One Year

We celebrated Kent's first birthday this past Friday and Saturday with a lot of family and friends. Instead of writing a lot, I will share a few pictures of the events. Hope you enjoy!

Beginning


Middle


End

Grandma Udy and the birthday boy

Grandma Mills with the birthday boy and cousin Keaton

Opening presents...thanks everyone!

He loves the toy his dad picked out for him at IKEA.

The cake Ammon and I made for the Saturday party. Kent reminds us of a monkey so the cake is very fitting.


Popping his new bubbles with his new shovel.

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate and capture the moment, I swear we had over 100 pictures of the events.

"Hi, hi, how do you do? Welcome to My Gym!"

Kent and I found a little gym that caters to kids 0-12. Needing something to do on a regular basis we signed up for a mommy and me class. I have loved it thus far and think that it has helped Kent to be with other kids and adults while we are here. Also, I think Kent's gross motor skills have increased as well, although still not crawling, he is getting the hang of walking holding onto a hand, the wall, or various objects. Maybe those advances are not from the class entirely, but I have trouble thinking that it didn't help at least a little. We will return to My Gym when we move back to Utah in January. Here are some of the fun things Kent gets to do...

Roll in padded tubes

Rock back and forth

Play in the ball pit

Hang from the bars

Ride the zip-line

A "Finn" Distraction

Little did we know, but the furnished basement we are renting also came with a dog. The best kind of dog to have, one that neither has to be walked or poop picked up by us. It is great, Kent still gets to be around a dog and we have little to no responsibility. His name is Finn, he is a wirehaired griffin. He is still less than a year old, or in other words still a puppy. He LOVES to jump up on people as the many scraps to Kent's head can attest, needless to say we now enter through the house instead of the backyard. Regardless of his jumpiness he is rather nice to have around, take the following picture for example...

The other day I went shopping, or I guess that is something I do 4 out of 5 days of the week while Ammon is gone. However, to anyone but Ammon that is besides the point. I came home with a trunk full of groceries that needed to be taken inside. I had two options, take Kent in and leave him in the house while I unloaded the car which would result in an all out fit or leave Finn babysitting in the garage. I chose the later. I handed Kent a treat, sat him in front of Finn's kennel and went to town taking the groceries in. The two of them bonded quite nicely. Finn would never bite Kent's hands, but never hesitates to lick him, which leads me to the next picture...

The curl on top of Kent's head, you have to look closely, is courtesy of Finn. After a big drink of water Finn came over, sopping wet of course, and licked Kent right up side the head. Kent had drool dripping down between his eyes. After everything dried up a bit we noticed the little curl that was left, who know dog drool was really the best hair gel!

Road Trip

This weekend Ammon had both Friday and Monday off, so we took advantage and went to visit our brothers in Rexburg. Our brothers happen to be friends as well, which when visiting is extremely convenient. I love killing two birds with one stone. We had a wonderful time with Jared, his wife Jo, Lance, and his fiance Robin. It was so nice to have other people to play with Kent, even when we were sitting right there, so that Ammon and I could have some time to rest without having to entertain him. Jared and Jo even babysat so that Ammon and I could make it to the temple. I have to say that the Rexburg Temple is one of the prettiest I have seen. Here are some pictures of our adventures to the "legit" bowling alley in Rexburg, Teton Lanes.

Aunt Robin and Kent

Gotta love Aunts and Uncles

Big smiles from Kent and Lance

"Thanks for the banana Aunt Jo, bowling makes me hungry."

Since in Utah life has been entertaining...

Kent has grown leaps and bounds. Ammon has mercilessly been trying to get Kent to crawl, baiting him with Gerber Puffs. What Ammon calls crawling I would more call throwing a tantrum that results in small movements of the body in a forward direction. Needless to say he does make it across the room at least once a night through the tears. Kent loves to be where ever Mom is, whether it is doing the dishes or doing my hair and makeup. I try to do these things during his morning nap, but sometimes when that nap is cut short he ends up "helping". Here is what I mean...

He feels the need to put everything that is on the counter in the sink, which is why some of the stuff is out of his reach. Here he is chewing on a CLEAN Q-tip, prior to this picture he was "singing" to the boy in the mirror.

The other night as I was doing dishes I put him on the window sill to watch me do dishes. His feet could barely touch the water. But then he realized he could move, and into the sink he went. I had his pants off so they wouldn't get wet, but had no idea the shirt needed to come off and that I needed to put on a swim diaper.

Don't worry, I did not wash anymore dishes in this water after he entered...

...partly because of germs and partly because Huggies really are absorbent and I barely had any water left.

I have struggled a bit with this whole being home all day thing, and commend the efforts of the moms that can do it, however, I find myself needing to get out of the house once a day. Typically this is to go shopping, much to our budget's dismay, but I have also found a walk and playing with Kent in the sand table to be refreshing. On Tuesdays we even get to go to a place called My Gym for mommy and me gym classes, which I love because there are other mommies there for me to talk to. Now for your continued viewing pleasure, a few more pics...

Taking pictures of Kent is what I resorted to while taking Ammon's grandpa house shopping. He recently broke his hip so he moved rather slow. It took us three hours to tour 3 houses. Kent was really good considering.

The sand table the adorable 3 year old upstairs is so nice to share with Kent.

Tired after a night of crawling.

And lastly, my best friend ran the Ogden Marathon last weekend and we went to watch her cross the finish line. I did not actually end up seeing her cross because I had bent down to meet Kent's needs, but I did see her about 10 feet past the finish line. Regardless, she did great! Way to go Cole!

A hike to the "M" topped off with a little Steph's

Ammon had this Friday off and we took advantage of the cooler weather to hike to the "M" in Morgan, Utah. I have a soft place in my heart for Morgan. Not only did it provide us with a set of fun neighbors in Pullman, but it is also home of my first dream job teaching 6th grade at the middle school. Ammon and I first attempted the steep climb to the "M" when we lived there right after we were married. It was a little warmer than usual and we were not in shape. Needless to say, we made it maybe halfway and turned around. So, when I suggested the hike as today's events, Ammon was a little unsure - especially since one of us would be carrying an extra 20 lbs on our back (Kent plus the weight of the pack). But, I wanted to do the hike before it got too warm, and I figured that even if we didn't make it we would still get to treat ourselves to a Tangee at Steph's after. To make a long story short: we made it to the top, the view was beautiful, we barely made it to the car before it started raining, and Kent had his first taste of Steph's. Enjoy the pictures of our day.

Kent and Dad

Mom and Kent

Us at the top with the view, that pole to our right had some shirts and underwear attached to it. I am sure it is some kind of tradition.

A sleepy boy on the way down.

Steph's

Per Jess's request...

So this post is extremely similar to the one prior, but I thought I would at least provide a theme...Kent's playmates. Right now I could kill for a playmate for Kent, because as he sits next to me he is screaming his head off. Perhaps he is vying for my undivided attention, or perhaps it is because he cut both of his naps short today (really short). I will go with the second reasoning and consider putting him back to bed within the next hour.

Kent and Cade tickle the ivories.

Their first of many baths together.

The swing will suffice when Cade is not around.

Easter photo shoot that didn't yield many print worthy pictures.

And last but not least, Kent's new cousin Keaton, who surely will be picked on by numerous times before his first birthday. He thought he was a pretty cool new toy last week.