Heather and I pray that all of you have an wonderful Christmas! Please during this time, enjoy your family to the fullest and pause to remember the greatest gift that God gave all of us on this day!
It’s also time for silliness. With that, enjoy a couple of “movies” staring the Smith family!
Disco Elfs!
Country Elfs!
While my family was in town this week, Rich decided that it was high time to do a mini session to document us all together. We hadn’t taken any photos all together as a family since Alana was born a year ago, and something had to be done about that!!!
Sadly, and obviously, this means that Rich was absent from the photos! But we are all so thankful for his willingness to do this for us, and we love the resulting images!
Here are a few of my favorites, but be sure to check out the slideshow at the bottom!
We did a ton of clapping this week! 
This is one of my favorites! I love it!
She’s standing, and taking a few steps, but not fully walking yet!
My sister, the beautiful Amber, spending some time with Alana! this is one of my absolute favorites also!
It was enormously fun this week, re-introducing Alana to her family! We haven’t been all together since Alana was four months old (Which makes me cry just to think about), and now that she’s SO much more alert and interactive, everyone just had a blast!
Alana wanted Uncle Shawn at this point in the photo shoot, and wouldn’t have it any other way
Time with Grandma and Grandpa! They may very well end up with different names, but since Alana is the first grandbaby on my side of the family, they have yet to be labeled! So for now, we are sticking with grandma and grandpa!
Seriously fun family interaction. And yes, we really do have this much fun!
And yes, we really are this goofy!
Baby in the foreground! Love it!
Me and my sweetie pie!
Be sure to check out the slideshow for more family fun!
Babe, you are the BEST! Thank you so much for documenting our family at this stage in our lives! I ADORE you!
Hey everyone! I have missed you while I’ve been away. We’ve been in a technological transition, and I find myself now blogging for the first time on our new iMac!
Yep, we’ve upgraded here at the Smith household, and the centerpiece of the change is a new iMac! I’ve used Rich’s Mac Book Pro from time to time, but never for much of anything except to check email or hop on a website. But, we decided it was time to upgrade, condense, organize, sync up, and just generally get into a better groove on the workflow side of things. Streamlining, for sure.
Which means that my comfy, happy blogging process has been disturbed! I had quite the system going, and now I have lots to learn! I’d transfer my images, edit, upload, and import them with my eyes closed (okay, not really), but now I need them wide open and a fully functioning brain to re-wire my way of thinking!
Here she is.
Hello, beautiful!
Nope, there is no CPU to worry about, just this big, happy monitor. Which means extra storage space where our tower had been. And extra storage is always a good thing.
So far, I’ve fallen in love with iPhoto, iChat, Address Book, iCal, and who knows what else I have to discover! I’m particularly excited about iMovie, where I want to learn how to edit and prepare the videos I’ve taken! Yes, certainly, fun times await!
We’ve experimented with just one video so far, and it’s a kicker: Click here to see a hilarious video of Alana from a couple of weeks ago! Be sure to turn the volume up before you play the video! It was my mom’s little game with Alana while she was here.
By the way, if you are interested in seeing what my mom and I did on the crafting front (and you are not already subscribed to my craft blog), click here to check it out!
Now, on to recent happenings around here!
I mentioned in my previous post that Rich and I dedicated Alana early this month. What I didn’t mention was that when Pastor Frank handed the microphone to Rich in front of church, Alana reached out her hand, grabbed it, and opened her mouth…and everyone burst out laughing. She stayed there with her mouth open, as if deciding whether she wanted to eat the microphone or just say a few words about the special occasion. Thank you so much to my dear friend Naomi for this photo!
And thank you so much to Brittany for these two! We were totally absent-minded that morning, so without friends who take photos without even being asked, we wouldn’t have this documentation!!!
Then last week, Alana and I were off to Laura’s baby shower. Rich grabbed these two shots of us as we headed out, but I didn’t get ANY pictures at the shower since I was SO busy trying to keep Alana contained. She’s getting so active, and so grabby! We had a great time, and are so excited for Laura and Jon Paul expecting their first baby…a girl!!!
A new obsession with my keys:
Why would she want her colorful plastic baby ones when she can have my drab, bacteria-ridden adult ones?
I mean, really!
And I really haven’t done any research to find out how old babies typically are when they learn to drink from a straw, but Alana started doing just that last week. It’s adorable, and totally surprised us!
Notice her clutching my keys in one hand while holding the straw in the other 
Then last weekend we were off to Matt and Erin’s (couple’s) baby shower! This is part of the gift we bought for their little boy! Dwell Studio is one of my favorite brands, and their baby products just make me so happy That perfect giraffe is not just soft and adorable, it’s a rattle! Ah, so cute.
Alana and I hanging out at the shower, socializing…
while the boys played corn toss…whatever that is…and it looked fun!
Matt and Erin’s friend Kristen and her husband threw the shower, and did an incredible job! Everything was completely delicious and fun. They even made the fondant cake themselves! Now I want to try!
The games were hilarious. Everyone made play-doh babies (Rich’s is the blue baby, holding a camera!)….and I even won a blockbuster gift card for guessing the closest number of Qtips in a bottle
It was well past Alana’s bedtime, but she hung in there and gave everyone lots of smiles…but was SO tired by the time we headed home.
This was so sad…
I thought since Alana enjoys her bath time so much, I would give her a fun new experience and introduce her to the shower. My notions were way off! She clung to me like her life was in jeopardy and screamed like I’ve never heard her scream before.
Note to self: the shower completely terrifies Alana, and she may now need years of therapy to dispel her irrational fear of warm, falling water.
Here she is, trying her best to calm down, once I took her out of the shower and bundled her up. Look at that little face!
I just took this picture of Alana this weekend…I’d gotten home and she was asleep in her carseat, which happens often, but when I looked at her, I couldn’t believe it. It was like, all of the sudden, she was not a little baby anymore. It was just one of those moments that I’ve heard parents talk about. She looked so big to me, and I can’t believe that I have an 8 month old. Anyway, just some random thoughts…
And this was a nice little surprise. Even though Alana has been sitting up since she was six months old, she has only recently figured out how to get herself into a sitting position from laying down. She’s been doing it pretty well lately, so when I went in to get her up from a nap yesterday, there she was, sitting there, so proud of herself.
She got excited when she saw me, and leaned forward to grab the side of the crib…which freaked me out. Needless to say, Rich lowered the crib today and hopefully we will be okay, at least until she starts standing…
Then on Sunday came another shower, this one, a bridal shower…for none other than the beautiful and hilarious Shanika. For those of you who have known me a while (or were at my wedding) you recognize Shanika. She was a bridesmaid in our wedding four years ago, and will wed Ben on 08-08-08. We are so excited for them and can’t wait to see what God has in store for this couple’s journey! Congrats, Shankia! We love you!
Also, Rich will be photographing their wedding, and recently posted their engagement session on his blog…be sure to check it out here and leave him some blog love!
Then, Sunday evening was a girls night! Can I get an “Amen?!”
These girls make me feel old, cause we’ve known each other since, well, pretty much the first day of our freshman year of college. It many ways, it feels like we only graduated a couple of years ago, but then I do the math and realize it’s been longer.
When we met we weren’t even twenty, and now, well, we’re all pretty close to a different decade
Bri, Bethany, and Heidi, girls, I love you! It is always a blast, and this time was no exception! I’m still thinking the girls night out needs to be monthly…and in my opinion, should always include dessert sharing like this one did Hello!
Whew. And that has been the past couple of weeks around here! Everybody have a fantastic week!
All too often, we as new parents have no idea what we’re doing. If you think about it, neither does a baby. It’s a brand new world for them and they’ve only had experience being a baby as long as you’ve had experience being a parent. Add on top of that, as parents you are dealing with a little person who can only communicate with one word — and that’s “Wah”. It’s like trying to communicate with someone who only says “dude.” It’s doable but you’re definitely going to struggle through it and be frustrated along the way.
That’s why I got excited when I found these extremely helpful tips for new parents. I knew there was hope for us new parents. These can be found in a book called Safe Baby Handling Tips that could be a great gift to a new parent that you know, or a great shower gift. I was reading these tips and just smacking myself on the forehead and saying more often than not “So, THAT’S how you do it!”
I think Alana will be a much happier baby since I’ve read this book. Check these out:
Here’s a shout out to Erin and Tim who recently had a baby. And to Sara and Ben — who just had a baby yesterday. And Steve and Shannon who also had a baby last week. And Melody and Josh — who just had their second baby. Now with the tips above, you can get it right this time around. And finally Scott and Kristy, who just had a baby, but this is their fourth one — so they should be WRITING these tips.
Now for those friends of ours that are still pregnant, I have a few tips for you. You can find these tips and more in a book by the same people called Safe Baby Pregnancy Tips. Jeff and Jackie are going to be having their new baby soon. And Jennifer and Chris — also about to have their first (Chris will definitely need to read this post). Kyle and Heidi — those crazy kids who got pregnant again while their little son Avery is like what — 4 1/2 months old? One word that comes to mind with that — “masochistic.”
These tips are for you guys:
Well, today marks 3 weeks since we brought Alana home with us from the hospital. And it’s been a blast ever since! We’re not understanding the big fuss about how difficult it is to raise children. We’re pro’s now and are now thinking of writing a book on raising perfect children. Okay, whom ever heard the sarcasm in those past few sentences receives a star. It’s been really tough with sprinkles of moments of cuteness and peace and quiet. But we’re getting more used to it and Alana is starting to get on a schedule. So, despite what we were thinking in the first week — we are going to survive… hopefully. To celebrate these three weeks, I thought I’d post some pics from our daily adventures of raising a newborn…
We start in the hospital. We had a lot of friends visit us. In fact, one of the nurses was pretty upset about how many people were in our room at the same time (I believe we had 18 in there at once). I did a HORRIBLE job of documenting the wonderful friends that came to visit. So if I didn’t get your pic… I’m going to blame it on the excitement of the situation of seeing you…and sleep deprivation.
Here’s my mom holding Alana:
My dad has some of the largest hands and fingers I know. It was a treat to see Alana grasping his fingers:
Our very first visitors were our really good friends Jeff and Amber! They were so kind to come visit us. Unfortunately, my camera focused on the wall behind us so the picture is blurry (not my fault, of course… heheh)
Heather’s friend Naomi came to see us. She was kind enough to bring diapers… a parents best friend:
Of course, the incredible Holritz family came to see us! As everyone knows, Amber documented our time at the hospital… but the rest of the fam came with her later that day. It was so fun seeing how excited their little girl (Addison) was to finally see the baby that was in Heather’s tummy for 9 months! So cute.
Then there was Heather’s dad holding his first grandchild. I found out that I didn’t take one photo of Heather’s mom holding Alana. I’m horrible but promise to do better when they come up in about a week.
Heather’s sister Amber came all the way from South Dakota to meet her new niece! It was so nice having her help that first week and we can’t wait to see her and her husband again at Christmas!
My uncle brought my grandmother up to Tennessee to see her new great-granddaughter. I didn’t get a photo of him holding Alana since I don’t think he’s ever held a newborn in his life… but you never know… at Christmas when he comes back, he may surprise us! If he does, I’ll be sure to document it. Here’s Me-Maw holding Alana:
Here’s the Alana that everyone knows:
Here’s the Alana that we know:
heheh
But if any baby can have a cute cry… Alana does. She does this cough cry and then either goes past her vocal range or gets so high that only dogs can hear it…she looks like she’s crying but nothing is coming out. She’s probably just her catching her breath to belt out some more. Everything with this girl is drama. If she’s a little hungry, you’d think the world was coming to an end. Like we’re torturing her and she just wants to continue to remind us what a bad job we’re doing as parents.
Then there’s the rare moment when our daughter is not so cute. We love this photo of our little alien child: Check the hand on the forehead… again… oh the drama. heheh
Now cute pics of Alana:
Mom with child:
How Heather’s been blogging and checking e-mail lately:
First two weeks, we had a little frog on our hands. She rarely stretched out. But now she’s slowly starting to feel more comfortable putting those legs out there. Here’s one of her kickin’ back during a feeding:
Sleeping Alana:
Alana getting ready for a ride in the car:
One more photo for now (I promise). Sometimes on occasion, Alana is a very very happy baby. Check out her cute smile!
I’m going to document her waking up from a deep sleep on of these days. She does the most amazing faces as she stretches and yawns! But that can wait until next time!
We want to take a minute to send our blog audience to the Holritz’s blog to check out the most special photos of our lives.
As we mentioned earlier, our dear friend Amber Holritz came to document Alana’s “birth story” for us. Click here to watch the slideshow, and let Amber know what an incredible job she did capturing our joy and emotion at Alana’s birth.
We are so blessed!
It’s 5:18 in the morning, so this blog is going to be brief. The full story will be told in a couple of days!
But here is her picture! I know I’m biased but my goodness, that’s a cute baby!
Baby Alana was born on November 19th at 2:43am. She was 6 lbs 9 oz and 19.5 inches long!
She LOVES to stick her tongue out. And super chill. She’s amazing.
Our amazing — I want to emphasize the word “amazing” — friend Amber Holritz documented the whole experience. She put one beautiful photo of Alana on their blog before she even left the hospital! She’ll be posting more later so keep checking back on their blog for that. In fact, just subscribe to their blog since it’s so incredible!
Since Amber took photos of us, my job before she left was to take a few of her with the baby. You can tell how excited she is for us and how much she already loves Alana. So cool.
Here’s Amber with Alana and the new mom — my babe — Heather:
Thank you for the wonderful family that came to support us. You guys are wonderful! I’m now going to jump into bed before the day starts again and more friends come! Again, more details are to follow soon!
To God be the glory — great things He has done!
Heather wants to have the baby… like now. I’m “suggesting” that she wait until her family comes because of the support we’ll have. Like we have a choice. Okay, read that sentence as “because of the support I’ll have” because Heather will be fine but I have NOOOOOO idea what I’m doing or how to do it. As the youngest of three boys, I haven’t had too much exposure to babies. If you add all the time I’ve ever held a newborn, it would probably add up to 5 minutes. And any time someone puts (forces) a baby in my arms, all muscles tense up. Heather gets on me because I refer to “babies” as “kids”… as in “uh, babe, I don’t feel comfortable about holding the kid”. So I have no idea how I’m going to be with my new daughter. I’m sure I’ll be fine but that doesn’t mean I’ll know what to do when it’s just me, Heather, and Alana… alone. That’s why I’m glad that I’ll be eased into it by Heather’s family staying with us for a week.
I think the reality hit me when I went out to my car the other day to put something in it and saw this object invading my space. It was the extra carseat base that we installed that day. The crib didn’t do it, the baby showers didn’t do it, Heather’s nesting didn’t do it… it was the object in my space that made reality hit home for me.
Life is about to change forever.
So, I’m in this weird place. I love Alana but I don’t take change very well. There is an air of excitement around here. For me, it’s excitement mixed with a large dash of nervousness. So, as you’re praying for Heather and Alana, don’t forget to pray for the first time papa, would ya?
Thanks to my buddy Matt for taking this pic of me pushing Heather’s “button”. heheh
Hey everyone in cyberland that reads our blog! This is Rich. Heather writes so many blog posts that you all probably don’t think I even know how to write. Heather’s still in bed and I wanted to sneak on here to put on a fun video of us going to Lamaze class a couple of weeks ago. Heather is super cute in it!
I got a cool point-n-shoot camera for my b-day this year that’s waterproof, freezeproof, shockproof, and crushproof. “COOL!”, you say. Yes, yes, I know. The coolest thing about it is that it also does video. So every once in a while you’ll not only be able to see us in pics but also hear us also. That will be a nice change for our friends in California that haven’t even met us in person yet and also some of Heather’s old friends that haven’t seen her in a long time!
(you may want to hit the play button and then hit the “pause” button to let it load fully first for those people with a DSL connection)
If you watch this video, you HAVE to put a comment on how cute Heather looks!
Wow. It’s been forever that I - Rich - have written a blog entry. I’ve been working more in the background as Heather’s (”the writer”) assistant. If anyone is wondering — yes, she is getting cuter everyday. She makes an amazing preggo but we all already knew that, right?
This post is going to be random because it’s just what we’ve done and taken pictures of lately. First off, we have officially joined the “Fellowship of the Flagella”. It’s a great fun club that our dear (and sometimes quirky but so extraordinarily handsome it’s scary) friend Tim Blackiston dreamt up. If you’re pregnant and you know Tim, it’s only a matter of time before you get a call and this loaner t-shirt.
Here are the simple rules: Wear shirt in public. Take pictures. Wash, dry, and pass shirt on. That’s it! I only got one reaction (from a cashier at Panera) and saw some wandering eyes trying hard to figure out what my shirt said. It was fun!
Eating at a Mexican Restaurant in the mall:
Walking in the food court:
As to be expected, Alana has forced both of us to gradually organize our lives in the great expectation of her arrival. We thought that we could get away just adding “nursery” to the list of functions for our “office/library/studio/scrapbooking” room.
Well, plans change.
Alana is kicking everyone out so she can get her own room. She’s quite demanding and she’s not even born yet! Actually, I just couldn’t imagine working on the computer in the same room that my daughter was trying to sleep… and wanting attention. So, we had to get everything out. The biggest challenge was what to do with the computer, so we got a GREAT deal on a computer armoire at Staples and put it in our dining room.
With the move we decided to completely clean our nasty keyboard we inherited from my office after newer keyboards were purchased. I call the following pictures “nekkid keyboard”. It’s amazing what can accumulate under the keys but now it looks like a brand new keyboard! It’s amazing what Antibacterial Clorox Wipes and some elbow grease will accomplish!
Tonight I saw Heather barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. So I had to take pics of it, of course! Hehehe! Please girls, don’t write e-mails…
Barefoot:
Preggo:
In the kitchen cooking:
We also spent time with my good buddy Jeff and his wonderful wife Amber. They came over and played some card games with us. We had a blast but totally forgot to take pictures!
But I leave the best for last…
Last night, we went over to my client-turned-good-friends home - the Bergtholds. I hadn’t seen little Levi since the time I did his photoshoot in February. He’s grown so much!
We had a blast hanging out this sweet family! We had a great meal but that was just the beginning. We came over to watch “Treasure Planet” and Lyssa and Laini had worked so hard to create a movie theater experience for us including:
Free advertising for my business!!! (YesWhoo!) That’s their little brother “Levi” on my business card!
Note to self: DO NOT tell people over the course of dinner that my childhood name was “Ricky”. It might show up later to haunt me!
Name of the Theater with reviews:
And a concession stand with menu:
They gave us some change in a plastic bag that we could use to pay for the movie, popcorn, and candy! They have GREAT prices here! 10 cents for a movie ticket! Can’t beat it!
Here are Lyssa and Laini at their concession stand…I see some entrepreneurial ventures in their future!
Here is Heather getting her ticket and some snacks for the movie:
Here is Heather’s ticket that included a number for a drawing for some free candy. Scott won. I was so close!
Right before the movie started, the girls did announcements to tell everyone to turn off their cell phones and showed us where the exits were. Yes, the exit doors had homemade exit signs on them! They then sung the song “Sisters” from the movie “White Christmas”. They did an amazing job!
We had an amazing time with them and can’t wait to see them again! We are always HIGHLY impressed with the Bergtholds! We truly love being with them and can’t wait to do it again!
Surprisingly enough, that’s Scotts normal smile.
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