Millet Family News

Ok   So I’ve been playing with how to do Joy’s hair differently so you all can tell me if you don’t like it or if you think it’s fabulous. I get asked quite frequently how different it is to do Joy’s hair so for those who don’t know, or might be embarrassed to ask here are a few things we do in this house for Joy’s hair.

She doesn’t get her hair washed everyday. In fact, it’s not good to wash her hair more than twice a week. Her body does not produce the oils, that most of us have, which causes our hair to be greasy after a few days. Because of that, if we shampoo her hair too frequently, it dries it out further. Her hair is quite dry, and can become brittle and break very easily. To deal with this we use a “lotion” in her hair about every other day. It smells quite good, and I really like it. It helps to moisturize and keep her hair hydrated.

You will not ever find us brushing or using a fine tooth comb on her hair. I’d say first of all because it’s not possible, and secondly because she’d probably turn around and smack us, but I think the smacking would come before the not possible part. Let me tell you how difficult it is to try to get through her snarls. It’s so much easier when it is wet or “lotioned”.  We use a big tooth comb, that get’s through her hair so much easier.

You may have noticed how poofy her hair is on top, but not so much on the bottom or the back. That’s because she was bald, or I guess just had less hair, in those areas. It’s taken some time for her hair to grow back in, but in the mean time, everything on top has been growing since birth. A fun little fact is that when looking at Joy’s hair it seems to be close to one inch in thickness (not sure if that’s the right term, more like that’s how long her little poof looks like). But if you gently pull on her curls, it is close to 5 inches long on top. Talk about some SERIOUS curls!

We are all continuing to learn what to do and what not to do. If any of you have more tips, please do not hesitate to share them with me. I’m always up for another idea, opinion, tip, or help. Seriously, I still have so much to learn about all of this.  So enjoy the fun pics. Oh, and you might have to click on them in order to really see anything.

Here is Joy without anything fancy, this is just wash and go….

Here is the front pulled back and to the side, with a very fun clip from Aunt Nicole!

This may be too close, but when it gets wet, it shrinks into teeny tiny curls, it’s adorable.  When she was brand new, we called it insta curl.  And we love how her belly keeps this picture “appropriate”.

This is the shampoo-do   Definitely one of my favorites! See how long her hair gets?!

Here’s the most recent one I’ve come up with. I call it the poof ball do.

Yes, i can’t believe it either. I’ve really had a hard time with this. Ask anyone I usually count down to my birthday for like 6-8 weeks. I get so excited, but not this year. I’ve totally been dreading it. I felt like now that I’m 30 I’m not allowed to listen to the same music, that I have to change my wardrobe, and I’m just not cool anymore. I’m no longer young and hip. But I have decided to embrace 30. I’m thirty and thrilling, that’s my new little motto. So let’s here it for the 30’s.

So I was blog hopping the other day and came across the most fantastic idea from a friends blog. So Nicole, thank you for your insight! I have decided to copy what she did. She wrote a letter to herself reflecting back on the past decade of her life, so I will do the same!

To my 20 year old self,

You believe that you have found the man of your dreams, your future eternal companion, and husband. You are SOOOOOO wrong. It’s not easy to see with such blinders on, but you will get past this. You actually deserve so much more than you think you do. Give it some time, it will be one of the harder decisions you make, but you’ll be so glad when you decide to break up for good. In fact at this very time(here’s another hard decision) as you are debating whether to serve a mission or move to AZ you’re totally going to make the right decision. Nope, not that “right” decision everyone else might think you should make, because a mission is not for everyone. (Reminder to self, you should probably thank your father for his “gentle” encouraging of moving to Arizona).

So off to Arizona you go. Living with your grandparents will be something you hold dear for decades. Cherish that time with them. What amazing people they are. Take advantage of the spirit of their home. There are so many things you can learn from that spirit, and from your grandparents. How wonderful they are to allow you to stay there with them. You’re going to have a number of cruddy jobs. If I could please clue you in on a few things, you do not have to stick with a job because it’s “safe”, because you don’t think you’ll be able to get a better job, or because you don’t believe it’s worth the time to look for another job. It really would have been, more than likely. But since you’re so strong willed (which sorry to say, is not going to be changing real soon), you’ll learn some great skills in these jobs that will help you down the road. Maybe it was worth it after all.

Remember that previous relationship that you were oh so concerned about?  You’re about to have a few more of them. Just so you know, you’re going to have the time of your life. Live it up! It’s so great to feel good about yourself and know who you are. There was no need to worry about finding the “one”. You will, but first you’ll have a whole bunch of frogs to deal with.

Can someone please seriously explain to me how the crap this happened? My daughter is 9 months old. I can not believe it! So today we had our 9 month appointment.  Joy is on her third round of antibiotics for double ear infections. Poor girl, just can’t seem to get rid of this junk. Let’s hope that third times the charm right! Joy is between the 25th adn 50th percentiles for both her height and weight. Now, her head size is a whole other matter. She’s actually up to the 95th percentile for her head size. She’s 18.5 pounds and 27.5 inches.  I can not believe how much she is growing. All sorts of fun new things happening with her. Her top two front teeth are clearly through the gums and the two on either side are right behind.  Sorry this isn’t much more exciting than that. I’m including some great pictures that April took for us and also some of her Halloween costume. Cousins came over tonight for FHE so we have some fun shots of them as well, all dressed up!

Ok so it’s been almost four weeks since I last posted. Good grief, what’s my story? I haven’t gone that long in awhile. So what have we been up to? Let’s take a look. Dave has recently had training at work. He’s loving his job, which really is so very nice. They recently brought up that they’re going to have some changes so he may have some new team members and even move buildings. So we’re kind of waiting to see what that will all entail. He really likes who he works with but Dave has always been really good about going with the flow, so I doubt it would be a problem.

I was fortunate to have a sister-in-law that was able to help us get our hands on some apples. So off to tri-cities we went. Joy and I stayed with April and the boys. They were so great to put up with us for an entire week! We spent a couple of hours picking apples in the orchard. And let’s just say we had a TON. Seriously.  The next day we went up to Lorna’s grandfathers farm and used his amazing press to make apple juice. It was absolutely incredible. I was floored by the machine that he had made and just so impressed. Here’s a few pics from that day.

After the apple juice, April and I and friends made applesauce, apple pie filling, and apple butter for about three days. We had a lot of apples! We had a such a great time that I decided to invite April and the boys over to our house only four days later. It totally worked out cuz she was going to come for my birthday in a couple of weeks, but Elijah had the week off so we had a great time with everyone. I’m not sure Dave has had that much fun, with all the boys wanting to play video games. He loves playing, but loves teaching as well, so this was a total win for him! He also got to talk politics with Elijah and that was so much fun for him. I don’t think I’m all that interesting to talk to about politics, I just get annoyed.  The most fun was Tuesday though. We went to Point Defiance and went to the beach and then the kids played at the park for quite some time. While they were playing at the park, April and I took off for our girls day. We went to a day spa and got a body polish, facial, and pedi treatment. It was so fantastic and just aton of fun to do this with April! I think we’ve decided that we will be making this an annual occasion. I’m pretty excited about that.

Ok, Looks like my blog is having a hard time letting me upload some pictures so I apologize. I will get that fixed hopefully soon and get you fun pictures from the apples and of course some updated pics of Joy!

Ok, I’ve been tagged by Reina. I get to talk about 6 quirks that I have.

1. For those that may not know, I’m double jointed in my shoulders. Actually what this means is that I can dislocate both of my shoulders. If you’ve seen it, it is kinda gross. I am also double jointed in a couple of my fingers.

2. Another little quirk of mine is that I can’t handle bones being in my meat. It actually makes me naseaus, so in my memory, I have actually only purchased meat with bones in it once in my life.  I know, that’s probably pretty sad, but it has something to do with the fact that it really makes eating it seem more like a live animal. No I’m not a vegitarian, I just don’t like to think that something I’m going to eat used to be walking around.

3. I have a serious problem with public restrooms. If I can help it I will wait up to an hour or more just so i can use my own bathroom. I will often not even use the bathroom at a friends house. It’s not really a personal offense, sorry Ijust really have a hard time using a bathroom when I don’t know who was in there last. We’ll just leave it at that.

4. Ok, I also have a serious problem with crossing the street. I know, it sounds weird. I very rarely will cross the street, not at a light. I most of the time need someone to be crossing with me. I guess I have some serious insecurities huh?

5. David thinks a quirk that I have is that in the morning when he leaves I tell him to be safe. I’m pretty sure I tell him that I love him too, but he thinks it’s so funny, that he now tells me the same thing as he leaves, but he laughs. Hello, I’m totally serious when I tell him that.

6. I absolutely love a good deal. If I get something on sale, clothing for example, I just have to tell people what I spent on it. Maybe one of these days I’ll figure out that I don’t have to excuse myself for not paying full price!

I now tag Laura, Karen, Suzzanne, and Lyndsy.

Good Grief, I know that it sounds crazy but I sure am amazed at me. Who would have thought 13.1 miles was something I would actually pay to run. I’ll be honest, I didn’t run the whole thing.  Actually more like half, but my biggest goal was to finish and I did! So YIPEE to me.  Thanks to Krista for getting the idea and encouraging all of us. You truly are amazing! The half marathon was up in Leavenworth, which I’ve never been too.  It’s like a little German town, so I took some fun pictures of town as well as the race.

Ok, so Dave and I were having a conversation a few weeks back about all the fun things I’ve been doing this summer and I couldn’t decide what the right word was for it. Was I getting all homemadish or was it domesticated. I didn’t particularly like the word domesticated, so I’m still not sure what I shall use to describe all this fun stuff.  I’ve decided to include a bunch of pictures of the things that I have done. I have peach butter, hot pepper jelly, canned peaches, canned chicken, and fun pictures from the garden of things that I have actually grown.

I’ve spent a large amount of time on trying to be properly prepared and increasing our food storage.  Hopefully it will pay off with yummy and fresh tasting food this winter. I don’t have any pictures of the vegetable stock that April and I made in Richland, or the many meals with the fresh veggies from the garden, but we had many dinners with them as part of it.  I have even enjoyed making baby food for Joy out of some of the fresh fruits and veggies that I have. For the most part I think she likes them and I know it’s super healthy coming out of the garden, and a heck of a lot cheaper! Anyway, so I’m totally tooting my own horn with this post, but I’m very proud of me for the things I’ve learned and done this summer. Go me!

OMW!!! Who would have thought it would go by so quickly. I cried the other day (seriously) when I realized how much she has grown and how quickly it has all happened. I know, I’m just all emotional lately. Don’t ask, I only have one explanation and it’s probably cuz I’m a girl, ughh. Anyway moving on. So I thought I would update on our lives.

So Joy has had a double ear infection and we’re hoping that it’s getting better. She has her happier moments and than others where I’m not exactly sure what to do. Lot’s of crying in the last week, and not as much sleep as I’m used to. Good thing she is so DANG adoarble and learning fun new things every day. Just today Grandpa was over visiting her and I was showing him how she is really enjoying copying people. So he helped her put her hands together and clap while I was clapping with her and then she started clapping all by herself. Grandpa was VERY impressed. It was quite fun. Joy has all sorts of new sounds she’s been making and will often copy the number of syllabuls we make. I think she’ll be talking before we know it. (She already loves to sing!) So, because of these fun sounds I’ve been videotaping her and caught a whole bunch on one video. We got crying, laughing, clicking her tongue, and her new I’m in charge sound. Enjoy, it’s on you tube at

If you look real close here, you can see we put little hair clips in, and I’m pretty sure they’re adorable on her! Anyway, here are a few recent cute photos of her. Tyler was over one day and wanted to hang out with Joy. It was pretty fun.

Ok, so as a special request I’m putting up a few pics of Joy eating. See if you can guess the food before scrolling down   You’ll have to click on each picture to get a better idea I’m sure. The second and third are the same food.

In order of appearance:

Sweet potatoes

Homemade zucchini

Green beans

Bananas

Hope that was a fun game for you guys!

Ok, so we were very kindly given tickets to head to the fair this weekend so Dave and I took Joy and met up with our neighbors Jamie and Shane, and their two little boys.  We had some fun visiting, looking at the animals, and walking through the hobby and craft sections. The food was good, though of course ridiculously expensive. We had a good time, and it was nice to make our annual trip to the fair. Here’s a few pictures from the fun times.

Here Joy and Dad in front of the goats.

Here’s my cutie bee.