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!