Our house has WAY TOO MUCH cake!!

Cake decorating is hard! After my first class, my arms and hands were so sore. It really is a work out to decorate your cake all fancy!!
This class is very intense. You have to bring a cake each week frosted. You also have to bring a ton of supplies and 2lbs of buttercream frosting. It took me forever to frost my cake the professional way. I still didn't like it. I know I'm too hard on myself, but it looks so easy!!!
It took me awhile to get the hang of piping my border around the cake. Half-way I decided I didn't like it, so I made it shorter. We learned how to make stars, zigzags, write, and started the first step in making roses.
Here's my first cake. I hated it, but Deric said it was good for my first class!! The rainbow is made with piping gel. We learned how to transfer a pattern on a cake, avoiding free-handing it.
Next week I will learn how to pipe a clown on the top of my cake. Look for pictures!!

Sophi at 10 months

Clapping to the music!!

No more single digits. My baby girl has now reached the double digits in months. Sophi continues to be my little snuggle bunny. What I thought was a phase, has now developed into something more permanent. I'm okay with that, but it sure makes it hard some nights to get dinner on the stove!! She still doesn't like hugs, but she'll give you plenty of kisses!! Here are some things she is up to:
- Sophi still sleeps 6:30-6:30. Nurses 4 times/day. Eats 3 solid meals.
-Sophi is phasing out baby food and loves all finger foods we have given her, except for mashed potatoes. It's been fun making little bite-size portions for our big girl!
-Sophi still rolls, but army crawls even faster.
-She has started pulling herself up, but would prefer if we just put her to that object standing.
-Sophi can say "Bye-Bye" (with wave) "Dada" "Mum" and "Done"(with sign). I love how she calls me "Mum!"
-Sophi points to everything and says "Dat!" She loves looking at pictures.
-She can clap, raise her hand when we ask, "How big is Sophi?", and bounces to music. We think she'll be a musician of some type. Any music she loves to dance and clap to.
-Sophi loves cats, stuffed or real.
-Sophi loves to scream or squeal in excitement!

I'm sure there are more things she is up to, but I can't think of any at the moment.
I didn't really come up with a New Year's Resolution. I have some goals, but they were made before January. Deric and I have been doing a Game night once a week, however it had to be moved from Mondays to Thursdays due to the Bachelor. :) I'm going to be starting a Purity Small Group starting in March for some of the Jr. High and High School girls at our church. I'm really excited about that!! I've also been taking a cake decorating class at Michaels, trying to finish a little sewing project, scrapbook, work out, all between watching kids full-time! :)
Deric has been busy and has been able to be home earlier lately to spend more time with Sophi before she goes to bed. That's been great to have a little family time every day.
I'm also THRILLED that my brother Justin is getting married to Michelle. Finally he popped the question!! She is such a wonderful woman of God and has really brought out some wonderful qualities in Justin. They are perfect! :)
I hope your new year is starting off wonderfully too!!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas as a family, full of fun, laughter, and eating! We sang, "Happy Birthday Jesus" with Sophi and told her the Christmas story.
Among the highlights:
-I'm thrilled about my new digital scrapbook program. It's easy and will save me time and money.
- Deric and I received some nice kitchen gadgets. New pans and knives. I'm ready to cook some new recipes.
-Sophi enjoyed eating paper and bows. She also enjoyed her new gifts. One of her highlights, a little stuffed kitty. She gets so happy when she is playing with it. The kitty accompanies her new farm quite nicely.
Now to clean the clutter, put away the Christmas decorations, and jump into the New Year!! :)

My sick Snuggle Bunny :(

As I write this, I can hear my sweet girl snoring. Snoring because her poor nose is so clogged. :(
Not only does Sophi have a runny nose, she has a cough and 4 teeth coming in. She is super clingy and only wants to be held. Sophi has been spending the past 2 days, playing for 5 min. then returning to me to be held.
It's her first Christmas!!!!! Why is she sick???? :(

So a non-clingy baby becomes sick and now is clingy. I should be careful what I wish for!! :)

On a lighter note, Sophi this past week has decided to protest baby food. Her foods for choice include: bread, oranges, chicken, turkey, and fish. (Yes fish! She gobbled it right up!!) She's not too sure about her veggies as finger foods, but we'll keep trying!!

Top 10 Things I Love About the Holidays

I'm back!! Well, sort of... I'll keep posting on our Shutterfly website etc. But I've been wanting to type more on Blogspot as well. So now I have two sites. :)

Top 10 Things I Love About the Holidays: ( I tried to narrow it down)
10. My 1983 Amy Grant Christmas Album
9. Displaying my Grinch collection. (From pens to ornaments, glasses to hats. Sophi even has a Grinch t-shirt)
8. Baking sugar cookies with my mom.
7. Freezing the sugar cookies and enjoying them well into the new year.
6. All the stores are decorated.. stores have great deals!!
5. Cheesy Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel and the Lifetime Channel.
4. Peppermint flavored anything! Peppermint mochas, icecream, cookies. YUM! YUM! YUM!
3. Watching Deric put over 1500 lights on our Christmas tree.
2. Being with my family doing all the traditions- going to see Christmas lights, baking, wrapping gifts, singing Christmas carols, eating stew and homemade biscuits on Christmas Eve, watching White Christmas on Christmas Eve, watching Sophi open gifts. Furthermore, excited to start new traditions with Sophi. I gave her my Nativity scene I had when I was a kid. I also like reading her some Christmas books. :) (Max Lucado ones truly warm my heart. :) )
I can't wait to till she understands what the Nativity scene is and why we celebrate Christmas.


NUMBER 1............

DRUM ROLL..............

1. Watching Sophi stare at the tree in awe of all the lights! :) Seriously so cute, it's priceless.


What are your top 10??

Out with the old, in with the new!

I'm trying to find an easier way to keep all my family and friends updated. So I am changing from Blogspot to Shutterfly. I will miss my cute backgrounds, but this new site makes uploading pictures easier and quicker.

Our new family site is:
dericandjessicamiller.shutterfly.com

We're back from vacation! Sophi is 4 months old!

My grandparent's farm

Happy 4th of July!

Great-Grandma Bohlen

Great-Great Grandma Alice

Great-Grandma Kennedy

4th Cousin Nolan

Chilling on the airplane

Loving going places!

So we have made it home and tired after our 2 week vacation to Nebraska. It was really fun and really long. Here's some of the things we did:
-Sophi went on her first airplane ride. She really enjoyed the ride there. She took a nap and spend some time smiling and eating.
-Sophi was a trouper. We had to drive 2 1/2hrs. to my Grandparent's farm. She was happy the entire way. She did really well being taken from house to house.
-We spent time with a lot of family. Sophi met her Great-Great Grandma Alice, all of the relatives on my mom and dad's side, and her new 4th cousin, Nolan.
-Sophi did not like the fireworks. My uncle Barry bought some fireworks from the "black market" so Daddy enjoyed giving the family a huge firework show. I enjoyed the sound of the fireworks from inside the house. :)
-I lit my first firework on July 5th. Deric, Uncle Justin, and Uncle Josh (my brothers), gave an after-show presentation. Sophi was sleeping so I enjoyed that show!
-We all got our pictures taken by my friend Allison. I'm so excited to see them!!
-I gained 5 pounds on our vacation!! We ate and ate a TON of sweets and ate a lot at our favorite burger place- Runza. I think I ate 2 or more cookies a day from the little cookie place Eileen's. Of course I brought some home!! BEST COOKIES EVER!
-We took Deric on a tour of Nebraska. He got to see one of the houses I lived in before we moved to AZ.
-I became addicted to Sudoku. Could never finish the challenging puzzles without help, but liked playing anyways.
-We celebrated my Grandma Kennedy's 70th birthday. There was a huge party with a d.j. I saw a lot of relatives I hadn't seen since I was a baby. My Grandpa's brothers were there. They look so much like my Grandpa. It made me miss him so much. I really wish I could have known him more. We also took a big family picture, but can you believe this, someone stole the photographer's camera?? So all of our nice shots, gone!
-Deric had to leave 1 week before Sophi and I. Once he left she did not sleep through the night. I was up 2-3times with her each night. *Just a little side note, Deric came home last night. Sophi slept through the night. Who says babies don't know when something is different?*
-We went to the Omaha Zoo. It was really humid, but it felt good to walk around after gaining 5 pounds!! I know Sophi will really like this zoo when she is older. The Phoenix Zoo is boring compared to this place!
-Sophi DID NOT like the plane ride home. She fell asleep right when we boarded and woke up screaming after about an hour. I took her to my parents and thankfully my dad could calm her down. Her ears were hurting so bad and it was so loud! She wouldn't eat and my dad had to bounce her on his leg and hold her ears for little over an hour. Poor Dad's leg! Thanks Dad!! I'm SO glad they were on the plane w/ me.

I'm sure there's somethings I missed, but overall it was a great trip. I really miss having family around, so it was good to spend quality time with them.
It's SO GOOD to be home.

Sophi also is 4 months old!!
She weighs 14lbs. She is 24 3/4in long.
Sophi loves licking her hands, cooing, and eating her keys. She has often tried to eat mine and Deric's a couple times. :) She had her first laugh a couple weeks ago! It is the greatest sound!
She continues to roll over while sleeping and gets very mad. So we are having to give her tons more tummy time so she won't cry when she rolls over.
She is wonderful!