Stitches!

Well for all of you Wii fans out there, you'd better beware! On Saturday night Merrick was showing his mom how to play tennis on the Wii and on the match point as Grandma swung, Avery got knocked really hard in the eyebrow by the controller. It was a total accident and none of us saw that she was in the way because we were looking at the screen, but she got thrown backwards onto her back and it immediately started bleeding and there was about a 3/4" gaping gash in Avery's eyebrow. We took her right to a doctor and she got her first three stitches. She was a brave girl and cried a lot but never got too out of control hysterical. Here is a picture of her with her stitches out.


What an experience to remember! My poor baby girl!

Merry Christmas to All!

Well things have finally settled down a little so that we can enjoy the holidays so I thought I'd give an update. This week has been crazy at the Smith house! We've been busy busy busy packing up the house and are about 80%ish done. Avery was sick for about a week with various flu and cold symptoms and is thankfully back to her happy self. That made the packing experience somewhat interesting but we made it through. Now we're up at the Smith's in Bountiful through Christmas. We'll spend some time with the Haws' after Christmas and then get back to packing next weekend.

Our official load-up date is January 2nd. We're using the U-Pack service through ABF where we load a large trailer and they drive it to Wisconsin for us. It will take about a week for it to get there so once the house is empty and cleaned on the 3rd we'll come back up to Bountiful to hang out for a few days, then drive out our Subaru the 21 hour drive to Milwaukee. We're going to take three days so that we can take plenty of stops for the cranky 18 month-er and the even crankier 7-month pregnant woman. :) So we'll drive between 6-9 hours each day and take it slow since we have some time. Our plan is to arrive at our apartment on January 8th and then unload the trailer on the 9th. We just hope there isn't a blizzard or ice storm going on!! Cross your fingers for us!

We just found out that Vanessa's sister's family got a job to work in Iowa so they're moving to Des Moines (which is about 6 hours from Milwaukee) about a week after us. We're excited that we'll have some family within a reasonable distance! Congratulations Wells!

Well I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. We're excited to watch Avery enjoy her presents. She loves to say "Santa". And her favorite thing to do right now is point out people in pictures. Luckily we boxed up all our photos so we don't have to hear her say "Mama! Dada! Ay-E" everytime she sees our family picture. (It's cute but after the 50th time in a row, it gets a little distracting). :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We're sad to leave Provo and all our friends and family but we're excited about our new future ahead of us with Kohl's in Milwaukee.

Tag...

I got tagged by Amber, as well as Janel. So I guess you fill out the answers and pick 4 unsuspecting people to do it too. Here goes:

4 Jobs I have had in my lifetime:
1. BYU Academic Scheduling
2. BYU History Academic Advisor
3. The Added Touch - I sold jewelry and pierced ears
4. McDonalds - yes, my secret pasttime is flipping burgers

4 Films I have watched over and over again:
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. A Walk to Remember
3. The Lizzie McGuire Movie
4. Notting Hill


4 Shows I watch religiously:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Heroes
4. Private Practice

4 Places I have lived:
1. Provo, Utah
2. Mentor, Ohio
3. Beaverton, Oregon
4. Vancouver, Washington

4 Of my favorite foods:
1. Ice cream - Oatmeal Cookie Chunk from Ben & Jerry's
2. Cinnamon bears
3. Carrot Cake
4. Salmon

4 Favorite colors:
1. Red
2. Navy
3. Lavender
4. Lime Green

4 Places I'd love to be right now:
1. Auvergne, France
2. The Woodlands, Texas
3. Southern California (never been there and it's warmer than here!)
4. Portland, Oregon

4 Names I love but would never use on my own kids:
1. Adam... Adam Smith
2. Seth - too much like Smith
3. Kendra - Merrick hates it
4. Nadine... had a roommate named Nadine Smith who went a little crazy

People to tag:
1. Christina Stevulak
2. Erin Raynor
3. Jenni Blaser
4. Camille Soelberg

We're going to Milwaukee!

Yay we got a job! We have accepted a job offer from Kohl's Department Store to work in their Corporate Headquarters in Milwaukee, WI. Yes, that's Wisconsin! We're really excited. Merrick starts work on January 14, 2008 so we'll be loading up the truck to move on January 2nd and then heading out there shortly thereafter so we can have some time to get settled before he starts work.

So now we're deep into looking for an apartment (all online unfortunately since we don't get to fly out there to go house hunting), figuring out how to move, and getting our apartment ready to pack up! Things happen quickly around here!

We'll miss everyone in Utah - family and friends - but we're excited to start a new and exciting chapter of our lives.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We had a nice trip up to Pocatello, ID to Merrick's Grandma Smith's house. We arrived Wednesday evening and left Friday afternoon. Thanksgiving dinner was with Merrick's extended family on his dad's side and we had around 25 people there. Avery learned how to put olives on her fingers and eat them off. We had fun visiting with family and showing off Avery's sign language and limited vocabulary. We saw two movies while we were there - Enchanted and Dan in Real Life. They were both really good! Uncle Tanner babysat Avery during the first movie and Avery slept most of the second so it was really nice to be able to sit through some movies comfortably.

Aunt Lindsey took this picture of Avery this weekend and edited it. Isn't our little girl cute?!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too.

Bye bye Uncle Jordan!

My brother Jordan - now Elder Haws - entered the MTC this morning to learn German in preparation for his two year mission to Zurich Switzerland! It was really emotional saying goodbye to him since he seemed to get a lot more choked up than my sister Ashley did when we took her to the MTC 6 weeks ago. We kept an eye out for Hermana Haws while we were there but with no luck. She's doing really awesome, by the way, and can't wait to depart for Chile on December 3rd.

Brother and sister will get to be in the MTC together for a few weeks but the rule is they're not even allowed to hug if they see each other. We're hoping they'll be able to see each other at least a few times before Ashley leaves.

Jordan got to stay at our house for Monday and Tuesday before my parents and Katie arrived to escort him into the MTC. It was nice having him around to get to know Avery a little better and have her try to say his name. He even got to learn a bunch of her signs!

As a side note, we tried to teach Avery how to say Katie, her aunt's name, and she just kept trying to do the sign for cat - or "kitty cat" as we call them. It was so cute!

We'll miss our Uncle Jordan!

Halloween Fun

Hope everyone had a good Halloween! We had fun taking Avery trick-or-treating, or in Avery language "chi chee" (similar to the word "choo choo" for train) - which she only said about 5 times and of course never when a door was opened to her. She really liked that people gave her candy whenever she knocked on a door though!

Doesn't she look so cute as a little ladybug? We went around the neighborhood with our friends the Vigues and the Tams. Avery was a little more anxious to eat the candy rather than to accumulate a large quantity.

After visiting a few places we came inside and Avery pointed at the door like she wanted to go out again! It was so fun!

We got a surprise visit from Merrick's family - Grandpa and Grandma Smith, Aunt Lindsey and Aunt Taryn, and Lindsey's friend Dave. They liked seeing Avery in her cute costume. Below is a picture of Avery with her Grandpa.
Hope your Halloween was fun too!

Ultrasound Results!

And... the moment you've all been waiting for... [drumroll please]

We had our ultrasound this morning and the baby looked really good. Everything was normal and healthy and the due date of March 17 was right on schedule. AND we found out that we're going to have another girl! Yay! We're really excited. It wasn't 100% sure that it was a girl but we looked several times and eventually became more and more sure.

So Avery's going to have a little sister. We're thrilled, although we were probably more thinking it was going to be a boy. Not that we preferred that per se, it just seemed more logical since we've had a girl already. But then again I kept thinking about how similar my pregnancy has been to Avery's and so that makes sense too.

Anyways, ultrasound pictures to come.

Job Hunting

We wanted to give you an update on how the job search is going for Merrick. No cutie girl pictures this time. :( Well Merrick did about 10 interviews in the month of October with various businesses and was able to get asked to fly out for two interviews in November so far. He's going to Milwaukee, WI on November 4-5 for an interview with Kohl's. The other place he's going is Dearborn, MI on November 11-12 to interview with Ford.

We still have 3-4 jobs he just finished first interviews with that could possibly offer to fly him out but for some reason all the jobs seem to be around the Midwest. Who would have thought. So we're hoping for some job offers in November since Merrick graduates in December and then hopefully we'll move in January and get settled before the baby comes in March. Wish us luck!

Avery's First Hairdo

Avery's hair is finally long enough and somewhat thick enough to put into a little ponytail or pigtail or whalespout or whatever you call it on the top of her head. She's actually let me keep it in as long as it hasn't fallen out.

Doesn't she look so cute? And actually like a girl for once! (Not that she isn't feminine, she just gets mistaken for a "little guy" or "little buddy" most of the time when people glance at her quickly because of her short hair for her age).

Lions and Tigers and... Balloons? Oh My!

So we discovered this weekend that Avery is highly afraid of balloons. We're not sure exactly why they evoke such fear but it was quite funny to watch her run away from the balloons when Merrick touched her with them. We had a little party at our house last Wednesday for Avery's aunt Taryn's 19th birthday. I decorated the house a little with balloons and streamers and kept the balloons well out of Avery's reach until after the party. She didn't seem to be afraid of them while they were hanging from the ceiling so we have deduced that the source of the fear was probably because Avery saw me popping two of them. You would think she would just consider the balloon to be an odd shaped ball but I guess there are some things only a 15 month old can understand.

Ashley enters MTC

Vanessa's sister Ashley Haws entered the MTC on Wednesday, October 3rd - bound for the Chile Rancagua Mission. We had Ashley stay with us for a few days before she left and Vanessa and Avery went to see her off at the MTC with Vanessa's parents and grandparents. Good luck Ashley! We'll miss you!

Avery's Doll

Avery got a doll a few weeks ago in the mail from her great grandmother, Granny Roberts. It was handmade and very beautiful. Avery loves to carry it around and give it kisses. She can't wait to be a big sister.

And the winner is....

Me! I called on the radio today and won a free haircut at SportClips for Merrick! Yay! This was the second time in the past six months or so that I've won something on that radio station (107.9 the mix). Last time I won two passes to a salad restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes.

The only downside is that I have to go pick up my free haircut coupon at the radio station which is way out in the middle of Salt Lake, pretty far east out on 3300 S. Last time I went out there it took forever. Anyone going that direction that wants to help me out? Eh? Eh? :)

First post ever!

Here we are! Welcome to our blog. We're excited to share our lives with you. Avery is growing up so quickly and hopefully her hair will catch up with her. She's learning so much and is really becoming a great mimic. In church yesterday we were sustaining a lot of people for callings, etc. and Avery looked around and then started to raise her right hand along with the rest of us. She did it several times in a row and got the whole row of people behind us giggling. We never taught her that one!

Merrick is plowing ahead with his last semester of school and is still working from home. We can't wait to find a job and see where we'll end up in the next few months!

Vanessa is enjoying being a mom and has had a remarkably easy pregnancy so far. 14 weeks down, 26 to go! We think we'll find out the gender of our little bundle of joy around November 1st.

More pictures and fun to come!