Millie turns 6!

Our Millie girl had her golden birthday turning 6 on January 6th! We love her so much. The day started off her favorite way - with donuts.

She received some birthday money and asked for a trip to the dollar store to spend a little of it.

Here she is with her treasures (including a balloon that I got for her). A "gift" she requested from me was that I not do anything to her hair haha. She rocks the headband look anyway.

We made a cake and enjoyed licking the leftover batter from the bowl.

The weather was beautiful so we decided we'd better take advantage and go to the park. Tyler was working from home so it was good we left him in peace anyway! We ran into some friends there and had lots of fun.

Harvey was there too!

Millie had been thinking about her birthday dinner all day long and couldn't decide if she wanted to go to Wendy's or MOD Pizza. By the time it was dinner she wanted Wendy's but Tyler and I thought MOD sounded better, so we made two stops. We brought everything home and celebrated our cute girl.

Millie got a microphone for her birthday, as well as a cool art book that shows you how to draw lots of animals step by step. She loves both things. I've heard her a few times saying her prayers at night into the microphone! 

Some things about Millie at 6 years old:

- She is just the sweetest. Such a good big sister and genuinely enjoys her brothers. She was not a cuddly baby but is making up for it now, giving the best hugs and asking to snuggle with me or Tyler frequently.

- Millie still wants to be an artist, but also lately a paleontologist. Max's dinosaur love is rubbing off a little. She is super creative and goes to school several times a week with a picture or note or card that she made for someone. 

- She still loves doing gymnastics and is upside down a lot. She went through a solid cartwheel phase and is working on round-offs and her front walkover. 

- Millie has found several meals that she will give a thumbs up. Literally. This is her rating system. A straight up thumb means she loves it, a straight down thumb means it's "the worst thing ever." There is lots of in-between too. She is getting better all the time at trying new things.

- She is a daddy's girl lately and it's so sweet. She'll randomly say, "Isn't Dad just the best?" and write him notes telling him so. She is noticing how hard he works and appreciates that he provides for us. Throw in what a fun, sweet, and attentive dad he is and it's no wonder he's the favorite!

We love this girl so much and are so thankful she was our firstborn! She is a delight to have in our family and we can't wait to see what this year brings for her.

Weekend adventures

We were so excited to have AJ and Brittany in town for the weekend (8/10-14)! We packed in the fun in the days they were here. On Thursday we swam and played at Gigi's (pics in the last post).

Friday: Bike ride and playing at the park (for about 7 minutes because it was SO HOT), Millie fell in the pool, then we all got in, rested and watched movies, dinner at Chuy's, and games late into the night.

Saturday: Max had a rough day, my bad for keeping him up so late the night before. We visited with Nana, Brittany taught us some yoga, we swam right after because we were all so sweaty, let the babies nap, went to a trampoline park, and Willie's for dinner. Learned our lesson and took the kids home after dinner for an early bedtime!

This was the scene of one of Max's meltdowns. Poor guy couldn't go too far without me so the kids area (no parents allowed) was a no go.

She said "Millie's, Willie's!" several times when we got there.

Max fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner and slept until the next morning! So he slept through dinner at a loud restaurant, transfer to the car, and transfer from the car to bed. Pretty epic.

Sunday: Dinner and visiting after church, AJ and Brittany taught the kids some yoga moves, more games. Games are the best!

On Monday AJ and Brittany visited us for a bit. After that, everyone was so sweet to come watch Millie's gymnastics class. 

Such a fun weekend with family!

Some Millie stuff

Millie has been quite the little bookworm lately. She earned 25 more tickets and decided it was okay to go on a date with Mom this time (Dad is usually the winner haha). We went to Wendy's for some frosties and then went to find her a new helmet, since she'd left hers out in the garage and I'd run over it with the van! It was fun having one-on-one time with my girl. Even if she did tell me on our date that she prefers dates with Dad!! Can't blame her there!

I was cleaning up some toys and noticed that Millie's beloved (or so I thought) princess are all missing limbs! This girl is like a teething puppy, chewing on everything. Pretty funny and also gross.

Uncle Garrett and Aunt McKenna gave us the game "Wet Head" for Christmas and we had fun playing it the other night for FHE. Millie got so excited any time she got wet, yelling "I won!" which is a little bit the opposite of what that means but we rolled with it. So funny.

She still loves the Instagram filters.

And her outfits are as crazy as ever. I'm going to need to do a wardrobe overhaul before school so nothing clashes and she can safely put any two things together haha.

Millie's been asking to have a friend over to make cookies for a long time (it may or may not have been on our summer bucket list LAST summer) and we finally did it last week. 

She piled those sprinkles on and ate every last one!

This was later that day in the yard. We'd gotten quite a bit of rain a couple days before and it had washed some dirt onto the sidewalk. Millie played with it for a while and then told me her hands looked like they had Oreo crumbs all over. Cookies on the brain??

We love our Millie girl.

Funny kids

Millie's doodle on this particular day was inspired by National Donut Day. 

Summer swimming wears the kids out and they fall asleep in the funniest places!

I was making dinner and some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Millie came over and asked to have a cookie, and I told her she could have one if she ate her dinner. She asked what we were eating and I told her pasta, to which she replied, "Cookies sound better." Couldn't agree more, Millie! 

This little one has been through quite the sleep regression lately. It's super frustrating and we're going to have to do some actual sleep training soon!

Max wanted his own pair of goggles. He ended up not loving them but it was kind of worth it for just this picture!

Sometimes Millie dots yogurt all around the edge of the bowl. How does she come up with this stuff???

We've had to remove the chore charts from the wall because Harvey is way too interested in them. It's funny what catches kids' attention.

Another week

I wanted to go for a run, so the boys sat patiently in the stroller and Millie rode her bike the whole way. They were so sweet and I was especially proud of Millie. She said, "This is tiring, but fun!"

Our neighborhood pool isn't open during the week yet but Gigi and Poppy are sweet to let us come swim anytime. 

Harvey isn't much of a cuddle so when he laid his head down on my shoulder I had to document it, even with no makeup and bedhead.

Millie drew a picture of her and Gigi swimming. The purple thing in the corner is the pool vacuum, which both Millie and Max are a little obsessed with/afraid of.

A funny picture to remember a project. We've had some leaky outdoor spigots and I totally fixed them! Watched some YouTube visits, made a Home Depot run, and fixed them. I was inordinately proud of myself.

Harvey's first swim! 

It's so funny to see the personality differences in our kids. Millie had her first swim around 5 months and was splashing and trying to lick the water and just loved it. She is still a fish now. Max screamed his first several times in the pool around 4 months and every year we have to drag him into the pool crying a few times before he remembers that swimming is fun. Harvey wasn't super splashy or excited but was happy to be there and watch his siblings play. It'll be funny to see how he'll like it as he gets older.

I caught Tyler singing to the kids at bedtime and he was using Max's sandal as a microphone. They thought it was hilarious! He's such a fun dad.