Our Cute Boy

Where's your halo, Miles?

Enjoying the Tulip Fest at Thanksgiving Point.

Alex, Tiffany, Miles, Whitney, & Averi at Allison's wedding.

Miles chills while Averi gets some help keeping her tongue in.

To Alvin. Surprise!

Jonathan, Ryan, Nick, Alvin, & Miles. Happy birthday, Nick!

When are those frog-legs going to spring?

Cruisin.

One of Miles' favorite babysitters, Aunt Amber.

Alvin's exotic anemone.

Miles rides in the umbrella stroller when our arms are too tired or busy to hold him.

Miles to Moab

Today Miles was blessed. He's always been blessed, but today Alvin gave him a blessing and official name: Miles Asher Anderson. "Miles" for the glacier we visited in Alaska and "Asher" because he's a happy boy and we're happy to have him in our family (and I'm happy to have him out of my tummy!).

Here's who came to celebrate with us: Alvin's family, my family, and our friends . . . obviously . . . which, by the way turns out to be a lot of people. And it was great!

Miles looked cute in his white outfit, and luckily it stayed white the entire time he wore it.

We all came to our house after church to eat. Thanks, everyone, for the beautiful, delicious food you brought! And thanks, Cassie, for washing the watermelon from Mexico. :)

A couple weeks ago Miles was ready to be initiated into the world of outdoor adventure. Destination: Moab. And he loved it! We took him hiking, and when he wasn't asleep, he was bright-eyed and curious about the amazing sights around him.

Brian and Angela let us stay at their house in Canyonlands. They are real quality friends: they gave us their bed and slept outside in a tent so we could get up with Miles during the night. It was fun to see their park-ranger lifestyle. We're jealous.

What a perfect time of year to be in that part of Utah! Sunny, breezy weather, perfect for hiking and sight-seeing. We hiked to Mineral Bottom and Hell Roaring Canyon with Miles slung in the sling or strapped in the wrap. My favorite was driving the Lexus through Onion Creek 16 times, then parking and wading through it ourselves. It's a must-see if you're near Moab. Miles enjoyed it, too. His eyes were wide open, and he loved looking at the red-rock cliffs.

Alvin wants to live in Castle Valley after seeing its red-rock cliffs and pinnacles backdropped by the La Sal mountains. It's a hidden, peaceful oasis in the desert.

Sunday: it was awesome getting together with Clay & Leslie and Brian & Angela for fajitas and blondies. They discussed their world travels and philosophised on the Creation and evolution while I cut wedding invitations for Alvin's sister's wedding.

Monday: another spectacular hike through Millcreek, a narrow red-rock canyon with cottonwoods, beaver dams, and still-frigid swimming holes. That didn't stop Clay from a little deep-water soloing.
I'm was especially pleased that our trip to Moab included two stops for Maverick frozen yogurt. Mmm.

1 Week of Baby

Resting after nursing

The boys bonding on the bed

Cousins! Averi was born 2 1/2 weeks before Miles

Chillin' in the swing

First toy

Proud, but tired, Mommy

Miles is Born!

Here he is...all 8 pounds 14 ounces. He's quite the kid. A very content and happy baby. Miles Asher was born on February 21st at 4:46 pm at the Birthing Center in Holladay. We are so glad he's here with us. He and his mom are doing very well. His father on the other hand is still recovering from the whole experience.


Here's Miles' mom, the most amazing woman in the world...Miles and I are lucky to have her around.


Here are a few more photos:

And one completely unrelated photo just for fun...

Baby, oh baby

Last week we brought home not one, but two, new babies. Neither of them will be named Miles. You'll have to ask Alvin for the crazy story, since he's the one that can't pass up a good deal.

But how could you refuse a cute guy like this?

Obviously I am still in one piece, but separation is imminent. I hope.

10 days to D-day

Or as the HypnoBirthers would say, my "estimated birthing day/week/month." No signs, unfortunately, that the baby will come early. Which really is fine, because it gives us more time to choose a pediatrician and read about how to care for an infant. And come to a consensus about circumcision.

Yesterday we took a break from car-hunting (Alvin's Accord is going to die, so he wants a Lexus) and house-cleaning (this so-called "nesting instinct" has quadrupled my desire for a clean house) to go snowshoeing. Destination: Little Cottonwood Canyon. Ahh. . . to be above the Salt Lake City smog. And it wasn't cold enough that your fingers instantly freeze outside your gloves. Just nice and refreshing. The top layer of snow on the ground had crystallized like corn flakes.

For those curious about how 8.9 months of pregnancy and snowshoeing mesh: the snowshoeing part was not that difficult. But it was exhausting trying to bend over and strap my gaiters around my boots. Miles is not as squish-able in my belly as he used to be!

Look how vibrant and healthy Alvin's coffee plant is! He got it at Smith's almost three years ago, and since then he has nurtured the plant like a father, awaiting the day it would bear fruit. He nearly cried with joy (not really) when the first tiny pink star blossoms appeared. Now the fruit has matured into beautiful midnight-blue berries. I'm no expert in coffee beans, but that seed sure doesn't look like a Starbucks candidate to me. Alvin, only slightly devastated, is ruminating over how to go about identifying the precise plant species. Any botanists out there?

Happy Holidays!

Christmas

Christmas is the surely the greatest time of year. On Christmas Eve we had a "Jerusalem supper" with Laura's mom, step dad, and sisters. It was great...we had flat bread, cheese, olives, grape juice, and dried apricots...yummm...tasty. That night we read Luke Chapters 1 and 2.

Christmas morning we opened presents. This year we decided to donate money to charity for at least one of our presents. I decided to give money to a charity called Global Impact. They are all about helping people out of poverty and providing basic essential health and food services. Laura suprised me with a ceramics class which we will take together in a few months. Oh...and I hope you all notice how cute Laura is. We are sooo excited for the upcoming birth of our new baby boy Miles. Only seven weeks to go!

That afternoon we went to Laura's grandparents' house and had fun talking (well, listening to Laura's grandma talk) and they fed us some famous split pea soup and chili.

Then it was on to my parents' house for ham, cranberry relish and Christmas steam pudding. We exchanged gifts, played games, and I lost a chess game to my intellectually superior brother-in-law Ian.

Holiday Fun

With five full days off work, we had time to spend relaxing and playing. We had so much fun talking and spending time with family. It was also fun to have a giant snowstorm on Christmas. Although, I'm pretty sure the day after Christmas alone I spent over two hours shoveling snow off the driveway. It must have snowed at least a foot.

Thank goodness for a warm living room. I pulled out the original 8 bit 1986 Nintendo and played Metroid...one of my all-time favorite games. After much toil I made it past the metroids, whereupon I did away with the Mother Brain and made the galaxy a safer place!

We're happy and well, and we wish all of you the happy holidays you deserve!