Last Friday night we journeyed north to Tremonton to spend the night at Dave's brother's. They are in the process of a kitchen remodel and we were getting so excited to see it! It isn't quite finished yet, but it is close and looks fabulous (I forgot to take pictures of it)! Unfortunately Zach had to work Friday evening, but we got to hang out with Tammy and Lily...and the guy who is doing their remodel. Haha! Saturday we did a little shopping in the big town of Tremonton looking for a toy tractor for Miles. We even found some real tractors and Miles was in HEAVEN!!! Tractors are one of Miles' favorite things these days.
Miles & Lily checking out the bucket
Lily showing off her mad pretend driving skills
It was such a gorgeous day! They have a great swing-set in their backyard and Miles enjoyed playing on it while soaking up some good vitamin D. After naps we all drove over to Logan Canyon and met Grandma Dorothy there for some more outdoor adventures.
Checking out the Logan River
An attempt at a posed picture of the two of them together!
He had so much fun checking everything out
Grandma Dorothy & Lily
We got to see a beaver
We made a few other stops in Logan before making our way back home. It was a short trip, but it was good to see some of Dave's family and to soak up some sun. What a nice weekend!
The first movie Miles showed any interest in and actually watched was "Up." Before that he had only been interested in "The Little Einsteins" and "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse." He watched Up over and over and over again. We had successfully memorized all of the words and Miles was getting pretty good at acting out his favorite parts when I decided it was time to try out a different movie to see if he would watch it as well. We needed some variety! Tangled happened to be showing on Starz so we gave it a try. He wasn't interested at all. I tried a couple of more times and decided to delete it off our DVR. One day we were in a local TV store shopping for a new TV. Tangled was playing and Miles sat down and watched a huge chunk of the movie while Dave shopped. I tried it again at home and he was hooked. He replaced Up with Tangled essentially and watched it over and over and over again. He mainly loved it for the horse, Maximus. Now we've watched Tangled so much we can pretty much quote the whole movie!
My favorite thing about watching this movie with Miles is watching him act certain parts out. When Rapunzel asks her mom if she can go see the floating lights, Miles yells loudly with her mom when she responds, "You are never leaving this tower EVER!" Miles mainly screams the EVER part. It is so darn cute! He also loves to grab my hands and dance around the living room when the part with Rapunzel dancing around what looks like the town square comes on. But my absolute favorite thing that he acts out is the scene in the end when Rapunzel saves Eugene's life and they embrace each other and then kiss. Miles comes up to me and asks, "Hug?" After we hug he then asks, "Kiss?" He proceeds to kiss me and then tilts his head to the side like he is giving me a passionate kiss. It makes me laugh every time! This will be a great story to tell his wife someday!!!
Tangled is losing its draw though probably because we've watched it so much. Time to find a new favorite movie!
I've been MIA for a while due to the "great computer crash of 2012!" A couple of weeks ago I was designing a newsletter for the young women's organization (of which I am the secretary for) at church. I was supposed to put this newsletter together long ago, but never could get motivated to do it for some reason. Well, on this particular day I had some motivation so I began the daunting process. I went to Google and started searching for LDS clip-art. I must've clicked on the wrong website because my computer instantly froze up. Dave tried to fix it with the knowledge that he has about viruses, but unfortunately wasn't successful. Some of our neighbors recommended a computer shop here in town. A few days later and $65 poorer, we got our computer back with the thought that it was fixed. We quickly realized that the virus had attacked our "My Documents Folder" and everything essentially was gone. After reinstalling a few of our programs, we realized that the computer still wasn't quite working right. After a few calls back to the computer shop we decided it was probably time to start shopping for a new computer. So, here I sit at our brand-new computer. It is fun to have a new computer, but I am grieving the loss of our old one!!! We spent so much time together over the years! Ha ha!
So, for an update...
We gave the whole potty training thing a try and didn't get very far. I followed all of the suggestions about making a big deal out of it and having him pick out his own "big boy underwear" and toilet and offering goodies for when he was successful, etc. etc., but I just don't think he is ready for it. He sort of became resistant to the whole process as well and I've seen from experience what that can do to children so I backed way off. We'll try it again later. He was NOT excited about sitting on the toilet for more than one second, so we got out the tablet and downloaded some fun apps for him to "play" with while he sat there. Here is a video of him jamming to his firetruck app.
Last Saturday Target held an event in honor of Read Across America. They read Dr. Seuss books to the children and gave away goodie bags. Since Dave works there we thought it would be fun to go check it out. After about 5 minutes we were all ready to leave. My experience in event planning made me very disappointed in this event. They could've made it so much fun for the kids, but instead sat in front of the kids and read book after book after book. You could barely hear the reader and they just weren't very entertaining. It was too bad, but we did get some free stuff out of it.
Miles is so sensitive to lack of sleep. I've never met a child quite like him. He definitely needs his nap and really is a different child without one. Because of this, his entire life I've been religious about giving him his nap(s) around the same time every single day. It makes for a much happier family (all parties involved). This year our church is at 1 p.m. which is nap-time. We've tried to figure out a good schedule for Sundays so that Miles can get a nap and we can make it to all of church, but so far we haven't found the perfect balance. Last Sunday Miles woke up later than normal so we tried to go to church with no nap. Never again! It was a nightmare. Afterwards we ended up in the car driving around so he could get a small nap before bedtime...and then ended up at Walmart to ride the mechanical horse. This video shows how happy he was to be alive!
Yesterday (Leap Day) was "free entrance to the Hogle Zoo day" and because of the aforementioned sensitivity to lack of sleep and the timing of snow storms entering our area, we didn't make it to the zoo. Sad sad! Miles and I have had a bad case of cabin fever lately though so I decided we still needed to go do something fun. So, after nap we ended up at the Provo Beach Resort. It is this great indoor facility that has lots to do ranging from surfing to a toddler play area, etc. The last time we were at the zoo Miles enjoyed riding the carousel and the Provo Beach Resort has a carousel so I knew he would enjoy it. He rode the carousel twice, helped me play a couple of arcade games, and played in the toddler area long enough to be bit by another toddler! Overall we had a blast. It is nice to do something different every once in a while!
So, in a nutshell (ha ha!) that is what we've been up to.
Thursday (Feb. 9th) was Miles last Tumbling Tots class. I think he will really miss going to that class! It was a good way to burn off some energy and also start teaching him about listening to an instructor, etc. I am sort of glad it is over for the fact that each class really wore me out! I spent the entire 45 minutes chasing him around and telling him to listen to his teacher. Some days were worse than others. One of his classmates had an older sister that would come and watch the class and Miles decided she was pretty neat. When there was free time he loved to chase her around and tickle her. It was so cute to watch!
For the last day of class the teacher had them do everything they had learned throughout the five week course and then gave them a snack and a medal at the end. He had each kid stand on a "podium" while he put a gold medal around their neck while the rest of us clapped for that child. So fun! Miles loved his "coin" and was so proud to show it to everyone, even daddy later in the day.
Now it is time to think about swimming lessons for this summer...or something along those lines!
Miles enjoyed the bar
Miles and his "girlfriend"
Doing assisted back flips
He loves to hang upside down
His class minus two (the twins weren't there for the last class)
All of them were sitting and actually listening to their teacher! They wanted snacks!
We originally were going to be the hosts for the Super Bowl party this year, but one of Dave's brothers (Zach) asked if they could host the party since they'd have a brand new kitchen by then. We agreed, but unfortunately weren't going to be able to attend their party (in Tremonton) because of Dave's work schedule at Target. As Super Bowl weekend got closer, they realized their kitchen would be nowhere near complete so we moved the party back to our house, which worked out nicely with Dave's schedule! Because Tremonton is almost two hours away, Zach, Tammy, Lily, and Tammy's brother, Chad, decided to come down Saturday and spend the night. I was super excited to have Lily here so that Miles would have a play buddy around. I unfortunately caught another cold right before they arrived so I'm sure I wasn't the greatest host in the world. Being sick makes me grumpy!
Overall I think the weekend went well. I'm sure Dave wished he could've spent more time with his family, but at least he got to see them and watch the big game together. Dave's other brother, Jake, also came over for the party. Our little house was full! Miles felt it was his responsibility to entertain everyone during the Super Bowl and got super hyper! I finally had to intervene and make him sit down and watch an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on our new tablet. He definitely needed to calm down!
We took Lily and Miles to the park earlier in the day so they could run off some energy (and hopefully take a great afternoon nap) and see the ducks. They both had a great time running around. We spent the rest of our time together eating, watching movies, and playing card games. Although I probably stress out too much about hosting such events, I do enjoy it and wish it happened more often!
Here are some pictures from our weekend together.
Playing Monopoly (card game style)
Miles with his shades
Lily seemed to enjoy the swing that goes in circles until she got going too high
Ducks!
Together on the traditional swings
Miles loves to hang like this in the baby swings
Miles loves slides
Lily was a little hesitant at first
Miles loved to drag poor Lily around
What a cutie pie!
If only Miles could pedal they would've had a blast!
During the winter months, the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City has free admission days on the last Wednesday of each month (Dec., Jan., & Feb.). My sister-in-law, Megan, invited us to go with them in December, but we were en route home from Kansas for the Christmas holiday. When I saw how gorgeous the weather forecast was for January's date (yesterday), I quickly looked into whether or not they were planning on going again this month. They were, so I started brainstorming how to make the timing of it all work out so that Miles could still get his desperately needed nap for the day and we could make the hour drive up and back and still allow plenty of time to see the animals. Well, Miles helped out with the nap issue. He decided to get up super early yesterday morning which meant he'd be ready for a super early nap! When he woke up around 1 p.m. we loaded up and headed to Hogle Zoo. We met Megan, Gwen, and Ira there and had a great time seeing the animals, riding the carousel, and playing on the playground equipment. I didn't dress Miles appropriately for the occasion so by the end his pants were completely soaked and pretty dirty. There was lots of snow to play with and lots of puddles to jump in. He is definitely all boy! We had a great time and Miles enjoyed seeing all of the animals. He especially loved the snakes, turtles, and carousel ride. He screamed bloody murder when the carousel ride was over!
Miles & Gwen by the BIG (fake) elephant
Mom & Miles on the carousel (don't know what I'm doing with my eyes)
(I hate the way my voice sounds on video. Anyone else feel the same about their voice on video?)
Ira & Gwen on the carousel
Miles found an iguana in the tree
Miles watching two birds fighting. He called the animals in the background "Buddy." He must've thought they looked like doggies.
Miles liked the sleeping "cat"
The turtles/tortoises seemed fairly active and Miles loved watching them
