Christmas pictures...finally

Mateo wore this suit, which we orginially bought for Matt's Uncle John's funeral.
Nice to get to wear it at least twice.
His patent leather shoes were the big hit...and people loved the little red hankerchief!

WHY is is that family pictures are never taken at a flattering angle??

Our Christmas Tree with the before shot...WAY too many presents!!

Wouldn't you know that Mateo had more fun playing in a big box with Uncle Dan...who needs toys at this age?? Santa should just deliver boxes!!

Oh, and then there is couch jumping...which is allowed if he is hanging on to an adult (who is disguised as a blue dragon in this picture-Tegan)

Christmas was a joyous celebration for us with our family. We did the traditional Miller Italian Christmas Eve meal (stuffed calamari) at Nona's and then (for the last time for a long time) started opening Christmas presents at 11AM...oh, how I will miss the sleep that comes with such a schedule!

We hope you and yours had a very blessed holiday season too...love, Sarah & Matt & Mateo

Nona's Birthday

So Nona turned 78 years young on December 23rd. We had a fine feast of Pork Tenderloin (done Traeger style of course), roasted potatoes, and artichokes...topped off with a DQ ice cream cake special. We recycled the 7 from the 75th birthday cake, added eight pink/orange candles for her years plus a blue one for good luck in 2008.

Mateo loves to perch in Nona's lap when she's at our house...he helped Nona blow out all those candles...someone call the fire department!

And boy does Mateo love ice cream cake...plus it was this hideous stain all your fingers plus your clothes blue frosting...so by the time he was done, he had it spread from ear to ear!

Nona makes a good book reader...and the dog you see is Cocoa
(a new addition from Cousin Tegan...who Mateo calls Tee-Tan).

We consider ourselves especially blessed to have Nona return to full health after the craziness of 2007...she had two craniotomies, DVT's in both legs, spent more than a month between hospitals and nursing homes, and appears now to be none the worse for the wear. In fact, we give her a hard time about actually being better now than before! :)

Friend & Family Photos

Two beauties...Julie Brown & Christie DeSantis...at our Christmas festivities!

Our close friends...Angela & Greg Murphy...in front of our tree!

The master gingerbread house maker...Lukas & Rachel did a great job decorating it!

Papa's getting into the spirit...and NeNe is all about getting the milk in!

My beautiful sister and her handsome son Lukas...at AC Gilbert House...
where we celebrated Mateo's 2nd birthday. The cousins had a blast hanging out together.

Papa comes to visit

Who would have guessed that Papa would be so interested in taking a picture by this sign...

but it was quite a big deal. Perhaps he really is a liberal at heart!!

Papa and the grandsons...there are few things better than

having Papa in the house with all the grandsons!!

Mateo turned 2, and we celebrated at the AC Gilbert House.
Check out that turtle cake...Mom did the baking, Tia Rachel did the frosting.

Oh the joys of the toilet box house...who taught Mateo to be such a ham??

Nona is wearing all her finery at our Christmas party...

Love from Oregon, the Millers

Papa Pictures

So Papa is coming on Thursday, so we figured we should get up some pictures from our last visit with him.



Mateo loves tickle torture...if you ask him if he wants it, he says please and starts shrieking in anticipation.



Mateo helped Papa open his new toaster oven...an early Christmas present. He way digs unwrapping presents...so birthday and Christmas back to back should be fun!



We decorated our tree last week in anticipation of our annual Christmas party with our Silverton friends (which happened on Saturday night). I'll post those pictures soon. This kid makes me believe in Christmas again! :)