Just some highlight photos . . .

One of our many times "eating out" while living in hotels during our move across the country this fall. Chase just wouldn't give up that corn on the cob!

Chase's favorite thing about the hotels was the "buttons" on the elevator & the sliding closet doors. He would grab you by the hand & want you to sit in the closet with him while he played with the toys he stashed there. This is Jeff & Chase sitting in one of the closets.

When we moved into our apartment, the new fascination became the empty kitchen cabinets. Chase loved to climb in and out of them . . . and he loves his new bedroom closet with a sliding door!

Another new fascination . . . the new washer & dryer. Chase loves to help put the clothes in the washer & dryer and will sit and watch the washing cycle.

This boy really loves his soccer ball! One of our favorite things is when he throws both hands straight up in the air and yells "GOAL"! You'd think we spent time teaching him that, but we didn't. He surprised us by doing it out of the blue one day . . . must've been from the time he spent watching Jeff's soccer games last fall.

Oh what fun a pack of toilet paper can be! Chase got his hand stuck inside the roll!

Chase likes to spend more time on "laps" these days since he sees his sister getting all the attention that way.

New pictures of Elesiv . . . 2 1/2 weeks old.

Cross-country move & a new baby

Chase got to ride with "dad" in the van . . . they made quite a mess, but had a good time! The trip involved many, many viewings of Backyardigans, lots of re-filled sippy cups, and good snacks.

We wanted to do some sight-seeing, but the only thing we really did was a trip inside the St. Louis arch. It was an overcast day & we were the only ones at the top when we were there. We also got to pay a visit to my cousin & her family in Kansas City which was the highlight of the trip. We got to visit, go to her baby shower (our due dates were just days apart!) and Chase got to play with her daughter, which he loved!


The day after arriving in Colorado, we realized that finding a house in time for the arrival of the baby just wasn't going to happen. With the advice of our great realtor & friend, we decided to move into an apartment so we could be settled somewhere when the baby arrived & wait for our house to sell before taking on an additional mortgage. We moved into our apartment just a few days later, the day before Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving, I went into labor (Friday night) and Elesiv May Milius was born on Saturday at about 11am. She was born a full 2 weeks early and weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz and is just perfect. How thankful we were that we were settled somewhere & had a place to bring her home to. The movers arrived with our stuff on Monday (the day we were discharged from the hospital), and so we had a real bed to sleep in that night! For those who know how my delivery with Chase (first baby) went -- it was very, very difficult -- this was so much easier! 15 minutes of pushing, an epidural that worked, and she popped out on her own (no vacuum this time). I felt pretty good afterwards (considering I had just had a baby) and am up and doing things, trying not to overdo it. Soooooo grateful for such an easier delivery!

How grateful we were that we had attended church the week before in the area of our new apartment (even though we didn't know for sure that we'd be moving into that apartment). We were invited over to eat Sunday dinner that day with some people we met at church who were such a blessing for us through everything. They watched Chase when we headed to the hospital at 3am on Saturday morning & helped out all through the weekend, even picking us up at the hospital on Monday while Jeff stayed home to work with the movers.

My mom was scheduled to come & visit this week to help unpack our house since I was supposed to be soooo pregnant. Instead, she is now helping with unpacking our house & taking care of a new baby. I don't know how we would have been able to do all this without her!

Its amazing to me how everything can come together to work so perfectly when we don't know the beginning from the end. Throughout this whole experience, I have felt truly blessed and know that our Heavenly Father has been looking out for us & helping these tough times to be as easy as possible for us.

Here are some pictures of our little Elesiv! Chase just loves his new little sister & is adjusting pretty well (though there have been a few little tantrums), especially with a new house to get adjusted to & living in chaos & boxes!

Homemade Mashed Potatoes

I should've done this earlier in the week, but we've been so busy getting moved that I didn't think about it until today. One of my specialties that I love to make for Thanksgiving (or anytime) is homemade mashed potatoes. They're always a hit & so I thought I'd share my recipe with you:

5 lbs russet potatoes
1 stick of butter or margarine
16 oz. sour cream (can use light or fat free)
salt, black pepper, & garlic powder to taste

Peel & cut potatoes into small pieces -- I cut them into half, then half again, so that now you have quarters, then cut each quarter into 3 or 4 pieces. Boil until fork inserts easily. Drain potatoes & put in a large mixing bowl with butter & sour cream, then mix (with an upright or handheld mixer) or mash until well blended & mashed. Add salt, pepper & garlic powder until they taste just how you'd like them. Tasty enough to eat without adding anything at the table (butter, gravy, etc.)!

5 days & counting

Yep, 5 days until the movers are supposed to come (next Thursday). Our list is a mile long & we're crossing things off one at a time but it still seems like so much to get done. At least they'll be packing us up, but there really is so much that has to be done in preparation for them to pack us, like making sure we have everything set aside that we'll need from the time they pack us up until we get our stuff . . . and we don't know when that will be.

I'm really feeling this last month of pregnancy & starting to re-think the idea of traveling across the country at this stage in a pregnancy. Guess its too late for that! But I am doing some things to try to make it easier. I've never hired help for house cleaning before, but after the movers pack us up, I'm refusing to do the clean-up that needs to be done to get our house ready to rent or sell, so I'm going to hire someone to do it for me & not feel guilty about it one bit. We'll also hire carpet cleaners as opposed to doing it ourselves (like we've always done before). Yes, things will be a little more expensive than doing it ourselves, but the weight lifted off my shoulders is huge!

Tomorrow, we're actually taking a break! Jeff has watched on tv & always been interested in Punkin Chunkin which is only about an hour drive from us. We've wanted to go since we found out it takes place in Delaware, but every year something has come up (fertility treatments, difficult pregnancy, Jeff was out of the country, etc.). We were thrilled when we found out we'd barely be able to fit it in before our move, so we'll take a day to relax & have fun tomorrow & then we'll be back at it again!

Halloween!

We enjoyed getting Chase dressed up and going to the "trunk or treat" & Halloween party at the church last night. It was lots of fun & Chase had a blast. He must've really gotten worn out because his usual internal alarm clock that doesn't go past 8am, went clear until 9:45 this morning!

I grew up with home-made costumes & always loved them so I was determined to do the same for Chase even though we got home from a trip to Colorado late on Thursday & I had to do last minute scrambling to get something together for him. Jeff is the artist, though, so he drew the muscles on the shirt, put together a much more stable barbell than what I had constructed, and even drew on the mustache. I just had to run around town & try to find a long sleeve white onesie -- more difficult than you might think! This one was a turtleneck in the girl's section at Kohls!

One picture standing still was the best we could get! Believe it or not, sticking the barbell between his teeth, was Chase's idea -- goofball!

Baby Shower

Thank you, thank you, to all my friends from church who organized & came to a baby shower to help us get ready for the arrival of our little girl in just 8 short weeks! We've been so consumed with getting ready for our cross-country move that we haven't taken the time to do much of anything for this baby, but now we have some clothes & some excitement over all things pink, flowery, and just plain girl-y! I'm definitely more in the mood now to start getting ready for this baby & we might even start talking about name possibilities again or start shopping for crib bedding and a few more clothes for when she first comes home! Thanks to everyone who came & for the adorable clothes & other gifts!

I just don't understand & Uprooted audition video!

I went to Kohls yesterday in search of something new (in the maternity section) to wear. I came out empty-handed, yet again, but spent some time browsing the store while I was there. I was astonished to find that the shoe section was divided into "juniors" and "womens". I had never seen that before, so I thought I'd check things out. The juniors section was full of the cutest shoes & I thought, "Am I too old to wear these?" I figured the womens section would have maybe just a more refined version of those cute shoes, but when I got there, there was only maybe 1 pair of shoes that I even liked. Interesting change to the shoe department . . . wonder how that came about?

At least it gave us something to do. Chase came along & had a great time in the Kohls forward facing cart which was good since he's been rebelling against grocery carts & strollers these days. He also loved pulling the shoe boxes out as we went down the aisles. We took our time so that Jeff could put together some parts of our audition video for a new HGTV show called, Uprooted. We finished off the video after Chase went to bed last night. Here's how it turned out: