Merry Christmas in March

As always the holidays at the Millers consisted of food, friends, guns and competition (mainly who can catch a clay pigeon mid-air).







This was the first Christmas for Ben and I to spend on our own in our own place. Let me recap for you...
Christmas 2007 - with Miller Clan, 3 days before wedding
Christmas 2008 - Cabin with Taylor family
Christmas 2010 - North Carolina with Mayberrys

So with that being said this was extra special for us. We got a beautiful tree and decorated the house. Now while we were in Baltimore we bought a big, comfy couch that I knew we would have for a while. I remember sitting down and immediately falling in love. It was tall for Ben and wide for me. Haha. We could only afford the couch, however, but I swore I wanted to finish the set one day. We have been looking at ottomans but I was super particular on size and color. I wanted it to have the "aaaaahhhhh" feeling when you sit down and prop your feet.
Introducing....







Benjamin Ray Miller handmade this beautiful ottoman. The blue and brown match the couch PERFECTLY (picture does not do justice). Do you want to know why they match so perfectly? Because he took one of our pillows to Joanns to pick out the fabric. He made the buttons with parts of the brown fabric. He bought the same shaped legs as the couch to also match. I couldn't believe my eyes when we woke up that morning. I was brought to tears because of his thoughtfulness and hardwork. Oh just wait it doesn't stop here. Before Christmas I got called to be the Relief Society pianist in our ward. Don't you remember I stopped taking lessons in like 2nd grade? I half cried/half laughed when they asked me. I immediately started going over to my mom's to practice. I would even go early to church and practice. I was so nervous. The only thing I got going for me is that I can sight-read. The problem is making my hands do the work. Well Ben struck again...

He got this from a lady on craigslist. It was a half done project and she even gave him the rest of the paint to finish. He took it all apart, cleaned, dusted, painted and put it all back together. Might I add these two projects were going on in one of our spare bedrooms? Beyond the level of surprise, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for his attention to these things. It makes our house, a home.

Veteran's breakfast

The Friday after Veteran's Day, Ben was invited to Emma and Sadee's school for a breakfast. Their charter school is very patriotic and does an opening flag ceremony every morning along with the Pledge of Allegiance and everything. I think it's great! They were so cute standing next to him and watching their school mates walk by and kind of gaze up.

Ben was definitely the most handsome, youngest and decked out veteran there. It was a great program with songs sang by the students where they had each branch of the military stand up as their song played. I loved seeing the other men there who had served in some of the World Wars and even Vietnam. My mom got some of their stories too. One nice man talked about how he has 13 kids and all these grandchildren and great grandchildren but proceeded to tell us how his brother enlisted around the same time and he but didn't make it home. Another man said this was the first program or honorary event he had been invited to since he'd been home from Vietnam. That broke my heart and made me realize how much more gratitude I need to show. Not just to my own husband who served but the men who have been forgotten with time. I told Ben while we were there that it's hard for me to thank those men to their face because they remind me of my grandpas and I'll probably just cry and not get a word out. He reminded me that for him, even the smallest hand shake to the crying hug made all the difference in the world...and those moments would happen to him at airports or stores...places he didn't expect. No flowery words needed. I will remember that forever and I hope I can teach our kids someday the importance of showing gratitude for our military.

Ben's birthday weekend

We both work long hours every day. I sometimes don't home until it's dark and then we're both just beat. We have soccer and volleyball leagues that also keep us busy at night. Ben's birthday was on a Tuesday so we decided to do something that following weekend instead. We made a drive up to Camp Verde packed with shotguns and shells and make a weekend of it with Dave and Debbi. I went on my first guided chucker hunt and didn't shoot a thing. I think I'll just stick to clay pigeons. They don't really change their direction of flight as much. We had 5 chuckers on our hunt. Debbi and I were the first to make the shots and Ben would shoot back up while Dave was the photographer. I didn't know what I was doing so I just kept following the guide until he told me to stop and the dogs were pointing at a bush. I completely missed because my adrenaline was pumping at the thought of ending life. Ben of course was right on target and I think shot all 3 that we got. Debbi snagged one too I'm sure. I just posed with the poor dead things...which are now in our freezer. The guide thought it was funny and put one half dead in the back of my vest as we continued to hunt...that poor thing was still flipping around back there. Ugh *shudder*

The cute Britney Spaniels were so excited, they were entertaining themselves to watch.

We are home-livers

The events that led up to us moving to Arizona were crazy. The way it all timed out perfectly...Ben getting a letter from the Army...me finding a job...it was nuts. He didn't come out from Balitmore until 2 months after me. All the while we were trying to figure out where we would live. We had plenty of options with family near by but we needed something else. Ben looked around at rental houses a few days before he came out with the rental truck. It all happened in a few days. He called about a rental on Saturday...I walked through the place on Sunday...filled out applications and paid fee on Monday...we were approved Tuesday...and Ben arrived with our stuff and pulled it right into the garage on Wednesday. It was crazy but worth it. The space has been awesome and we can't believe we have the stuff to fill it out. Our house has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a den. We are in my parents ward and we love the area! It has some great shade trees in front and nice big square of grass in the back with a lime tree. It's perfect for us!

Colorado visit

We got to visit our best friends Dave and Shelby up in Colorado. It was a quick trip but packed with fun-tivities. Shelby hides behind the camera but takes fabulous pictures. We enjoyed the great fall weather, which up until now Arizona was not experiencing. We drove up to the top of Pike's Peak which was amazing. You can see 5 states at the top! I couldn't pick them out but we attempted to look in their general direction. It also snowed a little bit at the top which was fun in flip flops. On our way down Ben wanted to see how far he could sprint before passing out. He didn't last long but he stopped before he face-planted. The boys fed a fox some beef jerkey and almost kept him as a pet. We probably ruined his appetite for the winter because he won't get a meal like that again! When the 4 of us (plus Shelby's sister Kelsey) get together we act like little kids and you never know what's going to happen :)

It was a much needed trip because the 4 of us hadn't been together since I left Baltimore in June. There were a ton of pictures but these were my favorites.

Don't count on it

Let's look back on the years...

Halloween 2009: We picked and carved pumpkins with friends and put them in the ward contest. I couldn't find pictures with them lit up but they were pretty sweet. Didn't win though but it was still fun. Ben did Jack Skeleton and I did Cookie Monster. Also since Ben has the same body type as Jack Skeleton we popped it on his head. Pretty freaky looking!




Halloween 2008: Crane Halloween Party with Elphaba, Glinda, a Luchador wrestler, a bug catcher and her little buggies. I think we went to a trunk or treat with Katie's kids then did a puzzle.





Halloween 2007: Here we go...we were engaged and young in love. Ben was coming with me to the annual Crane Halloween Party on my mom's side. I told Ben we needed to dress up because everyone does. Even the adults! Of course he was still impressing me with his devotion to my wishes so he obliged and we dressed up. I thought Tinkerbell and Peter Pan would be cute. We walk into my aunt's house and immediately look up through the panoramic window to the back yard where everyone stops and looks at us. We were the only adults dressed up. To make it better, this was Ben's first time to meet a lot of my mom's side of the family...and not one of them has forgotten it since. Ben has officially played his infinite Halloween Man card and for that I will forever be in debt. He sure did make a cute Peter Pan, though.

A fresh coat of paint

I didn't cut or color my hair in Baltimore so it got to be nice and long and unhealthy but all my real color too. Even though that became what I like to call, Mousy. Right when I arrived in Arizona I got it colored a dark red and trimmed (seen below in the post with my niece Emma). That began to fade to a strawberry blond like the next 2 pictures.


I needed another change so Jayme worked her magic again and gave me some bangs and a deep brown. I love it. I'm still keeping it long even though I'm fighting the urge to cut it. I found this gem from mine and Jayme's roommate days.

Here is what it looks like now. I love it. It's amazing how a color and trim makes you feel. I really tried to document this because seriously it's the longest ever and the most exciting thing happening around here. It's hard to take self-portraits, too.


Also...I am making the blog private. If you would like to receive an invite you can leave your email in the comments or email me at caitlinmiller3@gmail.com. I don't know how to hide the comments so if you don't want others to have yours, email me directly. I'll probably do it in the next few days. Thanks!