Celebrations and Crops

This past weekend was a fun weekend for all of us here at the Mills household: Mommy went to a 3 day crop fest (for those of you who don't use the term "cropping" on a regular basis it's a huge scrapbook event where you work on your scrapbook for all three days straight! Heaven for me!) in Park City, daddy went to the cabin with TJ and Derek and Easton spent the weekend with Grandma Coleen and Grandpa and Grandma Gilley. FUN HAD BY ALL!









Another milestone this week was that Easton turned 3 months yesterday. It's hard to believe 3 months have gone by. This month he's started to really become familiar with his surroundings, noticing people, the dogs, TV. He loves to watch CMT in the mornings and is just starting to get hooked on Baby Einstein. He's also be a well traveled kid - we made a trip to Iowa this month to visit all the grandparents. He was, of course, loved on by all of them! other fun stuff Easton's done this month - sticking his tongue out (he's infatuated with it), held his bottle by himself (only for a minute but hey it counts), scooting on both his tummy and his back - his legs are little machines and more smiling which will never get old!








Tomorrow we go get his professional 3 month pictures taken so look for those on Shutterfly. They are sure to be adorable because Serena is taking them AND because Easton's in them. :) Happy Wednesday!

Keeping up with Easton

It's been a fun-filled last couple of weeks with little Easton, with the exception of his 2 month checkup doctor appointment last week. He's doing so many new, fun things. It's crazy how fast he is growing up!

DISCOVERIES...

One of Easton's favorite things that he has discovered is his tongue. He LOVES to stick his tongue out at you when you are talking to him. I told Justin he has a Gene Simmons look going on there.

He is all about cooing these days. Justin will sit there and give him a coo and he will talk back with the same sort of sound. It's hilarious! He is a talking fool!

You can really tell he is starting to discover his hands. If you couldn't tell by the fact that he as them in his mouth ALL the time, you can tell by his cross-eyed look when they are up by his face.

DOCTOR...



Easton had his 2 month checkup last week. The stats are in and he is 13 lbs 10 oz and was 24 1/4 inches long. He also was due for shots and I was not looking forward to that and I wasn't the one getting the dang shots! It was about as bad as I was expecting it to be. He whaled! The good thing was that we had a great nurse. She went really fast (he had to get pricked 3 times) and got it over with fast! He was pretty fussy the rest of the evening but slept through the night that night which was more than I expected. Other news...the Doctor was impressed with his motor skills. She said he is doing stuff that a 4 month old does - holding his head up, sitting up on his arms and rolling over (even if he hasn't done it since last time). :) Looks like we are off to a good start!

VISITS...

Easton got to see Uncle Zach this weekend. He was in Hutch playing ball so we made the trip to Fun Valley to watch him play. Easton loved seeing his uncle. He was even more happy to see that Zach was sporting his name on his backpack because he loves him THAT much. ;)

It's been a fun couple of months and we are only looking forward to what's to come. He sure keeps us on our toes and we are loving every minute of it!






Here are some random pictures from the last couple of weeks...enjoy!

Baby on Board

At the end of July Easton, my mom and I made a trip out to Cincinnati for my friend Shelley's wedding...and we flew! What an experience with a 6 week old. Let me tell you, I am SOOO glad I had my mom with me.

We booked our flights out of Kansas City which was the half way point for me and mom so Easton and I loaded up Thursday morning and made the 3 hour drive to KC stopping in Olathe to have lunch with Uncle Zach. Easton did so good, he didn't even cry once on the way there. This was looking very good!

When we got to the airport we parked in the economy parking knowing full and well that we'd be taking a shuttle to the airport...this is when the fun started. Now, most of you know my mom pretty well so you can just imagine all of the crap we had between the two of us...and a baby! I'm sure all of the people on the bus were telling the driver to just drive right past us because it was going to take us forever to load up! Thankfully they stopped. It was a chaotic mess but we got our 2 HUGE bags, diaper bag, 2 purses, 1 carry on and stroller/car seat (with baby) loaded up. As the doors of the bus kept hitting me every time they opened (because there was nowhere for me to go with the stroller) I thought what are we getting ourselves into.

The next big hurdle was security. WOWZA! I felt like I was in a race! They are pushing people through so it was no light feat trying to get a baby through security. We had to take Easton out of his car seat, break down the stroller which meant taking the car seat out, pull out our electronics, get all liquids out of the diaper bad and carry ons and get our shoes in the bin. I felt exhausted after we got through.

The moment of truth was approaching...they were boarding. How was Easton going to do on the plane??? We got to our seats and sat down (with our load of stuff - everything but the kitchen sink) and waited for take off. As they started down the runway I got more nervous but I just held the pacifier in his mouth and had a bottle ready to go. Here it was...takeoff...and Easton didn't make a peep! In fact he went the whole plane ride, there and back, without ever crying. I was so proud of him (and relieved). I KNOW the looks people were giving me walking on a plane with a 6 week old. :)



THE WEDDING

The wedding and all the events that surrounded Shelley's wedding were just absolutely beautiful and so much fun! We spent our time rushing to complete last minute projects, getting pampered, taking sunset cruises on the Cincinnati river and riding in limos...all in part because of the amazing wedding event on Saturday night. I've been to quite a few wedding's and I've never seen a more beautiful wedding that Shelley and Joel's. It was so great to see them get married - I can see that Shell is so happy with him. I mean, she did jump up and down when they pronounced them husband and wife. :)

Here are some more pics from the wedding weekend. Thanks to Shelley, Joel and Shelley's parents for such a fun-filled weekend!

Back to work...off to Grandpa and Grandmas

I started back to work 2 weeks ago this Monday but my babysitter couldn't start until August 16th when her kids go back to school so my dad and Dianne were gracious enough to watch Easton for me 3 days a week for 2 weeks.



I've heard all the stories (and watched them too) of people that go back to work and it's just traumatic to leave your baby and they spend the day crying. That...was not me. Going back to work was a mix of emotions for me - sad to leave Easton but so very happy to get back to work and most importantly get a routine in place.



So Tuesday came, which was the first day I went into the office and dad and Dianne met me in Hesston. As I handed him over I felt a little sad and kissed him goodbye for a few minutes but then went to work and the day seemed to go much faster than I had expected. I only called twice (I think) and after a few days they even set up a camera in his crib so I could watch him while he slept.



I definitely think that because he was with family it made the sting of sending him off to a sitter much less than it will be when he goes to Jill's next week. We'll see...



Here's a look at Easton's last 2 weeks at Grandpa and Grandma Kovarna's:

This free scrapbook design generated with Smilebox

Easton is 2 months old!

They always tell you to cherish every moment becuase time flies and you really don't know until you are living it and let me tell you, it's so true! It seems like we were just coming home from the hospital and now my baby is 2 months old.

It's been so fun to watch him grow the last month. He's really starting to fill out going from that "I could quite possibly be breakable" look to "Let's Play!" look. Here's my top 10 favorite things I'm going to remember from this month:

10. Every time I get ready to feed Easton (as he's screaming so loud the people in the next town can hear him) he puts his hands by his mouth not letting you put the bottle in but gets so mad because he is SOOOO hungry. Silly boy!

9. I love just kissing on his little feet. There's nothing like baby feet.

8. He's holding his head up like such a big boy - he's been doing this literally from day 1 but now he moves around and is looking everywhere. We call him our little bobble head!

7. He is cooing up a storm. It's so funny when he all of the sudden lets out this big sigh of a coo. Too cute!

6. He loves to play on his play mats now. He beats the heck out of the frog (which Justin thinks looks scary and that's why he does it) and the rattle but he has a good time doing it.

5. I love that when we rock he puts his little head up in the nook of my chin and snuggles with me. LOVE THIS!

4. He's such a good baby - typically the only time he'll cry is when he needs changed or fed.

3. He LOVES bath time! Doesn't really like the whole getting OUT of the bath time though...

2. One of the best things to watch is when him and Justin are spending time together. It's fun to see how he just watches Justin (I'm sure a trend that's going to last for a long time).

1. He has really started to smile A LOT this month...this is probably my favorite thing. It melts my heart every time I'm holding him or playing with him and he looks at me and flashes a BIG smile. Ahhhh.

A day with Grandpa and Grandma

As I've mentioned to many of you in the near past, these days it just seems so hard to get things like cleaning house, thank you notes, work, ...a shower done these days with little Easton that an idea popped into my head a couple of weeks ago. Justin has been working right by his mom and dad's house all week so I thought what better opportunity for Easton and his grandparent's to get some one on one time than Saturday. Justin made the phone call and of course they were MORE than happy to take him for the day.

Saturday came and I had my list made of all the things I needed to do. The only thing on my list put there by Justin was to take a nap because he didn't want me to be "grumpy" anymore. Must be the lack of sleep these days turning me into a bear. :) 6:00am rolled around and he woke me up to get Easton ready to go. I got everything packed up, the diapers, the bottles, the formula, change of clothes....all there. I hated to say goodbye to my baby but it was a much welcomed day to myself. As they drove off I was so sad but kept it together and went back into the house. What a perfect time to get my "nap" in but did I go back to bed...no.

After messing around on the computer I jumped in the shower (yay) and headed to town to run a couple of errands. Half a day later, I rolled home around 4pm with the day quickly slipping away from me. I PROMISED Justin I was going to take a nap...I thought. So I finally laid down for a quick nap and welcomed my baby home around 8pm. It was a LONG day without him but he had so much fun with Grandpa and Grandma.

Easton's Birth Story

Well June 4th came...and eventually went by and no Easton in sight. The only blessing in that was that my doctor was out of town until the following Tuesday so if I wanted her to deliver me I had to hang in there. Then Tuesday came...and eventually went by and NOTHING. Wednesday we made a trip to the OB and she said it was time to schedule an induction. He HAD to come out. Her options were that night at 7:00pm, WAIT, WHAT!?!? I'm ready but not THAT ready, or Sunday night at 7:00pm. Needless to say I took Sunday night thinking maybe he still could come on his own.

Sunday came (you're right, no Easton) and I spent the day trying not to think about the fact that I was headed to the hospital that night because I was so nervous for the delivery process. Mom and I went to Panera's, did a little shopping and headed home to finish packing my bags. Once 6:30 rolled around we started making our way to the hospital...we were going to have a baby!!!

Now in Justin and Lacey fashion the delivery was anything but smooth. We'll just say Easton is stubborn like his daddy. :) I know he didn't get that trait from me! When we got to Wesley we checked in and after LOADS of paperwork they started the induction at 8pm. I asked the nurse if the medication for the induction ever put anyone into labor and she joked and said once and that one time the lady asked the same question. Hmmmm...maybe I'll get lucky I thought because I had heard Pitocin is NOT fun. 10pm hit and she brought me a sandwich to eat and as I was sitting there I heard this odd "pop" and the sensation that everyone talks about happening was happening to me...I was peeing my pants. MY WATER HAD BROKE!!!

Things went pretty fast from there (and they WERE going smooth). I dilated to a 3 by about 1am and they gave me something called Stadol for pain management. Now I hadn't had a drink in 9 months (with the exception of that very amazing glass of red wine at TJ's wedding thanks to Lindsey) and this stuff made me feel LOOPY. Justin just had to break out the camera. Thanks Justin.

Once I got to a 4 they came in and put in the epidural and things were going great...then they started to go downhill. After about an hour my epidural quickly faded and after much regret they decided to do a second epidural. By this time it was about 3am or so and I was at a 7. Once they got the second epidural in it worked a little for a short amount of time but for some reason it just wasn't taking. I kept asking the nurse how much longer and around 4:30am we were getting close. At that point we called my mom, his parents and my dad and told them to start making their way to Wichita. Easton was coming SOON! We even called Zach and had him drive from Kansas City with full expectations Easton would be here by the time he got here.

Everyone showed up (in record time) and at that point I was at a 9 but that's where it stopped. From 8am to 11:30am the nurse and the NEW, not so great bedside manner resident went back and forth on whether or not I was at a 9 or fully dilated. It seemed to be chaos. I was in pain (worn off epidural), they said they Dr. Breit wanted to start me on Pitocin but nobody ever did and the nurse told me at 10am that she's not a doctor but that baby is not coming out on his own. GREAT. In the end Justin had a "talk" with the resident and at 12:30 we were scheduled to start a C-section and at 12:59pm Easton was born.

Looking back the experience could have been much better but it really all was worth it. Not sure that the memory has faded from my mind yet and we are ready to consider another one but it's true that all the pain from labor brings something amazing and good. We are so blessed to have this little guy in our life.

Now take a deep breathe in....and release.

Ah Labor and Delivery/Childbirth/Lamaze/Get this kid out of me class...whatever you want to call it I was looking forward to it on one hand but dreading it on the other. I was excited to learn what I needed to know going in on game day (because I'm pretty sure I've never been more nervous about something in my life than I have this) but I KNEW Justin was NOT looking forward to it. What gave it away you ask...oh maybe the fact that he let me know a guy at work had 3 kids and they never went to some class...he said we should "wing it" like they did. Right...easy for him to say. :)

As I prepared myself for how to handle Justin and this wonderful part of the experience I just decided I wouldn't fill him in on any of the details I had gotten from hear say (mainly the oh so graphic videos) and just not really talk about it until we had to leave for class that first night. So as planned I got home two Monday's ago, changed and grabbed the two pillows we needed and told Justin to get dressed so we could go. Naturally, he was ready to go and we got in the car to drive to Wichita...for those of you who have dogs, I kind of felt like I was in the car taking Moose and Remington to the doggie daycare to stay for the weekend...you know they don't want to go and fight it the whole way there. That's how our 24 minute and 38 second ride to Wichita was.

Now, for those of you who know Justin well, you know that he is really great around people but new situations with new people in very uncomfortable settings are by far NOT his favorite thing. That's exactly what we walked into. Walking into the room we put on our name tags and took our seats, flipping through our massive packet on everything you could possibly want to know about having a baby. I just prayed the instructor wasn't going to START the class off with "THE" video. That would be disastrous! We would definitely not be back if she did that.

As the instructor walked in the room, she introduced herself, all of us "students" introduced ourselves and then....she walked towards the video player. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As she hit play my stomach dropped and thought "how am I'm going to ever know how to have this kid because we for sure won't be back next week and that's if he doesn't make me leave right now. Much to my surprise (and relief) the video was a comedy act of Bill Cosby talking about his encounter of child birth. WHEW!

The rest of the night went fairly smooth. There was no graphic video (we are still anticipating that) and we learned a lot about what little baby Mills was doing inside my tummy. We did get to learn the stages of labor and the different faces/moods I might be in at each stage. My question is who really would expect a pregnant woman dilated to a 10 to be in a happy, I can do this mood? I mean isn't that just common sense that I'm probably going to be screaming, yelling, telling Justin "you did this to me" and possibly biting???

As class wrapped up (Justin was quiet but well behaved most of the time) the instructor told us we were going to practice some breathing techniques. I'm thinking, great, THIS is what I need to know. As she dimmed the lights, put on some soft music, she asked all of us (ALL of us, including dads) to take a deep cleansing breath in then start our long breathing pattern. Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4...again. After about 5 minutes I was feeling great! I wasn't really paying much attention to anyone but myself...including my husband.

As we walked out of the class, we didn't even hit the front doors and Justin was going off on what a liberal class that was (liberal is his term he uses for anything he doesn't like and probably needs a new adjective to describe things) and how he was doing everything he could to not bust out laughing during the breathing exercises. JUST what I needed...to be kicked out of class for the misbehaving kid laughing at all of the other kids in class. Thank goodness he held it in and we are allowed to come back next week.

Watch for my next post and I'll fill you in on what happened our second week of class and you can find out if we had to watch "THE" video and if we are returning another week. :)

Paint Color Fiasco

Last Friday we finally rolled over to the 30 week mark. My little baby tracker says I have 65 days left. 65 days! The last month has been filled with so many exciting things from our friends TJ and Elyse's wedding to having our first childbirth class and everything in between.

A couple of weekends ago we had an action packed 3 days - TJ and Elyse got married, we went to the Jeff Dunham show with Lance and Rachel and Justin's parents (if you don't know who Jeff Dunham is you must be from outer space!) and then my mom was here also to help us paint the baby room. I was EXHAUSTED needless to say the following couple of days!

Baby Room Paint Fiasco:

Whoever in their right mind would let their husband talk them into letting the husband and the husband's best friend go to Lowes to pick out the paint color for the baby room must be out of their mind....I guess I should be amitted becuase I did just that. Not a good idea.

So Justin and TJ make their way to Lowe's with (they said) the baby pillow in hand to match colors. I opted for a soft yellow/gold color to offset all the greens and reds in the room but Justin wanted green...and he convinced me. Now, Justin's green was very different from the green I had in mind becuase they came back so proud of their purchase. I opened the can to find, yes ladies, CAMO GREEN. Who, tell me who, puts camo green in a baby room? Not us! After a couple of days of full on battle mode - I finally told him that I was going to go buy the original yellow/gold color that I wanted and paint it no matter what!

Here's where it gets interesting...and what is it with karma??? So mom and I went to Lowes to get the new, CORRECT paint color, matching it up to the teddy bear I had that was the perfect shade of yellow. Got it home, started putting it on the walls and I'm not kidding...the lovely yellow/gold color had a green tint to it and my walls now look like Kermit the Frog...ok, not quite that bad but at the very best some sort of green weed that grows in my front yard. NOT YELLOW! But I'm going to suck it up, chalk one up to karma (and Justin) becuase I sure as heck don't want to repaint it!

Here are some pics from the baby room as it comes together. We still have some wall hangings to add as well as the lovely rocking chair Justin is getting me for Mother's Day this year (hint hint).

Baby furniture means...Baby coming soon!

Last week we got the call that our baby furniture was FINALLY in from Tiny Tykes. Some of you know the baby furniture drama that we have gone through and for those of you who don't, let's just say think twice before making a trip to this enticing store of cribs and dressers. This guy is probably one of the WORST business owners I know of!

Enough about that...on to the furniture. Justin went and picked it all up yesterday and I specifically asked him to NOT put it together because I, of course, wanted to take pictures. :-) When I got home we broke into the boxes and it was so exciting!

Justin did such a good job putting it together...without looking at directions. There were a few bolts left over but he assured me it was sturdy. After he walked out of the room I frantically looked at the directions and realized they were leftover for a reason...they were for the convertible portion of the crib. Whew!

When we got done (by we I mean Justin) putting everything together, I had to sit there for a minute and take in this amazing moment. I found myself staring in the empty crib thinking that in a matter of months our lives are going to change so dramatically, the things we once thought were important in life are going to be tossed to the side and this amazing little guy is going to light up our world like nothing we've ever experienced before.

Getting Creative

As most of you know I love creating things...quilting, scrapbooking, cooking, parties...anything that puts my creative mind to the test. Today was a day FULL of creating and I just had to share some of the things I stumbled upon.


A while back I came across a website called http://www.etsy.com/ from a friend on Facebook. Curious to see what this funky named site was I went on to the web and found the most AMAZING place ever...it was perfect! It was a site for all things handmade. Kind of like an Ebay if you will but only handmade items made like people like me...for sale. I quickly created an account but never put anything on my shop due to lack of time.


Tonight that changed! I listed my first item for sale on Etsy. What could this amazing, have to have item be??? You guessed it! One of my lovely quilts. Now we'll just have to see how well the selling goes.


After getting my items listed I did a little shopping (why not) and found some of the cutest buys for our little guy. Justin even approved. Check out the new baby items added to our growing closet full of stuff:







If you haven't been to this great site, go there! http://www.etsy.com/ and if you'd like, take a look at my shop. www.etsy.com/shop/laceymills

~~~Week 24~~~

At last we have crossed the halfway mark of the pregnancy adventure! In some ways it seems like it has been 24 weeks but in a lot other ways it feels like time has flown by which can only mean these last 16 weeks be the same way.

As our mid pregnancy sonogram approached in January, we went back on forth wether or not to do the "pecker hunt" as Mark Esfeld calls it and after much deliberation we knew we had to know. The appointment was nothing short of entertaining, of course because Justin was there. We were the first appointment of the morning and the sonogram tech walked in and was in shock becuase sitting before her was a NEW, brand new sonogram machine. Now, new is great but new ALSO means that she was unaware of how to operate this lovely piece of equipment (which I'm sure I've paid for at least a knob or two on it by now). Justin, as expected, broke the ice asking if our sonogram was free becuase we were the first ones to try it out...no luck.

As she started doing the measurements, making sure Baby Mills was growing as expected and there were no complications, she started taking pictures of the babies head, arms, feet, profile...Justin was in such suspense that he was literally leaning over me with his face 2 feet from the monitor waiting to see if it was a boy. Finally she said the words, "let's find out what this baby is" and as she went on the hunt she found what Justin had been hoping for...it's a boy!!!! I don't I've ever seen him so excited. He started taking pictures with his camera phone of the monitor (not like we don't get a dozen of print offs anyways) to send out to TJ and his mom.

Now that we know Baby Mills is a boy we are finally able to start doing some planning...and shopping! You would think that I'm the one who would be doing most of the buying but Justin can't contain himself. One night after the sonogram he came home and told me to get in the car, we were going somewhere and it was a surprise. Thinking he was taking me to dinner I was stunned when we pulled up in front of the Carters outlet in Newton. He went crazy! Since then we have done lots of clothes shopping and I even had to tell him to put things back. I mean, really...are we going to put our 6 month old baby boy in Carhart coveralls. I think not.

Planning for the room is finally coming together as well. To be expected we are doing our room in a cabin/outdoors theme. We've already found some great accesories, purchased the rustic bedding and Rachel even had a bear rug for us to use...meant to be I'd say.