Travels

It's been a very busy month for our little family.  I've been working a lot, covering for doctors who are on vacation so I've been away from home.  I do enjoy my work and Grace gets to spend extra time with her Mimi and Grama Brown.  Poor Zach is the one stuck by himself.  Although he manages to keep himself busy with rock climbing and the new Starcraft he got for Father's Day.  

  

Grace turned 5 months old a few weeks ago.  She is still just a sweet baby.  She has moved her bed time up to about 8:30 PM which means she wakes up around 5:00 AM and is very hungry.  Still not too bad and I can't complain.  She is getting more hair but I still can't tell what color it will be.  Depending on the light it will look red, blond or light brown.  She is much more alert and will even respond to her name (most of the time).  She has found her tongue.  I love that stage.  Her eyes have settled on a dark blue.  She loves her bath and swimming.  She has a new very cheesy grin and likes to smile at everyone, unless she's mad and then she just cries.  We just love having her in our family.

  

At the end of June my Mom, Grace and I made a very quick trip up to Wyoming for the surprise 60th birthday party of our good friend Kim Gasson.  It was a lot of driving for very little time in Wyoming but it was definitely worth it.  The Gasson's are such great people and we loved seeing them.  Grace did great, as long as someone was sitting in back right next to her.  Otherwise, she was not happy.      

Wyoming is such a beautiful place, in my opinion.  It is my birthplace so I may be biased but I love the wide open spaces.  It was also green and cool which is polar opposite of Arizona.  While we were gone Arizona had 121 degree weather.  I was glad to miss that. 

I got to see and spend time with my friend Sarah and her family.  That was a blast for me!  We always have such a good time together.  She is a great hostess.  We also got to meet little Isaac.  He is about 6 weeks younger than Grace and such a cutie.  We decided we wouldn't mind if these two hooked up in the future.  

Yes, Isaac was bigger and heavier than Grace despite the age difference.  They had fun playing together and by that I mean they sat on the floor and kicked near each other.

When Grace and I finally got home she was overjoyed to see her dad.  She was all smiles all evening.  She really did miss him.  

It was a good month!  We're doing our best to get through the summer.  We have another trip planned to Idaho for Tessa's graduation in a few weeks.  It'll be Grace's first plane ride.  We'll see how that goes!

4 Months

My grace turned 4 months old on the 25th.  She is growing up so fast and learning so many things.  Her hair is turning red and her eyes have finally settled on dark blue.  

  

Grace has found her hands.  In particular, she has found her fingers, 2 of them.  She is rarely found without them in her mouth.

Grace is also an expert at rolling over to her left.  She hasn't figured out rolling to her right or getting from her belly to her back.  She'll roll over, play for a minute and then get really mad that she is on her belly.  She is getting better though.
She has also started talking up a storm.  I love to hear her sit and babble.  She'll even laugh occasionally.
Grace is so easy going.  She smiles all the time.  She'll get mad but is very easy to comfort.  She is a great sleeper.  We have our nightly routine of bath, which she loves, dinner and then she is out by 10:00 and usually sleeps until 7:00 am.  I really can't complain.  I just can't believe how quickly she is growing.    

Mother's Day

This year was my first Mother's Day and what a great day it was.  I feel so privileged and blessed to be the mom to this beautiful little girl.  She has brought more joy to my life than I ever imagined.  I love watching her learn and grow.  I'm so grateful to my  mother who has always been a wonderful example to me and to all the other women in my life who have influenced me for good.  Many are mothers and many are not but they have helped me become who I am today.  So thank you! 

Zach did a great job.  I got a new vaccuum!  I'm very excited to have one that works.  He also conveniently got me movie tickets (Star Trek comes out this week) and a few other little things.  He is the best!

Disneyland

We had a great trip to Disneyland this last weekend.  Tessa is on Spring break and Dad really wanted to go.   We decided to join them.  We loved it.  Disneyland really is one of the happiest places on earth.  We ran around everywhere and rode so many rides.  Having Zach around is always a plus because he figures out how to avoid lines.  The longest line we waited in was probably 20 minutes.  It was great.

Gracie was a huge sport too.  She sat in her little carrier and slept most of the time.  She would wake up on occasion to be fed but mostly she slept.  Disneyland also has what is called rider swap.  If you have a child that can't ride the ride, you get a special pass.  One of you goes on the ride and then you swap the kid and 2 more people can go up the fast pass line.  It was great!

Cars land was new this time and it was adorable.  My parents especially liked it.  Grace was indifferent as you can tell from the picture above.
We did all the traditional stuff: ate at the Blue Bayou, Tikki Room and Mom, Dad and Tessa even tried Autopia, which apparently is not worth even the 5 minute wait they had.  I couldn't take motion sickness medicine so the only ride I rode in Tomorrowland was the Buzz Lightyear ride.  While everyone else went on Space Mountain and Star Tours etc, I rode Buzz.  It was also great because Grace could go with me.  I think her and I ended up on that ride about 12 times.  I was ok with that because it is my very favorite ride.  I also got the high score and am now the undisputed champion.

We managed to snap a little family pic while Grace was awake.  That didn't occur very often so we were glad to get this one.  We sure do love this little girl.  Zach can't wait to bring her back when she is old enough to remember and appreciate it.  However, with Zach as her father I have a feeling she'll be back before then.  

Easter and Blessing

Sunday was Gracie's blessing day.  It was Easter and I thought that the day we celebrate the resurrection of the Savior was the perfect day to celebrate her life.  Zach gave her a beautiful blessing and Grace was on her best behavior.  She wore the same dress I wore for my blessing.  I did have to add a little color, the pink bow and pink polka dotted bloomers.  She was so cute.

A little family pic.  Grace didn't want to look at the camera so this is the best we could do.

As a special Easter present, a family of ducks moved into our pool.  There were 9 babies.  We spent days watching these little guys run around.  Mamma duck was so protective of her babies and they followed her around everywhere.  It was a great Easter!

2 Months

My little Gracie turned 2 months old last Monday.  The time has gone by so fast.  She is such a joy to have in our home.  It feels like we have always had her.  What did Zach and I do without her here to entertain us!

A few things about her:

• She loves to blow spit bubbles.  It's adorable.  She's always playing with her tongue and blowing those bubbles.  
• Preston has names her Beads because she has beady little eyes.  I don't mind the nick name.  She does have beady little eyes but they are so cute.  
• She loves her baths.  If she is upset and we put her in the tub she calms right down.  She does not get that from me.  I hate baths!  However, my mom tells me that I liked them at her age.  
• Her hair is turning more and more red every day.
• She doesn't smile a ton but when she does it is a huge grin.  She usually smiles when someone new comes to see her.  
• She loves to play on the floor by herself.  She will sit there forever kicking and looking around.  I love watching her entertain herself.  
• When she's tired, we'll swaddle her all up and she'll sit very quietly and look around until she falls asleep.  She doesn't cry, just calmly looks around.  

I love being a mom.  Gracie makes it so easy! I hope she doesn't grow up too fast.  

One month

Gracie turned one month today. Time sure has gone by fast! We love having her in our family. She is already growing so fast. Everyone sees her and comments about how little she is but I can tell that she's much bigger than when she was born. It makes me a little sad that they grow so fast but I'm excited to watch her learn.

She is a very sweet little girl. She's been sleeping through the night since she was a week old. She only fusses when she needs something. She is learning that mom and dad are pushovers and all she has to do is get a little upset and we come running. She loves to cuddle and those are my favorite times. I'm enjoying them because I know they will be gone before too long. Sometimes she will sit and just look around at things. It makes me wonder what she is thinking. Zach and I sure do love this little one!

Grace Abigail

Grace was born on January 25, 2013 at 7:26 am.  She came out at a perfect 6lb 14oz, 19in long.  She was immediately adored by her mother, father, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  Her birth story is fairly uneventful and ordinary, thankfully, but still worth recording. 

My pregnancy was pretty difficult from the beginning.  I was nauseous throughout.  My energy level was so low that I hardly ever lasted later than 9 or 9:30.  I couldn’t brush my teeth and I had horrible heartburn so by the time I was at 38 weeks, I was ready to go.  They had done an US at 36 weeks and she appeared to be a little bit small so the doctor decided that he wanted to have her monitered twice a week.  We started going in for a NST and US on Monday and then an NST and doctor visit on Thursday.  Once we ended up in the hospital for monitoring but of course she was just fine.  At 36 weeks I was 60ish percent effaced and dialated to a 1 so at least I knew I was progressing.  When I hit 39 weeks, the doctor said that I could get induced if I wanted to and I really really wanted to.  The date was set for Thursday, January 24, 2013 at noon.  I spent my last night of being pregnant eating double stuff oreos and morning of induction eating donuts!  At 11:30 am Zach and I packed up the car and headed to the hospital.  We checked in and a nurse took us back to our room to get settled in.  The doctors started me on gel at around 2ish and that got me to 75% effaced and dilated to a 4.  I got a second gel around 5ish and contractions started getting a bit worse.  I was still at about 75% and a 4.  Zach and I sat around watching movies and playing on our phones until around 7 when they started the pitosin.  Once that started, the contractions got much stronger, especially in my back.  They thought that Grace was sunny side up because of my back contractions.  My wonderful nurse, Rachel, came in and started using the peanut ball and moving me around to get her to go face down.  I felt quite a bit better for a while.  Around 9:30 I started getting very uncomfortable and having really hard contractions.  By this time I had a new nurse, Michelle.  She came in and asked if I wanted an epidural.  I did.  I had one about 30 minutes later.  Once that set in I felt so much better.  For the epidural to work its best you need to be moving from side to side and again on your back about every hour.  Michelle came in to move me to my side at around 11:00 and stayed in the room looking at the monitor.  15 minutes later, all of the sudden there were 6 nurses in the room.  Grace’s heart rate had dropped.  They gave me a shot to stop the contractions, turned off the pit and started rolling me from side to side to get her heart rate to go back up.  It finally did but they kept me off the pit for the next few hours to make sure Grace was ok.  They put me back on pitosin around 1:00 am and that’s when the puking started.  Every time they would try to turn me from one side to another my heartburn would act up and I’d throw up.  It was horrible but in the end probably helped move little Grace move down quicker.  The second time I threw up it gave me a horrible cough that wouldn’t go away and I coughed the rest of the night.  Because of the cough, I was on my back for several hours which made the epidural start to wear off.  Not to worry, Michelle had the nurse anesthetist there in no time and I was numb again   My water broke sometime around 1:00 am as well.  I didn’t feel any of this mind you.  I was numb!  From 1:00 am to 5:00 am I tried to sleep, threw up, and got moved every hour.  At 6:00 am Michelle came in to introduce me to Carol, my new nurse.  Carol came back at about 6:30 am to check me and see how I was doing.  She checked me and said, very surprised “Oh, you’re at a 10.”  I could tell because I was starting to feel the contractions through the epidural.  They were hard enough that I was having to breathe through them.  Zach woke up; thankfully he had gotten good sleep.    Carol got everything ready and called the doctor.  She had me do a practice push but in the middle had me stop because Grace was coming out.  The doctor arrived and I started pushing.  3 pushes later and she was here!  My beautiful baby girl was here.  She had her cord wrapped around her neck which is why her heart rate kept dropping when they would put me in certain positions.  She was fine though.  They put her in my arms and I thought she was gorgeous and perfect. 

She’s been the perfect baby.  She doesn’t get really upset and hardly ever cries.  If she needs something, she whines.  She even sleeps through the night.  I put her to bed at around 11:00 pm and she sleeps until 6:30 am.  I feel very lucky.  Zach and I feel so blessed to have her.  

Grace

Yup, it's official, we're having a baby. And we are so excited!!  It wasn't necessarily our plan to wait 6 years but that's the way it worked out and I'm glad to be done with school so I can focus on this baby.

She will be a girl and her name will be Grace.  Zach didn't have any intuition about the gender but I was pretty sure from the beginning that she was a girl.  Her projected birth date is January 28, 2013.  For posterity's sake I thought I'd record a few thoughts on my experience thus far.

My pregnancy so far has been, I think, pretty typical.  I started getting pretty nauseous at about 6 weeks and stayed really, really nauseous until about 20 weeks.  I puked a lot and Zofran didn't help a lick.  All food was disgusting to me and I had to force myself to choke things down.  Somehow I made it through my last rotation of school, orthopedic surgery!  My preceptors were heaven sent.  They were very patient and always made sure that I ate when I needed to and sat when I needed to.  Despite being sick I never missed a day, never showed up late or left early.  That was another huge blessing.

I've started feeling much better over the past few weeks but I've found that I can't push myself nearly as much as I'm use to.  I have to sit down a lot more often and if I don't eat about every 2 hours, my blood sugar plummets and I'm out for the afternoon.  Food still isn't my friend at all but I'm grateful that I'm to a point where everything doesn't make me sick.  My bedtime has moved way up.  If I'm not in bed by 10:00 PM, I'll throw up.  That has taken some getting used to.

On a positive note, I am feeling much better and starting to recognize my limitations so things are looking up.   For the past week or so I've started to feel her kick and move and I LOVE it.  Mindi gave me some little shoes the other day and I can't wait for her to wear them.  I've been pretty good at not buying everything but I am so excited for this little one to come.  She'll have an amazing dad, who can't wait to meet her as well.  Zach has been amazing!  He had a hard time not being able to help while I was living with my parents so I think he's trying to make up for it.  I can't dote on him enough.    

I still have a hard time believing that I'm going to be a mom.  Despite being so sick, I didn't really believe I was pregnant for a long time.  I would still doubt it but I've seen the pictures.  She's in there and I can't wait to meet her.

PA-C

(The past two years I've put up a fake family picture.  This time it's a real one!  The sign says and baby!)

Well the past year has flown by.  I'm finally a PA-C.  That means that I completed my 2 year masters degree.  15 months of sitting in class all day and studying all night with a little time left over for my wonderfully supportive husband.  That was followed by 12 months of working all sorts of hours in different medical specialties for free.  I liked some specialties more than others but feel very blessed to have had the experiences I had.  My surgery rotation was with a cardiothoracic surgeon.  I don't like surgery but it was such a privilege to see and touch a beating human heart.  I discovered that my passion lay in family practice and that is where the majority of my rotations were.  I got to watch several c-sections and see those beautiful babies take their first breath.  I don't think there is anything quite like that.  I appreciate so much my wonderful preceptors who helped me realize that it was ok not to like certain parts of medicine (surgery, ER!) and I will forever be grateful to my last preceptors who worked with me during my first months of pregnancy and being horribly sick and never made me feel uncomfortable or bad about having to sit down! (That might not sound like much but it meant a whole lot to me)  I'll never forget some of the patients I was able to work with.  I know it's hard to have a student come and see you but they were so kind and patient with me and helped me learn what I needed to learn.  I could not have done it without them!  So thank you!

PA-C also means that I passed the PA National Certification Exam.  Getting to graduation is only part of the process.  It all comes down to whether or not you can pass this one test.  I studied for a good month after graduation and sat through a 5 hour test!  When I found out that I passed all of the emotions and stress and hard times of the past two years kind of disappeared and it all became worth it.  I don't want to do it again mind you but I did it and it feels good to accomplish something hard.

A very special thank you to my family for all of your support!  You guys are the best!  And to Zach who got me through it all.  I could not have done it without you!    Now on to bigger and better things!!

Koen Evan Smith

Everyone, meet Koen Evan Smith. He was born on August 30th at about 4:40 am. He was 3 weeks early and he is perfect! Welcome to the world Koen! You were born into a strange family but we're fun and we sure do love you!

5 Years

Today was our anniversary. We've been married for 5 years and while sometimes it's been hard and life hasn't turned out how we planned, it's been a great 5 years. So at the risk of sounding cheesy, thanks Zach. You're the best and I love you.

One Year

Our fake family photo. We took a similar one last year with Jude.

I recently had my white coat pinning ceremony. The actual pinning doesn't mean very much except that I've made it through my first year of PA school. Probably the hardest year of my life and hopefully one day I will be able to say it was worth it. Now if I can just make it through one more!

Happy Father's Day

This is my dad.  He's a superhero.  Now, not everyone is lucky enough to have a superhero for a dad.  I am.  Since today is Father's Day, I thought I'd take the time to tell everyone a little bit about him.

Squareknot has many super powers:

Life Saving.  Squareknot worked very hard and sacrificed much to develop this power.  As a child I remember Squareknot ripping the ears off my stuffed bunny so he could practice sewing them back on.  This is the level of commitment he has shown to his super power of life saving.  I hope one day to be as good at saving lives as he is.  

Teaching.  This may seem like a strange super power but that is because it is so rare these days.  Being a teacher is one of SK's greatest powers.  He is always teaching.  Growing up I sometimes didn't appreciate being woken up at 6:00 am on a Saturday etc. but I now know that Squareknot was using his superpower to help me learn important lessons.  

Defying Death. Squareknot has defied death many times.  Just ask him.  He's been in snowstorms on the top of a mountain and almost died...but didn't.  He's gone on an 18 mile hike with a  98% blocked artery in his heart and almost died...but didn't.  I highly encourage anyone to ask Squareknot about his superpower of defying death; just make sure you have lots of time to listen.  I'm glad I've had the chance to witness some of these events because it has given me a love of adventure!

These are just 3 of Squareknot's superpowers.  A few others are cooking, knot tying, working, knowledge, wisdom, story telling, encouraging and the list goes on and on.  If you want to learn more, check out his super hero tutorial.

 Happy Father's Day Squareknot!  You sure are my hero!

Providencia

A few years ago Zach and I hiked the Inca trail.  While on the hike a couple told us of a small Colombian island off the coast of Nicaragua called Providencia.  It's the third largest reef in the world next to Australia and Beliz.  This year when trying to decide where to go on vacation we remembered their suggestion and decided to go.  It was quite the adventure.  We ended up having an island pretty much all to ourselves for a week.

It took 4 plane rides to get there, the last of which was in this tiny little thing.  I was terrified but it was actually not too bad.

This is the place we stayed.  We had made reservations at another place but it was very far from town, pretty much everything so we went here instead.  It was awesome.  We had a room on the third floor that overlooked the beach.  Did I mention there is not a single shower with hot water in all the hotels on the island.   

This was my favorite beach, Southwest Bay.  We spent most of our afternoons here.  There were times when we literally were the only people on this beach.  That was a little weird at first and definitely took some getting use to.

Our second day we took a boat tour of the island.  One of the stops was a tiny island called Crab Caye.  It had beautiful views from the top and we got to snorkel all around it.  

One of the days we hiked around a small island connected to Providencia by a makeshift bridge called Santa Catelina.  It is famous for being the place that Pirate Morgan had landed and hidden treasure.  You can see the cannons etc.  There's a rock formation that they call Morgan's head that we snorkeled out to.  

Another fun thing we did was hike to the top of the Peak.  It's the highest point on the island and ended up being about 8 miles round trip.  We had a native guide who spoke very broken English but was so friendly and so much fun.  He knew everything and even opened a coconut up for us to drink and eat on the way down.  This is a view from the top.

The next day we did another hike around the Lagoons of the island.  This was my favorite hike.  It had great views of the reef and the water.  These island are the 3 Brothers Caye.  No one is allowed near them because of some birds that live on them.  While hiking by the water we also saw some turtles and a huge sting ray.  Our guide was a local guy they call Nino.  He was very rasta.  

This island is famous for their crabs.  Every year starting now the crabs come down from the mountains to the beach, leave their eggs and head back up to the mountains.  There are crabs everywhere and when I say everywhere, that's what I mean.  They are all over the road, walls, trees...everything!  This pic barely gives you the idea of what it is really like.  NUTS!

Our last day on the island we rented a scooter and went all around.  There is only one road on the island and it goes all the way around.  Zach drove and I got to tell him to stop wherever I wanted so I could take way to many pictures.  Most people on the island get around by moto so there are a thousand scooters on the road.  

It rained on the island almost every day we were there.  That was a little frustrating but we managed just fine.  The one thing I was disappointed about was that there was no sunset when it rained.  I love sunsets and wanted to see one.  Thankfully, it cleared up on the last day we were there and there was a spectacular sunset!

Some of my other favorite things about the trip

1. FOOD!  The food was amazing!  Fresh fish, crab, shrimp, lobster...you name it, they had it and it was fabulous!

2. Language.  The island has 3 languages: English, Spanish, and an English Creole mix. It was amazing to hear the natives speak this language.  I couldn't understand a word.

This was a great trip!  I remembered how much I love adventure.  I'm already starting to plan our next big one!

Birthweek

Yesterday was my birthday.  It was a great day but the great thing about it was that it was the end of about a week long celebration.

Last Thursday Mom and Dad, Tessa and Zach surprised me with a trip to the Melting Pot.  I've always wanted to go there.  It was amazing!  We spent almost 3 hours eating.  Who could ask for anything better?

We started with 2 kinds of cheese and breads and veggies and chips.  Then we moved on to the main course.    This is Zach with his tempura battered broccoli.  

Mumsy and Papi at the end of the dinner portion.  They look like they are in a food coma because they are.

I got 5 chocolate covered strawberries that were as big as my head.  They went great with the white chocolate fondu and the smores fondu.  It was awesome!!!

On Saturday Zach's mom and dad came down and took us out to dinner.  We went to a little burger joint in Scottsdale called Delux.  It was awesome.  The chi was amazing and they had some of the best french fries I've ever had!

Monday night Tessa came over and read me Dr. Seuss's happy birthday story.  All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not 3 baked potatoes.

Tuesday morning Zach woke me up with breakfast in bed.  He made cottage cheese pancakes!  I spent a day at school.  My school friends took me out to lunch.  Then for dinner we did the traditional Joe's restaurant trifecta starting at Joe's Farm Grill.  

Desert of Salt River bars at Liberty Market.

And dinner for today at Joe's BBQ.

It was a great birthweek.  What more can a girl ask for?

12 Years!

Wednesday we celebrated Preston's 12 year anniversary of his heart transplant.  I think it's been a great 12 years.  The party consisted of good people, gourmet soda and Tessa red velvet cake.  I think those 3 things are perfect for a party celebrating Preston's life.  

Here's to another 12 + years better than the last.

Mindi and Jude.  Jude was way to into his cookie to smile.

The red velvet cake complete with Zelbie decor.  Yes, the fox is giving the owl his heart. (The cake was amazing by the way.)

Do you think this could be Preston's son?

And this pretty much sums it up!