Mr & Mrs Smith

Another pumpkin joining this crazy patch in 6 months! Another April baby! (and I hope it's another girl too; only Dad wants the boy). I feel a little overwhelmed already, but it's always exciting to picture snuggling a baby. I just pray this one is either chill or at least likes sleep!  I feel like this has been my best 1st trimester. Although I've felt nauseous & exhausted, the straight nausea only lasted a few weeks and then I'd just get highs & lows. I only threw up some cheese grits. And I think Mr Smith has cleaned more pots these last few weeks than the last 6 years combined... Now, the nausea is basically gone. I just have some food aversions to the smell of peanut butter & Little Caesars pizza. I haven't done much these last 6 weeks outside of move (we found out we were pregnant the weekend before). Hopefully we'll start to get out a little more now! We started enjoying some October festivities at Farmfest, a nearby pumpkin patc...

God knows us. I have a very real testimony of this. He loves us. I know this like I know the sun rises in the morning. This love allows him to hear the prayers, the small ones we imperfectly say to our minds as our heads hit the pillow AND the ones with tears that stream down in our car when every ounce of our existence feels defeated.  I remember those times in the beginning where I felt the comfortable life was too good to be true. I just knew something else would be coming that I needed to be prepared for. Life wasn't going to go according to my ideal plan. And that time surely came. I'd like to say I was emotionally and mentally prepared for it, but certainly that has been His goal, to make me stronger. I did not think I would repeat this opportunity multiple times, but that's where the faith really grows. I have not been alone in this journey of uncertainty. I honestly couldn't imagine time stopping in that first phase. I think of all the relationships that ...

This afternoon, at approximately 2 PM, both of my children napped for 2 hours and neither napped on top of me. TALK ABOUT MAGICAL. I worked in silence. And basically this came about as I was about to blow my brains out trying to read emails with both kids in my lap. Dallin won't stop touching everything within site and Lexi is singing in a toddler tone words that don't even make sense. One of those "Everyone stop or mama is going to explode". I dropped Dallin into the crib crying, told Lexi to get in my bed and we smiled as I shut the door (like who knows what she'll try to do but I'm shutting the door any way), went back to feed & rock Dallin and lay him back down in slumber and BAM both children actually stayed put and cooperated. Every mother's dream. Successes of the day: 1) Made it on time to library preschool with only a few minor threats when it took 5 years for her to get her socks on and when she asked for a fruit pouch walking into the l...

I was nominated for that superlative in high school, but lost it to an actual soccer player. Okay, I HAVE to write about perhaps the biggest thing that happened to us all year, besides Dallin being born of course. WE OWN A MINIVAN. I'm a little past the part of it being a minivan and even a new car really (new to us - has still been around since I graduated high school). I'm just grateful we're over the hurdle of commitment. We've needed more space.  Eric's car was having some problems we didn't want to deal with, still had a trade value $2k+ greater than mine, 40k more miles, was manual which I refuse to drive, etc... so we found "a price" (<$13k) w/ mileage (<80k) we had been looking for, took it to the shop to get inspected and then Mr Smith bought it. Since I couldn't be there to negotiate, I was a little stressed and anxious especially because everything else was going wrong and I couldn't even focus on it. Mr Smith doesn...

This was a significant Easter because Mr Smith got ordained as a High Priest and set apart as 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric. You heard it, I will forever be sitting out in the hall with two screaming children. Actually, I'm going to assume the best in this situation and think that Ms Lexi won't yell out "daddy" 20 times during Sacrament meeting to get his attention. It's going to be great. Mr Smith will miss his calling as Financial Clerk. He really still attends all the same meetings, but now he has to be more social and involved. It'll be great for him. I know he has been well prepared for the responsibility. I'm proud of my husband for being worthy and able to accept such a humbling call - even if it makes Sunday mornings more hectic. I will just have to get more used to sharing my husband. So, we took 3 week old Dallin to church last Sunday, sustained daddy, and Ms Lexi didn't bat an eye as he walked up to the front and bore his testimony...

I hear "mommy what you doing?" or "I do it myself" about 40xs a day now.  And what's funny is that she can and will. She knows her limits and will still ask for my help if she feels it is too hard (sometimes she just gets lazy), but most of the time she just goes for it if it means she's just as competent as mommy. We beg to differ on what her limits should be, but she still impresses us. She climbs the toilet and maneuvers over to the sink and opens up the medicine cabinet. My limitation would be before she even touches the dirty toilet. Her limit is getting her daily vitamin container (and she always makes sure to ask for two vitamins, 1 for each hand). She scoots the chair up to the counter when she needs to wash her hands, get her own banana or snack, the knives etc (eye roll). She gets her own silverware from the drawer.  She has to be the one that opens the car door, turns on the tv, gets something out of the fridge, etc... maybe our laziness ...

I felt like we took a detour even if Mr Smith won't admit it, but we're back. We're back to work - and both of us! Who would have thought. It's almost a little too good to be true; I'm still a little superstitious.  I wouldn't have made the same decisions Mr Smith did, but I know he made them with much thought and consideration; like he does with most things. So Mr Strategy had a different plan and it was HARD for me to hop on board. I mean physically, I'm not the one with the career anymore and I move when I have to move, but mentally and emotionally it's not easy trusting someone's decisions which inevitably effect your life. Mr Smith knew my focus was the money. But you know I never wanted to move to Hickory and you know I never intended on living in Provo after 2010. But we did and we are. And I just have to move on whether that involves me just throwing it out the window or pushing it toward some greater plan that has yet been revealed to m...