the Christmas letter

We were slightly obnoxious and did a double sided card. 

Merry Christmas!

------- The State of the Millers -------

The title suggests a more serious tone than the Christmas card theme we’re about to throw your way. Sometimes Jake and I are hit with thoughts like “THE BOYS ARE SO BIG AND GROWN UP AND THE EMPTY NEST STAGE IS JUST AROUND THE RIVER BEND!” Then of course, we have to check ourselves, because, one of them technically hasn’t even been born yet. And despite our semi(?), often(?) social media updates we (Julia) thought it was worth it to document an end of 2014 recap for all of you dear friends. I (Julia) just wanted to freeze time for the hottest second while I jot down a detail or two about each of us.

AKA...this letter will only be mildly interesting to the grandparents. Probably. But since we have your address we thought that meant you might be interested too. Ho ho ho!

We’ll start from the tippy top with Jake...

Jake was an amazing husband and gave Julia the best, most selfless gift ever...15 more pounds of him to love. (Permission was given to include that!) But really, Jake has gone through the year up-ing his wit and humor level to a new high.

- In the middle of one of Rhett’s epic, rapid fire question sessions Jake asked, “do you think you could turn your personality down to like 50% for a few minutes?”

- After a long night of co-sleeping with sick Rad, Jake noted, “at one point last night I only had the edge of the bed so I had to turn on my side and balance on my love handle.”

- After finding Jake wearing a t-shirt and basket ball shorts just prior to having dinner guests over, Jake said, “Don’t give me that look. These are a man’s yoga pants.”

I think with our upcoming 6th wedding anniversary he’s hit is stride with managing his two full-time jobs, one still rocking it with Edward Jones and the other with the family circus. Jake spends a lot of his free time coaching Rhett in baseball, bouncing Rad too high on the trampoline (Rad “loves” it) and often takes boys on power walks to get their “wiggles’ out.

On to Julia...

The biggest successes of Julia’s year were overcoming self medicating with diet soda, reading a total of 4 books in a year which was a 400% increase than previous years, teaching the boys almost all the words to Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off, and having two projects featured on Buzzfeed. She hit her stride at faking the ease of raising Rhett and Rad and decided to throw a curve ball by becoming pregnant with baby number 3. She is enjoying this pregnancy and the discovery of gummy prenatals.

You know what we don’t FB, Instagram, blog and talk enough about? OUR BOYS. Not enough. Never enough. Nothing is more interesting to anyone than someone else’s offspring. Nothing.

So on to the kids...

Rhett is a four-year-old teenager. If the average person uses 10,000 words a day, Rhett usually triples that quota. Most mornings he wakes up and tiptoes within an inch of Julia’s face and whispers, “Where are we going to- day??” He looks more and more like Jake’s doppelganger every day and doesn’t lack for confidence. We have caught him wearing sunglasses, staring at himself in the mirror and saying “well helloooo handsome...” He loves baseball and has gotten actually really good at it. He’s enthusiastically tone deaf, but this year has developed the worthwhile talent of remembering song lyrics. He’s taken to narrating life via song 24/7 (when he’s not chatting) and even has a large repertoire of his own written, produced and even choreographed jams. Performers gonna perform. Audience or not.

Rad is going through some sort of 21.8 month old crisis in which he just can’t decide if he enjoys life or not. He’s leaning towards not. He loves to make a big production of belting “hi!” and “bye!” on repeat, makes sure we know he is headed out and then goes to the front door and waits to be let out like a dog. Like we’re just going to say, “Adios! Have a blast out on the street!” No. He almost outweighs his older brother, and loves to get into everything-EVERYTHING he shouldn’t. He requires lots of positive affirmation and a scary amount of Chicken- in-a -Biskit crackers to thrive. He can throw a genuine larger-than-life temper tantrum, and intentionally and unintentionally ruins Rhett’s life on a daily basis. But he loves to give unsolicited kisses (to the vacuum, Rhett’s friends, ketchup, his shoes and us) and it’s pretty adorable.

We hope you have a very blessed Christmas and that you find comfort and good cheer in 2015!

The Millers

And last years card and letter if you're a glutton for our narcissism. ;)