Scotty with cousin Miles

My sentiments exactly

Fall

Our most recent family picture. Scotty is gettin so big!
Scotty discovering the grass...what a beautiful day this was!

in the grass

playing on the porch

Mike woke up and went down to the lawn and garden store. He bought a new rake and a tree trimmer. We started at 10 in the morning and ended about 6pm. After 22 bags of 39 gallons each filled with leaves we were spent! Mike also trimmed the trees quite a bit. He wanted some photos of Scotty in black and white. Here they are...

My super lil famly

Scotty can sit up for about 1 minute on his own now and then he slowly falls to the ground. He is growing up so fast. :)

Halloween

Scotty and I.

Scotty and Liam

Brookie

One night he was fussy so we put a wig on him and soon we were all laughing
I am never really sure if I should post photos here AND on Facebook. Although I have about 3 family members who aren't on Facebook and one doesn't even have internet...so sometimes I do post them here and I would like to make this into a photo book at the end of each year or 3 so I suppose I will post some. We had a fun Halloween.

Friday night we went to our ward party for the chili cookoff and then they had a trunk or treat. I fed Scotty while Mike went and collected candy for himself. Then they had a dance. We love to dance! Our first date was dancing so we tore up the dance floor, a little by ourselves and some dances with Scotty. He laughed and laughed. Let me tell you that kids KNOWS when he is getting his parents attention and he soaks it all up.

For example tonight we got him going and he was just screaming and laughing and giggling and I told Mike I was worried we got him a little TOO riled up. But it was so much fun!!! I just worry when he can talk it might take a bit longer to wind him down. he he he!!! WE just enjoy our little boy so much. :)

Today I made Mike and Alan (his long time friend) a big breakfast and then they went off to the game. A half hour later Mike called...he had forgotten his ticket. So Scotty and I went on a drive to downtown Boise to get Mike his ticket. Then we headed to Mike's mothers' house where we watch all the games. Mike was on TV today!! Unfortunately, we had the channel changed the 30 seconds he appeared....oh well next time!!!

We had a nice quiet evening at home with ZERO trick or treaters...which is good because I had NO candy...my back up plan was granola bars or leftover zuchinni...lol.

kinks

still working out the kinks of putting in my own template....

Trip to AZ and CA

This past week we took a trip to AZ and CA. We were a bit nervous about the flights. Scotty's first two went off without a hitch. He was perfect! No crying, no annoying other passengers. Although it was quite the ordeal to check the car seat and stroller (and to go through security). You have to send those through the x-rays as well. yikes.

We went down to Arizona so Mike could take some more real estate classes. He wants to eventually get into some investing. Just as soon as we can get the auto shop under control. :) We stay with Mike's Aunt Amye and Uncle Dennis when we go down to Arizona. His Aunt Amye is a choir teacher so we were able to go to her concert while we were down there.

Dennis, Scotty and Amye

On Thursday we flew to Burbank, CA so Mike could attend his bi-annual seminar/convention for Management Success! I tried to attend a few classes with him (wives are welcome) but with a newborn I was limited even though he was perfectly behaved. I had to leave the class once because he was just talking and happy.

Everyone said how cute he was and how adorable he is and how he is the most adorable kid in the world and we reply, "yeah, we love him, we think so too" and they reply, "No really! He is the cutest kid I have seen". Ok so as parents we think so too but we know we are biased but then we get back to the room and we say things like, "Everyone says that, maybe it is true!" Yeah, we are totally enamored with our little guy! He got his first two front and bottom teeth this week. He didn't put up much of a fuss about it either.

This is our hotel room and I LOVED it because of the faux Matisse painting on the wall. I LOVE the cutouts. And the fact it was done in such vibrant colors...I immediately thought of you, Rebecca and how great this would look in a house of yours. Friday night was the company dinner and dance. We took Scotty and he fell asleep so we decided to dance. Most of the men didn't bring their wives so we were one of the few couples dancing, but we sure tore that dance floor up. How fun!!! Scotty was within eyesight in his carseat sleeping away....

My shining moment was when Mike stepped on my toe (due to my poor dance abilities) and I fell backwards onto my back and then I just decided to lift my legs in the air to add gusto to the fall. I quickly got back up and we laughed and laughed. We love to dance and wish there were places to go that didn't include the word bar, smoking, or club in them. For now the kitchen will have to do.

This picture is from our last day when my friend Delynn, a teacher I knew in Indonesia came to visit us at the hotel. Scotty fell asleep in her arms. He looks so sweet here I had to snap a shot.

Mike stayed in California for another week of training and I flew home with Scotty. On the first flight he was a little fussy but not too bad. He mostly babbled the whole way and 20 min. before we landed had a huge blowout! I was hoping no one else smelled it because I could barely breathe myself! The last flight he slept through. What a great kid.

Football with gramps

Scotty always watched football very intently as if he knows what is going on...

Mike has season tickets to the BSU broncos so while he goes to the game we go to his mom's house and watch it on t.v. We try to spot Mike on t.v. as they sometimes show the end zones where he sits. It is his special time with Grandma and Grandpa Miller during football season. His grandpa is a fanatic and has a notebook of 30 years of Bronco history! He is a wealth of knowledge. His grandma gave us a broncos outfit for Scotty when we were engaged! lol. So he was destined to be a fan...

waterskiing

who is that handsome fellow?
my nephew Ethan

Scotty didn't quite fit into a lifejacket...

cant believe we went waterskiing just 2 1/2 weeks ago!!

Mike is pretty great

You know marriage and motherhood are a lot easier (so far at least) than I had imagined. Everyone told me for so long how difficult they were and how I should be so grateful to be single. Well HOGWASH! I am thoroughly enjoying both!!!

Last week I made a HUGE mistake. I had made some flyers for Mike's clients and taken them to the printer. ....all 1000 copies were ready to be picked up and I noticed they had the wrong phone number on them. I gasped...oh no...they had cost several hundred dollars and were to go out that day. We really didn't have the money to get a whole new set reprinted.

I sent him a text.."do you want to kill me now or later?" he called and I told him what happened. He was a bit upset as I had imagined. A few minutes later though he sent a text saying..."I have made bigger mistakes...how are you?"

We got home and decided to fix the flyers ourselves with a marker and pen and figured out how to make a 7 a 4 and make it look OK still. Mike apologized profusely and said that he should have just said "No big deal. We will fix it." He then went on to say how this was such a great activity for us to do together (it took a few hours!) and we can learn from this. He said he was glad it happened and so grateful for me because these flyers wouldn't even exist if I hadn't put the work into them.

He managed to make all the stress about it go away. I had worked myself up and kicked myself quite a bit in anticipation of his reaction when he got home from work and he was so calm and happy that it immediately lifted me up. Wow. I can handle that.

Life is all about treating others right and building healthy relationships. I am glad I have a partner who is pretty good at that already. I love him.

I beg to differ

Someone pretty important, whom I admire, once said...

Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.......Life is just like an old time rail journey … delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.

I-politely- beg to differ. I kind of think life is a journey of beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed interspered with delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust and cinders. Perhaps it is in the eye of the beholder or just my POV (point of view), but I think life is a very very exciting adventure.

On my first date with Mike he looked at me and said, "Are you ready for an adventure?" and it sure has been one! Whether I am in Thailand talking to a Monk, alpine sliding down the great wall in China, kayaking to a remote island in the Indian Ocean, getting lost in Spain...again or simply playing with my son or laughing my head silly with my husband life has never dulled me. :)

Random Photos and Happenings

Mike, Scotty, and I are in Arizona. He is taking some real estate classes. Scotty did SO SO awesome on his first flights! He slept through the first one and enjoyed the next one. We are such lucky parents.



His first tooth broke through the surface this week. I am told he is pretty young to be teething, but I have a feeling he is the kind of kid who will just be anxious to live life to the fullest.



We are so happy to be here in the nice weather. I am not quite ready for the fall/winter yet.



Scotty in his booster seat for the first time. He loved it. He devoured a teething biscuit and sometimes he sits here while I fix dinner now and plays with spoons or other knick knacks lying around (not that I own any knick knacks!)

Scotty and his cousin Liam who was born on Sept. 13, 2009. Scotty looks so big next to him! I am sure they will be good friends since we go over there a few times a week. We are so grateful and happy to have some family nearby.

This is Liam's sister, Brooklyn. It was 4am when she and her daddy arrived at the hospital for the birth of her brother. She was still kind of out of it.

These are the marks of Emily's fingers as she squoze my hand when they were trying to find a vein to put an IV in her. She did not have the best birthing experience. Read her story here.

Scotty sleeping in the car. They are always so sweet when they sleep, but the funny thing is you miss them when they sleep. :)