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! :)

The Great Tree Incident of 2012

I have not totally given up on blogging.  I'm just...tired.  35 weeks pregnant and counting! I'll do a pregnancy update soon, but suffice to say all is well.  And we've been a little distracted with what Billy calls "The Great Tree Incident."  On August 1st, we had been home from a big trip to Oklahoma for less than 48 hrs when a very large tree from our neighbors yard fell onto our house.  Maryn and I were home and it was quite terrifying!  I guess the tree was old and had been affected by the drought.  Here are some shots of the damage:

The tree went through the ceiling of our bedroom on the second floor:

This is what it looked like once the tree was removed.  We had some nice natural light :)

 Maryn's bedroom is below ours, and because there was some sort of exhaust pipe that went from above her ceiling to the roof, her ceiling was damaged as well:

We were very thankful no one was hurt (so glad we weren't in bed!).  We are also thankful that we don't own the home and that we have fantastic landlords, our friends Adrian and Nora, who worked diligently from Colorado to make arrangements.  We were also very blessed by our dear friends the Esteps who immediately came over to help us and who let us crash at their place for a couple of nights while the tree was being removed.  Afterward, the roof was professionally tarped, we closed off the upstairs portion of the house, and we moved into the guest room on the main floor next to Maryn's room.  Then we had to wait a month for insurance and contractor red tape to go through before work could be started on the house.  But despite the stress of the wait, the timing couldn't have been better.  Some friends from church, the Harveys (I also work with Chris, and he's our pediatrician), left for Africa on a 3 week long medical missions trip a couple of days before the contractor started work on our house.  They graciously allowed us to stay in their home and it was wonderful!  They live in Niles about 40 minutes from our house.  They also have 3 daughters and Maryn was delighted to play with all of their toys.

Maryn got to see her first rainbow at the Harvey's house!

 Billy and Maryn took the opportunity to explore some of the historical sites in Niles:

Here's how they fixed Maryn's room:

And here's our room:

After 10 days away, we are so glad to be back in our home and sleeping in our own beds! Stay tuned for more Smith family updates coming soon!

Easter 2012

Easter was really great at the Smith house this year.  We observed Lent for the first time, and it really motivated us to mediate more on the death and resurrection of Christ, and we were able to really anticipate the coming of Easter Sunday.  It was also fun because Maryn was actually able to enjoy the festivities of the day.  We started out the morning with an Easter basket for her, which she loved.  Then of course church, where we had a wonderful service and time of worship and celebration. That afternoon, we hosted an Easter party and egg hunt at our house.  So much fun! We dyed eggs, had lots of yummy food, and just enjoyed the kiddos.  Have we mentioned how thankful we are for our small group?  They are our family away from home!!!  And let me tell you, Maryn totally got into the egg hunt.  She squealed with delight at every egg she spotted and was quite a miser with them.  The funny thing was she didn't even realize there was anything in the eggs!  Ah, the innocence of youth.  Here are a slew of Easter pics for your enjoyment:

Easter Bucket

Hungry Bunny 

Sharing

Easter dress 

Ready for church

Dyeing eggs!

Waiting... 

Blue! 

Green! 

Watching the guys "hide" the eggs

Counting

Got one! 

Here's another! 

I see even more!!! 

Family pic

Esteps! 

BFFs 

Discovering their loot 

Yummy and adorable treats that Erica made!