Erik, Jenn, Tyler & Mason

Every time Tyler wears his sunglasses and Daddy's hat he says, "Cool!" Tyler came home from daycare with his first "tattoo" yesterday. His favorite activity with Mommy. Under construction First time in a booster seat--no more high chair! First time on a merry-go-round--he wasn't sure he liked it. Never too cool for green star sunglasses! Reading the Bible with Daddy Yes I made the mistake of putting the high chair right in front of my white curtains. Never again. :)

Every day when I look at Tyler I see parts of Sarah. You can't sit there and tell me these pictures of Sarah don't remind you of certain faces Tyler makes! I hope he always reminds me of her.

We love summer because we get to can fresh peaches and tomatoes! We canned 50 lbs. of fruit when we got back from Utah. Also, Erik is working on putting in new floors in our kitchen and dining room. As soon as that's done we can finally have our carpet installed! I will post before, during and after pictures later this week! On a sad note, we were very sorry to have lost Grandpa this past week but we know he is with Heavenly Father and that knowledge brings relief to our sadness. We love Grandpa very much and we miss him already.

Grandpa's Obituary

I wanted to post some recent pictures of Tyler because I haven't posted in awhile. Maybe this will get me back into the routine!! His favorite thing to do is go upside down. If he could, he would stay that way! We tried drinking from a cup with no lid. As you can see he had more fun tossing the water up in the air than he did drinking it. This is his new favorite toy. It was $1 at Target. Gotta love it the Japanese ambulance! Tyler recently started knocking on every door he sees, even the sliding glass door. We're learning our ABC's!

I guess I never posted that I ran an entire half marathon without stopping. My posterity will want to know that. Ok let's remember I had just run 13.2 miles--cuteness was out the window.

We had to sneak in to take this during nap time last week. Any resemblance? He loves to sit in his "big boy" chair. Fourth of July BBQ (on the 3rd of July) in 60 degree windy weather (which is why he has a sweatshirt on).

Besides teaching junior primary sharing time and senior primary sharing time tomorrow I'm also giving a talk in Sacrament. I've pretty much lost my voice from being so sick we'll have to pray that I can actually speak tomorrow. Here it is, hot off the presses, my Fathers Day talk BEFORE it is available to the public! Click here to view my talk

My jeep broke down yesterday while I was alone driving to Renton to close a sale. We aren't sure what's wrong with it but we're just grateful it was a fairly uneventful problem. It was a blessing that I was able to steer it out of the way of traffic by myself and that Erik was able to leave work and come help me try to start it. We ended up having to get a tow truck but it was free because our insurance covered it. Hopefully Erik can fix it and it won't cost too much to do. The good news is, I hopped in Erik's Jeep when he got there and closed the sale (Pizza Time in Renton, my third Pizza time this week!). So things are looking up at least!

Ok I am finally ready to put the first round of before and after pictures of the inside of our house. There are many more to come as we have been very busy doing remodeling and paiting and decorating but at least now I can put SOMETHING up. The picture (above) is what the family room looked like when we bought the house. Peach paint, orange bricks and wood paneling behind the TV. This is the same place with a fresh coat of paint on the wall. I ended up changing my mind though so don't get too attached to that color. Here is a picture of the family room and dining room the day we moved in. Here is the entry way which was colorless and the door had a flimsy border and needed to be painted. The picture (above) is Erik ripping out the same orange bricks that were on the fireplace from the entry way floor. You can see that I had painted the entry way as well. Here is the finished entry way. We put new baseboards, new floor, new paint and new trim around the door. You may also notice ...

I decided to only let my friends and family read my blog. I'm sick of getting random Chinese characters as comments. So that's why you got an invitation to read my blog, because you are my friend or my family. :) PS If I forgot anyone let me know, I'm sure I did.

It's beautiful to see Heavenly Father's hand in my life. He blesses me when I need it most and it humbles me to know He cares enough about me to help me with my petty little life when there are so many other important things He could be doing. Case and point: I've been having a rough day today. Found out some bad news today--nothing too serious, but enough to ruin my day and make me worry a little bit about the certainty of the future. Just when I was wallowing in my despair and worrying, He sent me a couple little blessings that made today brighter and helped me see the future can be good regardless of the bad things that might come up in life here and there. I think He's trying to show me the Eternal Perspective. I have been really worried lately with concerns about what I should do in certain areas in my life and when I took my concerns to God in prayer I got the distinct feeling that everything will be okay if we just pay our tithing and choose the right. It was e...

selling insurance ain't easy.

I haven't had a lot of time to blog or sociailize lately (who knew owning your own business could take up so much TIME!?!?!) but I am still around! Some updates so you can keep in the loop on the Miles fam: Erik rototilled our garden yesterday (he also rototilled our Comcast cable:) Acupuncture doesn't seem to be working on my migraines I'm going out to meet with Papa Murphy's owners tomorrow for commercial insurance (wish me luck) I got my hair highlighted by Heidi Dueck and it looks super cute We're heading to Utah Fri - Mon to visit Grandpa who is still in the hospital but hopefully getting out soon

Weren't those Winco coupons awesome? I saved $22 at Winco yesterday on stuff I buy every week and it got me in a good couponing mood so I went to Albertsons and saved $19! Then I sent Erik to Walmart to save $15!!! Couponing is fun. I feel like a superhero when I get home and see how much I got for how little.

Hey everyone-- just wanted to let you know we finally disconnected our home phone so the (253) 210-4592 number isn't good anymore. Just call our cellphones instead.

Well the cat is finally out of the bag. I have put in my two weeks' notice at Alta Trust Company and can finally announce my previously secret status as a Farmers Insurance Agent. I passed all my insurance exams, I have two investment exams coming up but I am officially able now to sell insurance for Farmers (have been for a week). I'm so excited because I'll be my own boss and I'll be able to spend more time with Tyler and help people all at the same time, which I love to do. My office is in Federal Way on 336th, its just a mile from our new house. Yay!

I'm getting business cards with a headshot on them... which one do you like better for a professional business card?

Passed both my exams yesterday.

Valerie Wells asked me to substitute for her at Tacoma Symphonic Band practice tonight. It was lots of fun and super challenging but it felt great! I felt like I was back in my element again for the first time in years! AND... The conductor asked me to join the band! So, my first concert is May 27th at 7:30pm at Tacoma Community College in Building 3 off of South 12th street. I would love your support if you can attend!!!

I was called today to be a counselor in the Primary presidency in our new ward. I was surprised because the Bishop and the Primary president hadn't even met me yet--Scary! So today was my first day in Primary. At first I thought it was going to be super easy-- just sing some songs and play with little kids. But after chasing a 4-year-old around the room in my high heels and then chasing her down the hall and trying to coax her out of a locked bathroom stall, begging a bunch of 5-year-olds to put their shoes on and making really complicated finger puppets of Joseph Smith without any instructions I realized it's going to be no vacation! Don't get me wrong, I am excited. Little kids are so much fun and the Primary in my ward has the cutest little kids! I just feel totally like I have no idea what I'm doing. And apparently we have meetings once a week on top of all the activities to plan and execute. I am looking forward to this calling but part of me feels totally ove...

It's so weird now that we've moved-- I feel totally disconnected from everyone even though I'm like ten minutes away! I still need to put before and after pictures but we aren't quite done with the after yet-- we're doing some remodeling already (we haven't even unpacked everything yet) so I don't want to do after pictures or have a house warming party until we are at least done with phase one of the remodel. So, Easter was lots of fun. My mom came and had a great time with us. She bought Tyler a moterized car (yes, he is one year old and no he doesn't need it but Grandma is a spoiler). He actually loves whizzing around in it. He's pretty good at steering it too. My mom brought many other gifts and had a great time showering them on Tyler. I have been doing nothing but painting (every wall in in every room). The other night Erik was taking Tyler in for a bath and he says to me, "How good is your sense of humor right now?" Whenever he ask...

I know I need to post pictures of my new house (we've been busy painting and decorating, and picking out new carpet) but I just want to say that I bought myself a Holton H276 Merker Matic today and I am very excited. I sold my Holton French Horn a couple years ago and a part of my soul died when I did (I had to pay the bills). But I have recommitted and am so excited and I hope to be back up to my peak performance within a year with lots of practice--maybe in a symphony again within a year or two. Yay!

Tyler has really been loving daycare. He does miss Auntie Jaime, I gotta say. He still looks for her when we pull up to Lil Rascal's Daycare but he loves his new friends and has a great time. Miss Cathy sent me these pictures from St. Patrick's day: