Take two... or three...

I was looking through our pictures, and we don't have very many of us any more (we like our baby), so I told Trav to pose for the camera, and this is what we ended up with.

This was the best one we got

Then the pooper decided to jump in

Maybe we should just stick with just taking pictures of her!

The heartland

Since we live in the bread basket of the country, we decided that we better take advantage of this fertile soil, so we planted a vegetable garden.

This side is the tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and squash

This side is our corn field. Travis feels so awesome for doing it, he's been talking about growing corn since we drove through the corn fields in Nebraska this last summer. Pray that it grows!

And this is how we were able to work... we had to contain the monster!

Cruisin'

Since the first year of medical school, we have been talking about going on a cruise with our close friends who are in Trav's class. Four years later, we stuck to our guns and we will be going on a Southern Caribbean cruise. I CANNOT wait! Since our husbands thrive off studying and learning (yeah right!) we decided it would be a fun idea to each do a presentation on one of the islands we are visiting. I felt like I was in school again, because I totally left my assignment for the last minute and was sweating bullets trying to get it ready. But then, the night it was due, Jim had to go and burn his hand off (he was making Aruban fries for us, he got 3rd degree burns and had to get skin grafts) and so we had to push it back a day (sorry about your hand Jim, but thanks for the extra breathing room).

We first started at the Hastings house. Brandi made frog legs, seriously. They tasted kind of like chicken, but more rubbery.

They also had strawberry soup, the "dangerous" fries from Aruba and some mango.

Then we headed off to the Orson's house. Since we are only going to 5 islands and we have 6 people, we decided it would make perfect sense to assign someone a report on pirates, since most likely we will be attacked by them. It would also make perfect sense to give Orson that topic because he is a little obsessed with pirates.

See?

He gave us a pop quiz, and I aced it and he made me his pirate assistant. I was in Heaven!

Alisha made a Blue Curacao drink... minus the hard stuff of course!

She also made us iguana/kangaroo soup. This one really tasted like chicken (because it was!)

Then last but not least, we went to our house. I did my presentation on my homeland, Puerto Rico. Really, it is my homeland, I am 1/4 Puerto Rican. Don't mock me because I am pasty and have freckles. I made my Grandma's famous chicken and Spanish rice dish

For Travis's authentic dish, he made a "better than sex" cake. His island was the Virgin Islands... get it! Funny Trav

I'm so happy that we will all be well educated for our cruise. It will come in really handy while we are lying on a towel on the beach catching some rays! Can't wait!!!

Sometimes, this is what we do on the weekends

The 2010 Riverside Townhome lip sync where we form groups, come up with an amazing lip sync and then compete. 

We chose the song chunky... and that's all you really need to know. We are aweome. You know you want to be our friend.

Sister Wives

I always wondered what it would be like to be a polygamist. Since Travis has had a pretty easy rotation this month, sometimes it almost seems like we are polygamist, because its often him and me and my buddies. I have been known to say that being polygamist wouldn't be so bad. You would always have friends around to help you during the boring times of the days, you could do fun crafts together, you could help each other with the chores and the kids, and there would always be good meals. But then I thought about the other duties of being a wife, and then I didn't think that being a polygamist would be such a good idea. Anyway, that was a long introduction to this post. Tonight, we made freezer jam. It was Trav's idea, and so I invited some of my wanna-be sister wives to come and make jam. This is how it turned out.

This is our main man

And girls, thanks for being such loyal friends. I know you will always be watching my back for me. Thanks for being there, especially when I need you! You are definitely great candidates if I ever had to pick some sister-wives! But I would have to be the head wife... no battle!

We Love April So Far cont.

Lots of egg huntsAvery, its OK that you didn't find a ton of eggs. You are about quality not quantity anyways, you would find an egg and then search its contents making sure it was worth the search.

Notice that her hat is on, she was a pro with wearing it by the time Easter came!

Here are the Egg Hunter cheerleaders

Every year Trav gets my basket and I get his and we hide them. I couldn't find mine for forever! He threw all my clothes from my dresser in his closet and hid it in my drawer. Who would have thought. Again Trav, I'll get you next year!

This was the loot

My mom sent her a cute Easter dress, a book and some cute shoes. Thanks Mom!

And then of course, we had to eat a huge Easter breakfast

I can't get enough of our amazing weather... just a little nervous for the Summer, because we have already reached 85 a couple of times. It might be one sweaty, smelly, humid Summer, but until then we will just keep enjoying April!

We love April so far cont.

2) At home dates
We have been trying to have better quality time with each other after Avery goes to bed. This was just one idea. 

*warning: the following IS very cheesy

We had our first annual Upchuck games, get it, our last name is Charles... crap this is cheesy. It gets even worse. We had our own team names and uniforms. My team was "The Milester's" and Trav's was "The Travesty." See below

The following events took place:

Soccer: Milli had a surprising upset, beating Travis 3-2 in a very slippery outdoor game.

Boggle: It was no surprise that Travis won by a large margin. He is wordy.

The next event was the card game Mille Bournes. Milli had a great start, but in the end, could not get her flat tire fixed and Travis took full advantage, so he took the gold on this event.

Socks: This event was a long drawn out process. It took 4 months of missing socks from the laundry that have been in a huge sack and only 5 minutes for us both to rummage through it and find the matching pairs. Milli may have invented this game to force Travis to contribute to the laundry, but in the end Milli found more matches.

Puzzles: We emptied 4 of Avery's puzzles and timed each other to see who the fastest puzzler was. Travis beat Milli by 7 seconds.

The next event was the move game: You know, that one game where you are standing face to face, and you can only touch each other's hands, and the first person to loose their balance looses. It was a stupid game that, once again, Milli lost at.

Texas Hold-em: Milli had some hot cards and some good bluffing techniques and she pulled of the big W on this on

The last event was intense, it was Name that Tune: This is usually Milli's strongest event, as she can usually recall any singer on the radio. Going into this last event, Travis was up 4-3. If he pulled of the win, then he would clinch the gold medal, but if not, we would have to go into sudden death. The end result was... ... Travis pulled the huge upset. The crazy thing about it was that he beat Milli with Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes. Milli really choked!

The winner

The Loser

The Results. I'll get you next time Travis

We love April (so far)

These are the following reasons:

1. Bike Rides

If "we" decide in the middle of a bike ride that "we" don't want to be on a bike ride at that particular moment, than proper action is taken place and sucker's are distributed to those who are not in the right mind set.

Its cheap, but in the end, all parties are happy about it.

Not Dead

Dear Reader(s),

I just wanted you to know that we are still alive. I don't know why I haven't posted for forever. Every time I would get on the computer I would just go to Facebook instead. Now I know "what Twilight character" everyone is and that a lot of people are "sick of this crazy weather." We are back. I just posted four posts below, so be sure to check them out. Sorry for the scare. We are recommitted.

Love, Milli

A little bit of Travis...

So a couple of weeks ago, after I found out the Cougs would be playing in Oklahoma City for the first round of the tournament, I had an irresistible urge to get out there and support my team. Chris (our neighbor) and I crowded into our Civic and headed down. We ended up seeing two very enjoyable games and one not-so-enjoyable game. BYU/Florida went into double overtime, and by the end of it, I had no voice. Kansas/Northern Iowa turned out to be the highlight; it was fun being at the biggest upset of the tourney. BYU/Kansas State was lame, they couldn't miss anything. I wanted a paintball gun for Pullen and Clemente every time they shot. Oh, well. The trip was fun; it was my first appearance in March Madness. Everything went well, other than being forced to listen to occasionally very crappy music. Chris monopolized the stereo. Seriously, at one point he put on Michael Bolton. For any of you who have not yet formed an opinion of him and are looking for one that won't get you laughed at, see the movie "Office Space" (edited version, of course). PS This is Travis, not Milli

A little bit of Avery...

She has grown so much! Not just physically, but she is becoming a real person. She is talking a ton. At least Trav and I can understand what she is saying. Its cool that we share a code language that only we can understand sometimes, its better than Pig Latin.

She discovered shoes and ALWAYS has to wear them, she will change her shoes at least 3 times a day

I looked back (I wasn't driving) and saw her doing a balancing act

She is starting to sport some pretty wicked pig tails

I still want to eat her, but haven't yet

I always see pictures of babies on my friends blogs where they fall asleep in funny places. Since Avery is always so full of energy all of the time, I didn't think it would ever happen. I was so happy when I saw this.

We've had this Easter hat for a month so she could practice wearing it for the big day, so far its not taking, but when I do my Easter post you might be surprised.

She thinks she is a doggy

She likes to rock out on the piano

Bathing is always fun in the company of a friend

"wolls", one of her favorite foods

Two funny things about this picture 1) Obviously her hair and 2) This cupcake was in the fridge and someone didn't shut the fridge all the way and someone else found the perfect opportunity to snatch a cupcake. I won't mention any names.

I promise I had just mopped the kitchen floor the day before. We are working on this.

I can't even remember what it was like not having Avery Grace in our lives!

Where you at?

So the dreadful match has passed and we have survived... Drum roll please................. we will be living in Kansas City, Missouri for the next three years! Kind of anticlimactic huh! He will be doing a family residency at Research hospital. Our plans are to possibly to an ER fellowship after, but we are just taking it one day at a time. We are so glad we don't have to move, although Tuscon would have been pretty nice, but come what may and love it, sorry Tice! We are excited. He starts residency in July, if anyone wants to hang out then, let me know. I'm proud of you Trav!