Teeth, Toys, and Time Marches On

Here are a couple of things happening in the life of Miles right now.

He now has his first two teeth!

He is learning to play with "new" toys. He hasn't quite figured out how to jump in the Johnny Jumper, but it keeps him busy while I fix my hair in the morning.

The toy car is a hit and he'll stay in it long enough for me to do a few things around the house.

He is eating all kinds of solid foods now (with the help of his big brother even!)

And he just turned 7 months old yesterday and is looking forward to the future!

Love you Miles!

A Day In My Life

I am constantly saying that there just isn't enough time in the day to do all that I need/want to do. I feel like I am running around all day doing "stuff" and then at the end of the day I wonder if I really did anything. So I thought I would do a little experiment. For an entire day I decided to keep track of everything I did, every minute of the day. I wanted to know, am I really as busy as I think I am? Am I wasting my time with unnecessary things? Am I spending my time wisely? So this is how my day broke down on Wednesday, January 13, 2010...

5:05 a.m. - Alarm goes off. Time to WAKE UP!
5:30-6:30 - Spinning Class at Gold's Gym
7:00 - Shower, get dressed
7: 15 - Wake up Mitchel. Get him breakfast, make lunch, pack backpack, etc.
7: 40 - Max and Mason wake up. Mason wet the bed (my fault, I forgot to make him go right before bed last night) so into the tub.
7:55 Mitchel out the door for school (luckily I didn't have the carpool today)
8:00 breakfast for Max and Mason
8:05 Miles wakes up

Peek-A-Boo

I see you!

8:25-9:25 - Make grocery list, match the adds, cut coupons

9:25-9:35 - Phone call to my YW 1st Councilor to make sure we are on the same page for the activity tonight.

9:35-9:45 - change and dress Miles (he's cute so we play for a minute)

9:45-10:15 - do my makeup and hair, brush teeth, etc. while Max plays on the computer, Mason reads books, and Miles sits in his bouncy chair

10:15 - 10:20 - Make bed, pick up books

10:20 - Miles down for his first nap

10:20-10:37 - Clean kitchen

Before

After

10:40 - 11:18 - Scan in photos for a photo montage for a wedding I am filming on Saturday
11:20 - Cook, eat, and clean up lunch

11:45 - take Max to Kindergarten

12:00-1:30 p.m. - Shopping at Walmart

1:30-2:10 - Unload groceries while returning the messages on my answering machine

2:10 - 2:50 - Play with Mason and Miles, feed Miles cereal, color with Mason, take 4 phone calls

2:50 - Miles down for nap #2, check email and facebook

3:02 - Start boiling chicken for dinner tonight, put in a load of laundry, have a snack

3:15 - Mitchel and Max home from school

3:15 - 3:42 - Help Mitchel with homework and piano practice, get out art activities for Max and Mason

3:42 -4:25 - Work on wedding video

4:30 - Start making dinner (chicken noodle soup)

5:00 - Take Mitchel to piano

5:05-5:15 - Back to making dinner

5:15 - finally sit down and turn on the T.V. to watch the news.

6:00 - Mike gets home. Eat dinner as a family

6:10- Miles wakes up. Change and feed him

6:30-9:00 - Young Womens. I taught a lesson on healthy eating and nutrition. Then we made smoothies and a healthy dessert (fun and yummy)

9:00-9:35 - Clean up the house after being gone to YW. Feed Miles again. Brush my teeth and wash my face. Put Miles in pajamas and put him to bed

9:35-9:45 - Family scripture reading and family prayer

9:45-10:00 - Read 2 stories to Max and Mason

10:02 p.m. - tuck everyone in bed. Set out gym clothes for tomorrow

10:05-10: 15 - talk to Mike

10:15 - get in bed and fall asleep INSTANTLY!

Wow! What an experiment. I learned that I am as busy as I thought and I am using my time pretty well. There were a lot of things I didn't have time to do like laundry, vacuum, and clean the bathroom. Now I know why some of that stuff has to wait for other days. It also helped me see that on those days where I am not quite as busy, it's okay to take a nap and I shouldn't feel guilty about it. This was fun to do and gave me a new perspective of my life. I noticed that I am very good at mulit-tasking and prioritizing what needs to get done first. I don't see anything slowing down in the near future, so I'm just going to keep on plugging along and doing the best I can.

A Wonderful Life

I am attempting right now to take all of my blog posts from 2009 and turn them into a scrapbook. A few weeks ago I went back and read all of my old blog posts from start to finish. Guess what I discovered? I have an awesome, blessed, and amazing life! As I looked back at all my posts, most of them focused on all the good times I've had over the year with my family. How lucky I am to have four amazing little boys to raise, teach, and love! How grateful I am to have a husband who loves and supports me and is the kind of man I want my boys to grow up to be. I love spending time with my family and just being around them. I love watching them grow and learn. I love seeing their excitement in everyday things, and that in turn makes me excited too.

I also noticed that so many of my family's most important occasions were celebrated with our extended family as well. I am so lucky to have such an amazing family and support system with my parents, Mike's parents, siblings, and my children's cousins, aunts, uncles, and Grandparents all living so close to us. I love that we get to spend holidays, birthdays, baby blessings, barbecues, Superbowls, Sunday dinners, baptisms, school programs, church events, and all other significant (and not so significant) times with all of our family.

I also discovered that the things that make me the happiest are the simple things. The little things my kids do or say, the fun, inexpensive things we do as a family, or the times when we are just being together for no reason at all other than just to be together.

I really do have a wonderful life and I am grateful for every moment of everyday! I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store!

Here is an example of one of my pages I made from my blog.

Go Jazz!

Mitchel and Max are both playing Jr. Jazz this season for the first time (a post about that later) and one of the things they get for playing is free Jazz tickets. Because Mike is also the coach of Max's team, we got a few extra so we could take the whole family. We went to the first home game of the New Year against the Denver Nuggets.
Even Miles joined us for the game and he did pretty well. Some of the music was too loud for him though. As you can see from these next photos, our seats were just about as high as you can get in the ESA, but every seat is a good seat when it's free right!

We had a blast, especially since the Jr. Jazz ticket also came with a free hot dog and drink (and Mom snuck in popcorn and candy for all of us). We clapped, danced, and yelled "Defence" all we could, but unfortunately it wasn't enough and the Jazz still lost by 10 points. Oh well. It was a fun time shared with all my boys!

My dream is that one day, one of them will get to play in the NBA so they can repay their parents for all the blood, sweat, and tears we put into raising them and Mike and I can retire and spend our life watching basketball. I'll keep dreaming....but you never know!

New Years Eve 2009

While the kids had a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa Miller.... We went to celebrate at the Mather's house along with the Veenendaals. Mike served in the bishopric with both of these men and we have all been friends ever since.
We ate fondue...dipped meat in cooking oil, bread and vegis in cheese, and everything else in chocolate! We also had a cheese and cracker tray and rice krispi treats. I ate way to much but promised myself that after that night, I would be better.

We then played a rousing game of foose ball. Mike and I barely pulled out a win by only one point! (I scored the game winner!)

Then it was onto the Wii to play "Family Feud" (men against women) and "Rock Band." I totally sucked at both games. They made me be the singer and after just a few lines, we were booed off every time. Totally fun though. Thanks Mathers for hosting such a fun night. Let's do it again sometime!