January 31, 2005

Dear Family,

I always thought the saying was that “When Mama ain’t happy, ain’t no one happy.” However, for the Spanish Fork Gwilliams, I think the saying has been changed to “When Cole ain’t happy, ain’t no one happy.” Life for us is good, as long as Cole is not cutting teeth. Over the past couple of months, Cole has continued to be a delightful baby (okay, he’s starting to look more and more like a little boy and less and less like a baby much to his Dad’s delight and his Mom’s dismay!!), except for the week before he has cut each of his 6 teeth. Thankfully they come 2 at a time!! These weeks are miserable for everyone in the house!! Other than cutting teeth and growing up, Cole is trying to learn to walk before he figures out how to crawl in the forward direction. At Becky’s volleyball game the other night, (volleyball games are a story for another day!) he managed to push himself backwards at least 5 feet, turned around and pushed himself 5 more feet to arrive just where he started. He was not a happy camper! Cole has not quite figured out why he always ends up farther from his goal than he started. In the meantime, he has also learned to pull himself up to his knees and even to a standing position using the coffee table and some of his toys several times. He especially has incentive to do this when the Xbox controllers, phone, or remote controls are within reach. He seems to be leaning towards an interest in electronics at a young age! Cole’s favorite times are bath time and when his Daddy comes home from work. It’s hard to know which time gets the bigger grin.

As for Chad and Becky, our life pretty much revolves around Cole, BYU sports, and church. The order of emphasis changes from week to week!! We spend much of our time keeping up with Cole and attending basketball games, volleyball games, etc. Chad keeps holding out hope that one of the BYU teams is going to have a good year this year! Chad also stays busy with his calling as a counselor in a BYU single’s ward. Cole also delights in this calling because being the only baby with 150 college students means being told he is cute many times every Sunday. It also means that his Mom has the daunting task of trying to keep him quiet during Sacrament Meeting in a ward where you can often hear a pin drop. Cole likes to make his fish that his Grandma sent him “talk” right in the middle of the sacrament. And I always thought fish were quiet animals!! Becky was enjoying “hiding” out from church callings by attending church with Chad. However, her days of hiding are over and she now has 2 callings and a third “unofficial”calling. I guess that is her punishment for hiding!!

Work is busy for Chad. Having four bosses around the Athletic Department these days is much more complicated than just one boss. But he still seems to enjoy it most days and is doing a good job of keeping BYU from further compliance issues. Becky is still teaching one class a semester. It gets her out of the house and teaches Cole how to play nicely with others. He does make his Mom feel good when he cries every time she returns home, even if he has been playing and having a great time just before he sees her.

We miss seeing all of you, but enjoy the few minutes we get to spend with various family members every now and then; in particular, we enjoy our visits with Grandma. We would love to have any of you come use our spare bedroom any time you would like!! Chad might even be able to throw in tickets to a BYU sporting event of your choosing. We would especially like to invite all of you to come visit about the time that we are going to be putting in our yard!!