Daddy's Helper

Aaron loves to do yardwork and he loves to be with is son. He's found a way to do both!

More food please!!

Miles love to eat! He also loves to put his hands in his mouth. I have perfected the "hold Miles's hands down while feeding him" move; Aaron has not. Here is what Miles often looks like after Daddy gets done feeding him.



We love to feed him because he has yet to not eat something we give him. He is a good little eater and really enjoys his food.

Adventures in teething

On July 22nd, I was at at "Grandma Ru's" house with Miles. We were enjoying just hanging out before heading to a Relief Society activity. Miles has always like to chew on our fingers and he pulled mine into his mount and started gnawing. OUCH!!!! Something sharp was in there! Sure enough, a little bottom tooth was poking out. He exhibited no signs of teething except for drooling, but that's been normal for him for a long time now! That Saturday the second bottom tooth showed up. At five months old, he already had 2 teeth. Oh my! Isn't that too young?

Then I thought---"Wow! This teething thing is easy. We are going to have no problems at all." Fast forward three weeks. Nope, not so easy this time around. One Monday he was so fussy and uncomfortable that I had to come home from work to relieve Aaron because he couldn't deal with the constant crying (1 1/2 hours is enough to put anyone in the loony bin.). Once he finally slept for awhile that day, he was a little better. He ran a fever all day and was just not his happy self. He would play some and then get a really sad look on his face and just rest. Isn't this look on his face enough to break your heart?


We still don't have any more teeth, but thankfully, we haven't had any more days like the one I just talked about, although we do go through moments like that. Plus, he drools buckets, which would be nice if that stopped! Aaron jokes that we just need to hook a hose up to him to water our lawn. :o) And the fun has just begun!!

Happy half-birthday Mr. Miles!

Miles is 6 months old today! I can't believe he's that old already! I keep reminding him that I didn't give him permission to grow up so fast, but he isn't listening. :o) He now weighs 17 pounds, 8 ounces and is a whopping 29 inches tall. He grew two inches in two months and is currently "off the chart for height" according to Dr. Mulder, his pediatrician. He's my tall boy! Everyone at Aaron's work jokes that he'll be in the NBA because he's already so tall.




Miles--you are such an amazing baby and we are so blessed to have you in our home. Your sweet disposition makes parenthood a joy. We love you more every day! We can't believe that you have already been with us for 6 months. It doesn't seem like it has been that long. Yet, I can't remember my life without you. Thanks for being my son.

Updates GALORE!!

So, I can't believe it has been 4 months since this blog has been updated! Can you tell I'm a busy mom?!??!??! :o) I am now setting aside Sunday afternoons to update our comings and goings and show off our little guy. Bear with me as I add everything and try to keep the dates straight!

Toes

Miles discovered his toes this month. It is so cute to watch him always playing with them. Who needs toys---he has his toes. He has now discovered how to get them into his mouth and tries earnestly to do so. Sometimes his hand is in the way and he ends up sucking his thumb while still trying to suck on his toes. This morning, the sleeper he slept in had snap issues and when we went in to get him up, one of his legs was out of the sleeper completely and he was playing contentedly with his toes! (Wish I would have gotten a picture!!) He is too cute and every day is an adventure!

New fence

At the beginning of the summer, a strong wind and rain storm came and knocked down our back fence. We had to wait until the end of July before we could afford to buy the materials to replace it. It is finally complete!! Last weekend (Aug 14) Mike Bayron and Jon Nielsen (our home teachers) as well as Robert and Jared Mortensen came to help. They chopped down several trees before putting in the fence posts. It was humorous to me to come home from running errands and to see 5 men in the back yard being "manly" with chain saws. Originally, they were only supposed to chop down the large aspen that was in the middle of our yard and had been dead since we moved in. Well, then they had to get rid of all the little dead ones around the perimeter of the yard. Oh, and then there were some along the fence line that might cause problems. How grateful I am to these men and the overflowing of testosterone because our yard looked great once they were done. We just had to wait for the posts to set and "cure" before finishing it.



Today, my brother Ryan and the full time missionaries serving in our ward came to nail up the planks. Thanks to my brother Jeremy who lent us his nail gun and air compressor, they were able to get it done quickly.

Brigham City Temple ground breaking ceremony

It turned out to be serendipitous that we were in Utah for Aaron's family reunion when the Brigham City Temple's groundbreaking was. Since I grew up in the Brigham City area, this temple is special to me. We left Aaron's family early Saturday morning and headed north. We went to my parents and then traveled to their stake center to watch the ceremony. We wanted to go to the temple site but we didn't have tickets and fighting the crowds with my mom's bad back and knees is not something any of us wanted to do.

What an amazing ceremony! President Packer, who is from Brigham City, presided. He talked about how the God had prepared the temple site for years. It used to be an elementary school. They tore it down in the late 90's. Since that time, they have tried to develop it into a strip mall of sorts, but it never worked out and has been a vacant lot for over around 10 years. He said that this temple site has been waiting for the time when this area was ready. And now it is!

"I am home," said President Boyd K. Packer in his opening remarks at the Brigham City Utah Temple groundbreaking held Saturday, July 31. President Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife Donna are natives of Brigham City. President Packer had attended elementary school 80 years before on the very site where he stood. He continued, "I can see in my mind's eye a temple sitting here in about two years time. It will be gorgeous, it will be white. You will see in the design of it reflections of previous temples that have been built, particularly the Salt Lake Temple. It will be a beacon from all over the valley."

Here are some picture highlights from www.ldschurchtemples.com.

Van de Merwe Family Reunion

At the end of July, we were able to go to Utah for the Van de Merwe Family Reunion. We flew out and Miles travels like a pro! He was such a good baby! For the trip I found the neatest thing on Craig's List--it's a backpack, chair, and stroller all in one. It was so nice to have a non-bulky stroller while we were in the airport as well as during our adventures in Utah. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera so there are no exciting pictures.

It was so good to see all of Aaron's siblings and extended family! This was the first time that any of them had met Mr. Miles. He sure did enjoy meeting all his cousins and his aunts and uncles and 2nd cousins and great aunts, great-uncles, and great grandparents. What a great time! We hung out at East Canyon and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We also had the opportunity to go to Deer Valley and hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform with the Utah Symphony. That was really special--thanks Grandpa Van de Merwe for making it possible.

July

It was wonderful to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy this month. We even got patriotic in our clothes! Look how cute Miles and Aaron are in their matching shirts!!


He rolled over for the first time from his belly to his back on July 3. I didn’t quite believe it so I put him on his belly several times and he rolled right over---until I got his daddy to come see and he decided that he had had enough! A few days later, Aaron was able to see it as well.

He loves his "Johnny Jump Up" chair (it's a chair/swing that attaches to the door frame--thanks Tiffani). He is quite content to sit and watch the world around him and bounce around.





Miles is such a good little eater! He loves any food that we give him. I try to make our own baby food since it's so expensive. So far he has had green beans, carrots, and broccoli. The carrots are his favorites so far. Let's hope he continues to be such a good eater.