Miles' 4th Birthday

On November 22nd, we celebrated Miles' 4th birthday. He was so excited to be four like all of his friends and had been looking forward to his birthday for a long time. It was a fun filled day for the whole family. The day started with a dinosaur party for Miles and his friends. Everyone had a great time - we watched a dinosaur video, played games, and had cake and ice cream.

The scene of the "roaring" dinosaur party

My friend Sherry made this really cool T-Rex cake. It looked amazing!

Even more amazing was that the cake was made entirely

out of Rice Krispies treats since Miles is extremely

allergic to eggs and does not like the texture of cake.

Miles with his friends Talmage, Carson and Sean

Just as the moms showed up to pick up their children, Miles had an allergic reaction to something he had eaten (we are still not sure what caused it) and got sick standing at our front door. I explained to the moms that it was not the stomach flu and we got all the friends on their way home and Miles to the couch. He was sick for well over an hour, but he was not deterred from having fun on his birthday. We cancelled our plans to take him out to lunch and had both sets of his grandparents hang out at our house instead. As soon as the offending material had been cleansed from his system, he was up and ready to open presents, each of which he was really excited about.

After the opening of the gifts, all of the men then took off to attend the BYU/Utah game (Utah won, which made Scott's day pretty much perfect), and I got the rare privilege of taking my son to a movie, just the two of us. We saw Madagascar 2 on the IMAX screen and had so much fun. Miles polished off an entire bucket of popcorn pretty much by himself and giggled and shouted throughout the movie. Fortunately the families in the theater thought he was pretty cute.

It was a really special day to celebrate our really special boy. We are so proud of the young man that he is becoming and are a little surprised at how quickly he has become smarter than both of his parents (combined). He is such a joy - very polite, funny, and loving. Happy Birthday Miles!

Unwinding the next day by reading the paper with Grandpa Ray.

Orange Belt

Miles recently received his orange belt in Taekwondo. It was so much fun to watch him test for it, and he did a fabulous job. He was really into the performance aspect of it all, and wanted so badly to do his very best. What a doll! Here are a few pictures from the testing session:

I thought I would also include some cute pictures from his preschool Halloween party as well as from their recent trip to a local firestation. Not a bad life for a little guy.

The T-Rex and the Chicken

Another Halloween, another year of spooky good times. This year Miles insisted on going as Tyrannosaurus Rex (thank you internet) and Tate went as a chicken. Miles loved getting dressed up, stomping around the house and roaring like a dinosaur. Tate, on the other hand, lasted all of five minutes in his costume - just long enough to get a few rather unhappy pictures. He even figured out how to take the costume off all on his own. So, he spent the rest of the evening in his pajamas. Anyway, it was a nice holiday - lots of trick-or-treaters and lots of fun.

Scott and I attended a Halloween party dressed as Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo. So, for those of you in the mood for a little chuckle, here you go.

First Haircut

Okay, I have taken a lot of heat for the amount of hair that I've allowed to grow on Tate's head. I, of course, thought it was darling. But some (Scott and my sister Heidi) have gone as far as to suggest the words "mullet" and "mangy". So I succumbed to the pressure and gave him his first haircut. I have to admit, he looks pretty adorable.

The Before




The After

Wicked Witches

We had the privilege recently of attending the annual Witch Festival at Gardner Village, which is one of my favorite things to do in the fall. It was a typical Utah autumn day. We started off in coats and hats and by the end of our excursion we were roasting. I had such a great time seeing all of the fun displays and Miles thoroughly enjoyed playing amongst all of the pumpkins, as well as running around and climbing on everything. Tate took a more laid back approach, but I think he had a nice time too. I can only imagine the mischief he will manage to get into next year.

Miles was a little leary about whether or not the witches were real. In spite of his initial trepidation, he was willing to sit next to them for a couple of pictures. This is in stark contrast to the fears that dominated the Witch Festival of 2006, illustrated nicely by the two pictures below taken on that occasion.

As long as Miles was a reasonably safe distance from the witch, then he was fine (that's Miles on the far right).

But, as soon as I moved him closer to the witch, well, it wasn't pretty . . . .

I have to admit, this is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Miles.

Ahh, glad to see we are making progress. Maybe in 2009 he will give one of the witches a little kiss.

Tate's First Birthday

Well, our little bundle of energy is officially one year old. I really can't believe it has been a year already, although I am thoroughly enjoying him at this stage. Tate has been a real bright spot in our family, such a sweet, loving and fun baby. He lives life full throttle and is very passionate about everything he does.

Here are some of the adorable pictures from his first birthday party. He had a bit of a cold and wasn't feeling too well, but he perked up when he got to literally dive in to his cake. Even with the inevitable sugar rush, he crashed pretty hard when he went to bed. Happy birthday sweetie!