Hi. Still Here. Kindof...

Another month has slid past here in the basement. It will be 6 months this weekend. It is here that Kayla has learned to crawl and pull up to standing. The way we're going she'll learn to walk here also. Timmy finally learned to use the potty this last month.

They tell us that we might be able to move in to the new house sometime next month. I keep finding things that I am looking forward to that I've really missed here. Things like natural light through the windows, having a enclosed place for storing food, having a place to do projects, and having my treadmill back. I also hope that by not having Grandparents upstairs, Timmy will cut back on the perma whine/ tantrum cycle that occurs several times every day. Whenever he's bored, frustrated, hungry for sweets, or can hear them it starts. That keening whine/cry that just makes me cringe "I wanna go upstairs, upstairs, upstairs. Grandpa, Becky, Waaaaaa!!!" It has been a VERY long 6 months. It's hard to feel like a good mom when all you want to do is hide from your children.

Speaking of, here they are! These are the pictures for both Kayla's 1st birthday and Timmy's 3rd.

I'm still alive - I swear!

In the two months since the last post we decided on a house. We are building with Ivory Homes out in West Jordan (roughly 60th west and 80th south). They started digging the hole yesterday which is very exciting. If all the stars align correctly then we can expect to be able to move in sometime around June, earlier if we are lucky. It was a terrifically difficult decision to choose to build as opposed to buying one already on the market. With the market the way it is we bought ours at a huge savings - roughly what we would have saved by buying from someone dying to sell. This is what the house will look like structurally speaking - our finish will be a little different.Timmy had his 3rd birthday on the 30th of January. I find it hard to believe that I'm the mother to a three year old already. Here are some quick pics. I would write more but I find it fairly difficult to type with Tim climbing on my head and Kayla screeching at my feet.Adventures in cookingNotice that Tim is only interested in the computer display and not the DINOSAUR.Why buy toys when all you need is a box - and some cousins

Mikayla is a bundle of fun these days. She has mastered army crawling and gets around a little more than I'd like. Her current favorites include eating anything tiny off of the carpet, unscrewing the door stops, and borrowing toys from her brother.Fun with DaddyBuying a few minutes of peaceFinally finished Mikayla's birth cross stitch! Only took a year.

Holiday Time

Here's a belated Halloween picture, no that's not the real McCain- it's a cutout. Joe and I didn't have time to really pull out the stops this year and went for simple and fun. The original idea was to be Men in Black and make the kiddos aliens to commemorate NASA's 50th anniversary. However, it is ridiculous finding alien costumes that don't look stupid or scary for little kids. Kayla is wearing the astronaut that we made Timmy for his first Halloween. Timmy's costume is from Costco - we had to get it when we saw it! Joe and I still kinda look like Men in Black but we switched it to Secret Service when we learned that Joe's sister was going as Sarah Palin and had her cardboard McCain. Joe found us cheap earpieces to plug into walkie talkies, so our earpieces actually worked.

Halloween 2008

And now for the cute pics! We had Jeremy (my bro) take our pictures for the annual Christmas card this year.
Here are our favorites:

Santa Baby

Practicing to be a Calvin Klein model

Milner Family 2008

Happy Birthday to Me!

What a crazy year! It's hard to really wrap my brain around all of the things that have happened the last 12 months. The best thing that happened is the birth of Mikayla Rose. She has been my little sunshine not to mention the world's cutie pie. The worst was having to leave our home in Boise to keep Joe's job. With the economy the way it is we might have to wait a long time before it sells, something that really frustrates our family. We can't move forward until we are free of that *%#* mortgage payment. It has been a real blessing to be back where we can be close to family again. Timmy LOVES spending time with his cousins and is constantly asking when we are going to visit them.

I was going to wax poetic and say something profound about how growing older has influenced my state of mind but I can't put the feeling into words. I know I have learned a great deal about myself this last year while living out of state - once I figure out what that is I'll let you know.

And here are some recent pics - face it that's why you came here anyway!

During the move Timmy found some funny places to hide

Mikayla flirting

Running around in his new Lightning McQueen Boots

Brother and Sister

Random update

Hopefully this isn't new news to anyone but, we're moving back to Utah! After a year in the land of the Great Potato hubbies work realized that their was no need for an office up here. This came after dangling the golden carrot of a multi million dollar contract in front of us for the whole year. With the condition of the )*^#*%# economy it seems no one is willing to invest in new software when they already have something that works. Oh well. We were looking for a way to move back to family anyway but were kinda hoping we could do it without losing the majority of our equity - not to mention the cost of the move which will have to come out of our pockets. Grrr. Looks like all those warnings about having food storage were indeed founded on something!

Mikayla keeps growing and growing. She's mastered rolling back onto her back finally after nearly two months of having to save her. She is a wiggly little thing and won't let you hold her if she is tired, hungry, or sees something interesting. She loves her brother, who is starting to realize that she is indeed a little person, and smiles and flirts with him. We started her on cereal and after a few weeks I think she has figured out that it is for eating and not goobering, although she loves giving a good raspberry right when her mouth is full - yikes! No teeth yet, but she chews on anything she can get her hands on so it can't be too long.

Mikayla Roll up

Timmy now loves the PBS show Caillou, which is a nice change from Super Why. He dosen't understand why we have to pack up everything and annoyed that Mommy has things that she needs to do. He has found a whole new fasination with his train set and plays with it constantly. This would be awesome if the playing didn't involve giant train wrecks and ear splitting screams for mommy to fix it, generally during K's nap time. We have been having fun with swim lessons and only wish we started sooner. We hope we can find a skilled swim instructor after the move and continue.Timmy atop Mt Boxmore, which has now filled our front room

St. Lukes Women's Fitness Challange 5k -Sept 20th

I did it! For someone who has never been a runner their entire life and always thought it was cool, this was a huge achievement for me. As with all goals there were lots of things that tried to make me back out. The week before the race our treadmill needed a part replaced and was therefore not available. If the race was in the Summer when it was still light in the morning this wouldn't be a problem seeing as that I could sneak out and run before the kiddos woke up and the hubby had to leave for work. I had to stop doing that because it got too gosh darn dark and I didn't feel comfortable running with cars that couldn't see me! The week of the race my darling baby decided that she wanted to wake up 3-5 times a night, most nights. This usually isn't a huge problem either but it seems that you need some good solid rest if you want to run without hurting yourself. And lastly bomb #3 Thursday before the race I'm informed that I have three weeks to organize, pack, and move my entire family back to SLC because hubbies job can no longer support an office here in Boise. Akkkkk! I lost all ability to sleep for an entire week after that - I couldn't stop organizing and planning things in my head.

Anywho - the race morning was a total downpour. We had no rain all summer and it really dumped on us. I was really happy to have brought a light jacket, it was really chilly! By the end of the race the jacket was so water logged it weighed a ton. I met my three goals - finish the race under my own power, run the whole distance, and not to lose my breakfast anywhere along the way! Enough with the small talk here are some pics.Pleasant conditions of the race - NOT!

Me, running towards the finish line


Check out how many people came!

This was an awesome experiance and if I was living in Boise next year, I'd do it again!

Pics and a quick post

No, it's not a real komodo dragon

The carousel at Zoo Boise

Mikayla's first camp fire
The only sleep we got!
Big letter "A" at Albertsons Conservation garden
Like her Mommy, Kayla's a Boca fan
Timmy's first swim lesson
And yes, he still likes Lightning Mcqueen

July and the rest of Summer flew by faster than expected. We attempted our first camping trip with Mikayla (we were sure that we could get her to sleep in the tent) and let Timmy have a sleepover with his Grandparents. He failed tent sleeping miserably when we let him try in the backyard.

Timmy is now officially a swim student and having a great time so far. We can only hope that he still thinks it is fun after a few weeks.

After a month of studying, Joe passed his PMP test and is now a Certified Project Management Professional.

As for me, I'm still running and finished the couch to 5k training program and can finish a 5k in around 40ish minutes. I have a race lined up on the 20th and hope to trim that time down to around the 35 minute range. Not quite good enough to be seriously competitive but I'll finish without losing my breakfast. Hopefully.