HD

Brandon and I have different opinions on having HD for our TV. I think it's nice, but not worth paying for. Brandon can't live without it. Once you've had it, you can't go back. He says it's like going from a car to a handcart.

hypnotized

My brother and sister were recently hypnotized at their work party and the video was pretty funny. I love hypnotist shows. It's so hilarious how people act. At the end they are told to focus on something they want to achieve and hypnotized to be able to do it. It made me wonder what one thing I would choose if I were hypnotized. I think it would be healthy eating. There are a lot of things I want to achieve that I can summon up the motivation or will power to do on my own, but healthy eating just isn't fun. Some sort of brain washing would be really helpful. What would you pick?
Also, since it's 3am while I am writing this I wonder how old a kid has to be before they can be hypnotized into sleeping through the night?

Financial Reading

I loved reading Dave Ramsey's book A Total Money Makeover. It was so inspiring what you can do by being smart with your money. I really liked the point he said about how you should read books to learn more about things that are important to you. It's important to me to be financially smart and yet this is one of very few books I've read about money. If you know of some other good personal finance books let me know. I'd like to read more, but it'd be nice to know which ones are going to be useful and which ones are boring.

Austin

Calvin has a good friend we hang out with a lot named Boston. He also knows a couple of Austins, but can't figure out how to say it, he just calls Austin Boston. Since Austin is coming over to play this morning I was trying to practice with him and this is how our conversation went:

Me: Aw-stin
Cal: Aw-Boston
Me: Aws - tin
Cal: Aw -Boston
Me: Austin
Cal: Good job Mommy!

Green Car

My mom came to stay with us to help out with Shelby last week. Brandon and Calvin took her to the airport and Calvin fell asleep in the car. When Grandma was walking away Calvin woke up and started crying frantically something that sounded like "Grandma! Grandma!" and Brandon figured he was upset she was leaving. Then he realized he was actually saying something about his "green car!" Brandon thought it was kind of confusing and told him they'd look for it when they got home.
Fast forward to my mom going through her luggage and I get an email telling me she found Calvin's green car in the pocket of her bag. When we asked Calvin how his green car ended up in Grandma's bag he said it was hiding. We let him know bags headed to the airport aren't a good place to hide things.

Statement

Sometimes I think Calvin leaves things around the house just to say "I was here."

Shelby Claire Miller

Shelby came on Monday at 5:30pm. She weighed 8lbs 2oz and was 19 inches long. Labor went well. I highly recommend having 8lb babies over 10lb babies, it's a much better way to go. I only had to push for 20 minutes instead of 3 hours like I did with Calvin.
Calvin loves having a baby sister (so far). He keeps telling us that she is "sooo cute". He is constantly sharing his favorite toy, a little motorcycle, by sitting it next to her.
If you want to see massive amounts of pictures, I'll add lots to the picture blog soon. (link to the side)

Nap time

This is what Calvin likes to do when he is locked in his room to take a nap. It's pretty funny to watch the books creep further and further out. I'm not sure who he is trying to reach, but it seems to be some kind of "I'm trapped in here, let me out" message he is trying to send.

Tums

I've had quite a bit of heartburn at the end of both pregnancies. This time I've decided if I can't stand the thought of eating another chalky Tums, I'll take a break and just try to OD on chocolate milk and Breyers Rocky Road ice cream. Tums isn't the only source of calcium out there.

modern coloring

One of Calvin's first attempts at photoshop:
Gotta start them young.

Red Punch

My friend has a cool company called Red Punch Designs that you might want to check out for Christmas cards this year. Some of them even have my art. That's right, you can have your very own Rebecca Miller illustrated Christmas cards. Merry Christmas!

Christmas shopping - check

Yesterday I finished all of our Christmas shopping. And it's mostly all wrapped and stored in a tote. Record timing for me, for sure. I think Christmas shopping counts as my "nesting" this year. Sure, I want to get the house in order a little more before our baby girl comes, (in 2 weeks or less!) but this will be one less thing to worry about. Now we can sit and relax and enjoy the holidays and never leave the house. Until sometime in December I get stir crazy and go and do more Christmas shopping just so I can get out of the house.

Stickers

Calvin had some Toy Story stickers that he was really excited about putting to good use. He decided the best place was on my belly. A reason wasn't exactly given, but one by one he put his entire collection on me. He insisted that I keep them on so I wore them most of the afternoon/ evening (only a little bit outside). Eventually they ended up on his picnic table, which was convenient for him because then they were readily accessible so he could reapply them to my belly again the next day.

Waiting

I keep thinking how ready I am for the baby and wondering when I will feel another contraction. I go over things I need to get done, buying newborn diapers, setting up the bassinet, planning some simple meals for when we come home. I tell myself, ok, I'm ready! Then when I feel any kind of contraction related pain I panic and realize - I'M NOT READY!!I'M NOT READY!!I'M NOT READY!!But let's be real, I'll never be ready for the pain.

Cooking

Here is a list of things I have been really wanting to make lately:

homemade donuts
chocolate chip zucchini muffins
apple kuchen (pie)
caramel apples
samoas cookies
snickers salad
pumpkin cheesecake

I'm trying to figure out which one would make the best lunch...

Motorcycle

Calvin tells me several times a day that when he gets bigger he is going to drive a motorcycle. In the meantime, he uses combs as motorcycles. He has no preference which one and I have no idea how it started, but it sure is a convenient toy that entertains him for long periods of time.

The best thing to do with an apple:

Apple crisp is good, so is apple pie. Caramel apples are amazing, but when it's apple season you can't leave out Snickers Salad. You can make it as semi-healthy or unhealthy as you like. Chop up a pile of apples, add some spoonfuls of cool whip, and mix in a few chopped up snickers bars. Your welcome.
....Or I guess I should say thank you to Heather for bringing this recipe home from work. love it.

Closet

One day I told Calvin we should hide in the closet and surprise Brandon when I saw him pull into the driveway. Ever since then it's his favorite thing to do. At first it was for when he knew someone was coming over, like one of my siblings. I guess those events didn't happen often enough because he started to hide in the closet to surprise me. Only, I don't leave for very long so he would hide in the closet when I went outside to get the mail and another time when I just went upstairs for a minute.

Halloween prep

I was going to try and make Calvin a simplified Super Why costume (his favorite show), but this was so much easier and still really cheap. At first he didn't want to put on the jacket, just the hat. I told him we need to try it on to see if it was too big or too small (although, it was obviously too big) and as I put it on him he happily exclaimed, "it fits!" They only had size 5-7, which is great because now we don't have to figure out another Halloween costume until 2015.

Amazing treats by us

We had some friends over to make caramel apples with us the other day. We tried to recreate Rocky Mountain Caramel apples as much as possible, and I think we did a pretty good job. (although, we didn't get pictures of our prettiest apples - sorry) They tasted AMAZING. This site was helpful. We coated the apples in caramel, then drizzled with milk & white chocolate and rolled them in either: snickers, cookie crumbs, m&m's, or graham crackers.

And since we had lots of leftover chocolate, and some strawberries laying around.... and marshmallows, we ended up with a few more creations later as well: