under the weather

We've been seeing faces like this a lot around here.



Lila's had a little bit of a rough health year so far. In February she got a terrible cough that kept her up at night, made her grumpy in the day, and stayed for 2 months. We had some scary nights when it was really hard for her to breathe while she was coughing every breath and we had to watch her really closely. Her sickness only started to fade when she got diagnosed with bronchiolitis, started a regular albuterol inhaler at home, and went in for intermittent nebulizer treatments at the doctor's office. We know many kids have it much worse, so we are happy it wasn't more serious, but the poor girl was definitely unimpressed by the inhaler and all the weekly doctor visits (and we were unimpressed by the weekly co-pay and cost of in-office treatments). Just when they were about to start her on a regular steroid nebulizer treatment at home, she seemed to clear up, and we put it on hold.

A couple weeks later she got some sort of nasty flu for 4 days that made her lose her lunch on more than one occasion and stole her appetite for about a week. It was about then that out of nowhere she started wheezing again, without any real implications of a cold (maybe allergies?). But this time it was the worst she's ever been, and for the first time ever the inhaler was doing absolutely nothing.

That night Jon stayed by her bedside trying to get her to sleep, and she finally managed to fall asleep, even though from watching her body you would think she was still wide awake. Her stomach was going up and down so quickly as she tried desperately to get enough air with each breath, she looked tense and uncomfortable, and she was wheezing so loudly that I could hear her from downstairs while she was sleeping upstairs. We were terrified to leave her, fearing that at any moment in the middle of the night she could become so exhausted she would pass out. After calling my sister who's a nurse and going over her condition, at about 11:30pm we decided it was best to take her into the hospital.

In the ER they immediately saw her oxygen levels were too low, put her on oxygen, gave her liquid steroids and antibiotics, gave her several types of medication through a nebulizer, then sent her off to get a chest x-ray. It came back showing a tiny case of pneumonia, and they decided to keep her overnight. One night turned into two, explaining to us that it was vital to treat her very aggressively during her first hospital admittance for (possible) asthma. The doctors were optimistic this would make her body more responsive to treatments in the future, and hopefully less susceptible to needing the treatments, especially avoiding more extreme cases like what had brought her there this time. Aside from hating all the monitors stuck to her little tummy, chest, and foot, and desperately wanting to run and play, Lila did really well for a little 20-month-old baby. Sweet, sweet, baby.

She's doing so much better now, and just has a couple steroid and albuterol treatments every day to keep her in check for the next month or so. All the discharge papers listed her diagnosis as "Asthma and Upper Respiratory Infection," although they never said that exactly to us, because we've learned that technically she can't be diagnosed with asthma until she's five, since chances are high it could go away by then and never develop into lifelong asthma. Asthma is something I had as a kid, and Jon's dealt with it during allergy seasons in the past, so it's not a shock to us, we're just happy there are medications to help her so she can breathe normally. It's so sad to watch her work so hard for breath, so seeing the changes they were able to make on her during those two days in the hospital was so great. She was back at the park climbing ladders and flying down slides just a few hours after getting home from the hospital—you would never know she'd ever been admitted.

Jon was with her when she got released, and he said she ran the entire way out of the hospital all the way to the car. Barefoot. In pajamas. With mangled hair. Yelling, "Home! Home! Go! Mommy! Wan! (Van)" the whole way out. Cutest thing ever.

Thank you for all your love and support while we were in the hospital with her and for all your concern since then. We're all so happy to have her home and healthy!




And this guy continues to be entertaining as ever. He sure missed his sister and he's been super helpful with her nebulizer treatments every day, trying to make her happy while she's strapped down to an oxygen mask, if that's possible :) His expressions kill us.

i am a mother

6 months later, and it still seems completely surreal to me.

I am a mother. I have a child. He depends on me every day to eat, to grow, to learn, to enjoy, to laugh, to work, to sleep, to give him stability and to give him love. For some time now I've been meaning to start a series of motherhood posts, if nothing more than for my own self documenting, starting with the birth and moving forward, since I've never written it down. So that's my goal, to start getting to that now. Hold me to it.

In the meantime, Sunday was Mother's Day, and it was simple and lovely. I got flowers from my husband and flowers from church. The ward got all the women primary teachers out of teaching during the last hour so we could attend Relief Society, and I'm so glad, because a. I needed a break and b. I loved the lesson (see post below). I was also surprised and flattered to see my little primary kids (sunbeams, ages 3-4) flustered with the fact that I wouldn't be with them during class that day. The girl I thought didn't even notice me or ever listen to anything because she's busy in her own world came running to me down the hall, screaming with tears streaming down her face (running away from her male teacher for the day, poor guy). The boy with an excessive amount of energy and an over-expression of his emotions told his mom he wanted "Sister Smith" when she asked him who of all his friends he wanted over for a playdate, "because she's my friend." They like me! This is positive reinforcement for me knowing that someday my children will be that age and I will have to understand them, know how to make them happy, and help them learn, just like I'm doing with the sunbeams now. And after my feeling of lacking in certain primary teaching (aka entertaining) skills the first few weeks in January, this was a reassuring week.

After church Jon made me dinner (he also made me breakfast and lunch before church) and we went out on a walk in the perfect weather—FINALLY, I was so done with the straight week of rain we'd been having. We came home and called our moms and went to bed. Ahhh, I love sleeping. Thank you Jon for always being so grateful for me and for helping me become the mother I hope to be. I love love love being with Van and I love all the things I'm learning. It's like seeing all these things inside of me surface and find their place—new skills, new emotions, new work, new love. Van made me a mother, and I'm so grateful for that, I'm loving every minute (minus a few blow-out diaper/orange spit up minutes, but to clarify those are made up by all his scooting/laughing/smiley minutes). :)

I'm so grateful to all the women in my life (mom, sisters, grandmothers, in-laws, mothers and not-yet-mothers alike) that have shaped who I am, who have given me inspiring examples of love and kindness, who have given me the courage to be who I want to be and to stretch myself to who I can become, who have loved me unconditionally and who I now think of daily when I'm trying to raise my son in the best way I can. I could not be doing this with out any and all of them. Thank you for showing me the joy of motherhood, and for sharing that joy with me now. I have also been blessed with amazing in-laws that I love and admire in so many ways! And thanks especially to my own mom, who came out here when Van was born and saved me when I needed to rest and when I had no idea what to do with an infant. She made it fun, she made us smile, and she gave me confidence. You're a lifesaver mom!

I still can't get over it. I. Am. A mom.

I love it.

AZ {thanks}

As our final Arizona post... a million thanks to the Neilsons for letting us come and crash at their house for a week, and for feeding us your awesome meals (you're amazing Julie) not to mention the homemade salsa and "temple lemonade" (thanks Nick!). We had so much fun hanging out with you guys and wish it could have been weeks longer! We miss you guys and the kids already!

Thanks to the Smiths also, Alexis and Riley, (my mission comp/hija and her hubby) for picking us up from the airport and taking us all the way to the Neilson's house, that's love. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures together, how lame are we! You guys are so fun and we wish we lived closer to hang out with you guys! Aguante Argentina! :)

We're definitely keeping Arizona in mind for potential future homes for the Smith fam...

Thanks Smiths!!

Thanks again to Jon's mom and dad and his bro Jer (who just got back from his mission in Hawaii 4 days after Van was born) for making the trek out here to meet the new little man in our lives, and for all the time they spent with us here. We loved having you, and we can't wait to see you again in just a few weeks when we come your way!!

Here's a little photo tribute to Van's visitors:

Gratefully (and latefully) Thankful

Clearly, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Christmas is right around the corner now, but I felt I needed to do some belated recapping of the last couple weeks anyway so I could feel like I at least attempted to document it all.

Thanksgiving was great this year. Even though we couldn't be with family, we were blessed to be invited to join some friends at a large Thanksgiving meal with people we mostly didn't know, but everyone was so kind and fun and we had a great time. Our only assignment was to bring a dessert or two, so I made a super easy family chocolate cream pie recipe, attempted a coconut cream pie that for some reason ended up tasting more like a sweet egg quesh (oops), and a classic pumpkin pie that I was delighted to find out tasted just like pumpkin pie. :) The rest of the food was fabulous, and all we had to do was show up and eat it.

Van was a little sleeping saint, as he tends to be when we go out to loud places with lots of people, and probably didn't even notice we'd left home. There were probably about a dozen kids running around, playing and screaming, and he was totally unaffected. We love that!

So, I didn't take a picture of his "first thanksgiving" or anything, especially since he was just sleeping through it, but I was fortunate enough to get some pretty amazing day-after Thanksgiving photos, thanks to our amazingly talented photographer friend, Alia. Alia was so patient and totally worked around Van's schedule so we could try to get him both asleep and awake, and Jon and I were soooo impressed with the photos she got. Plus it gave Alia and I an excuse to hang out all day, which is rare for us, and I loved it. Thanks again for the pictures Alia, they turned out so good, you did an amazing job!! (see some of our favorites below)

And since this is a Thanksgiving post, I thought I should say just a few of the many many things we're grateful for. In no particular order:

God, and His perfect eternal plan for each of us. family {x 2}. old friends. new friends. an apartment perfect for our needs with a rent payment within our means. our marriage & our fun, growing, ever-increasing love and relationship. all the giving people that helped us fill and furnish our apartment when we moved. popcorn. jon's stable & secure job that allowed us the blessing of me staying home to be a full-time mommy. the amazingly created human body. the gospel and its incredibly clear principles & doctrines that teach us why we're here and what we need to do to return to our Heavenly Father someday. the blessing to have a living prophet and twelve apostles in our day. ice cream. my coworkers from my job I left that are some of the greatest people i know. jon's coworkers that are also some of the greatest people I know--and they're the reason he gets excited to go to work every day. having enough food and clothes. babies. our baby. van's health. answered prayers. music. the man handing out newspapers at the metro that smiled at me and said something nice every morning when I commuted in for work. people who offer rides to me because they know I have no car in the day, or just because they're nice like that. democracy and the ability to vote. america. baby smells and tiny new baby smiles. the priesthood. temples and the blessing to be sealed to my husband for time and all eternity. seasons. eternal perspective.

And so much more...

Thank you, Mom!!!

As you may or may not have heard from me, pre-labor, my biggest fear of our baby's timing for his entry into this world was that my mom, who scheduled her flight months ago, would be gone and back in Utah before the kid was ever born. If it weren't for that, (his daily growing birth weight aside), I would have been totally okay with him being 2 weeks overdue. I was never terribly miserable or uncomfortable during my pregnancy, not even in the end, and I had PLENTY of things still on my list to accomplish before he came. But with my mom living 2,100 miles away and me being a very hands-on learning person, I was not looking forward to the possibility of pulling off week 1 on my own with no training whatsoever. Let's be honest, I would have cried my eyes out.

My mom was scheduled to land in DC the afternoon of Monday, November 3rd and stay for exactly one week. Come Sunday, November 2nd, I was still feeling 100%. !?!? I was trying to come to terms with him not coming until at least half way through my mom's time here, but I wasn't pleased with the idea. Everyone at church told me just to plan on him being 2 weeks late and I wouldn't be so disappointed. Feeling so normal, you can imagine my surprise later that evening when I realized that my usual braxton hicks contractions were suddenly coming like clockwork, lasting longer, and adding a good dose of pain. Jon and I were so excited!! We finally started clocking them, and we were surprised to realize they were about 4-5 minutes apart, and lasting just under a minute. Suffice it to say, we clocked them for the next 8 hours or so to make sure it was the real deal, and when I could no longer do anything else but focus on breathing during my contractions, we figured it was time to go. 2.5 hours after our arrival at the hospital, Van made his grand entry at 8:25 am, just 8 hours before my mom's flight was scheduled to land.

Impeccable timing, Van.

So, a great miracle occurred, we were blessed with a tender mercy from on high, he came out of nowhere, and I had a whole week to take advantage of my mom's wisdom. Mom was here a week, and she made the transition such a breeze for us. Amazing meals just showed up on our table. Clean clothes just appeared and I never even saw Van's laundry before it was done. The floors were swept, the house was clean, and I never had to get up for the baby since Mom just brought him to me. She changed endless diapers and cleaned wet sheets and outfits. Twice in one night. She taught us how to hold a baby when he's soaking wet and slippery during bathtime. She made me take a nap every day (because she knew I wouldn't if she didn't tell me to). She told Jon and I what good parents we would be and loved all of Van's facial expressions just as much as we do. I also loved having the time to just sit and visit and all go on walks together––small things that are so rare with living so far away. She was exactly what we needed and our only regret is that her time here went so quickly! We couldn't have done it without you Mom!! Thanks for being everything your daughter (and son-in-law, and grandson) needed! We wish we could be closer, we miss you already!

We're counting down the days until our visit to see mom and everyone else in our family in January...

Here's a little photo tribute to Grandma Sorensen (that sounds weird, Mom, since I have a Grandma Sorensen that's not you) and all she did for our little Van.

How cute is this?

Thank you Julie for the amazing elephant for baby Smith that you MADE by hand that we absolutely love....

and Thank you Jorge & Laila (from Jon's work) for the perfect "firsts" box that matches the elephant flawlessly, without even knowing it.

It was meant to be. :)

Baby party from Rachel (Oct. 18, 2008)

My cute friend Rachel Allen threw a combined baby party for me and Meredith Carlton (another girl from my old ward that is due 3 days after me with a little girl), and it was so fun! We all kind of wanted something unconventional and a little more laid back, so we decided to make it more of an outdoor party and less of a shower, and leave it open for spouses to come too. It was nice because it was super low key. Everyone just showed up when they could, had some 'kid themed' food (fruit roll-ups, mac 'n cheese, pb&j, oreos, juice boxes, rice crispie treats, gogurts, you name it, Rachel had it there), drew on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk, and drew notes to us with crayons. It was perfect, and the weather held out just long enough for us to not get too cold. :) Thanks sooo much Rach for all the time and work that went into the party, you're so great! I loved it!! We had a blast!

Baby shower from Kami and Ashlee (Oct. 2, 2008)

My cute roommates from 2 summers ago (back when I first met Jon) asked within minutes of finding out I was pregnant 5 months ago if they could host a baby shower, and I was so grateful to them for helping me out like that. It was so fun and they made it so cute. Kami made a cute diaper cake that must have taken hours, and Ashlee made little favors and hosted the shower at her apartment. Thanks a MILLION cute girls for all the time and planning that went into it! You're wonderful! Thank you also to all those that were so sweet and came to the shower for me! I loved seeing you there and I can't tell you how much all the gifts have helped us to prepare for Baby Smith!




























The ladies that made it happen (they'll probably hate me for posting these pictures, but they were the only ones I had of them from the shower!)

Our first date in 6 months! (Sep. 26, 2008)

The sabbatical away from dating each other didn't happen because we got lazy, or busy, or sick of dating, because Jon promised me before we got married that he would always date his wife (that's me). But due to a 6 month rotation at Jon's job, he's been totally out of commission every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for the last 6 months. It was an insane schedule where he packed in all 40 hours for the week in 3 consecutive days, and I can't go demanding date nights on top of that. So we've been deprived and date-starved since March, and since Sep. 19 was his last day on that schedule, we've been planning our Friday, Sep. 26 date-night celebration for months.

We had it all planned out to splurge and go to dinner at the top of Hotel Washington, overlooking the White House. Sadly, when we tried to make reservations that morning, we realized the Hotel Washington was closed to become some Hotel W or something---and it's actually been closed since last December. Oops. Not-so-efficient planning on our part. But Jon got the inside scoop from coworkers and whipped up some last minute dinner reservations at a darling little Italian resaurant near Ballston called Tutto Benne. I love Italian, so he knew I'd be easy to please there. :) The restaurant looks like a hole in the wall from the outside (just quoting Jon's coworker), but it's perfect and quaint on the inside. Better than any food or decoration though was just being alone with Jon again, with nowhere else to be. We made it!!!

Jon's type of job doesn't allow for much public praise and recognition, but I definitely saw every bit of effort he had to put into that schedule, and how little he complained. He's such a good worker and takes such good care of me, and I'm so grateful for that. It's weird now that he really will be the sole breadwinner and income-bringer in our home, but I love that he not only supports me in my decision to stay home with our children, he prefers it. Seeing him go through some hard work assignments this year just reiterates my confidence in him as the person that will be providing for our family--I know he'll work hard through anything and do what's best for us and our family, and that's pretty amazing. Thanks Jon for all your work! I love having you back with me every day! :)

Thanks, Dad! (Sep. 2008)

On my dad's last night in DC, he slipped me into dinner with all the other people at the conference with him, so I was treated for free to a dinner in Union Station. The food was really good, but mostly it was nice to see how much everyone there appreciated and respected my dad. It was great to spend time with him too (Jon was working until 12 that night), and he was even nice enough to metro with me all the way back to my stop in VA, even though he had to backtrack all the way back to his stop in DC, which would have been much closer for him from Union Station. That's my dad, always thinking about himself last, and everyone else first. Of course the one picture I got with him was taken by some random person in Union Station who apparently thought we'd like a shoulder/headshot with 50% ceiling in the picture...nothing like a flattering straight-up-the-chin view.

Thanks again, Dad! I feel bad we just worked you to death every night you were here, and I wish we could have had time to just go out and do a bunch of touristy-nothing, but you helped us so much and we're so grateful for all your hard work! Come back soon...

Visitors--Round III (Sep. 2008)

As I mentioned recently, it's been nearly a year since we've seen any of our family, but then just a few weeks after we got to see Jon's parents, my dad came out to DC for a business conference, and we were SO excited to have him here! Unfortunately for him, we put him to work the second he stepped off the plane, and we didn't give him many chances to rest between then and when he got back on a plane 5 days later. To my credit, he did tell me before he came to keep in mind that he'd be willing to help with whatever we needed in our new place, so I was really just fulfilling his wishes (right?). :)

We picked my dad up from the airport and went straight from there to Home Depot to get enough carpet to cover the nasty lemon-yellow/lime-green tile that was previously our living room floor (let me mention that the realtor didn't even call it a living room, she called it a "rec room." Suffice it to say it needed some help to feel a little more like home). The landlord refused to carpet it, so we were determined to 'lay' our own carpet, meaning, put down padding and make the carpet fit wall-to-wall without actually tacking it down. Kind of like a big floating rug that's stuck in place, but better. Lucky for us, my dad's pro at every handy-man thing there is, so we bought the carpet, had the Home Depot guys saran-wrap it to our roof, and then dad and Jon had it laid in the room in an hour. They improvised near the fireplace and laid some nice leftover tile that we found in our storage room (laid, meaning really, just laying it on the floor. No grout, glue, nothing. Gotta please the landlord! and you can't even tell it's just floating there, see pic below).

It was awesome, and I can't tell you the difference it made. I didn't even recognize the room when I went back there. Before the carpet, Jon said once that we'd never spend anytime in that room, and after the carpet, we kept going back there just because something finally felt like a normal house. Thanks SOOO much dad!! You're the best! To see the before and afters, see the post on our move, or click here.

Celebrating 30 years of Jon Smith!

You only turn 30 once, and since Jon would never let me openly plan a party for him, I had to go covert and plan one without him knowing so we could all celebrate the completion of his third decade of life. The occasion called for nothing less than a surprise barbecue at the park (ironically the one we got engaged at). I have to say, during this whole month of planning it was soooo hard to keep quiet to the person I love to talk to the most. I was so excited! In the end, there was a great turnout, the weather was perfect, the barbecue was tasty, and Jon was so surprised it took him a minute to actually realize that all the people were there for him. That was confusion on his face everyone, not lack of excitement (except for maybe a twinge of disappointment since I got him there by telling him that I wanted to play football with him, and he pretty much fell in love with me all over again for saying that—but upon our arrival at the park he quickly realized there might not be any football playing that night). Believe me, he LOVED it. He couldn't get over everyone that was there and how no one had slipped telling him ahead of time.

I have to give a massive shout out to Rachel Allen, my co-host that has helped me for weeks to pull all the pieces together, pick the park, and round up the troops. I could not have pulled it off without her. Thanks also to the Croshaws for housing the meat and charcoal and taking them over for the party, and a huge thanks to Ashlee Cutler, who let me play Betty Crocker at her house up until ridiculous hours night trying to finish Jon's cake the night before. And congrats to everyone for keeping the secret, Jon was so perfectly un-suspecting. I love how easy it is to surprise him because he's just so easy to please!! Thanks a MILLION to everyone for coming, Jon LOVED seeing all of you, and he had so much fun!! I tried to get pictures of everyone, but seeing as I forgot to even start taking pictures until we'd all been there about 45 mins, I missed some party-goers, sorry about that.

And for those of you from near and far that I had write in the memory book for Jon, it turned out SOOO good. I didn't give it to him until he thought everything was over and we were back from the party, and he could not believe how many people I had to to write something to him. I told him all his friends that don't even know me probably think I'm some really obnoxious and demanding girl after all the emails I sent begging for their responses, but I promise I'm not really like that...it was only because it wouldn't have been complete without all of you in it! Can we still be friends?? All your efforts were totally worth it, because Jon absolutely loves it. And I have to admit that I had so much fun reading all of your entries, because I got to learn more things about Jon and more things about each of you, and some of you I hardly know at all, so whatever high opinions of you I had already probably multiplied by at least 10. :) Thanks again...the cover of his book is the last picture in this chain of photos, in case you want to see it.

Party on...


the cake


the grill



























the peeps








some of the cute kids



the gifts