Well, it's week 13 in the life of Baby Smith and apparently he/she is the size of a peach. I went to the dr today and heard the heart beat- everything sounded great! So, looks like things are going well. It's helped my psycho-ness and helped me feel a lot more reassured. I still have moments where I say, "I guess I'm really pregnant". Weird, I know... but I'm hormonal and can't help it....right???
Avery has named the baby Taco Bell or Tortilla depending on when you ask her. She and Jeff were having a conversation at Taco Bell- and she's a Smith, so she loves Taco Bell- which is where the fascination with mexican food names has come from. She's convinced it's a little sister. We'll see! For those of you inexperienced in babyness, we will find out in mid-April.
Now it's time for another Avery quote! We were discussing dinner options tonight- we need to go to the store so we had nothing to make... eating out for the Smiths. Jeff says, "I could eat some Arby's, that sounds good." Avery says in the absolutely most appalled voice you could every imagine coming out of a 3-year-old, "Daddy, you're going to eat Barbies????" tee hee.
Hey there everyone! Avery got a new shirt today, and she wanted to show everybody. (She did get a little defiant and sad, though, during the actual photo-taking process.)

THAT'S RIGHT! THERE'S A NEW BABY SMITH ON THE WAY!!!


We're all super-excited, even though Avery's picture might make it look like she's less-than-enthused. Steph's in her 12th week, and doing pretty well. She's felt a little crappier this time around than she did with our first pregnancy, but still surviving. She's also been a little more paranoid about things going wrong, which is why we've waited so long to tell you all about this. But according to the new Colorado doctors, everything is fine with our little lime-sized kiddo!
So that's the big news from CO. I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more about things as we progress towards our big Aug. 30th due date!
Well, Steph and I just watched bits and pieces of the movie "Once" again (this time with the subtitles on), and I've been listening to the soundtrack non-stop for the past couple days, and Steph said I should write a quick blog update to let all of you know our opinions now that we've really had time to let the film sink in. We definitely don't hate the movie, and we both love the music. I think we were just expecting something different from the film, based on such great reviews that the movie had gotten from a bunch of you. And not that 'unexpected' always equals 'bad' for a film, but Steph and I are both big fans of a strong story, and this film may have a lot of things, but it really doesn't have a strong story.
So the moral of the story is: I like it more than Steph, we're both glad that we saw it, and we were intrigued enough to watch most of it just now for a second time. I'm still not exactly sure how I feel toward it, and it definitely didn't blow me away in the same way it seems like it blew some others, but like I said, I'm definitely glad I saw it and the music is great.
A couple overly-specific points that you probably won't care about, especially if you haven't seen it yet:
1. What a great musical end to the movie, returning to the first song that Guy and Girl originally sang together, but as she looks out the window it swells into a slightly different arrangement with gorgeous strings! Great!
2. The soundtrack that Dave loaned me has a couple secret tracks that are remakes of Van Morrison tunes- AWESOME!
3. Did anyone else think it was fishy how quickly Girl caught on to the structure and melody of the song that she and Guy first sang together? I know I'm not the single greatest musician or singer in the whole world, but I feel like I understand enough to say that you can't perfectly guess every note of a melody well enough to nail your harmony the first time you try it. And there are some weird pauses in between parts of the song that she guesses perfectly, that I wouldn't have understood myself without some explanation.
4. One other critical point: Feel free to make a movie with a way excessive amount of music in it, so that maybe it even sort of feels like you're watching a long music video punctuated with brief bits of dialogue. (Especially if the music's so good.) And feel free to include entried songs when maybe it would be okay to edit some of them down a little. But please don't show me a band recording an entire song in the studio, followed by a musical montage of the band riding in a car and playing frisbee on the beach, with the same exact song playing again over the montage. Maybe I'm being too critical, but it seemed like a weird decision, especially since I was a little taken aback at the amount of overall music.
Hey Friends! So Jeff and I just finished watching the movie "Once". And, I have to say.... huh? We didn't get it! Why do you all like it so much? If you love this movie, you have to leave a comment and convince us that it is awesome.

We did like the music. I thought it was boring. Jeff was entertained by the musical process. Y'all said the love story was awesome... what love story? Didn't he go back to someone who was unfaithful and she return to someone that she referred to as an idiot? I know she was married and all and so that's nice that she was true to her marriage.

But, I don't know people... I need some help understanding the love of this movie. I only blog about it because of the crazy raving that has been going on.... so let's have some education for the Smith Fam! We're ready.
Today is Avery's third birthday! She's been telling everyone all day long that she is '3'. What a fun day! Tomorrow will bring her bowling party with friends, but tonight was the family celebration. She loved all of her presents- thanks to all of you who remembered her and were so generous! She really was so excited! She can't wait to start playing with all of her new toys!


We were able to enjoy the 2nd Annual Avery's Birthday Seb-ee-get-ee (aka spaghetti) Dinner. It's still her favorite meal and Erica and Ella were able to join us this year.

Here's Avery enjoying her favorite new present. She's been wanting binoculars for some time now... who knows why, I'm sure its something to do with a tv show, but binoculars have been her only request. So, here she is in adventure mode, crouched down, looking through the new bicocs.... backwards?

And finally, enjoying her cupcakes!

And since Avery shares her birthday with her friend Hopey, here's a special treat just for her! Happy Birthday Hopey!!!