Growing Up. 23.

23 man. It's great. For some odd reason, I've always had this interpretation of 23 being the turning point into "real" adulthood. Even if it's a small step. I felt a sense of growing up on my actual birthday day. You know when you feel like you're already year older a month before your birthday? Or sometimes it takes months to feel that, yes, you've aged another year. Perhaps I felt like 22 was good to me, but I was ready to take on more responsibility. Now that I think about it, my last year was a platform for change. And turning 22 came with a lot of changes. Moving out of state and away from the college scene, having a more dedicated calling at church, getting pregnant and preparing to be a mother! I was just trying to get used to my very new life. Honestly, I wasn't quite as prepared to go through change a year ago from now. I was ready! Not so much prepared. (Except for having a baby. I wanted that so bad!) But it is different now. I have had my year to ease myself into change, and I was ready to grow up and feel grown up on my birthday. The only other time I have experienced that was probably when I turned 18. I wish I could read back on my feelings about it, but sadly I lost my journal! Someone somewhere is probably reading the rantings of an 18 year old girl of boys and whatnot. Haaaaa. 

With all my talk of "growing up" and "maturity",  I know that I am totally a kid at heart. I am still on the young side and I know that. I don't feel bad for allowing my spontaneity to sick around. But then again...I don't think that will ever change. *wink

So yes, turning 23 was fun. And these is what I woke up to. 

I love Steve's suprises. 

Ta-da! I think turning a year older and feeling different, led me to want to look different too....and I changed my look! I actually love it. I think it really fits me. I didn't tell anyone. It was like a fun secret that I kept to myself for a couple hours until Steve came home. I thought I was so clever to surprise him like that, since he is usually the one to surprise me!  

My self papmering didn't stop there! 

Okay soooo cute. Abby left some treats on my door when I got home from the salon! Valentines day donuts! 

And these are the cards from Wyatt, Weston, and Lola! SO cute! I'm suprised I didn't see "Clumsy Lexi" on Wyatts card. Haha!

When Steve came home from work he ran upstairs to my haircut surprise! I attempted to get his reaction. And he brought me home flowers! Awwwww what a guy!

Family dinner at Qdoba! 

It's SO weird to have a day where I'm the only one celebrating for. I'm missing someone!!!!

I may have started this idea, but Steve came up with the rest. He wanted to take me shopping to get some new clothes! My body is different now after having a baby, and I have had trouble feeling comfortable and happy in my pre-baby clothes. It just makes you feel better when you have clothes that fit you right. I know how much he hates to shop with me, because I'm a browser. I love love shopping! But he was happy and excited to spend some time with me, no matter the activity. He put up a good face at least haha! 

One happy birthday girl. 

Uh oh. He wore out fast. 

And we ended the night with some facetime with the other birthday girl! Kind of horrifying seeing ourselves like this huh Ash. Yeah uh huh, we're real grown up here aren't we :) 

3 Months and 2 Weeks

When you become a parent, you realize how quickly babies grow. Its a runaway train! Graham is turning into a whole new baby with so much personality! Here are some memorable things about Graham at this age!

3 Months:

One word to describe him. Happy!

He knows us! We are recognizable to him and I truly thinks he knows who his mom and dad are! When we are out of his sight and suddenly show up in front of him, he has the biggest, biggest, smile! Graham is the kind of baby that will smile for anyone (and he does) but his face completely lights up when he sees us. Like, it's in his eyes or something. There is nothing like feeling loved by your baby. He doesn't know if for himself yet, but he does love his mom and dad. And that is SO rewarding.

We have the feeling that Graham might already be a Mommys Boy. He is very familiar with me, and he knows that I have what he wants! He eats a lot so we spend a lot of time together, even when Dad is around! Don't worry Steve, soon Graham will come crawling to you to give him the wrestling that boy needs.

He is so on the verge of giggling! Ahhhh I want it to happen so bad! When give him lots of kisses, he will open his mouth so big, as if he wants to laugh!! But nothing comes out! It's probably killing him to not let out a big laugh, I know it would kill me! Little squeaks come out every now and then, but nothing giggle worthy yet.

I am so grateful that our baby is generally very happy and smiley. It makes so many of Graham's rougher moments easier for us emotionally. To know that we can help him and fix whatever he is upset about. Sometimes all it takes is to just pick him up and snuggle him. He is very cuddly, and such a sweet boy.

                          

Oh those eyebrows. Graham is such an expressive baby! People tell us that all the time. We get a lot of faces from him nowadays! A lot of them show up in his sleep, he has a lot of dreams! Some happy and some sad. It's just heart wrenching when he puts on a worried look and gives a little squeak. I just want to wake him up when he is like that while sleeping! 

My baby has turned into a chatterbox! My favorite is when he has this long, drawn out coo, that hits every decibel known to man. To make it even more adorable, he takes those eyebrows of his and furrows them together, as if what he is saying is quite important!

His cries are also very distinguishable. And there definitely is an annoyed squeal that he makes when he needs you to fix something! It's like he's says "HEY!" Up above is a perfect example of a "I'm not happy and why aren't any of you people fixing it!"

I can tell Graham is starting to become intuitive. We talk to him, like we are actually holding a conversation with him. We pause to see if he will respond. And he does most of the time! But he will listen, and you can see it in his face that he's trying to make sense of it all. Of course he won't be speaking for a good long while, but it's so fascinating that they are already learning the basics of communication at this age! He especially loves singing! And whistling as of late! He likes the soft wind in his face that comes with it. He is so cute!!

Thumb?!

He looks at both of his little fists in front of him, and they slowly go straight up to his mouth! Toys are interesting, but man not as much as those hands! He has officially found his thumb! All of my nieces and nephews are thumb suckers, so I wouldn't be surprised if this kid is one too.  

There has been a recent development! Graham is starting to reach! This seriously just happened yesterday, when I put him down on his play mat! He will usually swat at toys, but just out of visual interest, not so much curiosity. And yesterday I saw his hand reach over and over again for this dangly toy! I saw him also opening and closing his hands trying to grab, intentionally! I cannot tell you how proud I was to see my baby grow right before my eyes! I see him as such a little guy still, and it gives me joy to see him grow up a little. Even if I don't want it to happen so fast! 

                           

Look at how much he has changed with holding his head up! He is much less of a bobble head now. We take time every day to play on the floor and practice rolling over! It just makes me proud when I see him accomplish things! Even if it's hard and he doesn't like it. 

Between now and his last update, there have been a lot of changes. He rolls onto his back, he stands on our laps with his legs stiff as a board, and he kicks like crazy. Also anything in his reach is fair game. I will put him down on the bed with laundry sitting around him. Then look only a second later, and he's got something in his hand and in his mouth! It may be accidental, but the point is that he is bored of keeping himself in one place. It's just funny when an article of clothing somehow manages to sit on top of his face, when it wasn't there before. The grabbing also goes for my hair too. Again, I don't think he's wanting to grab it. It just ends up in that steel grip before I can do anything about it. 

He doesn't like being held at an angle. He wants to sit straight up or he just grunts uncomfortably.  Most of the time when he is being held, we are trying to balance Graham as he stands on our laps. He is a very chill baby, but he is showing us that he is not up for sitting around anymore. 

He is reacting much more to sounds! Even little sounds, like us trying to sneak away from his napping area. His keen ear makes it much harder to keep him asleep. We are tying to see if we can get him on some sort of schedule. His sleep patterns are predictable, but we would like to get him on a routine now. Hopefully things go well....first time parents here! 

He's throwing up more than he has in the past, and I am constantly covered in drool/spit up. This is the life!!! I'm not being sarcastic, it really is. Yeah I may get poop on my hands and spit up on my clean shirts. But it is all for something so important. I wouldn't change my life for anything.

Oh one last thing. I flubbed up. While cutting his hair to even it out, I accidentally cut a good chunk of it short. So short that I had to buzz the whole thing. All those luscious locks, gone! I just cried and held his hair in my hand! So shocked and devastated that I lost Grahams crowning glory. It was just soooo silky and beautiful!! Not to mention all that terrible heartburn was all for not. (old wives tale) It has actually grown a lot since then! And I knew it would grow back, but I was just so so sad about it regardless!

Here is an idea of how long it was before!

Weight: About 15lbs! 

Hair: Gone, but growing back! It has a blond shine to it, but its brown. 

Eyes: Haven't changed much. Still blue. It's not likely but Steve and I both have a blue recessive gene...so he could really have blue eyes?! Wouldn't that be weird! With both of us having brown/hazel eyes, we wouldn't match as a family. 

Height/Diapers: Still in 2s. He is a tall boy, but on the average side for weight!

Clothes: Running out!! He is in 3-6 and some 6 month. But our gifted clothes are almost all out grown. 

Likes: Sleeping close to mom, watching dad sing made up songs to him, looking at new faces, his passie and thumb, screens, standing, after he poops (every morning is a explosion and a blowout) warm water!! 

Dislikes: Seeing you walk away from him, long rides in the car seat, cold hands, waking up in the middle of a nap, sitting in a messy diaper!

The Detour

You know when you have an awesome idea, and then you just go through with it without really thinking? Yeah we did that. We drove 12 hours to visit Utah for about a day and a half!

Everyone was leaving Canada for home, and Steve’s parents were getting ready to drive to Utah to catch a flight to visit Maren. We had planned to stay in Canada for the rest of our break and just relax, even if everyone would be out of the house. But as Kami and Brad were packing to leave the next morning…Steve and I thought to ourselves “We have 4 days left of vacation…well why are we staying here!! Lets go to Utah too!!” With Jonathan and Ashley there and more of our extended family in Utah…it was just too hard to resist! Even if that meant we would only actually be in Utah to play for 36 hours. We knew it was spontaneous, and looking back on it now, it may have not been the smartest trip. Because we would be driving for more of the time than actually being with our families! So worth it though!

We called the trip to Utah our “detour” back home. Haha

So on our detour, we texted Jonathan and Ashley and they were so excited!! They didn’t get to go home for Christmas this year, so it was great to have us there for a little bit.  Now that I think about it, we totally should have surprised them! Aw that would have been fun. I guess I have always wanted to do that. I’ll find a time to do that though. We were even lucky enough that they had the weekend off! Alright!

We broke the drive into two parts, so that traveling wouldn’t be too hard on Graham. We had just extended his weekend in the car seat about 12 hours...yikes. How rude of us! But Brad and Kami let us stay with them in their hotel room in Idaho Falls, and then we drove the rest of the way early in the morning. We made our hotel stay a fun family evening by taking another try in the pool! This time, the pool was nice and warm and we felt good about swimming with the baby! Oh gosh, it was so fun! He is super content in water!

Every time we drive to Canada we pass the tiniest dinosaur museum in the smallest town in the world. And there is this giant dinosaur out front that I have always wanted to take a picture with. And finally we got it! Scratched that major itch. 

What was up with the skies this trip?! It was breathtaking the entire trip! Seriously it was so beautiful!

Our first day we finished our drive into Salt Lake, and met up with Jonathan and Ashley at Tammy's house. Oh, this was all just so spontaneous! Spontaneity always gets my happy adrenaline running! I can say we all were so delighted with this surprising visit. We knew we had alot to fit into these 36 hours. We wanted to get to see as many people as we could, while making it quality time. It seems like hefty order, but we were willing to jam it all in there. 

Ashley has been dating this guy, Trent, and he came over to meet us! It was so fun to get to know him! We all went to lunch at Olive Garden, and we had our great friend Kevin join us! He seriously loved that baby somethin' fierce. I had no idea how natural Kevin is with babies! Our table was so loud, but then again that's the way it is when we are all together haha. Kevin has the most contagious and outrageous laugh, and we were laughing so much! He also managed to get Ashley and I to sing. At the table. He loves our voices together and he doesn't hesitate to pressure us into using a talent we have. I don't mind singing in front of others, but when I'm put on the spot I tend to get a little shy! Kevin is so good at reminding me that just because I'm not doing anything with my voice now, doesn't mean nobody wants to hear it. It actually motivates me to try and use my voice more in the future! I just have to figure out how I want to use it. It will happen though :)

Aunt Lori and Nan doting on that baby! There was a lot of that this trip. 

After lunch we went to Lori's house! Where we would be having Steve's parents and Scott and Carisa's family there to hangout! It was like we didn't even leave Canada! One of the reasons why we wanted to go Utah was to introduce Graham to more of his family. Seeing our extended family was such a treat!  

She was so sweet with Graham! He really liked her, he was talking up a storm with Nan!

We came home to Tammy's and played games with Jonathan, Ashley, Trent, Landan, Corin, and Tammy! They are obsessed with Hand and Foot, and we got them obsessed with our new favorite game. Quirkle! Probably because of the catch phrases that we made up with it..."Quirk it!" and "Quirk it like its hott!" And also because its fun :)

The next day was another whirlwind. It went, Anna's baby shower, then we wanted to go see Grandma and Greg's family, then back to Tammy's for games with as many of our friends that we could get! Crazy day? It was!

Anna's having a baby!! She looked happy and ready for motherhood. Also to have her baby out. And she was just starting her 3rd trimester haha!! She was much more ready for it all to start than I was at that point! I didn't mind the extra time to mentally prepare myself. It was so fun and there were a lot of people from my childhood there.

At Uncle Greg's to see everyone! Grandma was so itching to meet her 12th grandchild! Her 13th and 14th are sittin' in Kelsey and Corin right now haha!  

We are almost there with meeting everyone! This is a long process. I'm sure with everyone's first child, you always make it a big deal. But we still have my Dad, Olivia, Haley, and Brittany to go see! Golly gee wiz! Why does my family have to be so far away from me! 

Just a few of our friends we got to play games with us! Missin' you Alayne! 

So tuckered out from meeting lots of new people in just a day and a half! He had no idea that we would be driving another 14 hours in the morning. And have to say bye to his "Auntie Mommy" and silly Uncle Jonathan! 

Cousins in being all matchy matchy! 

We had Graham and Beckham play together on the floor. Gosh that baby is so cute. He was rolling all over the blanket, and we had Graham siting on his tummy across from him. And then Graham rolled over on to his back!!! Perhaps Graham saw Beckham rolling all around and thought he'd give it a try haha. You can just imagine how Steve and I reacted to that. 

Going to bed that night, we were so tired. We had to get up super early so we could make it home in good time. Enough for Steve to get a good night's rest for work the next day. The drive was probably the worst trip so far for the baby Graham's. He cried a lot, but he was so forgiving for us the next day! We were so happy we made that short trip regardless! 

T'was the Season

Twa's the Season....becuase it's almost February and I'm just getting around to documenting our great trip! (Now that I actually post it, it is already a week into Feburary!) It literally took 2 weeks to get everything back in order here at the Smith house. Whew, I was so busy in and out of the house. I think we were stepping over piles of stuff for a good week there. And then add a nearly 3 month old baby attached to your hip. Oh well, post-holiday lesson learned and accepted. But it was our first Christmas with our little man, and it seriously made it so fun!

This is what it looked like the day before we headed out to Canada. I was super nervous about how Graham would do on a 12 hour drive. I was also nervous for the roads, and our safety kinda. I've never been nervous about traveling before, and I'm 100% sure it was because of the fact that we have a kid now. We knew it was going to take longer to get there and we had to make the border by 11:00 that night, so we planned on leaving super duper early to give us time to spare on the trip. To our frustration, that morning we packed our passports and could not find Steve's anywhere. Our semi clean house was torn apart looking for it, and for a moment we thought that we wouldn't be able even go to Christmas with Steve's family :(

But! After a couple hours and a lot of phone calls, we found a loop hole. It was super complicated and we triple-checked to make sure we could get Steve in and out of Canada legally haha. Blessing! We had a prayer in our hearts and our prayers were answered.

Passenger seat down and voila! The ele-bed. Our Element is so awesome. Not to mention that boppy makes a good traveling pillow. 

Graham all ready for his first road trip with his "of to grandma's" onsie. Perf. He actually did so good! He slept almost the entire way. We did stop like 800 times to nurse him and change his diapers, but we made it to Canada! Because of our late start it was almost 11:00 by the time we arrived! I feel like we are always pushing the clock on our trips there. 

So, I have to add that Graham had a serious meltdown when we were ready for bed that night.  I have never seen him that angry before! We knew it was because of the long trip and the fact that he slept in his car seat all day. He was so mad, we stayed up for a couple hours trying to make him happy but nothing was helping. It was pretty heart wrenching for us. Maybe he cried himself to exhaustion or maybe he was just tired in the first place, but once he fell asleep we knew that was what he needed. Weird, because he basically slept the whole day?! It's just, the feeling of not being any help, when you so desperately want to help is what's killer. Next morning he was our happy boy again. And that was a relief! 

Oh gosh, those two are my favorite. 

These two share very similar expressions! One of my favorite things about Steve is how animated he can get.   

The next morning we woke up to a house full of kiddos and most of our siblings! We got to work on what's becoming a Christmas tradition for us. Mega graham cracker-ginger bread cities! Kami laid out basically everything in her pantry, and this year we didn't spare anything. It turned out so cool! 

This was where those two cousins spent a lot of their vacation! On the floor next to the party. Haha so cute! 

Those kids loved the final result! Look at that resistance.....well it only lasted for a couple pictures.

That same day we had an extended Smith family get-together/dinner at the Mountain View elementary gym, with all the gym toys.  Small towns are so cute. You can just rent out the elementary school gym! All the adults talked while the kids played with the balls and mats. Later we had dinner and some of us adults ended up playing a fun game of "bump"! It was so fun! I crave physical activity, and since having a baby (and 3 months before Graham was born) I haven't done any kind of exercise! I was so winded it wasn't even funny, but that feeling of being energized by exercise is what I love about it. I probably shouldn't have done as much running as I did, but it made me happy to be active again.

We also got to introduce Graham to Steve's extended family and Grandparents! They all loved him!

Christmas day, we blasted Christmas music and played dominos (yay!) while we got dinner prepared for that night. Grandma and Grandpa Smith were coming over to come celebrate with us too! As always the food was delicious, but we had a little potato mis-hap! I can't recall what exactly went wrong, but the consistency was literally like glue! We all had a big laugh about that one, although it wasn't that bad tasting! But Wyatt did come up to dinner and asked everyone what was wrong with the potatoes haha! You can always count on little kids to be brutally honest. 

Just hanging out with the Grandparents :) 

After dinner, we had our first ever Smith Nativity Pageant! This is one of my favorite parts about Christmas, and we had enough children to make it a fun deal. Joel read the story out of the Bible, and Steve played some soft Christmas music on the piano. It really was beautiful! Poor Lanae had a sad little meltdown, but we made her happy enough to play with baby Jesus a little bit. That video will be one worth watching years down the road! Look at those cute kids!! Oh, and on an added note, Lanae has been saying Graham's name and it sounds more like "gum"! It's sweet and cute! And he did a great job at being the baby Jesus! He just sat there, not too difficult haha.  All the kids were just happy to get a reward for their work in the pageant. Kami made them all pillow cases! Even some miniature pillows and pillow cases for the two babies! 

We got this Santa sleeper, and thought it was hilarious!! Merry Christmas time! That night we had a super fun gift guessing game, that Kami had planned for the adults after the kids went to bed.  We had a lot of fun laughing with everyone! 

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!

This picture just kills me! Lanae, you got that nose picking thing down girl! 

Weston thanking Wyatt for his gift! Another killer picture!

Sweet Lola! She's such a doll (with a doll). 

Now it's the Adults turn. Looking for our gifts hidden in the tree! 

Okay, seriously how does she look so good in the morning. Not fair! Not to mention she is 6 months preggo! 

Picking gifts for Steve this year was hard. Because he gave me nothing for ideas! I usually either go out on a limb and get something random, in hopes that it would be something cool. Or I just go with stuff that he really needs. But this year I wanted to think outside the box if I could. He did say that he wanted his gift to have thought put in it. That still gave me a lot of room in my head for ideas though!

I know Steve. He loves fidgeting, creating, and designing. It is his outlet! The guy will find creativity in anything! Take my hair for example. If my head is in his lap, he wont hesitate to put my hair into Medusa-looking braids. That among many other things have proven to me that he has a natural artistic ability! And that is part of the reason why we enjoy doing DIY projects together. We both like it. We talk, get to be creative together, and have fun!

My idea was to play with his artistry and put together a DIY package together for him. It included several of the projects we have wanted to do. So I went out and bought all of the materials needed, so that he could just work on it when he wants to. One of the projects was a big canvas that we have wanted to paint and hang on our wall. I got a smokin' deal on the canvas and chose a color pallet of paint that I thought would go with our home decor! I was really excited about this gift! I thought it was genius! But after a while I was really nervous that he would be disappointed in getting "projects" for Christmas....that isn't normally a type of gift people want haha! Of course I got him other presents that aren't project related, and I knew those would be winners! So if I flubbed up on the big present, then maybe my smaller gifts would make it better. But I trusted my gut, and 3 years of marriage to this guy, and went through with it!

And guess what...he loved it!! I asked over and over again just to be sure that he wasn't disappointed, and he wasn't. He reassured me by saying, "Lexi. If it's something that plays with my creativity, or if it's from Apple, it's a really good present." Haha!! Oh that guy, he makes me laugh so much.

Oh this was pretty special. So Brad is a descendant of Wilford Woodruff. When he and Kami visited Nauvoo they went to his house, and Kami told me that it was a really neat and spiritual experience. To stand in his Grandfathers house, who was the one to pioneer his children and future grandchildren into the Gospel. So she got an oil painting of the house and framed it beautifully to sit in their living room! I think everyone in the room felt the love that Brad has for his Grandfather, when he opened the gift. 

There is sits! It's such a great painting, isn't it! 

Three generations of grandsons. So special!  

Oh, and this was just so hilarious. This is a true reaction from Kami coming upstairs to find a gift from Brad. A giant dehydrator oven! Her first thought was where are we going to put it!!!! Hahaha! Such a cool gift! And Brad makes me laugh seriously all the time. 

Christmas morning breakfast casserole!

Grandma and Grandpa Great with their great grandson Graham (try saying that five times fast). They invited all of us to have dinner with them a couple days after Christmas and it was so nice to spend time with them! Especially Grandma. She just loved that little boy and was happy to cuddle him. And he just fell right asleep :) Grandpa Smith has a sweet place with me, because both of my own Grandpa's have passed a long time ago. I miss them very much, and wish that I could have gotten to know them as an adult. Although I have very, very fond memories as a little girl. When I got married, Grandpa Smith asked me to dance and I just felt both of my own Grandfathers with me at that moment. He probably didn't know it, but it was almost like he was doing a favor for them. I know that they both were there on my happy day, and they would have wanted to dance with me. I have always felt that Grandpa Smith has adopted me as a granddaughter and it is very comforting! Not to mention, Steve looks up to him very much. He has learned a lot from both his Father and Grandfather! 

That face is so funny Graham!!! Such a fun idea to go swimming. The family rented out the pool for an hour and we just played played played! I love playing in the water and it was fun to have a change in activity too! This was probably one of my favorite things we did this Christmas! We took Graham in the water for the first time...so funny! The water wasn't that warm, and we only had him in for a dip. He usually loves the water when he takes showers and baths, but I don't think he looked too thrilled about this particular water experience. After we sat by the hot tub he just dozed right off! Sleepy boy!

AHHHH! This picture is so sweet! This was a long awaited reunion with Amber, and the first time Graham met my one of my best and longest friends!! The first thing we did when we met up was grab each other's babies and dote on them! Those boys had no idea how lucky they were! They look a little unsure of the situation here :) 

I had met Amber's cute baby, Crew, back while I was pregnant. He was just a little guy then, and now here he is playing with toys and cheerfully screaming! Haha! We get to see Amber and Colby every other year for Christmas, and I was so happy that she got to see my baby!! I love showing people my sweet little boy. Especially people closest to me!! So of course I was anxious to see her, and when we did it was total bliss! 

Okay, those boys were so curious with eachother! Since Crew is a little older he was more aware of Graham, than Graham was aware of Crew. But he did stare at him a lot! Crew on the other hand got really curious with this new little guy. Eventually Crew grabbed a hold of Graham's shirt and just held onto it haha! Towards the end, Crew even grabbed his hand!!

All of us together! With our babies?! Seriously it's so crazy! But so fun! 

We continued the rest of our Christmas week doing more fun family activities! One evening we went to Lethbridge and had pizza and then went bowling! 

Well Canada you finally made it happen! We wanted snow this trip so that we could go sledding. And build a snowman! A really big snowman. That's all I wanted. But the day before Scott and Carisa left, it snowed!! We did not wait to get our snowboots on :)

Guess what! We didn't wipe out!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!