January

January has been a full month. We have had the opportunity to do some really fun and exciting things! The highlight of the month was taking Oliver to the temple and having him sealed to us so that we can be an eternal family, but I'll talk more about that later. If you want to learn more about our temples, click here. 

While in Kansas, my mom bought Miles a new white shirt and nice slacks in case we decided to take Miles to my grandpa's funeral. He was in need of some new church shoes as well so we purchased some for him. Knowing that we would be going to the temple in a few weeks, I decided to make Miles a new tie as well. One Sunday in early January I dressed him all up in his new church attire and boy did he look GREAT! I can't believe how big he is getting.

Such a handsome boy!

On January 7th, the night before Miles started preschool again, his new preschool held an event titled, "Getting Back to Healthy." With it being a new year, his preschool director thought it would be fun to have an evening full of physical activity to start the new year off right. Miles is such an active little guy that I thought this event would be perfect for him. He was still hopping around a little bit though from his injury at the mall in Kansas, but it didn't seem to slow him down. He was out of breath and wore out by the time we left. There were prizes given away and Dave won a day pass to the Community Center here in Fruita. It is such a neat looking place. I'm excited to go check it out more!

Dad and Miles doing the Hokey Pokey

If you look to the left, you can see Dave's head. Miles is standing next to him. Miles loves playing with the parachute!

On January 8th, Miles started his first day of preschool at his new school. The first day he was so excited to go, but by the second day he realized what was happening and wanted no part of it. It took him about three or four times to finally decide preschool was what he wanted to do and let me leave without any fits. Before that he was throwing some huge fits when I would drop him off. They basically would have to hold Miles so that I could leave. What fun! Now I stick around for a little bit and watch him get interested in a toy and then he says, "Mom, I'm okay. You can leave now." It's so cute. He goes to school Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. He hasn't been going for all that long yet, but I can already see huge progress in him and what he is learning. It's so good for him to be around other 4 and 5-year-olds!

In honor of the three day weekend in January (thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr.!), we decided to schedule Oliver's sealing at the Provo temple on Saturday, January 18th. We had originally scheduled it for the end of December, but when my grandpa had his heart attack, we quickly decided to change those plans. We didn't want too much time to pass though before we got it rescheduled so I'm glad there was a three day weekend in January. Miles was 6 months old when we did his sealing. It was much different having a 6-month-old versus an almost 8-week-old in the temple. Oliver slept through the entire thing. I was nervous about Miles being in the temple because, as mentioned before, he is an active little guy and he is also a pretty loud little guy. He did great though. One of the temple workers said to me, "He is so full of love!" Sometimes when he is having his 4-year-old meltdowns, I don't always feels this way so it was nice to be reminded! After the sealing we went to Tucanos with our old neighbors and had a good evening catching up. It turned out to be the perfect day! I'm so glad it went so smoothly.

The sun was so bright!

The whole gang

If you look closely you can see the dirt on Miles' knees. He had so much fun crawling around on the fountain's edge!

The Kents who came

Our old neighbors - we miss them so much!

Oliver was done with pictures by this point

While in Provo we had to eat at some of our favorite spots. When we lived there we would eat at Bajio every Monday because they had a deal on the enchiladas that I like so much. It's been hard breaking that habit. I really do love their food! So, of course, we had to make a visit. Miles likes it too and hopefully someday Oliver will like it too!

So yummy!

While in town, Dave fixed a few things at our townhouse for our tenant. We continue to have problems with the hot water pipe in the kitchen freezing. Dave found the problem and added more insulation, etc. He also replaced the motor in the bathroom vent so now it doesn't sound like a freight train rolling through. I'm glad we live close enough to take care of things like that now!

We then headed north to Bountiful to spend some time with the Kent family. Dave's brother, Jake, offered to host a get-together and we took him up on the offer. It's so nice when everyone comes to you versus having to go see everyone individually. We got to see a lot of the Kents. It was good to catch up with them and introduce them to Oliver. He was the star of the party. Everyone loves him and his red hair! We didn't get to stay long, but I'm glad we could go. Hopefully there are many trips like that in our future now that we are only about 3-1/2 hours away!

This month Oliver has figured out how to smile and has such a GREAT smile! Dave, Miles, and I love to see him smile and try our hardest to get him to smile often. He is such a cute boy!

Smiling at Dad in the hotel in Provo (Miles captured this beauty)

Smiling at Mom