Congratulations

Dear Kent,
Congratulations, you are finally binky free and we are finally free of you sleeping with us through the night. It only took 7 nights of crying yourself to sleep, 7 naps crying yourself to sleep (not in your bed we might add, but on the floor right behind the door hoping we would come and get you), and a new bedtime routine that takes twice as long as we would have hoped, but it works so we will keep it. You now will get in your bed by yourself and not get out until about 6 o'clock in the morning when we still surrender and let you into our bed so we can get another hour of sleep. It truly is amazing how your little head loves our memory foam mattress, and we can't wait till we can get you one of your own. Until then we will hope your bed suffices and hope you keep sleeping in it. We love you, we love that you are binky free, and we love that you no longer kick us through the night.
Much Love,
Your Parents

Becoming such a big boy!

Furthermore, here is proof of how much Kent loves our bed, we often find him in it, a lot of times under the covers.

Welcome to F8

Here is the tour, incomplete as our house is, I thought you still might enjoy to see our new homestead.

My cute door, thanks to Sarah for the adorable wreath

The hallway, I am eventually going to put a vinyl saying above my pictures, suggestions for sayings welcome.

A closer look at the decor

The kitchen from the entryway, complete with my "crap" (don't worry mom I moved all of my piles from your house/counter to mine)

The living room, the bare wall will eventually have more on it, suggestions are welcome

Another view of the living room with my family tree wall and incredibly small/old TV (look familiar college roommates?) and the digital antenna that gets us about 20 channels. Don't judge, when Ammon saves enough to get the 55" TV he wants I will post a picture of it, but don't expect that for about a year. We still need our family picture framed and put up under the tree. As you see we still have a long way to go before our home is complete, but we are getting there.

Kent's Room
(don't mind the out-of-place blanket over the toddler bed rail, we put it there after we found Kent's leg stuck up on the bed and his body on the ground)

This post is lacking a picture of our room because it has become the catch all, so sorry but I figured you didn't want to see piles of stuff.

You know you're in St. George when...

your son wakes up requesting to go outside. This past week Ammon, Kent, and I had the opportunity to head south for the week to visit my grandparents as well as Ammon's. We are so lucky they both live within 5 minutes of each other, what are the chances. We also had the chance to drive a few more hours to visit my uncle Kent and his family for the afternoon. Kent's favorite part of the trip was the 6+ clocks that play music on the hour at my grandparent's house, playing outside, and visiting the animals at Ammon's grandpa's. We love our grandparents dearly and feel fortunate that we get to spend so much time with them.

The horse thought Kent looked pretty good.

He was constantly in Kent's face. At first Kent was unsure, then he would just laugh.

Playing on the tire swing

Intense game of Rummikub

Kent got a hold of my cousin's phone, Juicy case and all. This is what he looked like as he texted.

Sporting my grandma's cool shades

With Grandma and Pa Larsen

Since moving to Utah...

• we have unpacked all but 2 boxes
• left the hall cluttered with stuff we are not sure what to do with
• not put enough stuff up on the wall, when we do we will take pictures to give everyone a virtual tour
• repacked 4+ boxes of young adult literature that was once my classroom library and put them in storage
  
• enjoyed day in and day out as a family
  
• put together a puzzle, something I love to do, but that we haven't done for a year or so and...

• Kent has learned to do lots of new things and talks a lot more.
  

This is what Kent does when we are keeping an eye on him. We have since cleaned the closet, isn't the size of it amazing. The first thing Ammon said when he saw the size was, "Don't think you have to fill it." We'll see about that.

This is what Kent does when we are not keeping and eye on him.

Christmas x 3 (as I promised)

Christmas started out on the 21st when we celebrated Christmas with my family. After presents we went out to breakfast at Tam's Place in Pullman. If you haven't been there you should really try it. Tam is amazing and completely doted on the two little boys. They thought she was great. That night we headed out to Colfax to celebrate "Christmas Eve" with Ammon's family. We then drove home to only go back the next morning for Mills family Christmas. His family is significantly larger than mine, there were 18 of us in total, we were only missing two. The kids were the highlight of Christmas, all the little girls were fun to watch as they opened their gifts and whoever else's presents they could get their hands on. This day was also our anniversary, which needless to say we had to celebrate on another day. The boys topped off the evening with a little Xbox 360. We took a break after this for a few days and then found ourselves celebrating the real Christmas Eve in my parents garage packing boxes...fun I know. We had a nontraditional Christmas Eve dinner of shrimp scampi on TV trays in the living room. Although it was different than any other Christmas Eve I have ever had, it was fun to do something different. Christmas was low key as well. There were only the 5 of us: my mom and dad, Ammon and I, and Kent. The big thrills came watching Mom and Dad open gifts from each other. They were both pretty spoiled. It was a very tiring and busy Christmas WEEK, but we loved spending so much time with family. We hope you all had a great Christmas season celebrating the birth of our Savior. Sorry for such a long post and so many pictures, it was a lot easier to do one post as opposed to 3.

The boys opening their gifts.

The boys on the "thinking chairs" Grandma and Grandpa got them, although they are supposed to be used for time outs, I think they ended up being more of a toy than anything. Kent is constantly using his to reach things otherwise out of reach.

Kent and Cade checking out Cade's big present, boy does that kid love basketball.

Grandma moving the show along by helping Kent open his present.

One of the big thrills of the day was putting matchbox cars in this soda box.

Reading a book still in its box.

The older Mills cousins decorating (and eating) cookies.

The girls helping Grandma open her KitchenAid mixer, she has been without one since her house burned down two years ago. She was so happy she was crying.

Cousin Keaton is not so sure if he likes Kent and Lacey playing with his toy.

Kent finding a new use for Grandpa's new tool box, a perfect place to hide Puppy and Blanket...

and then take a nap with them.

Happy 3 year anniversary to us!

The Barbie laptop was a big hit, go figure.

All the cousins lined up ready for stockings.

Playing with his new tractor

Listening to dad's music, the scar on his head was from falling on a dog food can in the garage "helping" me pack boxes.

These last two are the only pictures I got from Christmas #3. Here Kent is tired of all the celebrations and just happy to cuddle with Grandma.

Christmas Post

I get slightly overwhelmed whenever I open my computer to write a Christmas post. Perhaps it is because we celebrated Christmas three times or that I have a billion pictures to sort through and decide which I would like to use. Regardless, it will get done so stay tuned.

Dear...

Dear Pullman University 2nd Ward,
I miss you!
Love, LeAnn

Dear Apartment Dwellers,
Where do you put all your stuff? I am having a hard time finding a place for everything we seem to own.
Love, LeAnn

Dear Ammon,
I love the fact that you are not working for the month of January and that we get to spend so much time together, oh and that with all your new time you get the opportunity to help a lot more with Kent.
Love, LeAnn

Dear Mom, Dad, Lance, Robin, Rachel, Brett, and Cader Gator,
I miss you too! When is too soon to visit?
Love LeAnn