Christmas in Colorado

Merry Christmas! Hailey got spoiled, and we spent lots of time with family, all in all it was a great trip.


Hailey and Grandpa Mills


The wrapping paper was a lot more interesting than the presents


She had no trouble finding the candy


The kiddos got us up early...can you tell?

Week 1 in Colorado

We left North Carolina as soon as Brian turned in his last exam...and flew across the country to visit Brian's family

Dinner with Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Jeff
and the McFaddens (Brian's oldest sister's family)


It's kinda cold in Colorado


Playing with Uncle Jeff


...and cousins Emily and Kevin

Elfamorphosis

Check this out, it's the cutest thing ever! It takes a minute to load but it's worth it. Merry Christmas!!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1209655982

Hippopotamuses or Donkeys?

The Christmas radio station in North Carolina has been playing nothing but Christmas tunes since sometime in early November...needless to say they've had to be creative in order to not play the same songs over and over. We've heard 2 songs this year that we'd never heard before, but no Christmas will be whole without them ever again. "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" was written in 1953, apparently for some Zoo in Oklahoma hoping to get a Hippo for Christmas that year...then there's "Dominic the Donkey", I have no real explanation for this one, but I'm pretty sure every holiday should have at least one song about a donkey!

I was able to find a couple of music videos of sorts on YouTube so you can hear these 2 Christmas Classics and add them to your own holiday traditions!

"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"


"Dominic the Donkey"

Belated Birthday...the big 26!

Brian turned 26 a couple days ago (okay more like 2 weeks ago, but at least I took pictures.) Unfortunately he spent most of his day studying, but he did get to study at home and in his underwear!
While he was busy studying Hailey and I got dressed up and ordered his favorite meal for lunch!


When I asked Brian what he wanted for his birthday all he said was a night out without the baby so we decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and went to the temple. It was our first time going since we moved out here which is kind of sad since the Raleigh temple is only 25 minutes away from our house. It was really nice to finally make it there but we couldn't believe how small the temple is.

When we got home we had some football-shaped ice cream (we thought it was an ice cream cake and really it was just ice cream shaped like a football.) Since the cake was frozen solid the candles wouldn't go in so we had to pass on the traditional blowing out of the candles...but hopefully his wish came true anyways!!!

To Grandma and Grandpa's House We Go

Hailey and Lindsay made a trip in early November to Utah, they had a blast! Lindsay and Hailey were both sufficiently spoiled and disappointed to have to leave so soon. We finally got all of the pictures downloaded this week, so here's a summary of the trip...



Took a nap with Grandpa



Played with Aunt Chelsea...



and Aunt Julie



I learned how to sit all by myself



I got spoiled by grandma



Bye Bye Utah!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Things Brian is especially thankful for this year:

My little turkey


Family




Deep Fried Candy Bars


Duke Basketball


Friends

(All of the LDS Duke Law students at a cookout back in September)

and most of all...my sweetheart

Blue Devil Basketball

Lindsay and I went to our first Duke basketball game a couple of weeks ago. It was the Blue and White scrimmage (a preseason game against themselves). It was super fun! The grad student section is either right behind the basket or behind the Duke bench. From our little spot we can hear Coach K shouting at the team. It just doesn't get any better! I've been to a regular season game since then and I can't believe how crazy the fans are in the student section. These photos are from the preseason game so the stands aren't completely full, but there isn't a single empty seat at any of the regular season games.

The State Fair and More

The last few weeks have been busy. A couple of weeks ago we went with some friends to the North Carolina State Fair. Between the pot-belly pig races and the deep fried...everything (no kidding, they deep fried vegetables, cookies, candy bars, and more), it was a nice taste of the South.



Then this week we had a ward Halloween party, Brian was all signed up to participate in the donut eating contest...but before he got the chance, one of the girls in our ward choked on a donut and had to get the heimlich (don't worry there are a gazillion doctors and med students in our ward, and one of them dislodged the offending piece of pastry), needless to say, the donut eating extravaganza was cut short. Last of all, today, we stopped by a pumpkin patch and got a pumpkin to carve for Hailey's first Halloween.

The Hailey Mills Show

Episode 1 - The First 5 Months

Mrs. Mills Goes to Washington

After 25 years of yearning to visit the Nation's Capitol, Lindsay's dream was finally realized. We spent about 2 full days walking, and walking, and walking...and walking around the city. We visited the Smithsonian, the FDR, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the National Archives, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress...and of course admired the White House and Capitol Building (which required passes for actual entrance).

We stayed with Lindsay's old friend from her time in China back in 2004. They were truly gracious hosts; they even made us homemade dumplings on Saturday before we hit the road!

Cameron Crazies

During the last 3 days I've learned exactly what it is that makes the Cameron Crazies go crazy: 2,000 grad students, every RV and U-haul in the triangle area and at least that many tents crammed onto a field and a couple of parking lots...

submitting to 36 hours of random checks and consuming mass quantities of alcohol...

and finally, standing in line to see if you have qualified to enter a lottery. If you're one of the lucky ones that wins the lottery, you get the distinct privilege of paying full price for a Duke Basketball season ticket. Can you say CARAZY??

(you probably can't tell but this is a cell phone photo of Coach K and the team)

Needless to say, I had to join the madness and give it a try (well, minus the booze of course!)

(if you look really closely you can see the youngest crazy at campout - Hailey Mills, age 4 mo.)

Summertime and the livin's easy

A day in My Life - by Hailey Mills

Hang out with mommy...I know what you're thinking, and yes I'm always this cute!



Get in my "tummy time". I work hard to keep my belly soft and round.




Suck on Mommy's oreo...it is milk's favorite cookie after all.

Help dad with his homework...no matter how many cases he reads he still doesn't get that in the end, I make the law.

After tutoring dad on the intricacies of Criminal law, I distract him with my infectious smile!















After a long day of being cute, I take a nice warm bath with my strategically placed duckies.

Beaufort and Fort Fisher

During our first month in North Carolina, we've tried to take advantage of the nearby coast (about a 2 hour drive). We spent a day in Beaufort, a small coastal town...it's claim to fame is that it is the setting for Nicholas Sparks' book "A Walk to Remember" and it also was a favorite rest stop for pirates such as Blackbeard (who hung his wife from a tree in the front yard of one of the hotels). On the way back home we made a pit stop in a little town called New Bern "the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola" good times!

Then a couple of weeks later we were invited to go back to the coast by some friends in the ward. This time we went a little farther south to Fort Fisher.

Hailey enjoyed it immensely!

The whole gang!

Our First Week in Durham

Well after a long 3 days of driving and 7 states later we have finally arrived in North Carolina! Although its just 2000 miles away from home it kind of feels like a new country! For instance we went to fill up our gas tank and the pump didn't stop automatically when the tank was full so gas just came spewing out of the car, Brian smelled like pure gasoline all afternoon. We went to the grocery store and we noticed some of our west coast brands had new names... the ice cream had this label



instead of this one





However, it's gorgeous here (HOT and HUMID) but gorgeous!

Our first few days getting around town were definitely interesting, we couldn't tell if we were in the middle of nowhere or on a major highway... it turns out they look exactly the same.



The people here are very friendly and outgoing, we've already noticed people don't worry about offending each other they just say what they're thinking, which is often quite comical. Yesterday we were at the gas station (shortly after the aforementioned freak gasoline spewing incident) and there was a woman trying to pull around into a spot but she couldn't remember which side of her car the tank was on. She pulled around 3 different times but still couldn't decide if she was on the right side of the pump. The woman pulling into the pump behind her leaned out of her window and shouted "Girl, WHAT are you doin'?" The other woman shouted back "Well, I'm just gettin' ALL turned around", then a third woman at another pump shouted to both of them "uh huh, you know that's right". All three of them started laughing, and I had to smile a little too, even though they were only pointing out the obvious, I had to wonder if a northerner or a westerner would have been able to take the light-hearted teasing quite the same way.

Mills Family Reunion

From the 14th 'til the 21st of July we met up with Brian's family in Newport Beach for a family reunion. We stayed in beach houses about 100 feet from the beach it was gorgeous! We spent a day at disney land, but other than that we sat on the beach and played in the ocean all week, it was a blast to have almost the entire family together for the first time in a really long time.