Batty Family

Okay so  I screwed up. You are going to have to work with me with this post. I accidentally deleted all the pictures of this project while uploading. Not sure how it happened but they never uploaded to my computer and ended up deleted off my memory card. Stupid, I know. I snapped this one today once they were already hung up. Anywho, this is super cute project for preschoolers! Cut out black construction paper prior to sitting the 4 year old down... trust me saves time and sanity.

 

 

What you need:

-A body, a head, and some wings cut out of the black construction paper

-Googly eyes (a must in our craft supplies and my cousin found these colored ones for Audrey's birthday... to cute!)

-A mouth and fangs either out of red construction paper or a white crayon or marker

-a glue stick or glue ( the stick is much easier for Audrey to finagle)

 

Chris was home and was able to sit down and make one with Audrey and I. She liked that a lot and really he is more artistic than myself. So of course he had to show Audrey and I up and make a mouth with fancy fangs and all!

 

 Just let them glue the pieces together and put the face on however they want and done. Audrey even drew a mustache on her bat lol

I know this picture is bad but before the questions come in that 4th bat says "Hudson Bat" who is our dog not a 4th member of the human family :) But he is part of our family. So that's our bat family a quick easy Halloween craft that looks super cute taped on the wall after you are done!

 

Happy Halloween everyone have a safe Trick or Treating tonight if your towns didn't get rescheduled! Prayers to the East coast and everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy!



Happy Birthday Audrey: Take 1

I can't believe our little girl is already 4! Seems like yesterday we were just bringing her home from the hospital and now she is turning into such a smart and beautiful little girl.

 Her birthday morning started with chocolate chip waffles and then off to school. 

We had made cupcakes to send for her treat at school and I am sure that went over well with a whole class of preschoolers.

After work and school we had close family over to cook out because the weather seemed like spring as well as cake and ice cream.

Some Baby Carter loving

Opening presents

Some more playing with Carter Bug

Great family night to celebrate Audrey's birthday! Not a big party but had a fire and cooked on the grill while the family came over. I think Audrey had a great birthday! This weekend she will have her actual party at her gymnastics gym. Lots of preschoolers running around on a sugar high from cake... should be a good time :)

Cowboys and Angels

I am obsessed with country music. Anyone who knows me knows this and  while Chris was deployed every country song made me cry. The sappy ones, the happy ones, the motivating ones... pretty much anything. But you know me... I cry over everything. Anyways, when I heard Cowboys and Angels by Dustin Lynch I instantly became obsessed. So many lyrics in that song hold true to Chris and I but one stuck out to me

 "...I'd die for her and she lives for me..."  

and every time I hear it generally I get all teary eyed even now that Chris is home. When I seen the video I sobbed even more of course because it has a military love story and it doesn't hurt that Dustin Lynch is absolutely gorgeous!

So I wanted to make a canvas with these lyrics for the house. That simple sentence was like my motto while Chris was deployed. Pretty self explanatory why. 

 I took a white canvas glued camo print card stock to it 

Place stickers with the verse on the car stock. You could do this with so many saying. Probably how I will do any canvases from now on much easier than trying to paint letters on. 

 Brushed a little Mod Podge over the keep the stickers down.

My apologies for this horrid picture. By the time it was drying time Audrey was home and then everything got crazy. But I wanted to snap a pic before it was painted.

Again, a not so good picture but you get the gist. I painted with a light tan to still let some of the camo come though.

 Let dry then peel off the stickers and voila! A much cheaper canvas than you can buy at the stores. 

$5.99 for 2 canvases this size but you could do bigger and I had everything else at home. I will be doing these for the holiday decorations... how cute would a Grinch one be! Also, great idea for Christmas gifts...and cheap at that!

I need a makeover with pictures and picture frames. That's my next project in all my "free time". I have a gazillion pictures on my computer just need to get them printed and in frames. 

Here is that Dustin Lynch video. Listen to the lyrics and look at him... he is adorable!

Those American flag canvases also were a quick project too. I found these with this hideous pattern at Wal-Mart clearanced out for $2.50.

Just added some American flag card stock and a quick makeover!

They were still wet here but they turned out cute.

So nothing has changed since Chris got home I am still a sobbing mess but generally it is because of happy things or things that remind me of him being gone and then I get all emotional. I know, I know, I am a baby :)

101 Dalmatians & Trick or Treating at the Zoo

And it has officially begun. Fall Festivities! 

I love fall and everything that goes along with it (not as much as Christmas but that just means that Christmas fun is not far behind.) And even better this year Chris is home for everything! So of course I was on the verge of tears when he was able to see Audrey in her costume and help with trick or treating.

We always grew up with homemade costumes so I want to do the same with Audrey. Last year I gave making a tutu a shot and it turned out adorable but as Audrey starts to get older she's not really the girlie princess or tutu type. We had been going back and forth for weeks about what she was going to be and it went from everything from Justin Bieber to a dinosaur to a gazillion other things and finally ended up at a dalmatian. Fantastic something I can make! Also, this costume cost $4! That's right up my alley. And she got tons of compliments on it at the zoo (I am pretty proud of this one, if you can't tell) Anyways took a white sweatshirt and pants and added the black dots with fabric paint. Very simple. Bought some Halloween face paint and now I was on the lookout for some ears. I wish I could take credit for those amazing ears but I cannot. Tried the local grocery stores with no luck of finding puppy ears so the next best thing... The Goodwill. I love the Goodwill especially for random things like that you might just hit big! So while searching through racks of Halloween costumes there with no luck I was ready to give up until I seen a tote of random Halloween things... masks, wigs, decorations. I am not to proud to dig... so that's exactly what I did and voila! this dalmatian dog hat with spots, ears and even a pink bow appeared in my hand! I think I started dancing in the aisle... what a find!! So for $2 at the Goodwill Audrey had ears! Better than any I would have found at a Halloween store and the costume was complete. Needless to say, I am kinda proud of this years homemade Halloween costume!

So we spend the beautiful weather of Sunday afternoon Trick or Treating at the Toledo Zoo together. Since the weather was so nice there was a ton of people but we still had a lot of fun. And I am just so thankful to have Chris here to be able to do these things with Audrey as she gets older.

Pictures with Cinderella

I think she ate most of the candy while still at the zoo :)

Practicing letters even at the zoo 

And by the end of the day the hat was off... She was hot I guess. Hard to believe we are saying that at the end of October in Ohio but it was a beautiful day in more ways that one. So glad and thankful to have the family back together to be able to do things like this with Audrey.

One Month Later: A Miller Family Update

So as fast as homecoming got here and Chris got off that flight from Afghanistan a month has already went by. Seems like so long ago that we were bringing him home. Maybe that because we have been so very busy this last month or maybe it is because as soon as he got home everything just fell back into place. I was so worried how the readjustments would go. How would Audrey be? How would Chris be with adjusting to civilian life? How would he be with her? I mean she is definitely not the baby he left over a year ago. I think as homecoming grew closer I consumed myself with these worries and just stressed myself out even more. But everything really did fall back into place just like before he left for deployment. Don't get me wrong it is not always rainbows and butterflies all the time (but what marriage is even under the best circumstances) we have our little disagreements but generally its me getting mad because I have done something "my way" for a year around the house or with Audrey and now he wants to interject. But I think that is a good thing. At least he wants to find his place back with the housework, Audrey, and everything else that goes with daily life of our busy family.

For 3 weeks after Chris got home I took a vaca from work! I only work part time so its not like it was a huge deal and I still had to try and concentrate on school work even with Chris home. And for those 3 weeks he was still on leave so we had a lot of fun and family time to make up for the last year. Vacation, concerts, nights out and days in doing nothing it was the best vaca ever. But eventually the vacation had to be over and we both had to go back to work. For me, I was not completely saddened by this. I thrive on a schedule as does Audrey. For 3 weeks it was a free-for-all you could say. Stay up late, sleep in every morning, eat out and at random times. It was fun don't get me wrong but I was ready to some normalcy and routine. And that hit us like a ton of brick come Monday morning of last week when Chris' alarm was going off at 2am and I had to sit in the library for 8-10 hours a day to catch up on my research for my final thesis and other school work. Woah! Not to mention Audrey would be back at school on a normal schedule that meant getting up before 10am for her (this is still a struggle). But a week and a half in and I think we've got the swing of it. It's a very busy schedule but for me it makes it much easier. My planner is like my Bible.It goes everywhere with me and is stacked to max everyday. But hey, it was like that when Chris was deployed so now I have another person to help me with this crazy life :)

I don't know how Chris does it. His alarm goes off at 2am and he has to be to work at 4am where he works 10 hours everyday. Then goes straight to pick Audrey up from school and try to wrangle her for the rest of the day until I get home in thew evenings (sometimes not until 8:30 if I have night class) Add in gym time and sometimes I dont know how he does it. Maybe that's what makes him such a great soldier he can keep a schedule like that and for the last 2 weeks I have not heard him complain once. Add in drill last weekend and I don't think he has had more than 5 hours of sleep a night since he went back to work. It has to be a miserable schedule but like I said he never complains he just does it. We are so lucky and glad to have him that I will never take anything for granted ever again.

Whew! So what else is going on? Audrey turns 4 next week! What?! How did that happen?! Ready or not she will be starting kindergarten before we know it. She is doing really good at gymnastics class and catches on very quickly to everything. So most evenings are spent with her jumping around the living room trying to perfect her cartwheel. And as the cooler months start to set in here in Ohio the crafts have begun once again. When I get home in the evenings I try to give Chris a break so Audrey and I work on something fun! Tonight we are making bats!

For me, just trying to finish up this last semester of school to graduate in December! WooHoo! Finally :) Applied for graduation this week so it makes it that much more real but that's not to say I've got a very full plate from here until December. Also in December I have decided to run a half marathon. Gives me some motivation to get out and run now that I have some help with Audrey. Chris has been hitting the gym in the evenings so he takes Audrey to play in the playroom at the Y so I can hit the streets to get back into shape. An entire month of no running, eating out, drinking, and basically being lazy catches up to you! So glad that Chris has motivation to go work out because then that gets me off the couch to run!

So fall is upon us and before we know it Christmas will be here. My absolute favorite time of the year! I love the holidays and everything that goes along with Christmas :) And to have our family together this year to do everything together will make it that much more special!

Little Monsters

Our Sunday fall craft this week was suppose to be Little Spiders but as the day went on they turned more into cute little Halloween monsters rather spiders. The glorious work of a 3 year old :)

Styrofoam cups, paint, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners... all stuff we had laying around except for the bright colored pipe cleaners I picked up today.

 We painted the cups after lunch today.

Let them sit for a few hours to dry

Audrey and I worked on this one together... the others she did completely only her own. Quite the little artist!

And photogenic like usual :)

Another super easy Halloween craft to keep Ms. Audrey on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.

A Much Needed Adult Weekend Away: Eric Church Concert

So since Chris got home from Afghanistan we had hit the ground running everyday. Vacation was great but we needed some time away also.. just Chris and I.

So we planned a 3 day weekend down in Cincinnati to see Eric Church and spend some time together without the "Mom, I am hungry!" Or "Dad, Hudson is on me!" or Hudson chewing my shoes or one of Audrey's toys. All of those lovely everyday kids things. Don't get me wrong I love those things and I was definitely struggling with leaving Audrey for 3 days but after Chris being gone for a year I was ready for a break too. Getting ready to go out of town without kids is more work than I thought. Audrey was being passed between our neighbor and my sister in law throughout the weekend and along with making arrangements for Hudson I was ready to give up. I didn't even want to go. But I knew once we got there we would have fun so Friday we got on the road to Cincinnati  We stayed in an absolutely beautiful hotel in downtown Cincinnati and spent Friday getting drinks with friends. 

I didn't take my camera out of the hotel for 2 reasons so I only have cell phone pics of the concert. 1.) I wasn't taking a chance losing it once we got out (aka once I started drinking) and 2.) if they checked my bag sometimes the door people at concerts get kinda weird about my camera. Like I am a professional photographer... my camera isn't that sweet lol 

Anyways Eric Church, Kip Moore and Justin Moore were amazing as usual! We didn't have amazing seats but I didn't care! This was the first country concert I could go to with Chris is well over a year and not go with girlfriends (no offence ladies)! So off course I cried because that is what country music does to me. And sometimes I would just look at him and think oh man, he is really home. He is really here with me. I am not by myself anymore. We had a blast that is for sure!

And before we knew it it was time to head back to Toledo. Three days was just enough for me away from Audrey. I haven't spent time away from her since Chris and I went on a long weekend vacation 2 years ago. But I couldn't complain to Chris about this... I mean he had spent an entire year away from her while deployed. So I would text my SIL to get updates on Audrey... I know, I know, I am a sap. But by Sunday I was definitely ready to go home but how great was it for Chris and I to get a few days away :) That probably won't happen again... well ever. 

Family vacation to Gatlinburg, TN

After deployment we decided that our family vacation would be down to Gatlinburg, TN.

 Chris and I had been there once a few years back but this year Audrey was definitely old enough to be able to enjoy the gazillion things to do down there. We decided to break up the drive on the way down. I know, I know, its only 8 hours down but add in a sometimes whiny 3 year old: "I need to pee, I am hungry, my back hurts from my car seat, etc." you know the drill. And a 100 lb. dog in the back of the Jeep sometimes I don't even want to go down the street with that crew.  So we booked a hotel room ahead of time half way down in Kentucky and made it a 2 day drive.

So first day of the ride down went pretty smooth.

A break for the night in Lexington, KY

Once finally in Tennessee there was a lot of relaxing. Many days we would sleep in and just hang out at the cabin. I mean that was the point of this vacation right. We would stay up late and sleep in which was amazing because that was something neither Chris nor myself had done for an entire year while he was deployed. But we also go out and did a lot of things while in Tennessee.

Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum

Sky Lift

Afternoons in the "hot pool" as Audrey calls it 

Hiking

Our first encounter with a black bear

I was definitely nervous. Mama Bear had to be close by!

Aquarium

WonderWorks

This is my favorite picture of Chris and Hudson! Perfect all around... overalls, cabin, Hudson looking serious, and a beer in hand. That's the hubby for you :) So glad to have him home!

Mini Golf

Playing by the creek. Collecting rocks :)

It was very hard to come back to Ohio after 8 days down South. Lots of relaxing, sight seeing, hiking but most of all... lots of time together as a family. Finally. After a long year of Chris being deployed we could actually spend time together. It was an amazing vacation to say the least :) There are a ton more picture on my Facebook from our trip to the mountains!  Here is the link!