Flower Fun

We first would like to start this post by saying how truly sorry we are for our friends Angie and Neal's loss this morning. Their little baby boy returned back home to Heavenly Father after an hour and a half of life. Ang and Neal, our hearts ache for you today, and our thoughts and prayers are with you at this time. We love you!

Image via flickr.com

This morning Tyson and I got an early start to do some cleaning and get the lawn mowed. After getting ready for the day we headed off to go buy flowers to get planted in the flower beds. My mom told us there was a great selection of flowers at Fred Meyer so we went right over. And she was so right! We had a lot of flowers to choose from, and we ended up leaving with a great variety. When we got home we went right to work on all the pots and the flower bed. All the flowers look so pretty and friendly. I think planting flowers is one of my favorite parts of the summer. We had a great day getting our flowers planted. Now let's see if we can keep them alive!

The view from the driveway. It's summer time at the Miller's!

We put together two pots that look like this. One is by the garage door and the other is by the front steps.

We did these two and put them against the wall coming up the front walkway.

A close up of one of the boxes

The second pot and some of the other flowers

And yes, we planted sunflowers! They are so cute!

And of course, we can't forget the pot in the back yard. This one is sitting at the base of the back steps.

Summer is finally here!

He's Finally Convinced

So you all know that I love Grey's Anatomy. There is no doubt about that. Ranking in at #2 on my top favorite TV shows (Friends being my #1), I knew Tyson should take part in all the hospital joy. But every time I mentioned we should watch it he wasn't interested. How was I going to convince him that this show is amazing?

Then a couple of weeks ago Tyson was in the mood to watch a movie. While he was looking through the movies it dawned on me that that he should give Grey's a chance. He agreed to give it a try so I set him up with the first disc of season one. Needless to say, after watching the first episode, he now loves Grey's Anatomy. Yes, he used the "L" word. I was so excited! I finally did it. I finally convinced him that Grey's Anatomy is wonderful.

Ever since he started watching the show he's wanted to watch an episode every night. In fact, we're watching an episode on the fourth disc of season two. Good episode! It's a nail biter. I'm just so happy that he likes it and we have another show to enjoy together. And at the rate we're going he'll be done with season four in time for season five to come out on DVD ha ha. I'm just happy he's convinced. Yay!

image via abc.com

Ice Chips

A friend of our family's is in the ICU after an aneurism and a stroke on Sunday. Her daughter Judy has for years been a good friend of my mom's. And Amber and I have been friends with her daughter Stacy for as long as we can remember. In short, our families have been friends for a very long time. And after hearing about Judy's mom we have all been praying for her and the family.

This afternoon I went with Amber and Mom to the hospital to visit her. Tears came to my eyes as I saw her lying there. But I knew that she was doing much better than she was doing before. The entire time we were there Judy's mom was talking with the same personality she's always had and making us all laugh. At one point she was talking about how much she loved water and ice chips. She couldn't believe how good they tasted. She even said,

"Ice chips are better than cake and ice
cream."

As we were all laughing I was thinking about how such a simple statement had so much meaning. It is easy to take things for granted. Life comes at us so fast, and I want my friends and family to always know how much they mean to me. It is hard to understand why things happen to us like they do. And the Pasley family is one of those that are the best examples of getting through anything. They are amazing and have been through it all. They are wonderful examples for my family and I, and we love them!

I also just wanted to send out our thoughts and prayers to Angie Bodily-Guymon, her husband, and their first pregnancy. We are thinking about you guys and hope everything is going well. We love you, too!

Image via faqs.org

Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone has had a great Memorial Day weekend. We had another event-filled weekend that included another birthday in the family. Tyson's sister Angie has one daughter and her name is Kate. She turned the big 1 last Tuesday! She's such a cutie. And Kate's cousin on the other side (his name is McKay) turned two. So we attended a double birthday party on Saturday night for these two youngsters. It was a lot of fun - these two are growing right up!

Pictures from Kate & McKay's Birthday Party

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The birthday girl enjoying a yummy cupcake.

All of the kids waiting for Kate & McKay to start opening presents.

McKay was super funny when opening his presents.

He threw all the clothes to the side and gave all of his attention to the toys.

Cute kid!

Angie helping Kate open the present we gave her.

We got a super cute purple shirt with little kakhi shorts.

We also gave her some little bow clips that are so fun and colorful!

After dinner, presents, and dessert the kids decided they wanted to have a water balloon fight. And it was kind of cold that night! But they were pretty excited about it.

Tyson's brother Dustin filled up all the balloons for the kids.

Dustin & Erika's daughter Lillie jumping on the trampoline.

Cooper having a water fight with Gramps.

Grandma Julie & Gramps playing with the kids.

Tyson holding the birthday girl.
She looked so cozy!

After the water balloons were gone the kids decided they wanted to play on the slip 'n slide.

Cooper going for his first slide.

Easton going for a slide.
Can you see Cooper obviously freezing? It really was so cold!


Easton & Cooper wrapped up in towels.


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Memorial Day Barbecue at Mom & Dad's

We spent the afternoon at Mom & Dad O'Connor's house having a barbecue to celebrate Memorial Day today. We always have a great time with my siblings mingling, eating, playing games, and enjoying one another's company.


I was in charge of the dessert, so I decided to make

Marshmallow Dream Brownies.

Actually, Tyson helped me come to this conclusion when I was deciding between a few options. They are so good! Here is the recipe:
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1 c. butter (2 cubes)
2 c. white sugar
1/3 c. cocoa
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. vanilla

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Icing:

1/2 c. butter (1 cube)
1/3 c. milk
1/4 c. cocoa
1 to 2 c. powdered sugar

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1 bag mini marshmallows

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Combine all ingredients for the brownies in a KitchenAid or with a hand mixer. Spread on greased 9 x 13 metal pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Take out and pour mini marshmallows on top until the top the brownies are completely covered, or until the desired amount is on them. Put the brownies back in the oven about 3 minutes - just long enough to melt.

For frosting: Heat butter, milk, and cocoa to a boil then add the powdered sugar. The amount of powdered sugar will change depending on what taste you're going for. I used exactly two cups of sugar, but I liked how it tasted at the time.

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After lunch we had our very own

Ring Toss Tournament

to gear up for the Annual Murri Ring Toss Tournament in August. It was great practice!

Tyson vs. Amber, Dad vs. Brittney

Mom, Aaron & Che' watching all the tournament fun.

Outcome:

Britney & Tyson won their matches

Next matches:

Che' vs. me, Mom vs. Aaron

Outcome:

I won Che' & Aaron won Mom
After Aaron won against Mom he played against me.

I lost ha ha.

Dad enjoying the ring toss action.

Then Britney & Tyson played each other

Outcome:

Tyson won

Time for the championship match!

Aaron vs. Tyson

And Tyson just learned how to play last Sunday! I was so proud.

Britney and Snoopy

Aaron's final throw in the championship match...

...and it was good! Aaron won. Good job, guys!

The score card

PS I didn't put a heart by Aaron's name, Britney filled it out. :)

Tyson feeding apples to the horses

Aaron & Snoopy

Another great weekend! We sure do love our families!

Good Grief

Tyson and I have made it a nightly tradition of watching "Wheel of Fortune". We each have Wheel Watcher Spin ID's (yes, that' s right - we're hard core) so we like to see if we win prizes during each episode. So fun! The contestants that go on that show are so lucky. I would love to go on that show, and I would cream everyone if I did go! People are walking off that set with thousands of dollars in cash and prizes, and we're just jealous as all heck. The contestants are normally pretty good.
But there was a lady on tonight that made us want to freak out! She was so rediculously off it was making us crazy. Two times she messed up on solving the puzzle (which both times she pretty much just had to read) and both times she handed the money to another contestant because she pretty much gave the answers away.

Here is what we're talking about. Can you figure this out?

A/H__LE/I__/ __ __ E

The answer was:

A hole in one

Her answer that she confidently shouted out to the millions of people watching:

A hole in WALL

Two things...
1) The word "wall" has four letters.
2) There is no "E" in wall.


And the second puzzle she slaughtered:

A/PINCH/OF/THIS/AN__/A/ __ASH/OF/THAT

Can you figure that out? I bet you can!

This is the answer:

A pinch of this and a dash of that

And this is what she said:

A pinch of this and a WASH of that

Not too sure that makes sense. Hmmm...

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Needless to say, Tyson and I were both having absolute fits while watching this lady completely throw herself under the bus. And I'm sure her fiance' who was in the audience was ready to dump her.

Total losses from these two puzzles:

over $5,000

Seriously? It was difficult to watch! People like that make that show incredibly entertaining.
Good grief.

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image via gamedroid.net