Christmas Tree 2010: Ethan Edition

Welcome to our Christmas Tree 2010 again! Today we will be focusing on Ethan and his collection of ornaments, or at least the ones that have survived thus far!

I was super excited when I found this ornament this year. At the beginning of this school year Ethan started playing the Trumpet in band! LOVE IT!

Nate and I picked this beauty up at the scout office down in Salt Lake City this past summer. We thought it was perfect to remember Ethan's first year of being a BOY Scout, coincidentally it is also the 100 year anniversary of Boy Scouts this year. Super Cool.

In 2008 I got this ornament for Ethan, what I REALLY wanted was a cool Harry Potter ornament. However, I had the most difficult time finding one. Hence the inner need to buy some in Orlando. But I am getting ahead of myself. You'll see.

This was one was the first ornament Ethan brought home from school. It was 2002, he was in his first year of Pre-school.

This was made in 2003. I remember thinking the Pre-school was crazy to put those little beads on with the kids. It has always been placed up high on my tree to keep it away from little fingers and mouths. Crazy that seven Christmases later it still sits up high!

This sweet ornament Ethan made in school a few years ago. Crazy me forgot to write the year on it, so it's a wild guess to figure out when it was. I LOVE this ornament. The cute little snowmen on it are made out of his hand print. Can you say CA-UTE! I love hand made ornaments. It melts this mama's heart in a major way!

Ethan's primary ornament in 2007.

This was the ornament that Ethan made in Primary the first year we lived here in Willard. It was 2006, he was seven years old. Have I mentioned that handmade ornaments are my favorite?

This ornament was given to me from a co-worker back in 1999, when I worked for Customer Service at Living Scriptures. Ethan was six months old. Since we had just had these pictures taken of him, it worked perfectly.

We picked the next two up while in Orlando a couple weeks ago. The first one is a Gryffindor ornament that we purchased while at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

While we were at the Lego store in Downtown Disney, we picked up this Dumbledore Lego ornament. They were out of Harry Potter ones, so Ethan opted for this one.

Photo Shoot Sunday: Christmas-time 2008

I remember this Photo Shoot very well. It was after church, of course. Why I feel so compelled to subject tired, ornery, hungry kids, that just want to eat lunch already, to a photo shoot is beyond me. Let's just say, I still haven't learned my lesson! Well, to make matters worst my camera was being especially stupid that day. It was awesome! So, after doing some major work on these suckers, here they are for your Christmas-time enjoyment!

Flashback Friday: Wii Goodness, Christmas Morning 2009

For Flashback Friday today I thought I would share some photos of Christmas Day 2009. That was the year we finally got a Wii. Needless to say, it was on A LOT that day. Here are a few photo highlights from that morning, followed by one of my all time favorite Wii quotes from Chub.

Ryland said to me while playing Super Mario Cart "Mom, I am just passing these guys like they were cheese!"

My Monster

Sometimes when we are sitting around the dinner table together we play random games with each other. Earlier this week it was: My Monster. We went around the table (over and over) taking turns describing what OUR Monster looks like, acts like, says, whatever. It's fun to see where the kids imagination takes us. I thought it would be fun to share here what everyone came up with.

Nate: His Monster is grey, he likes to tell jokes. He plants weeds in the flower gardens and puts wood chips in the grass where he has to weed eat. His name is I-NEE-KNOW (which is the way Ally used to say, "I don't know", back in the day), he has bad manners but denies it.

Ronda: My Monster is yellow, he likes to paint my toenails and pierce my ears while I am asleep. He makes messes everywhere, his name is NOT ME!, he has a fluffy tail and whiskers.

Ethan: (eleven and a half years old) His Monster is red with 2 golden eyes, and he is small and scaley like a dragon. He likes to play wizards with Ethan, he has a wand and travels around with Ethan as well. His name is TRUMPET BONE and he has lived under his bed for the last year and a half

Ally: (nine years old) Her Monster is a girl, she is pink and purple, she wears a red dress and has baby blue glasses. Her name is SALLY and she likes to paint your nails and curl your hair. Her nickname is Kitty.

Ryland: (seven years old) His Monster is green, he looks like a monkey and he has green eyes. He likes to play with his lego's when he is asleep, he puts them back and zooms under Chubs bed when he wakes up, and he only plays with Ryland when no one else is around. His name is MONKEY SPIDER.

Evelyn: (3 and a half years old) Her Monster is blue, she is a girl, her name is TESSIE, she has 2 hands and 2 eyes. She likes to play on our playground, and be a monster tree. She hides under Evie's bed when she is asleep and scratches her bed and her back.

So there you have it! Now you know the secret in-depth things the Mills family discusses around the dinner table. Don't you feel more enlightened?

Flashback Friday: First Santa Photo 1999

Todays Flashback Friday is a photo of our first family photo with Santa Claus. Ethan was just six months old. All I gotta say is, "Wow!"

Wordless Wednesday: Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh and......

Evacuation!

For the Mathie/Mills Family Reunion we held a mock emergency evaluation. We were given a bag with family shirts inside and a set of instructions. On the appointed day we were called sometime in the morning hours and told to "activate". The majority of the family had no idea what we were doing, just that we would get a phone call and be told to open our bag and follow the instructions inside. When we got our call, our instructions told us that there had been severe weather throughout the night and that there were now flash floods in our area. Which was very convincing since the entire night it had rained and stormed outside, in fact it rained the entire day. We had 30 minutes to evacuate and meet with the rest of the family at Nate's brother Larry's house in West Haven. Every family got a different emergency. Since Nate and Ethan were gone to a Merit Badge Midway that morning, the task to evacuate fell to me and the three younger kids.

What an experience. I was the only one who knew that this was a drill. Ally was already up milling around with me, but Ryland and Evie were still asleep. I was so proud of Ally. I calmly but firmly told her the news and explained what I needed her to do. She got right to it. I went downstairs and woke Ryland. I immediately told him we needed to evacuate and what to grab. He almost immediately went into a panic. I felt so bad. I calmed him down and got him to focus on what I needed him to do. He got right to it. Those two were just awesome. They did everything I asked and more. Ally started grabbing food for them all to eat for breakfast, she grabbed things that she knew Ethan would want to save. I woke up Evie and got her ready and proceeded to load the car. We got all of the 72 hour kits, emergency toilet, etc. I grabbed our photo discs, family videos, my journals, the jewelry that Nate has given to me, etc. It was interesting those last few minutes before we left. The van was loaded, the kids were buckled and I walked through the house one last time. I scanned each room to make sure there wasn't anything I would regret not grabbing. It was a strange feeling. I knew it wasn't real, I knew I would be back later in the day and yet, I had a strange detachment to everything left. Like it really didn't matter. Which it really doesn't, in the grand scheme of things. The kids had only needed a little guidance in what kinds of things they should grab, it was interesting to see the things that they deemed important.

Almost the entire time the kids were nagging me to grab our cats. I kept putting them off, telling them we would get to them. Of course if it were a real emergency I would round up the cats, but I knew this wasn't real and I DID NOT want to take them all day to West Haven. They would have had to stay in their crate all day, and I was afraid if we let them out to go potty they would run off. I wanted this to be as real to them as possible so I finally had them grab the cats and we loaded some food and their crate into the van. When they weren't looking I tried to pull it out. I got caught, so I made up some lame excuse of something I needed to do with it. I carried it out of sight and let the cats out. I was hoping they would stay out of sight til we got out of there. Of course they are cats and did whatever they wanted to. As we were backing out of the drive they saw the cats. Hysterics ensued. I figured at this point it was okay to let them in on what was going on. It was funny because Ally said she had been wondering why none of the other neighbors were leaving!

The entire drive there we discussed our adventure. It was an awesome learning experience. I asked them if it was all worth it, knowing that now if a disaster occurred we would feel more prepared. Ryland was the only resounding "NO!" in the entire group.
We arrived right on time. We then spent a good portion of the day talking about emergency preparedness, both with the kids and without. It was a cool experience and very enlightening.

Ryland, Larissa and Trevin F.
Sydney M., Ally, Lauralea F. and Kevin B.

Everyone that could make it that day. Nate and Ethan arrived at the tail end of it. For the rest of the family that lived at the southern end of the state they did the same thing within their group at the same time.

Evelyn and Anya M.

Kelsey, Mandy, Jayden and Jarod M. family,

Nate's parents, and Anya, Jaicia, Jen and Kendree M. family

Our family, Cody, Dale, LaRay and Kevin B. family, Sydney, Daniel, Mya and Jen M. family

Later on that night I found Ethan and Evelyn doing this in the great room. He had dragged her all the way down the hall to her room by her socks. He then laid down and had her drag him all the way back to the kitchen by his socks. It's a good thing we have slippery hardwood floors and he is a lightweight. I asked him what they were doing. His answer, "Mom, this is good practice! What if I am knocked out or something and Evie has to get me out of the house!" I laughed and secretly hoped that would never be the case.

A few days later Nate was trying to take a nap on the couch. Evie busied herself by taking care of his "owies". I think we are getting prepared!

Are YOU prepared?