Soaking Up The Sun

We've wanted to "introduce" Miles to a swimming pool for a while now, but haven't really had the opportunity. It just happened to turn out that this week we had two opportunities for him to go swimming. We thought he'd probably love it because he loves bath time and we were right. He had a blast (well, except for the one time when he slipped and landed face first in the water!).

Having worked for the American Cancer Society in the past, I just couldn't pass up the cute hat to protect our little one from the sun!

Swimming with cousins

Some of our neighbors recommended the Lehi Legacy Center for swimming with Miles. They recommended it because of all of the fun things there are to do for little ones and boy were they right! Thanks for the recommendation guys, we had a great time!

When we first got there Miles wasn't quite sure. It was loud and there is this huge bucket that drops water from the ceiling and he was not a fan. Every time the bell would go off signaling the bucket was about ready to drop, Miles would start squealing.

He spent a lot of time in this jumper thing
(isn't he such a CUTE kid?)


Having fun with dad

Floating the lazy river with mom

"What a crazy weekend!"

In the words of my sweet husband, "What a crazy weekend!" and I have to agree. We really only had one thing on the agenda for the entire weekend, but ended up making a last minute decision to drive up to Dave's brother's in Tremonton and spent last night there.

The only thing we had on the agenda was the Freedom Festival Baby Contest yesterday. Our neighbors "encouraged" us to enter Miles into the contest because as we all know, Miles is THE cutest baby! I'm sad to inform you all that Miles didn't win and didn't even place. We still are very proud of him and think he is the cutest baby! The judging process was sort of silly in my opinion, but maybe I feel that way 'cause my cute baby didn't win! We basically had to sit him on a table in front of two judges who sort of interacted with him, but they didn't try very hard. Dave and I both were trying to get him to giggle and/or smile at them, but they were strangers and he is at that age. He just sat there and stared at them like "who the heck are you?" After the judging they had an awards ceremony. There were door prizes and prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places for each category. We walked away with no prizes, just our luck. Haha!

Since it was part of the Freedom Festival, we dressed him in red, white, and blue

Waiting in line to see the judges

Practicing our killer smile

The judges

And the winners are...

Afterward we played in the "activity room."
Miles enjoyed playing with the blocks!

After the baby contest we were trying to decide what we wanted to do the rest of our weekend and not too much later found ourselves loading the car for an overnight stay in Tremonton. Dave's brother who is at law school at the University of Idaho and his family are in town this week so we wanted to see them while we could. It was nice to see them and can't believe how fast the kiddos are growing up!

Miles is trying to take away Gwen's toy and she isn't too happy about it

I love all of their faces in this one!
It is so hard to get a good picture of a 3 1/2 year old, 1 1/2 year old, and a 9 month old! You just take what you can get!

I know this post is long, but I do want to mention the fact that today is Father's Day. Miles is one lucky boy because I personally think he has the world's best dad! Dave is such a natural at being a dad. He inspires me daily. I look forward to watching their relationship develop. I think they will be good pals and will have tons of fun together over the years. Like I've said before, Miles is a daddy's boy. You can see the love he has for Dave in his eyes. He loves his daddy! We are so blessed and I'm so glad that Miles and I have Dave in our lives! Happy 1st Father's Day dear! Hope it was a good one!

My favorites

Keep in mind these are raw images, most of them need to be cropped!

9 months old

Today Miles is 9 months old! Can you believe it? He continues to grow and develop at such a fast pace! I love his little personality that is developing! He is such a sweet boy!

This past month Miles got his first tooth! It officially came in on May 19th. We could see it underneath his gum for a long time and kept thinking any day it would come in, but it took its sweet time and finally made its debut in May. He is currently working on getting tooth #2, or so it appears he is.

He is starting to develop some "stranger danger." Sometimes he is happy and cooperative and will go to just about anyone, but if he is in a mood he only wants dad and sometimes mom. He is definitely a daddy's boy!

We've given him some Gerber 3rd foods such as spaghetti and he loves it! He continues to love pretty much everything we give him. We've been giving him more table foods like mashed potatoes and fresh bananas and he loves those too. Since he only has one tooth, we are a little reluctant to give him things that need more mashing...just not sure he is ready for that yet. He tends to choke on things somewhat easy so we are cautious.

He is down to only two naps a day and has an easier time staying awake for longer periods.

He loves to say "dadadadada" over and over, but I'm still not convinced he is using it when he wants dada. He has started to say "nana" and has used it three times where I thought he knew what he was saying and was wanting me, mama. But, I'm not totally convinced he knows what it means either, although nana isn't technically right anyway I guess.

He is getting good at taking steps and walking with us if we hold his hands. One of our family friends bought him a toy that he can push and walk behind to start getting him ready to walk. I was worried it would get away from him too quickly and he would land face down on the floor, but so far he is able to manage it and walks very slowly behind it.

He loves watching "movies" and is particularly partial to the Baby Genius series on our cable on-demand service. We can play the nursery rhymes and songs over and over for him and he will just stand in front of the TV and stare.

He loves to sing. When we put him down for naps or bedtime we sing him songs and he'll often join in. Also at church he likes to sing with the rest of the congregation during hymns.

Because he is 9 mos. we went and had professional pictures taken again. He did a great job! I'll post a few of my favorites later.

Memorial Day Fun

Now that my mom is in Utah, she has requested that every chance we get we show her around some of the local sites that we have available to us in this beautiful part of the country. So, instead of putting flowers on graves for Memorial Day, we decided to honor our ancestors in another way, by taking a train ride through Heber Valley! My mom has family members that worked on the railroad back in the day including her own grandpa. Her love for trains runs deep! We had been on this particular train ride a few years ago for our anniversary, so we thought it would be fun to do it again, this time with Miles and grandma in tow. It turned out to be the perfect day! We all had such a great time. I am so glad we can share these moments with my mom!

Katy was the line that her grandpa worked on I believe???

Getting ready to board

We sat in the open-air car so our view was less restricted

Every time the conductor would blow the horn, Miles would turn to look with this concerned look on his face

Always has to have something in his mouth, this time he chose to eat grandma's hat

Our steam engine train

Having a good time

Beautiful views

Miles got his first tooth on May 19th, we've been trying to get a picture of it ever since

Once we got to Vivian Park in Provo Canyon, our engine unhooked from the front and reattached to the back so that it could pull us back to Heber

While they were unhooking and re-hooking the engine, we had some entertainment along the highway to watch

It was a three hour trip & Miles finally gave up about 45 mins. before we got back, he was a tired boy

Congrats to Mark and Becky

Written by Dave:

A couple of weeks ago my youngest brother got married. It was fun to be there. A nice little ceremony was followed by lovely lunch. Miles and I had a great time. Of course, Miles is a handful with his energy and refuses to go with anyone else. Fun nonetheless to have a father and son outing.

Miles after he was dressed for the event. Can't keep him from going anywhere, so his pants are a bit dirty. I brushed them off and they looked like new for the wedding.

Mark and his kiddos.

The ceremony.

Miles afterwards at Zach and Tammy's house got stuck under a chair and couldn't figure out how to get out.


Once again, congratulations to Mark and Becky! Glad to see you both so happy.