Christmas morning!!!

Christmas Eve

I'm so excited that it's Christmas Eve! I've been such a good boy!! I can't wait to wake mommy and daddy up really early so we can open our gifts from Santa.

Cory and Tyler in their matching Christmas jammies!! What handsome guys!!

Tyler watching Lawrence Welk with Connie!!

Three Month Pictures (A Few Days Late)

It's a bit late for it, but I got around to taking some current pictures today. I'd taken off Tyler's diaper and was going to throw him in the shower with Angie right after I took a couple of pictures. As usual, I forgot to take into consideration what usually happens when he's left exposed for too long. Thus, the wet spot at the bottom of the 2nd picture (on our bed). Doesn't he look mighty pleased with himself?

As usual, both are formatted for 4x6 prints.

Cory's Spot: My Favorite Early Christmas Gift

Yesterday at work, a good friend gave me the mug on the left - it's a 100 oz. whopper (the smaller one on the right "only" holds 44 oz.)! Actually, he gave me the Pepsi version, but I can't stand Pepsi, not to mention that it just wouldn't be right to advertise the wrong addiction to the world, so I called around town last night and this morning and found a c-store that had the Dew version and was willing to exchange it for me.

I've been sipping on it since about 7:00 this morning, and I've hardly made a dent. Isn't it awesome?!

Christmas at the Miles'!!

Here is our beautiful tree!

"Shuttlecraft to Enterprise.
Shuttlecraft to Enterprise.
Spock here.
Happy holidays!
Live long and prosper!"

What a cutie!! These are some of the pj's I made for Tyler, and now they're almost too small.

I made this Snowman quilt a few years ago. It's a block of the month and I would get one block a month. How pretty!!

Bear Navity Cory's mom gave us two years ago. All the girls in the family got one. So now we all have matching nativities.

Like father like son!!

Cory has already been teaching Tyler the importance of computer skills. How cute is Tyler with his keyboard. And, he's looking at the monitor!! 

Two Months Old!!!

Sorry these pictures are a little late, but they are Tylers 2-month mark. Isn't he soooo cute? And yes, we will post pictures of our festive house soon. SOON! It's been a busy week. I've been sick with Mastitis for the last few days and haven't felt like taking pictures or cleaning the house. But since I've been on antibiotics I'm feeling a lot better. So maybe tomarrow or Monday look for our beautiful tree. But for now, you can enjoy looking at Tyler's sweet face.

BIGGEST EVENT IN TELEVISION HISTORY!!!

Did anyone else watch David Letterman last night??? I was looking forward to last night all week long. It was the biggest event of television history. Oprah was on David Letterman last night. Yes, it's true. Dave was on his best behavior and it was a bit wierd to see him so serious. But, come on, its OPRAH WINFREY!! It was so exciting.

Cory's Spot: Software: Konfabulator

Another piece of software I tried out and stuck with in recent months is Konfabulator, now from Yahoo (download here). This is even more versatile than Google Desktop, but it also takes up more space, since its plugins, called Widgets, are designed to be pretty, instead of just functional. Because people are actually writing all kinds of really cool Widgets for Konfabulator, instead of just theoretically able to, like with Google Desktop, there are new Widgets showing up all the time, and if you wait long enough, there's likely to be one that will do just what you want it to. Or, you could actually write it yourself (personally, I haven't been ambitious enough to even try, but it's possible).

Like Google Desktop, I don't actually use all the Widgets that come with Konfabulator. I've also added a few I've discovered along the way. I use the basic calendar that comes with Konfabulator, as well as the default weather tool. Many others have come and gone over the past couple of months, but the four add-on Widgets I use are Can'tWait!, a countdown/countup timer I used to count down to and now up from Tyler's birthdate, Trash Bin Deluxe, which I use instead of the Windows default, since it shows how many items are in the recycle bin and how much space they're using, and Lazy Launcher, which allows you to easily find and run programs by name instead of by navigating the Windows Start Menu. For some reason, I can't find the resource meter I'm using anymore, but InfoLabel is also cool, since you could customize it to do the work of both Trash Bin Deluxe and my resource meter.

With two software posts in one day, I'm sure to come off as one heck of a geek, but so be it. Try these two apps out and let me know what you think.

Cory's Spot: Software: Google Desktop

It's once again been much longer than planned since I last posted, but I have some time off of school and work, so here goes.

Sitting on the right-hand side of my desktop is a nifty application from Google called, appropriately, Google Desktop (download here). This comes with several different plugins to provide various bits of information, including weather reports, stock updates, news articles, and RSS feeds, among others. It's also my understanding that 3rd party plugins can be devloped, so possibilities are endless. It also features Google Desktop Search, which scans your hard drives initially for documents, emails, web histories and such and then keeps an eye on things from that point forward. The advantage of this is that you can find information that's come across your desktop much more easily and more comprehensively than is possible with Windows' built-in search function. Google says your desktop results are kept completely private and are invisible to the people and Google, and I believe them.

For me, Google Desktop has proven to be most useful docked to the right-hand side of my screen, but set to auto-hide. Even though I have my desktop resolution set to 1280 x 960, I found that it took up too much space to leave visible at all times, and there's a nifty alert feature that lets you know when a new RSS or news item is available, even if the sidebar is hidden. At the top of the sidebar, I have my RSS feeds, which I pretty much use only for family members' and friends' blogs, so I can easily see when a new post goes up. This feature automatically adds any RSS feeds it finds, so I had to go through and weed out the feeds I didn't want and turn off the auto-find feature after a while. Next I have my news items. If you let it, Google Desktop will customize these based on what you read most. For example, I have a lot of tech articles that show up, along with some health, business, and general interest articles, and no sports articles. The third plugin I use is a nice little notepad. Simply type reminders or whatever here and they're automatically saved. Finally, I have What's Hot and Quick View minimized at the bottom of my sidebar. What's Hot shows what Google thinks are the most popular items on the web and Quick View is similar to Windows' own Recent Documents list, but can be customized to show popular and recently used items, instead of just the latter.

Well, that was much longer than I'd intended to geek on about this particular program, but that's okay, it's a useful program.

Ready for Snowboarding

I suppose most of you know by now that Angie got a great deal on some 3-6 month clothes on eBay. Most of them are pretty cute, and they're all in good shape. Today Angie dressed Tyler up on one of my favorites from the bunch - a thermal onesie and lightweight snow pants. Once again, you can see that the 3-6's are still a bit big, but this is warmer than most of his 0-3's.

Tyler also got his first immunizations today. Two shots in the side of each thigh - poor guy! He screamed himself purple when the nurse first stuck him and has been a little fussier than usual since, but is taking it pretty well overall.

Our Candy Cane

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Hobbs, Tyler has this outfit to enjoy. It's a one-piecer, but it's also a 3-6, so he still has plenty of growing room. We think it's a fun one for the holidays, what with the red and white stripes and all.

Oh, and this is Ty's new pacifier. He won't take the orthodontic binkies with the flat tip and we were afraid we'd lose the little orange one they gave us at the hospital, so we gave in and got these green monsters at WallyWorld, since they were the only ones we could find with the right tip.

Our Basketball Star

Thanks to his great aunt and uncle Byron and Kathy, Tyler has this long-sleeved outfit to hang out in. It's a 3-6 month outfit, which is still a bit big, but we think this and the other 3-6's are more comfortable for our growing little guy.

The day of sadness and mourning.....

I have some sad news. Travis, you're going to be as upset as we are, but Coke is discontinuing their line of Diet Vanilla Coke (original story here) by the end of the year. It's a very sad day in the Miles household.

We're going to start stocking up on it because it's one of our favorites. For those of you in town, Ridlely's has a 4/$10 sale on coke products.

A Big Smile

First off, sorry to those of you who want to see Tyler in his blessing outfit. Somehow, we managed to not get a single shot with our own camera. Luckily, there were lots of other cameras present - for Dan's pictures, look here and here.

What really got me posting, though, was this picture I just took - we finally caught one of Tyler's amazing smiles on camera. I tell you...he does this and my heart melts! Call me a softy, but I can't help it!

Halloween

For Halloween we dressed Tyler up in a cute little outfit that said 'My First BOO!' on it. It also has pumpkins on the bottom of his feet. Then, we had orange dinner which consisted of everything we had leftover in our fridge and pantry that was orange, which amazingly was quite a lot. Then, we took Tyler trick-or-treating to some of our relatives houses. We also had an M&M costume that he wore at the grandparents house. We forgot our camera for that, but it looked really cute.

This is the outfit Cory picked out before Tyler was born. It's actually a newborn size, so we were worried it wasn't going to fit. But, it did, luckily. What a cute pumpkin on his first Halloween.

ORANGE DINNER!!!!!!!!

Carrots, Cheetos, orange-mango applesauce, left-over cheesy potatoes and brats.

We even had orange milk. It took me a few minutes to drink it because it was weird, but then it tasted all right after the first few sips.

A New Contest

Why does this sound clip apply?

Post your guesses as comments.

Tyler Yet Again

Right now, we really don't have a lot going on other than taking care of our little guy. Since it's been a while since we've posted pictures, Angie wanted to get this outfit on display...and of course, the baby in the outfit. We also have a bib on him to protect his clothes from his still-frequent spitups, but we didn't get a good picture of that.

Tyler Update

Tyler finally got his acid reflux medicine. So far, it seems to be working. He's eating a lot better and doesn't seem to be spitting up as much. Hopefully, he'll finally start to gain some weight, since he's such a skinny little thing. I still can't believe that it's already been a little over a month since Tyler was born. He still doesn't do much except eat, sleep, eat, poop and pee, eat and sleep and poop and pee some more. He has, however, found his grip. He really likes to hold on to things. When we change him he'll hold onto the changing table or his shirt, and just about anything he can wrap his precious little fingers around. I have to laugh when he grabs onto Cory's armhairs. It's pretty funny. We are also starting to notice a little smile emerging here and there. It makes us wonder what he is thinking. What a handsome boy!!! Oh, and as you've already noticed, we did finally give in and let Ty have his pacifier. Since he'll only take the one they gave us at the hospital, we just have to hope we don't lose it! We also took Tyler out on his first roadtrip yesterday. We went to Layton and visited Grandma and Grandpa Saunders, with stops at the Maddox and a couple of stores along the way. We were really impressed with how well Tyler handled it all!

"I don't like it when I have to sit here all by myself!"

"Ok, I'll pose, but just for this one picture!"

"What is it with you people and that stupid flash?!"

New Skirt!

So I bought this fabulous new skirt at New York and Co. yesterday. Isn't it beautiful? It was on clearance for $14.99 and I had a voucher there for like $12.49, so all in all I ended up paying like $3 dollars in cash for the skirt and it was well worth my investment. I really like the beadwork and detail on it. It is beautiful!!!

ACID REFLUX!!

So, Tyler had another Dr. appt. yesterday. He now wieghs 8 lbs, 4 ounces. He's only in the 40th percentile. He's been quite fussy lately and has been spitting everything up, so he's not gaining as much wieght as he should be. The Dr. is putting Tyler on prilosec for babies. We haven't started it yet, but it will be ready either tomarrow or the next day. We can't wait to see if it will help. I just want Tyler to start gaining wieght. He's such a scrawmy little guy. I also feel real bad that he throws everything up. Poor kid.

A Few More Pictures

A couple of nights ago we were running out of clean baby clothes and decided to try out the pajamas Angie'd made, even though we thought they would be a bit too bit. Turns out "a bit too big" is a bit of an understatement. Nonetheless, we got a few pictures of him, both to show off the funny fit of the PJ's and to show off the cute kid.

Time for a Trim

The other night I was playing around with my beard and combed it out. Angie decided I needed a haircut without delay. Hold your mouse over my picture to see why.

Zappos.com

So, I found out about this really awesome website called Zappos.com and it's awesome. They have tons, I mean millions of shoes. Alright, some are really expensive and some are just plain ugly. But, there are some affordable shoes there as well. This is a good website for me because here in Pocatello we don't have a big variety of shops. It's a wonderful website, so check it out. Unfortunatly for me, I can spend hours browsing that website. I love shoes. I've already found three pairs that I love. I absolutely love that is. Oh, another cool thing about Zappos is that they have free shipping and if your shoe doesn't fit when you recieve it, it's free shipping to send it back as well. AWESOME!!

A Change of Pace

For this and other reasons, Angie doesn’t always enjoy being Tyler’s sole source of food:


As such, she didn’t put up too much of a fight when her doctor suggested we put Tyler on a formula diet for 24 hours to help clear up the last of his jaundice. That way, both she


and I

get to share the feeding responsibilities. Of course, I’m not sure I’ll be at my 8:00am class tomorrow, but at least I get to help out a bit more tonight.

By the way, we’re impressed that he’s able to hold the bottle on his own. Of course, it’s only for a few seconds at a time, but, hey, we’re allowed to think our kid’s the shiznit, right?!

Cory's Spot: Angela's Political Test Results

Angela decided to take the same test I did, and we were both surprised to see how similar we charted out. It's funny because we both also tested as INFP on the Briggs-Meyer scale.

You are a Social Moderate (56% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (26% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid

Cory's Spot: Politics Test Results

As I was surfing for info on the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica TV series, I came across some random blog showing that particular blogger's results from the OK Cupid Politics Test, as shown below. What the heck, I figured, and I popped on over to try it out. I have to say, I'm quite surprised by the results, and my first inclination is to disagree, but I'm posting it anyway. I will say that I have to agree with Nick at Nick's Daily News in that the Bush of today isn't the Bush of four years ago and I'm much less inclined to support the current incarnation of our good President. Now, I know there's one person in particular who will jump all over the chance to comment on this, but so be it.

You are a Social Moderate (56% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (33% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid