What did I do for Memorial Day weekend? Well while my sweet hubby left me... for several days... and hiked the Grand Canyon with my family, I hung out with my sister and her kids, while her husband was off gallivanting with mine. And it was a blast! We did our own hike - Memorial Hill in Midway, that only amounted to 1 mile up and 1 mile down (please remember I'm almost 7 1/2 months prego so I think that's good enough for me!)

How freakin cute am I? This is my nephew Louis. Soooo adorable you could eat him up huh?

Me and my sis, Mylissa. Forgive my chubby face... blame it on the pregnancy :)

My nephew Jimmy was in a mood all weekend. I asked him to show me his 'scowl' and he misinterpreted and tried to show me is 'scar' on the top of his head. When I said, 'no, your scowl' he gave me this confused look on the right and I said 'never mind, got it.' Confused look/scowl = same difference ;)

Dave came back tonight and said he 'rocked it.' The Grand Canyon was tough but apparently Dave was tougher ;) My parents, my brother in law Wayne, my aunt, her daughter and her daughter's friend went down a day before and hiked from the North to the South rim. Dave, his brother Seth and my nephew Nate met up with them there and my parents and Wayne hiked the 20 miles back to the North rim (yes, you read that right, my parents and Wayne hiked rim to rim, to rim in two days.... they're totally nuts). Dave and his brother had a ball hiking back, it took them 13 hours, lots of water/Gatorade and tons of my dad's corny jokes to keep them going. The first day of the hike my mom, Wayne and cousin Katie got pretty dehydrated. It was 99 degrees at the bottom of the canyon - ugh. Wayne got super nauseous at the end of the first day and was throwing up at the end of the second - can you blame the guy? 44 miles in two days would take it out of you! My parents however, both in their 60s, just kept chugging away and did great. In Dave's words: "they're machines!" Unfortunately Dave didn't take a camera so he didn't come back with any pictures but he said he 'definitely had an adventure this weekend, every minute of it.' Welcome back my sweet!

millions of tulips, tulips for me

We went to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival. Never been before and I fell in love. I don't think I'd go every year ($10 a pop to walk around for an hour and half, it's just not an every year kind of thing), but I seriously loved it. It was like walking around in a lil 'ol Garden of Eden. And it smelled soooo delicious. We thought about getting a golf cart or try out a segway but we're sure glad we didn't, too many people and the walk was good for us pregnant girls anyhow :)

It's over now, Saturday was the last day, but you should go next year and try it out if you haven't! Take the kiddos - they have music, food, amazing man-made waterfalls and millions of beautiful flowers. Enjoy!

california,

i miss you.

but we've been busy since we left you.

Easter - I got us Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (as awesome as I remember btw).

Ty and Maryanne's baby blessing - congrats baby Marty! I made some delicious, if I do say so myself, and I do, Andes mint cheesecake bars to share.

Lots of surfing the web to find out how cute I want to make my nursery, and with any luck it's going to be oh-so-cute.

Lots of t.v. watching, sorry mom.

Lots of walks, yay! my mom would be so proud.

Lots of acid reflux, thank you Baby Smith, who we still don't have a name for....

And a sinus infection, once again that's hats off to you Baby Smith ;)

the baby bump

I had a bunch of pictures I wanted to post on this blog but for some reason the quality of the pictures didn't translate over very well and I couldn't figure out how to make them go back to the good quality. This picture quality is also low. I can't figure it out! Sigh... technology hates me. So this is the only pic you'll get. If you want to see them you can look on Facebook! I'm getting super lazy with this blog unfortunately... Dave took this picture of my belly unbeknownst to me while being lazy on the beach near Dana Point in southern California. We took one last big trip before the baby comes. I'm 23 weeks in this picture. I'll be 24 on Tuesday. Who's counting right? I totally am. Wish I were 38 weeks right this minute!

Our trip to California included:

driving down to Las Vegas and staying in the uber-nice Trump hotel (Dave's preference)

having a delicious Frrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity ($10 later.... ouch) staying with Dave's best friend Trent and his wife Lori in Valencia and spending Conference with them - thanks guys!

a day at SeaWorld, just Dave and I- the sea lions are hilarious

a quick trip to Trader Joe's to get a picnic and then off to Crystal Cove where a baby sea lion came to see us, seriously adorable

then two days at Disneyland, MY happiest place on earth :), where I ate everything in sight.... yes, I seriously did

a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway - Laguna, Newport, Huntington, Santa Monica, Dana Point, and on to LA with friends then a 12 hour drive back to Utah

Exhausting but so much fun!

what we've been up to.

i just bought an awesome deal on SocialLiving.com ($9 for two movie tickets from Fandango! it's still going on for the next 11 hours so you should buy it too)

just realized our cat may not be hating us, which is usually what's going through her mind when she pees on our bed (yes, GROSS), we're almost positive she has a UTI or kidney infection. and since we're cheap we're not going to go to the vet tonight but we'll wait and go tomorrow, sorry Fatty, you'll have to wait :S

but we (and by we i totally mean dave) gave our dog, sophie, a bath tonight and she smells so sweet now, hallelujah

still nauseous. i'm 17 weeks along yo! why in the world am i still nauseous?? i thought it wears off at like 14 weeks. it's not every night, more like every other. ugh. hopefully it will end soon. pray for me in the mean time ;)

watching Modern Family and loving it. Gloria is my fav and Dave loves Phil Dunphy. both favorites.

i'm gathering a list of things i absolutely need to get as a new mother. if you think of anything that you just found essential, please leave me a comment. i'm all ears.

speaking of pregnancy, we're trying to figure out a pre-baby trip. anyone got some cheap trip ideas? we're probably going to end up in sunny Cali, which there is nothing wrong with, we just really would prefer Greece....sigh. maaaaybe. but most likely not.

aaand that's the smith rundown. thanks for reading.

the joys of being pregnant:

[i know many of you have been waiting for me to write that line for many years (6 to be exact), but it's finally here]

1) i went to the dentist yesterday. several things:

a- i told her i was pregnant, she asked how long i'd been married. i told her 6 years. she asked if we had to take fertility treatments.... natural conclusion in Utah i guess. we didn't, in case you too were wondering. we just took a long time in getting to the baby hungry stage (or mostly just me - dave has been dying to be a father for the last few years)

b- i told her that i've had super sensitive gums. first off, i've been so nauseous that just brushing my teeth without throwing up is a huge accomplishment - flossing? forget about it. but i have been trying to be better in the last few weeks knowing i had this dentist appointment. have you heard of pregnant gingivitis? apparently i have it. because your hormones are changing like mad it messes with your mouth and you're more prone to gingivitis :( so my teeth bled a lot yesterday when normally i'm like their star customer. sigh. oh and since my gums were so sensitive she *lovingly* jabbed at them with several hooks and pokers like she had a vendetta against them! i mean seriously - what does sensitive mean to you? jab harder?? i seriously thought i should have taken a Tylenol before coming to the dentist! my gums were sore for hours.

ok enough of that saga.

2) nasal congestion. my. word. no one told me about this!! maybe i just have it worse than other people? i've never had a sinus infection, then i got two in.a.row. and thought something was wrong. i researched it and found that when you're pregnant and your body has more blood flow it also creates more mucus (yes, gross) and you're more prone to a stuffy nose and therefore more sinus infections! boo! so now if i don't sleep with a humidifier, every night, i feel a sinus infection coming on! ugh.

3) on a happy, happy note - we found out yesterday at our 16 week appointment,

we're having a boy!

wahoo! dave is BEYOND excited for another boy in the family (the cat and dog are both female ;). i'm happy too, though i was kind of hoping for a girl because she would have so many girl cousins her age, but of course i'm still super excited. he was jumping around and around yesterday in my belly, making it hard for us to see his... errm... extremities? he had his little legs folded Indian style underneath him so the doc got a shot from under his bum, exposing all ;) what an awesome moment.

things i'm trying to do to stay warm in heart, body and soul:

-eating citrus food, makes me feel like it's summer
-filling my house with bright flowers
-surrounding myself with brighter, spring-ish colors
-watching summer/spring movies (think Secret Garden)
-dreaming of taking a vacation to some place exotic and warm before the baby comes (did i mention i'm pregnant on this blog yet? nope? well we are :)
-listening to jack johnson and the beach boys
-focusing on bright and fun things like Valentine's Day (and my upcoming b-day) to take my mind off the inversion
-and finally, counting down the days until spring weather is usually around in SLC (which fyi is around April, but then again it's SLC so you really never know)

these are the things i've found to help me out of the gloom that is january/february.
hope it helps for anyone feeling the winter blues!