Gingerbread House of Horror

I tried something new this year and bought a gingerbread house kit from Costco.  Then I unpacked it on the table and gave the boys free rein.  

That may have been a mistake.

No sweet winter scenes for these boys.  Josh pulled the arms off of one of the gingerbread men and covered the gaping holes with red frosting.  The other man was transformed into a Santa...with a fatal head injury.  And then they pretty much dumped as much candy and frosting as they could on the top.

I can only assume that most people have decorations that are less terrifying than ours. 

Merry Christmas from the Miller boys!

Happy Birthday, Baby Rage!

He's got crazy hair and a personality to match!  Baby Rage turned three this last week and we had pumpkin cupcakes with a chocolate lego on top to celebrate.  We love you and happy birthday, Baby Rage!

Last Day

For the better part of this year, Isaac has been receiving speech services through an organization called Parent to Parent.  Miss Staci has been his speech lady and she came to our house for part of the year.  Then he has been attending a Parent and Tot class with her and Miss Jan this semester.  But since all those services were part of a birth to three program, he graduates out this week.  Yesterday was our last day with Miss Staci and Miss Jan.  Isaac loves his teachers and we have been so blessed to have them as part of our lives.

In The Band

Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and aunt, Michael has started learning how to play the clarinet this year.  Michael is a pretty musical kid so we are excited for him to have this opportunity.  His brothers are a little less excited when he practices, but it's all for a good cause.  Last Thursday night was his first concert.  It's a busy time of year, so I couldn't make it, but Jason went and took a couple of pictures to share.  

Salish Stormers

First things first: I totally filched these pictures of the middle school facebook page.  Credit where credit is due.

Second, Josh's robotics team competed this weekend in a Lego FIRST robotics competition and did pretty well.  They actually earned their middle school it's very first trophy!  The competition has three parts: Core Values, Innovative Solutions, and Robotics.  The kids worked hard all year and won the Innovative Solutions trophy.  We're super proud of these boys and so grateful for the teacher/coaches who put so much time and effort into the Robotics Club.

Blue Belt

He's worked long and hard and now he has his BLUE BELT.  Way to go, Michael!

Halloween

It was a Happy Halloween for the younger Miller boys.  We visited Jason at work and there were goodies and candy in pretty much every department.  The boys got quite a good amount of loot.  Josh was not with us since he doesn't get home from school until it would be too late to head into Olympia.  But, we filled his bucket from our stash of candy from past holidays, so he still ended up with enough sugar.  We stayed home for the evening and watched Goonies and had ice cream sundaes/root beer floats.  That was the deal I made with the boys so that I wouldn't have to go chasing Isaac around the streets in the dark.  Because that could only end poorly.

It turns out Isaac is a sneaky hoarder.  He had a death grip on his pumpkin and we kept finding him hiding in different parts of the house with either a lollipop in his mouth or surrounded with candy wrappers.  He was bouncing and spinning and jumping by the time all the sugar hit his system.  Today he's pretty grumpy.  Sugar hangover?

It's done and now we go into full-on holiday mode.