Hello Abby

We received some fun pictures this week from one of Eli's favorite Michigan friends. Abby & Eli always enjoyed playing together while I was making wreaths, and loved the chance to see each other again when Eli and I went back to MI in November to pack up our home. We miss many of the great people we got to know while living in MI and love sharing pictures and family updates. Thank you for sending!

Thank you Monica!

Our great friend Monica in Seattle (who is a definite contender for SuperMom) somehow found time and energy to sew two of the cutest aprons for Maggie & Eli (she's a mom of three including a new baby) plus, make a matching Black Apple Doll to go with Maggie's. We LOVE them and have had fun playing in our kitchen now appropriately attired. Eli's has tool fabric, so he thinks a hammer - instead of a spatula - is what his pocket needs. We'll also enjoy wearing them as we try some of the great cookie recipes from Martha's ultimate Cookie Recipe Book she sent as well. Yum!

Eli says goodbye to training wheels

After our Easter dinner, Skylar and Karolina took Eli and Maggie out to enjoy the beautiful weather. They hit the park with bikes. Skylar used to do some BMX racing and pulled his old bike out to let Eli try. In Eli's usual determination, he tried it a couple of times then decided he could do it - and did!

Maggie had her fun, too!

Eli's Easter Card

Eli gave me a special Easter card this year - he drew a picture of me and wrote "mom" on it. The BEST!

2008 Easter Basket Exchange

I participated in an Easter Basket Exchange with over 20 other girls throughout the U.S. (all orchestrated by Kari /a.k.a. Disco Mom) who finalized rules and assignments. From what I can tell, everything went smooth and we all received great chocolate and a few surprises (you can check out the goodies here). A big THANKS to Melissa, who sent mine from Texas. I will look forward to joining in again next year!

Easter Morning

Eli & Maggie were excited to see the Easter Bunny had visited! We had to quickly find our baskets (Shaylee took forever - hers was in the garage at the bottom of the garbage can) and gather all of the little chocolate eggs so we could be ready for church. Our Stake Conference fell on Easter Sunday - we were so excited to attend our meeting at the Ogden Temple Tabernacle and to hear Elder Jeffrey R. Holland speak. It was wonderful! (What bits & pieces I could hear in between Maggie and Eli causing trouble - they may have been on a sugar high. Ugh.)

The Annual Miller Easter Picnic - Willard Bay

As always, this event was a blast! We had almost all of the Miller family there (Mom and her siblings with their children/my cousins). Grandpa joked before blessing the food that most of us were there to enjoy the day because many years ago Grandma had decided to take "that fateful shop class." We're all looking forward to more details about that "how we met" story.

The day was filled with the usual hot dog roast, kite flying, bike riding, long boarding, trail hiking, football, Frisbee, bubble blowing, hula hoop competition and egg hunt.

Easter Egg Decorating Party

We had one big egg dying party Friday night to get ready for our annual Easter Picnic. It was a fun time with cousins, aunt & uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, and Shaylee's friend Tristan (boyfriend???). To make sure everyone has an egg to hunt, we drew names out of a bowl which was our assigned egg to decorate.

We were all hoping Karolina drew our name -
she decorated hers the way she learned from her mother
and grandmother growing up in Poland...very
detailed! Dad was the lucky winner of her "chick" egg.

Exercise Partner

This morning Maggie was excited to join me for my workout.
She follows each part really well and loves to do the bouncing "jumping jacks." She's great with the resistance bands, too.

Blooming

When I picked Eli up from school today, his teacher pulled me aside to say that he is "just blooming!" I think they both are.

Sneaky Maggie

Maggie's Sunday School teacher gave her a special Easter treat today: a rice-crispy nest with a Peeps chick and jelly bean eggs. Once we got home from Church and changed (Maggie insisted on the PJ's) I told her we would eat the treat after we had our lunch. She then disappeared. Once I finally got to my room to change clothing as well, there I found her hiding under one of my tables munching away. Not a good choice. Maybe next time she'll learn when sneaking a treat, don't go hide in Mom's space!

Favorite Cousins

Easter Bunnies!

We took Eli, Maggie and Hannah to get pictures today with bunnies. They had a great time petting and chasing the poor things all over. Fortunatley, we were able to slow them down long enough to get a couple of shots.

Princesses (and a Prince!) on Ice

Grandpa Hoellein gave all the girls (and a couple of guys) tickets to see Disney's "Princess Wishes" as our Valentine this year. It was great! Not only was it a fun night out with music and Mickey, it was a great excuse to wear tiaras. The girls dressed up as their favorite Princesses and Eli assured us all he would "slay the dragon" when it came out. We are so lucky to have such a handsome prince at our side! (And fortunately, there was a big dragon in the show.) Ian wore a Knight helmet to play his part in the fun.

Dinner before at the California Pizza Kitchen was great. Our booth, and almost every booth around us, was full of princesses.

Maggie loved walking around as a princess -
especially in her sparkling pink shoes.

Eli proudly showed off his costume (the one that came
too late for his special school day) and explained his plan to
slay the dragon to everyone we met.