i want to wash my hair in snow.....

It didn't last long, but this morning we woke up to a winter wonderland.  The kids made snowballs before breakfast, and Grady conned Gran into letting him hang out with her for the day to have the chance at a snowman.  I think it worked out for both of them.  :)  The kids were sad to see the snow gone after school, and are counting the days until the next "snow blast."

Brainwashing at its Finest

As I was trying to get Grady and myself out the door to go to Gran's house this morning, I heard Grady singing a song in the garage. I swore I heard him "sawing varsity's horns off". Indeed I did. It was one of my proudest moments as a father.

An Aggie Thanksgiving

Gig 'Em Aggies!  This year we drove down to College Station to spend Thanksgiving Day with Todd's family and to do a little brainwashing.  When we pulled into town, we drove to a few of our favorite places, including the famous trailor park where Todd and I used to live.  We told stories, and pointed out some totally Aggie landmarks along the way.  After setting up camp, we walked over to Kyle Field for Yell Practice. The kids weren't immediately impressed, but as the night wore on, and they heard stories from the Yell Leaders, and participated in the traditions, of course-they were hooked. 

Thursday morning the grandkids ran amuck around West Campus.  Becky coordinated the meal; Todd fried the turkeys (after many trips to the grocery store for additional oil).  I tried (and liked!) a Bloody Mary, while I made my plan for Black Friday shopping.  As game time rolled around, we took Madison and Grady on a walk around campus, hitting our favorite spots and marveling at how much the campus had changed.  Tanner scored a ticket to The Game with his Aunt Michelle, so he missed that walk down memory lane.  I think he was ok with it though.  :)  After we got back to camp, we huddled around the TV listening to the cheers from Kyle Field as they delayed through to the satellite feed.  The Aggies ran out of time, but it was a good run. 

Friday I was up at 5 a.m. shopping, and Todd was supposed to have the kids ready when I returned around 8 a.m.  He almost made it, if he had been out of bed to start the process.  Apparently, all the beer in College Station had called his name Thursday after the game.  Despite that, we were on the road by 8:30 to head to my mom's house.

When we pulled up, my dad was busy frying more turkeys, with Patti, Tony, and Mom as his cheer squad.  Madison practically leapt out of the car to go see Skeeter (the recently acquired horse, which I will post pictures of, and blog about soon), and the boys ran to the backyard to see the dogs.  Busy five minutes.  As usual, it was a beautiful table, with a beautiful meal.  The kids slurped up their "Sparkling Wine," and we slurped up some sparkling wine of our own.  I think it was the first holiday meal in 8ish years that we weren't chasing a baby or small child for whatever reason.  We even had time to list our thankfuls. 

After dinner, we decorated the tree-as is Miller Tradition.

We also watched the first Christmas movie of the season, Home Alone, which was a big hit with the kids.  They loved it when the "bad guys" got their faces smashed with something painful.  Should I be worried?  After all the festivities, we crashed in our own beds and actually slept late Saturday morning.  We spent the rest of the weekend decorating the house (inside and OUT) for Christmas, and are now in full Holiday Spirit around here.

Tomorrow it's back to work and school, but just 3 short weeks until we break again to retreat into our Holiday Lives.

Bad Marley!!!

the first feast of the season...

Todd has taken up "Mommy Duties" this fall, and has been doing a fantastic job.  Friday, he even went up to the school for the kids' Thanksgiving Feasts, and I'm pretty sure he had a ball while he was there.  :)  He texted multiple times letting me know what I was missing.

Tanner was assigned to bring a chocolate pie, which I quickly commissioned out to Todd's mom.  The first grade teachers apparently had great confidence in my abilities, but the thrid grade teachers knew my limitations.  For Madison, I was assigned lunchmeat roll-ups.  No problem, and Madison even helped me make them.  Double bonus.

Elementary teachers are little angels to do these fun days for the kids.  They had a blast celebrating with their friends, and getting a head start on the holiday partying.  :)

Celebrations

Big Week!

Grady finished out his soccer season, and earned his FIRST TROPHY!

Well, EARNED might be a big word, but he did finish out his soccer season.  It took the entire fall, but he did manage to stay on the field for MOST of the games, and he even kicked the ball 2-3 times in there somewhere.  :)  He was happy though.  He even wanted to sleep with his trophy.

In other boy news, Tanner was chosen as the Extraordinary Eagle for his class this six weeks.

This is so huge for us.  Tanner is having a superfantastic first grade year.  He LOVES his teacher (which really isn't that shocking, he still hugs his kindergarten teacher almost everyday), but he also seems to have internalized classroom expectations.  He hasn't pulled his card ALL YEAR.  Last year, we were hopeful if we made it through THE WEEK.  I'm not saying we have it all down, because I'm not going to jinx myself like that. But, yay Tanner!  :)

Guest Post-from Madison

Today me and daddy were playing tic-tac-toe at Grady`s soccer game and he said "I bet I can beat you at every game of tic-tac-toe". But he didn`t. I guess he isn`t smarter then a 3rd grader. First, we had a stalemate. Second, I won but daddy won 2 more times then we had another stalemate. Then we started playing hangman with mommy. First, daddy went. His word was three letters. Me and mommy tried our best but just couldn`t guess it. It was car. Next it was my turn. It was 4 letters. It took them a while but they finally they guessed it. It was four. Then daddy went again. We guessed it. It was be. Next it was my turn again. It was 6 letters. Daddy guessed it when he only had a smile and an eye left. It was Tanner. Next it was my turn to go again. It was 7 letters. Mommy guessed it right off the bat. It was Madison. Then I had to leave to go to my girl scouts thing called meals on wheels.  It was fun day.