Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

Hello, all! You know its going to be a bad snowstorm when meteorologists are using the words "historic" and "crippling". Those words are music to the ears of the Milin household. We are going to be baking, sledding, and generally just playing in the snow today. We already have between 6 to 8 inches on the ground (its hard to tell with all the drifting), and its supposed to keep snowing through tonight.

Hope everyone is having fun! In the meantime, its been a really, *really* long time since I posted anything (I blame facebook), so here are some pictures of the last 6 months for our family to get everyone up to speed.

Nate the nice guy

On Friday, when I picked Nate up from school, his friends were teasing him a bit because he has a girlfriend in his class who bosses him around. Her name is Amanda and she is the tiniest, blondest girl in the clas. Actually, he has 3 or 4 girlfriends total, I can't keep count. When I was leaving, I ran into Amanda's mom in the hallway who told me a funny story. Amanda was telling her two older sisters her boyfriend (Nate) was really great, but was complaining that he had several other lady friends. Her older sister said that Amanda needed to drop him and pick another boy to be her girlfriend so that he could spend more time with her. Amanda said that she couldn't pick another boy because Nate is the only nice boy in the class!!

Ha ha ha! Does that remind you all of anyone in the family? Maybe we all will be lucky and he will grow up to be just like PT. They already have the same mannerisms and similar sense of humor, as you can see in the photo below from a few years ago. :)

Hellooooo, summer!

I don't know if it is global warming or not, but, just like last year, we went from 60 degree weather to 90 in about a week. Goodbye, spring, Hello, summer! We are actually really enjoying the warmth and love spending the entire day outside. The kids are sure ready for bed earlier than usual. Hope that everyone else in Nova is enjoying the heat!

Spring is here!

It is pouring rain outside yet the sun is shining bright. Boy, do I love the spring!!

ACK! A dinosaur is coming to get me!!!

A life-size King Kong whose hand you can sit it. An epic battle between a tyrannosaurus rex and a triceratops. Who knew that you could walk around such things in a little town just outside of Berryville, VA, which is in of itself the very definition of a small town. But Nate and Anna had a blast, as you can tell from these photos....

A wide grin minus one tooth

Nate's wobbly tooth fell out last weekend while we were sitting around our firepit. He was noshing on some food when suddenly, he felt something hard in his mouth. And guess what he did?!?! He threw his tooth into the fire! We sifted through the ashes trying to find it, but no luck. It is gone forever. Luckily the tooth fairy is one understanding lady and accepted a picture of a tooth in flames instead. Now I am totally digging his gap-toothed grin!

Whoa! Too many milestones!!

Two firsts in the Milin household has occurred in the last few weeks. First, Anna has been going off-and-on on the big potty. Yesterday at school she told her teachers and they were able to take her across the hall to the 2's room which has a potty. She could totally be potty trained, but unfortunately her room at school doesn't come equipped with a bathroom so she has to wait until she moves up hopefully in a few months. But a 1 1/2 year old who is ready to be potty trained is pretty cool! Second, Nate is losing his first baby tooth! He's very excited to meet a tooth fairy. I'll be sure to post a picture of his gap-tooth grin once it actually falls off!!

No time to blog... and don't even bother trying to call me!

Blogging is hard for me right now. I have things to say, but no time to write them down. Right now I'm squeezing in this message while Nate is watching I-Carly on tv (don't askl) and I am getting a much deserved 5 minute break. Every 30 seconds, he does call out to me... "Mom, I spilled water on my shirt!" (He's ignoring my response, which is "go upstairs and get a new shirt on".) In the meantime, I hear Anna in her crib talking to herself. I am sure without a doubt that she is now completely naked. But you know, I'll put on her diaper and her pj's when I take Nate upstairs. While we were reading books she went "beep beep" (that's not me censoring her, but rather how she says pee pee) so I am going to take the chance that she's won't have to go potty again in the next 30 minutes. Famous last words, eh? Blogging just can't find a time to squeeze in. So sorry about that! My 5 minutes of freedom are up, so I had better pull my sheets out of the laundry (Anna's diaper leaked this morning), finish cleaning up tonight's meal, then get Nate to bed. Uh oh, from upstairs I hear "beep beep". Better run!!!!!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

I wrote this entry about 3 weeks ago, but ran into technical difficulty so never posted. Thus, here's a new entry, but it is quite dated! Sorry everyone... I am feeling lazy today and don't have the energy to begin from scratch... hope everyone has a great weekend!

Actually, today it got up to the mid-50s and was quite delightful. But last week we had what passes for a HUGE snow storm in the DC area. We got about an inch and a half of snow and public schools were closed and had a delayed opening the next morning. I know, I know, safety first. But for crying out loud!! It didn't even cover the tops of the grass!!! Regardless of how much we got, the kids still really loved going outside for some sledding and snowball fights!

A special birthday message for Isabel

Love you!

Happy 4th birthday, Isabel!

Happy birthday to you, big girl! We love you SO much and wish we could be there to help blow out your birthday candles!

xoxo,
Nate, Anna, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Marc

What a pain in the a**!

Quite literally for me! About a week ago, I was walking down the stairs in our house when my feet flew out from under me and I landed hard on my bum. When I finally dragged myself to the doctor because the pain was not going away, I found out that I fractured my tail bone. Who needs a tail bone anyway? I am not a monkey!! Anyway, I am still in great pain but the medicine the doctor gave me helps out a lot. You might also notice that I am blogging during the day on Monday. Nate got diagnosed with strep this morning so I'm home with a *very* grumpy little guy. I just hope that he doesn't fight me at nap time. Now more than ever he needs to rest, but he has always resisted sleeping. Even when he was a baby. Despite all the sickness and injuries, we had a really nice weekend. Playdates, visits with Grandpa & Grandma, and even a monster truck show for Marc & Nate. I took some pictures of Anna while the boys were away. She is getting so big!

Happy New Year!

A bit belated, but better late than never! I hope that everyone had a great holiday season. Has anyone set any resolutions yet? I can't believe that it is 2009, the year I turn 35. In many ways I feel like the same schmuck I was in high school. I am not big on new year resolutions. I usually work on them through January (oops, half this month is already gone!) and then they are all forgotten. So this time, I have no goals set... yet. But I am working on my list and am trying to narrow down the many improvements I could. no strike that, will make in my life. You see, I am already so self-defeating. But really, I have so many thing to work on. The problem is narrowing it down and feeling motivated to really go for it.

Some floating ideas of things I want to do in 2009 are:
* Do a garden with the kids (hopefully they'll eat more veggies if they grow them!)
* Be more patient & outwardly loving.
* Tell my husband and kids I love them at least 2 times a day.
* Be more thoughtful.
* Have a continual supply of good books for my children to read and to get excited about - make more trips to the library
* Exercise at least twice during the week and once on the weekend (isn't that always on the list?)
* Simplify my life.
* Focus on the things that matter, i.e., relationships rather than things.
* Reconnect with friends.
* Lose the last 10 pounds I need to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight (when I thought I was a cow). Maybe lose 5 to 10 more.
* Leave the dishes in the sink & the floor dirty so that I can play with the kids more.
* Do more weekend traveling & adventuring now that the kids are a bit older.
* Watch less tv. Find other things to do.

What sorts of things do YOU want to focus on in '09?

Here are some photos from the holidays to end this post. Talk to you all soon! XOXO


Nate and Anna in their basement playroom. Marc and I actually cleaned it out over the weekend (mainly to make room for the big bounce thingy.)


Poor Anna. Now that her hair is finally growing, I can't resist putting it up and doing fancy things with it! Her eyes are starting to change from blue to gray. We have no idea what their final color will be.


In the U.S. Botanical Gardens. They had an AWESOME train display up that ran through different fairy tales and was made only with natural items. Even for us jaded people, it was cool!


Nate and Anna in front of our Christmas tree.


Our messy living room on Christmas morning. I am totally digging the wide angle lens Marc gave me!