Easter 2008

We hope all had a wonderful Easter. We sure did. We got to go to the Ranch where we enjoyed seeing family, checking out the Millar's new "theater" in their family room, a trip to the temple (what could be more Easter appropriate), eating lots of yummy food and of course, the outdoors. The weather was gorgeous and we spent Easter afternoon down in the canyon by the creek. I couldn't decide on just 1 or 2 pics, so here are several :)... enjoy... Basking by the falls

Enjoying the spoils of the egg hunt

Wearing the flowers Elyette picked for me










WEEEeee!!!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

And a big Happy Birthday to Stephanie!

Born to Blog

Princess Elyette

So if you know us, the last thing we'd call our little girl is "princess". In fact, even after some pleading from his mother to call Elyette something sweet, like princess, Boz still calls her "wad" and of course "Slim". Well, despite us, Elyette is ALL girl. Here's a list to make our point:

- She loves shoes! What true girl doesn't? She tries different shoes on all day. Brooke, (her aunt) on one occasion while babysitting, found Elyette lying on her bed after her nap with dolls all around her and tap shoes on her feet. If she sees shoes (whatever the size) while in a store she'll go straight to them and start trying them on. A couple months ago we went to chauffeur Elyette's uncle Ray and his friends to their winter formal. Elyette admired the girls in their formals and had to try on all their shoes! Whenever we visit somewhere she'll proceed to try on the shoes that are left by the door. Beginning with the high heels. I could go on...

-She loves dresses! Skirts will do fine, but dresses are best. I made her a green nightgown for Christmas (I'll have to make her more) and if its clean, its her first pick for bed(her next pick is large T-shirts that resemble dresses). She calls it her "Fiona dress". She likes to watch Fiona in the scene on Shrek where she sings to the bird and makes it blow up. She does all the actions and sings along, complete with the high screech at the end. She loves Fiona, even as an ogre... a princess is a princess to Elyette :)

- Spinning and dancing... I think the biggest appeal of dresses is that they are fun to spin in. We were at Target the other day and I tried a dress on and Elyette got really excited and said "Spin, mom, SPIN!" Whenever I put a skirt or dress on, she gets me to spin. After her aunt Hannah taught her a plie, she practices them all the time and of course she has fully adopted her daddy's goofy finger and hip shake dance...I'm sorry if he has ever taught this to your child (they all seem to love it though :)).

-Shop till you drop. Literally for Elyette. I was never much of a shopper until Elyette was born. She was very colicky in the beginning, and for some reason she calmed down whenever we were at the grocery store. So I took her out shopping almost daily when she was a newborn to keep her from crying. By about 9 months she began to refuse to sit in the cart or stroller while shopping because she wanted to help me shop, I'm sure many mommies can relate. Now I can get her to sit in the cart, but if she sees something she likes, she wants out. She doesn't demand that she get it, she just wants to look and will put it right back. We go to Target quite a bit and she loves to show me things, "look, mom... look, mom", and puts clothes up to herself in the mirror and spins. The best is when she sees something she likes and exclaims "oooo, tute!" Shopping with Elyette is never a short trip but its fun!

-Hair and make-up. She likes to brush her hair and dolls hair. I don't put her hair up very often, but its cute to watch her try and gather her hair together to make pig tails. She is also just starting to discover that she can dress up Jack :). She put a bow in his hair last week and said "pretty, Jack" to him as he brightly grinned his gummy smile at her. When I put my make-up on she hands me what I need and sometimes when I'm done with it, she'll say "Ette's turn!" (explanation: She's a lazy little speaker and has decided to drop the "ely" out of her name and just refer to herself as "ette").

-She runs like a girl. Her strides get faster but shorter, so she runs about as fast as she walks and she sticks her belly out. She looks very dainty when running, hehe, you have to just see it really. We were convinced she'd be a goalie or something, because at a very young age she was an awesome catch. Before she turned a year old she could catch almost any size of ball from any distance and throw them back both underhand and overhand, but somehow, she's lost it. She either can't or pretends to not be able to catch anymore... any help with this is welcome!

-She loves chocolate! She'll of course eat anything sweet or called candy, cookie, cake, etc., but if given the choice, she'll take chocolate! (a girl after my own heart).

-Recently she has really gotten into all the girly Disney characters. This morning she informed me that she wanted "Tinker Bell cereal" aka: Luck Charms (well the Safeway store brand kind). She got this new little yellow shirt that she calls her "Belle shirt". She has this new found love for Sleeping Beauty pillow that Gramma and Grampa Smith got for her. When she's changing her clothes she puts one arm out threw the neckline and says "look, like slella, mom" (translation: "look mom, I look like Cinderella" she has this funny slurred "L" sound she likes to use with "L" words). I think the one shoulder showing thing must look like Cinderella's dress thats been ripped by her sisters. She also like to put her headbands on us, especially Boz and shout in a super excited voice "slella, daddy!", Daddy loves to look like Cinderalla. She regularly quotes the Little Mermaid, especially from the scene where King Triton destroys all of Ariel's human things. Elyette likes to turn to daddy and shout "but, Daddy, I love him"... Boz is really loving that one ;), I'm sure he can't wait to hear it in 14 years.

-She also seems to have all the traits that we as woman are most blessed to have. She doesn't forget a thing (for both the good and the bad as is the case with most women), and She is very nuturing and loves to selflessly serve and care for those around her. I could definitely (and do) learn a few things from her.

Music

So I figured this would be a good place to put my music, because usually when I record a song, it doesn't make it any further than my ipod. I figured if I put them here, at least someone would listen them. So these are the songs that I've made that I'm the least embarrassed of, all named after a number, that doesn't necessarily represent the order they were made:

Song 5: Just piano and strings. Recorded it one day when Maegan and Slim were down at the senior games for one of her classes. Kind of slow, but I think this one turned out ok. Probably one of my favorites, so it's on top.

Song 6: I thought that this one was pretty good, but the drums didn't sound that good. I will probably end up re-recording this one with a real cello and hopefully put words to it, because I think it has some potential.

Song 23: This one I never quite finished because I can't sing. Aside from not being able to sing, my melodies always come out lame anyways, so I left this song wordless, which makes it feel long, but you can get the idea of what I intended to do.

Showcase Song: I wrote this song for my songwriting class. It had lyrics at one point, but the melody was pretty lame, so they're gone now. It was one of my better arrangements though, so here it is.

Song 25: I kept this song short knowing that I wasn't going to put any lyrics to it. It makes it more bearable. I should probably re-record this one because the guitars are a bit cheesy sounding, and I over compressed the dynamics a bit.

Song 1: This song is kind of generic, and might be ok with a good melody, but of course, I'm no good at that, so this one is what it is. I thought the mix was pretty good though, so I'm putting it up.

Song 2: This one was never intended to have lyrics. It would have been ok, but I mixed the rhythm guitar a little too loud, and the lead a little too quite. I've heard it too many times, so I can't bring myself to remix it.

That should probably be enough songs for now. I'll try to make new ones, but it looks like they come about once a year now. I'll be getting a guitar tomorrow, so maybe I'll be excited to make a new song.

Its Official!

So everyone knows when you move you need to get a new license and registered your car. Since Boz already is a Californian and our car is already registered here, I figured this would be a piece of cake...hahaha...things never are...

Well, first of all, the tabs on our car were expired because we had to have a smog test before getting the new tabs and since they only do the necessary certified smog tests in CA, and we lived in Utah, you can see our dilemma. So we got a fix it ticket when we first got here. I went to the DMV for that and for my new license. Since I still hadn't gotten my name changed after getting married :), I needed a birth cert and marriage cert. At this time I learned that apparently we did not have a county certified marriage certificate. I had no idea since the temple one worked for me to change my name on my social security card. So after some wondering if we were actually legally married (just kidding) I mailed a request to King County for a copy.

It was just on Valentine's Day that got into the DMV for a second attempt. I'm sure I was quite the site with Jack and Elyette in tow. They both behaved themselves very well considering I had to stand in 5 different lines. Our only fiasco was when I was taking the written test(also required for new residents). About halfway through the test Elyette started nervously yelling "poop!". I didn't know what to do, I was terrified they'd make me come back another time to take the test or think I was cheating or something, but when a 2 year old yells poop, you've got to go. So I left all my stuff scooped up Jack, grabbed Elyette's hand and ran across the DMV. To my horror the restroom was fully occupied. After praying Elyette could handle the wait, we finally got our turn only to find that she didn't really have to go. She wouldn't let us leave though until she went pee. For sometime I paced nervously asking "all done", everytime she'd get mad at me and say "NO! Pee..." After what seemed like an eternity she went and we ran back to the test area. Thankfully it all worked out and I was able to finish the whole process.

So its official, I'm a Californian! My license came in the mail today and after 3 years of marriage, I finally have my name changed... No more showing of 2 or 3 ID's at the airport anymore...
hmm, you people are lucky, you get to see my oh so beautiful license pic :)

Our Modest Valentine's

So, if you know us at all, you probably know we are pretty cheap, I prefer to call it thrifty and resourceful :)... so naturally Valentine's day is low key around our house. Since flowers are ridiculously priced, we skip out on that tradition (though if you know Boz, I'm not sure I have much choice in the matter anyway... he has more creative ways of expressing himself that is). When is comes to candy, we get some the day after, when its just as good, but half the price. Boz also got me a cookbook at half price that I wanted. As far as eating out goes, if you don't have reservations it can be a nightmare. So we started the tradition of making a yummy dinner at home. For gifts, Elyette and I were busy making Vday treats for Boz, that we put in a box we decorated.

Treats include:
-Strawberry rice crispy treats with messages on them
-White chocolate dipped pretzels with red sprinkles
-Chocolate chip cookies with pink, white, and red chips

For our dinner we made:
- Focaccia bread with oil and vinegar,
- A fresh tomato and basil pasta dish we like to make,
- spinach salad
- Martinelli's
- Oh and, even Jack got in on the fun... mmmm, rice cereal



We made valentines for each other and put them at our place settings, and later we had vanilla pudding and strawberries for dessert (which Elyette called frosting).


Elyette had fun putting hearts on the wall that we made for FHE earlier in the week. So, as you can see, we had a modest, a but totally fun Valentine's Day!

You Don't Know Jack?

Here's a little bit (ok, a lot) about our little dude, Jack.

1- He may look Smith, but he is ALL Millar. Jack is almost a copy cat of Boz. He has the same torso, feet and hands (will likely be duck footed too), that big Millar head :), and of course, the "GM" butt (thanks grandpa). He did not, however, get the crazy eyebrows, his sister got those instead, nor the bald baby head and he has my eye color.

2-Not as big as you think. We finally got Jack to the Dr. for his 4 month appt. a few weeks ago, (he is now 5 months). He was 25th percentile for weight, 36th for height, and 63rd for head (yep, the Millar head). So actually, he's kinda small, not as small as Elyette, but petite. Though he may measure small, he's still a squishy baby. I've never experienced the joy of chubby wrists and that pad of chub on top of babies' feet until now :).

3- A Social Butterfly. Or whatever the masculine alternative may be. Jack loves people! He wants to be held and talked to all the time and he'll smile at everyone. He began smiling very early on. He's not the observer type like the rest of his family, he likes to be right there in the action and loves the center of attention.

4- Speaking of love... Jack loves his family. From day one, he knew exactly who his mamma was and is totally a mamma's boy. He has this whimpery little cry when he's with someone else and sees me (most often when he's hungry of course). When daddy comes home at night, Jack starts beaming and wiggles like crazy cause he knows its time to play. And then there's Elyette. He can't get enough of her. He smiles so big when she's around and he closely watches her every move. He loves to play with her hair and give her kisses. They are great buddies. We tuck them in together at night and often hear serious giggling and cooing coming from their room.

5- This drama king knows what he wants. Everything is life or death with this kid (as with many babies, I imagine). He has this throaty painful cry he whips out when he wants to lay it on thick. Like "it took you 3 seconds to long to feed me", or "Elyette touched me!" (he way over reacts when he knows Elyette is involved). If you've ever heard his hacking, gagging cough, don't worry, he's fine. That sound freaked us out so bad when he was a newborn, but we soon learned its his harmless way of "clearing his throat" (also a Millar trait).

6- He likes to talk. Oh and growl... yes people, he growls. We playfully growl each other names sometimes to get Elyette to do it back and even Jack picked up on it. Thats one of his ways of talking to you. Its definitely one of a kind, but very cute. I'll hear him cooing and growling in his bed over the monitor just about every morning. Great way to wake up.

7- New tricks! Jack is anxious to learn new things (his sister was always very cautious). He's been mastering a lot of skills this past week actually. He rolls like crazy (still working on back to tummy, but very close) and now can sit for several minutes on his own without balancing on his hands even. He's getting good at catching himself when he gets off balance too. He's always gets really excited and starts grabbing our hands andfood when we eat, so we finally started him on rice cereal this week.

8- A few of his favorite things. Aside from people, Jack loves diving for toys, eating his feet, eating his sister, being tickled, curling up into a ball then forcefully sprawling out, spitting up all the time to keep everyone on their toes, and, sadly, TV. Yup, if the TV is on, he does everything in his power to crank his head towards it. Thankfully we don't have it on much (antenna can only offer so much).

9-A few of my favorite things. I think most all mommies enjoy midnight feedings in one way or another. I love it in the middle of the night when he's whimpering to be fed, and the moment he sees me he makes the cutest sighs of relief. When I'm feeding him, the room is so quite that every now and then if I sniff or something, Jack startles and looks up at me, grin huge as if saying "oh mom, when did you get here?", growls to say hi, then goes back to eating. Man, I love that little guy. He definitely melts his mommy's heart.

So that just skims the surface of our Jack for those of you that have not yet had the joy of knowing this sweet little spirit. We pretty much have the coolest little wads ever (as Boz would put it).

Playing House!

Ok, so its been 2 months. Sorry bout that, but as you can imagine things have been a little crazy around here. I can say now that I feel quite settled. All boxes are unpacked. We have a stand for our TV, a shelf for our books and a couch to sit on finally.

We orginally ordered a couch that was a small sectional from JCPenney.com and when we got it, it was about 6 inches shorter that it had said on the website. It was ridiculous how short the back of it was, actaully. When sitting on it, it came to Elyette's shoulders. Thats right, Elyette's! As you can imagine, I was freaking out about how to get rid of this expensive mistake. Thankfully, JCPenney was awesome about the whole thing and since it was not as it had been described, they refunded us completely (including the $200 for shipping) before they even picked it up, which was also free of charge. The day after that couch was picked up our new couch that we found at Costco for even cheaper was delivered! LOVE that one!

So we're like real people now. We also got a portable washer and dryer (yes, they exist) that work great and fit nicely on our patio right under the kitchen window (so I can easily hook the washer up to the sink). After the $20 per week we were spending for the coin-op (OUCH), they are easily paying for themselves. Especially with a potty training toddler and a puking and pooping baby!


Though it will take a while, I'm also having a blast going room to room decorating (or at least planning to) and creating custom innovations for our little, but cozy place. I like playing house!

Post Script (2/20/2008): We got our new kitchen table from Boz's parents over the holiday weekend (THANKS AGAIN). Its one of those counter high tables I've wanted and it has a butterfly leaf the folds down into the table. So it seats up to 6 people, but since there is only the 3 of us around the table daily, we have it up against the wall (for space purposes). I love, love, love it! Good bye to folding chairs and piano stools for seating :).

Just Like Mommy

I've heard some people think that if it weren't for the way society conditions girls to be girls and boys to be boys, we would not behave in such gender specific ways. Obviously, I agree that nobody is cookie cutter boy or girl, but Elyette has convinced me that even if I tried to make her more boyish, I'd fail. She is very aware that both she and mommy are girls, so she copies my every move. Its funny to observe how closely she watches me and what I do (much more so than she does her daddy) especially when it comes to Jack.

As you can see, she is a natural born mother. She likes to "feed" her baby when I do, and must always take her baby out in the stroller when we leave the apartment. Last night, I sat on the couch cross legged with Jack asleep on my shoulder and Elyette had to come over and sit the same way holding her baby in the same exact manner. She gets this totally serious look on her face when she is mothering her baby, its hilarious! She's a great kid and I have no doubt that some day she will be a great mommy! :)

Living in the City

Thanks to Dolby's corporate housing for new employees, we've been living at 2000 Post in San Francisco until we find a permanent place. We just have to pay taxes on it, which after learning its about $3500 per month for the little one bedroom place we are in, taxes are about what we would pay for rent anyway, but its still a nice little perk.

Anyway, I started this blog post after less than 2 weeks of living in SF, when I have to say, I felt a bit more negatively toward city life and blamed the atmosphere of city living for circumstances that had nothing to do with that. I write now in retrospect of the whole experience 3 months later (February 2008)... I was very excited about living in the city since city life was always something I wanted to experience and we were going to be in a nice little furnished place. I planned to see the sights, enjoy the mild weather, try some new cuisine, show the kids museums, and basically just do things that you can't do as well if you don't live in the city. Here's what really happened.

I of course didn't know anyone in the month I lived there, and I had gotten used to having my unemployed husband home all day with me to keep me company and help me with adjusting to having 2 kids at home. So what happened was, I felt rather isolated and for the first time forced to finally handle both kids alone. Thankfully, Jack was a fairly easy baby, but obviously at only 2 months old still needed mom every second and had little to no schedule to speak of. Poor kid slept in his swing every night (since we had just 1 room for the 4 of us and all our things we're in storage with the moving company).

Elyette, herself had fallen on hard times. She too was forced to deal with the reality of her daddy suddenly gone all day. In fact she didn't get to see him some days since he had to stay late. I think she may have resented me some what for it. We ripped her world apart. We moved her from the only place she'd ever know and took away her daddy. I think she also was afraid I'd leave her, because she made me carry her everywhere we went outside of the apartment and even inside at times. It was just a month ago now that she no longer needs me to carry her anymore. Thank goodness. I've gotten pretty strong though hauling both kids (plus a car seat, diaper bag and whatever else we needed) all over the place. It'll be interesting to see how many kids I can hold at one time :).

I got a double stroller thinking it would enable me to venture out of our apartment and sight see a bit like I had planned, but Elyette wouldn't sit in it, I had to hold her. Any time we left the apartment, even just down to the court yard, pool area of the complex, it was only a matter of minutes before she turned hysterical and started screaming and throwing fits for no apparent reason (Brooke may recall one of the first time this happened on our trip to Safeway the first day in the city:)). I then had to run for refuge back in that little apartment. Unfortunately, she still acted hysterical inside as well, but, thankfully, to a lesser degree.

So basically, I was confined to the inside of a place that contained nothing of mine with a helpless little baby and emotionally torn 2 year old. I thought maybe when Boz got home, we could go out then, but this only happened on 2 occasions (Elyette's Bday and Our anniversary) since by the time he got home and we got out it was just about bedtime for the kids. The 3 weekends that we lived there, didn't include city living either. The first one was spent just me, Jack, and Elyette flying back to Utah to get Elyette's cast off (oh yeah, she broke her arm... more on all that in a future blog) and then driving our car out to California. The second weekend,we looked for apartments (stressful, but nice). and the third was Thanksgiving... a very nice and welcome break from it all! Just after that, we moved to our new place. Which was a huge relief and the beginning of some security for Elyette.

So due to circumstances, our city experience was not as glamorous as we had hoped, but a huge growing experience...one for the books. One thing that did come out of it, as expected, was that we got really good at aggressive, confusing, city driving... oh wait, we got a fix it ticket for expired tabs and I got a $400 ticket and traffic school for running a red...haha, you'll have to ask me that embarrassing story personally. I choose to not air too much of my stupidity:)

"Everybody's doing it!"

So, we've been resisting this whole "starting a blog" thing. I guess that shows a little bit about us. Resistant to following the crowd. Well, we caved. This seems like a good way to let loved ones by the masses know what Boz Millar family is doing. So here's what we are doing: MOVING!

After several months of searching, waiting, and interviewing, Boz accept a job offer from Dolby Labs in San Francisco just over a week ago. He starts Monday, November 5th. That gave us just over 2 weeks to get out of here. Needless to say we've been running full speed these days. Weird to think I've lived in good ol' Provo all of my adult life, and just in one week, life will be taking a major shift. Its been the year of major shifts. All very welcome ones at that; Boz and I graduated, we welcomed our second child, and now we're entering the real world (as I like to call it).

I don't know about the rest of you, but its odd to think of myself as an adult. I seem to think I'm still 18, but in reality, I'm not much like that 18 year old anymore. Much improved I hope :). I owe that to my wonderful husband and beautiful children. I can't wait to experience this new and exciting adventure with them. Life just keeps getting better and better! Thanks to all for the ongoing love and support (we know we've been in the prayers of many for some time)... keep sending it our way. We love you!