Tytus 4 months

So December is nearly over and I have yet to do Ty's 4 month update. Geesh! Anyhow, this kid just keeps getting cuter and cuter! He is such a funny kid!

* This kid is a serious jibber jabberer! We have the best conversations. He will just sit and talk to you for the longest time.
* This last week I moved his mobile from the side of his crib down to the front. It has two buttons. One makes it play more music or changes the song and the other plays bubbles. I knew he would figure out the bubble one. Its kind of hard to miss, but He totally figured out the music button in a matter of hours. I put him down while I did some dishes and turned on his mobile. When I came back he was repeatedly kicking the music button. I thought it was just luck, but I really don't think so. He gets this look on his face from all the concentration and then kicks right where he is supposed to.
* He is definitely laughing. He thinks its funny when you blow raspberries on him and when you bounce him on your knee. Or when he has a firm grip on the hair growing from the most sensitive part of your head!
* He finally doesn't hate tummy time. So hopefully he will start rolling over soon. And then crawling... Yikes!!! He still very much prefers his back or his side. He rolls to his side no problem but then has no desire to continue because he likes his side so much. He has rolled from his stomach to his back, just once though.
* Grabbing on to toys and starting to independently play with them. Its not for a ton of time but he is definitely starting to get that he has an effect on things. When he wakes up from a nap and thinks he is starving to death, he will try to put the bottle in his mouth himself as quick as he can. I apparently don't do it quick enough.

I think that is the most important stuff. And here are some pictures from his very first Christmas. Enjoy!

I love this picture! Thank you Pinterest! 

I Can't believe I forgot to talk about his stuffed Robee! (short for robot) He loves it and holds it everytime he goes down for a nap. Just about the cutest thing!

Our little slurpee is 3 months old.

* Giggled for the first time (for sure, there have been a few other suspicious moments, one of them while pulling mommy's hair) Mommy is a little jealous. He giggled for the first time at Daddy. It was really sweet though. Justin gave him a kiss on the cheek one morning and it must have tickled because he let out the cutest giggle.

* Sleeping through the night. And it is glorious! He has slept the last FIVE nights for eight hours straight. One night he even slept for 10 hours. I hope this trend sticks around. We'll see what daylight savings does to the kid. He was up at 5:30 this morning! 

* He is really starting to get playful! He loves all of his toys and is starting to try to bat at them. 

* Likes to watch Mommy while she cooks in the kitchen. We have started putting him in the high chair while I prepare dinner. Justin doesn't get home until 7 or so a lot of nights so I just stick him in the high chair while I cook and we have some pretty awesome conversations while I cook.

* Still being swaddled... sigh... 

* He LOVES to have his nose touched! Justin was goofing around with him one night and kept tapping on his nose and saying Beep Beep Beep. He strangely loved it. Next time you see him, try it! He will smile for you. Most of the time anyhow. I make no guarantees if he is feeling hungry, though.

* Has tried a few times to roll over. Not been successful yet, but he is making a valiant effort.

Its The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

This year was Tytus's first halloween. We had so much fun dressing him up and taking him around. We were going to dress him up like a football, but then I found a Charlie Brown costume idea, and I just could not get over it. So Charlie Brown it was. It was actually a ton of fun to make. I like to pretend I am crafty. :)

Isn't he the most perfect Charlie Brown?

I just took a black fabric marker and drew on a chevron stripe to a yellow polo shirt. Added some brown pants and a little makeup and walla! Charlie Brown! 

We spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house in Blackfoot. Grandma took all the grand kids to the hospital where we went and visited patients and trick or treated. All the old lady's gushed over Ty. After the hospital we went home where Grandma prepared us a SPOOKTACULAR family dinner. We have a Halloween dinner every year that is Halloween themed. This year we had bat wings (chicken wings), Mummy dogs, Pumpkin poop (Cheetos), and a whole bunch of other spooky treats. We had so much fun spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Steph and Aunt Melinda. I hope you all got to have a wonderful Halloween as well.

Justin and I dressed up too, and there are even pictures to prove it. I just don't have them. Whoops! I'll add them soon!

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Funny faces!

Today, we tried out the Bumbo Seat. As you can see he LOVED it! He is growing up way too fast already. 

I love the funny face on the top right. Oh my heck this kid cracks me up with some of the funny faces he pulls. Here are some of my favorite out takes for your enjoyment. 

 He really does LOVE his bath time! Regardless of what this picture says.

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TYTUS 2 MONTHS OLD!

I realize this is late. I am about ready to start on his 3 month pictures. Where has the time gone? I hate to sitting down to write when I could be A) spending time with Ty, B) Cleaning, OR B) Sleeping. :) But then I realize this is as much for me as it is for anyone else. I never wanna forget any of the precious stuff. Someday I hope to show him all that I have written. So here is his 2 month picture.

What a CUTIE! 

*I have most definitely found my voice!

*I have figured out how to cry! For those of you who didn't think he could. HA! 

*I have started reacting to toys. Especially if they make noise.

*I am a good sleeper. Usually only waking up once a night and SOMETIMES not at all!

*I still love to be held 

*I will not sleep unless I am swaddled

I just took this photo today. I have started putting him in the high chair so I can clean and he doesn't feel neglected. He loves it! We have some awesome conversations while I do the dishes. 

ER visits and trying to stay sane

I keep telling myself things will start getting back to normal and then life just keeps proving me wrong and throwing us curve balls. Turns out Ty had pretty dang good timing coming a few weeks early. This last weekend Justin and I spent the weekend with his family. The girls went out and had a girls day (which was so much fun!) and the boys stayed in Blackfoot and watched a nail biter of a game. Total sarcasm, Ohio State won 76- 0. That morning Justin had been complaining of a little bit of pain. He thought he had just pulled a muscle. I figured it was just something that needed to work itself out so I left with the girls for our girls day. By the time I got back Justin could hardly sit still. Finally he asked me where your appendix is, we looked up symptoms, and the rest is history. We are just thankful that I am able to handle a lot more. Not sure what we would have done if Ty were only a few weeks younger. Every day Justin is feeling a little bit better. Can't wait til he isn't in pain anymore. So I have just been crazy busy taking care of my two boys. If anyone wants to come and just hold the little boy while I clean house... well I would definitely not object. He is a little fussier these days. I even thought we might need to switch his formula. Our doc says he is just over stimulated by the end of the day which makes a lot of sense. He loves to be swaddled! Sometimes that is the only thing that calms him down. It is also very rare that it doesn't calm him down. Unless he didn't have his pacifier. Then nothing would work. haha. Mostly he is a pretty happy little guy though. He has finally, kind of figured out the cooing thing. He's only done it a little here and there. He is also smiling some. It is so much fun! So that is what we have been up to lately. And I can't not put some pictures up of the cutie! Here ya go!

Getting ready to enjot the game with Daddy!

He just loves his swing and tries to reach for the mobile as it spins around.

Love all his funny faces.

Love his little feet!

Mommy does rock!

Hanging out outside on one of the last warmer days.

Modeling the super cute onesie Auntie Steph got him she also got him the toy.

More funny faces

The first really good picture of him smiling. Took me forever to finally catch one on camera!

And I just had to include this one. If you look closely at the tree you will see the squirrel that comes and hangs out right in front of our window every day and stares at Jade. Jade wants to get to this squirrel so badly! Its pretty entertaining to watch! 

Tytus 1 Month

Guess who is 1 month already! (we're gonna pretend I wrote this a few weeks ago...) Time sure has flown by. We are loving every minute with our little Ty.

* I like to cuddle

* I get the hiccups a lot

* I don't like to sleep unless I am swaddled

* I love to be held by anyone who will pick me up

* I am trying to coo but nothing is coming out as of yet

* I really love my swing

* I also love my pacifier

* I hardly ever cry and some people don't believe Mommy when she tries to tell them I do

* I am sleeping between 4 and 5 hours at a time at night
* I giggle in my sleep a lot. Its pretty much the Cutest. Thing. Ever.

Introducing Tytus Taylor Smith...

After almost a month of bed rest, we finally got to meet our little Ty. We are so in love with him! All the annoyances of pregnancy and the bed rest were all so totally worth it! I hit 36 weeks a week into August. Our doctor took me off all meds to stop the contractions and was just going to let me go into labor. We thought he would come that day! HAHA! He decided to come 3 days later after walking around Chubbuck days for a few hours. We got home around lunch time and were in labor & delivery around 7. I could have gone in sooner but you can only be sent home from L&D so many times before going crazy. I also wanted to have Ty, but didn't really want to be in labor. LOL. We had the best experience though! Nothing was as scary as I had told myself it would be. And I think I may research things a bit too much. My resident doctor told me I was ready for medical school.  About 5 AM he was born. I immediately fell completely in love. We had some amazing nurses and doctors who got us through those first few days. That first night taking him home was super scary. We couldn't just call a nurse anymore if anything bad happened. It was all on us. Luckily Ty is pretty patient with our learning curve, and slowly we are getting the hang of things. We are loving watching his little personality develop.  We are so happy that he is a part of our forever family.

Almost there!

The last few weeks have been both eventful and boring all rolled into one. Interesting combo, eh? We got all moved into our new apartment on the 16th. Justin would go to work and I would spend the day (ok part of the day) unpacking and setting up our new place. Also nesting hit in a big bad way over the next few days. Were talking getting up in the middle of the night because I couldn't sleep until I moved furniture around a bit. I was super excited to finally start working on our little guys new room! Well I guess he had, had enough because on the 19th I started having some steady contractions. They weren't painful so I was pretty convinced it was nothing. They weren't letting up though so finally I called labor and delivery and they were eventually able to talk me into coming in. I honestly thought they were going to check me and send me home and there would be nothing wrong. So they checked and I was told I was dilated to a four and 80% effaced. My jaw pretty much dropped. Luckily they were able to get everything under control with a medicine called Terbutaline. Which if you have never had it, it is this awesome medicine that makes you feel like you have drank 5 energy drinks while having a massive panic attack. Then they started to debate whether to admit me or send me home on bed rest. Finally they decided to send me home on bed rest with a prescription to Nifedipine, which is infinitely better than Terb. They also started steroid treatments to help develop his lungs. They have had to change my meds 4 or 5 times since to keep the contractions at bay. I honestly have made it a lot longer than I thought I would. I am so thankful, because every extra day I can give him helps. I know that we have a good NICU and the nurses would take really good care of him when I couldn't be there but its just not the same as me taking care of him. My goal is to be able to bring him home with me, but we are preparing ourselves for both.  Justin is so excited to finally meet him. I am too but I can wait a little longer so he can be a little healthier. We have also had so much help from both of our families. I seriously don't know what we would do without them. So our next post very well may be after this baby is born. We will keep you all in the loop. Can't wait to meet this anxious little guy.

May update

So I suppose its time for another update. Last time we talked we had just found out we are having a little boy and Justin was still unemployed. Well... we are still having a little boy. Yay! And Justin found some work. He works at a place called Belmont pretty much doing what he was doing. So that is keeping him busy for the time being. Now we are just gearing up for a busy summer. In June we are going on a trip to Boise and we are also going to the temple. In July we are moving.... again... sigh... We had planned on moving this summer anyways, and we got into the same apartments as some pretty cool friends, and we will be in the same ward as the ones Justin goes to play basketball with once a week. So I feel like at least one of us will already know a lot of people. The best part is a 1 year lease, so no moving for a while after this. The downside? We are on the top level. So, we have also had another ultrasound since we found out we are having a boy. Everything looks good except for his kidneys. He has dilated kidneys. Our doctor says this is the most common abnormality and he talks to several women a week about this. Most times it fixes itself throughout the pregnancy and they are born just fine, other times they will need antibiotics, and rarely they will need surgery to fix the problem. There isn't really anything that can be done at this stage other than to watch closely to whats going on so we can be prepared when he gets here. This means we will have more ultrasounds, which I will never complain about. I will take as many peaks at this little guy as possible until he gets here. I am concerned but mostly I am optimistic that everything will be ok. He is moving around like crazy and especially likes to kick me in the hips which isn't my favorite thing. I am feeling really good though other than the normal stuff. I am having a harder time bending down to pick things up and I always think sitting on the floor is an ok choice until I can't get up. I am getting more and more ready for September, that is for sure. I think that is all for us.

It's a BOY and we couldn't be more thrilled!

We finally had our ultrasound first thing this morning. Our little guy is showing a personality already. He did not want to let us see ANYTHING! Including his gender. Finally after some beating to my belly he finally let us see just enough. You could tell he was getting mad at the tech for tapping on my stomach because he started to punch his little arms in protest. It is so cool to feel those kicks and punches and see them on the screen at the same time. We still have to go back because we couldn't see just about anything the tech needed (heart, kidneys, face, spine). That's okay I'm not going to complain about getting a chance to see our little guy extra times before he comes. To tide us all over until then here are some of the pictures.

Change

So I know I just did a blog post not too long ago, but so much has changed since then. In reality it feels like a lifetime ago that I wrote that update. We were just getting into the swing of Justin's new schedule. We were anticipating all the fun things we could do on those extra days off. More time we could spend with our families, more time we could spend with each other. Justin went to work Monday morning just like he usually does at 8 AM. Around 9:30 Justin called to tell me that he and everyone else had been sent home and that he would be home shortly. We were told it was just for the day and that they were trying to figure everything out and had high hopes that everything would be back up and running on Tuesday. That night I was pretty restless to say the least. What if things could not be fixed? Would we be able to survive? Around 6 I got sick of the tossing and turning and had Justin check his email and see if there were any updates on the situation. He did and there was an email waiting for him. My heart sunk as I was told that the whole company had gone under and that he was indefinitely laid off. I just started to cry. Not just for us, but also for all our friends who were reading the exact same thing. Seasons of Hope was what brought us to Pocatello and to each other. It also brought us all of our closest friends. All of our friends who have helped us to be better and helped us get to the place we are at today. I always knew Seasons of Hope would not be in our lives forever. It was still so hard to watch everything come crashing down in a matter of hours. I am grateful that at least I get to take those friends with me and the wonderful man I met there almost two years ago. So now it is time for us to start a new chapter. I feel hopeful that this one will lead us into even greater things. So for now Justin is on the hunt for a new job. He will find something and do great at whatever he does. Other than that we have been enjoying the silver lining of lots of quality time together. On Wednesday we will be finding out if we are having a boy or a girl. So check back soon and I will try to keep things updated. 

Just another update. :)

 So its been a while. As usual. Maybe I will get better at this once we have a fun little person to talk about.

 We have been doing pretty well. Justin is switching over to res hab. Which means really long shifts but lots of days off. Right now he is doing light DT the beginning of the week, and 12 hour shifts Thursdays and Fridays, and weekends off. At some point he will be doing three, 12 hour shifts and 4 days off. It will be really nice. Those 12 hour days will be killer for both of us, but we will also get to do more fun things with family and friends on those four days off. Justin has also been enjoying playing basketball the last few weeks. Uncle Marty has been using him to ref some of the games, and he is loving it. He also brought him back a signed Josh Hamelton baseball from spring practice. He was so excited when he got it. 

 Me? I started nannying the cutest kids on the planet two days a week. I love it even though I have to wake up so early. They make me laugh every day. The littlest one likes to play just dance 4 but for the longest time she would say "Hey Ashie? Can we play Justin dance?" So cute! As for our little person... We have our ultrasound scheduled for April 10. We cannot wait to find out what we are having. Mostly so we can stop saying things like "so when the kid is here..." haha. I have also started to feel some movement over the last few days. So much fun! Its not very often but its super cool. Justin thinks I get to have all the fun. Ha we will see what he thinks on delivery day. Also my aversions and nausea are finally gone! I feel like such a happier person. Justin is also probably a lot happier having me back to normal. Anything warm made me want to puke for awhile, so he was kind of on his own as far as food went. I have also not had to make any emergency trips to the doctor since my last appointment. Yay! It seemed like I was there every week last month. 

 Also I realize I totally left no answers as to what was going on with my Mom. As with most things, no news is good news. She is doing great! Our family is so thankful for all that the Huntsman Cancer Institute did for our family. I was already so thankful until talking to my dad a few weeks ago. He was talking about how he was trying to work out a payment plan for the surgeries and what not and soon after he got a letter in the mail saying they didn't owe anything. That has taken such an enormous weight off their shoulders. 

 I think that's pretty much it for a few weeks at least until our ultra sound. What do ya'll think we're having?

Some good news

Hey guys. My Family received some very good news this last week. My mom went to The Huntsman Institute this last Friday for a consultation. The good news is the doctors don't think it is cancer. It could be still but they are not thinking it is. So she still has to have surgery and they will still test to make sure, but its looking good. Life has been such a roller coaster these last few months. I can't wait until my mom has her surgery so we can find out for sure. I also can't wait until the 12th of February, because that is the day Justin and I get to hear our baby's heart beat for the first time! And then maybe my anxiety can go down a little. Until then I will keep enjoying my mustard and cheese sandwiches, which Justin says is weird. Speaking of Justin, I have never seen a person so sick. We were at a friends house on Sunday night playing games and he got super sick. It was the longest night ever. Every time I tried to go to bed (he slept on the couch) I would get called back. So zero sleep for me. I felt bad though. I seriously have never seen someone so sick. He seems like he is on the better end of it today so hopefully life can proceed back to normal by tomorrow. What is normal anyways? Also I know this must be super boring to read with no pictures. I do have some to share but I can't get them to upload. Seriously irritates me. But hopefully sometime real soon I will be sharing pictures of our life for the past little while. Yay!

Fall/Winter update & Happy 2013!

It has been so long since I posted anything I hardly know where to start. A lot has happened since I last posted. We moved, and are getting ready to move again. We have gone through two cats... Justin and I picked one out just after we moved this last time from Petco and we really liked him, but he just wouldn't stop attacking us. Finally one night I bent down to pet him and he jumped up and bit me in the face. It broke skin and it was actually pretty scary. We talked to the lady we adopted him from and we all decided it best to bring him back. Then a few months later I found a kitten that I just loved and then found out her owners were trying to find a home for her. So I brought her home. Justin was not too happy at first. We named her Jade and we just love her. Most mornings you can find her snuggled right in between Justin and I with her head and two front paws sticking out of the blankets. This is probably because Justin thinks its perfectly acceptable to sleep in two degree temps. We also made it to our first anniversary. Justin even made me a card! Yep MADE it for me! I loved it. We also had candle light dinner and we even danced in the living room. I couldn't have asked for a better day. The day after that my mom admitted herself to the hospital. She is out of the hospital now and doing much better. We are still trying to figure out everything that is wrong. She went in with several small blood clots in her lungs. Her Anemia also got pretty bad. They did find a Hiatel Hernia but didn't want to leave any stones unturned. My dad called me yesterday and they found some growths in her uterus. They are doing a biopsy and we are all just hoping for it to be benign. Hopefully we will have more answers soon. We would sure welcome it if you guys could keep her in your prayers. Justin and I also have some other pretty exciting news. Two days after our anniversary we found out that we will be having a baby some time at the end of this summer. After the initial shock we are pretty excited! Still scared to death but there is definite excitement also. I know you aren't really supposed to tell for a few more months but Justin and I both have really big mouths. I would be more shocked if you didn't know by now. So that is it for us, so far. Hopefully I can get better at this blogging thing, and I hope all of you are having a fantastic 2013!