Our Little Buddy is 3!

I probably say this every time one of my kids has a birthday but REALLY, these kids grow too fast!!! We kicked off Dylan's birthday as soon as he woke up. Claira really wanted to see him open a present before she went to school so that's just what we did.

He was so excited to get his first Thomas the Train DVD. If there is one thing this boy loves, it's trains, trains, and more trains. The old school Thomas the Train movies honestly kinda creep me out, but the show was redeemed in my eyes after watching an episode & hearing the narrator say "...and from that time forth all the trains called Thomas "the bees knees" because he was more useful than ever!" So great.

After we took Claira to school we blew up some punch balloons and went crazy!

Since he is the birthday boy his wishes were granted & this boy had a slice of cake right after breakfast:) Mmmm.

The weather was a sunny, balmy 46 degrees that day...very warm for January! So we got dressed and headed to the park to let him do whatever his little heart fancied.

First he decided it was too warm for a hat.

Then thought it would be pretty fun to rip the bark off of some trees for a while.

Mommy wanted to pause for a quick smiley pic, so I told Dylan to smile REALLY BIG and this beauty is the awesome face I got....Terrifying isn't it?! LOL!

We picked up some logs & tossed 'em around...

Sat on some tree stumps & admired the melting snow...

found a dazzling red Christmas garland and a shiny little quarter in the grass...

We played on the playground and went on a nice long 5 mile walk. He fell asleep in the stroller at around the halfway point. Wish I could have jumped in there with him!

After his refreshing nap we came home to meet Daddy & Claira to open presents

He got some cool stuff! he got these little 'pills' that dissolve in water and grow into...

...these little foam animals! They had a lot of fun watching them grow in the water.

He also got two foam swords (ya gotta have two right?!)

It was tough deciding between swords or battle axes...very tough. Luckily Claira came with me to help pick out his presents & she was able to give some very sound advice. She said "swords are better because usually battle axes are for cutting down trees." couldn't agree with you more;)

After opening presents, Dylan requested Five Guys for dinner & we all happily obliged!

We came home and got ready for cake! This year Dylan asked for a "Green Lantern Van Cake" As you can see my van model below. I wish that was the picture of the cake, but let's be honest I butchered his cake this year. Seriously. At the last possible moment I bought him an ice cream cake instead and....
a can of this....

Has anyone ever used this stuff? I for one had not & it is tricky...it was spurting and splattering everywhere! ha ha I had no control over what happened to land on the cake. Let's just say...it wasn't pretty! Luckily, being 3, Dylan was just as happy & excited about the final product as he would have been over a cake that was fashioned and baked at a bakery!
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Ready?
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M'yeaaaahhhhhh....check THAT out!!! (it's a van, I swear!)

Making a wish!

Psychotically happy after blowing out the candles!

Oh yes, it tastes so gooooood.

Happy birthday buddy boy! We love you!

Change of Scenery

Been seeing a lot of this lately....

But we'll be seeing a lot of this in the near future...ahhh:)

So, after being gone for 8 years we're finally moving back to California! Ben will be starting medical school this fall at Western University! Woo hoo! We are so excited. I am so proud of him, he has worked so hard and it was such an awesome feeling to find out he got accepted into the program. Waiting for an answer was so hard. I hate waiting...especially when they give you a time line to expect something and that said time line has passed...they should just tell you to expect the letter no earlier than 6 months from the interview so you'll be pleasantly surprised when it arrives in 2-3 months! ha ha, well it wasn't that bad but you get the idea;)

So we were pretty anxious and were checking the mail 90 times a day.

We have a mail slot in our front door so you can hear when the mail arrives from anywhere in the house. Having said that...the day his acceptance letter came we were both upstairs. He was in the kids' room playing with the kids. I was getting ready & doing my makeup in the bathroom. Then we both heard the mail (why does that sound crazy?!) and the race down the stairs got pretty outrageous & silly looking. Ben won.

He ripped open the letter and read it over and over...he was looking for some key words like "accepted" or "you're awesome" but it was all wordy and confusing, because what if it said "congratulations! You are on the waiting list!" you would be excited but not "I got accepted" excited. So at this point I snatched the letter out of his hands and read it and we eventually figured out what it said. It seemed too good to be true! We waited 3 years for this to finally happen for him and we were in shock! We hugged, we cried, we laughed...the kids were getting freaked out and wanted to know what was happening! Things got so crazy that Dylan just broke down and cried, but they were not happy tears. Poor guy:)

We got another acceptance this week at Drexel University here in Philly (Which was SO exciting) but after praying and talking together we both felt really good about Western. So out west we shall go!!!!! I'm ready for our next adventure!

Gena Susan Photography

Go HERE to see her full blog post of our session with her! So FUN! She's amazing!

California

It was 11 days of joy, happiness, laughter, and love with a little wedding madness mixed in for good measure!

We arrived on Christmas Eve. After flying for 8 hours with 2 kids we were pretty beat. We stepped off the plane and walked towards the baggage claim area and saw Ben's parents waiting for us to reach them. It was an exciting moment. After hugging, chatting and getting our bags we headed 'home' where I finally saw my Karina and her fiance Alan! Christmas was so so fun. We woke up early and opened presents and the rest of the family came over & we FINALLY got to meet our 2 year old nephew, 8 1/2 month old neice & 3 week old niece for the very first time!Christmas Pj's & some cute cousins!

The day was spent playing rock band taking family pictures,

Ben & his silly brothers
All of Ben's siblings
Something's funny!After pictures we headed over to Ben's aunt's house for some more fun, food, playing pool, games and seeing relatives we haven't seen in years! Such good times!

The next day we took a girl's trip to get Karina fitted for her wedding dress while the boys watched all the kids:) It was so fun to actually see her dress and shoes and everything in person! We met up with the kids & boys & had dinner at in n out...totally delicious! It was fun going to church the next day in my old ward and getting to see a lot of familiar faces and catching up with old friends.The next week was spent preparing for Karina's wedding! We put 160ish crystals on strings to be hung on the ceiling of the reception hallframed pictures, tied bows, had a bridal shower, shopped for goodies, then we went to the LA Temple for Karina's endowment

After a long day in L.A. we stopped and ate at Macaroni Grill where I got my all-time Mac Grill fave...Penne Rustica...so.dang.good.

Our next adventure was to decorate the reception hall! See all those beautiful dangling crystals?! It was SO beautiful & totally worth all that hard work! It took all day, but it was so fun. A bunch of bridesmaid's flew in and came straight from the airport to help. Dang, I love those girls! ...oh the laughter and oh the fun! Karina is so lucky she has such awesome family & friends;) (cough, wink)

We did have new years eve somewhere in there & of course took breaks for games, including a ruthless tennis match

I'm pretty sure that's not how to play tennis
Team Feuerlein (yeah, I aint gonna lie...I totally had to look it up)Claira lookin' cuteI love this picture:)I don't know why we are feeling the need to put our butts together...ah well, go Team Miller!
Cutest ball boyPutting her game face onother events include a night run/ab workout with the sister-in-laws to counteract the insane amounts of goodies we were eating:), and of course lots of laughing, girl talk, and wrangling children:)

Then came the big day in San Diego! Karina and Alan were married in the San Diego Temple! I never knew what an impact Karina's marriage would have on me. What an emotional wreck I was (in a good heart-bursting-with-joy kind of way) It has really caused me to contemplate my own life, marriage, and has refreshed my mind to the very real eternal opportunities I have on earth to make covenants to be with my family forever... and how cool is it that one of my best friends from high school is my sister-in-law?!?! It's just dang awesome. I'm so happy that I have a new brother-in-law...he's perfect for Karina in every way, I love him. He's hilarious, fun, and makes a mean hot artichoke dip!Pretty princessStud muffinOh the LAUGHTER!!!Gorgeous and DELICIOUS cake.Speaking of food, My sister-in-law Kandie made some delicious oreo truffles that are sooooo easy & so so very good! I'll have to post the recipe for them sometime...Mmmmmm!

The day after Karina & Alan's wedding was our niece's baby blessing! Matt & Kara had little Ada all dolled up and adorable in her little white dress. She was so precious! It was a beautiful sunny day in the 70's...who would want to go back to Philly after a day like that?! It was hard to leave, let me tell you! After Ada's blessing Ben & I were able to go on what I like to call a mini-date while grandma watched the kids (thanks grandma!) Our sweet friend Gena is a photographer (who also assisted with Karina's wedding) and she took some photos of just the two of us out at her parents ranch. It was so fun and special, I loved every minute of it! You HAVE to check out her website she is AMAZING!!! She has a sneak peek of our session & Karina's wedding on her blog! If you wanna see another sneak peak of Karina's wedding, Gena's sister Tonya Joy was the main photographer and has some of Karina's wedding up on her blog as well! They are all breathtakingly gorgeous! Hit these beautiful girls up if you're ever in California and need some good photos!!!