raise em rad

And just like that, this cheeky monkey is three years old. And he won't let anyone forget it...he's still telling every living soul who comes within his 8ft radius that it's still his birthday. (It was Friday.)

I know I just did a tribute post to the boys milestones and accomplishments so this might be, totally is, redundant, but I'm thinking if Celine and have a year long tribute concert in Vegas, I can indulge in one more similar post.

Ahem.

I thought all little boys were as mischievous as Rhett until Rad came along and uped the anti for getting into everything messy and sticky and illegal for a toddler all the time. Until relatively recently if Rad was awake and was quiet for more than 1.3 minutes I knew, without a doubt, that we are going to be cleaning some sort of catastrophic mess up together. He now justifies his mischief by claiming that he just wanted, "to party" which bodes very well for his teenage future.

Yes, Rad might be a special breed of trouble, but he has the sweetest temperament. We were out running errands, just the two of us, this weekend and even though he is in the refuses-to-hold-moms-hand stage of his life he was sure to rush to open the driver's side door for me as we approached the van in every parking lot stop. He always slyly kisses my hand at random times because he hasn't outgrown public displays of parental affection completely, but he doesn't like to be showy about it. Whenever there has been a brief absence of us seeing each other (albiet I was running an evening errand or he was upstairs for 10 minutes without me) our reunion is celebrated with him charging me, arms outstretched and jubilantly yelling "Ya here MOM! Ya HERE!!"

Despite his impressive knack for getting into trouble, he is a sensitive little soul. He is always quick to apologize and often remembers when he was naughty, even after long durations like his nap, and gives the knee hug/sorry which makes me feel even more terrible when I've lost my cucumber cool demeanor.

At age three his favorite food group is Costco pizza followed closely by Hulk food (Cheese-Its in the box with the Avengers on the front). Teeth brushing is the literal bane of his existence (and mine), if he doesn't like something or doesn't want to do something he says he "scared" of it. He's a stickler for not letting anything stick out of his dresser drawers and when we are heading out the door he always says, "come on migos, come on!!" (Muchas gracias Diego and Dora.)

Every birthday I always swear that I will never put on a big birthday bash ever again.

Ha. My pants are on fire. 

^^^I mean come on...how cute are Rad and Breckie???? 

This was my first birthday for the boys where we didn't have a "theme." Pretty much any decision that was needed, I asked Rad what he preferred and went with that. So we had a Justice League bounce house, camo napkins, shark plates, a Batman cake, musical chairs and a Lama piñata. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. 

Even with 13 party animals. Not including Beck who joined the festivities dressed to the nines. 

Jake told we the night before the party that he had a 9:30 appointment that morning (the party started at 11...) so to make up for my last minute stress, he took on holding the piñata despite every America's Funniest Home video telling him this could end badly.

Please note his expression. ^^^^

Happy birthday to the the most obstinate, sensitive, tender, crazycake soul on the planet. ;) I love you fiercely Rad!

growing up

In the words of everyone's very favorite English lady Adele...hello from the other side.

I have such lofty goals to blog...and really, what is it about having a blog that makes me think I've got to catch you up on everything??  I know the blog is a running narrative of our mundane little life but for the sake of our posterity having some record of our life I'll hold on tight to those lofty goals.

The past months have been flying by, and week by week what to my wondering eyes does appear, but my boys are growing UP.  For a long, long time I think I've sort of felt like I've been firmly planted in the baby and toddler trenches and while Beck isn't even into the wilds of toddlerhood yet I have to admit that the two older boys are most definitely not toddlers and they are growing up.

So even though I know I'm perpetually blogging about the trivial details around here, I thought I'd pound out a little behind-the-scenes post. I don't know. I thought and now I'm doing. Let's roll.

Ahem. I feel like I'm starting a Christmas card letter.

Beck:

Not that he really has much of a choice, but our resident butter ball is the most laid back Miller baby...well ever.

Sometimes he gets so overcome with happiness that he throws his head back and then flings it forward full force to hit usually nothing but air but the other day it happened to be my lip...that is now extra fat.

Forgiven this time, Mr. B.

Beck is minutes? days? weeks? months? away from crawling. With his adjusted premie age he's closer to 9 months than 11 months old so it's anyone's guess when he'll fully mobilize himself. For now he just does his planks and then transitions down to his hands and knees for long periods of time. When he sits, he's quite adept at rocking back and forth and lunging for whatever his mean mom has put just of out his reach.

Until he finds his groove his is mostly content to sit and observe, but his favorite is to be carried on my hip all the live long day. No matter how engrossed he is at pulling the wipes out of the package, when he sees a care provider, he will flap and kick and and rock and screech till his demands are met. He tries to keep the conversation riveting, but his linguistic skills fall closer to that of a cute kola bear.

He's pretty much the best. Usually. And if any other Miller kids are reading this...you're the best to. ;)

PS: Yes, he really is still mostly bald and his sumo physique comes from large quantities of peanut butter and copious amounts of shredded chicken.

And now Rad:

The other night Jake randomly said, "I don't know why, but Rad is just extra endearing to me right now." And I had to agree. But!! He's also that crazyhorse age that can drive you insane with all of the demands and strong opinions that he still can't quite fully articulate. Yet somehow despite his always dirty hands and his myriad of hourly frustrating moments...our ginormous three year old spitfire still manages to make a mother laugh. And a father too, of course.

Rad's language has vastly improved past the monosyllabic grunts of a few months ago. When he get's really into a story he wants to share, his native tongue of whisper-to-yell-back-to-whisper-jibberish still makes an apperance from time to time and his pronunciation can still hard to follow for those who don't spend 24 hours a day with him. But! Definitely more and more he is clearer and clearer and says full thoughts and ideas that make me want to hug him indefinitely. Although I would like to think his rapid progress is because of my aptitude as a tiger mom, but really the credit goes to Rad starting to go to play school two mornings a week. His little squad of fellow three year olds have really helped him express his fine self.

 A few more details about sweet Rad.

- He sings every hymn at church with gusto. And by sing I mean belt out "Hmmmms!" and "Oooooo!" and "NAAAAHHHH!" in a incredibly nasal pitch. Thankfully we are always late so we end up sitting in the very very back with everyone else with young crazies.

- He can't live with or without Rhett as evidenced by their hourly fights and eventual but inevitable makeups.

- When I tell Rad I love him he responds "I wuve you too momma" with such sincerity that I can't even handle it. It just might be his most endearing quality to date.

And lastly Rhett:

- An exciting development is that Rhett has become a serious lover of the written word. He pours over passages of the books we bring home from the library. He often reads out loud, which is a combo of the actual words he knows on the page and his own literary interpretation. His favorite books are any kids encyclopedia versions of animals facts. Nothing screams bedtime story like everything you could ever want to know about Anacondas.

- He has started calling me "mommycakes" when it becomes blatantly obvious he has crossed one too many lines. Like the other morning when he grabbed my upper arm and said "Well someone's arm is getting cute and chubby!" We do tell Beck that...but I'm not Beck.

- I count on Rhett maybe more than I should for his age to help with his younger brothers, but he is a true baby whisperer and loves to be "in charge". He says things like, "Now, don't get carried away!" to Rad when he starts splashing like a lunatic in the bath. He furrows his brow and gets all up in Beck's face and asks, "What's wrong, Beckster?" when Beck cries/whines and with Rad he sets up elaborate toy scenerios with him that Rad plays with all afternoon when Rhett's at school.

- He declares most fun situations (like swimming in the backyard plastic pool) to be, "the best day of my LIFE!!!" and is a total night owl and would happily stay up till midnight nightly if we let him.

And one more...Ben, the puppy, the saint.

I'm not sure if Ben enjoys the boys antics as much as they love him, but I'm loving the little surrogate sibling role that Ben selflessly plays on a daily basis. I owe him hugely.

Ben is my constant shadow. He follows me all day with complete devotion. He's a smart little fire cracker and has learned to come, sit, lay down and stay. He's a tug of war enthusiast and doesn't run. He prances. Remind me to get a video.

And I'm done. Next week they'll all be a little bit different than they were before and that one kid's crazy habit that drove the parental units insane will probably fade out of our memory banks forever just as another happy habit surfaces. ;)

noteworthy

A quick peek at the running list on my phone of things to document on the blog showed me that a few things have fallen between the cracks. Which is totally not acceptable!!

First of all...

these babies reached 7 years of marriage at the end of December. They were so cute.

Oh wait, they are still cute. Wink. ;)

Anniversaries get recognized the way subsequent children do after the first. Each is precious, but sadly not as well documented as the first.

But it's not all doom and gloom on the anniversary front. We've had a great 7 years. We had three little boys in 4 1/2 years....sometimes I think we are/were certifiably loco. We have been poor...we have been "rich" (which, was still actually poor) we have had negative account balances, we have eaten lots of versions of ramen. Lots. We haven't done a lot of fancy stuff, but we really have a great time doing the little stuff together. That's one of the reasons I wanted to marry Jake, it's always a good time. It occurred to me recently that And it's probably somewhere on the loco train that we really would spend every day all day together. In the words of phoebe buffay, he is my lobster.

Happy anniversary Jakester. After all this time you are still magic to me. And I will still eat a lot of ramen with you. Happily. ;)

Anyway, aren't you glad I shared that love fest? Surely! You must be!

What else?

I entered my 31st year. I didn't have any nostalgia ridden adieu to leaving 30 because really...who cares. OK I care a little. Mostly I find it weird that I'm not 24 because I feel like that was literally 6 weeks ago max.

It wasn't my favorite birthday ever, because I am a high maintenance birthday gal. It's so ridiculous...no buts, it's fully ridiculous. But true. I don't know what a birthday should look like when you're 31 with three kids but maybe by next year I'll figure it out. ;)

In the morning Rhett and I went for a hike and in the evening Jake and I went to look at model home (hey now...don't mock it till you try it!) and went to dinner.

My one and only birthday gift (God bless Jake...he tries really hard with my birthday but since it falls right after Christmas and our anniversary I know picking out yet another gift isn't easy) was from Tyrell and she NAILED it. Not much makes me happier than power tools and a LEAF BLOWER no less!! I've wanted one for so long. She would know...I borrow(ed) her's all the time.

And the biggest and best news award goes to this tiny guy,

who officially made me an aunt! 

Everyone say hi to Nathan, he's still relatively new around here. 

I don't know if I'm more thrilled that my sister had a boy, for cousin bonding purposes of course, or that watching my sister become a mom has been one of my favorite things I've shared with her.  

And for all the sake of all that is cute and even more ridiculously cute I'll leave you with this.

I mean we're looking at the beginning of the bros or something otherwise historic.

Rhett and Rad chat

^^^ Ben's micro expressions indicate he is unsure about his feelings regarding his new brothers.

On the phone with a grandparent:

Rhett: Yeah, I'm in kindergarten. It's pretty cool, I guess.
Rhett: Kind of intense.

The unfiltered honesty of a child:

Rhett: Your breath stinks.
Julia: Looks at phone...
Julia: It's 3:38AM
Rhett: Let's snuggle.

At the post office:

Rhett: What's wrong mom?
Julia: I don't feel great today.
Post guy: Can I help you Ma'am?
Rhett: MAYBE YOU JUST HAVE TO POOP!
Julia: No that will be all.

A Sunday afternoon:

Rhett: Hey Dad.
Rhett: I'm just chillin'
Rhett: But that doesn't mean I'm cold.

A few days before my birthday:

Rhett: How old will you be on your birthday?
Julia: I'm 30 now, what comes after that?
Rhett: 50
Julia: Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Whispered at church:

Rhett: Mom
Julia: Yes?
Rhett: Your eyelashes look really good today.
Julia:

During a Family Home Evening lesson taught by Rhett:

Rhett: This is Thomas S. Monson. (our church's prophet)
Rhett: I'm a really big fan of him.

And a little from Mr. Rad

A sunny afternoon: 

Rad: (terrified) MOMMA!!
Julia:
Rad: The mirror KEEPS WOOKING AT MEEEE?!
Julia: ...the next president of the free world folks.

At a rare real family dinner: 

Rad: (takes plate to sink)
Julia: Rad aren't you hungry? You barely ate.
Rad: Yeah, I not hunry.
Rad: (comes over to my chair) What you eating momma?
Julia: The same thing you had.
Rad: Can I have a bite?

snaps

We're still not Snapchatting around here...but that doesn't mean that we've stopped taking lots of little videos like the subpar videographers we are. Which means the videos will eventually come out of the archive folders and see the light of the web. You're welcome universe.

the place with the grapes

A story about taking your children out to eat at a restaurant on the weekend.

One fine Christmas Break day we were cruising in the mini van and out of the window Rhett saw with great excitement "the place with the grapes."

Known to most people as the Olive Garden.

Rhett claimed to have fond memories of feeling like family and their breadsticks. Rad is pretty much part Italian with his love of pasta. We haven't taken the boys to a real restaurant (or Olive Garden) in...a year? Longer? What we loved about the idea of taking the boys to Olive Garden was not the food (sorry. but the kids love it...so there's that) but that it was a real restaurant but not the fanciest joint on the block.

Jake and I felt super optimistic about publicly breaking bread as a family but we should have known not to do it the evening we did. Take a 5 year old a 2 1/2 year old  and a 9 month old...both of the latter who hadn't napped to dinner? IN A RESTAURANT WITH OTHER PEOPLE IN IT?! But no, we did it anyway. I really wanted to have a family bonding moment, so we took the chance. It did not work out in our favor.

We kew it was bad when the boys start to get cranky before we even ordered and Jake and I sat there and wondered if we should just abandon ship right from the get go. But we felt bad, they had already brought bread sticks and water and man I REALLY wanted some bottomless salad of a sudden, so we forged ahead, blindly ignoring the pretty blatant warning signals Beck and Rad were sending out like the bat signal to get the F out of there before they changed into terrible toddler monsters. The guy waiting on our table had some special waiter sixth sense and even warned me that we should just order our unlimited soup and salad combos immediately because "it would take a while" and we did, and we were locked in. But we did ask the him to bring the boy's food AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE because maybe that would buy us some time.

And within the first 15 minutes...

- Beck turbo-ed himself into a salad bowl sending lettuce to places lettuce shouldn't be which scared his little soul to death.

- Rhett loudly declared that Rad's spaghetti was "the grossest thing EVER."

- Rad showed off his stellar eating manners.

^^^ I love how our 2 year old can figure out how to work the TV remote, but can't find his mouth while eating spaghetti.

- They continued to spill and drop stuff. A lot.

- Beck continued to realize the world is a scary place and was only happy chewing on my hair.

- Rhett got distracted by organizing the sugars and was deeply effected when Rad commandeered all the breadsticks...the soul reason Rhett had wanted to go the place with the grapes.

- Rhett punched Rad to "teach him a lesson" about stealing a man's breadsticks.

- A new waitress stopped by to ask if we "needed anything" and her long hair wooed Rhett into offering this pick up line "Hey girl, I can write my whole name...with lowercase letters. Does that impress you?"

And before that relationship could steamify we did a hasty clean up, left a generous tip, offered the practiced "Apologetic Parent Face"   ( You know the one. The one that is sort of like a facial shrug, like "I'm really sorry, I know my child is being loud but I am a good parent and I will try to remedy this ASAP.") and herded everyone out to the car. 

Oh...but first me made Rad turn in the "your table is ready" beepers which he almost kelpto-ed which lead to a high-knee-run-in-place-and-then-collapse-tantrum in front of the hostess desk.

Rhett hoped his waitress love interest wasn't watching the shenanigans. 

Bonus: Rhett shared that the breadsticks weren't his favorite after all on the drive home. 

L to the O to the ironic L. 

introducing Ben the puppy

Because three little boys just wasn't enough fun.

Exclamation points !!!!!

That little ball of white fluff is the newest little boy to our crew. Ben is a bichon frise, is 12 weeks new and joined our family on Christmas morning.

Their boundless excitement lasted for 72 boy hours, 100 dog hours and 238 mom hours. Ha.

I feel like I should say "SURPRISE!" because getting a puppy certainly doesn't seem like a rational short of decision when you have three little boys. And it's not. Totally not rational. But just look at that face!! HE'S SO FLUFFY WE COULD DIE! (Name that movie)

All fluffy puppy love emotions aside, Jake and I have been thinking about getting a dog since we first got married. Fact: the amount of research we did before getting Ben was 1000X more research than we did before we started having kids. Our logic....we're thinking that we'll get all the potty training, put random stuff in your mouth, eat of the ground, phases done at the same time. In reality on Christmas morning we (I) thought we lost our minds.

But really, Ben's has been such a blessing for our family. His breed is the best for our us and the boys. He's crazy energetic when the turkeys play with him and he's just as happy to chill and follow me around. #perfectchild

A few highlights from the past two weeks:

When I overheard Rhett asking Ben "who's your daddy?"

Rad taking EXTREME interest in Ben's potty training. He sits in the middle of the backyard monitoring Ben's movements and then gives a fully detailed report. He also loves putting on the plastic gloves and picking up the fun stuff. That's a plus. The downside is that Rad now want's to mimic Ben's potty routine. I'll let that one just sink in...

Our thought process with getting a puppy included the notion that if we had a puppy our boys might stop playing puppy (including barking when the door bell rang) all the time. Not the case.

Rhett taking Ben's exercise very seriously.

Beck gets the uncontrollable giggles when Ben wrestles with his toys. Beck gets the uncontrollable giggles when Ben sniffs him or kisses him. Beck does not get the uncontrollable giggles when Ben tries to use Beck as a pillow or when Ben plows him over when Ben's loving life.

Rad thinks Ben's water dish is a pool for his Power Rangers. Or his own personal watering hole. Thrice. Hopefully that's over.

Ben...welcome to the tribe/herd/crew/family. :)