Promised Pictures

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted. This semester really has been crazy. We really are hoping it gets easier... maybe?

Life goes on and we adjust.

Some of the fun things Camden does:
 -The last few mornings he has woken up to himself "Oooo"ing. It's ADORABLE (even if it is 5 a.m.) and he is so happy in the morning.
- He LOVES to smile. He has the biggest smile- and just when it can't get any bigger, he lets out a "AH!" and flails his arms.
- He is obsessed with his feet. He will hold them up and move them around to figure out what they do and how they work.
-Baths are a favorite. We know that if he's cranky and not hungry, dirty, and he can't go to bed yet, it's bath time. He probably could sit in there for hours if we let him.
-Fingers are a favorite. His, yours, it doesn't matter. He will do the whole fist if he has to!

Here's some fun pictures of cute Camden--

Oh... and cute Rick :)

Of course, we couldn't have Halloween without Clark Kent!

Camden learned how to roll over and I caught it on video! So fun!

One of his many faces... he loves making faces and imitating Mom and Dad.

These two boys...

Hello, ladies...Already a ladies man

We sure love this kid. He's pretty cute.

Rick is a SUPER awesome dad. I love hearing him talk to Cam while he gets him dressed or plays with him on his play mat. And already they are enjoying football together...

Excuse the quality, but really- how cute is this?

3 months later...

Yes. I know it's been 3 months...

It's been a crazy 3 months...

A fantastic 3 months...

and a super busy 3 months.

Both Rick and I don't feel like we see each other at all, it's mostly to pass Camden between us. It helps to know that the semester is half-way over and hopefully we will get to see each other again.
Basically our week looks like this:

Monday: Leave the house by 7:30, Camden is at Grandma M's until 3 then Mickelle leaves him with Rick an hour later to go teach until 8:30
Tuesday: Leave the house by 8:30, Camden is at Grandma S's until 2 and Rick bring him up to WSU to swap in the parking lot and goes home while Rick goes to class until 8:30
Wednesday: Repeat of Monday except Mickelle is at the school from 8:30-8:30 and Rick brings Cam up for an hour of "Mom time" while he works out then takes him home.
Thursday: Repeat of Tuesday- but no class-- Mickelle works usually
Friday: Again- leaving the house by 7:30 then...Oh hey- nice to meet you again- sometime around 3-ish after work and school sometimes we get to hang out on the couch together.
Saturday: We really WANT this day to spend as a family- but usually something comes up. Work, Calling, Family wanting us to come there or them coming here... it never works out that we get to spend time together.
Sunday: Rick is EQP so Sunday's are usually pretty full of meetings/Home Teaching/Visiting Teaching.

Thus is our life...We hope people don't judge us too much if we just go home to sleep instead of joining them at the movies or if we stay home from an invite to join them for dinner. We are still adjusting to this life and adding work and school on top of wanting to see each other and spend time as a family... (and we apologize in advance for being flaky and/or looking like zombies. Just be patient with us.) This is the crazy, busy part.

The fantastic part is this------>

                 The cutest baby ever.

                                      But really. This kid:

 

I can't believe he's already almost 3 months old.  We love watching him learn and grow. We love seeing his cute smile in the morning (makes getting up with him at night totally worth it!), we love him falling asleep on our chest, we love hearing his "almost laughs" when he's so excited his smile isn't enough... 

We sure love cute Camden!

This weekend I will post more pictures and you can see how he's grown. 

Even though life is crazy busy, we are still alive (somewhat) and sure love our life with each other.

Meet the Baby

Camden Richard Smith 

July 15th, 2014 (Right on time!)
5:06 p.m.

6 lb 13 oz
20" long

First Family picture
(Don't mind our tired, fake smiles.)

Well, we made it! I know it's been almost 2 weeks since he was born, but it's been a busy 2 weeks! 

Monday the 14th we had an appointment with Dr. Fillerup (yes, that's her name.) to just check on how things were going. While we were there, we did a Non-Stress Test and his heart rate was going down after I could feel him move instead of up like it was supposed to, so she decided to do an ultrasound just to check on him. While watching him on the ultrasound he was being extra quiet and not really showing signs of "practice breathing"- which at 40 weeks he should be doing. She gave us the choice: Go home and come back tomorrow, Go to the hospital and be monitored for a few hours then come back tomorrow, or Go ahead and get induced that day (very slowly so as to not stress baby out). 

After a lot of discussion and thinking about the options we decided to go ahead and have a baby! She gave us about an hour to run home and get situated- don't worry that bags were not packed and we still had to make sure dogs were taken care of. We really were running around the house like chickens! The clothing choices that went in my bag? A skirt, a robe, the clothes I had worn to church the day before, and an undershirt tank top... I'm not exactly sure what kind of an outfit I was thinking I was going to wear. That's what happens when you don't pack your bag early.

We got to the hospital about 12:30 and they told us to go eat some lunch then come back in about an hour.  By 2 we were hooked up and going.

Around 7 pm, Dr. Fillerup came in and told us to plan for the long haul. She wasn't kidding because July 15th at 5:06 p.m.- 28 hours later, Camden made his appearance. 

It took us a few days to finally decide on a name (Rick got the name Richard as his middle name...) and we decided that he looked like a Camden (one of our two name choices). We put off doing the Birth Certificate paperwork until very last thing before we left the hospital.

We kind of like the cute little guy. No, we didn't get everything on our To-Do list done, but he came anyway. He's been a pretty good kid so far- wakes up once in the middle of the night then once at 5:30 or 6 a.m. We've only had 2 nights with little sleep. (Tummy aches are the worst!) 

He is definitely already spoiled by grandparents and aunts and uncles. Aunt Ali told me the other day while pushing Cam's stroller "Mickelle, I'm a great aunt!" Yes, yes you are Ali. Cheese calls himself "Unc' Cheese" and Uncle Jared holds him any chance he gets. 

Judith and King aren't 100% sure of their new brother- but they will learn to love him. One more person to play with them- and scratch their belly when he's older.

He's already Rick's son- Football pacifier and Superman blanket

We love him already and, although we want him to stay little for forever, we can't wait to watch him grow up as part of our forever family.

Final Count Down...

Less than one week left, guys...

ONE WEEK!

Not sure if that's an excited "!" or a "I'm-going-to-die-of-terror" "!"

                                                                    --- Either way, he's coming! Ready or not.

Mostly, I have come to terms with the fact that we can't do it all before he gets here so we just have to be okay with doing one thing each day and if we don't get it done, we don't get it done and it will eventually get done.

Some of the things we still have on our list:

- Touching up the paint on the ceiling in the Living Room
- Painting the Living Room Walls
- Buying baskets for baby clothes
- Washing and folding all the hand-me-down baby clothes
- Buying a Humidifier and a few other small things
- Packing our hospital bag... okay so this should probably be at the top of our list, it's fine.
- Having a place for baby to sleep when he comes home- We have a pack and play if worse comes to worse-- my dad is in the middle of making a bassinet, but had to go out of town this week so we will see if it's ready!
- Cleaning the carpets
- Go Food shopping so we have SOMETHING in our fridge to eat
- Get our Swamp Cooler running more efficiently- no more perpetual rivers of water on our patio
- Just clean the house once before it's in a constant state of chaos for the next... who knows how long!
- Make our guest room look like a room again instead of a baby stuff storage room

This isn't too much to do right?

One at a time...

Babymoon

As it gets closer to baby coming, we decided we'd better take the chance to take one last "just-the-two-of-us" vacation so the first week in June we headed out to Southern California. We took 2 days for the drive 2 full days there and 2 days back- stopping in Vegas. It was a fun break and we really enjoyed ourselves-- even if it wasn't long enough :)

The Las Vegas Sign

There is a free 10-minute 3-D movie at the M&M store

We stayed in Vegas and got to swim and play around a little bit there on our way there and back.

One of Rick's requirements every time we go through Vegas is a stop at Cane's. Apparently it's a pretty popular place in Louisiana and he misses it a lot.

 

Cane's Chicken... we had to stop both on the way there AND back.

On our way home we also went to the M&M and Coke stores on the strip. It's a fun place to visit, even if we ended up with some melted M&M's by the time we got home. 

Millions of M&M's!

While in California we stayed with family in Redlands, went to Venice Beach, watched the Dodgers play (Thanks to an awesome Aunt who got us the tickets!), visited Downtown Disney and met a good friend there for lunch (including yummy beignets!) , ate lunch with more family in Huntington Beach, visited Grandpa Myers' grave, and went to the Redlands Temple. Listing that all out makes it seem like we were super busy, but really, we just hung out and relaxed for a few days. It was a great way to start out the final countdown of the last 4 weeks of being baby-less.

Downtown Disney! Don't be too jealous of Rick's Tow-mater hat or our Beignets! Mmm...

The Dodger game... they lost and we paid too much for food, but it was still super fun!

Baby's first beach hang out... literally that's what we did- lay on the beach all morning. It was great!

Don't mind that it was pretty windy- but so nice!

Thanks to family who let us stay with them, eat their food, and those at home who stayed with the dogs! (I'm pretty sure King and Judi wouldn't leave our side for the rest of the weekend after we got home!)

Since we've been home we've been super busy with getting the room ready, baby showers, along with work and school... wish us luck in the final 4 weeks!

Monthly highlights

Apparently this is becoming a once-a-month thing here on the blog... Hopefully I get better at this.

The last month?

We finally bought a crib, car seat, and stroller. It's kind of becoming a little more real. Okay, a lot more real. We still haven't decided what color to paint the baby's room, but you know... 2 whole months is a long time... right?

We (and by "we" I mean my dad and we tried to help as much as we could) installed a ceiling fan/light in our living room. We are hoping this will help with our lack of central air...

Rick signed up for another half-marathon for June so he's been training for that. He's pretty awesome.

This weekend we planned a neighborhood pancake breakfast. We have felt like really bad neighbors because we don't know any of them more than just waving "Hi" when we see them outside... today we got to meet a few more. Now (after 2 years) we officially know the first names of the people that live on both sides of us. (it's a big deal)

Anyway, that's the update. School's out for the summer (besides the one History class Rick is taking) so hopefully now we will have a little more time to play and get ready for the craziness that is to come!

Puppy Dog Tails...

Just what we need... a few more "puppy dog tails" around the house.

A few weeks ago we found out that we will be adding a boy to our family.

When the Dr. told us it was a boy, I think Rick was more excited about it that he thought he would be- he fist pumped the air and let out a "YES!".

Needless to say, we are both excited.

It took a little getting used to for my 6-year-old sister though. She threw herself on the bed asking for "No more boys!" Once she was reminded that she's still Rick's princess, she was fine, and stopped crying her crocodile tears. :)

So... the first thing everyone asks us is names. The answer: Yes, we have a few names... but probably won't decide until right before or right after he is born. Everyone has an opinion on names- giving us ideas, telling us what they think about our names... it's fine. We do know that the middle name will be Rawlings (after Rick), so hopefully that appeases all curiosity for the time being. :)

We have acquired a few more things to shove into the room that has become known as "Baby's room"... a bouncer chair, clothes, and more clothes. Right now we need to look into car seats and strollers. We would also like a Pack and Play for when I go back to work and he needs to go to grandma's for babysitting, but really, we don't want a lot of "stuff" that we don't need. (and maybe that's just another way of saying "I have no idea where to start or what we need.") Either way, we need to think of SOMETHING to put on our registry. Suggestions are welcome...

Half-Way There

We are finally about half-way until we get to meet our baby. It's kind of weird. It still feels a little unreal. We will find out if baby is a boy or girl next Friday. Off the record, Rick and I both think baby is a boy, but we really don't care. As long as baby is healthy. (I know cliche, but true.)

What have we done to prepare?

Not a whole lot.

My mom had given us a crib/toddler bed about a year ago for us to use when we needed it so we have that, but it's not set up.

We also have a few things that people have given us, but because we don't know boy or girl, we feel pretty stuck- and honestly, it's still not quite real.... and honestly, where do you even start with this? I ran into Babies R Us the other day to use the bathroom and about had a heart attack thinking about everything we "need" and don't have the money for!

Hopefully, it becomes real soon otherwise we might be in trouble...

New Year News

I guess our news has kind of made it's way about halfway around the internet via Facebook but we figured we might as well finish up the job... 

Here's a picture of our little alien baby:

As of right now baby has had about 15 1/2 weeks to hang out and has many more to go... (S)he is due to join us in the outside world July 15th. We think it would be a pretty cool birthday since mine is January 15, Ricks is February 15, and our anniversary is March 15... but Doctor doesn't think we will get that lucky.

We are pretty excited (although excitement doesn't even begin to describe our moms...) but are enjoying our last few months of "just us". We always think "next Christmas we will have a baby" or "this is our last anniversary without having to get a babysitter". It's a little strange to think about, but we have several months to let it sink in... 

Wish us luck on this new adventure!