True love

What is going on in this picture you ask? Shyloh is in love with her stuffed animals.  She coos at them, she pets them, she carries about 5 in her arms at all times.  The funniest and most entertaining thing she does however is bites their noses.  I'm not quite sure where she learned this.  Her way of showing her fuzzy friends that she loves them is by clamping down on their noses and growling.  You can instantly tell which animals are her favorites because their noses are usually wet, deformed, dirty, moldy or all of the above.  She especially does this first thing in the morning (note the disheveled hair) after a long night of being without her favorite toys.  We just accepted this as part of Shyloh's fun little personality.  Its her sign of affection although I have to admit I am relieved she hasn't tried to do this to me.  I don't think my nose could handle it! So if we come to visit HIDE any stuffed animals you don't want commandeered by our little two year old.  Their noses may not be in the same condition she found them in.

Rest in peace van

Last Thursday I kissed Nolan goodbye and left him at school. My thrift store shopping was coming up empty on 2 year old water shoes so I decided to go to target. While I was waiting patiently to turn left a few cars back from the intersection a women veered into the side of my van. She then proceeded into oncoming traffic and hit another car but because she hit me first the other car had minimal damage.  No one was seriously hurt thank goodness, aside from my poor van.  She was under the influence of medications and admitted to police that she should not have been on the road.  Apparently her reckless paroozing through town already had the police after her so they got there pretty quick.  She had already almost ran down a construction worker so I'm just thankful that I was the one to stop her and not someone else! She was only a block away from the elementary school! Scary!

Unfortunately the van was totaled out.  The whole situation would not have been so bad if we hadn't just dumped so much money into fixing the transmission two months ago.  They gave us a fair value for the van so we will be car/van/hatchback shopping next week.  Not sure what we'll get on our budget.  We may not have enough for another nice van. But I'm fine with a roomy car or a hatchback..  Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers :) I will let you know what we find!

Our new pets

The kids and I had a really nice visit down in Tucson.  Their was one day when it was cloudy and sprinkling and Shyloh was sleeping so we decided to go for a little walk.  While we were out Nolan found a millepede! We took it back to the house and found a container for it.  I googled millepedes and found that it was a male and that they were completely harmless.  Nolan was so proud of his discovery that I decided to keep it.  Then decided that we couldn't just have one so we set out the next day to try and find another (hopefully a girlfriend).  Bekah was sweet to come help me but we had no luck so on our way out of town I stopped at Kens Bug Shoppe and we picked up three more Millepedes.  They make really great pets because you just feed them whatever fruit or veggies you have in your fridge! Our millepedes LOVE watermelon.  Nolan always wants to hold them although they are pretty smelly and poop a LOT so I make him wash his hands and disinfect every time.  Welcome to the family Millepedes :)

We have a kindergartener!

Our eldest son Nolan started Kindergarten this year. He is doing very well! The first week was a little rough.  He didn't want me to leave him at first.  Now though, I just walk him to the gate and he goes by himself to class!  His teacher tells me he is good on most days but every now and then he likes making noises like he's blowing something up and has trouble fallowing directions but he is a little boy so I think he is doing really well all things considered!  We have little rewards at home to motivate him to mind his teacher and do his homework. All in all I am really happy with him.  He seams to be ahead of the curriculum already and I am continuing to do some work at home with him as well.  We leave to live with Helena in 6 weeks (October 3rd) and his teacher recommended I just do work with him at home during his absence from school. We will be there with her until I birth these two beans. 

 I was just looking through Nolans baby and toddler pictures the other day and I cannot believe how much he has grown!  Nolan is a sweet boy with a big heart but he knows how to push my buttons at times!  His favorite activity of late is pestering his sister which mainly consists of taking which ever toy she is in possession of at the time. Her retaliatory screams may have caused me permanent hearing damage.  I guess he's just giving her a tougher skin which isn't so bad in this day and age. Were working with him to be a bit nicer to his sister and it seams that he is indeed being a bit sweeter and helps her with different things.  Currently his favorite color is blue and he is really into My Little Pony for some reason. I'm sure I can black male him with that one later ;)  It works though because Shyloh likes it too.  He also has a great memory and a good imagination.  He likes to rein-act t.v shows or movies that he has seen recently and its amazing to me how well he remembers things.  There are times where he will repeat word for word a few lines in a movie after only seeing it once! I am so grateful so far to see that he has has inherited his daddies brains and not mine!

Surro Belly

I seam to be growing at an astronomical rate! Here are the last few weeks of belly pics....

18 weeks

20 weeks

 

22 weeks

25 weeks

Pancake Man

 

I have the BEST husband EVER! What more could a women ask for in a man?  He gets up early ever Saturday morning to retrieve our bountiful basket then makes us the most amazing pancakes I have ever had.  They are to die for and he takes great pride in these scrumptious wheat delicacies.  He uses several different grains and is always tweaking his recipe.  He is truly the pancake master! (recipe below)

Granny Smith’s Whole Wheat Pancakes (Joe Hartzell Version)

      1 cup of soft white wheat kernels (or any wheat really, we just like soft white ;)

           ½ cup of spelt

           ¼ cup of millet

           ¼ cup of golden flax seed meal

           2 ½ cups of milk

 Blend together until creamy, app. 1 minute (if your blender isn’t powerful enough, you may need to grind your wheat first)

          Mix together the following ingredients prior to blending wheat and milk

          2/3 cup extra virgin raw olive oil

          2 Tbsp of raw local honey

          4 eggs

          1 banana

          6-8 strawberries or any other fruit as desired

          1 tsp vanilla

Blend together for app. 30 seconds with wheat and milk mixture. Pour mixture into large bowl and add 2 Tbps of Baking Powder and mix with wire whisk until powder is well mixed

          Now cook on a flat surface, add flax seed on top and cinnamon for additional flavors, we love putting chocolate chips in as it cooks

Ice Cream Cone

This is Shyloh's first ice cream cone! We have tried our bestest to keep her away from ice cream but Grandpas are entitled to spoil their grand kids!  Dad Nielsen had dropped me off to get some blood work done and said he would keep the kiddies busy.  He picked me up and this is what I found.  He said she knew exactly what to do with that cone! She took it and dug right in! She finished hers in half the time Nolan did and Nolan couldn't even finish his.  It was the cutest thing ever watching her gobble up that ice cream! She is just so cute.

Surrogacy update:

We had our first ultrasound this morning and they found two happy healthy little beans in there.  Both hearts were beating away and they both looked very content measuring perfectly!  It is very common for one of the twins to not make it so we have our fingers crossed.  Helena is SO excited! Due date November 24th

On another note, we are moved into our rental home.  Its a cute little town home.  We wanted a house with a yard but for the price its perfect for now. Were in a cute little community with lots of kids Nolan and Shylohs age.  It will be fun!  There is also a community pool but its not working at the moment. The kids and I will probably get a membership at the YMCA this summer.  Now that we are settled I hope to start blogging again.  The kids are so cute and growing so fast! With how crazy life has been I feel like I haven't been documenting properly so hoping to get better about that!

Surrogacy update

We are deffinately pregnant!!
First beta HCG level 540!! 16dpo
Second 1420!!18dpo
Those numbers are awesome!! Instead of just doubling after two days they almost trippled! There migh possibly be two buns in this oven. You can never tell for sure with beta numbers so our ultrasound is on April 6th! We for sure have at least one healthy little bean growing in there so very thankful for that!! H is overjoyed!! She can't wait to be a mother! More updates to come....

We have moved

I just wanted to give a quick update on us. Early March Joe was offered a job in Arizona so we packed up ourselves and moved down here. The sun felt so nice after a long cold winter. It had been a mild winter in Utah but it was still too cold for me being a native to the sun! Joe is now working as a notary. He travels around noterizing documents at different peoples homes. Being the office genius that he is Joe is also working in his boss Rusty's home doing the bookwork trying to get his company organized. He is super excited about this job! He has the potential to make really good money so we are so happy!! We are currently living out in Maricopa with my Mom but plan on moveing into our OWN place in a few weeks! So excited!!

Everything with the surrogacy moved along very well. I flew to San Francisco and we implanted Two Embryos on the 6th of March. My HCG blood test is on the 19 and we will see if a bean or two decided to stick around!! I did get a positive pregnancy test today and yesterday so I'm hopeful that things are going well!! More updates to come!

Christmas night costume contest....

Left to right: Summer, Dad, Bekah, Me, Taylor and Mom

It is Smith tradition (This is my first year participating) to dress up as goofily as you can then strut about the house being photographed..... The winner gets bragging rights all year.  It was hilarious!!!

Santa

 One of the Hotels that Joe manages had a really fun Christmas party.  We were able to stay there for free for two nights! It was super fun.  This Hotel is more like a resort.  Its located up in the mountains near Logan.  They had a Santa there for the kids.  Nolan had fun on Santas lap telling him he wanted a Bocugon and some Pokemon balls.  Shyloh just looked at us in agony like we were giving her away. 

 At least Shyloh enjoyed her candy cane! though she didn't get much out of it since we didn't take the wrapper off haha

It was so fun at the hotel.  We played ping-pong and explored. They have an indoor basket ball cort so Nolan and I rolled the ball around and made up different games.  They have a huge indoor pool with a giant jacuzzi and water fall.  We had so much fun!

I left my makeup on the dresser before the dinner and caught Nolan putting on eye shadow!
 

Lake Powell July 2011

 I had typed up this post and saved it then forgot about it.... der.  This was our Smith family vacation from last July to Lake Powell

Where do I begin! This was one of the funnest most adventurous trips I have been on in a long time.  My Dad rented a house boat at lake Powell for a week.  It was so fun. The weather was wonderful.  The water was cool but not cold.  We had lots of yummy food and many friends were there.  Aron and Wendy came with thier kids.  Summer and Cade were there.  Christie and paul Broderick came and of course Mom and dad with the kids.  The first night we slept on the top of the boat.  Little did I know what was going on around me as I slept.  At one point during the night I felt something big crawl across my face so I swapped it and it landed on Joe.  He immediately woke from it and batted it off to the side of our bed.  I had a hard time sleeping after that thinking of bugs crawling on my babies.  Shyloh was in her pack and play covered with a blanket so I wasn't as worried about her but Nolan was totally exposed sleeping near the side of the boat.  Finally I slept and woke to a horror  i never could have imagined.... There were spiders EVERYWHERE.  And not the normal little spiders you find in your house, these spiders were HUGE and scary looking. I stood up from my camp bed and my head went right into a spider web!  I am almost certain that the thing crawling on my face was a giant spider. We immediately left that spider infested beach in search for a less buggy campsite.  The remainder of the day was spent ridding the boat of our new passengers.  Everywhere we turned there was a spider but with the use of an old fly swatter and a broom we finally swapped the last one into the water.  There are now about 100 more spiders at the bottom of the lake. I guess during the night the spiders had crawled along the ropes we had used to anchor the boat.  They thought they could catch better insects on the boat.  We slept inside the next night though we never had another spider problem that bad again. 

This was one of the smaller ones! I didn't think to take a picture until all the huge ones were gone

Lake Powell was so fun!!! My favorite thing was visiting Rainbow bridge, so cool...

 

The landscape was so magnificent! I was just in awe! I took a million pictures but here are my favorites

 We had so much fun on the ski boat! We went to the dock and got ice cream and matching lake Powell shirts for the girls! We explored a few alleys of rock.  We skied and tubed to our hearts content.

 

Shyloh was so stinkin cute in her life vest! She didn't like it at all but got used to it by the end of the trip.

The house boat was fun too! We fished off the top and jumped off into the water.  We layed up there tanning, it was wonderfully warm!  We ate lots of super good food and had lots of laughs. 

Summer, Kayala and Sorin

My camera died half way through the trip so I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted.  I will never forget this trip and how much fun I had with people I love.

Surrogacy take II

 As many of you have heard I am in the process of doing a second surrogacy.  The most wonderful women found me on surrogatemother.com.  Her name is Helena and she is from California.  Helena and her dear husband were in the midst of a round of IVF when he tragically passed away.  She now has four of their precious embryos left and has asked me to carry them for her. I am so excited for this Journey! I could not have asked for a lovelier person to carry for. We went to visit and do my medical testing just before Thanksgiving.  Being there in California with Helena was the most fun I have had in a long time!! Helena was determined that we try every style of Asian eating available in CA.  San Francisco is the gateway to Asia she told us.  It was amazing!!!! We had Sushi, Tia, Japanese, Dim Sum and more. We went to little Italy and had gelato for the first time and loved it!.  She also took us to the San Francisco Museum of Science! It was amazing!!! We stayed with her in her amazing apartment which overlooked the city.  We had so much fun there with her in California.  We didn't want to leave!! She was so good with the kids and such a gracious host! We loved every minute there with her. I am so excited to start this journey with Helena. I know she will be an amazing mother and can't wait to help her get that gift!

More posts to come on the surrogacy so stay tuned ;o)

Here are some pictures from out trip

Yummy! Dim Sum! One of the coolest, Yummiest places I have ever eaten at! We loved it

Never too young to learn to use chop sticks

This butterfly flew over and landed right next to Nolans head while he was looking over the railing! The Museum was super fun! This is the amazon room.  Birds and butterfly's were flying about. So cool. 

Helena took us to see the San Francisco bridge! It was so cool

Helena took us to Pier 39! We each picked out a key chain and had chili bowls. It was so fun.  Nolan is huddling in the stroller.  He had a tummy ache and ended up throwing up that night.. poor guy

Creation

It is such a fulfilling thing when the children you have raised and nurtured start creating things themselves.  Nolan LOVES the game LIFE.  Ever since the first time we played  he has known how to spell life.  He also loves cutting paper.  The other day he was sitting on the floor cutting up a paper he found in the trash.  I was sewing when he said "look mommy".  He had taken bits and pieces of the paper he had cut and spelt the word life!