Feeling behind...

I'm feeling behind in many areas of my life and am a tad bit overwhelmed!! Ugh!

• I'm behind in my work for the week, which really isn't anything new I guess (this happens almost every week which means I have to work the weekend).
• I'm behind in updating the blog. I have all of Christmas and our trip to Kansas to put on here.
• I'm feeling behind in parenting Miles. We haven't been good at letting Miles learn how to feed himself with a cup, a plate, a spoon, and a fork. I think Dave and I both suffer from OCD when it comes to cleanliness at mealtimes (or whatever you want to call it). We both hate the mess of letting Miles feed himself and so we just end up doing it for him. Dave said the other day that he is totally okay with still spoon feeding Miles when he is 18 as long as we don't have to deal with messes! Funny, but sad all at the same time too.
• I'm also behind in letting Miles learn how to manage the stairs in our house. He only knows how to go up and down them if he is holding our hands. By now he surely is capable of learning how to maneuver them on his own???

I post this all not so that you'll feel bad for me, but as for motivation for myself to do better. It is a new year, right? I should start off the new year by being better!!

Provo's turn

What we woke up to this morning:

This storm system is coming to us from California which means Provo finally was included in the significant snow totals! Yippee! Most storms come through from the north and Provo seems to always get ripped off when that happens. It is still snowing too and is supposed to off and on for the next 48 hours or so. So exciting...except that we have a road trip planned for this weekend to help move my mom back to Kansas.

Christmas Party

Our church has a Christmas party every year and Santa makes a special appearance to visit with all of the little girls and boys. We also get to eat yummy food including all of the traditional foods like turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc. The party was this evening and Dave unfortunately had to work, but my mom was kind enough to go along with us. I figured Miles would be scared to death of Santa and he did not disappoint! Santa thought it might help to have Grandma sit on his lap with Miles, but no such luck. I got a few good laughs watching the little ones freak out! After Santa was done visiting with all the children, he walked by our table as we were eating and Miles started crying again and wouldn't stop until Santa was gone. Too funny! I have a picture of me as a little tiny girl sitting on Santa's lap reaching for mom while screaming so it is only fair to have the same sort of picture of Miles. He'll laugh at it someday.

You could color on the tables so Miles was having fun playing with/eating the crayons

"Ooo Li"

In the words of Miles, "Ooo Li!" He LOVES seeing all the pretty Christmas lights everywhere we go! We thought it would be fun to take him to Temple Square to see more lights. He had a blast, until he got tired. I'm glad we were able to go with him this year.

A Nice Surprise

We found out Thursday night that Dave's brother from Alaska was going to be in Salt Lake City on an overnight layover Friday night. We were both very excited for the opportunity to see him! Dave's mom also made the trip down from Logan to see him. It was great to spend a few hours with both of them! We hung out at the Gateway Mall and had a fabulous meal at Tucanos! We were going to go see the lights on Temple Square, but it was already past Miles' bedtime and he made the decision for us that we should probably head back to Provo.

Dorothy, Dan, & Miles "exploring" at the Clark Planetarium

Miles enjoyed running around looking at everything

David, Miles, & Dan outside Tucanos

Grandma Dorothy added to the picture

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Mom helping me put together the tree

Miles playing
(the TV is a dead giveaway to what Dave was doing)

Not having such a good time with the star garland stuff

I was a little worried about having a tree up with a toddler in the house, but he has done a great job of leaving it alone. As with anything else, if he is involved in the process he is less curious about it and treats it as if it belongs. I'm glad we got him involved versus doing the decorating while he slept!