Little Rose

1 week later and we are officially fatigued, confused, and more happy than we have ever been. This week has been crazy with new baby, Christmas, and family and friends. We finished the week and are now ready to settle down and be a family of three.

Little Rose is already 8 days old and doing extremely well. Baby Milmonster's internet name is Little Rose. Sorry for those who want her full name, Rose is her middle name. Leave your email address and we will let you know. Here are a few pictures of our little miss for your enjoyment. She was a little jaundice for the first few days and had to stay under the lights for about 24 hours. Once she got use to it, we think she liked it. Nice and warm and she got a tan!

Sleepy girl. One of the many faces she makes after eating. See how tiny her fingers are next to daddy's ring.
By the way...we have been married 3 years today! Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

Meet baby Milmonster

Well yesterday at 7:48pm Baby Milmonster made her way out of the mother ship with a weight of 6lb 11oz and a height of 18.5 in. Its to bad that sheet is covering part of her head... it keeps going and going, the little cone head.

This is after her bath. She is wearing her Santa hat.
She had this expression on her face for about a half an hour last night before we went to bed. she's a cutie.Here are my girls! looking so nice

Well here is the video as requested by Lil'mil Mom. Baby Milmonster doesn't do much yet but there is a yawn in there.


FEETS

Beware the perfect gift...

So my Brother sent this to me (from his I-Phone)<-he loves his I-phone. I think this pretty much sums everything up.

First Offensive - Operation Eject

So as the baby ticker indicates, there are Zero days left... So I decided to take matters into my own hands. So last night we went to some friends house to eat hot wings. The idea was to more or less "smoke 'er out"... that didn't really work. The wings were dang good though. After that I took matters into my own hands once more and attempted to ancient art of acupressure.

I bet there is a subtle art to it that I just haven't figured out yet. Either way, the wife seemed to enjoy it. After that my camera was hijacked. I thought the best revenge would be to publish the resulting pictures on the Internet.
You cant tell it in this picture but Roundy #1 is actually bald. Roundy #2 is not bald, and also against camera terrorism.
B & B were trying to imagine what their baby might look like. Just add the lower left side of his face the the upper right side of her face and you can almost see it.

That's it. Hopefully then next post will have pictures of Baby Milmonster!

The Waiting Game

Well, here we are...9 1/2 months pregnant and still waiting to hear about dental school. It seems like all we have been doing for 9 months is waiting on both of these exciting occurrences. The baby is not too far off however and definitely will come. Dental school on the other hand is a little less concrete. Maybe if the hub had a belly full of dental school admission papers and could deliver at any moment we would feel a little better. As he does not, we are still waiting. He is on the next to be contacted list in Louisville and is in good standing there. As for Lincoln and Creighton we have not gotten a rejection which is positive and will wait for the next round of admittance. We will see in the next few months what life brings us. The hub waiting oh so patiently. The wife waiting (maybe not so patiently).

Crayon Art!!

Here are some pictures from school. They were up on the fridge for a while, the hub got mad when I took them down, so now they will live forever in the blogdome.

I don't smell anything

So tonight I was at the laundry mat, while the wife was at her exercise for 2 class. The place was pretty much empty, accept for me, and the attendant lady. Since I was more or less alone on my side of the laundry mat I saw no reason to be uncomfortable... so I pretty much let my gastrointestinal track run wild. They were pretty bad but, no one was around so I didn't think much of it. Then the attendant lady came around the corner, she was mopping the floor. She stopped, took a few steps, backed up and then started smelling the drain on the floor.
"I think some sewer gasses are coming up through the vent" she says to her self in her southern accent. Then she said it again louder. "Do you smell that?" looking at me, "some sewer gasses must be coming up out of the drain."
"I have a cold" I reply "I don't smell anything"
"Your lucky, It's pretty bad. I'm going to dump some bleach down the drain, see if that fixes it. That's the strangest thing."
"yeah... weird..." I said.
I tried really hard to control myself the rest of my time at the laundry mat.

Happy Halloween

It's Pumpkin time!

We had our annual pumpkin carving extravaganza last week. Our first was back in high school and was one of our first dates. These are our two pumps.This year we had the Laramie crowd over.

It was a lot of fun. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to take a picture so that the pumpkins are glowing and so you can see peoples faces...this was our best attempt. We kind of all turned into jack-o-lanterns ourselves.

The Giant Turtle

Meet one of my earliest Childhood memories!

THE Giant Turtle

I was surprised when we went down to do some interviews in Nebraska with the amount of detail I remembered about my early childhood home in Village Green. I knew exactly where the "big hill" was but I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to discover the reality of my memories...

Not so Giant now are you?

Other than the disappointment of not seeing a seven foot tall giant concrete turtle the trip was a success. We save a bit of money staying with friends (thanks Davis') and at the "Economy Lodge" (what a dump...never stay there).

Interviews went well and I think I could be happy at either school. (He did so well on his interviews. We loved both schools and had a great time in Nebraska).

Baby Update and Naked Neighbor

Baby Update:
At almost 30 weeks, I'm feeling pretty good. I've already gained the desired amount of weight I wanted to so that's a bummer with still 10 weeks left, but my husband still thinks I'm beautiful so I'll live. My exercise instructor broke her foot a few weeks ago so I'm missing my fit for 2 class and the benefits of going each week. The hub has been very good at taking me on walks but I already bought some Halloween candy. I could not resist. My class is wonderful and they always ask about my "baby belly". One of my students from last year likes to poke and poke and poke. He thinks it is quite neat that a fat belly is so hard. Here's me looking tired but healthy. This was at 28 weeks so I'm a little bigger already. Who would have thought that maternity clothes could be too small!?! I should have listened to my wise mother who told me to buy the next size up even though it was too big at the time.

Here is the hub trying unsuccessfully to be as cool as me...This morning the baby was kicking at his face as he was talking to her. It was pretty funny.

Naked Neighbor

The greatly anticipated story of naked neighbor. Everyone says it sounds like a Seinfeld episode. Sorry to disappoint people but it is not that entertaining. So, here it is...One night while in the kitchen, I glimpsed out of the window and saw our neighbor brushing his teeth (fully clothed). The previous neighbors left the blinds closed all the time so I never thought of not looking or closing our curtains. I thought to myself, I hope he closes those before he is caught in his birthday suit. Well, no such luck. A few nights later, the hub and I were in the kitchen. I looked over his shoulder and saw the same neighbor brushing his teeth. To my dismay, this time there was a visible male organ! I screamed and ran to the other side of the kitchen, out of sight from the window. The hub turned, looked, and started laughing. He closed the curtain and it has been closed ever since (except to take the picture during the day). The bad part is the neighbor's blinds are still open. The funniest part is that the hub has a class with him! Oh, the joys of life.

Muffin

Before... After... (It looks worse that it really is)

So at the end of the summer Hoss turned me on to a new way to spend my money (which he doesn't have). Building RC airplanes. This is yet again another hobby that my bro-inLaw has gotten me into. Hoss had recently built and RC park Jet. I watched him fly it for about 45 seconds and I was hooked. (it would have been longer but a gust of wind pushed it to the ground breaking the fuselage into a bagillion pieces {actually just two}). He had some extra foam, so I downloaded some plans from RCPowers and made my first RC airplane. It took awhile (mostly because I didn't have anything of my own and had to wait for parts) but at the end of August Muffin was finished. I impulsively flew her right away the day happened to be very windy... about 15 seconds later Muffin, was dead... she did a nose dive at Mach 0.0197 and was left with a smashed front end.

I didn't think to take a picture of my pain... any way I fixed her up nicely a few days later. Unfortunately for her I plugged my motor into the binding pin slot on my transmitter... it naturally did not work so I started flipping switches and turning my controller on and off. I some how sent a signal through the binding pin slot and the plan took off full tilt in the kitchen, smashing into the fridge. I had to re-build her again.

Finally yesterday she was once again ready to fly.

I forgot to turn off the prop before she hit the ground, so I think that is the reason why it broke again. Don't worry she is already fixed up again!

So the wife is making fun of me because my airplane is a girl. She says boats are girls planes aren't.

Back to the Grind

School started on the same day for both of us and we are both pretty busy. The hub is taking many classes to get a head start for next semester when he gets to play Mr. mom for a few months. He now has four interviews for dental school. We are really excited about that. So far we have Louisville, Arizona, Creighton, and Lincoln on the list. Lots of traveling coming up. On the first day of school I found out that I could not teach preschool in the same classroom as kindergarten. At first I was very stressed out about this, shed some tears and had a fit in the Principal's office. They wanted me teaching kindergarten 3/4 of the time and preschool 1/4 of the time in another classroom all together. Not happening! So, finally we are hiring for the preschool job and my job is all of a sudden a lot simpler. Now I am only teaching kindergarten and have 7 kids! I know, its incredible. Rose thinks that I will never be able to teach in a regular size classroom. She is probably right. Here are some pictures of the classroom for all my teacher friends.

Stay tuned for future posts:

Belly Update

Naked Neighbor

RC airplane flight take 2

Boy or Girl?

Boy oh boy...

Its a girl!!!

The pictures are in and we are officially having a girl! We are so excited to finally know what our baby is. In an instant it became more real than I ever thought possible. Our little 14 1/2 cm and 11 oz baby is a girl. She is perfectly normal from what they can tell. She wasn't posing for the camera so the pictures are a little strange but the hub has put together a great video. Also, here's a picture of my growing belly between 20 and 21 weeks.

Opry-Land

What is Opry I'm not sure, and what it has to do with country music is also unknown. But apparently its a big deal to those in Tennessee. Last week the wife and I went to Nashville, TN to some teacher reading deal (National Reading First Conference). We stayed at the "gayest lord" or Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. It was pretty much a giant bird cage with many overly expensive restaurants. This picture was from inside one of the giant gardens. Honestly, this place was pretty impressive and huge. Notice, the glass ceiling in the background. This was 56 acres of fake rain forests and "Disneyland" like town squares (without the pirates). We never could have afforded this place on our own. Thanks school district!

While we were there while the wife was in meetings all day, I hung out in the giant bird cage and even escaped a few times and saw the Dark Knight at the IMAX theatre. If you have the chance and choice, go IMAX. We also went to a neat seafood restaurant in a giant aquarium. This lady was actually petting this fish (it was like a dog, following her around and rolling on its side). After we ate, we fed a pool of stingrays. The wife got a little more than she expected with this one...

We even went to the Grand Ole Opry one night. Check out our pirated video of some of the talent we saw. Among the 8 artists during the night we got to see Keith Anderson, Rodney Atkins, and Trace Adkins (no relation). The hub really liked the buckaroo song from Rodney Atkins. He'll get his own buckaroo or buckaroo'a' in a few months!

One night we rode on the biggest showboat in the world. I spit on the paddle wheel! We bought tickets for just the outer deck but halfway through the ride it started raining and so they invited us in to see the show. We got to see Tina Turner, Elvis, and Elton John up close and personal as there was an empty table in the front. Those are the smoke stacks in the back. Overall we had a really good time in Opryland. No pictures of this one, but on the plane ride home the wife got really sick and had to throw up in the barf bag. Those things work pretty good. Nice and roomy. I wanted to take a picture but she wouldn't have it. Poor Sweetie. (Yeah, poor sweetie). If anyone knows was opry means let us know! I thought it might be a kind of cheese but we did see any cheese in opryland.

The wife's Reading First soap box: For those of you out there interested in education (have children or will ever have children) we are encountering a critical point in reading instruction. Congress has already cut 60% of funding and will not renew the No Child Left Behind bill this year. I have been teaching in a reading first school and have seen the positive and remarkable difference this has made in the lives of so many of our students. Without this money, millions of our young children will be left without this great reading instruction. Write to your state officials telling them you support the Reading First initiative. If you have any questions let me know.

Surprise!

It's hard not to want to do something special for your parents when they are so wonderful and give you everything you could possibly need or want. Last weekend we threw a surprise party for my parents 30th wedding anniversary. It was great and everything worked out so smoothly. My grandparents came up and took them out to dinner. Everyone was at the house on time and my parents loved it all. The only upsetting part of the party was when my mom walked in the door about 2 minutes before my dad! We had two surprises. Thankfully, the first surprise didn't ruin the next. So many people showed up and drove from long distances to come. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a great night for my parents! Here are some pictures from the evening thanks to my wonderful aunt (our camera ran out of batteries during the first surprise).

We love you mom and dad! Everybody waiting for the happy couple.

The 1st surprise!

My grandparents look just as surprised but I swear they knew what was going on. The 2nd surprise! Giving of the gift. We got them Rockies tickets. Have fun at the game!

I hate speeches. Everybody but my dad was teary eyed. He's a hard shell to crack but we could all tell they were both very touched.

In the background you can see the fruits of my labor with my first ever carrot cake.
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Thank you for your example of a truly happy couple and how hard work and partnership in a marriage can bless a family forever.

So Many Adventures!

We have been incredibly busy over the last month. Sorry for the lack of posts but I promise, this giant post will make up for it. Get ready for some Milmonster fun...

We spent a week in Cheyenne with our family. Lil'mil came down and we were able to babysit him while his parents left. What great experience...although I'm glad our baby won't be able to walk right away. Lil'mil's favorite words are "water", "mmm" when he wants something you have, and "wow". Lil'mil loves the camera and will stop and make cheesies whenever one is around.

He loved Grandma's new foot massager and it didn't take him long to discover how to turn it on. This is such a funny video.


After Cheyenne it was DAT time and the hub struggled to get ready (he had been studying for over a month). We decided to make a trip out of it so we went down to Denver the night before and stayed with my grandparents. They are so much fun to be around but we don't have any pictures. The hub did great on the DAT. He got a average score of 17 and a PAT of 22. The 17 is an average score for most people and the 22 is excelent. The peanut and I are so proud of him! To celebrate we went to a spa in Denver and he received a most spectacular massage.

The next day was the 4th of July. Our friends from Greeley came up with their three kids and we were able to spend time with them. Sorry, once again no pictures. They took the pics so we might have to post them later.

The next day it was off to Utah! Since our Hawaii trip with Kristen and Drew didn't work out, we decided to hit up some sights in Utah and see the Grand Canyon instead. Not the the best alternative for a great Hawaii trip but definitely a whole lot cheaper.

Here are the highlights... St. George temple...so beautiful but too bad it was closed for cleaning that week. St. George is a nice place but I think it should be illegal for people to live there in the summer. 115 degrees...no thank you. We went to the Grand Canyon. The hub had never been there and it had been at least 10 years for me. What a gorgeous and amazing place. The Creator had fun with this one. We were able to camp that night in great weather. I was very sad to leave and could have stayed there for the rest of the trip.


After the Grand Canyon we went to Zion's National Park. Also, a remarkable place made by prehistoric sand dunes. We hiked the Narrows, which literally means in the river. I was a little skeptical at first but with the heat it was so nice and we had a blast, mostly watching the boys try to go deeper in the water. The hub always has to climb something. If you look close, you can check a glimpse of my growing belly. Already 4 1/2 months along! The boys in the water.
That night we stayed with the hub's family in St. George. It was great to be able to spend time with them and get to know them better. Thanks Smith's for letting us all stay! The boys decided they wanted to do another hike the next day, Angel's Landing. Kristen, blistered feet and a cold, and me, already too tired and having a lot of online class work to do, decided to stay back. Here are a few pics from their hike. This next one makes me so nervous. What were they thinking..."just a giant cliff on both sides, I think i'll take a little nap." This would have never been allowed if I had come. They had more fun without us girls. We went back to Provo that night and stayed for another day. It was fun just to hang out. The hub helped Kristen make some of our yummy cinnamon rolls. We even got to have dinner with one of the hub's mission companions and his wife. Fun trip but i'm glad to be home and able to get things done around the house. We find out the baby's sex the first week of August so be looking for that post!

More pictures of the hub trying to climb something...