551 east

Rhett and Rad chat

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 14:33:00 +0000

Feeling like we might have a problem:

Rhett: Who is the most handsome guy in the whole universe?
Julia: Ummmm
Rhett: Me of course mom.
Julia:
Rhett: Welllll...I guess God can be the most handsomest.
Rhett: But I'm second place.

Why having kids is like living with an online troll you can't unfollow:

Rhett: Me and Rad's mustaches are becoming impressive.
Rhett: (staring at my upper lip) Your brown fur is coming in nicely too.

While holding his own blanket in his lap and sniffling:

Rad: Hey, Rhett?
Rhett: Yeah?
Rad: Can you toss me your blankie so I can blow my nose in it?
Rhett:

A porta-potty break at the pumpkin farm:

Rad: Mommy...are we in a trash can?
Julia: Basically.

While trying to decide what to do one afternoon:

Rad: Oh, can we watch a CVD?
Rhett: Rad! I keep telling you! It's called a DIVA-D.

After Beck preformed his newest trick...a highly noisy, enthusiastic kiss:

Julia: You're so sweet, Beck.
Rad: He's not that sweet.

During the bubonic a month-ish ago:

Rhett: Can you we go to the store today to buy some apples and chips?
Julia: No, Rad is still sick, I'm sorry.
Rhett: Well, I have a great idea
Julia:
Rhett: He can just throw up in his hands.
Julia:
Rhett...and then put it in his pockets and no one will see.

Seeing this image on a guys shirt:

Rhett: Why is Abraham Lincoln in such a bad mood?

Lastly....

Charging down the Target toy aisle:

Rad: (YELLING) MOM!!! I found my favorite pony!!!
Rad: I found HORNEY SPARKLES!!!!!!!
Julia:
Indeed...the pony's unicorn horn was highly bedazzled.

Halloween 2K16

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 12:00:00 +0000

In years of Halloween's past, I can face the sad truth that often times I was not the most prepared holiday coordinator (remember the duck tape to secure Rad's Loki cape?) the boy's would change their costumes five times and plus, and often we were already out of candy (OK that may be me and my late night sweet tooth faults') to hand out of to the trick or treaters. But times have changed (at least for this year) and I, per the boys request, started rehearsing my Halloween surprise face every time they practiced trick or treating at our door.

This door specifically. Toward the third afternoon of Fall Break the boys started a verrrry loud game of puppies which involved lots of barking and pretending to pee on our one and only house plant. So,of course the next best activity was to decorate the front porch. Hence the Miller Halloween celebrations got a pretty good dose of our Martha Stewart aspirations. Our elderly neighbor said it was "jazzy" which is pretty much the weirdest halloween complement, but I will take it.

First grade is teaching Rhett a lot of stellar bits of knowledge, most good, some not my favorite. Example? He came home one day going on about the Pumpkin Elf, think similar to the Elf of the Shelf theme, and started putting a small pumpkin/gourd acquired from a field trip in the front door window sill. I think the idea was that the pumpkin Elf would come more the pumpkin as a trick. At first Rhett was the one moving the pumpkin and faking shock and disbelief at the shenanigans. But then the little pumpkin started spontaneously moving to very random places

- the bathroom garbage can

- the freezer

- inside the washer

- my sports bra basket

Rhett's genuine shock led to me briefly consider the legitimacy of the Pumpkin Elf...till I saw Beck trotting around the corner with the pumpkin and depositing it in the shower. Good job Beck. I might enlist him to help keep the smaller holiday characters going. I think he could do some great things with the Easter Bunny. (For the record, Beck and I have kept this a secret betwixt us and the older boys are still fully convinced of the Pumpkin Elf's realness)

That owl is giving some serious side eye.

And finally, the costumes that made the kid's final cut.

Rad was be thee raddest three year old ever, and live his months long dream of trick or treating as Rainbow Dash the My Little Pony. Rhett was be feeling "like a real man" as Wolverine and on of Beck's favorite grunts is "Arrrgh!" and who was I to stand in the way of his verbal accomplishments, so pirate it was. I always admire families who can pull of the family themes but #toomanystrongpersonalities for that to be the case for us.

"Now I know what it feels like to be a real man mom." - Rhett

The pirate hat lasted for 2 minutes but the sword proved to be a winner. Apologies to the house who's purple flowering bush got a nice beating for about 20 seconds. And the extra large Mastiff who got a whack on the backside as Beck rolled by in his stroller.

Half of his costume was glorified spandex when I learned that girl's sizes run smaller than boy sizes. Opps.

"Wook at my tootie (cutie) mark!!!" - Rad (Barely pictured...the lightning rainbow bold on his hoodie.)

And a few final memories.

- Following in my always responsible parent habits (big winks), I bought glow sticks to help keep my runners safe that night. Not my most responsible moment...giving them to Beck and he chewed a hole in them, thus turning him from just your run of the mill pirate into a rave-going-pirate.

- A a solo pic of Radbow Dash...who chose to go comando under his hoodie - which we discovered half way through the night. Leaving one house, I heard the couple ask each other in not muted whispers if Rad was dressed as gay pride. I chuckled, but he's three guys.

- As we trick or treated we ended up acquiring a few extra kiddos who herd around. Ok maybe not all these kids, but the addition of the three little friends made trick-or-treating...funner.

Because parents 364 days a year: Don't take candy from strangers.

Parents on Halloween: Take candy from strangers. In the dark. And share with me.

Since it seems fair to say "I made you and you shall repay me with candy." Parental tax rights and all. Wink wink. ;)

fall ya'll

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 21:15:00 +0000

It's less than a few days till Halloween and of course Mother Nature it's still rockin the 95 degrees heat wave here in the valley. Whatever. Even though the temperature needs to literally chill, Fall activities are still my favorite so we endure. And make sure we do it before noon or after 5PM.

I took the boys to one of those super cliche but super fun pumpkin farm/hay bale establishments with little rides that sent Rhett and Rad straight to kid heaven while Beck hunted and gathered all the loose hay straws and pointy rocks he could get his little grubbers on.

We've done this in previous fall seasons, but this was my first year solo with all three boys (last year we went with Jake and Beck was basically a bump on a log. But this year...Beck is getting extra bold and stealthy and bolty in public which is really great. I'm pretty okay with taking the kids to playgrounds myself (this only took me about 5 months after Beck was born ... I adapt to new situations beautifully) but now Beck has to be watched like a hawk. I hope you never have the pleasure of seeing me pushing our poor stroller while sprinting after Beck headed toward a pond, parking lot, street, or in front of the pony train, because it's an ugly scene that he repeatedly finds hilario.

So far. So fun. So Fall.

This year we attempted the corn maze which is absolutely the WORST activity if you A. Have kids. B. Have kids who run. C. Have anxiety D. It's 90 degrees out. And we hit the E choice of All of the Above. I have no pictures because the boys had no concept of staying on the path and not "exploring" and I really wanted to avoid a nightly news story on the neurotic mother of three getting helicoptered out of the kiddie corn maze. Rhett tried to seize the Master and Commander title of our troop but he has zero sense of direction (like his mother) and can be very Type A bossy (also a gift from his mother) so trying to reign him in from going into the middle of the corn was the most fun ever.

We eventually made our way out of the maze while Rad trailed a few steps behind and every four seconds yelled over the roar of the kiddie buzz, "CUE ME!!!!!!" ("excuse me" in case you don't speak Rad) and wanted to show me yet another farm animal something he'd spotted that he wanted, "for my birthday?"

On to pictures with short captions. PS yes I was a total village idiot when I thought that the boys wearing watching longsleeve shirts was a good idea. I'll give myself a few points because when I lost the older two it was very easy to give their description and wardrobes to the loudspeaker guy. But I'll deduct a whole lotta points because it was so ungodly warm.

1. Currently a good slide is these turkeys jam. The 3 dozen times they went down it confirmed that. Beck also didn't have it so he and I went down 2 1/2 dozen times.

2. The baby chicks were one birthday request via Rad. This is right after I told him no way jose for the 9th time. Beck also thought I was being unreasonable.

3. Gratuitous Rad "smile"

3. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before but the boys are big enthusiasts of "working out" and do their versions of workouts almost daily. (Truthfully their cardio would kill me.) So when they saw this strong man competition they put their bro caps on and started talking muscles.

Rhett: Do you think having a mustache will make me stronger? Cause I have one mom.

Rad: (Grunting) You. Can. Do. It. Hulk. (Calling himself Hulk. I'm assuming)

4. Now this looked fun to me. Mostly because the line was non existent, but I thought it could be a hoot to watch the boys roll.

Turned out that Rad was above helping Rhett roll and Rhett's coordination seemed to not want to participate. Which ended with me pushing the giant tube down the track and holding helpful Beck who continuously hit the exterior. Good times. Good workout. Good sweating.

5. Taking a selfie + a breather before we began our Ironmom + child out to the van.

In general the classic apple orchard/corn maze/pig race/delicious carnival-esque food good time was had. So much that Rad announced "Datt was such a FUN Halloween!" so maybe Halloween is already over. Kidding. I'm so looking forward to taking my rightful parental tax of a Reeces and all Tootsie Rolls post trick or treating. ;)

not dead

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 04:25:00 +0000

I think I've mentioned a few thousand times before that I hate not posting on the regular. Yes, even missing a week gives me a case of the violent shakes. Detachment? No - I've never heard of it and I'm not interested in living my best life with intentionality. Give me Internet or give me e-death on a padded platter. JK...ish. ;)

Way back in 2009 I started blogging, back when every newly married couple felt the need for an online journal. I think blogging has kind of taken a backseat to other social media platforms, but I've kept it up for the past seven years and just sent all my posts (minus this years...those I'll do in December) to be turned into six books and I am SO proud of myself for preserving snippets of our family history and as I go back and read the posts, my heart swells with gratitude for the life we've been given. Our life is not exciting enough to probably merit documentation day, after day, after day in painful detail (ha!), but I believe that all the mundane, messy, seemingly insignificant hours, there is really so much that we want to remember and never forget. Truthfully that's why I hate when I get behind here.

And speaking the mundane, messy and insignificant moments, here's one for you.

The polite and thoughtful thing to do would be to just breeze right over the little stomach bug/cough cold combo/pink eye epidemic that rocked our world the past few weeks but...I can't. I knew that with school starting the germs would get us at anytime and I'd been waiting for it to hit us and when it did it was actually brutal but mercifully swift (well not the pink eye) and since it worked it's way up directly from youngest to oldest Jake and I (youngest spouse first!) were last to be hit.

At one point one child was sick with no appropriate receptacle to be found anywhere around us and so I asked someone else to run and grab a bowl. They came proudly bounding back with a colander.

God has a great sense of humor. A great sense of humor indeed.

On to better things!

The weather! (I said better, not more important. ;)) We're on the tail end of monsoon season and their accompanying dust storms which means the heat is breaking and my deodorant consumption is declining. It's been super windy and what Rhett describes as, "wonderful weather" because he's a winter lover and hates to be hot - the apple fell far from the tree there.

There is a direct correlation between how hard the wind blows and how much the boys wild side comes out.

There is also a direct correlation between the gusts of wind and how perturbed Ben gets when his ears blow around.

And the sunsets lately are UNreal. Jake usually is not on board with taking pictures of the following: food, nature, clouds, and zoo animals but even this sunset could not stop the stingy photographer from whipping our his cellular device.

Anyway, no one has ever used the words "early bird" and "Julia Miller" in the same sentence so these sunrise pics are basically priceless.

In my life before the boys I was an avid mountain biker and for the first time in forever, I'm not pregnant and it's not a ungodly temperature outside.

I'm sure you were jonesing to see a mountain side selfie complete with helmet head AND lazy 5:30AM eyes and I always aim to please.

And um, it was/is awesome to be back out. If you had told me pre-kids or maybe even shortly after Rhett was born that I would enjoy a a predawn workout as much as I did - I might've believed you, I guess. But I don't think I would've fully grasped what a rare luxury it is to see the sun come up NOT because a child was overeager to great the day.

The boy's temperaments and Beck's nap graciously combined forces with the food truck gods to set up fun camp at the library near our house on Friday night(s). So we grabbed our biggest and greasiest appetites and walked down to rub shoulders with/gawk at all the cool cats from our hood.

We've learned that the boy's are only a smidgen more open minded to festive things to eat so we typically feed them ahead of time and let them get their favorite food truck treat, overly expensive cotton candy. Rad's love food. The deep fried Twinkie is mine.

There is a great family vide at the food festival. One food trucker even brought out big cups of ice water for the kids which they thought was THEE coolest, plus there were free bubble guns so that only added to the fun-o-rama.

Proof that we keep those childhood standards low, fellow parents. Niiiiiice and LOW.

More proof?

A one time dip into a bucket has turned into Beck's favorite afternoon delight.

Letting the boys "wash" the van is an activity that I fully support because it keeps them entertained for well over 27 minutes, but Jake doesn't always agree. Getting sprayed by the hose usually dampens (ha ha ha) his mood.

"Please make sure I'm not in the shot."

"Delete that picture you just took."

"Crop my face out."

Sorry Jake-ster. The blog loves you. ;)

look at us now: family pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 12:00:00 +0000

My sweet photographer friend Nicole has the patience of an army of saints and took well over a million photos (only a slight exaggeration) of the Miller clan a few weekends ago and here were the results of her sweat and toil. :) (You can see the full album HERE if you have nothing more pressing to do today. Big big winks.)

Rhett and Rad and their twin temperaments. We have a dozen photos here, but Beck kept bolting so we moved shoot locations...

It pleased the runner.

Not really.

Rad had a 48 picture limit. We pushed him though.

And he pushed back. So did Rhett who views himself as the chief regulator of rules slash artistic director.

All you families with the cutest candids and smiley snaps, how do you DO it? We are missing a key ingredient here.

And then us importants showed the crazies how it's done.

Boom.

Boom.

Double boom.

Kidding. Nicole made is look extra fancy.

And! Miracle of miracles....this one isn't terrible.

And by not terrible I mean ABSOLUTELY my favorite picture ever!! I mean come on...everyone smiling?? The secret to this mega watt smile snap? Rad tooted riiiiight before Nicole clicked. Yep.

And speaking of Rad, I don't play favorites with the turkeys but man some pictures of him are just melting my heart.

But who am I kidding, so are these of Rhett and Beck. Goobers all of them. The best goobers ever in my totally non-biased opinion.

And what kind of pet owners would we be if we didn't include handsome Ben? It's totally normal. Ish.

He'll be a year old in a few weeks and you better believe we'll have a little p.a.r.t.y. for the ball of fluff.

Godspeed to all you family photographers out there in the wild. I hope you go buy yourself a monstrosity of a trophy after every shoot and have a massive trophy room to enjoy while you heavily edit cantankerous two year olds and protesting babies.

You totally deserve all the respect and applause.

PS. Nicole also did our last family pictures (HERE) when Rad was younger then Beck is now. So cliche, but freaking WHERE DID THE TIME GO? Sob. And a maybe a slight sigh of relief if I'm being honest. We have loved and thrived/survived these stages but we know there is so much to look forward too. :)

Tuesdays and Thursdays with Beck

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 21:43:00 +0000

Beck might act like he wants to be one of the big kids and drag a backpack as big as he is around, but he loves coming home from our after drop off walk/run around the hood to a whole house full or possibilities. All of Rad's stuffed animals! ALL of Rhett's drawers loaded with trinkets/crap to peruse! Mom's lap ALL to himself while his furry brother takes his morning nap!

^^^An errands run made me erroneously think that tossing my aaalllmost empty tube of concealer would appease the grumpy toddler. Turns out almost empty means quite a bit of damage can still be done when you're Beck.

The goodest life.

Or as Beck would say, "dee" or maybe, "bah" or if he's feeling generous, "ma"

Syllables rule, words drool.

And if we're up for an adventure we might go hang out in the front yard and wave at passing cars.

Here Beck is saying one of his favorite monosyllabics, "cheeeeeee"

He's going through the "most exasperating but most endearing" child phase - also known as, "being 18 months old" but he's also so happy to just puppy dog around and say 3-4 grunt/word phrases that I do not understand, but pretend that I do.

A few of his favorite time passers when his brothers are away:

+ The carwash...he is obsessed and simultaneously hyperventilates and lights up like a little bulb every time he sees the entry.

+ Pushing his umbrella stroller around the house on his tippy toes veryyyyyyyy fast....very funny.

+ When he's not pushing the stroller around the house, he is equally thrilled to be on the receiving end and loves long walks around the neighborhood. And to get the mail. I let him hold the junk mail and he feels all kinds of adult-ish.

+ Backing up his diapered bottom to sit squarely on Ben (usually who is deep asleep) and the proceed to kiss and cherish Ben to death. Ben is usually unfazed.

+ Maybe Ben is unfazed by Beck's grandiose gestures of affection because he knows if he tolerates it long enough, Beck will sneak feed him toothpaste right from the tube. You'd think the 31 year old mother would learn where to hide the toothpaste so that the 18 month old doesn't find it but...he does...every time.

+ Has been borderline obsessed with hunting down leaves and sticks in our yard (rain or shine) lately.

+ Confess that he has a great unadulterated love of throwing all things sacred into the garbage can. The remote, shoes, mom's sport's bras, the nail clippers, toys, bottles of salad dressing etc. Me thinks the apple doesn't fall from the tree, I also love to declutter and toss stuff, but it's too soon to tell.

+ Sir Beck would also like to confess that his new favorite trick is to insist (non-verbal grunt style) on wearing Rad's clothes and only Rad's clothes from head to toe even if it means slowly d-r-o-w-n-i-n-g his thunders in his brother's shorts because he knows he'll freak. He learned from the best: his nemesbrother.

+ He has also picked up (or seems to) that Jake and I are somewhat concerned about his lack of a vocabulary and we frequently prompt him to say simple words like, "yes" "no" "mama" "dada"...the toddler essentials. He is usually unamused and responds with side eye and blowing a raspberry. But! If he's feeling generous and succeeds with repeating the prompt he claps for himself and awards himself a high-pitched giggle -scream.

^^^ He's going through his mullet phase. I can't figure out how/when to cut all the wisps. I'm half tempted to shave it all off but then Jake brings up a valid point that it might take another 18 months for any hair to grow back.

Oh...you fell asleep?
You don't like hearing about other people's baby's tricks? ;)
Whoops.

the lemonade stand

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 12:00:00 +0000

I've tried lots of kid-fun activities (I see you, Pinterest) that always look so great but usually don't either a. hold the boy's interest for enough time to make it worth it or b. never end up happening because my ambitious goals to launch myself to mother of the century fall victim to reality.

But the truth is that all the boys need is love and something to DO.

So last Saturday, Rhett, Rad and their friends Everett and Breckie experienced that rite of passage in childhood by doing a lemonade stand.

The little entrepreneurs. They had big dreams of all the childhood luxuries they would buy with the 8,371 monies (Rhett's estimation) they earned until philanthropic mom made signs that said FREE. Although I'm sure our prime retail location, streamlined lemonade making (Crystal light packets and water bottles. Styrofoam cups...ain't nobody want to deal with that) and our awesome treat selection (bags of chips, rice crispy treats and Dum Dums) would have brought in the big bucks, I didn't really want to deal with making change etc. Plus this was a great opportunity to teach them about service, kindness, yada yada.

We set up shop and I FB'd and texted anyone in our neighborhood who might want to take time out of their weekend to hit us up and low and behold after about 15 minutes of quite and Rhett frantically waving down slash chasing cars that passed us by, the masses descended on us. We even had four random Good Samaritans drive by and stop to get refreshments. Bless these Good Samaritans hearts, they we're quite literally mobbed by all the kids who were offering all their wares. One fine gentleman had a rice crispy treat hail Mary'd into his truck by a very eager child. The kids, both those running the stand and those coming for food and beverage (well that's kind of a blurry line since the entrepreneurs where very liberal with helping themselves to their products), had a GREAT time (truly!) and the whole event lasted about two hours. Which was an hour and fifty minutes more than I anticipated.

^^^The very early stages of the lemonade mixer. Ben became the involuntary mascot, but he wasn't complaining. Even though everyone thought he was a girl. Fluffy white dog problems.

The folks and friends in our neighborhood are nothing short of the kindest crowd. They were beyond supportive, and with their help it was a great morning.

And the best part, for this serial photographer at least, was discovering this gem when I zoomed in on a pic from the day.

I so appreciate your optimism + rosy outlook on life boys. So appreciate it.

rhett and rad chat: religious edition

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Usually these posts are a popurri of random thoughts (verbal outbursts) from the boys, but this time I'm tailoring it more to some of their religious musings as of late...proving that we are doing a very fine job raising good and Godly children.

After Rad offered me a bite of his dinner, but I declined because we hadn't blessed the food yet:

Rad: Why you don't want my food?
Julia: Wellll... (terrible explanation ensues)
Rad: (leans in and whispers) "Welllll, I won't tell Jesus if you have just one bite."

Looking through some old baby pictures:

Rhett: When I was in born, everyone said I looked just like baby Jesus right?
Julia:

During a Family Home Evening lesson:

Jake:... and then God said
Rad: wait wait wait WAIT who is God?!

Standing up from this chalk drawing:

Rhett: Hey...I look like Jesus when he died...but happier.

In a moment of angry, volatile, disagreement:

Rad: RHETT!!!
Rad: You are badder than SATAN!!!

When I said no:

Rhett: Can I have karate lessons, some roller blades and go to Chick-fil-a?
Julia: No.
Rhett: Fine. (walks away and shrugs) I'll just go ask Jesus.

He seems to be Jesus's spokesperson:

Julia: (coming into the kitchen riiiight after waking up) Hey boys.
Boys: Hi mom.
Rhett: Nice Jesus hair mom.
Julia:
Rhett: I bet He like's that you're trying to be like Him.

31!

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 18:35:00 +0000

(Last) Sunday was Jake's big 31st hurrah! (read: birthday) and he (along with many, many others born that fine day - I'm sure) deserves to be recognized on his big day. Or at least as close to his birthday as his wife can pull it together on the interwebs.

Not that I'm ever not around here, but I'm going to be honest and admit that I have become a terrible (terrible!!) last minuter when it comes to birthdays and holidays. Terrible. I can hide behind the, "oh, the kids!" for a few more special life events, but I really have to get my act together.

I also should making document special life events a priority because the only (cringe) picture I got of Jake's special day is the one gracing your screen. High quality documentation right there. But! The lack of pictures makes me think that bullet points are totally appropriate and I love pounding out a bullet point post.

+ Jake is a fantastic hand's on dad, but my subconscious wife-alarm thought that he would probably love spending most of the day (on Saturday even though Sunday was officially the big day) without the out crazy angels.

+ So I got a morning babysitter for a brunch (so much fancy!) and a little strollin around the area. Gotta let all that syrup settle.

+ We came home and I grabbed the wolf pack and took them to get Jake's birthday presents (last minute McGee over here) and gave the birthday boy several hours of alone time. It took several hours because Rad kept sneaking toys into the cart to "give" to Jake. We are raising such generous boys.

+ When we got back and after a mega hasty wrap job, per Rhett's request, we played the hot-cold game to make Jake work for his very exciting birthday gifts of three work shirts and some kettle bells. Bless Jake's heart, he was genuinely excited about his paltry gifts.

+ Up next on the birthday docket was leaving the kids with another sitter (we have the best babysitters...we owe them way more than we pay them, they are fantastic) and left the Tyrell and Jake #2 to eat copious amounts of chips and salsa at a local Mexican restaurant. Jake offered for he and I to share the nachos and queso which was a HUGE indication that he is growing up because he never wants to share food with me. So I always have to sneak it when I want to sample his meal. This was progress.

+ Post chip consumption we went to watch the Jason Bourne movie and when we got home the boys were in bed. Always the best way to end a date night.

Despite the lack of stellar birthday gifting Jake said he loved the date time.

Jake: That was a GREAT birthday

Julia: Well that make me really happy.

Jake: (ballading to the tune of It Must Have Been Love) But it's OVER NAW

Julia:

So happy birthday Mr 31! Welcome to the big leagues. Thank you for being the most outstanding husband to your crazy wife, the best dad to the craziest kids, and so devoted to trying to make everyone happy all while never even missing a beat. We are the luckiest clan in all of the land to have you as our head honcho.

first weeks of school

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Rad cracks me up on the daily (over the weekend at Costco: " hey why dey say you have your hands full?! You just pushing the cart mom!") and I'm constantly surprised by the mature side of Rhett when I find him entertaining Beck or reading a book to Rad. They cause me to stress eat a lot of semi-sweets but they're good little eggs to have around most of the time. However! I have to admit that after I drop them off at 1st grade and preschool I may just dance-walk away to the tune of freedom even with Beck still sitting in the car seat.

God bless glorified and highly educational daycare. I really couldn't do it without you.

Behold the newest first graders among the thousands that flooded their respective schools this month. Everett and Rhett have different teachers this year but still manage to spend all other waking hours of the day together. The picture on the left is from last year, the evening before Kindergarten and the one on the right from right before this school year...all of those middle of the night growing pains paid off.

The third week of school Rhett was the star student and got share exciting tidbits about himself with the class. I love this tradition, I'm sure teachers hear some of the most delightful lines from the youngsters. (Like the email I got from his teacher last year mentioning that Rhett had asked her why dad calls mom babe when mom doesn't wear diapers...) Because you know that nothing is more more interesting to a six year old then themselves. Nothing.

Because Rhett has never lacked for confidence (I hope to be more like him when I grow up) he was so exited share his poster and talents each day.

For my memory bank, from Rhett's star student week:

Favorite place to go: Sea World and the beach
Favorite animal: Mountain Lion
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite color: Blue
Favorite thing to do: Go to Chick fil a with my friends Everett and Breckie and practice my tricks
When I grow up I want to be: A solider
If I had one wish, I would wish for: A robot monkey
And the talent shared: His ninja moves. Obviously.

And let's talk about Rad....in preschool! I didn't really do a great job prepping him for the big day, it was more of a wake up and "yay it's time for preschool!!" But the milestone day arrived and it was miles better than expected once Rad understood he got to take Rhett's old R2D2 backpack with him... because we all know how Rad feels about anything that can further enable his hoarding (treasure) habit. When prepping his backpack one morning I found it stuffed full of all of his collection of bouncy balls, Rhett's dirty socks and part of my chapstick collection. The most prepared preschooler award goes to Rad Aaron Miller.

He hearts preschool to the max. I half expected the stereotypical knee clinging/sobbing/dramatic goodbye from him, but nope he's good to jump out the van and run in solo, so next time I think I'll just stay in bed because clearly he is ready for his first cubicle in the workforce. When asked, his favorite part of preschool is "me!" (himself) and so long as he loves going we'll indulge his little narcissistic heart.

Beck is king of the castle for about 10 hours of the week as spends a good part of that time carrying a glorified backpack/tote around while waving. He also really likes to put random treasures in his bag (monkey see, monkey do) and when we're missing the lint roller, there's a good chance that it's in the bag. He's starting to talk monosyllabic shouts and now that Rhett's gone all day, I can see the beginnings of a beautiful friendship forming between him and Rad. No, that's a stretch - Rad still barely acknowledges Beck's existence, but I know they'll buddy up. At least, that's my hope.

So now that I have just Beck at home all day, every day I am feeling p-r-e-t-t-y footloose and fancy-free. And more importantly the boys are learning, thriving and are beyond thrilled with the mini art show of their projects that are on our fridge. Winning for everyone.

the new house tour

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Jazz hands, folks.

Slowly but surely I'm hoping to e-walk you through a tour of our new house. I say tour with my tongue stuck firmly in my cheek because it's very sparsely furnished / decorated is it's current state. But, tour it is.

We'll pretend I was intentionally going for a minimalist chic look but there's a good chance that it'll stay this way for many moons.

One disclaimer before we roll out. These finely photographed (wink) pics make the paint and carpet look about a bazillion times better than they do in real life. There are tons of miss matched touch ups on the walls and creepy stains on the carpets. Also the color of the wall paint in these pictures looks actually way better than it does to the natural eye. The walls are the ultimate builder grade yellowish beige and here they look more griege. To me at least.

Longest disclaimer evah I know.^^^^

So please keep your arms and hands securely on your electronic device of choice and here we go.

The view from the front door:

To the right we have the living room.

Oooo. Ahhhh.

And to the left, to the left...everything we own in the room to the left.

Just kidding. We own a little more furniture. A little.

And the view from down the hall. Around the corner is the guest bath and that room at the very end is a den/office/could be a extra bedroom. The suspense of what option we'll chose is killing you I'm certain.

(It'll be Jake's office. SURPRISE! Suspense eliminated.)

If you turn around from this picture^^^you will see the family room and kitchen.

Probably the most worthless picture in the line up. But that's our laundry room/mudroom off the garage. Not my favorite location for the laundry, but I love having a actual entry room for shoes and Ben's bedroom.

The single pendant light really adds to the lighting ambiance.

Off of the kitchen is the breakfast nook. Do you like our folding chairs? Me neither. But the boys are weirdly obsessed with them. Rad has one chair in particular (it has padding on it) that he covets and if anyone tries to put their backside in it, the little sweetheart goes into crazed gladiator mode and will fight to the almostdeath for his chair. His solution to secure his chair...wake up BRIGHT and EARLY to drape his blankie over the coveted treasure.

The master is on the first floor which basically makes it an oasis of peace. Which is why Ben refuses to leave it.

The master bath.

Possibly my favorite feature of the house...OK it's second to the loft which you will see in two finger swipes down, is the rather large Harry Potter style sub closet that is off of ours. Bonus closets for our suitcases and that the boys love to play toys in...the best.

And now the main event, the loft from the angels of mother's with small, insane children.

Run children. Run free. Run. But don't run downstairs too soon.

Also, more closets!

There are three bedrooms upstairs. One is empty for now since Rhett and Rad still want to share.

Also we have this bedroom-o-fun paint color.

This is the biggest bedroom and was going to be Rhett and Rad's room since they're sharing, but after trying to get them to sleep there one night with it's current color, not happening.

I have everything to paint the offensive color...but I can't bring myself to embark on such a fun, fun, fun project. Plus it really breaks up all the beige so it should probably hang out just for that reason alone.

The boys bathroom.

And lastly the backyard.

Complete with fountain that Rhett and Rad legitimately thought was and used, as an outdoor urinal...so we know we are doing a phenomenal job at home.

We really haven't used the backyard much because it's a bazillion degrees, but we love it. The raised beds are home to a orange tree, lemon tree, lime tree and many fort games for the young men folk.

There's a list of projects to tackle to make the house really "sparkle" but before that three ring circus of fun begins we want to take a little bit of project free time. Here's the list of good times that we'll taking on. Eventually.

- Electrical work...so much electrical work. We somehow missed that none of the upstairs bedrooms have even the wiring for over head fans/light fixtures...but really the fans because AZ and all. We also plan on adding over head lighting in the formal/front living room, another fan in the loft, two or three more pendant lights in the kitchen and adding an outlet in the pantry and the garage (where there is only one outlet currently) and switching out some existing light fixtures for ones that are more "us." Man that makes us sound very HGTV-wanna-be-ish.

- Paint. Everything. Walls, kitchen cabinets, doors, trim. Fun.

- Floors...new carpet and tile in the kitchen/downstairs bath and laundry room. The tiles in the kitchen have tons of cracks in the tiles themselves and the grout lines are a disaster.

- Countertops. We'll be some kind of stone...probably quartz and we want to run it up the walls as the backsplash as well. We're thinking of doing butcher block on the island and we'll be trimming it out with some moldings as well.

- Landscaping...thankfully in this house is minimal. We want to add another tree to the beds in the back and switch out a few plants in the front yard. Easy peasy.

- Bathrooms - WAY down the road we'll do a remodel on the master bath and a face lift on the kid's bath, but not any time soon.

- Misc - We'll put a barn door up to close off Jake's office, add built ins around the windows in the front living room and turn the random cabinet off the dining room and by the laundry room (it's not really in the pictures) into a built in with shelves as well.

If feel like a "tada!" is in order to wrap up this e-tour but I think the poetic words of one Flo Rida will sum it all up,

"Hear a knock on the door and the night begins
Cause we done this before so you come on in
Make yourself at my home, tell me where you been
Pour yourself something cold, baby, cheers to this."

Cheers to you and you and YOU.

the grands

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 18:08:00 +0000

I have very few complaints about Arizona but one teeny tiny detail that I don't love is that we are now pretty far from both of our families. Luckily, there is this really great invention by the name of air travel that we owe for successfully bringing our family to us on several occasions since we've moved here. Two weekends ago Jake's mom was able to come down from Oregon for the first time since we moved to the new house and the kids were in grandparent heaven.

I didn't do an awesome job getting pictures but I'll throw you what I've got, as usual.

We took Grandma to pretty much our favorite place to take visitors in the AZ summer...the mall. Grandma indulged the boys by letting them enjoy all the mall bonus activities (ie the ones that cost $$) and heaven help my wallet next time we go to the there because I don't think there's any way I'll ever emulate (afford) anything 1/2 as fun.

^^^ let's all appreciate Rad's face for 8 seconds.

^^^the funnest adult of the month goes to grandma

Rhett, Rad and Beck got on the kiddy rides with the pint sized modes of transportation that go around in a circle and go up and down. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about from that fantastic and detailed description.

Okay, here's some quality photos...

They were JAZZED.

Up next on the tour-o-fun, bowling. (I stayed home with Beck, because even babies with bowling ball sized heads still are not fun to hit the lanes with.) So everyone sans us arrived at the bowling alley to discover it was actually DISCO bowling day. Blacklights, thumping music, strobe lights, and all. Kind of like being in a club, except it was 2 in the afternoon and no one was wearing a mini-skirt or dancing inappropriately.

Highlights:

- The boys showed great proficiency for bowling by squatting down and rolling that ball between their legs and scoring a record high of four pins. #bowlingwizards
- No one clocked anyone in the head when flinging the ball backwards.
- One time Rad's ball just...stopped rolling. Right in the middle of the lane.
- Before you could say king pin, Rhett hurtled his ball down the lane and managed to graze Rad's ball enough to get it to the pins.

And then my mother in law shot herself into automatic sainthood when she secretly booked a night at a hotel for us and kicked us out of the house. In our six years of parenthood this is the third night that we've ever been away from the kids together and it was so good. So freaking good.

We hit our favorite sushi place for their happy hour and our inner fat kids ordered like there was no such thing as calories.

Before the food comma hit we made our way to one of those ultra-mega furniture stores...you know the type, everything is always on the sale of the century, because we had heard that they had rows of deee-lux massage chairs open to customer use.

Indeed. They did.

Jake asked if we had hit romantic rock bottom. #maybe

But no regrets. Zilch.

We spent the night at the hotel with no kids sleeping in the bathroom and didn't wake up to anyone asking if they could play games on our phones. Paradise.

Sadly for all parties, Grandma had to return her house. These visits never feel long enough and Rad is still waking up in the morning looking past my smiling face and asking for, "Grandma?!" while I offer him a plate of chopped mother liver for breakfast. So it's safe to say no one can wait for the next visit.

In fact, tomorrow would be perfect. Thanks grandma. ;)

¡HIGHLIGHTS!

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 18:38:00 +0000

Not to be confused with the kid's magazine.

Welllll...this is a little bit like blogging about Christmas right around Easter because time flies when you're having fun but it seems to fly when you're in a frenzy too. Summer break came to an end for us a few weeks ago and we moved (!!! house tour coming soon !!!) three days before school started. Most of the content in this post rolled through here over the break and the first few weeks of the school year, but I have an embarrassing number of photos from then that are just dying to see the light of not my phone camera roll. So, I'll keep this brief...ish. ;)

Photo heavy and excitement central station around these parts.

^^^Sanctuary from the waves of heat.

The boys didn't mount an effective coup operation over the summer and only once when we drove past the school and Rhett yelled "I miss you school!" did I think "I MISS YOU MORE!!" so I think this summer break was a big win.

This year we did not hit the splash pad as often as previous summers. Mostly because Beck was a party pooper with a capital P. Usually Beck can be a little bit of a divo when it comes to which fun activities he tolerates, but after a child with a rogue water gun snuck into the pad and blasted poor Beck with it's water jets, I don't really fault him for having a little bit of s-pad PTSD.

Thankfully the times we did go were relatively not crowded and one time even had a Justice League/Avengers day going on which quite literally completed Rad and Rhett's life.

Always wrestling - no matter how public or inappropriate the arena. C'est la wildest vie, I suppose.

Rhett did swimming lessons this summer and I thought it could either go (wait for it...) swimmingly (stop, Julia, stop) or disintegrate into a public fiesta of Rhett not wanting to learn anything other than cannon ball formations. But! Rhett excelled at his aquatic activities which has brought much peace of mind on the rare occasion that I take the boys to a real pool without Jake.

Baby Roxy was born (three months ago now...slow claps for finally get up here) and her pseudo brother's are always very eager to hold her.

Or bop her on the head / pick her nose. They're just feeling their new friendship out. (Oh so punny Julia.)

Pause for a photo of Roxy having the first of many group pictures and a couple of middle children not able to hide their confusion and annoyance at the situation.

And there's this budding relationship that's bloomed over the past weeks/months.

A magnet to call my very own.

This little piglet rarely leaves my side these days and is always physically attack anyone that tries to enter our cuddle bubble. Beck might be completely oblivious to the stiff competition that he'll share with his older brothers for the good cereal in a few years (most likely months) but he is not at all oblivious to the fact that as the youngest he often gets what he wants. Which right now is me.

Toward the end of the break Rhett fought with Rad over everything and Rad fought with Rhett over you name it - fight! fight! fight! My solution for a less violent home was to teach the boys the valuable skill of how to plan and host a party. Because logical parenting abounds in our casa.

Originally I threw the idea of the party at the boys because I wanted them to earn the good times with good behavior, but then it evolved into also teaching them to budget and plan food and games and make invitations etc etc. The planning it occupied several long afternoon hours when Beck was napping.

They planned two shindigs, a water and pie face party

and a movie night...not pictured, the actual watching of the movie.

mostly because there was very little moving watching after the kids ate this...

rookie fail.

I woke up the one morning with the blazing and terrifying realization that school was starting in 48 hours and we had not bought school clothes for our ragamuffins or any school supplies.

Which lead to this...

...which was not terrifying at all...c-r-i-n-g-e. And obviously not terrifying enough to keep Jake from getting his snap on.

And the Olympics might be over...but the athletic displays of grandeur are not.

Athetic-achiever-believer-and-future-olympian(s)-in-serious-training.

OK fine, I'll stop there.

I hope you had a pleasant summer break...and if you didn't...I hear there's another one coming around the mountain in no time at all. ;)

let's get ready to party

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 20:48:00 +0000

Well, well, well...what have we here?

The birthday bash boy.

Rhett felt that 6AM on his 6th birthday (August 2nd) seemed like the right time to start his celebrations and we obliged. Six is a great age because he still loves and is thrilled with our classic subpar (but heartfelt) birthday morning decor.

Before Rhett left for school he opened his presents (walkie talkies, a kid go-pro camera, iron man gloves and a Zootopia playset/figures and checked if his 6 year old garbage disposal of a stomach could handle his desired maple doughnut and Doritos breakfast. It could.

On the drive to school there was a full rainbow from some of the early morning monsoon rain that hit. I made a big ol honkin deal about it to Rhett...that not every kid gets a rainbow on their birthday and that it meant it would be a very special year. He ran with that thought and came to the conclusion that we were/are going to Legoland in 9 days. (We're not.)

After I dropped him off at school I saw the rainbow on my way home and basically lost emotional function. I've blogged about it and am probably too open with the severe PPD I had for 6 months after Rhett (nutshell: I was suicidal, hospitalized twice for 3 weeks total, panic attacks multiple times a day that made me puke everything I ate up, black hole style depression, the whole hellish gamut.) I would drive to the Provo hospital daily and walk the perimeter and see the signs that it was a safe place to leave an infant and many days I came so close to dropping him off and running anywhere. Obviously that was the crazy talking and Jake and our families would have never let that happen, but it still haunts me at the mistake I could have made and what I could have lost. I was so convinced that I could not raise him. Truthfully, he's giving me a bigger run for my money now and I'm still not sure I can raise him right. But when the depression and anxiety finally cracked wide open, what was the scariest thing became the best thing a million times over. And this rainbow made me all mushy and nostalgic and I'm hating my subpar writing skills right now because I'm failing to really express how much this it meant to me. Hashtag long paragraph that only I understand.

Moving on.

Rhett's actual birthday was Tuesday, so we did his family party that night and his friend's party on Saturday.

But before Chick-fil-a happened, Rhett had to open this mega surprise gift.

Jake's mom flew in from Oregon to surprise the new 6 year old and it was a so much (and unexpectledly tear jerking...for me...) fun to see how Rhett's smile. And in true 6 year old fashion, the toy grandma brought quickly trumped her presence. Smooth Rhett.

After the mega surprise we headed out to do family partying. Since moving, Breckie and Everett basically have taken up residence at our new house so they came with for the family party. At Chick-fil-a because we try to make all the birthday child's wishes come true.

On Saturday we borrowed a friends mini van and between our van and theirs, corralled all of these future leaders of America to the movies.

We like, we like to party.

Between Jake, myself and my mother in law who was visiting, the whole thing went actually really not disastrous. And not as overwhelming as it could have been. I will take this kind of kid's birthday party over having the house invaded and needing to plan games and elaborate decor/food. Lazy mom? Or smart mom? Maybe both. Either way, lots of popcorn was consumed and no one locked themselves in the bathroom during the group potty breaks. Wins all day.

After the movie we took the party animals to the splash pad.

Happy Birthday, Rhett! Now with the party under our belts, we're excited to embark on the year with you. It's going to be good. I know it. :)

radical rad

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 05:57:00 +0000

The final installment/ SAHM trilogy of the boy's here and now posts.

(Beck's post is here and Rhett's is here.)

This one's for you Rad Aaron Miller...or as you call yourself, Raddie.

Rad has a new and sudden passion for dressing himself...

... even if his pants/shorts are on backwards...doesn't matter. Out in public he goes and refuses to turn his duds around. You do you, Rad.

At least 6 times a day I hear Rad tattle-hollering on Beck and/or Rhett. No one likes a tattle-tale but I happen to love them. Generally when Rad feels the need to shriek about his brother's shenanigans... it's for very good and horrifying reasons. And Rad hasn't learned to lie yet and usually has his "the whole truth and nothing but the truth" glasses on and can give an pretty accurate play by play. Where Rhett is our get as close to the line as possible/find the gray area kid, Rad is our black and white kiddo.

For example, whenever he wants something I'm eating:

Rad: please!! please!! please!! please!! please!! please!! please!! please!!
Julia: you only need to say please once
Rad: please once.

Rad is super athletic / spastic and watching him jump and around always is quality entertainment. He's uber devoted to working on his "ninja tricks" on the trampoline. His ninja tricks are always like well planned mini seizures where he clearly has a trick in his mind, but the execution of it eludes him. It's heartwarming.

Rad and Rhett are really into playing Frisbee with each other. Except Rad calls it, "Frow-dee" (rhymes with "grotty" - beats out all words for being the worst word ever) and I have to tell Rad to "throw harder" because he's lucky to get it one foot in front of his person and I have to tell Rhett to "throw softer and not aim for his face... " because he's one throw away from popping his eye right out of the sock. So I guess you could say I'm really into it too. When do they start quietly playing Monopoly? When Rad turns four? Good.

Rad's speech has come sooooo far in the past 6-9 months. You can cary a conversation with him (conversation should be loosely interpreted here...he jumps from epic tangent to tangent like a flying squirrel.) but his pronunciation and clarity are sometimes lost in translation.

No matter how many times I correct him...

Julia: Have you seen my flip flops?
Rad: Hmmm nope! I not seen your clip clops.

Yesterday...

Rad: I'm choking.
Julia: No, you're not.
Rad: Yes, I am. I'm choking. Why aren't you laughing?
Julia:
Rad: Isn't it so funny?
Julia: Oh, joking? Yes, yes, hilarious.
Rad: I know. Choking is my favorite.

My Little Ponies, zoo animals, fort building and ninja battles are the biggest games of the moment. If we let him he would prefer to watch shows all day - this is an unfortunate not exaggeration.

Speaking of My Little Ponies, Rad often refers to himself as "Rainbow Dash" and he calls me "Twilight Sparkle." He really stays in character and demands that I do the same...including prancing in public, exuberantly yelling that stars and glitter are coming off our backsides and having friends and strangers also address us as Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. I swear this is in no way an exaggeration.

What else should be immortalized about Rad? He sneaks out to pee in the front yard, but then runs in and boldly shares his misdemeanor. He still loves to be naked and stashes his clothes in various hiding spots so that I can't make him put them back them on. After a bad experience with a super heated chicken nugget, he cautiously blows on all his food...popsicles included.

Don't ever change Rad. You make the family 100% funnier. :)

PS a quick video

6 years of Rhett

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 21:19:00 +0000

Possibly a picture that will embarrass him in a few weeks/months/years. But I'm dreading the day when he's totally embarrassed of me so up it goes.

He's six. Today.

Six is kinda where it's at. I've been noticing how loving and helpful Rhett has been lately. Way less explosive meltdowns, no pushing me to the edge of insanity in a bi-daily basis. Maybe it's all the space in the new house and the freedom and proximity to ride his bike and play with his friends every day. Or maybe it's just 6. He's a good boy. I'm so grateful he is the leader of my boy troop. What lucky little brothers.

Turning six brings two highly anticipated rights of passage in Rhett's eyes: eagerly awaiting the first loose tooth and the growing of a mustache. If anyone remember's how Rhett used to draw chest hair on himself then growing a mustache at age six seems like something right up his alley. When he sees men with actual mustaches, Rhett like's to talk shop with them about the ins and outs of life with a hairy upper lip. He even offers to let the strangers touch his "mustache" because generosity is his middle name.

He takes his role of being the oldest very seriously. An often overheard request is when he commands his younger brothers to call him "Uncle Rhett." He totes Beck around and helps keep Rad in place by stealing Rad's "powers" when he does something Rhett doesn't denote as cool. Rad gets especially upset when Rhett steals his "blue power." Now that Rhett's in first grade and gone during the day, Rad sometimes walks around the house whispering "my blue power. all miiiiinnnneee!" Brotherly love at it's purest.

He narrates everything, asks absolutely the most random questions (Mom? Does Jesus have boogers? Does he like that I don't eat my boogers? Why did God make all these boogers??) he hoards everything he find as his treasure, and is our budding little body builder who takes great pride in working out daily to Youtube Zumba and Richard Simons workout videos. This one is his favorite. He loves BBQ chips and asks us how to s-p-e-l-l every word under the s-u-n. He is a really into researching theme parks and will not rest until we agree to take him to heaven/Legoland.

Happy Birthday Rhett!!

beck-a-rooski

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 12:00:00 +0000

In the highly unlikely event that one of the boys ever accuses me of not doing a stellar (or any) job of recording their interesting little lives and milestones via baby books or photos taken with anything other than a cellular device ... I'll always have painfully detailed posts like these to toss back in my defense. I'm still a novice but I know that as far as parenthood goes ... today's annoyances are tomorrow's funny and eventually forgotten memories. Wait! I'm not saying that the kids are annoying but maybe that quirky and consistent little 5:30 am wake up might not be met with the same starry-eyed laughter that the memory might evoke down the line. Way down, Rad Rooster Miller.

So let's document the blossoming little personalities. And to make it more momma bear mushy, each boy is going to get their own post. Vink. ;)

Beck:

Oh, Beck. You're a mess.

You are. If I had the time (fine! I have that), the strength, and the energy to bathe you after every meal (5 or 6 daily) I really should because you strut away from that high chair wearing a whoooooole lot of leftovers.

You've became a bit of a terror. You introduced us to your hilarious ear ripping shrieking and you stomp around wailing and shaking your head furiously when you don't get to carry the Windex around the house. We can't take you outside unless we're in the mood to sprint because you would put your chin to your chest and take off down the street at an impressive pace for a boy with legs as bowlegged as a cowboy after 89 days on a horse. You're a runner and you make me look like a very negligent mother out in public.

Despite your reign of terror, you keep us on your toes with some super sweet moves. For example, I can count on one finger the number of times your older brothers have voluntarily given me a snuggle but you're a snuggler. Sometimes your hugs come complete with a little shoulder bite that draws blood but I'm sure you mean well. As I'm sure you also mean with your affectionate head butts, slobbery mauling kisses and flirty waves.

You can hold your own at home with the boys during the day but have yet to grow out of his stranger-danger fears and are a real delight to take out in public. Your mom magnet has an intense honing beacon and your mantra is the Gilmore Girls theme song.

"Where you lead, I will follow.
Anywhere that you tell me to.
If you need, you need me to be with you,
I will follow where you lead."

Yep.

And if you're not following me, you're following Ben. Truly we're unsure if Ben realizes you're not a fellow canine and for all the wrestling and growling you two exchange we think you might believe you're part puppy too. You sneak feed Ben your chicken nuggets that I slaved over by way of 34 seconds in front of the microwave or your graham crackers that I took the time to gingerly break into quarters. I don't mind. Much. Except for when I see how much you love to snack on dog food and wash it down with some healthy gulps of dog water. I know it really isn't any of my business and doesn't affect my life really, but I still think it's pretty gross. Nothing personal...and maybe one day you'll think it's a little gross too. Maybe.

When Jake is gone you're a big fan caring his shoes around and talking about, "dada" and the same goes for "Ett" "Daaa" and "Ennn" (Rhett, Rad and Ben....we think...) but never ever a mention of, "mama" Hmpfh. Oh well. We like to leave a little room for improvement in the Miller household.

Your favorite activity is scurrying off to a corner with your bottle, hold it upside down, and watch all the contents drip out. I like to think your intense eyebrow furrowing means you are already decoding the mysteries of gravity, but it's probably that your ears are perked for me to catch you in your favorite illegal act.

Aaaaand that's a wrap for you Beck-a-roo. We sure do love you.

Be back soon.
Like tomorrow.
I think.

bon voyage

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 21:36:00 +0000

Or more like bon petite voyage a few miles down the road to our new house.

So I think last week and this week might just be one of those precious capsules of time that we just sort of lure into a dark and damp enclosure, quickly lock up and chuck the key forever. And ever. Everyone moves...we aren't special. I just never ever want to do it again. Or I might be tempted into looking into these magical creatures I've heard so much about...professional movers.

... many, many boxes. And many things unboxed.

I'll let you guess how many seconds it took for helper Rhett to push that appliance dolly down the ramp-o-fun and conveniently onto Rad (who was fine, just angry)...

Fine, I'll tell you: one.

Also, this was fun.

All of our refrigerator condiments (sizes: mostly Costco) spilled all over the floors, walls and a rogue splash on the ceiling. Smell: Strong.

Story: About an exact .3 seconds before we closed the proverbial and literal door to the old house, the very last box, full of those pesky refrigerator condiments, had it's bottom and all of it's contents crash to the floor. It might have been a poor tape job (Julia) or the two full gallons of milk stacked on top of it before it was carried out (Jake) but either way the soy sauce it the fan. Thank the Lysol creators and give them all the gold stars because thankfully clean up wasn't awful and the soy/BBQ/ranch/hot sauce smell didn't linger.

So professional movers...give us a call in about 10 years. (We did have a wonderful turn out of friends to help us load up and unload the truck and we totally realized how unworthy we are of our awesome amigos.)

We've been in the new house about two weeks and ever SO slowly, things are coming back together.
Luckily, Rhett had families best interest at heart and got to work unpacking all of our Christmas decorations immediately. So, we're on the festive ball bright and early this year.

The inside of the new house is painted alllllll sorts of delightful colors (bright purple, beige, beige, SO MUCH BEIGE) and all other finishes in the house are more brown-ish beige because for the love of beige with pops of more beige.

In a month or so we'll start putting together the numbers for some of the projects we need to do (flooring, trim, paint, counters, miscellaneous electrical) but we are really looking forward to taking a year off and doing nothing major to the house. The benefit of moving into a home with gross-ish carpet and old, touched up paint is that I just really don't care how many kids come charging through. We welcome all dirty finger prints...now's the time to get it out of your systems guys.

In case any inquiring minds want to know why we moved, let me fill in the details. Rad thinks we moved because our old house ran out of batteries. He also exclusively calls the new house the "hotel."
Bullet points seem appropriate.

- We had a lot a lot of equity in our home. We also have a sizable amount of student loans/medical and some credit card debt which our equity will pay basically completely off.

- We needed a little more space. Our old house didn't have a good play space for the boys. We were using a bedroom but now we have a HUGE loft space. It's literally house hunters heaven.

- The street we lived on was...not a place where we wanted to long term raise the boys. Let's leave it at that.

We had the smallest area of where we would really even consider moving and it was anywhere within a block or two of our best family friends, the Berner's. And we got it! It's one reason we fought so hard for this house when we decided to go ahead and purchase it after our first offer fell through. So much paper work, so many hoops, SO MUCH STRESS. I lost 10 pounds, cringe. But now that we're here, the feeling of community and having the kids play all the time is so absolutely worth it. We really have felt like this home completes our family and we know we used a lot of our miracles up getting it. Also, our old house closes in a few days (!!!) so woot woots all around.

I'll do a full house tour soon-ish. Until then thanks for your patience and I hope you've enjoyed the breather & break from Julia & Co.

platonic X and one-armed O.

the 4th on the 8th

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:00:00 +0000

America....happy happy belated birthday.

I hope you enjoyed the boy's rounds of the Pledge of Allegiance and "Happy Birthday to You" after our intro to American history lesson over breakfast on your big day. We've discussed on many occasions that Captain America was not one of the Founding Father's but no one in our home under the age of 5 seems to believe us.

The festivities began on Saturday with the returning of our IKEA Malm dresser with the recall came out. I don't doubt that when properly anchored the dressers are totally safe. However. I also do not doubt my cherubic childrenz ability or desire to mess with the anchors so back to the motherland it went.

Here's a fun freedom influenced story for posterity.

When we got to IKEA Jake waited in the return line with the dresser and I booked it to the best part of IKEA (in my opinion) the childcare. During the rules and regulation rundown, the IKEA employee reminded me that if my pager went off early that I should rush back IMMEDIATELY. There was an abundance of emphasis on the immediately portion. Noted.

So about 10 minutes before our pick up time our pager started flashing and buzzing. Truthfully I assumed everything was totes OK and that an influx of kids meant our time had to be cut short. No biggie. So when we rounded the corner and heard shrieking and the word "naked" was getting thrown around I realized it probably wasn't looking to good for our "no biggie" hopes.

We were greeted by 7 kids all hearded into the upper treehouse section of the play area. Their energy level was off the charts as their ring leader, a 8ish year old boy, kept screaming "He's butt naked! Naked! I CAN SEE HIS WEINER!! NAKED!!!"

And then I saw naked Rad jump into the ball pit. And then I saw naked Rad do ninja tricks in front of the screaming children. And then go back to the ball bit. Still in his birthday suit.

Here's the thing about Rad...Rad and George Costanza share similar bathroom philosophies. Everything has to come off in order to do the business. The difference between them is that Rad still struggles to put everything back on. And in my rush to make sure they got a spot in the child care I didn't take them to the bathroom. Such a rookie mistake and my ears are still burning from it.

Obviously the million, totally understandable, super strict rules about helping dress other people's naked kids meant that the IKEA employees were powerless to really do anything to remedy the situation. What I didn't expect when I showed up, was that they wouldn't even let me dress him till a manager showed up to hawk eye me corralling and remedying the nudist issues. So I just hung out in the office section till said manager made his appearance and watched my naked son let freedom ring while not making eye contact with any of the other parents giving me the well deserved side eye. There really are no words for moments like this.

So we got ice cream. Because. IKEA will probably never let us back in.

Moving on.

On the actual holiday we ate doughnuts. Rhett really likes to throw down some finger signs when we take pictures with food in them. See above and below.

Jake took the boys to see Finding Dory. They weren't excited at all. Total party poopers.

Beck was a party animal at the carwash with his dearest mother.

Especially when he discovered the leftover snacks I was trying to vacuum up. The old graham crackers were the clear winner. What can I say? Only the best for the boys.

The rest of evening went something like this.

- Beck refused to eat a celebratory cut up hot dog but preferred to sample the sidewalk chalk. Again. The Miller logic knows no bounds.

- The boys fought over the source of all backyard fun...the hose.

- Matching bodies. (Just kidding honey. ;))

- Oh look. I was there too.

- I won't let my kids turn on the oven, but I will give them a sparkler and say, "Here, go wave this fire stick above your head for a while." Logic.

- Jake was the master of ceremonies and graced the block with the Hamilton soundtrack (read: sing along). I thought it was pretty clever to use a lyric to caption this Instagram.

- Ben needed extensive words of affirmation and physical touch (his love languages) to recover from the fire work extravaganza. He wasn't feeling especially patriotic even with his red white and blue bandana that he refused to wear. It's OK Ben, there are 361 days to recover before next 4th of July.

Happy America day everyone. :)

tucson weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 21:47:00 +0000

If you go back in the archives, you might remember that every summer Jake's company sends families on a weekend get away. It's usually relatively local (thank goodness, long car trips are not kind to my car seat hating squad) and this year was in Tucson.

Tuscon. You desert flower you. Thanks for hosting our clan this past weekend, you were really the hostess with the most-ess.

Let me go ahead and bullet point our weekend for you because paragraphs sound like a lot of work right now and sometimes I regress into lazy toddler mode around 2:37PM.

+ Traveling with kids can be super stressful with sleep schedules thrown off (and I live and breathe by the children's sleep schedules ... roll those eyes!), new "strangers" (especially for our resident mean mugger Beck) in the mix, and forgotten stuffs (always) but I was oh so pleasantly surprised by this weekend. A new Miller frontier? Possibly.

+ The two hour drive up wasn't terrible. The older boys watched an episode of My Little Ponies nine times in a row and slept for 18 minutes (!!!!!! call the miracle police because the last time they simultaneously slept in the car was 2014), Beck was a trooper because he doesn't care about screens like his brothers do and he only got really angry about being strapped in for multiple minutes a few times. Jake introduced me to the hit known has Hamilton and spent the two hours enlightening me on lots of Alexander trivia.

+ Our room had a balcony that caught the boy's fancy. One morning Rhett shared a balcony experience with us.

Rhett: It's a glorious morning.

Rhett: When I woke up mom, I sang a good morning song in Spanish on the porch.

Julia: Ooooh.

Rhett: I wan't naked mom. I was in my underpants.

Julia: Did anyone see you singing?

Rhett: Yep. I was polite and waved at them.

Julia: Well I'm glad you were polite...

+ We always bring our own grocery store when we travel, always in the most classy way possible.

We also bring a fully stocked cooler so the boys don't have to suffer a lack of milk and go-gurht. When Rad opened the cooler the overwhelming ice cube situation lead to this thought "WOAH! Elsa was HERE!"

+ Curse hotel pools for making our rinky dink backyard pool look like a glorified puddle. You'd think we deprive them of pool time because it was like getting gum off the sidewalk trying to get them to l-e-a-v-e. It was a good problem but still...a problem. Amphibians they are.

+ Rhett just finished swimming lessons so he was pumped to show off his ice cream scoops and super man tricks. Most of the pool was about 3ft deep so he had a decent amount of freedom to roam. Multiple times I noticed he would chill at the swim up bar chatting with the pool staff and slightly inhebriated pool guests. We did let him order french fries and charge it too the room one day. Because cool-parents-R-us. Rad LOVED walking (not swimming) around the shallow end of the pool with his life jacket. He preformed lots of ninja tricks on the stairs and while his pool walk-about which leads me to believe he has a promising career in leading water aerobics.

+ Beck was the recipient of an epic amount of suncrean. He has the conundrum of a very large head (finding a kids hat it impossible but and adult hat is ginorm) and almost no hair. Still. His brothers were uber intrigued by his floatation device and for about 3 minutes a congo line around the shallow end with a few random pool kids with Beck leading the pack happened. Beck actually smiled during it.

God bless digital cameras...so many tries to get everyone looking at the camera.

+ I coordinated the after dinner kids activities for the 78 kids in attendance. Ha. The regional leaders were super grateful and offered several public thankings (which always make me feel and act super awkward...who do you look at??) and although it took some time so plan stuff for so many kids and such an age range the budget I had made it much easier. During the public displays of gratitude, I wanted to shout "No thanks necessary! I've planned kid's birthday parties for 20 kids with $80 bucks. This was nothin." We has several bounce house/activities, a face painter, photobooth and a game truck. Good times for everyone.

+ On the last night we get fancy and I make Jake take a lot of pictures of us. He's just glad it happens once a year.

And Jake got a production award! Go you honey boo.

And we're done. Weekend recaps can make for stale blog posts and this is probably one of the stalest (most stale?) so please accept my half-hearted apology for putting this on the internet. ;)

and then there was kindergarten graduation

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 21:34:00 +0000

Kindergarten graduate Rhett and his fan club.

Beck and Rad where stoically proud of their biggest brother. Stoic.

What's this?? Our first born has conquered the academia of of kindergarten with flying colors? Consider us epically proud of our special snowflake. We fully understand that if it wasn't for amazing teachers and Rhett's ever expanding inquisitive nature, he wouldn't have learned half of what he did this past year. Jake and I are pretty decent parents on many levels, but I would pretty much never bet on us handling all of the boys education solo.

And of course no school year would be complete without the fantastic tradition of kindergarten graduation. I know my kid was in it, but man it was adorable.

All us proud families smooshed ourselves into the bleachers with the pint sized leg room (poor Jake!) and got to know each other reeeeal well for the ceremonies. Beck has an love of pulling arm/leg/head/eyebrow hair and the father sitting next to us who had plenty of hairs that he wanted to examine . I love when our first introductions to people start on such a personal note. "Hi...we're the Millers. Our youngest is a big fan of your leg hair(s). Big fan."

The newest graduates showed off their hard work and catchy songs. One number was America the Beautiful and Rhett assured us we would cry happy tears when we heard him sing it. Indeed, we found it very sweet. Rad and Breckie (Breckie is Rad's BFF and Everett's sister and Everett is Rhett's BF and also in his class) really enjoyed getting down to the kindergarten beats. And wait till the end...Rad as a special update for you.

If you don't speak Rad, he tells the camera that he "tooted" or in other words passed gas. I'm so glad that's in the records for all of time.

The kids all talked about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Rhett's planning on the lucrative career of a ninja and one of his classmates wants to be a dog. (Rhett wanted to be a cheetah a few moons ago so I feel like he and this boy are on the same vibe.)

Mrs. Burghart...the saint of all teachers. Rhett is in love with her and so are we.

Among other things learned this past school year, Rhett learned he has a definite type for his childhood crushes. Long dark hair being the leading attraction. The puppy love stats for the year include three girl friends, two engagements and countless conversations on his thoughts were on what love meant.

Rhett: I'm in love.
Julia:
Rhett: Like grown up love.
Julia: Oh wow. What does it feel like to be in love?
Rhett: Like an avalanche where you have to run for your life.
Julia:

Other favorite conversations: when he came home and asked for a Spider Man wallet and my wedding ring so he could get married (nope) and when he mentioned that girls like him because he let them give him hugs. The boundaries talk followed right after that statement, worry not.

I remember filling out a sheet asking what we hoped our kids would have learned by the end of the year and I wrote something lame and subpar like "that he can spell his name" and now Rhett can read and spell and write sentences and knows addition and subtraction, so God bless kindergarten forever and ever amen. (And at this rate he'll surpass my book learning by third grade. But really....fractions still aren't my strongest subject.)

Congrats Rhett!

the millers go to a wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Two weekends ago (because blogging in real time is my specialty) William and Emily got married.

William is: my littlest brother, the uncle the boys reference daily, closet hipster ;), and now new husband (!) married the sweetest girl you'll ever meet (truly! she is).

Isn't Emily's dress gorgeous? She looked like a princess. The most gorgeous princess in all of the land.

As with all trips I like a good recap so let's bold and categorize the highlights and lowlights...

the flights: highlights

+ weren't that bad! The kids bad mood blips were fortuitously timed as other passengers were boarding our flights and neither flight was full so-rows to ourselves!!! Halleluiah. The biggest hiccup came when Beck got in a mood about wanting to hit the man in the seat in front of us of the head repeatedly and wouldn't stop shrieking/body flinging for 25 minutes. Granted he was beyond over tired and a little hangry so all's forgive this time B.

+ Rhett was probably the only person in the plane to actually read the safety instructions and intently...like raise his hand to ask a question, about the flight attendant lead safety demonstration. Rad just had a plethora of questions.

"What if the windows open?"
"Where's the kitchen?"

"How many days till we land?"
"What happens if I'm thirsty?"
"Why are the clouds white?"
"How old is the man sitting next to you?"

#screentimetakethewheel

flight lowlights:

^^^ anyone whose flow with kids or on a flight with kids knows this pose.

+ Ranking in order from most poorly behaved to the best behaved: Beck, Jake, Rad, Julia, and Rhett. Jake + airports have a complicated relationship. It's like we switch personalities and he goes from the most laid back human on the face of the planet to a Julia Miller (not laid back, never laid back, rarely fun). So he was a real treat when we missed our first flight (despite being at the airport a little over an hour early) and I could tell he was struggling not to give me a "I told you so..." look.

So.

The pre wedding festivities: Highlights

- showing the boys around my old stomping grounds. A "creek" runs through my old neighborhood and the boys cautiously examined the water bugs and all the allergies (allege) in the water. Every time we travel the boys are in total and complete awe of the jungle aka actual trees and grass, that grow in other parts of the US of A. Which makes Jake and I feel like we're depriving them of one of the basic rights of childhood.

^^^Normally the boys love the swings so color me shocked when Beck's eyebrows frantically shot into "save me!" mode. But I still insisted he swing till I could take this commemorative picture.

+ the world series of Wiffle ball per tradition is always one of my personal favorites. Jake got his confidence boost for the year by hitting every ball at bat over the house. Rhett also gained a lot of confidence with some legit big hits of his own.

+ Not pictured...but everyone's caloric needs were grossly over compensated for and my parents being hostesses with the mostestes preping meal after meal of the best food for the masses

- My first mani pedi combo ever. I went crazy and chose a vibrant gray after my first choice, white, was out. They call me Go Big or Go Home Miller.

- The hotel pool. Considering AZ is the land of the backyard swim shesh you'd think a pool wouldn't be that much of a thrill for the boys but hotel pools have a extra magic. And eye burning chlorine.

- Beck discovered his calling in life: very serious splashing with absolutely NO smiling. Even massive and accidental gulps of water that choked the professional splasher did not deter him from his task: splashing sans smile. (The stoic splasher kept with that theme the whole weekend and mean mugged everyone.)

- Rad also discovered his calling in life in the pool: motivational speaker. He chanted "Go Rad! Go Rad" Go Rad!" has he pulled himself along the pool wall perimeter.

- The kids also had the BEST time with their aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents.

The pre wedding festivities: Lowlights

Jane (my sister) and I had big plans for a cute cousin pic but Beck had a 1 picture limit.

We tried to push him...

And he pushed right back.

Rad literally could have cared less.

Well, home slice cared about no one touching his newly beloved ribbon wand. Priorities are strong with this one.

The guess the highlight of the lowlight was now we have an epic picture for them to recreate when they get older. ;)

+ Short story. We were super lucky to have two adjoined hotel rooms which has anyone with little light sleepers knows is so helpful. The bog boys were going to have their own room and Jake and I were going to bunk with Beck but the big boys were a little nervous about sleeping in the big beds and Jake and I were nervous about them bursting into our room in them morning and waking up Beck. So the solution was me sleeping on the floor between their two beds. Hotel musical beds is our jam. Anyway. One deep slumber I felt a crushing weight smash down on me mid dream. Scared the freaking hootenany out of me. The culprit? Rad. Who remained totally asleep after he fell out of bed and landed on me. It was as terrifying and bruise producing as you might imagine.

And lastly the wedding: Highlights

+ We cleaned up really well. #humblebrag If I was the Bachelorette (bahahahah!) I would give Jake all the roses. ;) And I wish I would've gotten a shot of the back of my hair - my mom treated all us to a real salon hair-do and they did a stellar job AND it didn't fall out during dancing.

+ There was dancing and Jake perfected the mocking of my full body tantrum dance and I got down to his cautious two step rhythm default.

+ Rhett mastered the YMCA and has continued to YMCA anytime the mood hits.

The wedding: Lowlights

+ Six minutes before we were supposed to leave for the reception I put on the dress (that I had ordered from online) for the first time because I have many genius moments. I quickly realized it was 1000% see through. Miss Miley would have loved it. While I was freaking out Jake decided we just needed to run to Target because being a few minutes late to the reception/ring ceremony was a lesser faux paux that showing up with all the little details showing. I thought Jake would run in to get the slip but he had no idea what a real slip was/is so I shimmied a t-shirt around my waist under my dress and flew through the store trying not to trip on my heels to get it. It was loads of F.U.N.

+ At the very beginning of the reception festivities Rad absolutely had had had to use the bathroom and so he ran to the facilities sans help from a parental unit. After he has resolved the urgent issues he stepped out into the full swing of the reception with his dropped khakis and Superman unders barely pulled over the important parts. That was very very quickly resolved and honestly I was just thrilled that he wasn't distracted with all the reception fun to make it to the bathroom so we'll just sweep his stint as an exhibitionist under the rug.

+ Having Beck, the mean mugging, stranger hating child of mine, whisked out of my arms on the dance floor by a strange lady...when we eventually found the kidnapper and little B (screaming) the lady told me to 'bring him back when he calms down!!'

Right.

Congratulations Emily + William!!

Welcome to the married club - the best of all the rest. :)

Rhett and Rad chat

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Mon, 23 May 2016 12:00:00 +0000

In the wilds of potty training Rad:

Rad: I'm too grumpy to potty train today.
Julia:
Rad: I'm just not in da mood to potty train.
Julia:
Rad: I'll just wear a diaper today, please.
Julia:
Rad: I just want to be a baby and Rhett can be the big boy.
Julia:

Upside vs Downside:

Rhett: You smell like vanilla ice cream and pineapples.
Rhett: And you're really nice and squishy.
Julia:

After school:

Rhett: "OH MY GOSH WHY IS MY LIFE SO HARD?" as he did his homework with crayons.

The theme of Rad and Beck's brotherhood:

Rad: Tan I shoot Beck with my laser gun?
Julia: No!
Rad:
Julia: Do you understand why?
Rad: Cause I didn't say pwease?

Watching Beck power crawl across the living room and face plant on the rug:

Rhett: Come on Beck.
Rhett: Pull yourself together.

Hanging out in the bathtub:

Rhett: Well, Rad.
Rad: What?
Rhett: You just need to know that girls grow babies in their bellies and boys grow big poop in theirs.
Rad: Oh.

Which is possibly what prompted this idea:

Rad: (running to the bathroom) I'm just a little boy and my body is full of POOP!

A slow brewing fight:

Rhett: Rad! Stop it!!!!
Rad: NOOO!!
Rhett: Stop being a pest!!!
Rad: NOOOOO!
Rhett: Well your mom doesn't like you.
Rad:
Rhett: And she likes everyone.
Jake: Did he just quote Justin Bieber?
Julia:

Playing "Who/what am I thinking of?" in the van:

Rhett: I'm thinking of someone white and fluffy.
Rad: (without missing a beat) JESUS!!
Rhett: (exasperated) Rad. Jesus isn't a white guy.
Rhett: But I think his beard is pretty fluffy.

Seeing a picture of this guy on my FB feed:

Rhett: Who is that?
Julia: Donald Trump.
Rhett: Hmmmm.
Rhett: He doesn't have any friends, does he?
Julia: (Insert the deepest belly laughs)

short stories

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Mon, 16 May 2016 20:37:00 +0000

Taking a whole month off of blogging means I have so many lose ends to to type out in a grand catch up post/trilogy/dramatic TV mini series. There are far too many photos on my phone that I refuse to part with...mamarazzi needs her memory bank. SO while the little men nap...into a post they go.

Read on if you're not swamped with life.

Look at this fine art masterpiece.

It's OK if you bust a chuckle. I do eeeeevery time I see it. If you wanted to know what kind of 80s mom hair I'd be rocking back then- question no more. Bouffant hair all the way.

My poor kids. When it comes to anything remotely crafty or creative or art-oriented...I'm what you might politely call, "challenged." I swear there was a glitch in the old brain building system in utero with me because try as I might, beyond coloring books and crayons...I just can't.

Rhett however, art masterpiece creator. Latest creation: the vampire sloth.

He said he felt "lots of inspiring" while making it.

Jake found this ominous warning when he drank the milk out of his cereal bowl courtesy of Godfather Rad.

Every year we've been married Jake has had a garden of some variety in the summer. And every summer we've yielded a big fat zero in produce despite Jake's best plant wooing skills. But this year! This year was the year of the carrots.

Lots of carrots!

And even more miraculous bunny food bounty, romaine lettuce and a handful or snow peas.

If Rhett and Rad had their way they would subsist solely on chicken nuggets, peanut butter with apples/pretzels/toast, goldfish crackers, taquitios, and the latest additions of black olives (Rad) and raspberries (Rhett). So, I guess I have to admit that they are kind of a picky eaters -- minus the kind of.

So when they both excitedly dug into the lettuce (dipped in ranch) and snow peas it was a jaw dropping moment in our house. So gardening. It's is the best! Who knew?!

Lately when we go outside to play - the big boys usually race bikes and scooters ("tooters" from Rad's mouth) down the driveway over and over and over again while Beck makes and samples rock + grass + sidewalk chalk + dirt casseroles in his lap over and over and over again. To each their exotic own.

Our neighborhood backs up to this stretch of desert scenery and flowering cacti. We've loved trailblazing the clearly marked paths with our fellow outdoorsy friends. One Saturday we we went on a walk (some might call it a hike due to the hill situation but we won't get into the nitty) and had a good time with many snack breaks.

Rhett and Rad decided to change up the dress code toward the end. They like half-naked, casual hikes.

And no desert hike would be complete without a snake meet-n-greet. All the boys made BFFs with the creature like he was a fluffy puppy or Pixar woodland creature.

When the snake loving children of mine got the idea that I might want to also touch the snake, my insides died a little. My current fearset goes a little something like this: predators, people not liking me, snakes, chapped lips with no chapstick around, and running out of diapers. So snakes are my bronze medal fear.

And for right now the boys think I'm a decently cool mom but I'm confident that reign is coming to an end. So if touching a snake keeps me in their cool graces then I'll do it.

Heebie-jeebies the whole time. Cringe.

Rhett's school had their biggest fundraiser a few weekends ago, their Spring Spectacular. We had a limited amount of post Beck's afternoon nap/pre-bedtime time but we made the most of it and even with the perfect evening weather and all the school's families in attendance, we didn't have to wait in any significant lines (minus the roller coaster line. That was fun.).

I'm fairly certain that Rad died and ascended straight to heaven because the boy loves a good ride.
Rhett might have had a touch of kiddie ride PTSD after a very tame kiddie roller coaster fiasco of 18 months ago so he took a little bit longer to warm up to the idea of risking the merry-go-round.

Rad marched right up to the (very tame) kiddy "roller coaster" and got himself all set in one of the cars and insisted and insisted and insisted and insisted that he wanted to ride it.

And the little dare devil loved it. And so did Rhett. Which literally made my heart so happy because I love all roller coasters and have many grand dreams of us hitting up the mega coasters over the years. (Note: Jake likes some roller coasters but is much more particular about which he deems not too extreme.)

And one last short story.

Jake's work had a family day and we felt like we couldn't not go because socailzing and free family fun and so...we went! It was such a fun time and they had pony rides led by humans set up for the kids. The boys were so excited and happily waited in line for their turns in the saddle.

First up...

No issues, happy as a clam on a horse. Kentucky Derby here he comes.

Rad was slightly less enthused once he got on stage but managed to ride around with no tears and flirted with smiling for the briefest of seconds.

And that's all.

For now! ;)

Happy Monday.

adulting

noreply@blogger.com (Julia @ 551Eastdesign) — Wed, 11 May 2016 20:12:00 +0000

When you haven't heard much from me in a few weeks that a sure fire sign life has entered into crazy once more. It's almost never the same crazy, and the crazy is never really gone, but sometimes it slams you and you're (read: I) am fumbling for a while as I try to get through it.

Over the past four weeks we've:

this really calls for a drumroll...

we got our house ready to put on the market
put on our house on the market
potty trained Rad

potty trained Ben (officially)

everyone got the stomach flu or strep of epic magnitude

all while showing the house at least once a day and making sure it didn't smell like the plauge.

I hosted two baby showers

and raised $2100 for Rhett's school fundraiser

Jake worked an unusual amount of late late hours

which thankfully payed off in some big success.

And we sold out house! In a week!
And then turned around and bought a new house!

We're closing on both houses on June 23rd so for right now I feel like we have a brief moment of pause before the packing crazy train starts. So for right now we're catching up on all the eating and sitting and breathing the stress of the past few weeks denied us.

Fist bumps for adulting like a boss.