Check it out....

My friend, Amy Beth, has a ministry called Starlite Ministries. Her ministry focuses on young girls from elementary to high school ages.... check our her site and leave her a comment for a chance to win fun girly stuff.

Ministry So Fabulous!

Can I Get One?

Kids with British accents.... ADORABLE!

All About Me!

Ok, I saw this on a blog and thought I would do it... Who knows? I may even learn something new about myself in the process!

TEN YEARS AGO…
I was in my LAST semester of high school. I was burnt-out, frustrated, angry, confused, tired and ready to be done... that last year of high school was HORRIBLE! I loved school up until then.. If you know me AT ALL then you understand. :)

FIVE THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST TODAY…
1. Take Chandler to the doctor - CHECK!
2. Plant my tulips - CHECK!
3. Pick up my contact lenses - CHECK!
4. Work on my hair bows.... Nope!
5. Clean my house.... HA! Not even CLOSE!

THINGS I ENJOY…
*being with my girls and Brandon
*shopping with Chandler
*spending time with our friends, Jonathan and Amy
*watching Brandon play softball
*watching Brandon play with the girls
*hearing my girls laugh in the backseat of the car
*reading blogs - even the ones written by people I don't know!
*making hair bows
*scrapbooking
*weekends
*eating out
*going to the movies
*reading
*laughing really hard
*getting pedicures... man! I need one REALLY bad!

THREE BAD HABITS…
1. Leaving my dirty clothes all over the bathroom
2. Avoiding folding the clean clothes and putting them away until there is a MOUNTAIN of clothes on my guest bed!!
3. Procrastinating!!

FIVE PLACES I’VE LIVED…
1. Decatur, GA
2. Ocala, FL
3. Cleveland, TN
4. Sorry, only 3 different cities... but 9 different houses, apartments, etc.
5.

FIVE JOBS I’VE HAD...
1. cleaning & answering phones at a real estate office on saturdays
2. part-time teacher at a daycare
3. server at Cracker Barrel... and a pretty good one I might say! :)
4. sales associate at American Eagle
5. ministry assistant at our church

FIVE THINGS PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME…
1. I could stay up all night long doing nothing!
2. I procrastinate getting ready for bed (just about every night) and then regret it when everyone else is already snuggled in bed and I still have to wash my face and brush my teeth.
3. I am a compulsive e-mail checker
4. I have a very hard time getting rid of things... even things that should have been thrown away or given away YEARS earlier!
5. I am very self conscience.

Ok, so there it is... I dare you to do it too!!!

To my surprise....

Remember my cactus? You can read about it here, in one of my 3 Christmas blogs.

Remember how I loved it because it had red flowers on top?

Sometime back in January or the beginning of February I was admiring it. Especially the flowers. I said to Brandon, "I'm just amazed at how well this cactus is doing and how beautiful the flowers are even after Chandler poking at them (and being poked back by the cactus!)."

I leaned over to get a better look at the flowers and noticed something strange.... it looked like, well it looked just like a dollop of glue from a hot glue gun.... Weird.

IT WAS A DOLLOP OF GLUE FROM A HOT GLUE GUN!!!!

The flowers are FAKE!!! They are glued on!

Do I love my little cactus any less? No.

I am however a little disappointed in Home Depot (or the company that supplies them with cacti**) for deceiving my lovely Uncle, Aunt and Cousin. :)

**cacti being the plural form of cactus... not cacti-poo of which our friend Eddie would like to convince you!!

Easter

Easter morning started early for us... Chandler wanted to open her basket before church so I had to wake her at 6:30 in order to have enough time!

Chandler's Ariel themed basket

Riley's Puppy-Dog themed basket

Chandler dove straight into the markers and chocolate bunnies

Riley joined us a little later... about 7:00 and was just happy to wake up to all of the excitement!

"Ooo!"

"Mmmm!"

Yes, I let my 1 year old eat a chocolate bunny for breakfast. :)

Riley's Easter Bow

I didn't buy cardigans (as reported in the previous post), but someone had given me this one when I was pregnant with Chandler. She never wore it so I pulled it out for Riley. It didn't really match, but it got the job done.

I wasn't able to be in the choir's Easter production last year because Riley was only a few weeks old so I was excited to be able to be apart of it this year.

Because of choir robes and costumes, I didn't get a new Easter outfit, but here I am with the girls in my lovely "Mary Costume"... at least that's what Chandler called it. :)

"ENOUGH!" Riley was worn out! She took a nap in the nursery, but 5 hours at church is a really long time when you are so little!
Who am I kidding? 5 hours was a long time for me too!!! My voice, ankles and back were killing me when I got home!

Jonathan and Amy came over for lunch. We had quite an impressive spread. Again, I forgot to take pictures... maybe one day I'll get a photo of the 6 of us all together... and then again, maybe not! :)

I hope everyone had an AMAZING Easter!

Weather Issues!

After the egg hunt I was a little worried that the girls were going to be wearing sleeveless dresses for Easter. I knew there was a chance it would be cool, but everything in the stores was sleeveless. No, I didn't buy cardigans... Yes, I should have. :)

On Saturday I felt a little better. It was warm. Brandon cut the grass, I wore short sleeves, Chandler wore a TANK TOP!

There was still a slight wind so Riley wore a thin long sleeve top.

Of course it was too good to be true. Sunday morning cold, windy, miserable! I will NEVER understand the weather in Cleveland! Is it like this everywhere? I don't remember it being like this in Ocala.

Egg Hunt 2008

Pastor Jonathan's first Egg Hunt attempt this year was rained out.... It POURED rain the whole entire day. I felt terrible that so many kids were going to be disappointed, but I'm sure I didn't even feel 1/2 as bad as Jonathan!

The hunt was rescheduled for last Wednesday night during our regular kid's classes. We met out at the new church property... some of you may not know that our church purchased a golf course as the site of our new sanctuary and future developments.

So, Wednesday.... it rained off and on ALL DAY! It cleared up for a little while (apparently, that's when the eggs were hidden) and it started raining again just before the hunt. We left our house in good faith that it would stop raining in time for the event.... plus Brandon had committed to grill hot dogs so we were pretty much locked in regardless of the weather! :)

It stopped raining just as we pulled into the parking lot!!!

However, the WIND was bitterly cold!

You may remember last year's egg hunt...

31 degrees!!! Riley was just a few weeks old so she was bundled up really good!

So, it wasn't that cold this year... I think my car temp gauge said 42 when we got in after the hunt was over. :)

Here are the pictures from this year....

On the way to the egg hunt. Riley was pretty excited about her basket!

I brought light jackets for the girls because I figured it would get cool as the sun went down... I had NO idea how cold it would be during the hunt. At least they had jackets. Some of the kids were in tank tops, sun dresses, flip flops. I knew it would be muddy from the rain so my girls were a little more prepared than some of the others.

No pictures of Riley. I was wearing her in the carrier again this year... of course she's much larger and MUCH heavier than she was this time last year. I know, I should have passed my camera to someone to get a photo of her. Maybe someone got one and will send it to me. :)

After we got home... Riley LOVED the eggs!

Chandler teaching Riley all about the importance of opening the eggs!

"Like this, Riley!"

Trying it on her own.

I don't think she really cared about the candy... she just liked the colors... and the fact that they roll on our hard wood floors!

Ok, Ok! I'll do it!

After many requests (most of them from my husband) here are all of Riley's monthly photos... beginning at birth:

1st Day Home from the Hospital: March 4th, 2007

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months

Everyone says that first year goes by quickly... it really does!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Ok, the next 3 weeks are going to be CRAZY BUSY! I may not be able to post much, but don't worry I'll be sure to do an update once the craziness has passed!

Let's see what's on the Miles Family Calendar for the next 3 weeks??
A Pancake Breakfast to support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
An Easter Egg Hunt
A birthday party
3 nights of Choir Rehearsal next week
A Good Friday Easter Program
Easter Program Performances in both Sunday morning services
Weekly Cheer Leading Practice
Dentist Appointments for both me and Chandler
Hair Bow Appointments for Easter bows
Mom's Group meetings
A Private Bows by the Miles Home Hair Bow Show
A Bows by the Miles vendor booth at the local hospital's baby fair.

Those last 2 items are going to require that I spend every free moment that I have (or don't have) to work on bows!!!

I win!

Yep that's right, I win.
If there was a prize for the best husband... Brandon would get it, but I would be the real winner because I get to be married to him. :)

Wednesday night was the BIG Royal Rangers Pinewood Derby Race. I thought it was VERY successful and ran quite smooth considering all of the excited boys you have sitting (I use the term sitting very loosely) and waiting for their turn to see their car race.

Anyway, Brandon works really hard during derby season. They work on the boy's cars on Wednesday nights during class. They have several Saturday work days in order to get the cars done in time for the race. Brandon orders trophies. He take the time to make everything just right for race night... the lights, the music, the track. He sends out detailed "job lists" so that the other commanders know exactly what is expected of them on race night.

So, here's where the husband awards comes into place.
1. On Wednesday night while he was making his "Thank You" speeches, he remembered to thank the wives of the commanders for "allowing" the commanders to spend so much time away from their families and working on derby stuff. :)
2. Yesterday just before dinner there was a knock on the door. He ordered, and had delivered 30 long stem roses! They were/are BEAUTIFUL.

You are supposed to give them about 18 to 24 hours for them to open up and look their best so I'll add a picture later... I just wanted to brag on him while it was fresh in my mind!

Thank you Brandon! You are the best husband I've ever had. :)

UPDATE!: Here are photos of the BEAUTIFUL flowers!

Another year has gone by.....

I was totally singing Celine Dion as I wrote the title to this blog... hope you are too! :)

Here's Riley's 12 month photo!

It's not my favorite monthly photo, but it will have to do. It's getting more and more difficult to get her to sit still for these photo sessions. Ignore the bruise on her forehead... it was a P.F. Chang's incident. In an attempt to get rice out of her lap Friday night, she banged her head on the edge of the table. It left a nice red mark and was a bruise the next morning. :)

She isn't walking and really shows no interest in it what-so-ever. She only says a few words, "Uh Oh", "Bah" (ball), and "Fffff" (Woof). We have heard her say, "MaMa" but only in a state of complete desperation. :)

Favorites:
BOOKS! She LOVES books.
FOOD! Anytime, Anywhere, Any kind!
Dogs. She will open her Where's My Nose book and point out the "puppy dog" on the page.
Balls. She squeals with excitement anytime we roll a ball to her.
The swing. The enjoys sitting outside in her swing... it doesn't even have to be moving. She just likes to sit in it.

Things she likes, NOT SO MUCH:
Leaving Mom and Dad. She doesn't like for us to leave her in the nursery anymore. That's difficult since I don't have the option of bringing her to choir with me on Sunday mornings!! :) I thought I could trick her one Wednesday night by having Melanie drop her off in the nursery, but she cried as soon as Melanie turned for the door.
Riding in the Cart. Wal-mart, Target, TJ Maxx... it doesn't matter. She just doesn't like it.

Girl's Day Out!

Today started out with a trip to the doctor for Riley's 12 month well baby check up.

She was 19 lbs 2 oz and 29" long. That puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.

She had to have 3 vaccines today: Hepatitis A, Chickenpox, and MMR.

When the doctor named the vaccines, Chandler said, "NOT CHICKENPOX! We don't want her to get the chickenpox!" The doctor laughed and explained that she wasn't giving Riley chickenpox just the vaccine. :)

After the doctor's appointment we met up with Ms. Amy for a little shopping and some lunch.

Cleveland FINALLY has a Target and it opened last week so that's where we were headed.
After Target we hit good ole' Chick-fil-A for a little lunch.

Here are a few photos of Riley waiting for Chandler to come down the slide:



After lunch we headed back over to the new shopping center to browse Kohl's. Yes, Cleveland is finally moving up in the world! Wal-mart isn't the only place to shop anymore!

In Kohl's, Chandler had a great time playing, "You can't see me." You know the game... you can see her, but you have to act like you don't and whatever you do, DON'T talk to her or call her by name!!!
At one point Amy, Riley and I were walking out of the girl's department only to notice an AMAZING mannequin display in the boy's department...

She even put on a pair of glasses that she found in the girl's department... complete with tag hanging on her nose!
My favorite part... she's even standing like the mannequins... feet, arms the whole thing.
Next time I'm sure she'll try to figure out a way to "lose her head". :)

Striking a pose!

These weren't the only displays that she violated! Sometimes she appeared with a big red floppy hat, sometimes it was a scarf. Sometimes it was the hat, scarf AND glasses!

Lee University Flames win SSAC Championship!

Saturday night we took the girls to their first Lee University Men's Basketball Game. Man, did we pick a good one to start them out on!!!

I didn't realize it until we were almost to campus that this was the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Championship game... Brandon says he told me, but I must have been too busy changing Riley's diaper, washing Chandler's hair and/or making dinner to hear him. :)

Anyway, the Flames beat Emmanuel College 92-79 to claim the SSAC Championship.

Chandler's favorite part of the game? The concession stand of course!
2nd favorite? When the guys cut the net down after the game. She got right up front (with the other kids). A second later she came back to me and asked for my camera... I guess she felt like if everyone else was snapping photos she probably needed to as well. :)

Riley enjoyed the game. Actually I think she enjoyed the pizza crust Brandon gave her and all of the extra attention that she got from our "group" of fans.

Enjoy the photos...

Inside the Paul Dana Walker Arena

Riley checking out the action on the floor.

A goofy little smile for the camera

Dad, Mom and Riley... Photo by Chandler

Mom and Riley... Photo by Chandler

Chandler and Riley "socializing" with their friend

Chandler's ticket. She was very excited about it. Kids are strange!

One last time out before the big win!