We've been pretty busy lately and Amanda's been slacking on the blogging. Here are some things that we have been up to.

Karen and Andreas got married on Sat. Aug 16, 2008 at the Denver CO Temple

We tried for a family picture

Amanda dancing with our nephew Calvin. Isn't his little suit adorable?


Our brother-in-law , Ninja Walter

Shyler dancing with Tim's cousins, Jessica and Erica

Shyler and her Nana. She was sad she didn't catch the bouquet, but she did find a flower at least

Shyler and her first pea experience. She thought they were ok, but not nearly as good as the sweet potatoes she had last week.

Our nephew Calvin's 1st birthday cake. He had his party on Sunday and turns 1 on the 28th.

At first he wasn't sure what to think of this messy stuff...

...But as you can see he had no problems devouring the cupcake. Much better than the last one year old party we went to. No offense Shelby, but you got to make a mess with your birthday cake.
We also painted last weekend. We have some touch-ups to do and then hang up some pictures and we'll get up the pictures to show off!

Shyler's fun with daddy

Sorry it's sideways, but this is Shyler's newest excitement. She loves acting like a big girl and she will probably make us pay later for letting play on the stairs, but it's so cute to watch her with her daddy, her hero.

A house to call home

Well we finally did it, we closed on our house!!!! We moved in on Sat and we have been trying to get all unpacked and work on the small things that needed help. Tim is excited to be Mr. Fix-it and to mow the lawn, Shyler is getting used to her own room, and Amanda is trying to find a spot for everything. Soon we are going to paint the living room and kitchen area. We are so excited to be home finally. Call us if you are in the Thornton area and want to stop by to see us and the house!



The Front

The Kitchen

The Living Room

The house is a tri-level with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. It has a deck and covered patio out back with a fenced in yard. It has newer carpet and a new furnace, that we had to buy. The previous owner took pretty good care of it, so there are only a few things to work on and then painting of course!

rockies, indians, and barbies

So for the past couple of weeks we have been pretty busy. We've gotten to do lots of fun stuff and get ready for our big move into our house! We're still keeping our fingers crossed that everything works out, but hopefully we'll be closing on Monday at 4, finally! Here's a look in picture of some of the things we've done.

We got to babysit Calvin for Sarah and Roger so they could go to the temple. It was a lot of fun and Shyler is playing better with her cousin and other babies. It was also a reminder that we don't want another one yet. She's catching up to him, soon she'll be taller than him! He does have 6 months on her though.

We tried swimming again. This time it was a warm sunny day and Shyler liked the water much better. Here's a tip, don't take a baby straight into the middle of the pool. They like to ease into it.

On Thursday the 17th, Amanda and Shyler drove down to Castle Rock to visit Lexi and Dre Lund and Shannon Read met us there. The little ones had fun playing, but didn't really play with each other. One day they actually will. Lexi is rolling all over and just starting to sit on her own. It was neat to see what Shyler will be doing in just a few weeks.

Last weekend we did a lot of packing, we tried to pack Shyler, but she didn't want to be packed just yet.

On Tuesday the 22, Shyler got to go to her first baseball game. It was a great game to watch because the Rockies beat the Dodgers 10-1. Shyler missed the 6-8th innings while she slept, but we still had a great time.

Then on Thursday we headed up to Cheyenne for Frontier Days. We stayed with Amanda's Friend Becky and her husband Cody. In the morning we got to enjoy the free pancake breakfast along with 10,000 other people. After the breakfast we walked around downtown and even toured the state capital.

We went to the Indian village and watched some traditional Native American dancing, went inside a real tepee and Shyler climbed the tree!
Our week is almost over. On Sat. we went to Tim's little sister's bridal shower. Karen and Andreas are getting married on Aug. 16. One of the games we played was to create a wedding dress for Barbie. Tim's mom, Shyler and I tried, but sadly we were not voted into the top 3, Maybe next time.
So that is some of our crazy life lately. We are excited for tomorrow and as soon as we sign our life away with a house and a mortgage we'll let you all know and even put up some pictures. If you're around and free and want to help, we'll be moving in on Sat. Aug 2!

Swimming

On Friday Shyler went to her first pool party hosted by our ward at church. She had a good time minus the wind and cold weather that crashed the party.

Shyler and her daddy, cold and ready to get out

Mommy keeping Shyler dry and warm

Shyler and her two friends, Hyrum wasn't being very nice, and Wyatt didn't seem too interested.

Hyrum was at least thoughtful enough to apologize

Move over Wyatt there's a new man in town!

messy messy

La la la I can't hear you!


Happy 4th of July! Shyler and Tim at a softball game for Amanda's sister's ex-husband's niece's softball game. (We wanted to see Amanda's niece Tori and Nephew Nickle, and they were coming down to watch their cousin Katrina)

The first messy messy picture. A little gross, but Shyler spit up onto her arm and then touched her forehead with it, and came out with a funny face!

Go RAMS!!! Shyler finaly fits (sort of) into one of the CSU onesies she got at her baby shower.

Messy messy girl! SHyler got to try rice cereal on Sat and really loved making a mess! She likes getting food put into her mouth like mommy and daddy get, and she's still getting used to the idea of taking the bite and swallowing, but ut was a fun experience!

4 months and Canada

Today Shyler had her 4 month check up and will be 4 months tomorrow. She is a chart topping 26 inches long and is well into the 90th % and is 13 lbs 12 oz for the 50th %. She is growing up so fast!

Sleeping with mommy

Attacking mommy's chin, an easy target, but still she got me good


Calgary
This is the river that runs through the city. There is also an island that you can go out on that has all kinds of animals and vegetation.

For example, you might come across a black squirrel.

Since Calgary is so far north, in the summer it stays light very late.
Any guesses on what time this was taken?

8:30 pm!

That is why Tim had a hard time going to sleep it felt like it was 2 hours earlier than it was. Tim had a good time while he was out there. Since he was in a class all day long he didn't get much sightseeing in, but enjoyed the time he did have out there. He said it reminded him a lot of Denver. But now he's home and Amanda and Shyler are so glad to have him back!

Missing Daddy

Well, this week Tim is in Canada for a business trip. He worked on monday and went straight to the airport and will be home on Thursday morning but will have to go straight to work, so needless to say Shyler and Amanda are missing Tim. To pass the time we went up to Fort Collins for a couple of days to visit Amanda's mom and sister. Here are some pictures nana took while we were there.

Shyler chillin' on her boppy

Chillin' on her jungle mat

Waking up looking like a little model or something
And the not so model look of a stretch and mom catching her by surprise
Did you notice how in one picture she had one arm out and then two arms out in the next? Yea she's real good at doing that, but she still won't sleep for a super long time if she's not swaddled and I can't put her down to sleep by herself yet without the wrap, we'll get there soon though. Right now she is napping on the floor unwrapped and it has been over an hour, so we're making progress.

Tim took lots of pictures so we'll have to show you some of them from his trip to Calgary, when he gets back of course. Apparently it's really similar to Denver.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! This year Tim got to celebrate his first official Father's Day. He had a great day! He got his favorite breakfast of French toast, bacon and eggs. He got some great presents, and his favorite dinner that him and his dad both love, beef stroganoff! We had Tim's whole family over for dinner and had a great time. We love our family!

On Friday Tim found this hiking backpack and a Burley bike trailer for a really good deal, we even took the trailer out for a ride on sat night. Shyler is still a little small for the backpack, but hopefully soon we can go out on the trails.

Shyler's newest trick is to get completely out of her swaddles and this time she looked like she was wearing a little toga, we couldn't resist taking a picture!

Here Shyler is helping her daddy read his father's day card and open some presents.

These are the photo blocks we made Tim for father's day

All ready for church in a cute little outfit

Sweet and Delicious!

Grandpa Miller and his two grandkids, Calvin and Shyler after a delicious dinner!

The Tractor Boys! Uncle Mel and Tim's Dad with their new hats they got for Father's day . They grew up on the farm driving Oliver 77 tractors.

Sleepy Baby

So we don't really have anything exciting going on in our lives, but I thought I would put up some pictures of Shyler. Our camera was being dumb so last night we went out and bought a new one. It's not super fancy but we like it. It's a Nikon S550. So today I was playing around with it and taking some pictures of my favorite subject.

Here's Shyler with her hand in her mouth. She loves that thing and is always sucking on it!


Here is Shyler Sleeping! She just fell asleep on her blanket.
She's still sleeping so we'll see how long it actually lasts.

Last week she laughed for real out loud. It was very cute. She did it for Amanda on Thursday and on Sunday for Tim. Amanda will admit that she was almost in tears at how cute it was and at the next step her little baby took in growing up. Shyler loves to roll to her side like she is sleeping here in this picture, suck on her hands and talk now. All of these things are so cute and part of the reason Amanda never feels like she gets anything done. On Monday at the Breastfeeding group she weighed in at 12 lb 9.2 oz and we measured her at 25 in (or very close to). She is our tall and skinny baby! We are still waiting to hear back on the house we put an offer on, it's been forever! Our real estate agent is optimistic, but we are sick of the apartment and paying the inflated rent because we are now month to month, so hopefully we'll know soon!