Happy birthday Travis!

Travis turned 25 this month!!! Rhett took a really good nap on the morning of his birthday, so I was able to finish the cake. It worked out perfect! For his birthday we hung out as a family all day. We went to the golf course and bought his present - a season pass & unlimited driving range pass. Travis is so anxious to go golfing! In the evening we had the Krupa's over and ate cake and hung out. It also snowed, which did not make Travis happy at all! Haha! He wants to golf so bad!! Tomorrow will be his day to go. The golf course opened today. The weather is finally warming up and most of the snow is gone. He'll be happy to get out on the course!! Happy birthday babe!!

Rhett's blessing day

Here are pictures from Rhett's blessing day, and all the family that came for it! It was a great day and we were so grateful to have family there to share it with us!

Lovena, Grandma Annette, Brett, Brooke, Grandma Lovena, and Grandpa Martin 

 Grandma Annette

Grandma and Grandpa Clark 

Family picture

Our new life!

 We sure love our little boy! For me, the first month was rough. Rhett was eating pretty much all of the time and I was exhausted! After the first week he slept pretty good at night, only getting up 2 or three times, but the days were long. At one month I talked with some friends that had recently had babies that told me about a book called BabyWise. I read it and implemented the routine right away. The days got much better after that. I feel there are some ways we are still getting to know each other, but for the most part we have each other figured out. Here are some fun pictures of our little guy!!!

 His first bath!

 One of the few times he took a pacifier. He's not into rubbery things being in his mouth. In fact, it usually just makes him mad when we try.

 I love seeing my boys snuggling!

This was just one of those times that we just happened to snap the picture at the right time! Haha! We love Rhett's face in this picture. He sure was a tired boy!

Rhett loves bath time! 

 This was taken right after we got home from church. Loving the scowl! 

 He's always a tired boy when we get home. Such a cute yawn!

Fortunately we were home....... 

 I just can't get enough of this adorable face!! 

The Story of Baby Rhett! (his birth story)

I thought I'd post a couple pictures from just before I had Rhett. I felt huge and was very uncomfortable!! 

This was taken the day before I had him. 

Now for the story of when Rhett was born... 

We went to the doctors on Thursday, January 3 for a normal appointment. We talked about our options, and with Travis starting school the next week and me already being 1cm dilated and 90% effaced, we decided that I'd be induced the next day. We were to call the hospital at 5am and see when they'd be able to fit us in. When we called they said to call back in 4 hours, as they had some people come in and they were pretty full. We called at 9am and they said to call in another 4 hours. Long story short, we ended being able to go in at 8pm. We get there and they have me put the gown on. They got the IV started and then mentioned that they were going to start pitocin. We corrected them and told them that our Doctor was going to break my water first to see if things would get started by doing that. Doctor came and broke my water at 9pm. We then waited.... Nothing really happened so we decided to get up and walk around to see if things would start happening. We walked around for a couple hours and finally I started having regular contractions. After another hour or so the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 4. The contractions were getting more and more uncomfortable so I decided to get an epidural. The epidural slowed down the contractions and so then I was given some pitocin. For hours it was just the waiting game. I tried to get some rest, but I had a blood pressure monitor on my arm checking me every 15 minutes which made it really hard to get any rest. At 9am I was checked and told that I was dilated to a 10 and ready to start pushing. From 9am to 11:47am I pushed. Pushing was different than I thought it would be. I had only seen what happens in movies and such. It was very calm. I would push about three times with each contraction. The first few times I tried pushing four times, but it made me light headed so I knew it was too much. Pushing three times was even tough. To help make sure I got enough oxygen between contractions I chose to be hooked up to oxygen. The mask smelled VERY plasticy, but I was willing to deal with it for the extra oxygen. Since I had an epidural I was not prepared to feel any pain, but the last 20 minutes of pushing I had some. The doctor said it was good because then I could really focus my pushing, but I thought otherwise!!! Haha! During the pushing the doctor told me he was going to have to make a little room for our little guy to come out (meaning he needed to do an episiotomy). Oh my goodness, I was so nervous for that. Surprisingly though, I didn't feel him do it. Apparently when your skin is stretched to the max you can't feel stuff like that. Ha! Who would have thought! Well, finally our little Rhett Timothy Miller entered the world - at 11:47am on January 5, 2013!!! Travis got to cut the umbilical cord and then they laid him on my chest. The nurses jostled him around a bit, wiping him off and checking him out. After 2 hours and 47 minutes of pushing, it was so wonderful to finally have our little boy in my arms! While I held him close I got stitched up, as I had an episiotomy and then also tore. I was able to hold him on me for about an hour or so, after which the nurses wrapped him up so Travis could hold him. 

It was sure a tiring day! Especially since I had not slept much the night before. After things calmed down and the epidural and worn off, it was time for me to try and go to the bathroom and rinse off in the shower. I thought I'd just be able to get up and head into the bathroom, no big deal. I most certainly was nervous about sitting upright (with having the stitches and the pain). I asked the nurse if I could just skip the sitting up part and roll out of bed instead. She informed me that it would be better to move slowly in case I got dizzy. IN CASE??? Oh my goodness! It took me about an hour to go 5 feet. Actually it took me about an hour just to get on my feet. I would keep sitting up and laying down. Once I got to the point where I could sit up, I kept standing up and sitting down. I would get so dizzy every time I stood up. Sometimes I'd have to go from standing to laying so I didn't pass out. It was awful! Even once I got into the bathroom Travis had to support me most of the time. I did OK sitting on the toilet, but when I needed to stand up to get rinsed off in the shower Travis had to support me. Travis stood outside the shower while I stood in the shower leaning out with my arms around him and him basically holding me up. The nurse rinsed me off real quick and then that was done. I was so happy to have it done with! I then got in a wheel chair and we went to a recovery room. I was so glad to be in the new room because the new bed was so much more comfortable!! The new bed made to move worth it!! I got to spend the rest of the day trying to rest. It was hard though! All I wanted to do was hold our new little bundle of love! And of course, every little noise he made had us jumping to make sure he was ok.

Nursing was a little frustrating at times. We both were new at it and were trying to figure out how it worked the best and what positions were successful and what ones were not. We had it down before we left the hospital!!!

On Sunday we had some visitors come to the hospital. It was fun having them come and tell us how cute our little Rhett was! 

We sure loved our little guy from the moment we laid eyes on him! He is our whole world now and are loving everything about him!

Worst day of 2012

We moved to Rexburg at the end of December of 2011. For the whole year of 2012 we were blessed to  live next to Bobby, Heidi, and Cora. It took a couple months to get to know them and we did this by going to Bobby's basketball games, Heidi and I playing on the ward basketball team, borrowing a cup of sugar (or whatever else was needed at the time) here and there, Settlers of Catan, and many more things! Throughout the year we did many things together and became great friends! In December Bobby graduated (Congratulations again!) and therefore it was time for them to move out of Rexburg and pursue a job. I'm not much of an emotional person, but saying goodbye to them brought me to tears. It was hard to see them go and it still saddens me that they're gone.  Fortunately they just moved to UT so we can visit each other with just a short drive!!

(Clearly this picture was not taken in 2012, as Rhett is in it. I couldn't find a pic from when they lived in Rexburg. This picture was taken when they came for Rhett's baby blessing. Thanks so much for coming you guys! It meant a lot that you could share that day with us! We love you!)

Happy Anniversary

I'm finally getting around to updating our blog!! I've been meaning to do it since November 26, 2012. The reason for this is because Travis and I celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! Aside from being 8 months pregnant and extremely uncomfortable, we had a great anniversary!! My wonderful husband took me to see the new Twilight movie! It was kind of special to see it on our anniversary since we got to see one when we were on our honeymoon. We also went to Olive Garden for dinner. Last but not least, we went to the Rexburg Temple and did sealings. It was a wonderful way to celebrate!

Celebrating our anniversary really made me ponder and reflect on how lucky I am! Life has it's ups and downs, but in the end the Lord wants you to be happy! He gives you encouragement and promptings along the way to lead you to what will make you the happiest. I am truly the happiest I could be with my wonderful husband! I am so grateful for him!! I love you Travis!

(Wish I had taken a picture of us on our anniversary to share...I'll just let you all imagine!) :)