Daddy left for Egypt!!

We got up at 5:15 this morning to take Daddy to the church to meet the mission team to leave for Egypt. Lots of excitement, nerves and a few tears! It was a much harder day than I had anticipated. All three of the kids teared up when they told him goodbye. Which was probably the only reason I didn't! Twelve days is a long time. It will be the longest that we've been apart since we married 11 years ago. However, I know that he will be doing great things and we have never been prouder of him. To read about his trip check out http://scottmilderegypt.blogspot.com. I'll link it on the side of this blog.

After the bus left, we went with friends to IHOP and had pancakes and were back home by 8:30. By 9 we were all in the bed asleep!!! We took about a 3 hour nap!

Not long after we got up, for the 2nd time, Scott called to let us know he was safely in Chicago. They had a three hour layover before their flight to Frankfurt. All 3 kids got to talk to him, which I think helped.

To take our minds off of Daddy leaving we went with friends to see Ice Age. But, bedtime brought a few more tears. We all prayed together for Daddy to have a safe trip and for the time to pass quickly! :) Bless their hearts. I know 12 days seems like an eternity for them...cuz it kinda does for me!!

We set the oven clock to Egypt time and they each have an atlas that we studied Dad's route to Egypt in. In fact, Grace and Mandy fell asleep with it tonight.

Many of you have asked about our big vacation for the year. We are going to Disney for Thanksgiving, and with Scott joining the mission team for Egypt, we decided not to do a big road trip this summer. We are still planning our annual trip to Padre Island, which will be a wonderful opportunity to spend some family time together the week after Scott returns!

Blessings,

Leslie

Presents from San Francisco

The kids loved the presents we brought them from San Francisco. Of course that was one of the first questions asked as soon as we saw them..."What'd you bring me??"

We found these HUGE marshmallows at an outdoor market in Napa...

Thomas who wasn't much into letting me take his picture with his stuff did think having a picture of him eating an enormous marshmallow would be alright...

On Pier 39 they have a jeweler from Hawaii that has big buckets of oysters. They will open them for you right there and pull out the pearl and set it into jewelry. We knew Grace would love that and fortunately they had them packaged so you could do it yourself at home. She LOVED it!!

Daddy opening the oyster...

Removing the pearl....

Wearing her new pearl necklace...

Mandy got the cutest Chinese baby doll and new earrings....

Blessings,

Leslie

Mandy and Mommy Monday

Today was "Mandy and Mommy Day." I had to take my computer to the Apple store at Willow Bend, so we made plans to have lunch with Daddy. When we got to the Apple store we had to wait for an hour or so before we could see a "Genius," so Mandy and I wandered into Claire's. We'd been talking about getting your ears pierced, so I thought while we were in there I'd show her the chair and everything where they do it. She looked at it and said no, she didn't want her ears pierced today. We were looking at all the jewelry, when she turned around and said, "

Oh ok, I'll get my ears pierced today." I asked her several times if she was sure and she was. So, we had them done! She was fine. I, however, was a little unnerved by the young, multiply pierced and tattooed girl who did them though! She cried for just a few minutes but was easily distracted by looking in the mirror at her new earrings!

After our Apple appointment (oh and a dip in the fountain...note the different shirt in the following pictures!!), we headed to Stone Briar to meet Daddy at the Cheesecake Factory. Mandy loved the chocolate cheesecake! She kept trying to push Scott's hands away so that he couldn't eat any!

Great fun was had putting whipped cream on each other's noses.

A visit to Stone Briar wouldn't be complete without a ride on the carousel!
It's days like these that I'll miss when she goes to preschool next year.

Blessings,

Leslie

Gracie Rose is 8!!! We celebrated with an American Girl sleepover on her actual birthday. We had 13 girls spend the night! they were all so cute and sweet. I was really proud of her for choosing such great little friends. They played very well together and put on an American Girl fashion show, had pedicures, make-up, snacks and watched a movie. This past year Grace has really blossomed into a confident, social, witty little girl. We are so proud of her and how well she is doing in school. Her favorite things lately are riding her new bike, playing with her friends, clothes, flip-flops, looking up verses in her bible, and reading. We are so blessed to have this beautiful girl with such a lively, sweet spirit.

Birthday Blessings,

Leslie

Family Time at Great Wolf Lodge

Two weeks ago we picked the kids up at school on Thursday afternoon and took them to Great Wolf Lodge for the night.  They had absolutely no idea.  We told them we had to go to Daddy's office.  When we stopped at the red light next to Great Wolf they yelled jokingly "Hey, let's go there instead!"  We were in the parking lot, at the entrance and were out of the car before they caught on!!!  I love it!!  As we were checking in Scott pointed out that if we stayed the night we probably wouldn't make it back for school in the morning...you should have seen Thomas' face light up!!  I love taking them by surprise like that and doing something they totally wouldn't expect!    It was great to just escape and have a little family time for 24 hours.  The kids played till they were exhausted.  

She did this blue slide about 512 times in the 24 hours we were there!

Mandy had a great time playing the the kid section...all 6 inches or so of water in there!  

Mandy trying diligently to convince us that she really didn't need to wear her swim vest!

Thomas was really good about taking time to hang out with his littlest sister.  He spent a long time playing with her in the kiddie section.

The "balmy 84 degrees year-round" was a tad chilly when you weren't in the water!  Fortunately, they have an unlimited supply of towels/blankets available!

We had pizza poolside for lunch and stayed until about 6 on Friday.  We were all seriously water-logged, but we all had a fantastic time!

Blessings,

Leslie

Skiing Wrap-up

Since I never did follow up on the rest of our Spring Break ski trip, I thought I'd add a couple of ski pictures from the week.  We really enjoyed hanging out with all our close friends!  The kids all love skiing and skied every day we were there. 



Blessings,

Leslie

Grace has always been our child of many questions.  Perfect example...

 This morning at 7:00 a.m. I went upstairs to wake her up to get ready for school.  I kissed her, shook her, told her it was time to get up and went to her closet to get her clothes.  She pops up, wide awake, looks at me and says with great urgency..."Mom!  How many vertices are on a rectangle?"

Seriously?  At 7 a.m. before my coffee I had a little trouble answering.  How will I ever keep up as she gets older??!!

Oh..what a sweet, funny girl!

Blessings,

Leslie  

Pagosa Springs, Colorado

We left on Saturday to come to Pagosa Springs, Colorado to ski at Wolf Creek.  There are five families...us, the Honeycutts, the Bradleys, the Tramels and the Denny's.  We have 13 kids with us from 16 months to 16 years!  We headed out Saturday morning in a 5 car caravan and finally stopped in Tucumcari, New Mexico for the night.  We did have to stop several times for potty stops and some luggage adjustments!

  Then on Sunday we headed on here to Pagosa Springs.  We stopped for a little while in Santa Fe so we get out of the car and do a little shopping down in Old Town.  With 23 people it's a little like leading a tour group!  This was Scott telling everyone that if we got separated to meet back at 1:00!  

It was two very long days in the car, but it is beautiful here.  We have a really nice 5 bedroom house with a cool loft for all our many children!

Yesterday we all hit the slopes.  It was unbelievable how crowded it was!  They had around 6000 people at Wolf Creek yesterday!  They normally have around 500.  Everyone there was from Texas.  I'd like to say a quick thank you to the Texas Legislature for pushing back the school start date and restricting the weeks that schools can do Spring Break.  As a result, every school kid in Texas is on Spring Break this week and apparently their parents have chosen to spend it here. 

I have no ski pictures yet because it was such a crowded nightmare yesterday that I never managed to get the camera out.  Fewer of us went skiing today, so hopefully Scott will have a chance to get some pictures.

Mandy got to do ski school and was so excited!  Yesterday was her actual 4th birthday and you have to be 4 to take ski lessons.  She did great and was very proud of herself.  She did opt however, not to ski today, but to stay and play at the house with me and her friend Haylee!  

Last night we had birthday dinner and cake to celebrate!

Blessings,

Leslie

Mandy Monkey turns 4!!!

Happy Birthday Mandy!!

I can't believe our sweet, funny little girl is four years old today!  

Mandy Hope Milder

Favorite Color:  Pink or purple

Favorite Movie: Tinkerbell

Friends: Haylee, Sarah, Carson, Clay and Hunter

Favorite Food:  Chicken

Favorite Song:  My Savior, My God  (this is hysterical to watch her sing this, she really rocks it!)

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!  We love you so much!

Blessings,

Leslie

Be My Valentine!

Mandy had her Valentine Program at Mother's Day Out last Thursday.  She was so cute and so excited about performing.  She insisted that Thomas and Grace be there to see it.  The more I thought about it, I realized that she has been to every basketball, soccer game, school program that the both of them have been in since she was born.  So, I took them out of school for an hour so they could see her.  They were both so proud of her!  

It was a little bittersweet for me because I realized that she will start PreK at Hays Elementary next year and that this was probably the last MDO program we will have...till we have grandchildren of course!

Blessings,

Leslie

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Valentine Blessings,

Leslie

Wordless Wednesday...

Christmas Eve! The strangest one I've ever had...

Scott and I began our Christmas Eve day with at trip to the Branson ER at 1 a.m.!  The cedar in Branson about did us all in.  I think of all the many things I'm allergic to, that cedar is the worst.  Helloooo....we were staying at the Big Cedar Lodge!   Never really occured to me that the reason they named it that could be because of the massive amount of CEDAR trees that consume it.  Grace and I...and Thomas and Mandy, were sick the entire time we were there.  

By the wee hours of Christmas Eve morning Grace's asthma couldn't take it.  And, being as I was a wee bit strung out before we left I had managed to pack the nebulizer, but not the medicine that goes in it.  So, I tried all the usual tricks and by 1:00 that morning it was clear none of them were working.  You know it's bad when your 7 year old is ASKING to go to the ER.  So, Scott and I headed out to experience the Branson, Missouri ER.  

It's a very small hospital.  The nurse checked us in and gave us a pager, so we settled in to wait. Already waiting were an older couple dressed in black leather...the man was the one there to be treated and looked as though he traveled with ZZ top at some point in his youth.  And, a couple a bit older than us was there with their 13 year old who'd been bitten by a dog.   We all sat in the wee hours of Christmas Eve in the Skaggs Community hospital watching... Real Housewives of Orange County.  The show was so trashy that Scott took Grace to walk around.

  Finally the other father in the room went and got the nurse and made her change the channel.  When Scott thanked him, he replied "No problem, they don't need to be watching that."  To which, ZZ top replies, "Ain't none of us need to be watching that.  Real Housewives of Orange County...ain't nothin real about a damn one of 'um!"  Fortunately, just then the nurse called us back to see the doctor.  Anyway, they cleared her out, wrote us a prescription and she's fine!  

Scott had promised her a donut afterwards, but donut stores do not stay open all night

 in Branson so she had to wait until much, much later in the morning...

We hit Krispy Kreme where we decided to try the Peppermint donuts.  Just for future reference, somethings should not be paired together and peppermint and donuts are one of them!  

We also grabbed a bit of ice cream while we were out!  Later that night, after dinner we put on our jammies and watched Polar Express in the "movie theater" before we all headed to bed to wait for Santa!

Blessings,

Leslie

Christmas in Branson!

We left Saturday the 20th and headed to Branson, Missouri with my mom, dad and my aunts Jane and Judy.  My dad had rented us a 5 bedroom house on Table Rock Lake for the week.  Our friends the Bradley's came too! The kids were in heaven in that big house!  They about came unglued when they took the first running tour and discovered the "movie theater!"  Mandy declared that "this house is magical!"  The house was great.  We really didn't do just a ton of stuff.  Scott took the kids to the Titanic museum...

Then we drove not once, but twice to eat at Lambert's...the home of the throwed rolls!  

And, of course, no trip to Missouri would be complete for Papaw and Thomas without a trip to the flagship Bass Pro Shop!!  I saw them when we first walked in and then we had to call Pap's phone when we were all ready and waiting at the front!