Here are some more recent pictures of the kids.

I love love love this one of Millie!  Already such a flirt.  She already smiles and poses for the camera.  A born Diva.

The way the sun reflects in her eyes here makes it look like she has no iris.  Such a beautiful shade of blue.
I let her suck on an orange for her first taste of "real" food.  She chowed down!  I had to fish out a chunk that she was able to gumb off of the bigger piece.
Here is a picture of all three girl cousins.  For those who don't know, after a girl drought in our family of more than 11 years, these three beauties were all born this year, one to each sister.  And each one on the 29th of the month they were born in!  Sonnet, 1.29.08, Millie 10.29.08 and Lilly 12.29.08
Millie in her Easter dress.
Don't you just want to bite her cheek?  She is so pretty in this one!!
Milo and Millie visiting Great Grandma Allen the Saturday before Easter Sunday

I have a goofy little girl who likes to bend backwards and look at everyone that way.
Milo at the Easter egg hunt that Great Grandma Allen's retirement home sponsored.  Goofy face, handsome boy.

As many of you may know, we picked up and moved quite suddenly to Utah at the end of February.  There were many reasons why we moved and why we didn't tell anybody our plans until 2 weeks before, but our friends know our reasons.  Suffice it to say that even though moving was what we felt to be the right decision, it has been very difficult for me, and our whole family in general.  

The move itself with 2 children was as stressful as expected.  The day of the big pack it rained and rained all day.  Of course we didn't have everything as ready as I would have liked, but we had a good ward who really helped, the Elders Quorum men who packed and packed and packed and my friends Cindy and Dodie.  Cindy took Milo and Millie for a few hours so that I could concentrate on directing the whole thing, and Dodie came after the big pack to help clean and get all of the little stuff packed up while Ben drove me and the kids to the airport.  Thanks girls!!!  I flew out with both kids by myself and stayed with my wonderful in-laws while waiting for Ben to arrive.  Ben's brother Aaron flew out South to help with the move and drive the Volvo while Ben drove the van and towed the Hyundai.  Ben and Aaron drove out the next day and a huge freak snowstorm hit the south east which made the drive especially treacherous.  It also added on time to the already long drive.

The Tuesday after I had arrived in Utah, my Uncle Jim passed away which made me very sad.  He had been my music teacher in High School and a big musical influence in my life.  He had been sick for awhile, but not deathly so, so when he passed it felt very sudden.  His funeral was held the next Friday, so not soon after we had arrived, we packed up again for a trip to Colorado.

We didn't have our apartment secured when we moved, but felt that we were going to get in OK, and we did.  However the living space was A LOT smaller than our old space,  we can't even fit both of our couches in our living room!  The garage that I was so excited about is filled with boxes of things we can't fit into our rooms.  But it doesn't really matter because the garage door doesn't work, and we are still waiting for it to be fixed.  That's what you get when you move into cheapy cheapo housing.  

The Sunday after we moved in (but before we went to Colorado) Ben decided to put the TV mount on the wall.  He got his stud finder out and found several studs to drill into and proceeded to drill right into a water pipe!  It began to gush water everywhere.  Ben went right away to find the shut off valve, but there wasn't one for the particular pipe he hit (of course!), so he called for me (I had been napping) and I came down to the sight of water spraying onto my piano!!!!  We ran around looking for the shut off valve and then when we couldn't find one anywhere we called 911.  They gave me the number to the water company, but it still took them 30 minutes to come.  The biggest save came after I had prayed for help and got an idea (imagine that! ;} ) to put a hose of some kind up to the hole and direct the water out the window.  Our neighbors happened to have a garden hose and were able to direct the water out, so that we were saved about 15-20 minutes of gushing pouring water inside the house.  When the water company came they realized that they would have to shut off the water main, so the WHOLE apt. complex's water was shut off while we got things fixed.  After the water was turned off, it was a pretty quick fix of the pipe and we were left with an enormous mess.

We were still unpacked with boxes everywhere, and had to cram everything into our tiny dining area and kitchen, while we proceeded to use a steam vac and shop vac to pull water out of the carpet.  My in-laws brought those two vacuums and took my son to my sisters house for an impromptu sleep-over, and I finally sat down and cried.  I called my friend Tina and she let me freak out on her until I felt a little better.  We learned an invaluable lesson that day, before drilling holes into drywall, hammer a nail in, and if you hear a "ting-ting" DO NOT DRILL!

So for the next week we ate frozen dinners on our bed upstairs because I couldn't really use our kitchen or dining room.

After we got back from the Colorado trip the carpet was dry enough to move everything back, so we were able to get some living space.  But Ben had to start working right away, so we still have boxes to unpack and pictures to hang etc.

I have much more to write and new pictures to post, but I can't find the cable to download the pictures onto the computer.  So that will have to wait.  Sooner or later I will find it and we will be back in business.

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Utah

Dinner with the siblings

Service project with my family

Millie's Blessing

Aaron's wedding

Here are some new pictures of all of us.  While my friend Tina was visiting we had our family pictures taken.  I think this one of Milo looks like a headshot.  Some say he has "Edward" hair, and others say he looks like that guy from the Alltell commercials!

Here is Miss Millie in her Christmas dress.

You can see her blue eyes really well in this shot.

And here is the family picture.

We had another pose that was not as Christmasy,

but Ben was doing something funny

and he ended up looking like Christian Slater.

He was leaning forward with one eyebrow up...

Ba-rother!

Oh and the stockings that I put on Millie were supposed to fit her,

But as you can see.......

Here is a close up of  Millie at One month old

I had to take a picture of her in her cowboy boots.

How cute!  Thanks Auntie Blythey for the shoes!!

OK, so if you haven't guessed by now, I have had my baby.   

I know, I know, it's been about a month and a half and no post or pictures.... but I seriously underestimated how intense it would be.  Milo by himself was a full time job, and now I have a baby to protect from his overwhelming love!

So anyway, here's the scoop on the birth.

I opted to be induced a week early for a couple of reasons.  First, because I was worried that the later I went, the more likely it would be that I would have to have a C-section and I did NOT want that.  Second, because I had been in pain for so long ( I couldn't walk or stand for even short periods of time without getting charlie-horses in my groin so bad that I would fall over), I just wanted to get it over with.

Because I was induced I decided to have an epidural.  I thought it was interesting.  With Milo, I was determined to have the birth completely natural and it was painful, exhausting and totally worth all of the effort. I felt like I had really accomplished something miraculous.  But afterward I was so spent and I didn't really have a chance to recover.  I couldn't really get rest in the hospital, my Mom had to leave the day after I came home and Ben had to go back to work immediately, and Milo was super Colicky right off the bat.  

 With the epidural I was able to sleep the night before, I couldn't even feel my contractions and I only pushed 3 times before Millie was born.  The only things that I didn't like about the epidural were the fact that it didn't even feel like I had given birth (all of the sudden I had a baby!), my right leg went spastic when the medicine was wearing off and I accidently kicked my nurse in the shoulder, and I think it was the medicine that made me throw up so many times.  I still didn't get any sleep in the hospital.  By the way... I HATE Forsyth Hospital!!!!  Someone always sticking or checking or giving medicine just after you drift off.  And the fire alarm kept going off..... at least this time my room didn't smell like pee.

So, I guess I'm not sold on either way, natural or medicated.  It just depends on how I feel when the day comes I guess.

Anyway, I will post some pictures of her from the day she was born  and then later I will update with new pictures... you know how much they change in a month!

So sad.......Milo killed our fish Spot yesterday.

We were both napping and he got up earlier than I did. He can be quite sneaky when he wants to be, and this time he wanted to play with the fish I think. So he pulled up his red chair (which is a retro-style higher chair with a footstool built in) and pulled it up to the counter where the fish tank was. Of course, I had left a small bottle of bubble solution out nearby (my counters have been a little cluttered as of late) and Milo poured it into the fish tank. I think he wanted to give the fish a bubble bath!!

When I woke up and came out into the living room, I saw him pouring bubble solution onto the floor. There was only a little bit, so I assumed that there hadn't been much in there in the first place. If I had known what Milo had done, I would have tried to rescue poor Spot.

Later Ben noticed the fish floating upside down, and we couldn't figure out why he had died. That is, until we poured the contents of the fish tank into the toilet and it got super sudsy!! It only took me a moment to figure out what had happened. I felt really bad that I had unknowingly let my son torture our fish to death. We will be getting a new fish, but will wait until after Christmas. I don't want to worry about getting someone to fish-sit while we visit family for the holidays.