6 years of marriage!

Six years ago today, I married my best friend! Time has flown by and here we are six years later with two awesome kids and too many animals! Eric and I met in the fall of 1996. He was the bass clarinet player that sat behind me in symphonic band my freshman year. He also went to church with my lab partner from Biology. We really didn't start to hang out until spring semester of 1997. We were placed in the same section of honors Biology 2 that spring and he was the only one in the class that I kind of knew. Our friendship blossomed as we became study buddies but it was never more than that since I had a long distance boyfriend at the time. We met each others families, talked daily and went out with a group on the weekends. That all changed one night right before Christmas break in 1997 (Lily's birthday is the 12th anniversary of our first date). Suddenly my best friend was my boyfriend and the rest is history! We dated through the rest of college and then dated 4 years long distance while Eric went to law school at Tech and I was in dental school in San Antonio. The first 2 years were the most difficult. We were both so busy and so poor that we only saw each other every 5-6 weeks. I think the fact that we were both swamped in professional study programs is the reason we were able to keep going. Neither one of us were slighted because we were both too busy for words! We got engaged after my second year of dental school and married two years later. God has richly blessed my life and Eric is one of the richest blessings He has given me. I praise God daily that Eric is in my life!

6 Months!(a little late)

I cannot believe that Lily is already 6 months old. She went in for her check up and all is well. She is 16.25 pounds and 26 3/4 inches long. Still little compared to Joshua but she's in the 75% on weight and 90% on height. Her list of tricks and accomplishments includes....Rolling over both ways, sitting by herself, saying dada, mama and bubba and giving big sloppy kisses. She is very handy with grasping object and getting them instantly to her mouth. She wants to get her hands on everything! Doing anything while holding her has become very interesting! She has two bottom teeth and it looks like 6 more are trying to come through. She eats rice cereal, oatmeal and has tried sweet potatoes, squash and pears. She has also started to try to army crawl/inchworm along on the floor but succeeds in going backwards for the most part. If she wants to go forward, she flips over on her back and pushes with her feet until she scoots forward to where she wants to be. Silly girl!

Kitchen Chaos

Ever since we moved into our house I have had a love/hate relationship with my kitchen. I love the size, how open it is to the rest of the house, how there's enough room to cook and still have a baby or two playing in the floor... The appearance, however, has been a thorn in my side for the past 4 years! The people who owned our house previously had very eclectic tastes to put it mildly. I think we counted 10 different colors of paint on the downstairs level alone...not all attractive or coordinating. How can we forget the HUGE bronze and black star on the ceiling of the dining room or the little stars painted on the tile on the fire place? We had about a 6 week leeway from the time we closed on our house to the time that our apartment lease was up. We used every bit of this time to repaint almost the entire house! The kitchen had 5 different colors in it alone so it took a lot of time. One paint I couldn't get rid of was the paint on the tile backsplash. That's right....they painted the tile! Poorly I might add. Every few squares across the tile backsplash, was a streaky, red painted tile. The paint was in the grout and deep red so there was no hope of removing it like we did on the fire place. Once we repainted the house the kitchen looked decidedly yellow and ugly. I had a seam in the formica that was bubbled and a kitchen faucet that was faded and funky looking. Anyway, we had other things that commanded more immediate attention like setting up Joshua's nursery so the kitchen fell to the back burner. Then we ended up building a grape arbor over the back patio to get rid of the previous covering that sustained hail damage, put plantation shutters up, and found out I was pregnant with Lily. That necessitated a remodel in study, big kid furniture for Joshua....the list goes on.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I struck a bargain with Eric. I had told him once that I should get jewelry for every gun he bought (ha ha). I've yet to see any sparkly things come my way and our house has accumulated a substantial gun collection. I traded in my jewelry for my kitchen! It all came together pretty fast. I had them out for an estimate 2 weeks ago, they were out the Monday after to cut templates and last weekend I said "Ciao" to my yellow kitchen! I have spent most of my time since they finished dusting... It's amazing how much dust cutting granite can create and they did most of the cutting before they got here and the polishing outside! I think I will be finding granite dust for a very long time! I finally got my kitchen all back together Monday night and I love it. When your kitchen is torn up the whole rest of the house might as well be in shambles. I can't tell you how many times I started to go to dump something or rinse something in the kitchen sink when I had no sink to do these things! It was a LONG two days with two kids and no kitchen sink. I think I've had my fill of eating out for quite some time!

Behind again....sigh!

This spring has been horrible on the blogging front. We have so much going on I just don't seem to find time to sit and write it all down! I will strive to be better for all 4 of you that keep up with us this way!! Where to start?

So my last post was during Lily's first drastic sick episode. I will happily report that she is hale and hearty again. It took a solid week and a half but she returned to normal far faster than Eric and I did. It's amazing how quickly those little bodies heal! Eric and I still looked like zombies 3 weeks later! Of course we both caught whatever upper respiratory thing she had going and if she felt like we did I don't blame her for being so cranky! Oh well, I would much rather do the cold and virus gig than a stomach bug!

Lily turned 5 months on May 2nd and it growing and changing so fast! She rolls over both ways and I find her on her tummy in the morning more often than not. She still has just the first two teeth but the two on either side are trying to come in. She loves oatmeal but is not as enthusiastic about rice cereal and she eats cereal for breakfast and dinner. She has started to give us kisses over the past week. She will grab both sides of your face and plant a wet, slobbery baby kiss on whatever part of your face that reaches her mouth when she leans in. She LOVES her exersaucer and is utterly fascinated with her big brother. He gets more smiles and giggles than anyone! She has said dada, mama and bubba at this point. Dada was her first word and she certainly had Eric wrapped around her little finger. She loves to sit in his lap, lean against his chest and gaze up at his face in utter adoration. So cute!! She is just an instant away from sitting by herself. She will sit unaided for a few seconds at a time but gets excited and topples over when she realizes no one is supporting her.






Joshua seems to be changing over night as well. Everyday he's more of a little boy. It's amazing to see the differences in his features in just the past few months. He's also shot up in height again. He was 41" at his 3 year check up and now he's right around 43" If he keeps going like this he will definitely hit the 6'5" they predicted from his 2 year height! He is the tallest kid in his class and he's one of the youngest in it. People are constantly asking me if he starts kindergarten in the fall and are amazed when I explain that he's three and a half! T-ball is almost over and we are all very happy for that fact! I don't think t-ball is Joshua's cup of tea as we spend more time cajoling him onto the field than enjoying the experience. I think our next adventure will be soccer. This kid loves to kick balls around.







Next week I am finally getting my new kitchen counters! When we bought the house we new we eventually wanted to replace the kitchen counters. They have a cheap formica on them and it's buckled at the seams in a couple of places. I have a lot of counter space in my kitchen, which I love, but it makes the cost of replacement shoot right up. I have disliked the look of my kitchen ever since we repainted the house before we moved in. The color palette that I have makes the kitchen counters look really yellow. The previous owners didn't help things out when they decided to paint over several tiles on the backsplash with a gaudy red. Four years later I am finally getting rid of my yellow counters!!! We are putting in granite with a stainless steel undermount sink and a putty colored tile backsplash. I will definitely post before and after pics next weekend!

So I was supposed to be catching up on the blog...

Well, my best laid plans to catch up on the blog last week certainly went to waste! I got the pictures loaded onto my computer and facebook but the blog didn't get updated before Lily was struck with an upper respiratory infections and double ear infections. Poor baby has been miserable since last Friday. Today is the first day that she has been fever free and last night was the first night she has slept through since last Thursday. Needless to say, I feel somewhat like a zombie. I have never been this worried about a sick kiddo before. Joshua had his fair share of ear infections, croup, the infamous unspecified virus but he never ran a fever for more than 3 days and never over 103. Lily has run a 101-102 fever since Friday with a peak of 104.5 that landed us at a pediatric urgent care center because I couldn't get it to go down. I am so glad that she seems to be on the mend. I am afraid that she has inherited my ears. I had numerous ear infections as a child and had my ears tubed twice. Joshua seemed to avoid that but I think Lily is headed down my path. According to my mom I got an ear infection every time I cut a tooth. True to form, Lily came down with all of this lovely stuff shortly after cutting her first two teeth. I am hoping and praying that it was a fluke this time around.

So.....here are a few pictures of our latest springtime adventures and Easter.


Joshua the T-ball player

Somehow we never managed to get a family shot for Easter but we did manage to catch everyone at one point or another.


First bite of cereal



Zoo time


Sweet baby girl


Dinosaur Valley State Park


Fossil Rim



Bluebonnets!!

Woefully behind.....

Where has March gone?!?!? Time has totally gotten away from me and it's been over a month since I posted anything! April looks like it's going to be even busier so I am going to try to use my time off this week to catch up! We have had all sorts of firsts going on in the Millner household and I hope I can remember all of them over the next several days. This working full time with two kids is crazy busy. I feel like I am meeting myself coming and going most days...UGH!

Anyway, on with the update. I will post pictures later. Joshua has started playing T-ball this month. Eric got roped into being the coach for his team and it is so much fun to watch. Joshua and his cousin, Mason, are the youngest on the team at 3.5 and the oldest will be 5 next month. At this point the goal is to teach them the basics...hit the ball, run the bases in order and try to get the outfield to get the ball to first base and back to home. It's kind of like herding cats on a good day but is so fun to watch and help out. There are usually bats flying, kids running every which way, several going for the ball at once and typically one throwing a fit in the field at some point. Joshua can hit pretty well when he wants to but has come up with a big case of the whiners lately so it's hit or miss. Another big step in getting rid of pull ups at night!!!!! Joshua's been potty trained since shortly before his third birthday but we haven't been able to get rid of the nighttime pull-up until this week. He finally gets it...WooHoo!!

Lily is growing like a little weed and changes so much each day! She had her 4 month check up on Good Friday. She now weighs 14 lbs 6 oz and was 26 inches tall. Her first tooth broke through the gingiva on Easter and she rolled over for the first time tonight! She has also discovered her feet, loves to suck on her big toes and thinks her brother and the dogs are hilarious when chasing bubbles outside. Lily also started rice cereal this weekend and is doing very well with it. The first bite or two ends up with most of it on her chin and I get the funny look but after that she seems to chow right down. She is continuing to do great at daycare. We have had one episode with pink eye already but the rest of us managed to stay goop free!

I am off this week for a late spring break. My office is closed and we have lots of adventures planned over the next few days. Eric was able to take off until Wednesday so we can have sort of a staycation. Today we hit the zoo and checked out the new museum of living art exhibit. It is awesome and a very big hit with a little boy. We had the best weather today! It was overcast and 75 and all the animals were out and animated. It's the best time we've ever had at the zoo. Tomorrow we are off to Glenrose for Fossil Rim and the Dinosaur Valley park. I think we will close things out with the Arboretum and the Aquarium. I plan on posting Easter/spring pics over the next several days so keep checking!

3 Months!!

I can't believe my little girl turned 3 months old this week! Where has the time gone?!?!? We've had lots of changes in the past couple of weeks and Lily is doing great! The biggest of changes, I have gone back to work. 12 weeks is double the average maternity leave but it seemed to just fly by this time around. I wasn't ready to go back to work at all. It was much harder this time and I'm not sure why. With Joshua, I was raring to go back to work. I think with Lily coming in the midst of the holiday season, my mom being here longer this go around, and the fact that we are more established and have more friends for me to meet up with for coffee and lunch I didn't get nearly as bored. Not to mention that I have a very active 3 year old to keep up with as well. Lily is in her second week of daycare and doing very well now. The first week was a little rough for both of us. We had given Lily several bottles before she started and like her brother the first one was great and it steadily declined from there. She wasn't to the point of absolutely refusing the bottle but she was close. The first day she hardly ate anything all day and then nursed for 30 minutes every hour and a half after we got home. Poor baby was starving! The second day they worked with her and got her to take 1-2 oz every 1.5 to 2 hours. After that, I went on a mission for some different bottles. I tried 4 bottles on her before we found one she liked! It's actually a new bottle made my Tommee Tippee and it's called the Closer to Nature bottle. The nipple on it has a super wide base and looks more like the real thing. That was the only bottle she would take 4 oz from at a time so that's what we got. Of course they are odd shaped bottles that don't fit my dishwasher or any of the bottle baskets for the dishwasher so I ended up having to buy the bottle sterilizer to go with it. I'll do whatever it takes to get the princess to eat!

Another big step was moving Lily to her own room. She was still sleeping in a bassinet in our room until the night before I went back to work. I finally figured out that she was only sleeping 5-6 hours at a time because we were waking her up anytime we moved or if the dogs started snoring, shaking, or jumping off the bed. What a difference her own bed has made! I've been putting her down around 9:30 or 10 and she goes until 6:30 when it's time for me to feed her before heading off to daycare and the office. I run a vaporizer in her room for white noise and it seems to work like a charm! I am so glad to get a full night's sleep again. I figure my patients also appreciate having a dentist that is fully alert!

We are headed off to Midland this weekend for our first weekend trip with both kids. I am amazed at how much longer it takes to pack when an infant is involved. Speaking of which....I better get back to it!