3 Months and Mother's Day

Our little Hallie turned 3 months on Mother's Day. What a treat she is to have around these days. She is singing and talking more. We love her "pillow talk" and her sruprised face she makes sometimes after she's done talking. She has found her hands and loves to suck on them. She has become a great little sleeper. She sleeps all through the night and goes down easily. She has the sweetest laugh and smiles with her whole body. She loves books and soon I'm sure she'll truly taste them. Everywhere we go, people love to ooohh and aahh all over her. I really believe that she has brightened people's lives when they needed it most. She has surely brightened ours. We love our little Hallie bear.

Peace Out Provo...

At the end of April we had to say "Peace out" to our beloved home beneath the Chiropractic Clinic in Provo and head out to where we will be for the summer...Burlington, NC. We had a wonderful road trip east which we had planned when we thought we were going to Illinois for the summer, and although it was going to take us the LONG way to North Carolina, we couldn't pass up our trip through some capitols and very important American landmarks.

We drove through the bleak state of Wyoming into South Dakota where our first stop was the incredible Mt Rushmore. We were impressed with the size of the presidents and all the hard work that went into this piece of mountain.

We stopped at World Famous Wall Drug in Wall, SD. There are a million signs across the world pointing to this place in the world. (Word to the Wise: If you want to visit Wall Drug, beware of it's closing time, 7pm).

We stopped and played some croquet in Pierre (which the locals say Peer). Hallie slept all the way through her first game of family croquet. She was also a champ the whole trip in the car. She slept nearly the whole time! When we stopped to eat, she ate and went right back in her seat and was either quiet or fell asleep. We couldn't have asked for a better baby to travel with. We will see how she does when she is a little older on the ride home from the summer!

After Pierre, we made a few stops before reaching our next capitol. The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD was first. This place is awesome. It is covered in 100% corn from the local farms. None of the corn is died and every year there is a different theme for the building which means all different pictures made of corn are put up. This has been going on since 1904.

Our next stop was the Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, MN. He was huge, a lot bigger than he looks in our pictures.

Then on to the Mall of America or the Temple of Materialism as our friend Ron calls it. This place was HUGE! It had roller coasters and an aquarium. It had every kind of store you could think of. And it had a million stores that sold Minnesota paraphernalia. We walked around the whole thing. Didn't do much shopping, we just wanted to see what they had, and I'm pretty sure they had nearly everything but groceries.

We stayed in Minneaoplis with our friend Ron. He was an incredible host, letting us steal his bed and making us Saturday morning Roll-Ups. Thank you Ron!

We played a game in St. Paul where a handful of people were honoring war veterans by shooting off cannons. One of the guys we talked to knew all about different war memorials and museums across the country. You could tell he was very patriotic. We got a picture with him. After our game, Ashton and I were taking a picture while they were shooting off the cannons and I knew it was going to go off soon, but I totally jumped out of my skin when they fired one sooner than I had expected. I wish I could have seen it. I'll have to wait to watch the movies of my life in heaven.

Our last (fun) stops were in Wisconsin. We stopped at a cheese store and taste-tested all kinds of cheese: cranberry, pepperdew, fudge cheese, 12 year aged cheddar...all kinds. Then we played croquet in Madison or "Mad City" which was a lot bigger and more happening than we thought it would be. We were recommended a place called the Old Fashoined where we bought fried cheese curds...a popular treat among Wisconsinites.

All in all, it was a great trip. And now, here we are in North Carolina. It has been great to be here so far. The ward we are in is awesome. We are being well taken care off. Our first week here many people greeted us at church and even more came over to visit or invite us to different activities. We are lucky to be in such a great place. Plus, Burlington has shown us that chivalry is NOT dead. I have had men take my buggy back to the store when I was done shopping and men let me enter the room before themselves. Southern hospitality lives on!

Lots of people have asked us what we are going to do when the summer is over seeing this is Ashton's last year on contract with Pinnacle. Who really knows? Go on vacation to Europe? To say the least, we are just enjoying where we are right now and all things will work out to how they should be.

The Funeral and Cousins

Right before we left for North Carolina, Ashton's grandma Buswell passed away. She was an amazing lady and we are glad we were always on "her team." We all hope to render the service to others and to God the way that she did. We just knew that Grandpa was tugging her over to the other side. She must have more important work to do over there. We love you Grandma and will miss you!

Because of the funeral, all of Ashton's family was together. There have been 5 new grandkids within about 6 months of each other and we were able to get a picture of all the little babies. Oh boy, will it be fun when they're all 2! (This picture is done by age.)

To AZ...amongst the craziness

Between finishing up my thesis, graduation, packing, cleaning and the rest of life, we managed a short trip to AZ to visit family, and our extended family, the Smiths. We are so glad they are in our lives and for the love they share with us!

(Sorry for coming to AZ and not being able to see everyone. The time there was limited and we'll have to come again!)

Please, Call Me "Master"

The month of April brought a lot of events about for our family, one of which was defending my thesis and graduation! Here is a picture of me with my team: Alan, Ramon, and Neil--right after passing my defense. It went a lot smoother than I thought and I passed with minor revisions. Now, you may call me "Master Lydia." I always thought it somewhat lame that people who earn a doctorate get to be called Dr., yet the work for a master's deserves such little entitlement, well... no entitlement.

Graduate school has been 2 awesome years. It was only possible because of my loving husband, a baby who slept a lot, and of course, the greatest cohort on the planet!

Me and my family on graduation day

My incredible cohort who we love so much and already miss

These are our friends the Chattertons, aka Chattmans. Kara just graduated with her JD and is expecting a little baby at the end of the month. They were our best couple friends at BYU and we already miss hanging out with them and are quite distraught that they have moved to ID and won't be in UT when we get back at the end of the summer. We'll have to make a trip north when the summer is over.

2 Months

I know that this is slightly old, but I couldn't resist putting up this picture of little Hallie bear at 2 months. She is getting so big and can do so many things....which I will write more about at her 3 month picture. We are so glad she is in our family!

Blessing Day

Hallie's blessing day was absolutely beautiful! The weather was nice and the company was even better despite missing a few close people. Ashton gave a beautiful blessing through the priesthood. How blessed we are to have the voice of God on the earth today.

Hallie looked absolutely stunning in her beautiful dress made by Grandma Smith. It is hard to capture the beauty of the dress in pictures.

Hallie is such a lovely girl. We are so lucky to have her. She has been an influence for good already. She has a sweet spirit and is truly a gift from God. We are blessed to be sealed to her forever.

The Family Tree

When Ashton and I were dating he took me to this little ma and pa shop down in Sataquin, UT called The Family Tree. It is a log cabin type place and upon the walls hang pictures of the owners family...all sides of the family (as you can see in the background of this picture). After our first time of going there, we discovered there was one wall that was covered in pictures of friends. So Ashton asked one of the ladies if we brought our picture in, could we hang it on the friends wall. We went back a few days later and that lady wasn't there to help us out so our picture never made it on the wall. While we were sitting there eating the other day, we noticed the perfect spot: an empty nail just waiting for our portrait to grace those blank boards with our smiles. Maybe someday we will just bring a picture and sneak it up on the wall and then come back a month or so later and see if anyone has removed it. We go to The Family Tree at least once a year to fill up on old memories, homestyle, greasy food, and to enjoy the larges scone I have ever seen smothered in warm honey butter. No doubt, The Family Tree holds a special place in our heart even if it doesn't hold a picture of us on its walls. If you ever get a chance, visit The Family Tree and look for our upcoming picture...if we're bold enough.

New Zealand we miss you....

...potato top meat pies, driving on the left side, the beeping when cars back up, the beautiful accents, oki doki sushi, the bush, all of our NZ whanau, the chocoloate, the licorice...when can we see you again?

Juli's Visit

We had the GREAT privilege of having Aunt Juli come for a visit for her spring break (thanks to Grandma Smith!). We had a great time visiting and going up to temple square. It was great to have a full time babysitter too! You are a great sister and a great aunt! We love you Juli and are glad you could come visit!

Pounding the Pavement

So Ashton finally let me go running for the first time last week since having Hallie. He wouldn't let me go until 4 weeks and was nice enough to let me go one day early because the weather was so beautiful. It was so nice to get back to running. My first day back outside, and all this week, I have ran 3 miles every day. I'm not going to lie, it was hard those first two days back out. I never thought it would be so hard to run 3 miles. I used to be able to run 18 with ease. Oh the good ol' days. I told Ashton that 3 miles used to be a warm-up and now it's a workout. His reply, "So you are human." Hopefully my superhuman powers will kick back in soon.

One Month Old

We can't believe how fast our little one is getting older. I would say growing, but this first month has been a slow start on the growth chart...still under the 5th percentile at 6lb 11oz. At 3 weeks she hadn't even weighed 6lbs yet.

She is a pleasure to have around...most of the time. We love the way she gets crazy hair after she eats, the silly face she makes after her morning vitamins, the way she holds onto her binki, the scrunched eyebrows when she poops. We don't like it when she poops during bathtime, all in her towel, but we still love her anyway. We love how she has uncontrollable limbs, and her little spit bubbles. She makes us smile and laugh multiple times each day. We can't wait for the day when we can make her smile and laugh multiple times each day.

A Well Documented Life

Ashton and I cannot get enough of our little girl. We are so happy to have her around, even if she takes all our energy. Ashton loves to take pictures of her. It is really quite sweet how much he loves her. And it is really quite sweet how much he loves me. He is willing and ready to help at any time. I am so grateful for such a great man who is a good husband and father.

Just a few little things about our little girl:

She loves to have her hands up by her face. And the second your wrap her up she starts fighting to get her hands out. If she's really tired she gives up easily, but if she is still kind of awake she fights it hard core.

She makes the funniest little faces and we love how she has no control over her limbs. They often just randomly fly up above her head in what Ashton calls the "victory" pose (one hand up) or the "champion" pose (2 hands up). This is slightly funny because the other day Ashton got really excited about something that was good at work and he threw his hand up in victory himself.

We can't wait for her to really smile at us!

The Arrival of Our Sweet Hallie

Our little Hallie girl decided to come right on her due date! At least it wasn't late! I went to the Dr. the day before and she said I was 3.5 dilated and 80% effaced. She stripped my membranes which apparently seemed to help the process move right along. The next morning a little before 5am I woke up to some contractions but just laid in bed thinking that it wasn't real labor. But then they started to get stronger. I went into Hallie's room and tried to time everything, but it was just getting stronger and there was all kinds of pressure. After about an hour I went and woke Ashton up and told him I thought he was going to have a little baby that day. We got everything together and went to the hospital, arriving a little before 7am. I was just hoping that they wouldn't turn us away. They took us back and checked me out. I was a 6.5 and they let us stay (thank goodness). They asked if I wanted an epidural and I decided to get one. I didn't think that the pain was that intense. Of 1 to 10 it was probably around and 8, but it was the fact that I knew I still had a few more hours to go and to enjoy it without any pain seemed quite enticing. They gave me the epidural a little after 8am. Then Dr. Au came and checked me out around 9am and my water sac was hanging down really low and so they broke my water and by 10am i was ready to push. I pushed a few times without the Dr. there and then 2 or 3 times once she got there. Hallie wasn't coming so they gave me an episiotomy and on the next push there she was! It was one of the greatest experiences of my life!

She was born at 11:07am and weight 6lb 1oz, and was 19.5 inches long.

They placed her on my tummy and took and cleaned her up and then I got to cuddle with her. Oh it was so wonderful. (It was also nice to be able to lay on my back and not have all that extra weight on my guts!) Then she went down with Ashton to take a bath and they took me down to the recovery room.

Little did I know how great the hospital was. I tried to live it up as much as I could. Everything I needed was a call away, and when baby was fussy or I wanted to sleep I just sent her to the nursery; I must admit that she spent most of the time with us though. We loved and sill love just looking at her. Sometimes it's hard to believe that she is ours and is finally here, and other times it seems so real and perfect and natural.

She had a little problems with jaundice, but she turned out fine and didn't have to go under the lights or anything. She is a great sleeper...getting her to relax is the hard part, but once she's asleep she is ASLEEP. She has had man 6 hour sleeping nights so far. I hope that doesn't stop anytime soon.

We love you Hallie and are so excited to have you in our family!

Happy Birthday Dear Ashton

From ashton's birthday

Happy Birthday Ashton!

I know I tell you all the time, but I love to live my life with you and grow old with you. You are such an example to me and will be a great dad! You are one who loves the Lord and always tries to do what is right. You have a great love for other people and have the gift of showing them. I am grateful for your example to me! I love you!

P.S. Remember how much you love that fabric shaver?