Best Laid Plans...

Well, as you can see, we've been slack-a-lackin' quite a bit. Ha!

We will try to update the blog a bit more...maybe at least once a month. That may be doable...maybe.

In the next few days/weeks, we will try to catch up on everything and then keep up with this blog a lot better...but, if life gets in the way, we won't fight it.

So, that being said:

WE ARE BACK!!!

...we hope...

New Name...New Year...

Eech... We've been sooo bad...

After having to go through and change the name of our blog…since our domain (MillerMusings) expired and someone else snatched it up…we’re resolving to update our family blog more often than once a year now. We’re gonna aim for once a week at least.

So much has happened in the close to two years since we updated last. Miko and Tori are growing little bugs and are doing new things each and every day. PJ is still at home with them teaching them and learning from them as well. And Chad is still working on Minis with his own team at the same dealership. Our fur kid family is the same with Eros (who turned 18 in August), Fancy and Harlot (who both turned 12 in March), Sake (who turned 7 in December), and Wrangler (who turned 3 in February).

So, from here on out, we will post more often…even if it’s just a picture…it will be SOMETHING at least!

Catching Up...

My gosh, it seems life gets so crazy and time just flies by. We really wanted to try to keep up with our blog so much better than we have been, but we also don't want to miss anything happening in "real life" either. Our blog is important to us, but not as important as having family time.

Anyway, this post is going to be very picture heavy, just so we can catch up a bit and do a little "house-cleaning," if you will, on all the pictures we've been saving just to post on our blog.

We'll start with the last pictures of last year...Christmas, Christmas-Second-Time-'Round, and New Year's Eve. Then we'll move into this year...

First, the girls had a lot of fun in the snow...well, sort of. Tori didn't care too much for how cold it was.

Tori was a little unsure about the cold snow.

Miko was trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue. Wrangler loves the snow!

This pic says it all...Miko loves the outdoors, Tori not so much.

This is when we knew it was time to head inside.

Then, it was time to start getting into the Christmas spirit. PJ had the girls do a Christmas tree art project to get things started.

The girls love to paint.

Miko really got into it.

Our little artist.

Tori wanted to eat the paint!

But, she did get some where it needed to be as well.

Our other little artist!

Miko put some finishing touches on before we had to let it dry.

After it dried, they used Q-Tips to put colorful "ornaments/lights" on the tree..
Mommy glued everything together, and Miko was quite proud of herself.

Miko's side of the dual-sided Christmas tree.

Tori's side.

We took our family pictures for our holiday cards. It was a lot of work, but afterwards, we always feel it is sooo worth it!

First we took a few pictures to show the girls how fun this could be...

Daddy with his girls.

Mommy with her girls.

Monkey-see-monkey-do!
We had the camera hooked up to the TV so we could see what the shots looked like. Tori saw Miko cover her face, so she followed along. Mommy just acted silly.

Then, we brought in all the furkids to get the final shot.

Our family 2011

First Full Week of 2012!

It was a busy week to say the least! Ha ha!

Chad purchased a second car for us. A '93 BMW 323iS. It's a beauty! He needs to do some work on it, but yeah, he's a freakin' BMW technician, we don't think there will be any problems with that! Ha ha! PJ normally names the vehicles, our mini van is Carson, but so far we haven't figured one out for this baby yet. One interesting and cool thing about this car is that when Chad was checking out under the hood, there was a Passort BMW service sticker on the fuse cover...that's the dealership he worked at back in Maryland!!! We're not sure if Chad ever worked on this particular car, but who knows!!!

Isn't it pretty?

Carson and our new baby...

We also ended up taking down the Christmas tree. Holy cow did Miko cry about that! She did not want us to put that thing away. You would think we were taking away her best friend! This was the first time we've put up a tree since she was born, and she really got attached to it. We told her we would put up another one next year, but if we're traveling, that's not going to happen because of the cats...we can't take any chances.

Our tree grew a creepy face and held up a sign telling us to take it down. Ha ha!!!

Other than Chad working and PJ petsitting for some friends of ours, that's pretty much all that really happened this week that was interesting.

Oh! But there was the two day fashion show Miko put on and insisted on pictures ("Mommy! Picture! Take picture!").

Her snow boots (which she's obsessed with), pretty shirt, leggings, and a skirt. The boots set off the outfit perfectly!

Snow boots again, mommy's Ocracoke Island souvenir t-shirt, and Tori's winter hat. Perfect! 

This outfit was so great we had to get more pictures of it! Ha ha!

Tori got in on it by picking out a shirt she likes as well. She chose a shirt that Miko used to wear. It's a koala shirt with other Australian animals embroidered onto the front of it that was a gift to Miko from a friend all the way in Australia. Mommy chose the jeans (a gift from Glamma) and shoes.

She wouldn't sit still for a good enough picture, but she's still so cute!

Lastly, this past Sunday, Chad looked outside while we were working in the girls' playroom and saw the perfect picture:

Wrangler and Sake enjoying the outdoors.

Next time we're gonna try to post all the Christmas, Christmas Second Time 'Round, and New Years celebration pictures.

Happy New Year!!!

So, it's now 2012. We really slacked off on our family blog last year. Oops! Life just got in the way a little bit more than we had planned.

2011 was busy with both Miko and Tori growing up before our eyes.

Miko is saying more and more things and testing her limits every day. Dancing seems to be her favorite thing. That and swimming and thrill rides (like children-sized roller-coasters, etc.). She kept busy and had a lot of fun this past year.

Tori went from being a baby to a little girl this past year. She started crawling, took her first steps, started eating solid foods, and has said her first words (mama was her first!). She tries very hard to keep up with her big sister when they play. Dancing also seems to be a favorite thing to do, and every time she hears music, off she goes dancing!

Chad had a crazy last year. He worked at the same company we moved out here for until September, then he was "let go." He was unemployed for almost the whole month of September, but then got a job at another dealership just south of Denver. He really loves his new job. He's so much happier now and really feels appreciated for what he does. We feel that losing his job was the best thing that could have happened since it got him away from a situation that just was not working for us.

PJ is still taking care of the home-front. She's getting into more and more craft-type projects and has actually set a goal to try to do a project a week...if not every day...in 2012. She loves doing arts and crafts with the girls and trying to teach them different things in the process.

The furkids are doing great! They're getting older, but there were no health problems at all in 2011 (knock wood!). Eros turned 16 years old, and can't hear at all anymore, but she's still a cuddle monkey and demands her treats every night before bed. Fancy and Harlot both turned 10 years old, and are still pretty anti-social...but they will come up to you for their bed-time treats! Sake turned 5 years old, and still acts like a puppy. And, Wrangler, he turned a year old and became a part of our family...he fit right in and is now Sake, Miko and Tori's best friend!

We are hoping to be a bit better about keeping up with our blog this year. Now, we can't promise a post every day, but we're hoping for once a week at least.

Happy New Year to all our friends and family that actually visit and read our stories. We love you guys!!!