Pictures!

I got the finished pictures back from our photo shoot earlier this month. It's so weird looking at my big pregnant belly and thinking that now I have a little human instead. It doesn't really seem possible. And of course, there're some pictures of Myles also. He's so adorable, but most of the pictures end up looking pretty much the same, for now. I'll post some anyway.

Introducing Myles Thatcher Smith

What an amazing day it's been! That doesn't even come close to describing how I feel today but I don't know that there are any adequate words. Besides exhausted and thrilled. 

And of course, everything was worth it because we ended up with an absolutely beautiful little boy. 8 lbs flat, 21 and 1/4 inches long.  

Here's a bunch of pictures!

Maternity Photo Shoot Pre-view

Here's a sneak peek at our maternity photos. I'm really excited for them, even if I don't love my hair. I didn't realize how humid it would be that day! Thanks to Kara and Rich for the fun shirts! Thanks to Toni Asay for the photos.

Also, I think this baby is coming. Like, today!

Jessica's Laws of Advanced Pregnancy Physics

1. Objects on the floor will stay on the floor unless acted by a force that is not Jessica.

2. The effort to get off a couch, bed, or comfortable chair is approximately Mass x 400 normal effort.

Actually, I just like the first one. Chase has been a good sport and laughed at me many times this week as I moan the fate of the dropped thing which I cannot possibly pick up. Except when I can.

I'm just about 40 weeks. The baby has dropped right onto my bladder (yay!), and I have experienced frequent but painless contractions. Other than that, no signs of imminent labor. But I can dream, right? I'd be happy if he came right on his due date, or maybe Wednesday or Thursday. I still have several things I'd like to get done tomorrow, but if they don't happen, we'll survive. Hopefully.

Chase and I had a photoshoot session on Saturday. I had realized that while there are several pictures of me being all pregnant (obviously, since most of them are represented in the blog here), we didn't really have any of Chase and me together while I'm pregnant. So that happened. It was fun. We spent all Saturday together as a kind of super-date Saturday. Photo shoot, breakfast picnic, a little hike, the chiropracter, naps, dinner, picking Kara and Rich up from the airport as they got home from Europe - just a fun day. When I get the pictures back I'll post some of them. Yay for being cute pregnant!

A big weekend

This was a pretty eventful weekend. On Saturday, Chase and I attended a childbirth class from the hospital. It was ALL day long, from 9am-4pm. I felt like I didn't learn too much that I didn't know already, but it was good to hear it from a more dependable source than blogs from pinterest. I did learn that I actually have felt a few contractions already. My doctor has been asking at the last several appointments if I'd experienced any contractions yet, and my answer was always no. But the class instructor explained that a contraction may just feel like my whole stomach is hard, instead of just where the baby's back or bottom is. Nothing painful or serious, it's just interesting.

My dad flew into Atlanta on Saturday also, so we got to spend some time with him on Saturday evening and Sunday. We spent our time going to Ikea (Chase had never been to any Ikea before), eating dinner at the cafeteria, and buying a daybed. We had a lot of fun trying to fit it into our Nissan. Chase and Dad had some nice bonding time putting it together.

Obviously we're still working on the nursery. At least I got the gifts and clothes sorted. 

Brothers and Baby Showers

It was a pretty exciting week for us - a returned missionary and the baby shower (and a bunch of less exciting stuff, too).

Chase's brother Jordan came home from San Bernadino, California on Wednesday. We had planned to meet his family at the airport to welcome him home, but we got hung up in traffic. Fortunately we made it just in time for me to drop Chase off at the terminal to see Jordan come out. Then we all went up to our church building where the member of the stake presidency released Jordan as a full time missionary. Chase was SO happy to have his brother home, he was bouncing around like an excited puppy!
We also got to hear Jordan talk in church today, and he had some pretty amazing stories to tell about being led by the Spirit and the power of the priesthood. My favorite was about how they randomly knocked on the door of a woman who "no hable ingles!" Well, luckily these were the Spanish speaking elders! When they asked if she had heard of the missionaries, the Mormons, she responded, "oh yeah! My brother is a 70!" Wait, what?

After dinner on Sunday.

 On Saturday morning, my friend Kara Harward (from my old ward - Paper Mill) threw a baby shower for me! We had a really good mix of people there - ward members and family and friends of Chase's family, and my friends, and a co-worker of Chase's. It was really fun and I was gifted with lots of really adorable baby clothes and a diaper bag and some blankets.

I can't believe I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant! I'm feeling rather huge, but lots of people tell me that I still look (relatively) small. That's good, I guess. Good for my vanity, anyways. My newest development is swollen ankles. Not so good for the vanity. But all things considered, I'm feeling great and looking good!

Last week - 35 weeks, 6 days!

July 19 - 36 weeks, 5 days!

Summer Adventures

Other than the fact that June has been unusually hot (the hottest June since I've been in Atlanta), life seems pretty awesome.

We're settling into our new house nicely. I haven't got the nursery painted or set up yet, but most of our other stuff is out and organized. I went on a garage sale / estate sale shopping trip this last weekend and found some great stuff: two matching 6' bookcases, some old kids books, some nice slacks for Chase, and best of all, my reading corner chair! I've been wanting a nice plush chair to put in the corner of our bedroom for a reading corner and I found the perfect one at an estate sale. Since it was the last day of a three day sale, it was 50% off - only $100!

My awesome reading corner with a beautiful chair and big bookcase!

I also found this super terrifying doll. But I didn't buy it - $20, seriously!?

I've been trying pretty hard to stay fairly active despite the heat and the increasing difficulty of simple tasks like putting on shoes. A couple of weeks ago we went to the cabin with our friends, Brad and Sarah Yates. On Saturday morning we hiked a little 3 mile portion of the Appalachian trail - it was gorgeous!

Oh yeah, funny story. While we were moving, Chase "found" his old hiking boots (they had been hiding from him at the bottom of his closet - where his shoes theoretically belonged). He was so excited to wear them hiking. Less than 5 minutes into our hike, the sole flopped off of his boot, attached only at the heel. He shrugged it off and wanted to keep going until two minutes later...FLOP. The other sole disattached. So we had to go back to the car so he could change out to his normal tennis shoes. Good thing, too, because we discovered we'd been going the wrong way! We eventually made it to Preacher's rock, which had this awesome view.

Chase's family likes to go camping up at Lake Lanier three or four times every year. And finally, two years after joining the family, I was actually able to join them. They were all there from Wednesday to Saturday, but Chase and I only made it up for Friday night and Saturday clean up. I slept in my hammock, which was surprisingly comfortable. Plus, the view when I woke up in the morning was amazing!

I got to go up to North Carolina  on a "work trip". This means that Fockele has a couple of sites in the Raleigh/Durham area that we sub-contract out to another company and we like to check up on them quarterly. I happily volunteer to go, since I get to see Mindy and Jeran. Plus, my company pays for my drive time, so that's awesome. I had fun hanging out with the Stratfords, even if baby Allison had a bit of a cold. She liked sitting on the hammock with me. It makes me very excited for a couple of months from now!

And now a quick pregnancy update - everything is going great. I am 33 weeks +5 days (meaning my week mark is on Tuesay. So this coming Tuesday I will be 34 weeks pregnant). I have had a little bit of ankle swelling, but so far it's not a permanent thing - just once in a while. Sleeping is sometimes difficult, but I really like (and/or need) an afternoon nape. I really don't like being outside in the heat (I'm not sure that's actually a pregnancy symptom, but I have a good excuse for staying inside more!). My right ribs feel pretty bruised. So pretty much, this pregnancy is going really well and I have nothing to complain about!

Camping Weekend

This last weekend we had a fun, adventurous camping trip with Mindy and Jeran to the North Carolina highlands. Friday night we arrived at a nice little campground called Blue Bear Mountain Camp. Mindy and Jeran were nice enough to arrive earlier and get a fire going.

It's an exciting life.

On Saturday morning, we headed over to Grandfather Mountain. On the way up to the top, we stopped by the nature museum and the wildlife habitats. We had a lot of fun watching the bears and otters. There were eagles and deer as well, but those were slightly less exciting. The cougars weren’t visible at all.  The black bears were funny. One really liked yawning and sticking her very long tongue out. The biggest one liked to sit and clean his paws, walk through the pond, sit back down in his exact spot, and clean all his paws again. Over and over.

We drove up to the parking lot for hikers and got ready for our crazy hike up to the “Mile-high swinging bridge”. The hike was pretty steep with lots of switchbacks, and the path was mostly big rocks like steps. The bridge was AWESOME! Its total elevation was 5,280 feet, but it’s suspended only 80 feet above the gorge. It was pretty swingy though. The bridge takes you out to a rock outcropping, where you can look over the valleys below. Except that one side of the valley was completely covered with some low clouds. My phone lost power pretty quick, but luckily Mindy and Jeran were being good photographers.

We then decided to hike back on a different path, but then decided to keep going to Macrae Peak. There was some pretty crazy hiking, with ladders tethered onto stone walls and cables to help people up steep areas. Also, once we hit the ridge of the mountain, it got kind of windy and pretty chilly. We kept going to the peak. And it was stunning. Awe inspiring. And quite cold.

When we finally made it back to the car, my FitBit said we’d gone 5 miles and 129 floors!

We spent most of the evening hanging out around the campfire and chatting. Mostly because we were really tired and it was downright chilly. Like, 35 degrees with 20 mph winds. Chase even conceded to sleep in the tent that night, instead of in hammocks like we did the first night. (FYI – I find sleeping in the hammock very comfortable, and Chase knows the secrets to making it not so cold).

Our camp with hammocks. 

Sunday morning we packed up and headed our separate ways. We headed towards Asheville via the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a bit crowded, being a nice sunny Sunday with beautiful fall colors, but it was definitely worth the extra time. We paused in Asheville to visit Grove Park Inn (amazing!) and eat lunch and headed home. It was such a fun trip filled with gorgeous sights and some crazy adventures. Let’s do it again!

Fall colors on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Apple Picking

Do you know what I love about fall? Just about everything!!! In fact, I've yet to decide there's something I don't like about fall. Even though the leaves falling means a lot of extra blowing at work, it's totally worth it to have the cool weather, changing leaves, fall foods and flavors, wearing jackets, etc etc etc. I've been making pumpkin stuff for a month or two now (pumpkin muffins, mostly. They're so good, and you can eat them for breakfast!), but I hadn't done much with apples. Until this last week. I made apple crisp for Chase's birthday and it made me remember how much I LOVE apples and apple recipes. So I made a resolution that Chase and I must go apple picking!

We went up to the little town of Blue Ridge, GA, to the Mercier Orchards. It was rather packed, and there was a long line to pay, and another one for the tractors taking people up to the picking site. Totally worth it. It was a nice day, a bit on the warm side, but it had that smell of autumn in the air. It smells like falling leaves and chilly mornings and a bit of cinnamon. We had lots of fun climbing between rows of trees trying to find the perfect apples to pick. Cameo, fuji, sun crisp (my favorite!), mutzu... Just a few of the nice varieties we found. It was also very amusing to people watch. There were old couples, hippies, families with young kids, groups of teenage friends, all sorts of people. The best moment was when we were waiting in line for the tractor back to the barn and we were watching a little boy ahead of us.
 He was probably a year and a half old. He would take a bite of an apple, and then spit most of it out. Then he spotted an orange cone next to the line, and that seemed like the perfect spot of the bit of apple that had just come out of his mouth. Upon discovering that it was perfect, he took another bite and this time he leaned over and put his mouth to the cone and spit the bite in (I couldn't hold in my laugh at this). This was repeated two more times before he discovered another cone which soon received the same treatment. But where did it go? So he had to tip the cone over and inspect the bottom. His mother intercepted him as he tried to stuff what was left of his apple all the way in the cone. Little kids are just hilarious and I love watching them.

Here's some pictures of me and Chase at the orchard.

And yes, I'm wearing Oriental Trading sunglasses, because
they're all I had in the car and it was BRIGHT.

Crazy, Wonderful Life

So, most of you know I got married this summer. Yay! I've been meaning to write posts about the bridal showers, the dinner in Utah, the wedding and reception in Atlanta, and the honeymoon. Yeah, hasn't happened.
Mostly, I'm just crazy busy with work and work and married life and spending time with Chase's family (his brother just left on his mission - quality time was required before that sad day!) and making food and trying to get to bed at a decent time (Chase does not share my views on appropriate bedtimes). When I do get a few minutes to sit down and write, I usually figure Thank you notes are more important. But I don't want to work on them today, so here's a tidbit of a blog instead.

Aunt Kara hosted a bridal shower for me on May 11, 2013. Mindy even came down to celebrate!

Chase and I flew out to Utah on May 30. I went through the Logan temple to take out my endowments on June 1, and that was followed by a big family/friends dutch oven dinner. (For which the food was fabulous and the decorations just amazing).

All of my loving and supportive family and friends at the temple.

The wedding was on June 21, 2013 at the Atlanta, GA temple. We had a wonderful photographer, Holly Jones. I loved her work!

My wonderful bridesmaids: Kalie Larkin, Erilyn Heintz,
Alyna Briscoe (MoH), and Sarah Hafen

The reception that evening was at a historic park nearby, Heritage Sandy Springs. (Did we get pictures?)

We went on our honeymoon to a cabin belonging to a Smith family friend in the North Carolina mountains, near Cashiers. It was beautiful and cooler and had lots of waterfalls nearby!

Employed Once Again

It's nice to be an active member of the work force again, even if my body is quite accustomed to this whole going to be and waking up on time thing yet. I now work for Fockele Garden Company (pronounced  folk-lee). It's a high-end landscape company that does design-build-maintain for residential and commercial clients. I'll be working with their maintenance division out of Atlanta. We're working on building up the Atlanta division, and hopefully I'll soon be taking on a leadership role. It's all very exciting. I've been doing office training these last two weeks and I can't wait to go and work in the field this week. I'll definitely write more about the job soon, but I thought I'd just throw this out here so ya'll would know what's up in my life.
Click here for Fockele Garden website!

Wedding plans are getting on pretty well, too. It's great to finally be "officially" engaged!