A Few Thoughts...

I read Elder Holland's talk regarding our children. There are several sections that stuck out to me, and so I'll just go through and comment briefly on them:

Paragraph 6:
If the Savior felt so much worry over the children and the evil influences they face, then we need to feel at least a portion of that. I think we can be too complacent; we can be more vigilant and earnest in protecting and strengthening our kids against the bad influences that are/will come to them. We especially need to be praying for them every day.

Paragraph 10:
This reminds me of Bishop Haws' counsel to our ward, to bear our testimony to our children every day. You do a much better job at this than I do. But we both can do better; let's try to do this every day, focusing on these areas that Elder Holland mentions: our devotion the Christ, the Restoration, the reality of living prophets and apostles.

Paragraph 12:
Wow. This one really hit me. It's the one that starts off "I think some parents..." I feel like he is describing me here. I am active and go to meetings, but do I "convey powerful heartfelt convictions" to my kids? The remedy for the situation he describes in this paragraph is found in paragraph 17 and 18.

Paragraph 17/18: I love there paragraphs because they tell us exactly what we can do. I especially was struck by a few of the suggestions he makes:
1-Priesthood blessings. I think we have some opportunities coming up to teach our kids about this (Andrea's surgery and the upcoming school year).
2-Ask ourselves what out children know from us personally-find areas that we could be better about mentioning in everyday life (I'm thinking of things like tithing, Word of Wisdom, answers to prayers, etc.)
3-He asks if our children know that we love the scriptures and if they see us reading and marking and clinging to them daily. I was thinking it is hard to get scripture study in without the girls around, so maybe I need to do it when they are around, so they can see that it is important to me.
4-Have they heard us pray for them "out of nothing more than sheer parental love?" I think this is huge. I think we should try to include the kids, individually, in every single prayer that we offer, both family, personal, and couple. I think this will help them know that we love them, but also help us love them more.

And finally, Elder Holland says, "God will send aid to no one more readily than He will send it to a child - and to the parent of a child." Let's always remember this. I can't believe the help that I receive as I pray about specific problems relating to the kids.

Anyway, great talk. I'm excited to hear what you have to say about it!

General Conference Talks

As I mentioned on the phone earlier today, Brother Seneca gave a great talk today and quoted from the following two talks:

• Dark Friday, Bright Sunday, by Elder Wirthin
• A Prayer for the Children, by Elder Holland

They both sound really good. Let's read through them over the next few days and post any comments or impressions from our reading.

I sure missed you today. Church is difficult without you because everywhere I go there are things that remind me of you and the kinds. Even though it was no fun without you, I got a lot of Elders Quorum work done this afternoon. Hopefully I'll find some time for a nap. I hope you have a nice, relaxing Sunday. I love you and miss you very much.

Anders

I'm an exercising fiend!!

So I work up at 6:00 this morning and remembered that Nina was planning to go run around Burke Lake at 6. So, I call Nina and she picked me up on the way. We ran around Burke Lake, which is 5 miles. We came back to mom and dad's house and I was still in the mood to exercise, so I got on Liisa's rowing machine and rowed for 20 minutes. I feel great! Nina and I are going to go running Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week. It feels so good to run. I hope to keep it up.

I've got some work I need to do today (Saturday). Specifically, I've got some training I need to do in preparation for promotion to Manager. I anticipate that it will be pretty boring stuff. I have a bunch of financial worksheets I need to complete to ensure I'm sufficiently independent from the firm's audit clients. I'm sorry I have to complete this stuff before you come home. It would be so fun to sit down and work on it together. :-)

It sounds like Mom and Dad had a great time in Alaska. They were talking about taking the whole family there next summer. I reminded them that we can just as easily go to Ireland or Italy. We'll see.

I hope things are going well for you. Have a great day.

I sure love and miss you all,

Anders

Crazy Weather in VA

The storm last night was crazy. I haven't heard of any destruction in the areas, but there was a lot of rain that came down. I woke up at 5:00 this morning to take Liisa to the airport, and it was really cold outside. I had put on shorts and a T-shirt thinking it would be warm, but the rain brought along some unseasonably cool weather. And it's still pretty nice outside, even though the sun is up.

As I mentioned, Liisa is now gone, so Heidi and I are left to take care of Todd. A person doesn't really gain a good appreciation for what mom and dad and Liisa do with Todd until they spend a morning getting him ready for school. He can be a handful, and I'm not going to miss changing his diapers. I can see why my dad gets frustrated.

I watched a little bit of West Wing with my sisters last night. I'm not getting hooked, but it was pretty entertaining. The dialog and the acting is really good. I think you would like it. Maybe we can borrow an episode or two when we get back and enjoy a relaxing evening watching TV together. That sounds really nice right now.

I'm in love with my new phone. Don't worry, it's nothing that will come between us (except if I get a call while we are on a date). This phone is really cool. I can't wait to show it to you. I'm sure you'll love it too. Well, I better get back to work. I love you very much.

Anders

I should havejust stayed in bed...

Okay, this is going to be a whining and complaining entry, so you may want to just skip to the bottom and look at the pictures. Anyway, yesterday started off okay, and got progressively worse until, well, right now.

I think I told you about our movie mishaps - we took the girls to see a movie that turned out to be scary, and so we tried another movie and it turned out to be "boring," according to Andrea. So we went to the park, where we played for a few minutes before a huge thunder/hail storm blew through. Then there was the trip to the library, the lame kids' meal coupons for Sizzler, and the 45 minute drive home that cause Greg and Eric to have to reschedule their dentist appointments. So for dinner, I thought I would help by making oven-roasted potatoes, which I have done successfully at home many times. Not so this time. I won't go into the many ways they were a disaster, but they were. I don't know how you can mess up potatoes. I mean, really.

SO Melinda saw that I was struggling a bit to make it through the day in one piece, so she asked mom if she could take me out after the kids went down. Sounds great. The kids even went down without a fuss. We went to see Wall-E at Greg's recommendation. It was...not good. It was okay and it had funny parts, but it was weird, and the beginning was creepy, and it had a very trendy 'save the earth' moral to it (which you know annoys me to no end), and I half expected Al Gore to appear at the end of it and lecture us in that conceitedly humble way of his.

So the movie was a bust, but we got home, and the kids were asleep, and so I got ready for a good night's sleep. I went to bed at midnught. At 12:30, Natalie came into my room, climbed into bed with me, and started talking. Afraid that she would wake up Ethan, I took her back into her room and laid down on the floor next to her. I was waiting for her to fall asleep so that I could go back into my room. She didn't go to sleep until 4:30. Ethan woke up at 2:30, and thanks to Natalie, he thought it was time to play.

I brought them both into my room, turned on the light, laid down on the floor, and let them play. At one point, Natalie left the room 'to check on everybody.' She came back about 10 minutes later to announce that everyone was 'o-tay.' Another time, she stepped on my toe and it really hurt, so she went downstairs and got me a curious george bandaid, applied it to my foot. Very sweet. I think she knew that was upset, because she periodically would apologize to me and offer to rub my back and sing me songs. I also started crying at one point, and she said, "I will say a prayer for you, Mommy." Then, "Well, just a little one." Then, "How 'bout you do it, Mommy." Thanks for the thought, Natalie.

I finally got Ethan to sleep at 4:30, at which point I turned off the light in my room, and Natalie and I fell asleep until 7:30.

I'm in a bad mood today.

I need to go tend to Ethan right now, but I will post some pictures later. I love you and miss you desparately :)

Rope Swings and Sprinklers

Here is Natalie's new dress that she wore on Sunday (only $7.49!!)

Okay, you haven't missed too much the last couple of days. We have been busy doing...a whole lot of nothing. Yesterday Greg helped me take all the kids to swimming lessons; today Eric went with me and the kids to WalMart and Costco. It is so nice to have the extra help!

Yesterday afternoon while the kids were napping, Melinda, Greg, Eric, Bear and I all went to a pond to go off a rope swing. When we got there, the rope swing was occupied by some potty-mouthed children and their irresponsible parents, so we went in search of a bank to swim at. We found one, but it was pretty boring just sitting there in the lake.

As we were walking around the pond, we found a rope swing tangled up in a branch; Eric made it his mission to get it down. We had a rope with a hook/lath thing at either end and a retractable leash that we used for Bear. Eric spent about 45 minutes trying to get that dumb rope down.

He first tried tying a stick to the end of our rope and throwing it up at the branch. No luck. The stick wasn't really heavy enough.

Note the Stick

He then tried filling a Gatorade bottle with water, attaching that to the end of the rope, and trying to throw it up through the tangled rope swing. We had a few close tosses, but no luck.

Note the Gatorade bottle

Finally, we let out all the rope on the leash, attached it to the first rope, and tossed that. It took 3 people: 1 to toss the handle of the leash, 1 to toss the hook where the leash and the rope connected, and 1 to...well, I don't know what Melinda was doing. But we got it!!

Note the incredible display of teamwork

And so then we got the rope down, but it was too short. Greg was the only one who was tall enough to reach it. Wa-wa. So we attached the rope that belonged to us (which was actually a wire with a thin plastic sheath). We attached the two ropes together, and tied a knot in our rope to hold on to and looped the end around so that it wouldn't be so long.

Eric went off it and got his leg stuck in the loop on the way down; he now has a rope burn way up high on his inner thigh. All I have to say is, he is one lucky guy (if you know what I mean...).

Note the wire caught around his leg

So we started to go home, but then we found a great log right off the edge of the pond. We spent about 30 minutes jumping in off the log. It was actually pretty fun. We may even go back!

That same evening, we set the sprinkler up and let the girls play. Pretty exciting stuff. We love you and miss you! Here are the pictures from that evening.

She is slowly warming up to the camera. And check out those chompers!




Natalie the Daredevil was the first to test the water...










A boy and his dog: Bear LOVES Eric

It was a rough morning here too.

I had a hard time getting up this morning. My alarm went off and I pushed snooze three or four times before rolling out of bed. It rained really hard last night, with thunder and lightning, and it was still cloudy this morning. Rainy, cloudy mornings always make it difficult to get out of bed. I had to come downtown to see a new team member that is coming onto the CBP project today. I wasn't excited about driving downtown for only a couple hours of work, and I was right to be apprehensive. Traffic was awful! On top of all that, I'm missing you and the kids. Oh well.

Despite a rather dismal Monday morning, I'm feeling pretty good about things. I feel like I've got a better handle on my spiritual situation. I've got my evenings this week filled up with stuff to do.

Monday - I'm going to Mom and Dad's house to celebrate Elizabeth's Birthday. I plan to stay there tonight since I've got a meeting in Springfield at 8:00 the following morning.

Tuesday - I've got EQ Presidency meeting and basketball.

Wednesday - I'm planning to work late at FAP West and then Sterling G. and I are going to try and track down a couple of less active quorum members.

Thursday - James Whitaker and I are going to go do an endowment session at the temple.

Friday - Nothing planned yet, but I'm sure something will come up. Maybe I'll invite Liisa over to help me paint the girls room.

Saturday - I may have the opportunity to take a less-active family to the temple visitor's center with the missionaries.

Well, I better get to work. I sure love and miss you. Keep the pictures coming. They are great source of strength and happiness for me. Good luck today.

Love,

Anders

A Challenging Couple of Days

Okay, so maybe I won't be doing this every single day. But you haven't missed too much. Friday night I went with Greg and Eric to see Boston. The concert started at 7:45 and was done by 9:15. Wow. I guess they are pretty old...They were pretty good, but all in all it was a forgettable concert. I suppose the most memorable aspect of it was that Eric had run out of deodorant that day and wasn't wearing any, and we all suffered. So on the way home we stopped at WalGreens and I got them each a stick of deodorant, my treat.

Saturday morning we went to JC Penneys ('we' being Mom, Melinda, Andrea, Natalie, Ethan, and myself). They were having massive sales and we got some pretty cute stuff for the girls. You'd have been proud of me. I was very selective and didn't buy things just because they were on sale. We ended up with four shirts, four pairs of shoes, two pairs of shorts, and a dress, all for about $55. Amazing! Here are the girls wearing their new fashions:

As usual, Andrea strikes a pose, while

Natalie slumps over because she doesn't like the camera.

Andrea wearing her new shoes with her Family Necklace she made in primary today.

Then began nap time. Wow. I sometimes question my ability as a parent. It took me over an hour and a half to get Natalie down, and Natalie was screaming for the majority of that (you know, that really high pitched, glass-shattering scream). But I finally got them down just about the time it was time to go to the lake.

Greg's friends' families all got together for a BBQ at Eagle Island. It was...awkward? Well, of course it was awkward; we're Millers. But the food was good. The girls had fun swimming in the lake until a little boy came over and dumped a bottle of sand on Natalie's head. I didn't see it because Eric was watching the girls at the time. (He said he almost beat the kid.) So they came back to the picnic area and played frisbee and played on the playground.

(Natalie is wearing a swimming suit underneath her shirt...
I dont generally let her run around in public without pants.)

Andrea could do almost the whole set of monkey bars by herself.

Andrea on top of the climbing wall

Natalie had a hard time getting on the climbing wall...

But once she got on it, she zipped right up to the top all by herself.

Natalie was eager to help by carrying her backpack
full of towels and swimsuits when it was time to go.

Last night started off well. We had baths, scriptures, prayer, and the girls went down very easily. But it was a false beginning. I was up with Ethan and Natalie from about 12 :45 until about 3:30 or so. Natalie was just wide awake. At one point we were laying there, and out of the blue she said, "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, Mommy!" Another time, she got up, got out the Cheerios, put some in a baggie and brought them back to bed. I must have been dozing when she did this because all the sudden she was sitting beside me, munching on Cheerios. "Want some, Mommy?" No, no thanks.

So this morning was pretty rough. I slept a couple of hours while Greg and Eric played with the girls. (Eric is impressed with Andrea's Matching Game abilities.) My mom got the kids totally ready and we were still late because I couldn't find Andrea's shoes, and Sacrament meeting was...a trial. But I did have a small victory: Natalie wouldn't whisper during Sacrament meeting, and so I asked her if she wanted to have a time out. She said yes. So I took her out and we had a time out where she had to sit on my lap. I took her back in, and a little while later she was getting loud and so I decided she needed another time out. As I was taking her out, she said, "I don't want a time out!!" HooRAY!!! I knew I was finally getting through to her.

I took Natalie and Ethan home from church early today so Natalie could get a nap. After Andrea walked home from church with Greg and Eric, she took a 'nap' with Grandpa out on the hammock. For the past hour she has been playing Barbies, the matching game, and Paper, Rock, Scissors with Eric. He is so patient with the girls...he's going to be a good daddy :)

Well, we love you, and wish you were here. Go reserve those tickets so you can come see us!!

Day One of Blogging

I know, I know. You're probably going to pass out (or at least roll your eyes) because I'm actually doing a blog. I've sworn for a long time that I will never be one of those bloggers who have nothing better to do with their time but write all about themselves for everyone online to see. But here I am. Blogging. Let me explain:

Since we are going to be apart for a little while, I wanted to share with you our goings-on here in Boise. I feel like every day something happens that I want you to know about, but when we talk on the phone, I forget it all. So here is my attempt to keep you up-to-date on everything (mainly the kids); we'll see how it goes. I'm posting lots of pictures here, but check the James Maxincar website periodically; I'll try to post all of the pictures there.

And who knows? Maybe I'll really like this whole blogging thing and get hooked.

Our original plan this morning was to go swimming, but it has been a cool, blustery day. So we went to the park instead.










Grandpa checked Ethan's ears again this morning. There was a little fluid behind one here, but not enough to cause a problem or even be notice by an otoscope.







As usual, Natalie wouldn't cooperate and look at the camera, and so this is really the best that I could get of her.









Last night Andrea did not go to sleep until after 11:00. She stayed in her room; she just wouldn't go to sleep!









Notice her little bum hanging out the side the swing. She really needs bigger diapers. Actually, she really just needs to be potty trained.










Andrea had her swimming lessons today; they got to 'dive' for rings (the teacher just put the rings on a step so that they had to dip their heads in the water to get them). She was so excited; when she came home she made sure to tell everybody that she went all the way through the water to get her ring and her ring was purple.










And here is Ethan's big news: He's got two teeth coming in on the bottom!! (This explains the grumpy-ness, the fussiness, and the late-night awakenings.)













Ethan has been a lot more cheerful today. I got him some baby Orajel (maximum strength!), and he has been a different baby. He's back to his old Veloceraptor screeches and happy squeals.











Last night I was looking for Natalie for dinner time. I found her like this. Rock star in the making.

I took Natalie to the playground during Andrea's lesson today. She had a great time pretending to be a crab and 'chomping' me with her fingers.

Yesterday Andrea was pretty bouncy and all over the place during her lesson, so today I told her that she needed to be still and listen when it wasn't her turn to be swimming with her teacher. She did a great job and sat very still and didn't goof off as much while she was waiting for the next thing.