Hi

Well, Lennon is 9 months old TODAY! That means I haven't posted in, oh... about 7 months. :) Honestly, the main reason why I don't post is because we don't have internet service at our house, so I have to be at my parent's house AND in the mood to blog at the same time for something like this to happen. Dave and I are planning on canceling our television service once our contract is up in October, and getting internet service instead, so hopefully (and I know I say this every time I post) I will be posting more often in the coming months. Then y'all can see what we've done on our house this summer! (though most of the work has happened outside our house) Anyway, here are a few of my favorite photos of Lennon from this summer.

She woke up from a nap one day looking like this. I swear I didn't alter her hair at all. It was awesome.



Her new favorite thing to do is suck on her top lip (yet no teeth have come in yet). We call it her Gordon B. Hinckley face :)

My sister-in-law Amy took this picture back in July. It's really the only professionally done photo we have of Lennon. *Mom FAIL* But she sure is adorable in it!

We love her so much. She is so entertaining and fun to be around. She has two teeth on bottom, can crawl, pull herself up on furniture, clap, wave, give kisses and say "mama", "dada", and "all done" (though it comes out sounding like "AHNA!!" whenever she finishes a bottle). She always laughs when someone sneezes or burps (oops), and she is a great eater! She is such a happy, easy baby, and I am SO grateful for that!

I have a baby

Didja know? Once again, my seriously sucky blogging skills display themselves as it's been almost 3 months since I've posted anything. Seriously, I'm just gonna come out at say it- the only reason I update this blog at all is for my friend Brooke, who STILL does not do facebook. Do me a solid Brooke and just get on facebook will ya? :) I would be completely content to just delete this blog all together, but I'm still waiting for that day when I become either A: super crafty (like my sis-in-law Kami), B: super witty (like my friend Kat) or C: both (like my friend Emily) and actually have something interesting enough to write about or show that could keep readers coming back. I DO however, have the most wonderful addition that has yet to be introduced to the bliggity blog! Please give a warm welcome to...



Lennon Mae Smith!

Big Fat Update: pt. 2

Here is how our house is coming along. I don't think I've posted any pictures since we finished the floor and put in the front door! The biggest change has been in the kitchen, which is still not completely finished, but getting close! Here are some before and after pics:


Before:


After:



Before:


After:



Before:


After:



Before:


After:



This is how the kitchen stands now. We still need to patch up all the drywall, finish the backsplash, grout and polish the granite, then we can put the oven back into place. Other small projects include replacing the light fixtures, putting new hardware on the cabinets, and installing beadboard around the bar. Someday we'll get a better fridge too. Currently, I am obsessed with the new sink, as well as the pantry we installed next to the stove!


Here's the family room:

Before:


After:


The biggest change in the family room so far has been all the electrical work. We replaced the two random light fixtures with a fun light/fan combo and added recessed can lights. It looks so much more modern, and the lighting is way better! The biggest project left in here is the fireplace, which probably won't get done until sometime next year. One of these days, we'll take down the old duvet covers and put up real curtains too.


The last major change is the entryway:

Before:
crappy old door, nasty rotting floor


After:
happy new door, and a fancy floor!


Obviously we still need to put some trim around the front door. We have held off on installing any new trim/baseboard in the house because we haven't painted any of the walls yet. I was planning on having the walls painted by now, but we decided that we really need to add some texture to them before painting (they literally have NO texture, not even orange peel). So, it's going to add quite a bit more work, but I think it will be worth it.

Some other projects we've accomplished are:
*New windows and blinds throughout the whole house
*Installing gutters and rain chains (way cooler than downspouts!)
*Installing a porch light and exterior garage lights (there wasn't even wiring in place for these, what the heck?)
*Fixing all the crappy 1961 electrical work throughout the house (like re-positioning the bathroom light switches, which were placed outside the bathroom doors...? Seriously, what were people thinking?)

I'm not posting pictures of those projects, because you can't really see a huge difference, but they have all made a HUGE difference, believe me! I know it doesn't seem from the pictures like we've done much work, but doing all the work ourselves, on a tight budget, makes for slow-going improvements. It will get there someday!

If you're still here, I will leave you with a picture from a recent snow storm we had. The wind in Lehi is crazy, and we have nothing blocking it from the front of our house, so all the snow got blown up off our driveway and yard, right into the garage door and onto the front porch! So much for that Southern exposure working to our advantage...


p.s. check out our sweet rain chain! It turns into an icicle when it snows. :)

Big Fat Update: Pt. 1

This is for my non-facebook peeps (you know who you are!) I honestly don't know how I'm going to keep up this blog after I have the baby, since I can barely do it as it is! But I love you guys enough to put in the effort (even if it is only once every 2 months-sorry!)

We have been crazy busy working on the house, but those pics will come in part 2 of this big fat update. My body has been crazy busy cooking up this little one inside of me, and that's the update you get to enjoy now! WARNING: 3D ultrasound pictures are forthcoming. I know some people think they're super creepy looking (and I can't say I disagree) but of course I think these are adorable, because it's my baby!

First, here is the continuation of my growing belly:


24 weeks


28 weeks


32 weeks

I am currently 34 1/2 weeks along, so less than 6 weeks to go! I'm kinda starting to freak out a bit. I spend most of my nights lying awake wondering, worrying, stressing out, and (mostly) getting excited about this adventure we are about to embark on! Here's what our little girl looks like, if you can make out the details of her features...


sort of a three-quarter view of her face. She had one of her feet all the way up by her head, so it was impossible to get a head-on shot! But if you ignore all the fuzzy stuff around the edges, you can make out her eyes, nose, cheeks and chin in the center of the picture.


Here's a profile shot. You can see her leg on the right side of the photo, with her toes pointing in towards her forehead. This is probably the most clear shot of all her little features (which are adorable if you ask me).


a shot of the top of her head. It looks like she's hugging her leg to her face, and you can obviously see her crazy toes (just like mine). Gotta love that flexibility!

Hopefully in my next baby update, I will have some photos of the nursery! We have decided to postpone painting the walls (after deciding that we really need to upgrade the drywall texture on all of the walls in the house first), but I'm still hoping to get the rest of it put together in the next couple of weeks.

Lusting...

Why does Petunia Picklebottom have such good taste? And why does she charge so much?! Who is this Petunia Picklebottom anyway? I'd like to speak with her about the cruelty of making people fall in love with things they can't afford. :(

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:


Yes, I really hate Petunia Picklebottom.

baby pics!

Yeah, my blog sucks. I know. Apparently the background I've had on here for so long is no longer available, which really pisses me off, not only because I really liked it, but because I'm way too lazy and don't care enough to go pick out a new one and try to make my blog pretty again.

But HEY! I've got baby pictures!! :o) I had my 20 week ultrasound done last week, and we found out we are having a girl! We were stunned. I personally had not felt any inclination either way whether it was a girl or boy, but Dave, Bree and my mom were all 100% sure it was a boy. Surprise, surprise! We are still ecstatic, and now it's finally starting to feel real (so is the fact that the house pretty much hasn't changed since we moved in over Memorial Day weekend). Anyway, here are the pregnancy/ultrasound pictures so far.


our first ultrasound, done very early at 8 weeks along.



Me at 16 weeks. Everyone told me to start taking pictures earlier, but I didn't start showing for a long time! Even in this photo I was pushing out to try and make it look bigger.



By the time I hit 20 weeks, pushing my stomach out was no longer an issue. It's definitely there, without my help!



Here's our little baby girl! She's laying on her side, looking right at the camera. Her face is on the right side of the photo (you can see her eye sockets pretty clearly) and her belly is on the left side of the photo. I love how she has her arms up by her head, she stayed like that the whole time we were doing the ultrasound!


Another update: Though not enough work has been going on at the house lately to justify documenting it, that should all be changing this weekend, so stay tuned for some new renovation pictures!!

check that off the to-do list!

Our first MAJOR home renovation project is complete. There is still so much to do, it's overwhelming, but I can't even explain how happy and relieved I am that the bamboo is finally in- and we have a new front door to boot!


This wasn't our first choice for a front door, but we can't very well afford to pay over $900 for the one that was our first choice, so this was a good compromise. It's a heck of a lot better than the one we started out with, that's for sure! I think it will look better when we paint it too.




Two views of the finished wood floor: looking into the kitchen and dining room from the family room, and looking into the family room from the kitchen. I am so pleased with how it turned out! I love that we had a few boxes of darker bamboo to weave throughout for some visual interest. I can't thank Dave and Steve enough for their hard work. They've been at the house until midnight a couple nights this week just to get this done!

That ain't no Etch A Sketch...

... This is one doodle that can't be undid homeskillet!



And we couldn't be happier!

Gah.... Fine!!

Alright, for all 4 of you (and that's an optimistic estimate) who still check my blog, here is an update. I don't know why I've been so anti-blogging lately. I think that there's just really so much to update on, and the longer I go without doing it, the less I want to. Plus, throwing a bunch of pictures up on Facebook is so easy! But life really has been exciting lately. We've been back in Utah for 2 1/2 months, and loving it of course. Dave hasn't had to travel for work nearly as much, and I was able to pretty much pick up where I left off teaching at Studio 1. I've also worked at Remedez a couple of weekends, just to help out, which was fun (and tiring!)

The most exciting thing to take place so far is that we bought a house! It's in Northeast Lehi, right on the border of Highland and just north of The Meadows in American Fork. It's definitely a fixer-upper, built in 1961. Luckily, the previous owner upgraded the exterior, so it looks pretty nice and current.



(side note: that's my new car in the driveway, for those of you who don't know I got one. The Audi broke down on us right after moving to Lubbock, but it's okay, because The Fit is go.)

The biggest projects in the house are the flooring, kitchen, and master suite. Right now we are tearing up all the old flooring (which is a PAIN!) and we're going to install some nice bamboo all throughout the kitchen, great room, entry, and hallway. Once that is done we can move in (we're currently living with my parents), then we'll work on the kitchen and master while we're living there. Here are some pictures of the progress we've made:



The great room as it was when we purchased the house



After tearing up the carpet and deciding to take out that awkward piece of wall



What the great room looks like now, after tearing up the linoleum, subfloor, and demolishing the fireplace.

We've also started tearing up the carpet and underlying linoleum in the hallway, and once that is done, the real work begins: ripping up all the tile, grout, underlying linoleum and particle board in the kitchen and entryway. It's a ton of work, but I am glad that we're getting down to the very bottom layer of flooring in the house (if you look through the wood slats in the great room, you see into our unfinished basement). We'll pretty much be starting from scratch, which just feels good. Plus we'll probably add a few inches to our ceiling height with all the existing flooring we're tearing up!

I'll try to be good about posting pictures up here as we continue with the renovation. I'm sure the most interesting ones will show how we're going to update the kitchen. That's what I'm most excited about at least! I just hope it doesn't break the bank. Luckily, we are doing most of the work ourselves (and when I say "we" I mean Dave and his brother Steve, who is an expert in construction and renovation), and we have already been able to get some good deals on materials.

So go ahead, just say what I know you're thinking: You're glad it's us taking on this massive project and not you. Right?

Broken Promises...

Ok, so I didn't quite get an update on here as soon as I thought I would. But, I did just spend a good chunk of time putting up TONS of pictures on facebook, so if you want to see what we've been up to the past 4 months or so, head on over there. If you and I aren't friends on facebook, what's up with that?! Friend me!!

Maybe one day I'll have the motivation and patience to put pictures up on here, but as of right now, that's not happening. So if you're not on facebook, and you want an update on our most fabulous and exciting life (ha!), you're gonna have to wait. Sorry!