Girls Just Wanna Be Born...

Little baby girl already has a wardrobe... and a favorite Aunt. Thanks Stephanie! We woke up Easter morning to an Easter basket from Stephanie filled with some cutie clothes for our cutie baby .

We are having a girl!

I will be honest, we were really shocked when we found out. It just seems like we would have a boy first, being that we both came from families where a boy was oldest.

But this is such a fun surprise.

I can look at all the pink clothes I want now! I'm already making plans for her room. It's gonna be great.

Brett maybe feeling a little out numbered. When I asked help for a title to this post he said "PMS Central"-

Hardy har har! It's better than "Estrogen City"- that was my first option. He is really excited though. This little girl is gonna have him wrapped around her finger.

In my family this is 1 of four girls to be born just this year. I think the rates are even higher on Brett's side. Oh my.

Gulf Shores Weekend

Alabama has a coast line- and we have the pictures to prove it!

Last weekend we met up with Mike, Steph and the kiddies for a weekend at Gulf Shores State Park.

We stayed in a gorgeous 3 bedroom, 3 bath cabin (on stilts mind-you) on the water.

It WAS AWESOME!!!

I am counting this as our first REAL REAL REAL vacation.

Granted we camped out in a tent the first week of our marriage, I don't count that.

And yah, we've stayed at alot of peoples houses, but when you have nowhere else to go, it doesn't really count as a vacation.

We've earned this bragging right.



We went to Orange City and found Cotton Bayou beach. And so did the wind! Boy Howdy was it windy. But it was too beautiful to leave.

There were plenty of sea shells in the "sugar sand" beach for Jorja to collect and for Preston to dig with.

These pictures aren't a very good representation
of what a crazy time we had, or how cute the kids were, but it was so windy I dropped the camera in the sand and decided to put it away after that.

I did manage to get one of Brett challenging me to a fight though. Or something.. I don't really know what's going on here.

This is Brett practicing.

He gets a B+. His form is good, but the baby is a little to close to the rail for my taste.

Sweet Home Alabama.... (what a sellout title)

We are making friends in Alabama!

And what a wonderful place it is, that is, besides the KKK, high obesity rates, tornadoes and accents that would require a translator to understand.

Just kidding... sort of.

I actually haven't seen any KKK remnants or such. Alabama seems like a safe place. I have seen alot of Black people. And of course, since I've only lived in Utah and Idaho, more than 2 Black people is alot to me. So it's been interesting and I am feeling slightly more culturally diverse than before. ha, I know that probably sounds somehow racist, but it's just the truth.

The tornadoes are a bit frightening. There was a tornado in a town called Prattville, just a few minutes north of Montgomery (where we are).

Thankfully, we were in Atlanta with Steph so we didn't have to be worried during the storm. The tornado was an E-F3. It took down a few houses, and mostly the sides of alot of buildings, including a Wal-Mart. I guess this tornado believes in better trade practices.

Seriously though, the ruin of homes is no laughing matter. We had a few friends put on there Air Force garb and offer their help to people whose homes looked in need, however, to their surprise most people didn't want any help at all. I suppose if all my material belongings were strewn all over the street I would not be eager for strangers to sort through them.
I am hoping to leave Alabama without anymore tornado stories.

The high obesity rates of the south are suddenly understandable if you take a look a the "southerner's menu." Everything seems to be fried. And of course that includes fried green tomatoes- which are delicious.

INGREDIENTS:
4 to 6 green tomatoes
salt and pepper
cornmeal
bacon grease or vegetable oil yikes, i know! it's not everyday food for expecting mothers

PREPARATION:
Slice the tomatoes into 1/4 - 1/2-inch slices. Salt and pepper them to taste. Dip in meal and fry in hot grease or oil about 3 minutes or until golden on bottom. Gently turn and fry the other side. Serve as a side dish - delicious with breakfast! http://www.about.com/

They are good, but not good enough to crave when I leave.

These pictures are of us making friends at the Shakespearean Park.

This is me supervising the retrieval of a kitten from a tree.

These birds know how it's done in Alabama... cause it's hot even in the winter. And no, this lady did not know we were taking a picture of her.

These are for your personal enjoyment...

BUBS WINS

Everyone seems to tease us about how "unoften" we update our blog, but I would just like to point out that Bub's (brett's oldest brother) hasn't updated since september. OOOOOOOO!
I know, I called him out! And seriously, having two small children, a full time job, and a wife that has college courses totally doesn't count as an excuse. Hang your head in shame Mr. Bubs.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

He's gonna hate me for this... These are just a few of my favorite pictures. The one above is when we lived in Draper.

This is at our old love nest in Moscow.

Zions ...of course!

And this picture was taken in Sandpoint ID. And yes, he was so cute all summer long.

Tomorrow, Feb the 15th I finally get to live with him. We've lived apart 5 weeks. I think I am gonna order a myself a medal.

I was thinking of writing up a list of things I like about Brett, but that feels so trite. I love him alot and am lucky to be with him. He's gonna be a great dad.

He's over there... and I'm over here

Before I begin you need to know that I am doing this post while using dial-up. If you could please bow your head and give me a moment of silence. And maybe just a little bit more considering how long it takes to load a page....

Being on dial-up means I am back in Emmett. Yes, this is Rachel writing. The funny one. Ha. Ha. ok, maybe I wouldn't be so cocky about it if Brett hadn't purposely taken my name off of my prevously bloggings. He said he wanted to get "credit" for it if someone found it amusing. However, it's not really that hard to tell if I am writing. Just look for the spelling errors and improper grammar. Those would be mine.

Brett is doing well if you haven't got his emails. He just had to decide on a code name for himself. We got a few good suggestions, including Knifey Boy, Brad Milb, and Sylvester McMonkey McBean. They were all good, but we will be naming our child the last one, so we can't use that. So Brett settled on Hoosier. He went to Indianna on his mission and he sure loves that basketball. So let it be.

As far as baby news it's been a long week for me. I had some issues last week and thought I had miscarried. At that point I was 11.2 weeks. At first I thought everything would be ok, but the second night I just was confident I had lost the baby. So my awesome dad came to my tearful rescue. He set me up at this affordable clinic and they were really nice. The nurse who helped me didn't downplay any of my fears and then proceeded to check for a heart beat. And there it was. It was so exciting. I think my excitement startled the baby because his heart was beating so fast. It was like a little hummingbird. I was so excited I just started crying. The nurse laughed and said "Oh he's a healthy one!" Note she said he.

I feel like it's a boy. My sister-law Brittany hooked me up with a Chinese calendar which predicted that I am having a boy. But then again, I can't remember the last time I got good advice from a fortune cookie. But just because Panda Express doesn't get it right, doesn't mean a Chinese Calendar can't. And it was on the internet... so that means it's true.

Obvioiusly I won't mind a girl or boy. They both have their ups. I even painted the baby's cabinet light green, so not to be biased. Everybody likes green.

Sorry this is long. That is, if you've made it this far down the page. If you have- Good for you! Pat yourself on the back. You are a friend of the Milbs.
I will now list everything I did today... just kidding but seriously EMMETT IS SO BORING!!! The quiet is nice, but all my friends have married and moved away. I'm trying to fill my time, but .... but.... I miss having a job! I said it! It's true I like working and I don't know what to do with my time while waiting for Brett to move around.
So far I have repainted an old cabinet for the baby, started learing "Let it Be" on the guitar, I have started a painting using Jerry Yarnell (he is the modern day Bob Ross -for those of you who aren't familiar), played Guitar Hero 6 times, watched everything on the TLC channel, baked banana bread (and then fed it to the dogs because no one was home)...

wow. I am a sad old woman. let me know if you think of any projects i can do. I think my next project will be crocheting myself a straight jacket.

I do like my family though. This has given me some time to connect with Malcolm (my youngest brother) which is rad because I left home like 6 years ago and he was barely 12. My parents are pretty chill. My mom works herself to the bone at this boys home during the day, and my dad is taking a hiatus from the working world until Mal graduates. Then my parents are thinking of moving to Alaska.... or at least my dad is. He took my mom there this weekend... and I don't think she was impressed. She tried to convice me that it looks just like SLC. (For those of you who don't know, she's in love with Utah, the promised land and is dying to move back. I don't blame her, i love it to... but seeing different places is fun). Anyways, she said "Alaska has pretty mountains, but the Wasatch mountains are JUST as pretty if not PRETTIER... except they don't have those huge blue glaciers.. but they are still prettier." Oh mom. You kill me. And then she went on "...and Alaska has the ocean on the west.. and that's JUST LIKE the Salt Lake- it's on the west side too."
To sum it up, my dad will have a rough time moving her there. Oh yes, she also decided she's all the sudden afraid of flying. Oh Mom. You kill me.

Until next time,

The long winded blogger.