During some of the lovely Summer storms we had last week one of the trees in our front yard got blown over. I was a little upset at the time, but now I think I like the house better without the tree, and I want to remove the other one. They were never even anyway, so they always looked lopsided. I think we should remove the other tree now too. What do you think? I have included pictures of the front of the house with and without the trees. Let me know what you think.

A few years ago, with both trees

Now with only one tree (I want to remove the one that is still there).

Closeup with the trees

Closeup with out the tree

I never noticed how much that tree on the right had grown until I posted these pictures. WOW, what a difference a few years makes. I still think we should remove it, but I want to know what you think too!

Counting My Blessings

Update: 08-03-09

I just thought you all might like to know that Stellan went home from the hospital today. He is off all IV meds and onto oral medication and has been SVT free for several days. God is GOOD.

I know that usually this blog is pretty light and fluffy. Mostly just pictures of my sweet boys having fun. But I have to take a break from that for a minute.

For the last several months I (an thousands of people, literally, around the world) have been keeping up with another blog, written by a mommy with a very sick baby boy, named Stellan. You may have seen me reference him on Facebook, usually just saying that I am praying for, or reading about him. This little 9 month old boy has captured my heart. He is just a month younger than my sweet Cooper so I have cried many times just trying to imagine what this family, and that little guy is going through. It has made me hug my boys a little tighter everyday and thank God that they are healthy and happy kids. Stellan's family is extremely strong, and have a faith so strong that I am in awe of them. They placed their baby in God's hands completely before he was even born, and they are still trusting totally on God. Knowing that Stellan my never know healing on this Earth, but he will in Heaven. They don't claim to understand the purpose in this suffering, but they know it is all a part of God's plan. I hate to admit it, but I am not sure I could be that strong in the face of my little boys suffering. I hope I could, but I pray that I never have to find out.

If you go to the blog, look back at older post... this little boy looks like any other baby, chubby and happy. He has 3 older siblings that love him, and want their baby brother to come home from this most recent hospital stay. Please also take a minute to pray for Stellan, and his family.

This break from the light and fluffiness is over for now. I just felt the need to pass this little boys story along. You can read the details on the blog if you want to, I just couldn't do it all justice on my own.

Just Stuff...

I computer crashed last week so I don't have access to all my pictures right now, but I thought I would update on some stuff going on in the Milliorn house.

Drew is on a big vocabulary kick these days. Anytime he doesn't know what a word means, he asks. Which means I have to come up with a definition on the fly! I guess I should practice saying "lets look it up when we get home", but I never think of that. So today's vocabulary words were Preposterous, and Ridiculous (he was watching "Bolt"). So I told him they both meant silly, or totally crazy. To which in all seriousness he replied "then why don't they just say that, Mommy?" Good question!

He asks LOTS of questions... ALL the time right now. Most of them are the garden variety "but why?" said in a 4 year-old's whiny voice. But some of them are really good questions about God, and Jesus. Last night as I was putting him to bed he asked "Does God talk?" to which I replied "Yes, of course he does," hoping that would be the end of that conversation until I could prepare more of a detailed answer. But no! Quickly after that the question came "but how?" That is when my memory of Experiencing God kicked in. I totally broke out the "through prayer, the Bible, the church, and circumstance." I said a fast "thank you prayer to God for giving me that memory at that moment, and thought "whew, that should end that conversation for a while." But no, he had to go back to the vocab lesson with "what does circumstance mean?" Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that he is already asking such great questions about God, but I am afraid I may have to go to seminary one day to have all the answers.

Cooper is 10 months old now, and rolling everywhere! He isn't trying to crawl yet, but he may not have to if he keeps rolling like he is right now. He can get pretty much anywhere in the living room he wants to, in a matter of seconds. However, he has yet to venture off of the carpet, onto the hardwood. I am totally fine with him staying on the carpet, there isn't much he can get in trouble with in the living room. As I type this (on a borrowed laptop from Andy), he is just rolling from side to side trying to figure out how to get Drew's Light Saber. He just got it, good thing Drew just left with Daddy. Cooper is also getting much better at standing up while holding on to my fingers. Before he would get too excited about standing, and bend over to look at his legs instead of standing up straight. How he stands straight and proud.

We are having a great summer just hanging out around the house, and going to the occasional play group and story time, and swimming in the pool. Andy brought my computer home today, so hopefully once we get all my pictures restored I can get some more pictures posted. I am so thankful we had them all backed up!

July 4th Weekend

Over the July 4th weekend we loaded up the kids and headed out the ranch. We had high hopes this year after all of the Spring rain of getting to put on our own fireworks show. Unfortunately able the dry, hot weeks leading up to the 4th have made it too dangerous this year. Hopefully we can do it next year. The kids did enjoy bike riding in the cooler mornings, and splashing around in the little kiddie pools in the afternoon, but it was too hot to do much else. Drew did have a great time just playing with his cousins, no matter what they were doing.

Here are a few of the pictures. I took over 300, so it was hard to narrow it down.

Great Grandpa with all 8 of his great grand kids

Pool time was a big hit with the kids, but the adults sure got hot

Drew cooling himself off.

Cooper and Brett (Brett is 2 months older than Cooper) in the baby pool.

Cooper - 9 Months

We were out by the pool tonight and I got some super cute shots of Cooper making funny faces. As you can see from these pictures he really getting such a little personality. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

The Beach...

Or as close as we will probably get this year. I finally took Drew to get his 4 year pictures made today. Yes, I know I am a month late, but he is still 4! I have lots of great pictures but I thought the ones of them on the beach would be great for this blog. You see, I love the beach! Andy on the other hand does not. Maybe when he looks at this and sees how cute our boys would be at the beach he will want to take us there. I mean, really... could they get any cuter?

I really love that they are holding hands.

I never knew how hard it would be to get 2 boys to look at the camera at the same time.

See Daddy, I love the beach!

Me too Daddy... please!

I just had to show off my sweet boys. I know we will get to the beach one of these summers, but it is probably best to wait until Cooper can walk. I am pretty sure he would get tired of sitting in sand, and Drew would need someone to play with anyway.

The Pool is Now Open

Last night for the first time this season, we went swimming in our pool. This was the first time for Cooper Man to go swimming, so I grabbed the camera to commemorate the occasion. He wasn't too sure about it, but being his normal laid back self, he was fine. That is until Drew started splashing around. He wasn't splashing Cooper, but Cooper did get splashed. He didn't like that at all and got very upset (yes... Cooper does get upset from time to time). He calmed down after a few minutes, and I was able to get a few shots.

All my boys together in the pool.

Cooper is going to spend a lot of time in this floaty! I hope he likes it.

Andy and Drew playing around! I think Drew was suppose to be a rocket ship.

Drew being a monster... he was roaring at me. One of his favorite things to do.

Even though the pool was a little on the cool side, it was great to break it in for the first time this summer. I know before too long it will be so hot we almost don't want to go outside. But for now, we will take was we get, and try to enjoy our boys as much as possible.