One baby pot band + 1 brother= AWESOME

I have a picture of Colin around Christopher's age playing my pots and pans like drums. Of course I had to allow Christopher the same opportunity. Unfortunately, it is now a daily occurrence while I make dinner. A very loud occurrence. He just loves it, and Colin likes to join in. That's when the fun really starts...

This is Colin.

This is Christopher.

This is the two of them doing a duet.

Mr. Creative

Colin has been playing a lot with his trains, cars, legos, and blocks lately and here are some of his creations. The kid might have a future in engineering or architecture. His brain surprises me with the intricate details that he can visualize in his building of things. I know all kids have imagination and creativity, but it is still impressive to me.

I dare you to not be impressed by this train track! He did it with no help.

This is a picture of a block city he built...I can't recall what everything was, but he told me.

This is a Lego monster truck. It has a giant lift. Ugh, we must really live in the south.

Exercising my life away

As many of you may know, I am a certified personal trainer. I exercise at least 5 days a week and watch my diet the vast majority of the time. I think it's important, I think it's good for me, I want to keep losing baby weight and toning up, and I actually enjoy it. I thought I was pretty fit.

Apparently not as fit as I thought.

Roger and I started the P90X program (www.beachbody.com, look it up) together 3 weeks ago.

Holy. Crap.

Intense doesn't even begin to describe this program. It is a mixture of strength, cardio, diet, flexibility, core, etc. that is reminiscent of some of my preseason days. The first night that we did it, we did chest and back and ab ripper x. I woke myself up my abs hurt so bad that night.

As the three weeks have gone on, I have learned a few things. 1) I was not as fit as I thought, 2) Yoga X sucks total balls 3)Diet and exercise really are the only way to improve your health and meet your weight/body goals and I don't need ice cream every night. I am seeing results after this short time, and am thoroughly impressed with the program. I am noticing that each workout gets easier, while remaining hard. I will kick ab ripper x's butt, I will. I can't wait to post some pictures, but right now I am still just a bit too embarrassed of the before ones. I will post them together when we are done with the program.

If you have reached a point in your working out that you need something new and different, this might be what you need. It is definitely not for beginners though, so be warned!

Colin's first day of K-4

Colin started his K-4 (known in most places as preschool, but for some reason here, it's considered Kindergarten 4--welcome to SC) last Monday. He goes 4 days a week from 9am to 1pm. He is doing great already, although his stubbornness was a problem on day 1. He didn't want to do anything the teacher wanted him to do. After a little talk with me after school about how important it is for him to listen to his teacher, he didn't have another problem all week. He learned all of the routines right away (kiss me goodbye, go in, hang up his backpack, put his lunch box in his cubby, put on his name tag, put his monkey on the tree (it's a system for taking roll), and go sit at his table. I am so proud that he can do this by himself! I want nothing more than for him to be as independent as possible when he is away from me. He had 4 green days and that meant that he was able to pick a treat from the treasure box on Thursday. He was very cute in his excitement of wanting to show me what he got. As crazy as he makes me, I love that kid!

Things are a bit different for him this year as instead of 8 kids in his class, there are 20! Instead of 1 teacher, there are 3. He seems to be adjusting fairly well, although I think I need to find a way for him to blow off some steam every day when he gets home. I will work on that. Here is a picture of him on his first day.

Atlanta Zoo

I had the joy and pleasure of meeting an old soccer friend from my high school years at the Atlanta Zoo (actually called Zoo Atlanta, but that irritates me so I changed it). She moved to Arizona when I was about 16, and I hadn't seen her since. We have caught back up on Facebook and it turns out that our children (she has two boys) are months apart. Colin is a couple of months older than Kegan, and Christopher is 1 month older than Kamden. It was a blast to hang out with them together and they got along really well. I enjoyed meeting Autumn's husband, Travis, as well. I only wish that Roger had been able to join us, as that would have made it even more perfect. Here are some pictures from our time there. Hopefully we will make some plans in the coming years to travel to Arizona to visit!

Colin kept us all informed of where we were and were going the entire day by using his map. He really did a great job following it!

Colin and Kegan with the lion statue.

Colin and Kegan on the gorilla statue with the sign behind them that says do not climb on statue. Oops.

Looking at the sleeping panda.

Christopher and Kamden driving the school bus. Aren't they cute?

Anniversary to remember

He looks innocent, doesn't he???

So as I said yesterday, we celebrated our anniversary. We didn't have a babysitter so we took the kids with us to dinner. It was fun and Roger and I deviated from our clean eating and enjoyed a Greek dinner at The Olympian. Yummy.

Then, just to add to the fun of the anniversary, we headed to Lowe's to search for glue to install our new hardwood flooring. Of course Lowe's didn't have it. This means an extra trip to Simpsonville (about 25 minutes away) to Lumber Liquidators. This also means an extra week before we can get it done. Oh well. Such is life.

After our trip to Lowe's (where the kids were angelic) we headed to Wal Mart--just to cap off the night. Living large, we are! Unfortunately, our angelic 4-year-old became possessed while we were there and threw the fit to end all fits all because I took him to the bathroom. Needless to say he had to go badly enough that he was doing the pee pee dance, because in his world that is irrelevant. If I didn't know that he was my child and I had seen this event as a bystander, I would have thought that the child was being abducted. I was carrying him by this point because he refused to walk and he is screaming "DAAAADDDDYYYY!!! I WANT MY DAAAADDY! NO, NO, NO!!!!" I was mortified, but determined that he was going to go to the bathroom. Oh yes, this 31-year-old will win the fight with the 4-year-old. Little did I know that he had more defiance left in him. Great. In the bathroom it took 10 more minutes of him screaming that he didn't want to be in there, for him to finally go to the bathroom. Which, by the way, sounded like a hose in a pool of water--nope, he didn't have to go at all.

I thought it was over, but no such luck. We went back to where we had left Roger, and he wasn't there. Meltdown number 2. I actually sat him in the middle of the floor in Wal Mart for a time out. Then I told him that I was no longer speaking to him and that he was going to be quiet while we walked around looking for Daddy because I was pretty upset with him. Did he want to do that? Nope. Oh well, he can trail behind me whining and complaining until we find him. And he did. A lot. We finish our shopping (with Colin now under Roger's care, and Christopher with me in the cart) and head to the truck to leave. Meltdown number 3. "I'm not getting in the truck!" I picked him up and placed him ever so lovingly in his car seat and started to buckle him...again the screaming started. "STOP IT! STOP DOING THAT!!!!!! STOOOOOOOOOP!" I gently...ok, not exactly gently, shut his door and told him to buckle himself.

Then we fought with him after we got home because he was going straight to bed--missing out on his dessert, a story, and special routine with us at bedtime. Two hours later, he was asleep.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad. Aw, thanks, Colin.


I love that Colin is so much like me. Most of the time. His stubborn streak doesn't mesh well with my stubborn streak. It's a good thing we love each other. Sometimes I think that if given the chance, that he would trade me in for a newer, cooler, nicer model. Until then, he is stuck with me...the one who loves him the most, no matter what.

As a side note, Christopher was in the mood of a lifetime throughout all of this. Giggly, talking, and laughing.

5 years!

Happy Anniversary to us! August 28, 2004 was a beautiful, sunny day and everything about it was perfect. Well, that is excluding the small fight I had with the florist for forgetting a boutonniere, but that is minor and was fixed immediately after a short, not so patient phone call from me!

The wedding ceremony was very simple and so much fun! Not one tear, but tons of laughs! Roger smiled through the entire ceremony, which made me smile (and giggle like a school girl). Every time that the pastor took a pause, Roger said "I do." It was funny--he couldn't wait to be Mr. Angela Snyder...uh, I mean to make me Mrs. Roger Miller. :)

We had such a wonderful time there that we decided to continue it on into the reception. We had a great time and (BONUS!) only one fire! One of the candles that was around the cake fell over during our dance and started a fire on the table cloth. Luckily my sister-in-law Elizabeth was able to get to it before it got bad. My 2.5-year-old niece, Danielle, gets the shout out for seeing it first! There was dancing, some drinks, and lots of food, and then it was on to the Tiki Bar in Virginia Beach for a party with more friends. We had our own section of the place because we knew the owners and it was wonderful to see those who didn't get to come to the reception, but were able to come hang out with us anyway.

We have had a wonderful 5 years together and I look forward to many more.

Our crazy little boys...

Here is a really cute picture of Christopher sitting with Roger at the computer and "borrowing" his headphones. For some reason, Christopher is fascinated by these things and can often be found pulling them out of Roger's computer bag and attempting to put them on his head. This generally results in him wrapping the cord around himself, but short of the lack of oxygen, it's pretty funny. OK, he hasn't ever gotten to that point...we do watch our kids. Except when they are eating earrings, picking up blocks, I am shutting the car doors, etc. Details, details.

Anyway, there is also a little video of Colin running through our newly painted hall. This is a daily occurrence because he has to show me how fast he is. I love the way his arms pump so feverishly and he is so proud of himself. One of these days we will be running together and I will have to show him that I am faster than he is. That's right, I will compete with my kid. He has to know who's boss. That includes in the running world. Until he can beat me and then my work is done!

The house be painted!

We got the painters out to the house last week and in 3 days our foyer, upstairs hallway, and living room were transformed from white (with lots of fingerprints and dog marks, as well as some beautiful artwork by Colin) to Golden Fleece (foyer and hallway) and Compatible Cream (living room). I think that I want to be the one to name paint colors. I could come up with a fewlovely ones, I'm sure. I would normally have been happy (well, willing, anyway) to paing my own walls, but as you can see we have GIANT ceilings and neither Roger nor myself were getting up on a ladder to paint these walls. It was totally worth paying someone else! Anyway, here are the pictures. It is such a relief to have it finished! Now I just have to figure out how to decorate. Help!

Indianana

Yes, I understand that I spelled Indiana wrong. But that is where Colin said that we went and I like it. So you did not get me in a spelling error. Nice try, Amy.

We left for Indiana on July 4, early in the morning. Fortunately, it was a beautiful drive and even ended up being only 7.5 hours of driving instead of the 10 we were expecting. It was definitely different than when Christopher was only 8 weeks old! We were going to go and see some fireworks in downtown Indianapolis, but we got there and it POURED. It had been going all day, and I think the fireworks were even cancelled, so there were no "ooooohs" or "aaaaaaaahs" for us. Maybe next year.

Christopher and Nancy--he was tuckered out!

We did have a very full week: building a porch for Aunt Nancy, Children's Museum, building a porch for Aunt Nancy, the pool, a day of swim lessons for Colin, building a porch for Aunt Nancy, the Train Museum, trip to Urgent care, saw the Ice Age movie with Rita, and did I mention that we built a porch for Aunt Nancy?

Looking up into the glass sculpture at the Children's Museum.

Colin talking Ms. Jackie's ear off about something before his lesson.

He seemed to enjoy his time on the kick board.

Colin liked the caboose.

Roger and Christopher on the caboose...Christopher wasn't quite so enchanted by the trains as Colin!

Colin on the dining car at the Train Museum.

We also got to see "the house." This is the house that Roger's dad and his sisters grew up in that his grandparents had built (well, had built for them) in the 1950's or 60's (sorry if I don't know the exact dates). In 2007, Roger's family took a big hit losing Grandma, Grandpa, and Mike (Roger's dad) during the summer. After this, Rita was able to take over the house and had it fully renovated. We hadn't seen it since because it wasn't ready last summer while we were there. It is absolutely beautiful, while still maintaining a lot of major parts of Grandma and Grandpa Miller. Great job, Rita!!

We built the porch for Aunt Nancy on Monday, Tuesday, and finished Wednesday. She was expanding an existing 7x7 porch to a 12x12. If only it had been as easy as placing some more paving stones down. Nope, we had to level the ground first. Wonderful. What did Nancy provide for the leveling agent? Cow crap. Yep, cow manure. Lots and lots of bags of cow poo were spread. Super fun times. Luckily it didn't smell as bad as you would think, but it still grossed me out. We went to the store about 769 different times to get more materials because some calculation somewhere had been off. Finally, we got to Wednesday and were rolling right along, spreading poop, adding a little paving dirt, placing a paving stone, and on to the next one. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Then Colin decided to show us how strong he was.

He picked up one of the 20+ pound paving stones that was in a stack (we weren't using these and they were going to be returned) off to the side of the porch (that he had been told not to touch already) and promptly dropped it right back on his fingers. I heard, "Mommy! Look how strong I...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Before Roger or I could get there to pick it up off of his finger (incidentally the same finger I had smashed in the car door last fall), he had ripped his hands out and there was blood pouring down his hand. Now remember, Roger and I have been elbow deep in crap all day, so there wasn't a clean hand, so I grabbed him on the elbows holding a hand under the dripping blood and rushed him into the bathroom so I could wash hands (his and mine). It was bad. He had split his finger open and ripped a bunch of skin off of it in a different spot. I got it covered up with band aids (they must have been from the 70's because the paper just about disintegrated in my hand when I was opening it) and some gauze and we ran out the door to the Urgent care center. There we had quite a traumatic time with x-rays (no broken bones), the doctor's examining of the finger and deciding that steri-strips covered with gauze was the best solution, and a lot of screaming ("EVERYBODY GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!!!!!"). By the end, he was all wrapped up and in an OK mood. The doctor said something to the effect of "It hurts, doesn't it?" to which Colin replied "Duh." Ha ha ha. Overall, it was awful, though, and I hated seeing him in that pain. No more swimming lessons for him because he couldn't get it wet. So much for that idea.

Colin displaying his boo-boos.

The finished porch. Isn't it great?

Nancy, Colin, and Jerry at Nancy's birthday dinner. She is REALLY happy that it's her birthday! :)

Christopher was having a good time, too!

Christopher demanding some of the ice cream cake for Nancy's birthday.

The best part of the entire trip for me was spending so much time with Roger's family. I love just sitting around with them. Generally there is a puzzle going on at Nancy's at any given time. I completed one with some help from Rita, and then I started another. I did it all by myself. So proud.

We also played lots of Guitar Hero with Jerry (Nancy's boyfriend) and Roger tested out his vocal skills and we had a good laugh at some of the most ridiculous lyrics that we have ever heard. I laughed so hard I was crying. Hysterical. The time that we got to just hang out was fantastic and those are the memories that I will always hang on to the most. It was a wonderful vacation--even if Nancy did make us work. And no, I will NOT help you build a porch!! If she ever says, "I've got a small project for you guys" again, I am running away!

Scattered Memories

As you all know, I have been putting off writing my blogs. Not because I don't want to, I do, but I have not had the motivation to upload the hundreds of photos and video from my camera. I finally bit the bullet and did the upload. This post is a compilation of random pictures from the summer. One exciting event is that Christopher is taking his first steps. He is getting more and more comfortable on his feet and is standing all alone more often. He takes quite a bit of coaxing to actually move his feet, though. I figure he will go when he's ready and then I better watch out! I can see him taking off at a run right out of the gate. Anyway, here are some of the random photos.

Colin doing a rare academic activity.

They adore each other when they aren't trying to beat the other up.

Enjoying some mini oreos.

Another tender big brother moment. They are looking out the window.

Christopher digs some ravioli!!!