Random Picutres

I'll admit, I am not the most committed blogger. I envy when I see how often friends and family blog and when they make those adorable books from all their posts. You think I would be better at this since I live far from my family and they (meaning mostly Jill) bug me constantly for pictures of the kids. Life has been a little busy with a new baby and I haven't been as diligent as I would like. So, I am recommitting myself. I will try to update once a week (I'm shooting for Sundays). For now I'm just playing catch up and will be posting old pictures, but getting them on here non-the-less.

Here are some random shots that I took to send to my family (again meaning mostly Jill) Can't believe how little Salem is. I'm guessing that this was probably around the beginning of July. They grow up soooo fast!

Camping with Daddy

Shorty after I had Salem (near the end of June) Wes took the boys on a camping trip with his sisters and their families. It was so nice to have the house to myself and the baby. I was able to just sleep when she slept, clean the house and just relax. Here are the pictures I got when the boys returned home.

Cash with Uncle Paul. I think the two became pretty good buddies as him and Auntie K helped out with the boys a ton while I was bed rest, while at the hosptial and after I had the baby.

Edison in the water, it looks as if it's really cold!

Hanging with the cousins in the water

I'm pretty sure Edison got a hold of the camera! He is such a cutie!

Salem Alyssa Smith

We are thrilled to announce the birth of our daughter

Salem Alyssa Smith.

Born on Sunday, May 30th 2010 @ 3:25am.

Weighing 6lbs 7oz and measured 18 inches.

Thought I would share a few of the details about the birth cause it's good story. Beware and don't read on if you think hearing about a birth is TMI.

I went to the Dr. for a regular weekly check up on a Wednesday and my blood pressure was high. Up to this point I have had no problems with my blood pressure. It was so high that I was told to go immediately to the hospital, where I was admitted for the night. I was hoping they would just induce me, but the next day I was released on bed rest and had to return to the hospital for non stress tests twice a week to monitor baby and me.


Saturday we returned for the first non stress test. Blood pressure still high, around 160/100 after monitoring it every 5 min for an hour. So, the on call Dr. decided to induce me around 1pm. They had to put me on magnesium sulfate IV (to prevent seizures that might happen cause of the high blood pressure) which I was told has the side effects of being hung over (just a side note, that's why I look hung over in the family picture below) and I would have to continue the IV for 24 hours after the delivery! Not the funnest thing, but I was able to fall asleep at the drop of a hat while I was recovering.


Around 10 pm I had the epidural and my blood pressure went dangerously low, I felt like I was about to pass out and was really hot and sweating. Wes said I looked gray, and all I remember was that I just had to keep breathing. Everything stabilized and all was well.


At 3am I was about ready to push and the nurse asks me to push once, then immediately tells me to stop. Wes and the nurse tell me that the sack is coming out, since my water never broke and they didn't do it for me. Nurse Debbie calls for the Dr. and tells them to hurry. All the sudden I felt nauseous! She got me a bucket just in time to not puke all over Wes. In the middle of the vomiting the nurse is telling me not to push and breath, but I didn't know that I was pushing. After the nausea was over I look down on the bed and the baby was there. I had to do a double take, I didn't even have to push. Guess vomiting is a good way to get the baby out. The Dr. made it about a minute after Salem was born. The nurse delivered the baby. She was born in the sack and the nurse had to break it after she came out. Pretty crazy, I'm so glad she is here and a part of our family! She is so adorable and a joy to have with us.

The boys meeting Salem at the hospital for the first time.



At home

She is so small, both the boys were about 8 lbs so we haven't had one this tiny. Her ear is about the size of my thumb.

Her first Sunday ready for church.

Gila Valley Temple

Last week we had the opportunity to go the open house at the Gila (Hee-la) Valley Temple. It was such a great chance to let the kids see the inside of the temple! We are so excited that we have a new temple in AZ, too bad it's not any closer than the one we already go to- bummer. The kids were well behaved and quiet, thank goodness, even after riding in the car for 2.5 hours. It was such a beautiful temple and Edison really enjoyed all the different rooms. Cash kept pointing to the building and saying, "temple, temple." Here are a couple picture we took.

This Sunday we were able to attend the dedication at our chapel via satellite. We enjoyed to reverence with out our children and loved to see President Monson speak. He was pretty cheeky through out telling fun stories of working with President Kimball (who is from the Gila Valley), and joking around while they were outside putting the mortar in the cornerstone. He got about 5 kids from the crowd outside to have chance at it. What a great memory for those children! I thought Edison would of loved that. How blessed we feel to be able to be a part of the dedication of this temple!

My Two Cute Boys

Wes took this picture to add to a collage going to his mom for mother's day and I just thought it was too cute! So I may be a little bias, but I have to say I have some of the cutest kids out there.

We had a great Mother's day weekend. First, we celebrated our 6th anniversary with some friends by going to dinner and a movie, thank you to my mother -in- law for watching the kids. Iron Man was alright and Claim Jumper for dinner was awesome (holy cow they have huge portions!) Then Wes let me sleep in on Mother's day (every mother's dream, at least mine anyway) and I got breakfast in bed. This will be my last mother's day with just two, cause next year there will be three...aaahhh we will soon to be out numbered!

Cash's Birthday...a little late

Well better late than never, right! I started looking through my camera and realized that I never posted pictures of Cash's birthday. Which was all the way back on January 12th, and last week I posted pictures of Edison birthday. I didn't want Cash to feel left out. Since he was only two we just did some cupcakes with our family and didn't get too out of control, cause let's face it, he won't even remember it -why waste the money!
Cash is such a joy in our lives. Although he is definitely a toddler, I still think of him as my baby! (I'm sure once have the next one in June, I'll feel differently). I love that he will still cuddle with me and will randomly say "I wove you".

These are the elaborate birthday cupcakes that I made;)

He got a little scared as I walked toward him with the lights out and the candle burning. Wasn't quite sure what was going on.

A little less scared now that he realizes that he's going to get some cupcakes.

Trying to blow out the candle.

Giving up on blowing out the flame and going for the good stuff!

Edison turns 5!!

I can't believe that my first born is already 5. Although it does not seem that I gave birth to him yesterday, it's still hard to grasp that 5 years has gone by already. They really do grow up fast! We had a great weekend celebrating! We finally got Edison out of his toddler bed (he about fit head to toe) when we inherited some bunk beds (thanks Karoline;). We went to Chuck E. Cheese for some family fun - even though both children are deathly afraid of the characters that walk around- hey, they wanted to go. Then on Edison's actual birthday we had preschool at our house and had a little party where the kids decorated their own cupcakes and played some games. And if that wasn't enough we had cake again when daddy came home. I think that he had as much fun as he could take!

At Chuck E. Cheese riding one of the rides. He did enjoy it more than his face showing.

Cash and Edison riding the helicopter at Chuck E. Cheese.

Preschool kids decorating their cupcakes. They didn't even make half the mess I was imagining they would. It was fun to see how different they all turned out!

Edison's creation
His birthday cake with the family. Can you tell that he has been anticipating his 5th birthday for a while? He says "now that I'm five..." all the time. We love you Edison!