but before we go...

As excited as I am for our trip, this week is significant for another reason, too. Did you know that I've been keeping a secret for the past 12 weeks? That's right, we're taking a "hitch hiker" all the way to Yellowstone a.k.a. there will be another Miller in the world come November 2013! Holy cow, I can't even believe how awesome it feels to say that! I've honestly relished the fact that this has been our little secret for the past few months, passing the evenings of "morning" sickness by pinning things to my secret baby Pinterest board, but with the first big appointment under our belts (we heard our baby's strong and fast heartbeat!) and the fact that everything is pointing to normal/healthy, I just can't keep it in any longer. So this trip will be even more special than we even thought it would be. We are so blessed and happy and ecstatic. God is so good!

So with that, I'd like to leave you with a little video that captures just some of the joy that has already come from this little one. To give a little context to the video, I had just handed Grandma D. a skein of baby yarn and asked her to make something for me. She didn't quite get it right away, but when she did...

we're having a baby! from Erica Miller on Vimeo.

Miss Evelyn

Guess what I got to do yesterday? I took half a day off at work, drove down to the Cities, and took some glamour shots of little Evie. How blessed am I? Seriously. And she did so good given the fact that we kept moving her around, putting clothes on, taking clothes off, etc. This was the first time I'd ever done newborn pictures, and I honestly don't know how you would do it in a studio or on a schedule. It was so nice to not have any time constraints and to basically just let Evelyn call the shots - when she was sick of it, we'd snuggle her; when she was hungry, she'd eat; when she was tired, we let her nap for an hour. It worked so well. And I know I may be a little biased and I know I've said this before (and will probably say 100 more times), but she is seriously one of the most beautiful little babies I've ever seen. Love you all, Miller fam!

All grown up

Guess what? Last night we put an offer in on a house. On a HOUSE. For real. We have been casually looking at houses around the area for the past couple of months after deciding that we truly do want to stay in St. Cloud. We really had no idea where to begin, what was in our price range, etc etc etc, but we thought we'd just start out slow, learn as much as we could, and eventually find a realtor. But as we started taking steps forward, things kept falling into place pretty quickly.


After signing with a realtor last Thursday, we looked at 10 houses on Saturday. Overwhelming, but so fun. We saw some nice houses that we would be perfectly happy in, but nothing that gave us an "emotional reaction", as our realtor would say. Then came Sunday. Our realtor took us to this house that gave me goose bumps when we drove up to it. We spent 2 hours in this house, walking in and around, up and down, picturing our life as homeowners more and more with each step. We loved it. 


We slept on it, went back to see it last night, loved it even more, and wrote up an offer. It was so surreal sitting there, reading through and signing papers, my heart beating a little faster each minute in anticipation of owning our first house. Our first home. That's the thing about this house, it feels like home. Every time I walk in it, I can visualize people and Christmas and babies and Saturday mornings. It's beautiful. 


And now the hardest part of all - waiting. Our realtor was confident that we had written a pretty strong offer, but you just never know. We are praying for patience, guidance, and peace.

365: check!

A year ago I made a New Year's resolution to do a 365 photo project - to take a picture a day for a year and post them on a photo blog. As of last night, that project is complete! And I am proud to say that I literally took a picture every single day of 2011. You can find the project here. I love that I have a year of life captured day-by-day, and although I am going to repeat the project for 2012, I still want a way to document moments, memories, photos, recipes, etc. So this year's resolution? Blog my little heart out. Well, maybe not that much, I would like to keep my little heart. But you get the picture. Here's to blogging, blessings, and dreaming!

Beginnings

Here's to...

• thoughts
• writing
• saving/sharing
• cooking
• photography
• pretty things
• good things
• nesting
• shopping
• working
• living
• loving

Cheers!