Cowgirl Gwen

Gwen Cam (Sorta)

Gwen has gotten to the point that she will imitate some of our actions. Or...at least her parents are willing to read into anything possible! Enjoy and we will try to get more videos over time while we work the whole webcam idea.

Our Fat Baby

Since Gwen has been a bit camera shy when it comes to actually LOOKING directly at the camera, we thought we should post these pictures achieved by her Nana this week. The baby's weight gain has been astronomical - as in she will be 6 ft tall, 200 some pounds by age 3 if she keeps up her current feeding schedule!!! We lack any real data (our kitchen scale here only goes so high for those zucchini-type measurements) but take our word for it...she's big. More pictures coming.....

Ode to Dreams of Counting Antelope

Gwen is nearly 6 wks old now and we find ourselves in a world far different than the BC (Before Children) one. Last night, our little girl decided that she was far too social for the crib, cried unless held or rocked, fed every 2 hours and, in general, made her loving mother have flashbacks to that humanities class in college when she never read the assigned books until the night before the test. Unfortunately, it is a little hard to revive oneself now compared to when Anne used to wander into the SUB, grab coffee with the roomates and fall asleep directly after the exam in the blessed Department of Ag Lounge.

Other than entirely too little sleep (any ideas people?), life is good here. Eric's mom flew in last week from England to stay with us for two weeks and friends from Bozeman came to visit this past weekend. Stay posted for more photos!!! Hunting season has been blessed this year as well. Determined not to forgo our freezer of food (game meat is our primary staple), Eric took turns in the pickup with Gwen, while Anne searched for antelope in several locations where friends graciously offered hunting rights (and even a personal escort to the grazing areas). Thus far, Eric has tagged two antelope, plus a mule deer, while Anne managed to shoot two antelope. We apologize to anyone morally offended by the photos (not exactly your cute baby pics, although we are including the one of Gwen in her hunting garb) but want to offer proof that a lactating mother can shoot game successfully less than 6 weeks after having the babe. Nevermind that Anne looks quite dorky in the one with the pickup (she lost her hat multiple times, so it was merely shoved on).

The Daily Baby Photos (Okay, almost daily)

Here's are more latest and greatests of the babe - at the request of a particular grandmother in ID :) Top: Eric and Gwennie spend some valuable father-daughter time. Middle: We realized that the wee one is not so wee anymore, therefore this is the last voyage of the favorite brown sleeper. Bottom: Apparently both mother and daughter favor polka dots.

Turkeys Shooting for Turkeys

This past weekend found us out enjoying the traditional Turkey Shoot at Fairview Hall. As our good friend Marisa explained, we are not actually shooting turkeys (since we'd really would like the COMPLETE bird for Thanksgiving dinner!) Instead, each person can buy "admission tickets" of sorts to compete in various shooting matches, depending on what the participants want to compete in. This includes "Closest Group," "Best Single Shot," etc, etc. The winner in each match receives a 12-13 lb turkey. The event is so popular with local shooters and some hunters that the matches stretched from the 11 am start until darkness fell.

Those of you that happen to find yourselves at our house in the next few months can guarantee that turkey will be on the menu...in one form or another. House of Miller returned that evening with 4 birds. Two from Eric's illustrious shooting, one from friends that couldn't handle the thought of one more turkey soup night and the last, received with a slight wince, which was the consolation prize for Anne not winning any of her matches.

Anne's lack of turkey winnings marks a much, much bigger problem...since a particular friend managed to best her in every match after a full year of preparation on Anne's part to beat him. The heated competition began last year, when Anne & John managed to tie for best group, requiring a shoot-off to declare the winner. The latter won, which led the lady at House of Miller to lay in wait for this year's opportunity to best him. However (and most unfortunately), this particular individual brought his game face from the start.....much to the total amusement of friends & family members and chagrin of his opponent. House of Miller believes that it was being told early on about a rumor concerning new mothers and a slight tremor that occurs following childbirth that ate away at her concentration. Then it was the debate over who goes first that finished her off. In any case, if you are looking for Anne these days....you'll find her out practicing.....

Halloween (The Tale of the Fairy and the Commando)

This year, we continued a tradition of a year before..which meant inviting our little friends Nate and Melissa over to carve pumpkins. For those of you that might remember, Melissa was our flower girl when we were married 2 years ago with her brother cheering her on from the sidelines. The fairy and commando appeared under the escort of their mother and happily trick-or-treated Gwen. Next it was on to watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, which Anne had recorded earlier in the week. She was sure happy the kids were interested in the movie, since it looks a little weird for the die-hard Charlie Brown fan to sit alone as an adult and watch (she would have anyway). During the movie, we rustled up (and wrestled with) some popcorn balls. They were supposed to be orange for the holiday and eventually got that way.....but only after the balls were a stunning (and gory) bright red first, with nearly half of the yellow food coloring needed to counteract too much of a good color. Next up, we got to carving pumpkins. You'll notice that it was all excitement until we got to scooping out the insides; at that point, the kids decided that Eric and Nicole would do a much better job at the "gross" task. However, the kids returned to cut out the scary faces and test them out on the front deck. All in all, this was a highly satisfactory day at our house, especially when you consider that the only trick or treaters we'd usually get are lost hunters. :)

Playing Catch Up

The House of Miller is now going to try and catch the blog up to our speedy lives. We've (again) been delinquent at our postings and have no excuse available like Jen & Joe's defunct phone line. The past few weeks has found our family of 3 more socially active than we have been for nearly one year. This has been a big relief to all of us, considering that it means the extremely outgoing Millers have been able to merge new baby and busy weeks with true weekends....where you actually go out and do something. Anne spent a lot of those in the last few weeks prior to Gwen's birth eating ice cream and feeling (and looking) more like Yurtle the Turtle. Eric managed to beautifully finish the shop, the floors in the house and reload ammo during this time, yet it was hard to convince Turtle to go anywhere. So be prepared.....we're going everywhere now and we have the pictures to prove it!!