Happy Anniversary

The past two years have been the best of our lives.


Michael, thanks for everything. I love you!

Happy Birthday Miriam

Miriam is one year old today. We can't believe our little girl is getting so big. I wanted to share some pictures that I haven't posted before. I also added pictures from today. Including her first red velvet cake, which she didn't like.

Look at those teeth

I took a bunch of adorable pictures of Miriam today. I want to share them all, but I will wait two days for the birthday slide show. She loves to grab at the camera. It is so funny. Miriam has four teeth now. She is such a cute girl.

One More Week

I was busy getting things ready for our break today and realized Miriam's birthday is in one week. Time flies. Here are a couple of pictures from the past week.



We are so excited to celebrate her birthday, Christmas, and our anniversary all in the next 2 weeks. Definitely more pictures to come.

Here she comes!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family. We had great food. I even made my first cranberry sauce (it was much easier than I thought). We forgot to get any pictures of the meal. Miriam enjoyed her first turkey and yams. Every seven years we get to celebrate my nephew's birthday on Thanksgiving. It was hard for him to wait all day to open presents.


On Friday we went into Salt Lake to see the lighting of Temple Square. It was cold, but it was fun to spend time together.



On Saturday we attended our last BYU football game as students. What a way to go out with a bang. If you missed the game, I'm sorry. It was amazing. What a bittersweet moment for us. Miriam did so well throughout the whole season. She really didn't mind the cold or the noise. However, when George scored that winning touchdown it was too much for her. That just goes to show you how loud it was in Lavell Edwards Stadium at that magical moment.


Sunday we were able to attend a baby blessing of our friends the Foxes. We have decided that Braxton and Miriam are going to be married one day. We took some pictures of them to put on their wedding video.


We had a fun-filled weekend. We are always happy when we get to spend time with family and friends. We wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

11 months

Miriam has grown up so much this month. I can't believe she is almost one. She is becoming quite the little girl. She makes me so happy to be her mom. She has mastered some new skills. I can't help but show them off.

Miriam learned to pull herself up to the couch...

...up to the TV too.

Miriam has two teeth. (this is the best shot I have of them.)

Miriam is on the move. She has learned to crawl.

Stay tuned for next month's post for her birthday. I am going to post a bunch of pictures that I didn't post the rest of the year.

Go Cougars!

Rise, all loyal Cougars

And hurl your challenge to the foe.
We will fight, day or night,
Rain or snow.
Loyal, strong and true,
Wear the White and Blue.
As we sing, get set to spring.
Come on Cougars, it's up to you!
So Rise and Shout, the Cougars are out
We're on a trail to fame and glory.
Rise and shout, our cheers will ring out
As we unfold our vict'ry story.
On we go to vanquish the foe
For Alma Mater's sons and daughters.
As we join in song,
In praise of you, our faith is strong.
We'll raise our colors high in the blue
And cheer our Cougars of BYU.
Rah! Rah! Rah-rah-rah!
Rah! Rah! Rah-rah-rah!
Rah! Rah! Rah-rah-rah!
GO COUGARS!

New Family Picture

Here is one of the family pictures we took a couple of weeks ago. I think our photographer did a great job putting up with my whole family (all 17 of us). It was a lot of fun. Before this we did not have family pictures taken for 6 years.


Here is one of just us. It started to rain at the end of our shoot, but I think we got all the shots we wanted. I can't wait for the next photo opportunity.


check out our photographer here

you think you had a hard day?

Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I think that it is such a fun day. I was so excited to have Miriam this year to celebrate with. Michael thinks Halloween is an overrated holiday, but I think he had fun too. We went up to visit my parents for the weekend. We did some fun activities and I ended up taking over 80 pictures on Halloween.

1. Miriam carved her first pumpkin.

Miriam sticking her hands in the pumpkin goop

Miriam helping Dad with the pumpkin

Miriam helping Mom draw the face

Miriam with Mom and Dad and the finished pumpkin

Miriam with her first jack-o-lantern
(we did not get a picture of it lit up)

2. Miriam had her first sucker.


3. Miriam went Trick-or-Treating for the first time. She dressed up as Tinkerbell.

Miriam all ready to go

Miriam and Mom

Miriam at her first house for treats

Miriam with her cousin "Fancy Nancy"
(she is already more interested in the candy)

Even though she won't have any memories, I hope Miriam enjoyed her first Halloween. I am already making plans for next year.

Sad Loss

BYU had a very disappointing loss this weekend. We were so excited to go to the game, but ended up sad about the outcome. It rained for a while before the game. Luckily it stopped before the game started. Although it was colder than previous games, we were able to stay dry.

10 months

Miriam is ten months old today. We can't believe how big she is getting. She is so much fun. We took her to the park this evening to take some pictures of her playing in the leaves.

Watching her Dad throw leaves

Playing in the leaves

Miriam has a real sweet personality. She is a really easy going child. For the most part she is content with whatever she is doing (even though she is having a clingy stage right now...stranger danger). She will sit in front of the bookcase and read all her books for a long time. She loves to turn the pages of her books. She has even started "telling" the stories. She has figured out how to roll all over the room to get to what she wants. The past few days I have started finding her in all sorts of positions in her crib. She pushes herself backward on her tummy for a short while, but mostly just rolls over when she is put on her tummy. She is starting to understand things we tell her. The funniest part is she gets this little pouty face when we tell her "no" to something. It is hard to be serious and tell her she is doing something wrong when she looks so cute.

Pumpkin Patch

We took Miriam to pick out her first pumpkin today. It was an unseasonably warm day (70 degrees). We went to a little family farm in Highland. It was called the Monson pumpkin patch.

There was a chicken walking around and Miriam seemed pretty interested in it. Personally, I did not like it being so close.

We found a small pumpkin just her size.

We walked into the cornfield.

Michael and Miriam found the perfect pumpkin. She was so excited she started waving at me.

We got to cut the pumpkin right off the vine.

We are going to take our pumpkin home and carve it soon. We hope to make this a family tradition every year. What a fun day.

Miriam loves music

Michael is taking a music class at school. He has been learning about different types of classical music. While he was listening tonight Miriam broke out some of her moves. Too cute to pass up a video opportunity.

9 month pictures

As I said before, we took Miriam to get her pictures taken for her 9 month birthday. These are some of my favorites.

Tired, Cute, and Cuddly

Yesterday we enjoyed going to the third home game of the BYU football season. It was a late Friday night game and the weather has definitely turned fall-like. We had to bundle up for the first time this year. It was a good outcome to the game, but we were definitely tired.


The weather didn't seem to bother Miriam. I was afraid she wouldn't keep her hat on, but she surprised me. She was just so tired she fell asleep on her daddy. I had to take a picture because she looked so cute and cuddly.

Weekend Happenings

Friday night we went to a ward activity. It was a chili cook-off at a local park. I made chili but decided not to enter it into the competition. We invited our friends Jimi and Bre Fox to come along. We had fun tasting all the chili and cornbread. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Saturday we went to the second BYU football game at home. We are so glad we came away with a win this time.


Sundays are sometimes hard for Miriam. She has a hard time napping at church. Therefore, she was really tired tonight after only sleeping 30 minutes all day. While we were having our weekly FHE (Family Home Evening - to learn more click here), we enjoyed watching Miriam tear apart a catalog in order to keep herself happy... and yes, she ate a piece.

We are happy that fall is here and all the fun things that come with it.

9 months

Miriam is 9 months old today. Her personality has really started to show a lot this month. She does silly things and laughs about it. She is stubborn (don't know where she gets that from), but so lovable at the same time. I love to cuddle and hold her as much as I can. I know those moments won't last forever.

I took Miriam to get her pictures taken today, but they won't be ready for two weeks. In the meantime here is a cute picture we took of her today. She sits like a little dancer, she even points her toes.


Miriam is growing up so fast. She now weighs 20 pounds and is 30 inches long. She is slowing down in weight, but is still in the 95 percentile for height. We are so happy she is a part of our family.

Week in Review

This week was not particularly exciting. I just thought I would update the blog. I took a few pictures so I thought I would group all the pictures from this week into one long post. Here is what went on this week.

Miriam is so much fun. She continues to amaze us with how much she is learning. I was testing out the settings on our camera and took a couple of pictures of Miriam on Monday.


Monday night we had Natalie and Ryan over for dinner. We opened Miriam's doll that she received for Christmas. I thought she might finally be ready to play with her first doll. She didn't know what to do at first, but seemed to warm up to the idea quickly.


Thursday Michael attended a free concert for his Music 101 class. You will have to ask him about that experience. On Friday I went up to Park City to shop with a couple of friends. We hit the outlet mall and found some good deals. Everyone left happy. On Saturday went to the BYU football game. It was really hot for most of the game. I put cold water on Miriam's head to cool her off. Her hair ended up kind of crazy, but I thought it was so cute. Even though the end of the game was disappointing we had fun together.


Sunday we enjoyed a nice day at church and spending more time together. Overall we had a great week and just wanted to share it.

Labor Day Weekend

We got to spend the weekend with my parents. It was fun to get together with everyone after being gone all summer. The most exciting part of the weekend was Miriam's first BYU football game. We watched BYU beat Oklahoma on Saturday night. Here are Michael and Miriam ready for the game:


On Sunday we went to church with everyone. Miriam had a nice nap at church and so she looks like she just woke up in the picture. Anyway, here we are all dressed up:


We had a fun weekend relaxing with the Braswell family.