James Hudson Smith

We are ecstatic to announce the birth of our son, James Hudson Smith!  He was born November 13th, at 2:12 pm weighing 9 lbs, 1/2 oz, and measuring 21 in long.  And we are so in love with him!

Hudson's birth was so much easier than Maryn's.  Only 14 hours of labor and I was able to have a water birth, which I was really happy about.  If you're interested in natural birth or water birth, I highly recommend it, and would love to answer any questions you may have!

Hudson is doing really well.  He's a big boy and loves to eat! In typical newborn fashion, he eats, sleeps, poops, pees and spits up - sometimes all at the same time.  ;) And no, we aren't sleeping much at night.  But that's ok.  Now that we've been through this before, we realize how short the newborn stage is in the larger scheme of things.  And his super sweet temperament makes up for it all. We are just enjoying getting to know this boy!

His sister is enamored with him.  When she came to the hospital to see him for the first time, she exclaimed, "Baby Hudson! That's my baby brother! HE CAME OUT!!!"  I have a video of her holding him at the hospital that I'll post soon.  It's adorable.  She loves helping us take care of him and is always saying sweet things like, "It's ok, baby Hudson, don't cry! I take care of you!"  She is definitely dealing with jealously and has had some difficulties with the transition - emotional outbursts, sleep disturbances, and defiant behavior etc - but things are gradually getting better as she adjusts.  Overall, she is a joy and we look forward to seeing their sweet sibling relationship develop.  Makes us realize what a big girl she is becoming!

Hudson's first visitors - so thankful for special people in our life who took care of Maryn for us:

We're so glad our sweet little guy is finally here!  And so very thankful to God for a healthy delivery and baby.  Stay tuned for more updates, and a very sweet photo shoot by Hannah Grace Photography coming soon!

Summer Travels, Part 2

Oh, Oklahoma.  It already seems like July was years ago.  We had a wonderful two weeks spending time with family and friends.  Our only complaint was the heat: 100 plus degree temps every single day, often closer to 110 degrees.  But it gave us a good excuse to enjoy some of the things about Oklahoma that we miss the most - like Braums ice cream, sno cones, and il Dolce gelato.  And somehow we ended up eating Mexican at Ted's a lot too, haha.  We split our time between Norman, where Billy and I went to college and lived for the first 4 years of our marriage, and Marlow, where we grew up and where a lot of our family still lives.

Unfortunately, I was too lazy to pull out my real camera, so all my photos are from my iPhone and are poor quality, so I apologize.

In Norman, we took Maryn to "our" pond - a special place where Billy and I used to spend lots of quality time together.  We also got to spend time with several sweet friends - all of whom have new babies! 

At "the pond"

With "Uncle" Tristan and baby Aftyn

Maryn and Jordan

Katherine and I - preggo buddies!

My mom, who is going to PA school in Oklahoma City, lives in Norman, so we spent a lot of time at her place.  We got to spend time with my brother and sister there too, since they live nearby.

Because Maryn's birthday was during the trip, she had multiple birthday parties, cakes, and presents.  It almost got to the point where she expected the birthday song, sweet treats, and gifts every new place we went.  It was fun for the grandparents. 

I love my momma!

Maryn and "Nona"

Maryn developed a new obsession with baby dolls on the trip.  My mom (Maryn calls her Nona) got her a doll for her birthday, and Billy's grandparents had a couple of dolls at their house.  She played with them non-stop.

Feeding the baby

Me with my sister Hannah

Maryn and Aunt Hannah

My dad lives in Duncan, just a few minutes away from Marlow, and we got to spend time at his new house there.  My grandparents - Gramps and Grammy, and Grandad and Mamaw, also came down to my dad's from Tulsa to see us, which was great!

My dad ("Grandad"), Heidi ("Gran"), and Maryn

Maryn and Uncle Scott

All of Billy's family lives in Marlow.  Maryn had lots of fun running around and receiving lots of attention, and we were pampered with rest and lots of good food - in the air conditioning, of course!

Lounging on the porch with Papaw 

The usual "5 generation" pic with Grandma Deane,
Mamaw,  Nana, Billy and Maryn

Maryn with Mamaw and Papaw

We had so much fun and can't wait until we can return to Oklahoma!  Next time, we'll be traveling with two kids - yikes! Until then, we hope as much of Oklahoma as possible will come see us! :)

Summer Travels, Part 1

In July we made a big road trip to Oklahoma to see family for 2 weeks.  On our way there we stopped in Kansas to see Billy's uncle, aunt, and their precious kiddos.  We had such a blast with them! I wish we got to see them more.  Maryn loved being around her cousins!

Wyatt taking Maryn around the block

Bedtime snuggles with Kaylee 

Walker was always at Maryn's side

One of the fun things we did with them was go to this really cool children's museum.  It had endless rooms to discover, and each room had a theme - farmer's market, medical/vet, water, building, climbing etc.  Maryn could have stayed forever.  She especially loved pretending to be a doctor/vet and the water tables. 

We also got to celebrate Maryn's 2nd birthday while in Kansas!

We had such fun! Hope we get to see Colby, Malinda, Kaylee, Wyatt and Walker again very soon!!!

A Birthday

I turned 27 just over a week ago, and I realized that birthdays are different once you become a parent.  The highlights of my birthday were 1) getting to go back to bed to sleep longer (until 9:00!) after I fed Maryn; 2) taking Maryn to see Curious George at the library; and 3) going on a date not even caring where we were going because I was just so happy to be alone with Billy.  I. Am. Old.  But loving it.  :)

Seriously, I had a great day.  Here are the highlights:

Beautiful flowers from my husby

Curious George: she was scared at first...

But ended up loving it.  She kept wanting to go back to say hi.

Vera Bradley bag!

Billy thought I was crazy when I requested lemon bars.
But being the sweetheart that he is he made them anyway.

And then a few days later came....the SURPRISE date!!!  Billy arranged for a babysitter (love you, Brette!) and had me come home from work early.  We ate at a cute little Italian restaurant downtown and then he took me to see Brian Regan live at the Morris Performing Arts Theater (where we saw James Taylor)!  It was such an awesome surprise.  We love Brian Regan (seriously, you should watch anything you can find of his - hilarious).  And I've never seen a live comedian before.  It was so fun to do something different on a date.  

So thankful to the Lord for my family, and the gift of another year!

Birthday Bash

As you can imagine, we had a lot of fun celebrating Maryn's big (birdie-themed) day.  We had our friends the Gaudets and the Smiths (no relation, lol) over to par-tay with Maryn.

The day had a rough start.  Maryn's one-year old intuition told her something was up.  Thus, she refused to take any naps that day.  She was a big cranky pants.

Then 5 o'clock came around, and Miss Brette walked in the door; all of Maryn's grumpies disappeared immediately and stayed away the rest of the evening.  Thank God for Brette.  :)

With the Smiths - the younger, more likable ones :)

First taste of pizza

She got to open LOTS of gifts, because we saved all the gifts from relatives for the party.

Olivia was a big help.  I think she enjoyed opening the gifts a lot more than Maryn did.

I think the baby doll from Momma and Dadda was her favorite.  She immediately started hugging and patting it while saying "aww" and pretty much hasn't put it down in the week since the party.

Sweet baby Kyle slept for most of the time.

The cupcakes (made by a co-worker) were fantastic.

Maryn's special cupcake.

We watched the video montage of her first year; no one enjoyed it nearly as much as Maryn did.  She danced and laughed during the whole thing.  She loves being the center of attention.

Maryn and her friend Olivia in a brief pause during the sugar-high madness that ensued.  I think both girls slept really well that night.

Maryn also loved her tambourine.

In sum, Maryn had a happy birthday indeed.  And no two parents were ever so blessed to celebrate such a wonderful one-year-old gift from God.