Mike and Ashley Smith

Nothing better than being a mom

2012-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

There really is nothing better in the whole world than being a mom! I love playing with my girls and seeing their sweet spirits! I love how they interact and love each other! I love how much they love me and that I am a special person to them! I love their smiles that come all day! I love waking up with one or both laying next to me! I love how much they love their daddy! I love watching them learn and progress- oh its just so crazy how fast time flies and how fast they learn and how much of a difference only a month makes!

Classic Halle:

Look at those cheeks!

Priceless

Tea time in the bath tub!

Halle's new favorite toy

Eva

2011-11-01T21:17:00.000-07:00

Eva is just the most beautiful thing i've seen in my life! She melts my heart everyday! She is so happy and content all the time. She is a good eater and pretty good sleeper :) She makes all of us smile and she really couldn't be a better baby! The photo below is from a few weeks ago when it was a little warmer... its starting to snow now so we're wearing much warmer clothes nowadays!!

This is Eva's Halloween outfit I created. I made the leggings out of socks from target and the onesie is a cat that i copied from a Halloween shirt we got for Halle at Old Navy... they matched on friday (so cute!) so i'll have to get those pics up sometime!

Halloween

2011-11-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

At our ward trunk or treat... Halle was a cupcake princess :)

i need to get the rest of the pictures off my camera so i can post eva- she wasnt dressed as anything, i just put her in a little halloween outfit.

I have tried SO many times to get video to work and this is the first time it actually happened!! YAY! Halle had lots of fun trick or treating on saturday at our ward building- Mimi, papa and Aunt Jen all came. And GG (mike's grandma) all the way from virginia was there too! And then we had a chili cook-off and i won best chili- woot woot!! then we headed to the marriot center to watch Jaren play in his first real BYU game!

Eva Kate

2011-08-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

These pictures are not in order but I wanted to share picture of our new sweet baby Eva Kate Smith- Born July 15th. She has been so precious and such a blessing to our family so far! The rest of the picture are from our family reunion at the beach last week, which was so much fun! We love the beach!

Halle could not get enough of the whole beach experience! She loved splashing in the water and running from the waves, she loved digging in the sand, she loved covering her whole body in sand, and she loved playing with all of her cousins!!

This is how baby Eva spent most of her time at the beach :) sleeping and eating, of course :)

First bath at home

i love this photo. She is so cute! i'd love for her to play tennis when she gets older

Best friend cousins. She LOVED carden!

Right after the delivery. Me and Eva, Midwife- Jennifer, Mike, and Aubrey our doula. I couldnt have asked for a better experience. After having a c-section with Halle I was so nervous about being able to do a VBAC. After having lots of nerves the days right before, i finally was able to calm down and realize this baby was going to come when the time really was right, and I knew my body would do what it needed too. Things fell into place perfectly and I couldnt have asked for the day to go better! we were SO blessed!

Just after being cleaned off

Halle is SO good with little Eva. Its so sweet! She wants to give her loves and kisses all the time so we have to watch her pretty carefully :)

Our last few minutes in the hospital room before heading home!

We cannot get enough of these 2 girls! I feel so lucky to have 2 girls first! They are so sweet and i just cant wait for Eva to get bigger so they can play together and be best friends :)

giveaway

2011-05-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

check out THIS awesome giveaway!!

Just us

2011-05-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

So here are more pictures of Halle... I'm sure it gets boring that all I ever post is pictures of her :) She is growing up so fast and I just want to keep her this age forever...even though I know each stage will just get more and more fun! She says so many words now and tries to say anything you point out or ask her to repeat. She especially loves all animals and pointing out cows and horses as we are driving around- I will try and get up video of her talking soon. She also loves to sing and dance! Its so funny to listen to her sing at church. And pretty much every time ANY kind of music comes on she cant help but move her little body! She is so sweet and we cant get enough of her... I also think she's is going to be such a good big sister because she is so sweet to her baby dolls and loves to hold them and feed them and give them loves :) Lastly, our BIG NEWS since last posting is that we are having a GIRL!!! I will be honest, at first I was a little disappointed, but as I thought about being able to use all of Halle's stuff over again, that the girls can share a room, and they will be best little friends I can WAIT for this other little girl to come!! I am getting SO anxious!! I know its going to be a little crazy making the adjustment from one to 2, but I am just SO excited, it seems like time is passing so slow and its forever away until she gets here! So we hope you enjoy some pictures of our little girl for now and since its FINALLY starting to warm up here in Utah we will be able to do some fun family things outside and get some fun pictures of ALL of us soon!

This morning Halle wanted to put on Mike's belt and it fit her perfectly (twice around of course) she thought it was pretty fun having daddy's belt on and i thought it was pretty funny :) She also LOVES princesses... she found this princess book at the library a couple of days ago and she reads it ALL the time since bringing it home.

Halle crunched a bunch of goldfish on our bed so she had to help daddy vacuum them all up... We were trying to teach her a lesson, so its a good thing she didnt see me laughing at how cute i thought this was

Halle's favorite animal both times we've been to the zoo was the giraffe! And she tries to say it and its so cute! This one got within about a foot and she thought it was so cool!

Fun at the zoo!! We went to the Zoo with Best friends Chelsey and Hadley last week and we all had lots of fun! Halle seems to like farm animals more at this stage- i think partly because she can get much closer to them so they are more real to her

Grandma helped me learn how to do a new little hairdo on Halle and I am just loving it! She is so darling

Got her mid-word, and i thought it was just such a funny, cute little face

This is her super "CHEESEY" face... unfortunately I only got it from the side because she was doing it for grandma

Cheese

Right after her Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's. She found every egg!! And LOVED it!!

Family Portraits

2011-01-27T20:55:00.000-08:00

We had Family Portraits done in AZ right before Christmas and they turned out great!! (thanks so much Wendy!) I know I havent posted forever, so our most recent big news is that we are expecting our 2nd little baby- due July 19th and we are SO excited!! Halle is growing up WAY to fast and is the cutest, most rambunctious and curious little girl I've ever seen, which makes for a handful as a mom, but I wouldnt have it any other way!

This little girl

2010-06-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

Loving some watermelon

She cant walk but she is getting SO close!

She loves to get into all my cupboards... any anything she can!

She also LOVES the shower! "Dad, I want to get in!!"

Funny Face

2010-05-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

So Halle makes the funniest face whenever i pull the camera out! Its like she's trying to smile, but it totally doesnt work. She just scrunches up her nose, and squints her eyes. Its makes me laugh so much every time! I wish i could post all the pictures with her making this face (i have like 30) it makes it more funny knowing she seriously does it every time i point the camera at her. Here she is making some funny faces and having fun while we were in AZ visiting my family.

We decided last minute to come out to San antonio- we just drove down this weekend so mike can be out here selling again this summer.

When we drove back to utah (from visiting Dannels in Cali and my fam in AZ) the last 3 hours were full of rain and .... SNOW! It was MAY 27th. we got home at about 1 in the morning and then this is what we woke up to. I also woke up to a message from my dad (who got a text with a snowy picture from my brother James) singing "I'm dreaming of a white summer"... and Mike wonders why i get so frustrated with utah's weather!?!

going under!

She seriously LOVED my parents pool. We were sad we had to leave! Its so nice having a pool in the backyard!

While we were in AZ my little cousin Brigham got baptized. I was thinking about not going, since they live out in Tucson, but i'm so glad i did! I always think that its just not that big of a deal when one of my cousins gets baptized, but HELLO, its one of the most important things they will do in their life! It was a sweet reminder to me of the covenants i have made with my heavenly father and also the blessings that are promised. And how wonderful it is that we are able to take the sacrament each week and renew those covenants! I am so grateful for all of my extended family who are all such good parents and examples to me, and good little cousins who are so sweet and righteous.

Halle also loves her baths! She just slips around and plays with the bubbles and her toys. OOOooooo i just LOVE this girl! She's taking a nap right now- oh she is just such a good girl.

Jaren

2010-05-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

My little brother Jaren is such a basketball stud! He is at the end of his Jr year at Mt View and playing club ball all summer. My dad made this video for college recruiters. Check it out!

so much fun in california!

2010-05-09T22:43:00.000-07:00

Last week we got to visit our friends the Dannels in LA. We had so much fun! We wish we could live close-by and hang out all the time-- someday soon hopefully! It was great catching up with some of our favorite friends, eating lots of yummy food, going to the beach, the beachhouse, balboa island, shopping and, of course Mike's favorite part, DISNEYLAND! :) Halle had so much fun with crew and hudson! She seriously loves other little kids! She is so anxious to walk- she pulls herself up on everything and is on the go CONSTANTLY- which is a handful but i love it! I love that she is so curious and always wants to be having fun.

Hello again

2010-05-08T22:55:00.000-07:00

Giving love to her new little cousin emma

Hanging out in the backyard

I think we'll use this for our next christmas card, what do you think?? :)

too cute!

Emma Kathleen Sweeney

2010-04-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

My brother James and his wife Erin had their little baby girl last friday! Oooo she is SO perfect and precious! We went and visited them in the hospital a little so much just to see this sweet little brand new baby! Congratulations to them! We are so excited that we have a new cousin in our family!

Emma Kathleen Sweeney. Born Friday April 9th, 6 lbs 14 oz, 19 inches

Ok i wanted to just write about how much i love the book Eloise! If you have not read it, you must! :) I have always loved this book ever since i was a little girl. I would do sleepovers with my aunt Amy, who is only 6 years older than me, and i would make her read it to me pretty much every time i slept over. It just makes me laugh. Eloise is a little rambunctious girl who lives at the plaza. She loves causing trouble and she loves room service- "and charge it please, thank you very much!" I think every little girl should have a copy of it in their picture book collection.

Lastly, the last 2 weeks i have been getting the same little cracks on the side of my mouth in each corner! Ah! I put neosporin on them and chapstick constantly, but they both keep coming back! I have never had one last this long before! Maybe i should use it as an excuse to not eat so much! Oh it is just so frustrating! I'll think its gone and then i open my mouth to talk or eat and one or both sides just split open again! Owwwie!!!

Update- could she be any cuter?!

2010-04-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

Mike is graduating in a couple of weeks and we are so excited to be done with school! Good luck with finals babe! (anyone seen the office episode where Michael and Jan have a dinner party and they call each other babe like every 5 seconds :)

Look at that face! Halles just smiles and smiles all day long! Oh it touches my heart! She is so adorable and sweet and happy! As you can tell we were in the middle of a feeding, and she decided to throw her head into my spoon full of food, instead of aiming it at her mouth like usual. And although it may not look like it, her hair is growing in, slowly but shirley.

Mike loves to tease Halle (that what dads are for right?). She's getting a little too big to put into her littl toy basket :)

We had a few balloons at our house from a baby shower for my sister-in-law, and of course Halle loved them. She would get all tangled in the ribbon and then not know what to do, and then they sank by the next morning and she just crawled all around playing with them.

Merry Christmas!! ...oh i mean Happy Easter! This is what our house looked like on easter morning! Good thing i didn't spend any money on an easter dress for our little princess. We spent the day at Mike's parents house watching conference. It was such a great weekend! My favorite talks were from Elder M. Russell Ballard, Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder David A. Bednar. Look them up here. I am so grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and for living prophets!

I never really planned on making homemade baby food (mostly because i'm just too lazy) however, when our local grocery store had a sale on Halle's favorite- sweet potatoes- i decided i should. I made all this (over 30 oz) for $1! ONE DOLLAR! Yipee! Thats the same i spent in the past on 5 oz of gerber. Anyway, so i'm pretty excited about it and i am convince that its a good idea to do homemade- at least on some foods. I also made strawberry jam with my mother-in-law last week and it is so delicious i think i all will be gone in a couple of weeks!

Taking an awkward nap on mommy

Family fun

2010-03-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

My Family visted last week because they had Spring break. They always come up to ski and stay with us, which is always lots of fun! We miss being close! We had fun eating, going to movies, watching movies, eating more, going to thanksgiving point and playing games. We miss them already! At least they are only a 9 hour drive away- i dont think i'd be able to handle being much farther!

Halle loved uncle Jaren's XBox controllers and watching him play- she got in on the fun this time :)

Ah i love this picture- look at them looking at each other! SO cute

Halle has officially started crawling! She is just army crawling right now, but boy can this little girl move! We are definitely at the point where babyproofing is a must. She is so adorable and i LOVE watching her scoot around

Halle loves her uncles! This is Mike's brother Sean. He loves Halle and it is so cute to watch him with her. We love having Mike's family close so we get to see them regularly!

Loves with dad

Mike tied this scarf around Halle's head and i thought she looked so hilarious! We think she looks like something on star wars in this picture. :) In the picture below- what is she doing? i have no idea, but this picture cracks me up! She looks like i gangster with her left hand and her sagging eye- hahaha

Our 6 month old

2010-03-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

Stats:
44th percentile for weight- 15lbs exactly
89th percentile for length- 26.5 inches
72nd percentile for head circumference- 16.85 inches (her grandpa says her beauty just goes to her head) :)

Adorable Giveaway!!!

2010-03-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

Come one, come all!!
Go to this link and enter to win an adoarble prize!!! And you'll feel a little more optimistic after reading too!

random loves

2010-02-26T10:04:00.000-08:00

things i love:

#1: the sun... oh how i just love the sunshine!!!!!!!!!! i truely am a warm-blooded, sun needing Arizona girl! I remember before i came to utah meeting a couple who had just gotten married and they advised me to date someone for a year before getting married so i could see them through each season. they said, "ya because some people get all depressed in the winter." and i thought it was good advice- then i came to utah and dicovered I AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!!haha I laugh to myself because seriously i need the sun!! Even Mike, who is the biggest utah advocate i've ever met, realized how much happier things are when the sun is out 350 days of the year after we live in AZ last semester. unfortunately we dont always see this lovely natural phenomenon too much this time of year in the great state of utah. :)

#2: my down comforter! i LOVE crawling into bed and feeling the softness of my blanket every night. Its so warm, yet light and just perfection.

#3: My glasses. I just got these new glasses before Halle was born and they are so wonderful! My old pair were not the right prescription anymore and one of the side arm things was broken off but i still wore them and they would always fall off and drove me crazy! so i LOVE being able to where these (which i do all morning every morning) and not having to put my contacts in if i dont want to. picture: yep just woke up and yay for my white skin; see lack of sun in utah comment earlier

#4: my cute hubby of course! this is a picture of him as a little boy- isnt he so dang cute!!??! i LOVE it!

And he's is still so dang good looking!! :) I am one lucky girl!

#5: NO TV! This week we have not been watching any TV and it is glorious! We unplugged it so we wouldnt be tempted and it seriously is SO nice. I have LOVED being able to just focus on Halle and Mike!

#6: my little one naturally... but i mention her all the time, so, i'll just say i just LOVE playing with her and today in particular i LOVE when she gets a good long nap! She tends to wake up after 40 minutes and think she's done with her nap time, so when she gets a good hour and a half to 2 hour nap she always wakes up so content and i get a lot done around the house!

#7: I love the little random things in the old house we live in. Take this pineapple light for example (Niki this one is for you. one reason i would be bad at trying to do your amazing vintage style is that i dont know when you look at things and go "ooo thats cool vintage" or "no thats ugly vintage" :)) Where can you find these? They are classic! LOVE them!

Of course more of Halle

2010-02-22T12:54:00.000-08:00

Helping me with laundry

Sleeping on dad while dad studies

Halle's BFF Hadley came over to play last week and they had lots of fun together :)

Halle wanted to steal Hadley's bow

Just hangin out

Happy Valentine's Week

2010-02-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Week to everyone! We hope you have a week full of LOVE! :)

How could you not LOVE this!?!? OOOOOoooo she is just so cuddly and cute!

Halle

2010-02-01T07:33:00.000-08:00

he he he

Halle is learning to sit up! She is still pretty unstable but we're practicing

Covenants

2010-02-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

Mike and I spoke in church yesterday. Mike did so awesome :) We spoke on covenants. I decided to speak specificly on temple covenants and i spoke on making temple covenants, keeping those covenants, living and appreciating them, and then remembering temple covenants. Here are some quotes i shared:
Making temple covenants: "Marriage and family are at the heart of why God sent us to earth. We will receive our exaltation as married people or not at all." Bruce C. Hafen
Keeping temple covenants: "Divorce is not part of the gospel plan. If all mankind would live in strict obedience to the gospel all marriages would be eternal, divorce would be unknown..." Joseph Fielding Smith
Living and appreciating our temple covenants: "An eternal bond doesn't just happen as a result of sealing covenants we make in the temple. How we conduct ourselves in this life will determine what we will be in all eternities to come." Robert D. Hales
Remembering temple covenants: "A periodic review of the covenants we have made with the Lord will help us with our priorities and with balance in our lives. This review will help us see where we need to repent and change our lives to ensure that we are worthy of the promises that accompany our covenants and sacred ordinances. Working out our own salvation requires good planning and deliberate, valiant effort." M. Russell Ballard
If you have not read the book Covenant Hearts by Bruce C. Hafen buy it today!! It is one of my most favorite books ever!

5 Months!?!?!

2010-01-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

I cant believe Halle is already 5 months old!! It is so surreal! I love being little buddies and getting to play with her all day! I always knew being a mom was what i wanted most in life but i never knew it would be so fun and entertaining! Her smiles just make my days! She is such a happy little girl that LOVES exploring with her eyes and hands. She is sleeping 9hrs every night and takes 2 good naps during the day. I love that she has such a good routine that we've developed and that my days are always predictable. She so sweet and is really starting to cuddle more lately- its SO cute :)
Some things that Halle loves:

Her mama

Reading and eating. (this is a menu at a restaurant so it covers both :) she LOVES her board books and she looks at and tries to grab everything that i put in my mouth. I gave her rice cereal a few weeks ago and she hated it- it was hilarious. But then i gave her some mixed with apple baby food and she really liked it; however we'll be waiting until her next drs appointment to really start food.

Smiling and playing- especially with her dad

Grabbing her toes and putting them in her mouth :)

The Lord's Will

2010-01-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

We had a couple of excellent talks given in sacrament meeting yesterday on obedience. One person shared this quote by Neal A. Maxwell which i have always loved:
"The submission of one's will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to plant on God's altar. The many other things we 'give' are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us. However, when you and I finally submit ourselves, by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God's will, then we are really giving something to Him! It is the only possession which is truely ours to give!"
The sacrament hymn was 169 in which it says, "For courage to accept thy will, To listen and obey. We love thee Lord... We'll walk thy chosen way." I noticed these lines years ago and they gave me strength. I contiplated on the commandment- if ye love me, keep my commandments. That's what its truely about. Someone also shared the thought that part of becoming "truly converted" is when obedience changes from being a burden to being our quest.
I am such a control freak and super organized that i always just have in my head, "If everything just went according to my plan then everything would be perfect and work out the way it is supposed to." But, wow, i am so off the mark! Heavenly Father has his plan for our family, and for me as an individual, and i need to constantly be asking him what that is instead of having my own plan. My favorite scripture mastery has always been Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
My thoughts seem somewhat jumbled as i reread them. I am just so grateful for the gospel! I do not use the resources and knowledge it gives me to the fullest. I strive to do that better. Its amazing to me to look at the living prophets and apostles and realize that they just have it all figured out :) I am grateful for their words. I know Heavenly Father only wants what's best for each of us and for us to succeed in this life!

Home for the Holidays

2010-01-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

Going on a walk

Christmas Day

Four Generations!

A family in my hom ward was doing a little traveling nativity and ask Mike and I to be Mary & Joseph with Halle as baby Jesus. It was short and sweet but such a cool experience for us! It made our Christmas

Kisses from Carden

Hugs

Halle

2009-12-06T17:10:00.001-08:00

Dancing with Dad

I just think this is such a funny little face she's making :)

Yay for new babies!

2009-11-30T08:39:00.000-08:00

My brother and his wife Marin just had there twins about a week and a half ago! Rhead and Brooke. They are SO cute and tiny! Halle is only 12 weeks but its crazy how quickly they change! Marin is a studette and did an amazing job during the delivery. We are so excited to meet the precious little ones at Christmas!

Pirate's Cove

2009-11-20T09:54:00.001-08:00

We had so much fun last weekend at Pirate's Cove! Mike's work took a bunch of us there for a long weekend getaway. It is a private resort just outside of Vegas. It was a pretty incredible place! It was literally like spending 5 days inside the ride at Disneyland!! Here's just a few pictures:

Halle's first swim! :) She seriously loved it!!

Halloween

2009-11-09T18:30:00.001-08:00

Ever since Halle was one day old she snorts when she doing a frustrated mad cry and its always made us laugh, so sometimes we call her our little piggy or piglet. So we decided she needed to be a pig for halloween :) We found a Piglet stuffed animal and Mike decided we should just take it apart and use the pieces to make her costume. SO We used the tummy and the hooves, then i sewed the face onto a little pink hoodie she already had. She was so cute! :)

This was just a cute little smile i captured

Halle and her blessing day

2009-10-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

What a perfect day it was on Halle's blessing day! She looked adorable and Mike did a wonderful job! I'm so grateful for an amazing worthy husband and a big Thank You to Halle's uncles and grandpas who could be there! We sure missed uncle Sean who's on his mission!

Everyone

Oh she is so precious!! She changes so much! Halle has already graduated into size 1 diapers :) and sleeps between 5 and 7 hours straight every night, then feeds for like 40 minutes and goes back to sleep for another 2 hours which has made life so much better! She smiles ALL the time and OOOoooo i just love it so much!!! I feel like a real mommy now with a little buddy who loves me back and really really knows who i am and likes to play! Hopefully i'll get some more smiling pictures soon- she seems to get distracted when i pull the camera out and i can never get the split second right when she's smiling good!

So mike thinks its pretty cool that Halle is so "flexible", SO he loves to put her toe in her mouth because then she sucks on it! It actually is really hilarious! :) I think this is something only a dad would do

Driving the Alpine Loop right as the leaves began to change

Pictures

2009-09-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

Just some cute pictures of the cutest little baby girl in the world!! :)

So, if you know my family, you know basketball is life for the boys! So we found this cute tiny shirt that says, "My Grandpa Rocks" that we put Halle in and took some pics with a basketball for her grandpa (and all her uncles and and her great grandpa would appreciate it too)

Napping with Daddy-- SO CUTE!

Photo shoot with mommy and Nana

First Family outing... a drive up to and walking around beautiful Sundance

Feeding

2009-09-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

So i wanted some advice from current mommys... Halle is approaching her 3 week mark and i am having lots of pain still while breastfeeding. EVERYTHING i read in books and online about breastfeeding says it should not hurt, and the only reason it would hurt is because of improper latch on. However, i have watched many videos, read in my books and online, talked to many people and studied it a lot and i feel like we (me and Halle) are doing everything mentioned for proper latch on!! But it is still so painful. Very frustrating... i'm thinking about going to a lactation specialist to try and figure out what i'm doing wrong. Is this just part of feeding and i need to just wait it out? or is it really preventable like all the experts say? I want to call up these experts and ask if any of them have ever actually breastfed?? :) Advice please!!!

Baby Halle

2009-08-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

Our new sweet baby girl is finally here! I am just posting the story quick from an email my mom sent my family, and a few pictures... we think she is the cutest little baby ever!!! :)

Ashley went to the hospital on Wednesday, August 26 at about noon only to discover she was only dilated to 2 so they sent her home disappointed.When I got her phone call I jumped on the first plane I could and arrived just in time to find out she was on her way home. We went out for some spicy Chinese food and walked around the mall. By 9:00pm she was hurting pretty bad. We went home and waited... more contractions... only 4-5 minutes apart. At 11:30pm we went back to the hospital. Unfortunately, after monitoring her for an hour she was still only dilated to a 2! Once again she went home disappointed.

After a pretty sleepless night for everyone her contractions were quite strong. But we didn't want to go to the hospital too soon again. We went for a long walk. Poor Ashley had to stop about every 4 minutes, grab Mike's arm, bend over and almost cry from the pain. But we kept walking. Finally she couldn't stand it anymore. We came home, showered, and now her contractions were just 3 minutes apart and she was in tears.

Back to the hospital… Thursday at 1:00pm in the afternoon. Good news: she was dilated to 4. They admitted her, hooked up her I.V. & epidural, and broke her water.

By 4:00pm we were told she had dilated to 7

By 6:30pm we were told she had dilated to 9 and it was about time to push! We were so excited. At 7:00 a new nurse came on shift, checked Ashley and said “She’s not a 9! She’s only dilated to 6, maybe a 7. I don’t know who told you she was at a 9.”

We were disappointed, devastated… confused. How could that happen? We told the nurse we wanted the doctor to come check her. No offense, but someone was obviously wrong.

7:30 The Doctor came to check and said she was about a 7½ or 8. He said "I’ll be back in about 2 hours to check you again and you’ll probably be ready to push then."

He came back at 9:30 to check and Ashley had not changed. She was still dilated to an 8.

He was concerned that she was “stalled”. You don’t want to be stuck and under the pressure of labor for too long. It’s dangerous for the baby and mother. The doctor said we should consider a C-Section. Ashley was still having lots of hard labor, but it seemed it wasn’t forcing her to dilate anymore. He said we could wait another hour and see if there was a change.

We waited for a little over another hour. Doctor came back and checked again. She hadn’t changed at all. He was very concerned and recommended we do the C-Section.

After lots of serious thought, contemplation, prayer and a sweet blessing from Mike & his Dad they decided to do the C-Section.

At 11:00pm they rolled her away to the O.R. I found the doors to the O.R. and could see part of them through the windows. I watched: as much as I could see anyway. At 11:27pm Halle was born! She was so adorable, despite a serious conehead. “That’s the head of a baby that was really trying to get out!” The doctor said. She was stuck in that canal for 8 hours! That produces quite the conehead. But she was beautiful! Thankfully coneheads go down after just 12 hours.

Ashley and Halle did great. They are doing great. Halle is so sweet and so beautiful. Did I say that already? She is nursing well. Ashley is feeling good. I’m so proud of her. It has been quite an emotional and exhausting 3 days. But we are so thankful that Halle is here and safe and healthy. And we are so thankful Ashley is well and healthy.

2009-06-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

James' B-day celebration. Happy Birthday James!! (we had homemade ice cream thats why he's holding a strawberry with his candles :)

Cutest baby girl cousin Claire-- Baby Halle will be getting lots of cute cloths from Claire :) lucky us!!

Mike shooting a hoop across the pool from the slide

The boys getting pretty wild playing 21

Chelsey and I had a joint shower thrown by all the cute girls we work with. We had yummy homemade Cafe Rio salads and we got tons of fun and needed stuff! Thanks to everyone!!

28 Weeks!

Some pictures

2009-06-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

So all these pictures are like a month old, but i need to post more often and i havent gotten any new pictures recently so i thought old was better than nothing! We planted a garden a few weeks ago (unfortunately it doesn't seem to be doing too well at this point).

I made this amazing looking cake-- sadly it looks better than it tasted!! :)

Me at 23 weeks! I will take more pictures this weekend and post them since I'm 28 weeks now! I'm so behind- Ahhh!

My Hubby

2009-05-28T20:42:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my amazing husband Michael Graham Smith! :) I just have to express that I feel so lucky to have him! He is out of town right now, has been for the last 2 weeks, and is coming home on Sunday! I couldnt be more excited!!! I have missed him so much! It totally stands true that you never realize what you have until its gone (even just out of town :)! It has been a good time to really notice and think about all the things I never realized I would miss about him- like songs that remind me of him, switching our toothbrush head for mine, just having someone to be with and hang out with all the time, giving me little compliments on how i look or something i've made, his smell, his excitement about little things, and the list goes on and on. I love the anticipation of waiting for his phone calls and getting so excited to talk to him. I love knowing that we are partners working together to be happy and live the gospel (even though we are far from perfect :). I love knowing that he will be the father of my children... i feel like i have so many faults that will effect how i am as a mother, i need to be so much more patient and gentle and just having charity in general, but when i look at him i am in awe at what a good dad i know he will make- He will be so cute holding our sweet new little baby, and then when she (and the rest of them when they come) will have so much fun playing with him as kids because he really is just a kid at heart, then when they get older he will know how to discipline firmly but still be so loving and not angry so they will want to follow him and because of his amazing example! He is always so positive and looks on the bright side of every situation, he always peace and is always the first one to say i'm sorry (i'm definitely trying to work on that!!!), and he is constantly making me laugh! I couldnt ask for a better best friend, husband, and partner! So thanks so much babe for always being there and loving me no matter what!! I was looking at some of our old pictures the other day and came across this one from our honeymoon at Disneyland- almost 3 years ago!!- and i could not stop laughing so this is the one i wanted to post even though he'll want to kill me for putting it up- he he heee!!!

Arizona

2009-04-03T19:06:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago my family was here in Utah for their spring break and I decided to drive home to Arizona with them and spend the next week with them and my brother and sister-in-law and my little nephew who came down from Sacrament for their spring break. It was SO FUN!!! I loved spending time with brother and his cutest family that I havent seen in awhile. We ate at all the yummy restaurants, laid out in the sun, and enjoyed lots of time with all the family and friends in az. When I got home and was showing Mike all my fun pictures of my trip I realized I pretty much only took pictures of my nephew (and whoever was holding or playing with him at the time got to be in the picture too), who is the CUTEST boy in the world!!! :) Here are just a few.

Its a Girl!!!

2009-04-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

So we went to an ultrasound clinic a couple weeks ago and found out we're having a girl!!!! We are so excited! We went to Gap afterward and it made me so much more excited about having a girl than a boy :) Mike bought her a super cute pink dress that he was really excited about. Maybe I'll post a picture of it later. I'm also so much more excited about doing the baby room now too!

The Announcement...

2009-03-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so its past overdue that i update the blog and it just overdue that i make the announcement that MIKE AND I ARE PREGNANT!!!! YAY!!! We are so excited! I am 16 weeks along and just barely starting to show so its getting more fun everyday :) I didnt feel too great during the first trimester but now that i'm into my second trimester i have a lot more energy and dont feel sick anymore- Hooray! I have an appointment next week and am hoping we'll be able to find out if its a boy or a girl. We want a boy, but of course we would love either one! (i'm nervous mike would spoil a girl too much as the first :) - i just know my girls are going to be daddy's girls). I am anxious to get started on the baby's room! We are just so excited to be parents soon!! Its so wierd to think its a reality! We'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday!!

2008-11-16T22:43:00.000-08:00

I still am trying to figure out how to post the way I really want to...I can never get my pictures in the order I want them in- grrr! ANYWAY, so it was my birthday this week and it was awesome!! Mike scored tons of points with me! :) It was such a great day! I had to work, but my work comrads took me out to Olive Garden for soup, salad and breadsticks :) yum. Then I came home to Mike and James working hard to decorate and prepare for dinner and dessert. He made me go in our room while they finished up. He made amazingly delicious shish-kabobs on the grill, baked to perfection baked potatoes, a yummy salad, and his mom brought rolls. It was a perfect and delicious meal! The party decorations were princess themed :) and consisted of white and yellow streemers from the front door all the way around the room to the kitchen, a big bouquet of balloons, cute birthday plates, and on my place at the table a princess pillow with a frog on it to kiss, a glow in the dark princess wand and of course a tiara and matching earrings :) he had a hay day at the dollar store :) For dessert we had yummy ice cream sundaes with brownies, bananas, whip cream, hot fudge, and caramel! For my presents he got me coldplay tickets to the concert this weekend, some new furniture, and a sonicare toothbrush! WOW! I had such a great night with my amazing hubby and his parents and my bro James and Erin his wife. Thanks so much guys!!! And a special thanks to all my friends and family who sent emails and/or called! And lastly, Thanks to Mike- I love you so much babe and you made it the best birthday yet!!

4 Wheeling

2008-11-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

This past weekend our good friend Court took us 4-wheeling in Gunnison. He took us all the way up the mountain and around a whole long trail that was so beautiful and fun! We especially had a good time because we went 4-wheeling on our first date and haven't been since :) Thanks Court!

Halloween

2008-11-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a little late with the Halloween post, but our computer wasn't working and so I couldn't even get access to our pictures- frustrating! Anyway, here is our Halloween. We dressed up at the orthodotist office I work at; we were rappers if you cant tell :) And out Ortho, Dr.Talbot, or TQT as I like to call him, is Flava-flav. Then that night we had our ward Halloween Party and Mike was being boring so i made him let me paint his face- he he he.

Couch Makeover

2008-10-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

I have been so bad at posting and keeping this blog up! I am trying to get back in the habit of taking more pictures so I have things to post. For now, here is a project I've been working on for the past few weeks. The top picture is what they are now and check out the way the old couch was below :)

Camping

2008-10-05T18:35:00.001-07:00

We decided to do an overnighter, up Provo canyon, before it got too cold here. It was beautiful! It is the time when the leaves have started changing, so there are so many colors and it really is gorgeous. We made a Pot Roast in one of our dutch ovens; which ended up being pretty good, but took forever to cook. I think it's just going to take a few trips to really get used to cooking in the Dutch Oven. It was fun to be away from everything and just hang out together. We were sore for a few days afterwards from sleeping on our blow-up mattress that slowly let air out all night.

Tennis

2008-10-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

Mike and one of his best friends playing a great game of tennis up in SLC

What a stud!!

Drive home from St.Louis

2008-09-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

On our way home from St. Louis to Provo, Mike and I took a little detour so we could see some of the great church history sites in Missouri.

Visitor center in Independence. This is a little walk through tour that was displayed how they lived back then.

The Community of Christ Church's Temple. It was interesting to walk across the street from our church's visitor center to this and feel such a difference. Obviously, I couldn't figure out how to get this picture turned before posting :) Also, I have a funny husband :)

Liberty Jail.

Adam-Ondi- Ahman

Columbia, MO

2008-08-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend and all this week the guys have been selling in a little town called Columbia, that is about 2 hours away. Jenny and I decided to go hang out with our Hubbys last weekend. We had a good little weekend and got to eat at this yummy BBQ place and then we walked across the street and got delicious frozen custard! YUM!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-08-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Mike and I just celebrated out 2 Year anniversary a couple of weeks ago- YAY!! We had a great day. We started it by going to the Ritz Carlton for Brunch, which was delicious, and then we were able to go down to the St.Louis Arch, do some shopping, relax, and just enjoy being together. We are so happy together and are glad that we have made it through 2 wonderful years! I always think its funny when people say they think we are so young to get married and that we're taking on so much earlier than we have to, but I always respond, "There are going to be hard times in life no matter what, marriage is a lot of work, but you always have your best friend to go through and get through everything with!" Marriage is awesome and I love Mike SO much and can't imagine my life without him! Thank you for all you do babe!

At brunch... not a great picture... we really are a lot happier than we look! :)

Mike and the Arch

It really is impossible to explain how tall and awe-inspiring the Arch is in real life

APX Office Olympics

2008-08-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

This past week we a had fun Office Olympic event one morning before the guys went out to sell to help pump them up and celebrate the Olympics going on right now. Of course things got pretty intense a few times with 20 guys competeing on 4 teams :) We had a belly flop contest, 2 different relays- one that consisted of swimming across the pool with floaties on arms and legs, and another teammate had to get a ballon across the pool without using any hands- the other had gatorade chugging, pie eat, and sinking toys all with swimming in between, and then we had Watermelon Football (which is almost asking for an injury... but they were all able to stay mostly injury free so they could charge the rest of the week). Here are some fun pictures of our activities.

Getting ready for the Floatie relay

The Dive

Wyatt getting his balloon across

Watermelon Football (Team Italy, and Team Germany)

Score!!

More Watermelon Football (Team USA, and Team China)

Mike Scores a big one! What a stud!

All the guys- Gold: Team USA, Silver: Team Germany, Bronze: Team China

Me and Mike

Some fun from the Summer... A short recap

2008-08-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

All the cute wives at one of our first activities for the summer- going to downtown St. Louis, eating at Hard Rock cafe, and walking down to see the arch!

A few of us went to a cool tennis match a month or so ago. Jenny, Holly, Allie and Me

We were able to throw a shower for a few of the girls that are pregnant out here this summer. This is Me, Jenny, and Allie. We've been able to get to be good friends with Jenny and her husband Wyatt, and little boy Crew.

Cafe Rio night- Yum! Jenny and I made the Pork, black beans, Rice, and Ranch Tomatillo dressing for these delicious Cafe Rio salads. It wasnt exact but definitely satisfied our Cafe Rio cravings we've been having since we've been away! This is Mike & I, and Jenny and Wyatt's cute boy Crew.

2008-05-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Here we are with James and Erin, taking off to St. Louis for our summer adventure selling security systems!