Washington DC

A couple of weekends ago our friends the Dimond's invited us to go to DC with them to visit their family. Along with just hanging out with our good friends, we also visited the Washington Monument, the American and Natural History Museums, the National Zoo, the Washington DC Temple and Alexandria, Virginia. Oh, and Lindsay made me stop at IKEA on the way home. Quite a trip!

Man on a Mission

It seems like all of our pictures of Blake look something like this...







And while I was in the middle of uploading those pictures...he pulled this little maneuver.



Somehow everything he really wants is in some far corner where he has to get himself stuck in order to get what he's going for.

Home at Last

77 hours
10 days
14 states
5,062 miles

Thank heaven it's over.

A Blessed Boy

We finally gave Blake his baby blessing this last week. I'm really glad that we waited until all the family that wanted to attend could be there. He is such a sweet little boy, and he's already so active! He's going to give his sister a run for her money before she knows it...

More Traveling, and Lots of Family

In the last three weeks, we left Dallas, stopped in Colorado, and eventually made our way to Utah. We'll be here for a few more weeks, and then we're headed back to North Carolina, and our home, sweet home. We stopped in Colorado and played with grandparents and cousins, it made me realize just how much we're missing out while living out on the east coast. Hailey had an especially good time while her older cousins played any and every game she wanted.

Mills and McFadden cousins


Watching Fireworks with the McFaddens


All Pooped Out



In other news, Blakey started crawling this last week!

Don't Worry I'll Catch You!

On January 17th at the Duke v Georgetown game my mug was apparently on TV for a very brief moment. Ever since I heard the news, I've been wishing that I could find a clip of my 3 seconds of fame. Finally, my dream has become a reality, when I came across a great new Duke Basketball website I hadn't visited before...see if you recognize the handsome feller holding up Kyle Singler after he jumps into the stands in Top Play #5.

Potty training is hard work

...and not just for mom!

The Best Father's Day Yet

Okay, so this is only my third father's day, but it was pretty great. Lindsay made me an awesome book with pictures of me and the kids. She is so creative, and thoughtful, it's pretty amazing. Here's a little slide show of the pages from my "I love My Daddy Because..." book

Happy Birthday Lindsay!

Lindsay's birthday is today, but we celebrated yesterday. We sent her to the spa in the morning to get a pedicure (and an hour of peace and quiet).

Then we went out to dinner in the evening at a really nice Tex-Mex place. Today we had a brownie and ice cream treat for her "birthday cake".


I'm so glad Lindsay was born, she's truly amazing at so very many things. I was at an event for my law firm the other night and I was telling one of the other interns about Lindsay and the kids, and where I was from, etc. She kept telling me that I must have a really great wife to have quit her job to have Hailey and moved across the country to North Carolina, and then to come to Dallas with me and our two kids for a 7 week internship this summer, only to be dragged to Salt Lake in a few weeks, and then back across the country to get back to school. Well, she was right, I DO have a pretty incredible wife. She has made a lot of sacrifices for me and the kids this last year. We love you Linds!

Happy Birthday Hailey!

Hard to believe our little baby isn't such a baby anymore. She's really turning more and more into a little girl every day. We're lucky to have some of our friends in Dallas with us this summer; the Pelfrey's volunteered the pool at their apartment complex for the party. Hot dogs, ice cream, cake and a swimming pool make for a pretty great time!




Nemo has truly become one of Hailey's obsessions...
especially since our visit to the aquarium


The Chef (and I use that term very loosely)


This kid never stops sucking on his hands


Ice Cream and Nemo Cake anyone?


All Partied Out

San Antonio and a Rain Delay

We took a trip to San Antonio over Memorial Day weekend. I served my mission in San Antonio, and haven't been back since 2005 when I went to the Temple dedication. It was so much fun to go to my old ward and spend all day on Sunday with the Perez family. They are some of the sweetest people I know. On Saturday we did some fun things too.

We stopped at the Temple on the way into town



We went shopping at the Mercado downtown.



We saw the Alamo,



and stayed in a fun hotel on the Riverwalk.

When we got back to Dallas, my mentor at work had a few tickets to a Rangers game on Tuesday, so we took the kids to the ballpark (I was pretty proud when I told Hailey we were going to a ball game and her only response was "Go, Go DUKE!") The game was delayed by lightning, so we went to go get some food while the weather cleared, little did we know that the lightning was just the beginning, soon we were getting hailed on and running for cover. (Don't worry, I saved the cheese fries)

On the Road Again!

Before we left town on Wednesday I was giving Lindsay a hard time about how organized she is. I think there was a new list every day for things to pack up, or things to put away, etc. But once we were on the road I realized how very lucky I am to have a wife who is so on top of everything.

Lindsay had something planned out for us every day of our trip. On day 1 we drove to Atlanta, Georgia. Thanks to Lindsay we arrived just in time for the afternoon student discount at the Georgia Aquarium. It was AWESOME! Hailey ran from room to room squealing "More Fishies! More Fishies!"









On day 2 we stopped for lunch in Birmingham, AL and had a picnic on the Temple grounds


Finally, we stopped for the day in Vicksburg, MS. There was a park there right on the bank of the Mississippi river where Hailey could play, and we could enjoy the view.


Finally, in the early afternoon on Friday we arrived at our new home....for the next few weeks anyway.



Here's a little clip that makes me smile from our many, many hours in the car.

When Raccoons Attack

With school ending a couple of weeks before I have to go to work, we decided it was high time we went on a camping trip. We went out to Jordan Lake with our good friends the Dimonds with the intention of cooking up some foil dinners, playing some games by the light of the campfire, and maybe even letting Hailey and Amelia go for a dip in the lake. Of course, nothing ever really works out like you plan...so instead of the raging fire that would cook up our dinner and give us light once the sun went down we had a puny fire that was subsequently squelched by the rain.


We ate our lukewarm dinner under an umbrella.


During dinner, Hailey stood atop the bench on the picnic table, and took a bit of a tumble, she now has an array of scratches on her face that resemble the aftermath of a raccoon attack.



When it came time to put Hailey to bed so we could enjoy a night under the stars, she threw one of the most fantastic tantrums we have ever experienced...so we let her stay up for a while. When we all went to bed, she gave us an encore performance of her rage every hour, on the hour until finally the sun came up and we could leave our little tent of torture.


Okay, so maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, but it was a bit of a long night. We actually did have a lot of fun, though. We were really glad we convinced Kyle, Lindy, Amelia and Rachel to come with us. Kyle was much better at keeping the fire alive than I was, and Hailey had a blast exploring the woods with one of her best buddies.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Hailey has recently become obsessed with Mickey Mouse. Maybe I just never noticed it before, but it seems like he's everywhere we go, and Hailey always seems to find him on the side of cereal boxes, on the receptionists desk at the doctor's office, and most recently on a hat that Grandpa Mills got for her when she was just a couple of months old that has been sitting in a drawer in her bedroom for the last 2 years because it was way too big for her.