wordless wednesday.

*home*

~fountains remind me of how much fun summerime is!

We have been living in the Mile High City for a little over a year now, and it feels like just yesterday we arrived and began this crazy fun adventure! Now that summertime is back, and the city is bursting with such a vibrant and happy energy, all those feelings of falling in love come flooding back to me. I truly love everything about this beautiful city. In the summertime, so much of Denver, reminds me of Rochester, my hometown that we will be visiting in just a few weeks. That beautiful energy and days filled with so much to do, the air smells so yummy, all the festivals and events making the city come alive. I am ridiculously excited to go and experience it all with Kaden (and Chad too of course, though he will only be there for the end of the visit!). I cannot wait for him to be surrounded by so much love and for him to bond and play with his cousins. I can't wait to soak up all the love and enjoy simple pleasures with old friends and amazing family, a much needed getaway for us!


~playing at The Gaylord Festival near Wash Park this weekend.


~dancin to Yo Mama and Papas, such a fun children's band!






~My mom used to say *stinky mafucie* all the time when I was younger...and I had to teach it to kaden.


~No one can make him laugh quite like daddy. A little long, but toward the end he gets hysterical!

Weekend Linky Love!

I have talked before about my obsession with Pinterest here...It truly has inspired me in so many ways. It's completely like my morning coffee, it picks me up and gets me back in line when I need to get refocused! Here is a helpful Beginner's Guide to Pinterest for those of you are not sure where to start!

I love this article No one will play with me-Helping your child make friends. I see so many lonely kiddos in therapy, and I think you can never start too early helping them out with a little social skills!

I am so in love with bubbles. Must try this one day soon!

I've been thinking we so need a fun sandbox in our backyard...here is a sweet tutorial for one, love the stripes and the umbrella!

all things foodie related....

Holiday weekends always make me think of yummy FOOD! We are spending the weekend gallavanting to some neighborhood music festivals and such, so we aren't really doing the picnic thing, but if we WERE, I would so make these yummy Baby Back BBQ Ribs!

I am dying to make this Copycat recipe of Beecher's Mac N Cheese!

I made these amazing Banana Muffins this week. I could have eaten all of them in one sitting, so yummy! Next time I have to try to make them with chocolate chips!

I am hoping to make this pretty Beet and white bean hummus later today, isn't it so pretty?

We decided to give Kale Chips another whirl...a co worker swears by them, and I thought maybe i did something wrong the first time. Heavy on the sea salt makes them super yummy. Kaden ate them right up!

and this yummy smelling Orange Chicken is in the crockpot right now for tonite. Not very memorial weekendish, but makes for a quick and easy meal for when we get home from the drum circle/festival that we are off to when nuggie wakes up!

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

xo

*freckle*

~kaden attempting to find my *freckle* for a little comfort.

kaden never had a "blankie", although not for a lack of trying on my part. I auditioned several blankies for the role, bought some silly pricey ones, tried some burp cloths that dear friends had used for their lil ones, and many many others. I gues because of my work, I was kind of set on him having a transitional object to help him through his various transitions, our big move and mommy going to work.
Nope. Not one of them worked. Instead, he has become strangely attached to a *freckle* next to my shoulder. I say freckle, but I'm pretty sure it's a birthmark...but that seems way too hard for him to say, so we just like to call it a freckle. He looks for it and plays with it close to 50 times a day. I'm not sure it is so much for comfort, though sometimes it seems like it is, but I think that he feels a sense of security to know it's not going anywhere, and it's comforting to know he can check in and make sure all is good in the world if my freckle is still there.

I have been wanting to write about so many little kadenisms...he is becoming SUCH a little character...off the top of my head, here are some favorites...

~I wanna do dat summmmore.

~ Convo in the car today: We were at a stoplight and there was a homeless man with a sign that said "Veteran with Cancer, please help". I let out a sigh and my sweet little guys says what HE doing? I say, aww buddy, that man is sick and feeling sad". He says "I wanna give him a kiss". whatever.

~lately kaden needs to know everyone's name and what they are doing. "What her name, what her FULL name". "what HE doing".

~we take a huge bag of sandtoys with us whenever we go to the playground so that we can practice *sharing* with friends. Yesterday, he was having a rough time with it, and a little girl kept ripping toys out of his hand. He tried so hard to share and that at one point, he stood up, gathered his toys and sang the "clean up" song. It was too funny.




~I love that this sweet little piece of blue tissue paper that we found on the ground was the highlight of our day today...we must have played with that thing for about 45 minutes. kids just so *get* the meaning of simple pleasure.


~this precious family brought their homeade lemonade stand to the park! how cute is this?






~kaden chillin with all his friends on his potty.

Kaden went peepee on the potty! The amount of peepee was probably smaller than the size of a dime, but hey, it was indeed PEE! He was overjoyed with himself and we were so proud! He got an M&M and ran back to the potty and said "I want anodder M&M!". He sat on the potty, looked down at that peepee from before, and said "I did it!" I didn't have the heart to tell him that was the same peepee as before, so he got another M&M. We did a crazy potty dance and I am hoping he will be super psyched to try again tommorow.




~might as well JUMP!














~giving unk brah some love.

and now for some weekend linky love!

This feature Kiddo Lunch gave me so many great ideas! I love this blog, and how ridiculously cool is her family?

Love Food on your Face Friday! Such an awesome weekly feature, I so want to try this homeade treatment!

I am so making this Coconut Banana Bread tommorow...yummy! I have made a lot of things from her blog, and all have been incredible!

and some of my faves from Pinterest this week!


~seeing this is so on my bucket list.




~yes please.

*miller time*

~have you ever played the guitar backwards? It sounds way better.

any given night in the Miller home. We enjoy rockin out.






I am so overdue for a blog post...I have so much to say, but am ridiculously exhausted. I will definitely be back with a real post later this week!

But first, I have to mention that the little man rode the merry go round at the zoo for the first time since the completely lost his mind on it at 11 months. We were so very proud of him!

*happy mother's day*

"Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes, by dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, but only one mother in the whole world."

I love this quote and it is so very true. I miss my Mother everyday but am so blessed to have had her with me for as long as I did, and I could not be more proud in those moments where I see how much I have become like her in so many ways.

This Mother's day I find myself grateful for so many things, my cup truly runneth over. This little man that holds my hand and brings unmeasurable joy to my world. An incredible partner/best friend/husband who so gets me and still likes me anyway, and who teaches me so much about balance and simplicity. an amazing family who I miss tremendously, yet am super ecstatic to see in about 5 weeks! an incredible beautiful and peaceful place to live, framed by those gorgeous purple mountain majesties. And a job that doesn't always feel like a job, to have the freedom to make my own decisions, and to be able to nurture and embrace the minds/souls of children. I am feeling so blessed and grateful today. I know this isn't Thanksgiving, and I feel that I may have written this same thing just a few months ago around that time, but I don't care....I want to recognize and express my gratitude for the abundance that I feel in my world right now. Thank you to everyone and everything that makes my world so bright.

And for all the mommies out there that continue to be such an incredible inspiration to me and so many others...whether you nurture a child or a furbaby, hope that this day was a perfect celebration of all that you are. And for the someday mommies...enjoy the journey!

We had Mamaw and Papaw over for a little brunch this morning and it was such a gorgeous summer day! We had Nutella stuffed french toast, sausage and strawberries, and mimosas of course! Thanks TT Gabina for helping me with the yummy recipe, and thank you TT Margie for the inspiration!


~I got 4 hours sleep last night, can you tell? hello tiny eyes.




~cracking up over eating his 973rd strawberry.




~Mikey enjoying a shady spot.




~3 outfit changes this morning, but his favorite was his new favorite phrase "it my birfday suit".




~Papaw getting kaden psyched up about pottytime.


~beyond cozy afternoon nap with nug.


~my amazingly talented cousin took this incredible photo, which I will soon be framing for myself. The birdies are the perfect celebration of our mommies, who we celebrate today and miss so very much.

forrest jr.

~a new friend.


I was not with Kaden on the above adventure to the zoo, but my guess would be that while everyone was swooning over the orangatan, kaden was questioning each person "what your name?" or "what you doinin"? Lately he is extremely curious about everyone and everything as are most two year olds, but kaden will take it one step further and say "what's your FULL name"? Some mornings he wakes up in the morning and this is the first thing he says when i come in the room "I Kaden Miller". Cue the Forrest Jr from Forrest Gump, that's exactly how he says it.

Some other favorite phrases/words that make mommy and daddy chuckle lately...
~Shoe House (house shoes)
~Pick up me. (self explanatory, but he is too cute when he says it)
~Summmmmore peas. (Some more please)
~What that is?
I need to start keeping track more of the hilarious things he says. I am thinking I need to have a few kadenisms in each post...my brain is mush lately, and this is likely more for my own benefit than the blog reading world!


~thinking it's hysterical to eat his foot.


~still so curious about the merry go round. Has not wanted to go back on since the trauma of the Griffith Park merry go round!


~playin at the zoo with daddy.




~he takes his backpack just about everywhere!


~getting brave on the 4 wheeler with papaw.

~first taste of a chocolate bunny.


~chocolate! yummy.




~matching jammies.


~serious cozy time!

Why have I never been to Park Meadow Mall?! It is so close to us and absolutely gorgeous inside! I have never seen a mall that makes you feel like you are in a ginormous amazingly decorated log cabin. I could totally rent out a space and live there.






~about to jump in and steal all the money out of the fountain.


~hangin out at the amazing fireplace in the food court. have I said how incredible this mall is yet?


~I only love this picture because you can see Chik filet wrappers in it. All things Chik filet make me happy. And apparently kaden too, he ate EIGHT nuggets!


and way overdue...here is some linky love!

What happened to Osama Bin Laden's Heart. Such a powerful post! Our little ones are so wise. We need to all teach our children to ask questions like this.

a friend told me about this video....thank you friend. so inspiring and so NEEDED!


how cute is Jennifer Aniston with her new 'do?

Do stop over and check out my friend Amanda's new blog! Not only is she an incredible mommy of a little angel named Emma, but she is the mother of two adorable doggies as well! I love this post she wrote about her doggie Abby.

I love drooling over Shutterbean's recipes, and this one for Cocoa brownies with peanut butter frosting is no exception. holy yumminess!

I think I may be the last person to find out about Pinterest. Now that I have jumped on the bandwagon, I am 100% addicted and may be in need of a 12 step program. The thing about Pinterest is that you actually feel GOOD about wasting all of your precious time on this website, because it completely fuels your creative juices. It's basically like making a vision board (or 3 or 19 vision boards) filled with all of your (ok, mostly other people's) creative and inspirational ideas. Whether it be for decorating/renovating your home, hairstyles, artistic expression, style, or do it yourself projects. I am having so much fun with it! If you want to follow me, come visit.... me here!
I am a bit of a quote fanatic. Random inspirational quotes have actually gotten me through some rough times in my life. Some people call them cliches, but to me they are words from wise old owls and they help us feel validated in the moment and let us know that were not alone. Here are some of my faves I found on pinterest this week.


yes!


Definitely putting this up in kaden's room....such an important lesson for our little ones.


love.


way to go spongebob!

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend and happy mother's day to all the mommies!