Saturday, May 22, 2010

More Home Improvements

0 comments Posted by The McMillins at 1:12 AM

I painted Zach's room all by myself! It was a big job.... especially since I did most of it while Corey was at work and I was home with all 3 kids by myself. Zach is such a big help, though. I'm so happy that I painted his room. I got new curtains and a new light for his room as well. I would LOVE to build him a nice wooden bunkbed but that probably won't happen for a couple of years. He's been saving up his allowance money for a TV. He's just about ready to buy one. It will look so nice in his room. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to buy one of those semi-large dry erase boards to hang on his walls. It would be really good for school but kind of tacky looking w/ his decor.

We decided to go ahead and tile the downstairs AND the kid's bathroom. We are so glad that we did! It looks so much better. Plus, when you do something big like that, you end up cleaning your house real good. We went through a bunch of stuff and sold some stuff on ebay. I'd really like to paint Zach's bathroom but I'm kind of sick of painting after doing the downstairs bathroom and Zach's bedroom. I think I'll take a break for a while.... maybe. :)

My next big project is to get caught up on all of these photos that I have and to update both Leah and Luke's baby books. Yes.... I have a baby book for Luke as well. I can't leave him out just because he's #3!! :)

 

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Beach.... Time

0 comments Posted by The McMillins at 11:41 PM

Last weekend was our first time to the beach this year. We all love going to the beach and have been waiting for the weather to be warm enough to go. It's definitely warm enough now!! Unfortunately, Corey forgot to bring the sand toys but he did bring a shovel. So.... at least there was something to do in the sand! :)

We are thinking about investing in one of those beach carts. We go to the beach so much that it would probably be a good investment. You should see all of us carrying everything (including babies) to go out to the beach. Last weekend we ended up staying out there for about 3 hours. It's so relaxing to go to the beach, and then come home and take a shower. Then you want to take a nap when you get home!

We're hoping to go to the beach this weekend also but we've had a lot going on. We had tile put in in the downstairs (kitchen, hallway, bathroom, laundry room and foyer) as well as Zach's bathroom upstairs. We thought it would only take a couple of days but it's taken all week. Our house has been in disarray because of it. So, we are looking forward to putting it all back together again.

Along with the tile being done has come lots of cleaning! I've put lots of stuff on ebay and now have to go mail it at the post office (which is a huge job w/ 3 children by itself!). Glad we are getting rid of lots of stuff and even making some money on some of it! :)

 

Monday, April 26, 2010

Home Improvements

0 comments Posted by The McMillins at 11:03 PM

Lately, I've (Gretchen) been in the mood to re-decorate or "improve" certain rooms of our home. I've actually wanted to do it for a while but am now getting the initiative. We just got our screened in back porch tiled which, I guess, has led me to get other areas done as well. We're VERY pleased how the back porch turned out. We put new tile in, a new fan, and a new light fixture. It's so nice to sit out there now. I can't wait for summer to get here and to have barbeques at our house. :)

Last week, I bought some new towels, rugs and art to go into the downstairs bathroom. I mostly bought it b/c it was on sale plus I had a coupon. :) I wanted to paint it as well. So, I went to Walmart and bought the paint. I started painting it. When I got to the "rolling" part, Corey stepped in and offered to finish the job for me. Of course, I'm not going to argue with that. :) Corey doesn't really get motivated to do these types of jobs but is so glad that it gets done after we finish them. The bathroom turned out pretty good.

We also went and looked at some tile. We're thinking about tiling our downstairs kitchen/ bathroom/ hallway and laundry room. It's all connected downstairs so if we decide to do the kitchen, then we really need to do those rooms as well. We're not positive that we're going to do it but thinking.

Next room that is to be worked on is Zach's room. We really want to paint his room.... well, I do!! lol Hopefully that will get done this weekend!

 

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Luke- 2 months

0 comments Posted by The McMillins at 10:30 AM

We took Luke to the doctor yesterday for his 2 month check-up. He weights 13 lbs 11 oz and is in the 89th percentile. He is 24 inches long and is in the 84.5th percentile. He is getting so big. He is very healthy and got 5 shots, although he only got "stuck" 3 times. He was a champ! The doctor said he needs to have more tummy time to strengthen his neck muscles. Gretchen's been really bad about that!

While we were at the doctor's, we asked him about Zach's allergies because his eyes have been really itchy lately. So, he gave us a prescription for eye drops for him. Zach's eczema also flares up when he has a lot of milk, which he has. We also got a prescription for some skin medicine to help with that.

Leah was fine yesterday, although she was just starting to get a cold. Last night she got worse. Poor thing was up coughing a lot last night and could hardly breathe through her nose. She wanted to suck on her paci so bad but couldn't because she couldn't breathe. We're going to put her in the sun today hoping that it will dry up. :)

 

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Weight

0 comments Posted by The McMillins at 5:04 PM

Gretchen is back on her "fat smash" diet to try to lose weight. She wants to be able to wear all of her pre-pregnancy clothes. Corey keeps telling her that she needs to be patient since it hasn't even been 2 months yet since she's had a baby. Her doctor even said that she was skinny at her 6 week check-up. She told her doctor that she was dieting and exercising and her doctor said that was fine as long as she drank plenty of water since she's nursing. Of course, nursing should help her get back into shape also. She wants to lose 15 lbs.

Corey, on the other hand, doesn't care about his weight. lol He just bought a "big green egg" grill and is LOVING it. Last weekend he cooked a boston butt, steaks and pork chops. Tonight he's going to make a homemade pizza on it. He's also looking forward to grilling veggies and even cookies on it!! Yes.... you read that right.... cookies! This grill is like a grill, smoker and oven all in one. Gretchen likes it because she doesn't have to cook as much! :)

 

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Leah- 15 Months

0 comments Posted by The McMillins at 11:37 AM

Leah had her 15 month check-up last week. She weights 25 1/2 lbs and is 33 inches long. She is 85th percentile for weight and 98.6 for height. We didn't realize how tall she is!!

Leah looks very healthy. She got 3 shots.... well, she got stuck 3 times. You know how they combine shots now. She shouldn't have to get anymore shots until she is 4 years old. YEAH!!

We went to the park with all 3 kids a couple of weeks ago when it was real nice outside. Leah went down the slide all by herself..... the toddler slide, of course! :)

 

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Luke- 1 Month

1 comments Posted by The McMillins at 1:52 PM

Luke was 1 month old on March 4th. We can't believe he's already 1 month old! The time has been going too fast!
At his 1 month check-up, he weighed 10 lbs 11 oz and was 23 inches long. He was 92nd percentile for height and 74th percentile for weight. He still has his "newborn rash" that we're hoping will go away soon.

Check out some of his 1 month old pictures.

 

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Luke Alexander has arrived!

1 comments Posted by The McMillins at 9:12 PM


This morning, at 9:10 A.M., Luke Alexander was born. He weights 9 lbs. 3 oz. and is 21 inches long. He has lots of dark hair. He was actually due on February 11th. So, imagine if he/ we waiting another week to be born. We think he would have been about 10 lbs.

Gretchen and Luke are both doing great. Corey is taking care of the kids and we look forward to Gretchen's parents coming down to help. They are expecting a big snowstorm this weekend so they decided to leave early tomorrow morning to get down here safely.

We look forward to bringing Luke home this weekend and for Zach and Leah to meet him!

 

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Couponing 101

0 comments Posted by The McMillins at 11:52 PM

Gretchen has made it a New Year's Resolution to save as much money on everything that she can this year. One of those ways is to get better at "couponing" and sales. There is a website that she goes to everyday called, http://www.southernsavers.com/ . This website shows all the sales ads of grocery stores, drugstores, all kinds of different stores (including Internet sites) and then coupons that you can use on top of those sales (both manufacturer and store coupons). There have been several things that she's been able to get for free by doing this. They also have a link to a coupon if it is available to print online. It's been VERY helpful.

It is very time consuming but she has fun doing it. Plus, it gives her something to do late at night when she can't go to sleep and everyone else is in bed. :)

 

Monday, January 11, 2010

A minivan family

0 comments Posted by The McMillins at 9:04 AM


We have both said that we will never own a minivan and yet here we are posting that we bought a minivan. lol It all started last year when we found out that we were going to have baby #3 in 2010. Gretchen really wanted to get a bigger vehicle than the truck (like an SUV) b/c she knew that we would all be cramped in the truck. The five of us could all fit in the truck but there wouldn't be a whole lot of room. Corey didn't want to get another vehicle b/c both of our vehicles are paid for and he didn't want another payment.... understandable! So, Gretchen became content with the truck and figured we could just get a cover for the back (to keep a stroller back there) and we'd make it work b/c she didn't want a car payment either. The only way to have no payment would be to sell the truck and that was NOT going to happen. lol


Corey started talking about a month ago about possibly buying another vehicle. Gretchen was surprised b/c she was to the point where they would just make it work with the truck. We started looking at SUV's. We didn't want anything older than a 2005. We really wanted a Tahoe. Both of us like the newer body styles better than the older body styles. BUT.... you couldn't get one under $20,000. Well, we didn't want to spend that much on a vehicle. Corey wanted something a little bigger than the Tahoe, like a Suburban or Expedition but again.... you couldn't get a used one under $20,000. Gretchen started thinking maybe we need to be open to looking at minivans but never said anything to Corey b/c he felt the same way she did about them.


The next day (after Gretchen thought about looking at minivans), Corey sent her a text asking if she ever thought about looking at minivans. How ironic was that?? One of his co-workers had talked him into looking at them and said that now his wife wishes they would have gotten a minivan over a Tahoe. The more we looked into minivans (and there ratings) and there prices, we realized they were more in our price range. There was only one van that we liked the body style of and that was the Honda Odyssey. Plus, we've heard that they'll run for like 300,000 miles. So, after a lot of research and looking, we decided to go test drive one. A 2006 Honda Odyssey.


We really liked it and after very little negotiating (b/c they posted a wrong price on the Internet and Gretchen printed it out, they honored it), we bought it. It's very nice. Some features that it has that we LOVE is a back-up camera, a built in navigation system, heated seats, a built in DVD player, a 6 disc CD player, a power sunroof, bluetooth for our cell phones, built-in window shades for the windows, a lazy susan underneath the floor for storage and the 3rd row of seats folds down for extra storage. Oh... and we love the leather interior.... makes for easy clean-up. Of course we love the power everything in it AND the steering wheel has the controls for a lot of things.


So.... we're officially a minivan family. We can't believe it but it really has been a good decision for us!

 

Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy New Year to everyone

0 comments Posted by The McMillins at 10:27 PM

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We are looking forward to a great 2010!

 

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