Cousins, Grads, and Christmas Clothes

Aunt Elisha holding Jack and Andy.

All the cute babies! It was really hard getting a picture where they were all sitting up with their eyes open. Aren't they all cute?!

The graduates! Alli and Clark graduated from BYU-I this past weekend, and Angie graduates in just a couple months, so a celebration was at hand! We had lots of appetizers, including 7 layer dip, cheese fondue, shrimp, and muddy buddies (amongst others).

Lillie and Jack in their Christmas getup. Lillie's dress is from Grandma Julie, the hairbow was made by Aunt Dana, and Jack's cute outfit was a steal at 12$ from TJ Maxx.

And, yes. This is the first picture I have of Lil and Jack together. She finally held him long enough to take a picture!

Our life in Ucon, Idaho

We're all settled in at the In-Law's. It hasn't been bad at all living here. Milan and Julie have been so gracious and accommodating. We set up Lillie's room in Clark's old bedroom with her new toddler bed, her play kitchen, and the changing table. It's been nice for Lil to stretch out! She's been sleeping in a closet in her pack-n-play for the past 8 months in Jackson. I decided not to set up Jack's crib yet. We'll wait until the next move. I like having him sleep in our room in his little bassinet for right now.

Our tree:

Dustin loves his son! Almost every picture I have of Jack has Dustin in it. Jack lost some of his hair, it looks like he's balding like an old man! I love it.

One of the best parts about staying here in Idaho for the next few weeks is getting to spend more time with my sisters, Elisha and Dana and their kids. I got to watch Anna and Alyse for Dana for just a few hours. It was so much fun! Lillie loves playing with her cousins.

My sister Elisha let us borrow Andy's sweater vest for a while. Jack looks so cute in it! Here's Jack and Dustin all ready for church. I need to get a picture of Jack with his cousin, Andy. Andy's so big and adorable. I love holding that kid!

We took the kids to go see Santa last week.... it didn't go well.

Jack smiling! He only smiles for Dustin and Grandma Julie.

Jack playing! Grandma Diane got this for Lillie 2 years ago, and Jack seems to enjoy it even more than Lillie did. I don't know why the picture flipped around when I uploaded it, but it's too complicated to fix it now, so just deal.

Lillie doesn't have any interest in Jack yet. She knows who he is, but just still does her own thing. She's been throwing a few more temper tantrums, but is hilarious! She never stops singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and loves being tickled and is obsessed with Elmo. She's started saying more words, and now can say "Mickey Mouse" and jabbers on the telephone to anyone that calls. You should call to talk to her, it's really funny.

Can you even believe that he's already 2 months old??

Jack's stats:

Weight: 11# 7oz (45%)

Height: 22 1/2" (38%)

Head: 35%

Daddy soothing Jackie-boy. He's not the most perfect baby... he's only sleeping about 2 1/2-3 1/2 hours straight at night and seems to only sleep when he's being held! I looked back in Lillie's baby book and at 2 months she was sleeping 8-10 hours a night. Gah! I guess Dustin and I will be acting a bit crazy for a while longer from the lack-o-sleep. We love that little boy!

Our life is great! I feel bad for complaining about this job because it really is a blessing. It's nice to have been close to our families ever since April. We love our family and Dustin's been able to be home a lot. Can't complain about that!

We're semi-homeless... again.

In a nutshell, Dustin and I have moved 7 times in the 3 1/2 years we've been married. The most recent move was on Monday, November 30th.

Here's the long, obnoxious story.

The shop Dustin was building was suppose to be completed by August 7th. However, because the Fish and Wildlife Service is rediculous, change order after change order... the job finally was completed about 2 weeks ago.
The lease on our ghetto apartment ended November 30th. We had to be out of that apartment by then (Trust me, it wasn't too sad leaving that moldy, tiny, earwig infested apartment). So, Sunday and Monday we packed everything up. The plan was for us to pack everything up, go to Idaho Falls for a few days, and move to either Florida or California (to the next job) by the end of this week. On Monday (after we'd packed up 1/2 of our stuff) Dustin's boss called him up and said that California is not an option anymore and that there's a little glitch with the job in Florida and they're not sure if they still have the contract to do the work there. So, that job is on hold until January. Instead they're having Dustin go to Tacoma next week for a few days to work on another job, then nothing. We're staying at Dustin's parent's house until the begining of January (5 weeks) when we'll hopefully be moving to Florida, if they even get that job. It's all tentative.

We tried finding a month long lease at an apartment here, but all the month to month apartments (all 2 of them) are scary and even more ghetto than our last one (if you can even imagine). So, I guess we'll just chill here for 5 weeks. The good news is that we're getting paid for a month of not working. The bad news is that this job is SO ANNOYING!! I'm so sick of this company being so rediculous. Seriously. What if we didn't live by Dustin's parent's house? They would just send us out on the streets for 5 weeks with a 2 year old and a baby? They just expect us to have a place to stay while we're MID PACKING?? I don't even get it. I would think they would be a little more considerate. You know, maybe tell us where we're moving atleast 1 week in advance.

Dustin's looking for a new job. Anyone have any ideas?

Mr. Fix it

Here's Jack in his "Mr. Fix it" jammies. Don't you just wanna pick him up and snuggle??

More pictures

Here's our side table. I thought it was a neat picture with Lillie and Jack and Dustin and I in the background.

Here's Jack's birth announcement. I loved how it turned out.

Here are some pictures of our family taken about 30 feet away from the building Dustin's building on the Elk Refuge. We ran over there real quick today to snap some pictures for our Christmas card. Lillie thought it was hilarious how I had to run back and forth to set the timer on our camera between every picture... so thankfully she was smiling in every picture!

Blessing Day

Sunday, November 15th was a busy day! My sister Dana's baby, Sayde was blessed at 11:00, Elisha's baby, Andy was blessed at 1:00, and our Jack was blessed at 4:00! Here's a picture of us sisters after Sayde's blessing.

Dana and Sayde, Erika and Jack, Elisha and Andy.

**********************************

Jack's Blessing

Jack's blessing was really neat. We decided to do it at Dustin's parent's house instead of having everyone make the trip to Jackson. It was at 4:00 with a dinner right after at 4:30.

Dustin and I decided to put a little program together for it. We had an opening song and prayer, then Dustin gave a little talk about families. He did a really good job and made me tear up when he spoke about how much he loves our family. Alli and I sang a duet to "Come Unto Jesus." Alli did an amazing job with the alto part! There wasn't even a part written in, so she just made it up on the spot. Amazing, talented girl. The song went well. Right after we were done singing, Dustin blessed Jack. In the circle was Dustin, Milan, Rick, Steve, Tyson, Clark, Lance, and Dallin. It was a really neat blessing.

After that, we had a closing prayer and ate lasagna, salad, and rolls. For dessert was cake and ice cream. It was really tasty and the perfect end to an special day!

Our family after Jack was blessed.

Little Jack on his big day!

Tyson and Alli and Angie and Kate.

Elisha and Anna (Dana's daughter) and Lance and Andy.

Jessie and Dallin came! Here's me and Jess with our babies!

The Miller granchild picture. Julie got all of the pretty dresses and clothes for the boys. Lillie, as always, threw a tantrum right when she saw the camera!

Dana got this cake. It said, "Congratulations Jack, Andy, and Sayde!" So... naturally we took a picture with the babies by the cake they never got to eat!

***********************************

Saturday, November 14th

Elisha and Lance had Andy sealed to them! It was a really special day for them and Andy looked so cute in his little white suit!

The whole slew of us!

Long Awaited Update

Holy cow, I can't believe it's been 5 1/2 weeks since baby Jack was born. We've had a pretty eventful past few weeks. Here are some memorable things that have happened:

• Lillie came down with pink eye in both eyes
• Lillie, Dustin, and I all had the swine flu for about a week.
• Jack came down with pink eye (luckily only in one eye).
• We went to the doctor 11 times in 21 days.
• We hit 2 deer!
• Jack came down with pink eye AGAIN.
• Halloween! We went to the Melaleuca trick or treat, went trick or treating with my sister Dana and her fam, left the kids with their Grandparents while Dustin and I went to a Halloween party at Tyson and Alli's.
• Had a fight with our landlord after they walked in to our apartment thinking we were gone.
• Went to my sister's sealing to their new adopted son, Andy
• Had three baby blessings to attend on Sunday... including Jacks!
• Got our car back
• Now we're just waiting to find out when and where we're moving!

Here are some pictures of all the events exept the blessings. I'll post those later.

This little girl! She colored all over the wall and was just so proud of it. I had to take a picture before I sent her to time-out.

Jack's Newborn Pictures

Last Monday we had Jack's newborn pictures taken. He was just 9 days old, and his umbilical cord fell off (luckily) about 1 hour before the photographers got there! He did really well, and we got a bunch of beautiful pictures of our handsome Jack. Here are a few of our favorites!

I highly recommend the photographer. They're a younger couple out of Rexburg and do excellent work. RognonPhotography.blogspot.com

Stupid pigs

On Monday and Tuesday night Lillie had really high fevers. Tuesday night at midnight Lillie woke up with a sad cry. We took her temp to find out she was sporting a 103 degree fever! We called our advice nurse, who said to bring her into the doctor in the morning.
Jack had an appointment to be circumcised the next day, so we just doubled up the appointments. It was a horrible day! Jack was circumcised, the doctor told us Lillie had the swine flu AND pink eye in both eyes, we found out Jack's billiruben levels went back up to 17.9 (they were 14.4 on Monday) and I came down hard with the flu that night.
Anyway, it's Friday now and we've just been on the 'survive' mode. Lillie's flu is considerably better. She's on day 4 or 5 and her symptoms should be lessening. Mine, however, is peaking! I've had chills all day, uncontrollable shaking, a high fever, a sore throat, a little bit of coughing, and extreme fatigue. Dustin came down with it this morning, after taking every possible supplement and washing his hands every 10 minutes in pursuit of dodging it. Poor guy.
Jack's been to the doctor 4 times this week. His poor little feet have been pricked so many times! The doctors think that his billi levels went up because of a condition called "breastfeeding induced jaundice." It's where my breast milk apparently has too many amino acids for his little liver to break down. I've had to stop nursing for the past 1 1/2 days and supplement him with formula. It's apparently suppose to make his billiruben level plummet. I'll go back to nursing tomorrow and supposedly his levels will stay low. If they go back up, then it's something more serious, like an infection or disorder. The good news is that he's been in a completely different room than the rest of us, and my mother-in-law (bless her heart) has been feeding him today since Dustin came down with the swine flu also. He's as healthy as can be (well, besides the jaundice thing).

We were suppose to be moving this weekend, but that's obviously been postponed. Dustin's company is still deciding between Homestead, FL (south of Miami) or that office job in San Diego. At this point, I don't have an opinion about where we go. I just know that everything will work out.
... and hopefully we'll look back on this week one day and laugh! Then we'll know we can make it through ANYTHING life throws at us.

Back to the hospital

Don't you love his first pair of sunglasses??

On Friday we went to Idaho Falls for a well baby check up. I told the Doctor that I was a bit concerned about Jack looking a little yellow the past 2 days. He said that he did look yellow, but he's seen lots worse. He sent for a lab test just to be sure, though.
Well, as we were driving home I got a call from the Pediactric Center. They forwarded me to the nurse, who then said, "I'm going to need you or your husband talk to the Doctor." Doctor Hatch got on the phone and told us that Jacks billiruben levels came out at 21.5. Apparently that's almost toxic. He told us to rush him into the hospital and that they knew we were coming. Needless to say, Dustin and I were both in tears.

Jack was in the hospital for exactly 24 hours. They put him under some high intensity lights and his billiruben level dropped from 21.5 to 14.4 in just one days time. We got to take him home with a 'billi-blanket' (a heating pad type thing that we put under his onesie). He gets checked again tomorrow, and if he's less than 13 then we won't need the blanket anymore!

The good thing is that Jack's been eating great and has stayed well hydrated. He hasn't been acting lethargic, which isn't typical with a jaundice baby. He's doing really well! We're just glad to have him home and to not have to choose between meatloaf or tuna salad sandwiches for our hospital meals anymore.

Baby Jack

Welcome baby Jack!

Jack Dustin Miller

Born at 4:13PM

6 lbs 8 oz

20 inches long