Happy Birthday Micah and first family picture

Time has gone by so fast, and now Micah is 2 and Ammon is now almost 3 months old! So here is Micah's second birthday, he loves all boy things from balls to cars and trucks and trains and yes, still his Snow White doll that he must sleep with every night.  He was so excited to have a train cake, and the kids were just excited to have an excuse to have a party again!! Here are also picutures of us overlooking the Utah Valley from Squaw Peak. It was so nice to see the new fall leaves, and since we were there we had someone else take a picture for us, our first full family picture since Ammon was born!  Wow has our family grown in the last few years, it is amazing! 

 Can you believe Micah is now 2 years old!! Wow, does time fly by fast!

 Micah with his train cake

 The kids just had to have a pinata for the party

 Enoch and his little brother Ammon, he sure loves him

 Our family at Squaw peak on a small hike

Our first family picture together from Squaw peak

Welcome baby Ammon

He is finally here!! Ammon Louis Smith was born early on Tuesday morning, July 23rd.  The story goes like this: I was due on the 20th, waiting for a scheduled induction on the 25th.  On the early morning of the 23rd, at about 1:30am, I began to feel contractions, but nothing too regular and not too painful.  At about 2am I became more suspicious because they were different in their intensity, so I began to time them.  After about 30 minutes I walked around to see if they would go away, after all, I didn't want to be the girl who cried 'wolf' at 3am to have someone come watch my kids to just come home a few hours later from false labor. Well, they didn't go away and they started to become more frequent, about 5 minutes apart. So at 3am I woke Aaron up and told him that I thought I was in labor, he wanted to time them, but I just wanted to call my sister to come over because now the pain was getting worse. So at 3am I called my sister and she came right over and we left for the hospital. I was put into a room and  waited for a nurse to come in and check my progress to see if I should stay or not. At this time I looked at the clock and it was 3:30am.  The nurse came in and I was dialated to 8 cm! They quickly checked us in and got me my IV. Moments later the anesthesiologist was in for my epidural (thank goodness), by this time the pain was so intense that I found myself shaking, thank goodness for modern day medicine.  As soon as the epidural kicked in the doctor broke my water. We waited through two more contractions to let the baby drop, then two pushes later he was here!  I looked at the clock again, it was now 4:30am, just one hour after we had checked in! He came in weighing 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches long and a lot of beautiful hair. The kids love little Ammon and adore him, he has been so much fun to have.

 First glimpses of life.

 Ready for his bath, look at all that hair!

 The proud dad, happy to be at the hospital instead of at class that day. 

Big sister loves her little brother.

Summer flying by

I have been wanting to post something for a long time, but our camera was having issues, so all our great pictures are on our phone and I don't know how to quite download them onto my computer, so needless to say, that is why I haven't said anything for a while.  But then I thought, I don't need pictures to put out an update! So here I am.  Summer has been fun, but challenging.  As soon as summer started, Aaron began his Master's program at UVU in their education department, it has been a lot of work and we haven't had as much time with him as in summers past.  He has loved all he is learning, but he is now looking forward to a break, next week is his last week for his summer courses.  That being said, today is my due date to have baby #4, but here I am, very pregnant and wondering if he'll ever decide to come.  I told Aaron I will wait as long as his classes go this next week, then I will go to the hospital and have this baby.  So next week on Thursday the misery of 9-months pregnant should be over.  The kids are excited to meet their little brother, but he's taking his time to make an entrance.  In the meantime, we've done all we can to have fun, we went on a family weekend trip to Park City last month and the kids are still talking about how fun it was to sleep in a bunk bed, swim in the hotel swimming pool and ride the free trolley up and down Main Street.  We have also visited a few splash pads this summer and hiked the local waterfall (a 5-min hike).  Summer has been fun, but also very hot, especially for me.  I hope we have some picutures to share soon with our new family addition and our last few weeks of summer fun once Aaron gets his break before the school year starts up again.

Visiting Vernal and Grandma Linda

Earlier this month was our spring break and we had the chance to go to Vernal with the kids.  Our kids love dinosaurs so we thought the dinosaur museum would be fun for them.  It was a long drive for the kids, Eden was ready to turn around after the first 1 1/2 hours, but once we got there, it was worth it!!

 Those dinosaurs are sure big compared to our little kids

 Digging for dinosaur bones

 Micah loved playing with the toy dinosaurs as well

 Our little family at museum

 I think the pteranadon was the favorite (thank you to Dinosaur Train)

Seeing the dinosaur giants, the kids were amazed

Just this last week Grandma Linda's headstone was put in place, we went out on one of the few sunny days we've been having this spring and visited our Grandma Linda.  It was a beautiful sight.  

 Karla at the graveside, I love the picture and simplicity of her stone.

 We went and visited her on Easter weekend and brought some homemade Easter Lily flowers made from the kid's hand prints, we found them still there nearby and put them in her vase.

Eden and Enoch visiting Grandma Linda, we sure miss you, Grandma!!

Fun with kids

Spring is almost here, and kids are enjoying time to go outside for a few moments each day, and I am loving it too.  They are growing up so fast and changing just before our eyes, and so am I, my clothes are just a little too tight right now, and I'm now officially over half way through this pregnancy, so that means we had our ultrasound and discovered we will have another boy!! How did this happen? Everyone else in my family only had one boy and multiple girls, I'm just not following the trend.  Eden was sad that she won't have a sister quite yet, but still excited for the baby.  Here are how our kids are looking today, so grown-up:

 Here is Eden all ready for school

 Enoch is growing up so fast, and so is his energy

So here is Micah's true love: Snow White, he is all boy, playing with cars, wrestling, trowing and climbing everywhere, but when he's sad or tired, he must find his Snow White doll and he'll cozy right up to sleep.

 So this picture is from Eden, the other day it was so windy that Aaron took the kids outside and had them fly their 'bag kites', just a simple bag on a string. The kids were just in love with it and boy was the wind strong, after a while a big gust of wind came along and pulled the big bag out of Enoch's hand, he just screamed and cried as his kite flew above the houses and away in the wind.  Eden was so kind, she came out of the house with a new kite for Enoch, a small colored piece of paper with a string taped to it and she gave it to Enoch, he held on tight and the small kite twirled in the wind and he was happy again.  So this picture show Eden flying her kite and Enoch sad watching his kite blow away, and a few rain drops falling from the sky.  Eden is the artist in our house.

Catching up with life

It's been months since the last post, mostly because life has been really busy and crazy and hopefully it will slow down soon.  In early November I discovered that I'm expecting again.  Eden is convinced it is a girl, or just really hopeful. I will find out in March if it's pink or blue, and we will welcome Smith #4 in July.  Being pregnant has caused me to be very sick and I've had to take each day one day at a time.  In December Enoch had his 3rd birthday and then a week later we celebrated Eden's 5th birthday.  It was fun and now the kids can't wait until the next birthday party.  A week later we had Christmas!  My brother was in town and it was fun to be with loads of cousins.  A little over a week later my mom was admitted to the hospital and after a few tests we learned the cancer was back and transplant to save her life was very risky. So after a day to think it over, my mom went home from the hospital to my sister's home on hospice.  It's been a long week for my family, but it has been good to see one another and support each other.  I don't know how much longer she will be with us, but we will soak in every moment we have with her.  Her energy is very low, but her love to all, especially her grandchildren, is very high.  We love you, mom.  We will miss you!!

 Our Big 3-year-old

 What is better than a 'bigger digger' and dinosaurs for a three-year-old

 Eden insisted on a Tigger cake

 Our 5-year-old princess

 Merry Christmas from the Smiths

 Christmas morning in the Smith home

 Eden passing out the presents

At Temple Square with Grandma Linda, we will miss you!!