Miller child!

I think that is one of the best things as a parent to watch, seeing your spouse interact with your kids. I love watching him greet them when he comes home with a "Hey squirto! How was your day?" and I love watching their faces light up when they see him when he comes home. He is such a great Daddy and I love how he has his rituals with them. He will practice spelling test words with Madelyn. His night time ritual with Kayleigh includes many kisses; butterfly kisses, Eskimo kisses, a zerbert and a tickle! It is precious to watch him with his girls and how much he treasures them and how much pride he has with talking about each of them to others. I know there is something about little girl's and their Daddy's. It is true in this household as I have two little girls who love their Daddy a whole lot. It makes me fall in love with him all over again.

Now I can't skip over one of the major parts in our lives you will I am sure hear/see photos of in the future and that is the Nebraska Volleyball Team. We have a passion for volleyball and have really taken to the Husker Volleyball team. Part of this started when one of the girls from my hometown in Hooper, NE made the volleyball team. Jordan Larson who was #10 quickly became our "special friend" on the team. We were privileged enough to spend time in the off-season with her just hanging out and feeding her food while she was playing for the Huskers. Madelyn will tell you that Jordan is her hero. When she was 2 and the craze of following Jordan began, she would say she wanted to be #10 when she grew up and her name too would be Jordan. Well this admiration turned into being awe struck every time we were in Jordan's presence. It didn't matter if Jordan was in her uniform in the Coliseum or if she was in street clothes, as long as she was in the Coliseum, Madelyn couldn't talk to her. She was just so awe struck to be in her "hero's" presence she couldn't speak. It has been so much fun to watch the girls with Jordan the last 4 years and see how much she has taught them. Probably one of the most important lessons was learning how to dream big and to dream like a champion. We will certainly miss #10 when the team takes the court this Spring season in a few weeks.

Well I know I have taken probably enough time to "catch" you up with the Miller's. I look forward to posting more fun and crazy adventures that you can join with us and come along on the ride. Until next time....