St. George

Amongst all of our Halloween fun, Miles and I made a fast trip to St. George last week for a few days to see my friend who lives down there. We haven't seen her in a while so I'm glad we were able to go. Miles was a great traveling companion! He does really well in the car. He doesn't sleep so well when he isn't in his crib, but we managed. We were both pretty tired though when we got back last Friday. It was such a whirlwind because our time was short and I didn't get very many pictures, but we had a great time catching up! Another bonus from the trip was that Erin helped me cut out some squares so that I can make a quilt out of Miles' old crib sheet. She has this nifty machine that makes cutting squares easy-peasy! Now I just need to get my other projects done so I can start making him a blanket.

Miles and Brynlee (Erin's baby who isn't much of a baby anymore) at McDonald's



Erin & Brynlee making a spiderweb at Brynlee's preschool Halloween party

Miles had a blast on this little bike thingy even though he biffed it in this video

Halloween Fun

Every year the young men and young women of our church put together a Halloween carnival for the little kids the Tuesday before Halloween. It is so much fun to see all of the little ones dressed up and having a good time. Miles enjoyed running around the gym of the church and eating candy! He really lived up to his costume and "flew" everywhere! Because I "work" in the young women organization of our church, Dave had to get Miles ready for the event and put him to bed alone that evening, which I was told was not an easy task. He was so stimulated by everything going on!

The church had bats flying around!

Miles, our little airplane



Miles pumpkin bowling

The daughter of one of the ladies I "work" with in YW
She is so adorable!

Miles waiting for dad to give him some CANDY!



Miles fishing

We finally got our pumpkins carved last night. I was half-tempted to not even carve pumpkins this year because it was getting so close to Halloween, but we went ahead and did it and I'm glad we did. Miles enjoyed the process a lot more this year than last year. He still isn't big enough to have much of a say in what his looks like, but he enjoyed watching us do the dirty work while he munched on the pieces. He is such a little boy!

He'd put his hand in it, but wouldn't pull anything out



It's a cup!



Helping mom with the eyes



Dad is working on the mouth



Yummy pumpkin!



Miles with his pumpkin



Our finished pumpkins



I love how they look lit up!

Pumpkin Patch

The three of us went to a pumpkin patch this week and picked out our pumpkins! This is one of many "events" that we did in the past just because, but now that we have Miles it is SO much fun to go and do these things with him! He loves to do new things and loves to get out and explore. He had a great time running through the corn maze, looking at the live animals, bouncing in the bounce house, and picking up every pumpkin he could and then throwing every pumpkin he could all the while saying, "heavy!" We are trying to teach him that you don't throw pumpkins, but it isn't sinking in yet! He loves to take our pumpkins off the porch and throw them as hard as he can. It'll be amazing if they make it to Halloween.

You'll notice in 99% of these pictures he isn't looking at the camera. His new ornery thing is to ignore mom when the camera comes out. I have to get creative to get any shots of his face.

Running through the maze



For some reason he thought it was his responsibility to give this scarecrow a kiss



"Look Miles, an airplane!"
At least I got a picture of his face



Our little family



Look at those BIG pumpkins!



He pointed at this goat and said, "Cow!"







Miles and his pumpkin

Cute things he says

I've been horrible at keeping a journal and not so great at keeping updated with Miles' baby book so this blog is a way for me to keep track of the comings and goings of our lives. Lately Miles has been saying some of the cutest things and I know if I don't post them here, I'll forget all about these things when he is older. He really tries his hardest to say things correctly, but there are a few things that he has come up with his own words for.

For example...

"Gua-gua" is grandma and lately it has sounded more like "gra gra"

"Mow-y" is his word for either a lawn mower or motorcycle

"Lin" is his word for violin

"Tee-tee" is what he says when he wants to watch one of his shows

"La-la" is lion

"Shracker" is tractor

He is getting better about saying "Buddy" (our dog) versus "Bu-ee" and is clearer when he says "milk" so that it doesn't sound like "book." He also says "Ein-stein" now instead of a word that mainly sounded like "stein." He loves to point out any airplane, tractor, or bus that we see when we are out and about and says those words pretty clear as well. He just is so darn cute!

It's a Whole New Era*

Ever since I met her, she has had a paying job. When we first met she was a certified nurse assistant. She did that before and after we got married. After we moved to Kansas, she went back to school. All the while she kept working. On top of being a CNA, she did other jobs like Subway (wanted to be like me I reckon :) and some babysitting for some friends of ours.

After a while, she grew tired of the CNA job and while she finished getting her degree she joined the medical transcription world. After she graduated, she stopped doing medical transcription and successfully acquired a job with the American Cancer Society. She worked there full-time while I finished school. At the end of my second to last semester of college, she moved to a new division of the American Cancer Society. She continued to work for them until I found a job in Provo, UT and took her away from that job.

Once we got to Provo, she became a medical transcriptionist once again. We had high hopes that we would be able to have kiddos at this point, so it was a temporary stopgap until the kids came. The idea being that she would be able to make motherhood a full-time job. Well, the kids just never came, so she kept working doing the same old thing over and over and over again. She was bored with it, but kept plugging along. She held on to this job even while she went out and worked full-time as a manager of a portrait studio and then taking pictures of newborns at local hospitals.

She switched transcription companies in August of 2009. As a new employee, she was excited about what this new company had to offer her in terms of time off and benefits as well as being able to pay off some bills with the amount of work she could get done. Shortly after she started with the new company, the kid came. While we endured the saga of getting our precious little one, she didn't have any time off. She kept working even while away from home. We finally received Miles and she kept working. There was not time for her to take time to enjoy being a mom. Most moms get some sort of maternity leave, but she didn't. Adoption was expensive and we had to pay for it somehow, so she kept working.

All the while, Miles required a mother and she still kept working while being that mother. She did both for a bit over 2 years now and has done an amazing job! She is a great mother and has worked so hard and has endured plenty. And at last, she can put all of her focus on being a mother. I am so excited for her! She has hoped for this day to come for a long time now, and it finally came to fruition.

A whole new era in her life has just begun! The good news, it is what she has looked forward to for so long. The bad news, she still has to work!

I love you honey! Thanks for all you do to make us such a great family. I am so proud of you!

*I (Holly) was confused at first as to where this post came from and then I realized Dave hijacked my blog and wrote this! LOL! What a sweetie.

Warm fall day

Dave had Monday, 9/26, off of work (I'm not exactly sure why the district gave the teachers this day off, but I'm sure they had a good reason). I had promised Dave a round of golf for his birthday back in July, but he never had the chance to go because it was too hot in Kansas this summer and then when we got back things were just busy. So, that morning Miles went to daycare and I stayed home and worked while Dave went out to play a round of golf. He had a great time and wanted to go back again later in the day! We made a compromise and decided to go miniature golfing with Miles instead. We bought this great pass that gives us free admission to a few of the local attractions such miniature golfing, swimming, etc. With it being Miles' first time at miniature golfing I wasn't sure how it would go over, but he ultimately has a great time doing anything as long as he can explore. He covered every inch of that miniature golf course and even hit the ball a few times with dad's encouraging.

Dad teaching proper technique



Miles was too interested in all the rocks...



and checking out where the balls were going



He had fun retrieving the balls from the holes



He almost got to ride a go-cart for his first time too, but the line was too long and there was only one worker running the show so it was taking an extremely long time