Hello again!

So, it's been a while. :) Here's what's happening in our lives. :)

Rachel is 10 1/2 months old now! Crazy! She's crawling all over the place and can say "Mama" and "Dada" and occasionally she'll say "Yay!" :) she loves to clap and be the center of attention. :) she's into EVERYTHING! She loves making messes! She loves eating too! That girl would eat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if we let her. :) She DOESN'T like sleeping. She fights it with everything she's got. She'll try and talk to keep herself awake while she kicks her legs out again and again. (Not angrily. Just to try and keep her body moving.) Then, the kicking stops, the talking turns into an "Uhhh" sound, which evolves into a faint moan until it completely fades away and she is out! :)

She LOVES music! She will dance to almost anything with a beat. Even the blender or the sound of the lawn equipment outside. :) her favorite band is Guster. Haha I don't know how, but somehow she can tell them apart from other songs and she gets so excited and dances extra crazy for them. :) Her favorite song of theirs is "Bad, Bad World."

She is SO much fun and so full of personality! She brings so much joy to our lives! We are totally in love with her and are SO thankful for what a blessing she is to us! I love my little family! :)

Garrett is doing great as well. :) He has been so busy with school! The other week, he was at the school from 7am to midnight every day! Bless his heart! This week is Spring Break. And while he has still had an occasional obligation at the school, it has been a nice break and it has been so good to be able to spend time as a family and for him to be able to relax. He's about to finish up his second year! Yay! One more and he's done! I'm so proud of him! Law school is no picnic! And he's been doing such a great job. I love him so much and am so grateful for the sacrifices he makes every day in order to be able to provide for our family! And he is the cutest and best dad! It's so fun to watch him with Rachel! And boy does she love him! She gets so excited when he comes home and rushes over to him, smiling all the way. :) Parenting is hard sometimes, but little moments like that just melt away any stress and make you feel on top of the world!

The weather is getting warmer.. Then colder... Then warmer again here. Haha! When it's hot outside instead of raining, I take Rachel for walks with my friend Arianna, or I'll take her to the beach. Rachel LOVES being outside! And she loves the texture of the sand. :) She's so fun!

So all is well here in Jacksonville. :) We are happy and love watching our baby grow! :)

Kick off your Sunday shoes...

So this isn't really important and it's probably not worth reading, but I felt like making a quick post anyway. :)

I'm trying to finish up the last minute things before I head out with Rachel to Utah. Since I won't be coming back to Texas, but will be flying straight home to Jacksonville, I have been cleaning and trying to get things in order so that when Garrett leaves he won't have to worry about cleaning and packing and all those wonderful things that come with moving out of an apartment. I'm almost done and that makes me happy. :)

But I just wanted to announce that I had to say goodbye forever to some very dear friends today. They have been with me for a long time and have given me good support through many experiences over the years, both good and bad. Through these experiences they have become worn and tattered, but I have loved them just the same. I have loved them as only a girl could love such friends as these. But it all ends today. Because today, I threw them away.

These are my friends:

They are the greatest pair of Sunday shoes I have ever owned! They were so comfortable! They had heels but not too tall, and they had the cute strap around my ankles to give extra support. They still don't look too shabby either and they matched all my Sunday clothes.

But let's face it, when your heels look like THIS:

It's time to move on.

I'm not sure how that happened. Either I walk really funny or it was the pregnancy. I'll go with the pregnancy. It's easy to blame things on. It did some pretty crazy work on my body, so why not my shoes? After all, it DID change my shoe sizes. And I mean sizes with an "s" on the end. One foot is now a size 8 while the other is a size 8 1/2... Which I recently found out when I bought THESE babies:

:) Luckily they work pretty well on both feet. They're pretty comfortable too so I guess you could say that I'm not having too much trouble replacing my old friends with my new friends. :) Let the tattering and wearing commence!

The end.

Summertime

This summer we have been living in Lewisville, TX. Garrett is working a summer sales job with Alterra pest control. We've been here two months now with about a month to go. Here are a few things were have done while we've been here:

First of all, I think you should know that there are lots of bunnies here. I love it! They are so cute!! :) I guess they are considered rodents here... People want to get rid of them. Sad! When we first got here there were a ton of them running around the complex. I haven't seen them for a while now. So sad because they are adorable! :)

There is this delicious Asian frozen yogurt place here called "Hello Yo" Haha! Funny name but it is sooooooo good!! I think it's part of a chain of restaurants called "My Cherry Yo." I'm definitely going to have to look them up to see if they have one in Jacksonville. Cross your fingers!!

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the band "Guster" but they are pretty awesome. :) They are one of Garrett's favorite bands. So when he heard that they were doing a concert in Dallas with Ben Folds and BNL, he and a few other team members (including his brother Taylor) went and got tickets and we all went. :) it was pretty awesome to see Guster in concert! They sounded the best by far out of the three and I think they were the most entertaining. It was so fun to watch Garrett smile and dance and sing the words to every one of their songs! :) I think it was a much needed break. He works so hard! I am so proud of him!

On the 4th of July the team went to Rockledge Park and we had a sweet setup by the lake to watch the fireworks. While we waited for it to get dark we had a BBQ and some of the team went for a swim. Rachel did petty good. At first I think she was a little warm, but we kept her hydrated and sat in the shade and once things cooled down a little I think she really enjoyed it. She loves being outside and I think she was fascinated by the fireworks. It was fun to be able to relax a bit with Gar and watch the fireworks together. The lake looked beautiful as the sun was setting. It was nice.

This last weekend we went to Medieval Times with the team. It was pretty fun. It reminded me how much I'd love to have a horse. :) When we first got there Rachel was looking around with wide eyes just taking everything in. She was fine until all the cheering and trumpeting began. She didn't like the noise very much... :) But I just took her to the back of the room, wrapped her in a blanket, covered her ears, and bounced her and she fell asleep pretty quickly. Once Garrett had finished eating he switched me spots. Then, when he was sure she was really sleeping, he came down with her and she slept the rest of the time. Our knight was the blue knight (Valiente). He was champion at the tournament and also took care of the bad guy (whose name I could never quite catch). Anyway, it was pretty fun. :)

So there you have it. :) that's what we've been up to. We've had some fun but we are definitely excited to get back home to Jacksonville and see our good friends who have become our family while we've been  away for school. We love it there! And we love the people we are surrounded by. We definitely feel very blessed!

But before we go home to Jacksonville, we're going to make a trip to Utah to see family and bless Rachel. :) We are very excited and can't wait to see everyone and introduce them to Rachel. :)

Rachel is here!! :)

So... Remember when I promised to try and be better about updating our blog? Yeah, I'm not going to make that promise anymore. :)

Anyway, in case you were wondering, Rachel was born May 2nd!! I'm guessing that you all want to hear the whole story. :) If not... I'm going to tell you anyway.

Rachel was due April 29th. Both of our moms were out visiting and we were all anxiously awaiting the arrival of our sweet little package from heaven. Well, there must have been some sort of hold up on the part of The Celestial Postal Service, because the anticipated day of arrival came and went and there was no package. We had anticipated that as a possibility though, so it was okay. :) Our friends the Zollingers were so sweet because they brought over an it's-your-due-date-but-you're-still-pregnant present. Isn't that so sweet?! They are awesome!

Wednesday morning I woke up (from a very crazy dream... My little sister Hayley and I went back in time to 1966...) and was having contractions about every 5 minutes apart.

Just a little side note here, Rachel came at the perfect time. The law school classes had ended and finals were about to start in the next couple days. It was so good because Garrett got to be with me the whole time without having to worry about running off to class or leaving to take a final. It was such a blessing to have him there the whole time! He's such a source of strength and comfort to me and I couldn't have done it without him. I love him so much! I am so grateful for him and realize more and more everyday just how blessed I am to have him. :)

So after a few hours contractions were down to 3 minutes apart. We went in and got checked, were sent home to labor for another hour, and then went back and I checked into my birthing room! :)

To make a long story short it was an incredible and beautiful experience becoming parents! I had the Mormon Tabernacle Choir playing on my iPod stereo in the room. (It's my comfort music. :) It was their Called to Serve album.) And I just remember having this great feeling of peace, which might seem strange since I was also having contractions and they definitely weren't getting easier, but it also makes sense. Little Rachel was about to begin her life on earth. She probably had a pretty awesome going away party and I'll bet there were many spirits waiting at the door of the veil to bid her farewell until they would meet again. :)

When the time came to push I was both terrified and excited. But more excited than terrified. :) by now the feeling of peace was so overwhelming! It was like being wrapped up in a heavenly blanket. I actually slept in between the contractions. :) I would wake up when I started to feel a contraction coming, squeeze Garrett's hand, push through the contraction, and then fall back into a peaceful sleep.

An hour later, at 4:15 Thursday morning, I pushed my last push and suddenly there was the most beautiful and precious and sweet little girl you ever saw laying right on my stomach! Well, I was wide awake at this point!! It was so incredible!! I looked up at Garrett who was overcome with emotion as he looked at his little girl. It's probably the sweetest and most tender thing I have ever seen! Again, I LOVE my husband!! He really is the greatest, sweetest, most perfect man in the world! :) It was so fun to see him hold her for the first time. He loves his little girl!

Oh! One more cool thing I forgot to mention- Rachel was born in her water sac. :) Garrett said that she punched it open with her fist when she came out, like breaking the ribbon at the finish line. :)

So there you have it. :) it's been six weeks now and she is the most beautiful and wonderful thing in the world! We are so happy to have her. Being parents is the greatest!!

We have an awesome and a happy family!!! :)

Hello again! :)

Wow! I have REALLY slacked this time! But I sort of have a good excuse... we've moved to Jacksonville, Florida for Law School. When we first got here, we didn't have any internet... Or really ANYTHING for that matter. We were sleeping on a twin sized air mattress for the first couple weeks. :) Our Bishop was so nice to let us borrow it!

We've come a long way since then though. :) Thanks to Sharelle, we now have a bed, a couch and 2 matching chairs, two lamps, (the living room set all came together) a table and 4 chairs which used to belong to Sharelle and are way nice, a super cute ottoman, a little bedside table, and many more things. She was so sweet and found all of this for us and they were all at really great prices.

Then, Mom and Dad Smith came for a visit with Tanner and they brought down a TON of our stuff from our storage unit. We hadn't had time to move our things down from Utah between summer sales and school so they were so sweet and stuffed their carry-on bags full of our things! We are definitely blessed with GREAT family!

Because there is so much to cover, and I don't want to make this long and boring... I'll just make a list of things that have happened to quickly get you up to date and hopefully I will be more consistent with future updates... :) Sorry! You should see my journal... it's even worse... I REALLY need to work on that.

Okay, here's the list in no particular order:

1. Garrett is in Law School and he is doing so well. He is SO awesome and I am so proud of him! He's beginning his gear-up for finals so, keep him in your prayers! :)

2. Garrett and I have been made the ward missionary couple! :) We're companions!!! YAY!!! And NO TRANSFERS! :) We are so excited and have LOVED this calling so far! We get to meet with families one on one and help train them in missionary work! It is so much fun and we have so many incredible families in our ward!

3. There is a man named John doing a paper on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and what we believe and it has been cool seeing him each week at church and being able to answer any questions that he has. We're all hoping that this "investigating" will become more than just a homework assignment. :)

4. We have been crazy about chips and salsa lately. :) We made homemade salsa the other night, and today I am trying a recipe for homemade (from scratch) Tortilla chips! We'll see how it goes! :)

5. We were the King and Queen of hearts for Halloween. :)
 ...i really thought this list would be longer... haha I guess not much happens in three months... :)

6. Last, but most certainly not least... :) WE'RE HAVING A BABY! :) We are on week 15. :) Soon we'll know boy or girl. :)  WE ARE SO EXCITED!!! :)

Anyway, I guess you didn't miss much. ;) haha. I hope all is well with you!

Until next time! :)

Mini Cheesecakes! Mmm!!!

Okay, So remember in the last post how I told you that Garrett and I went shopping? :) Well, while were there, strolling the aisles at Kroger, we happened upon a small display of many cute and wonderful cooking tools. :) They had molds for cake pops of all shapes and sizes, trays for muffins and cupcakes, creative treat ideas and recipes, and one thing that especially caught my eye... :) It was so cute just sitting there on the shelf. I could hardly contain my joy as I lifted it to get a closer look. It was a small package containing three small items: A mini rolling pin, a mini bread pan, and a mini spring-form pan. :) Well, must have seen the pure delight in my eyes because he took one look at me and knew we were getting it. :)

The one I was most excited about was the spring-form pan. :) So I dedicated my next afternoon to making mini cheesecakes. :) I had to do them one at a time because I only have the one pan. It took longer than I expected because I didn't think about the fact that I had to let each cake cool in the oven before removing it from the pan... So this is how my day went:

I set my toaster oven to 350 degrees, I press about 3/4 cups worth of crumbs into my pan, I pour in about a cup of filling, and then I stick the cake in the oven. Once my cake is done, (about a half an hour later) I turn the oven off and leave the door slightly ajar and wait about another half hour for it to cool. Then I take it out and do the whole process again. :)

In the end a total of seven mini cheesecakes were made. :) We had chocolate syrup and strawberry filling as toppings. :) They are so good! And SOOOOO Cute!!! :) I love cheesecake!

Look how cute it looks sitting in my toaster oven! :) Aw!

This is what it looks like without toppings sitting next to an orange. :)

Here it is with the strawberry filling on top. This is how small it is! Look! It fits in the palm of my hand! :)

...I love small things. :)

And this is with both chocolate syrup and strawberry filling.... SO GOOD!!!! :)

So there you have them! My mini cheesecakes that I am so proud of! haha :) Now all I have to do is figure out how much of each ingredient I need to make just one mini cheesecake... :) ...Maybe I'll just ask Garrett. He's a genius! :) He'll know the answer! :) 

Jackson, Mississippi

So we are now in Jackson and the summer is winding up fast! I feel like this summer has flown by! I can't believe that we are at the end!

Right now we are staying at a hotel called "Inntown Suites" and it is pretty nice. we have a mini kitchen! Yay! So exciting! :) so I will definitely be taking advantage of that while we are here. Last night, after Garrett got home, we went shopping. (Garrett's favorite thing to do...) We have a full sized fridge here which is so nice because we can plan further ahead for meals. :) But we didn't get home from the store until after midnight last night but nobody had really eaten all day and we were all hungry. So I thought that I could just whip up some rice-a-roni for everyone as a quick meal.

 well... it was 1 in the morning when we finally ate our dinner. I didn't realize it would take that long. Those poor guys! Tonight, I am making Fire Roasted Tomato Soup though. And I'm going to get the sandwiches all ready to grill ahead of time so that they can eat almost as soon as they get home. :)

When I have my camera memory card back, i'm going to post a few awesome pictures from our last area. :) I hope you enjoy them! One is of a castle and the other is of a trailer.. :)

These pics are from my phone and are both from our last area in Hattiesburg:

SHOPHIA NAILS SPA

This is a picture of the nail salon that was in our parking lot. I almost went a few times just out of curiosity... but I was never brave enough. There was jsut something strange about it... :) But it was kind of funny to see a nail salon in the hotel parking lot. :)

LIGHTIN' IT UP ON THE PICK-UP!

I was on my way to the laundry room when I saw this and I just had to take a picture. :) Awesome, isn't it?

Mississippi!

Okay, so right now I am sitting in a library typing this up because we don't have internet at the place we're staying right now in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. :)But I can't excuse myself entirely for not updating for so long because the Budget Inn, where we stayed last week while we were in Monroe, Louisiana, had perfectly good internet and I didn't get on even once to update. :)


It's been really fun going to all of these areas and meeting so many wonderful people. The budget in had the biggest, most comfortable bed EVER! I loved it! And now we're at the Regency Inn and it's nice also. Especially for the great price. :)


Neither of these places have stoves though so once again I'm using my crockpot. :) It's fun though. I made Chili soup the other night and it was good. I'll have to post the recipe for you. SO EASY!


Great news! Garrett is OFFICIALLY accepted to Florida Coastal Law School! We are so happy and excited! We feel so blessed and are looking foreward to the next three years in Florida. :)


We will be in Jacksonville wich is just about two hours north of Orlando where Craig, Sharelle, and the boys live. :) It will be so fun to be able to visit them and be so close! :) We LOVE that cute family!


My little sister Hayley left the MTC on Wednesday and is now with her trainer in the Mission field of Leeds England. If you want to read more about it and see pictures, my mom is keeping up a blog for her. :) (sisterhayleyb.blogspot.com)


Weyul, that's all I have to say for now. I know it's brief but at least you're caught up. :)


Ps-


You ahould watch this video! It is AMAZING and a true story! I LOVE it! Click HERE to watch it!

Shreveport

Okay, so once again I have waited far too long to update this blog! :) I have been out visiting my family back in Utah. My little sister Hayley just left a last Wednesday for the Preston MTC in England! :) I am so excited for her! She will be a fantastic missionary! I took pictures while I was there to post on this blog... but then I went and left my memory card in Utah. Grr! So I'll get it back at the end of the summer but that means that I probably won't be able to post as many pictures for the rest of the summer. Unless I buy a new memory card which I just might do.

Garrett served his mission in Alabama and we will be heading that way at some point to meet everyone and I WANT  PICTURES! :)

But for now I will just copy pictures of a few things from Google or take pictures with my phone. :)

Visiting with my family was so much fun! It was great to be able to spend that time with Hay before she left! I've never seen someone more ready to serve a mission! She really is amazing!

This is the day she left. Our family tradition is that we eat at the village Inn In Bountiful the morning of the send off to the MTC. :)

And here we are at the Airport. :) I stole these pics from Hayleys Mission blog. :) Thanks Mom! :) 

I also got to meet my new nephew! SO CUTE! His name is McKay. My Sister in law Sara, (who from here on out I will just call my sister and leave the "in law" part out) had him on Sunday, June 24th. :) He is so tiny and adorable! And Aaliyah is such a good big sister! It was so fun to be able to see everyone!

For the Independence Day holiday I was back here in Louisiana. We went to the store and the only fireworks that we could find were the ones that aren't really FIREworks... :) We could only find snaps and confetti. :) So we bought them and divided them between the 4 of us. Then we all went outside and started shooting the confetti at each other and tossing the snaps at one another's feet. :) Haha it was so much fun!

We then went inside and played spades with some brand new 3D Star Wars cards. :) It was pretty fun. :) Even though I am really bad at that game. :)

So now you are caught up. :) When I left for Utah we were in Alexandria. Now we are in Shreveport. I will post pictures from both hotels. :)

Garrett took this picture for me from my phone. :) This is the place we stayed at in Alexandria called the Alexandria Inn. It was a good place to stay. There was no Kitchen but we did have a fridge and microwave.

This is the place where we are staying now. It's just like the first place we stayed. It's the same hotel line. (Crossland)

This one DOES have a mini kitchen! Yay! I made Miso soup last night. Mmm!  Maybe I'll make rice tonight. :) I have to take advantage of having a stove! :)