SmittyTownUSA

Big Photo Time!

2009-07-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hello guys and gals,

Team Smitty is back in action! We are sorry for the interruption in programing while we relocated and tried to find everything in a mess of boxes again. We are a lot more settled in now and are trying to get back on track here with more regular updates.

We are currently chillin' out as much as we can and trying to enjoy the summer together. You can see in several of the photos that we have been spending a lot of time with family. We have posted photos from our final days in SF as well as from the trip out here. We also have several of our first couple of weeks here as we unpacked and goofed off around the house. There are photos from our first Father's Day here as well as from a few other family gatherings. There are also some shots of our adventures to places like the Natural History Museum and to the cool tree house that is currently up on campus at KU. These photos are only from May and June and we will get the July ones up for you soon with plenty more to come.

Things are going as well as can be expected so far. The employment situation could be better, but we aren't doing as bad as others out there and we know that. We are grateful for this time together and we are trying to make the most of every minute of it. We are definitely finding ourselves rather "homesick" for the Bay Area at times and we miss our loved ones there terribly.

We have added the May-June photo link to the right with the others and we hope that you enjoy them. There will be more to come in a day or so.

Lots of love!!
Team Smitty

Quick Check In

2009-06-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we have arrived safely in Kansas. We are currently unpacking and settling into our new home. We promise a longer check in with photos is to come, but for now just know that we love you all!

Our new address is:
2908 Colt Drive
Lawrence, KS 66049

Team Smitty

Headquarters Relocation

2009-04-27T14:26:00.001-07:00

By now the word seems to be out, but we are posting a formal notice here. Team Smitty is relocating it's headquarters. The team is leaving San Francisco and returning to the mid-west. That's right folks, we are gonna click our heels together three times and go back to Kansas! (ahhhh, if only it were that easy. Damn you Dorothy and your little dog too!!)

Are we sad you ask? Heck yeah we are sad! We have made the Bay Area our home for the past 11 years and we love it here.

Why the hell would you leave such a kick ass place then? Good question. Well, it has been a very long time since we have been able to enjoy the love of our family on a regular basis. We are especially driven to have our little Sky grow up around his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Well screw you then, I thought we were your SF family. What about us? You are indeed our family and we are heartbroken to leave you. We are already ball parking figures for our first visit back! Hell, Moms loves ya so much that she actually joined Facebook in an effort to keep in touch. That is love man!

In all seriousness, we are both deeply sad and very excited for this next chapter to begin. We hope that you will all find it in your hearts to forgive us and we look forward to sharing many more adventures with you here at SmittyTownUSA.

Lots of Love!
~Smittys

P.S. We added more photos to the most recent gallery. In them you will see all of the fun we had at the Family House Easter party, an amazing coloring book bag that Sky received as a gift, more fun in the park, clowning around the house and learning fun things like blowing a whistle and playing pinball.

Springtime in San Francisco

2009-03-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung and Team Smitty is enjoying every minute of it! We have been spending every day without rain in the park. There are flowers and trees blooming everywhere and lot of fun things to do and see. We are partial to the cherry and crab apple blossoms, the magnolias and the daffodils, but we are happy to see them all. We have been taking some nice family photos in the sun and added them to the most recent photo link.

We also added some other photos of some of Sky's favorite things to do. Swinging and drawing with his Pops! He is also really getting into playing in the sandbox more with his new sand pail and tools. He loves it when Moms lifts him up to go down the slides at the park and once he is more comfortable walking on his own he plans to go down every slide he can. We promise to take some photos of that and post them soon. (He and Moms are headed to the park this afternoon.)

You will also see several photos of what will forever be known as "The Paper Towel Incident" and "The Toybox Incident." You will know them when you see them!

Lots of love to everyone!
Team Smitty

Happy First Birthday Skyler Lincoln!!!

2009-03-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful year it has been! Team Smitty celebrated in style with out of town guests and a pair of birthday parties. (thank you for coming to visit G-Pops and Aunt Cassie!!) The 'Rents are feeling all warm and fuzzy inside watching their big boy grow and change. Skyler Lincoln you are simply the best boy ever and we are so grateful to have you on our team!!

We have posted several photos from his birthday lunch and party in the new gallery link. Lots of cake eating and toy playing shots to delight our audience.

We went to his one year check up and our boy is 30.5 inches long and weighs in at 21 lbs. 11 oz. So he is tall and skinny basically, which is pretty amazing considering how much food this kid can put away. He is about 60th percentile height and 45th on weight. Moms thinks he is burning through those calories cruising around the house and getting into trouble!

The Little Dude isn't quite walking on his own yet, but we expect it any day now. He took his first steps on his own 2 days after his birthday. It was great and we are practicing every day. The living room is set up so he can cruise around the whole thing and he does so constantly.

He is talking some, but not a ton yet. His first word was "fish" which sounds more like "gish", but it is really cute. His favorite and most used word is "dog" or rather "dog dog", which he practically screams at the sight of Dexter. He also says "kick" which sounds like "tick" when we are at swimming lessons. We are working on learning more baby sign language to help out with any frustration with communicating and he is catching on quickly.

Other than that we really spend most of our time playing here at the house, going to swimming lessons twice a week and going into Golden Gate Park as much as weather will allow. Sky likes to watch the people, dogs, ducks, geese, water fountains, baseball games, other kids and plants there. He also really likes to hit some of the kids parks for swinging and playing in the sand. If the weather isn't the best he and Moms usually head to a museum. He likes the art museum enough, but it is really all about the science museum and the huge aquariums there. (why his first word was probably fish. between that and our tank at home)All in all, we are living the good life and really happy to be doing it together.

We hope that this lengthy post finds you all well and healthy.

Lots of love from Team Smitty

Baby's First Haircut

2009-03-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

So, we gave Sky his first hair cut about 2 weeks ago. It was a little scary for Moms to do it, but we all managed. There was one incident with the clippers where Sky zigged and Moms zagged, but it is hardly noticeable at this point. He looks super cute as always!

There are some before and after shots of the haircut in the latest photo link for you to check out. We also added a few from our most recent Sauce Weekend.

Birthday photos are downloading as we speak and will be up soon.

Photos!!

2009-03-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

Just a short post for now. Moms and Sky are getting ready to leave for the airport momentarily. We are super excited to be picking up G-Pops and Aunt Cassie. They are here to celebrate Sky's first birthday this Sunday. Yay!!

Added a few more photos to the end of the Nov-Dec link. Also started a new Jan-Feb link. We have several more to add and are hoping to do so in the next day or two. Gotta make room for lots of birthday photos!!

Here is a nice one of Sky enjoying his first taste of sand:)

Lots of love!
Team Smitty

Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Team Smitty LOVES Christmas!!

And what a great first family Christmas we had! We spent Christmas Eve with Aunt Lacie. It was unusually quite for us as we had a wonderful volunteer group come in and wrap ALL of the presents for us this year at Family House. We only had to do an hour or so of work ourselves and were able to go to bed at a reasonable time this year. Merry Christmas to the 'Rents indeed! We were so happy to spend the evening with Lacie and she took some sweet family photos of us showing Sky how this whole present opening thing was going to go down in the morning.

Christmas morning was magical! Sky really got into opening presents and playing with both the actual presents and the wrapping paper. He was thrilled! By the end he was getting perhaps a tad over stimulated and was pretty much constantly saying "Ooooooh!." Still he was having a fantastic time climbing around in the chaos. He had a large haul of loot as you can see from the photos.

point of note: why the heck is Sky naked or half naked so much? he had a diaper rash and needed some time without a diaper on. also, that black bear rug just begged for some naked baby pictures. don't worry though, we added extra money to his "therapy fund" to offset our shenanagans.

We all took a little family nap and then headed out for the traditional Christmas Day Chinese food. Sky liked that there was a family of huge inflatable snowmen in the restaurant and we were seated right next to them. He can't wait to try the food himself next year.

We then headed home for what turned out to be a nice long afternoon nap. Did we mention that Sky had played a lot that morning? It was a nice surprise for us. We then took a walk to Megan and Paul's house for a quick visit. Sky also wanted to stop by his favorite neighborhood holiday house for a last look and some photos.

Skyler would like to thank everyone who was kind enough to send him a gift this year. He really and truly has loved everything he has received. He would like to extend a special thank you to his Grandparents. They loaded this kid up with awesome toys! We are still putting them together today, so there will be more photos of his playing to come.

We hope that this finds all of our viewers in a blissful post Christmas daze as we are. We love you all and wish you all the best in the coming year!

Mushy Christmas Love,
Team Smitty

We like ta party!

2008-12-22T14:37:00.000-08:00

Hey Smitty fans!

Just added photos from a couple of recent holiday parties. One last weekend at Auntie Debbie and Uncle Rob's house and one yesterday at the Yoches House. As you can see we had a blast at both. Skyler is getting some mileage out of his holiday suit and is having a ton of fun doing so. We also have some photos in there from when we went to Union Square to see the big Christmas Tree and watched the older kids at the ice skating rink. Sky is looking forward to trying that once he gets this walking thing down. There are the usual photos of us hangin' around the house. We included one of those here for you all to see. Looks like an angel doesn't he?:)

We have the holiday dinner here at Family House tonight so I am sure we will have some good pics to post from it soon.

Hope that everyone is having a happy and healthy holiday season!

Love and joy,
Team Smitty

Ahhhh...the holidays!

2008-12-19T14:25:00.000-08:00

Went ahead and added some December photos to the last link. Yay for Santa!!

Getting in that holiday mood.

2008-12-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

We have started our Nov/Dec photo link.

We have photos up of our trip to visit family in Kansas. We all had a great time, but it was short as always. You will see lots of photos of Sky playing with Cousins, Aunts, Uncles and of course Grandmas and Grandpas. We got back just in time for Thanksgiving. This year we did not host, but headed up north to Sonoma to our friend's beautiful farm. Talk about a spread! Wow! Sky is looking forward to eating much more of that yummy stuff next year. There are also some photos of Sky with the Fruit Guy and of Team Smitty at the beach.

http://artsmith.smugmug.com/gallery/6841206_9AApA#437347940_tJRGn
password: King

More will be added hopefully over this weekend. Sky met this really weird guy with a white beard and a red suit and he wants to tell you all about it.

Lots of Love!
Team Smitty

No Excuses!

2008-12-15T14:43:00.000-08:00

New Gallery Links.

First, the Sept./Oct. link. Here you will see baby's first camping trip, trips to the museum and to concerts in the park, Annika's first birthday party and of course Halloween. Enjoy!

http://artsmith.smugmug.com/gallery/6820536_TUdcp#435883370_xKUqq
password: King

The Nov./Dec. link will be up shortly.

Our little fishy!!

2008-08-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

It is official readers, this little pisces likey the water! Just added some new photos to the latest link that include Sky's first swimming pool experience. As you can see he loved it and so did his sweet friend Annika. (of course the adults all went pretty crazy as well) Turns out, it was all fun and games to teach him how to splash and kick in the pool, but that doesn't translate as well to his bath time at home. We have taken to laying a towel on the ground and just letting him soak Moms in order to clean him. Which of course he does with glee:)

Also included are photos of Sky with his dear friend Mike who was working as an intern at Family House, but has gone back to school now. (boy does Sky miss him!) There are the standard photos around the house and with Aunt Manda. Also, much to our delight you will see our young Skywalker pick up his first light saber. (we swear we had nothing to do with it. really.) We think that the force may be strong with this one. Last, but definitely not least you will see Sky and the Sauce Crew at the Second Big Foot Discovery Day at the Big Foot museum in Felton, Ca. We had all been to the museum before, but managed to make it over for this special event. Man, oh man was it awesome. We were surrounded with the foremost experts in the field. Sky scored some signed books and even managed to get the signature of Bob Gimlin of the famed Patterson-Gimlin film. You all know it, you all love it and Bob was there and we met him. Jealous? Yeah, we thought so.

Keep your eyes open and good luck with your search!

~Team Smitty Out

Took ya long enough!

2008-07-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

Finally, we present the July/August photo link. Yes, at the end of July we do this. Why you ask? Stop asking questions that is why!

Seriously though we got no good reason is why.

So far you will see plenty of photos of Team Smitty goofing off around the house and lots of shots of Sky and his friends rockin' it on the 4th of July.

http://artsmith.smugmug.com/gallery/5578769_HBEnE#P-2-24
password: King

Woohooo! Babies first Mohawk!!

Luv ya!
The Team

A Tasty Teaser!

2008-07-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

What up Team Smitty Posse?!

Just doing a quick check in until Moms gets it in gear with the new photo link for July/August. There are shots of babies first 4th and other such fun on the way.

Wanted to give some thanks and to post the kids newest stats from the doc in the meantime.

First, TeamSmitty wants to thank Dad's Uncle Richard, Aunt Jan and Cousin James for taking time out of a busy business trip to spend some time with us. It was great for Sky to meet them and Dad was particularly happy as it is the closest Sky has to Grandparents on that side of the family. You may have already noticed the photos posted in the May/June gallery, but we wanted to do a formal thank you because it meant so much to us.

Also, as you will see in the photos to come, TeamSmitty had a great 4th. We owe a special thanks to our dear friends Ray and Lydia for hosting everyone (babies and all) at their home for the day. It was great!

So, on to the stats of our ever growing baby boy!

At his appointment on July 1st we learned that this kid weighs 15lbs 14oz putting him in the 60th percentile for his weight. He is finally getting those awesome pudgy little baby legs! He provided even more giggles as he measured at 26.5 inches putting him up into the 95th percentile on height. He is wondering why his 'Rents keep talking about these weird things like "Zone Defense" and "Full Court Press." Really though our kid being that tall right now provides a nice laugh and it is really fun when he stands up big and tall. Go baby Jayhawk!

In closing I would like to draw attention to our teaser photo. Let's just say that Sky's gotta have his cereal!

Lots of love!
~The Team

Mobility Imminent

2008-06-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah people...it is on!

This baby can now roll over. He is becoming a master of the tummy to back roll and is making solid improvements on the back to tummy roll. Of course it is tons of fun watching him roll back and forth trying to get that final kick going to make it over.

All is going well with Team Smitty. Sky has moved into his room for sleeping at night and last night he slept for 7 hours. Wooohooo! Maybe we'll get lucky and this will take us back to that lovely time of longer sleeping hours. We hope! :)

Sky is developing more of a personality every day. He loves standing on his big strong legs and he loves his toys. (his hands still being his favorite) He likes to giggle and fly through the air and drool bomb his Moms and he loves it when his Pops reads comic books to him. He even likes to watch that weird harry little thing that barks a lot. (Hi Dexter!)

We added some more photos to the May-June link. In this set you will see some photos of Sky swatting his toys on his play mat, rolling around and chewing on his current favorite dolly named Ayinga (er, I mean...stuffed action figure. Sorry Pops!)and goofing off with Pops around the house. You will also see some pics from Uncle John's latest visit and you can see Sky checking out the newly improved fish tank that Uncle John lovingly set up for him. (what a lucky kid!) We also had to throw in a couple of new bath time photos so Sky could show everyone that he is a big boy now and doesn't need to lay in the sling. He still loves his baths and spends that time trying to sit up on his own, kicking the water and trying to drink any water that hits his lips. All of which make bath time more fun and challenging for the 'Rents.

Lots of love!
Team Smitty

The Internets are complicated!

2008-06-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

Yo Peeps,

So Moms hasn't managed to figure out the video uploading yet. (could be because she has been spending every spare moment doing other things. Heh!) Still she has been adding to the video collection and will hopefully be posting some small clips for you here soon. For now though we have added more photos to the previous photo link and we are adding both links to the side column here and will do so with all links going forward so you don't have to go through the archives to find past links.

In this photo set you will see Aunt Cassie and Uncle Scott making their debut appearance. We had a great time with them and Sky really dug his Aunt. He thought she was terribly funny all of the time and smiled like crazy when they played. He misses her tons! During their visit we got out to two zoos and walked in the Bay to Breakers. It was all super good fun!!

You will also see some shots of the redwoods in the front "yard" of the house that Team Smitty went away to last weekend to celebrate Moms birthday. (As you can see, we were lucky enough to have a sighting of Sasquatch one morning and it looks like he has offspring.) The trip was awesome and we debated extending as this was the final week of Pops leave. We came back home though and went on some adventures here and Mom and Pops had their first post Skyler date. We did a babysitting swap with Ray and Lydia and took turns seeing the new Indiana Jones movie. We had a great time both seeing the movie and clocking in some extra time with Annika. (who can walk really well now with very little assistance. Waahooo!)

Sky is growing fast of course. He is laughing, cooing and drooling like crazy. He is getting really good at using his hands and as of now they really are his favorite toy. He has just this week gotten really into a rattle that makes lots of fun noise and helps him to smack the dangling animals on his play mat just a little harder. His legs are getting big and strong and he even walked a few steps on them this morning with help from his Uncle Storm:)He likes going to boot camp with Moms on the nice beach under the GG Bridge as many times a week as he can and he is always one of the calmest and most chill babies there. He also got to go to work for a morning with Moms last week. He had lost of visitors while he was there and they allowed Moms to get some work done until we go in again at the end of the month. He has a great set up there and is looking forward to our next visit.

Well, that is all for now. More to come as we set off on our summer adventures!!

Love you all!!
Team Smitty

New Photo link!!

2008-05-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

You asked for it, you get it! (even if it does take us forever to get it up!!) We have a new photo link for Sky photos. We are going to do a new one every couple of months so the galleries don't get over loaded.

http://artsmith.smugmug.com/gallery/5020353_4Bh42#301325617_Fwcqo
Password: king

In this set you will see a few photos that Moms forgot to post from Grandpa Gary's visit. It was a gorgeous day and so we took Skyler on his first trip to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. You can see Aunt Lacie and Uncle Storm clocking in some bottle time as well as Aunt Heather hanging poolside with one hot and sleepy little baby boy. You will note the wonderful photo of Moms after Sky let loose with a stream of pee on her. That is a personal favorite here is SmittyTown for sure! You will see Sky meeting Aunt Melanie and Uncle Tom in there as well. The rest are just goof off photos of us around the house.

We have many more to post from Aunt Cassie and Uncle Scott's visit. It was super sweet! We hit two zoos and walked in the Bay to Breakers race here in SF. Very good times! More to come on that in the next post. Moms is off to down load more photos and is going to try to post some video here soon as well.

Oh and just in case the photos don't tell the tale, this boy is growing like a weed!! At his 2 month appointment he was 12 pounds 13 ounces and was a whopping 25.5 inches long! Tall and skinny and cute as a button!

Hope that everyone is well and we love ya!
Team Smitty

March Madness!!!

2008-04-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah we know it is halfway through April. We know that we are WAY WAY behind on posting and updating everyone. We had a really super busy and super fun last 4 weeks though and we are just now catching our breath. We have LOTS of photos added to the photo site and will do our best to give you a nice update without making it too long. So, here goes....

First off, Skyler is totally freakin' awesome and we can't remember what Team Smitty ever did without him. He is growing like crazy and is going to be 6 weeks old on Saturday. At his 4 week check up he was 10 lbs. 4 oz. and was 23.5 inches long. He is perfect! (do we sound biased or something?) We are all looking forward to the 8 week appointment to chart his growth again. Although honestly, with all of those shots scheduled Sky might not really be quite as excited as the 'Rents. He has so far been a darn good sleeper and eater and Moms and Pops are very grateful and try tell him so every day. We are all having the best time hanging out together and bonding as the new 4 member team. (let's not forget Dex or he might throw a little dog hissy on us.)

Now, what the hell have you jokers been up to that has made you not post you ask? Well, let's see....

March Madness Yo!!:
RAWK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!!
Hot damn was that great. Team Smitty decided to take in our favorite sporting event on earth as much as humanly possible this year, and since we are all on leave we went big. Picture this...we are kicked back in our bed with the newly completed Team Smitty cuddled up in all of it's sleep deprived glory watching 4 freakin' games at one time yo! Gawd damn to we love super sweet sports packages. (special note: your eyes will start to water and blur after the first day, but if you persevere you can make it.) As the field narrowed and Kansas was still standing we got the pleasure of watching the games with fellow Kansans here visiting and Skyler got to rock his wardrobe of Jayhawk gear provided by many of our loyal readers. We all know how it turned out in the end and much celebrating has been had here to make up for not being in Larryville with everyone. We here in SmittyTownUSA feel that our lucky little Jayhawk brought that certain something to push the Jayhawks over the top and help KU bring home the championship. As his Uncle Storm says, "Sky is here to save the world and it seems right that starts with the Jayhawk Nation." Skyler Lincoln is our little rabbit's foot we tell ya! Go Jayhawks, Rawk Chalk and yay for the madness. Best timed Maternity/Paternity leave ever!

Our esteemed guests:
During our last post, Grandma Tina was still here and her visit was going swimmingly. Well it didn't change that is for sure. We had a great time with her and she helped us out tremendously. Overall TeamSmitty recommends that everyone have the help of a Grandma around their house as often as possible.

Next came Grandma Mary and Grandpa JT. Skyler was in Grandparent love heaven. Seriously, we think that he was borderline spoiled. He loved the extra attention and holding time and the 'Rents were again grateful for the help. The Grandparents even helped to clean up the Smitty Compound again before they left knowing that more guests were due right away. We got to watch KU trounce UNC and had a nice little party for the occasion. As you can see from the many smiles in the photos, fun was had all around.

And last, but not least...
Grandpa Gary, Uncle Robbie and Aunt Traci arrived. It was the day after the Jayhawks won the tourney and we set out for a lunch immediately upon their arrival sporting our gear. To our surprise (mostly because we forgot what we were wearing) we received many congratulations on the big win even here in SF. As with our previous guests we spent lots of time in GG Park and we just so happened to have fantastic weather for that weekend. Grandpa Gary and Sky jumped at this golden opportunity to chill in the hammock together.

Wooohooooo!! Hope to not let so much time lapse before we post again.

Lots of love,
Team Smitty

p.s. We are still using the same gallery for photos so remember to check back often using the same info as before:
Gallery: Skyler Lincoln
Password: king
http://artsmith.smugmug.com/gallery/4496793_YD4m7#264692901

Look for photos soon from Uncle Storm's visit and other adventures!

How it all went down

2008-03-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

Hey party peoples!

We made it a week!

Just now getting a moment to catch everyone up on the story of how it all went down with the big arrival of his royal highness, Skyler Lincoln. So here goes...

The due date of March 7th had arrived and our OB scheduled a routine non-stress test for us at the fancy perinatal place. They usually do this once you hit your due date just to make sure that all is well in that belly. Moms and Pops went to the appointment expecting it to be totally routine and to head home and continue the great baby wait of 2008. Upon getting Moms all settled on the ultra sound machine it became quickly apparent that there was virtually no amniotic fluid to measure for the first part of the test. The nurse set Moms up on the baby heart rate monitor and headed of to call our OB. Upon her return the 'Rents were told, "It is time to head to the hospital and have a baby." They were clear that things weren't scarily serious, but we did need to be quick about gathering our things and getting right over to the hospital.

So, it was off to gather things at the Team Smitty Compound and head over to the hospital. While waiting (and waiting) to check in at the hospital it occurred to the 'Rents that they actually had no idea what "go have a baby today" really meant as far as the technical details. Got a little nervous at that point, but we were soon checked in and had all of the options laid out for us.

We were told that Moms would receive up to 3 pills to try to soften her cervix and that it was entirely possible that even after the 12 hours it would take for this, that labor would not be brought on and pitocin would have to be given. (the 'Rents wanted to avoid the pitocin blast if possible) The first dose was given and then 4 hours later nothing measurable had happened so another one was given. Another hour later Moms started active labor around 8pm on March 7th.

The labor can be boiled down to several hours of :
Lots of contractions....ouchie ouchie....gawd damn, give me drugs!!
Push,push, push for 3 hours and at 9:42 am on March 8th our sweet sweet Sky came to join us. Wooohoooo!!!!

Special Note: Moms wants to give huge thanks to Pops for making the delivery room their own special calm sanctuary. He had a great selection of music going the whole time and had the laptop on hand for Moms to watch some pretty stuff to keep her mind off of things. From back rubs to coaching to grabbing the trashcan in time for Moms to barf, Pops showed his "A" game at every turn. It made for a very serene and sweet way to bring our little dude into the world!

We are all SOOO happy and are just loving life right now as we enjoy our new family and get to know one another. It has been a fun filled week number one for Team Smitty. Grandma Tina is here and helping out tremendously around the compound while enjoying some quality Grandma time with Sky. We had our first doctor's appointment and Sky is doing great! He was only one ounce away from regaining his birth weight and the doctor said he was very happy and healthy and gave us permission to catch some longer breaks between feedings during sleeping hours.

Skyler is looking forward to meeting you all as soon as possible!

Sleepy Luvin'
~Team Smitty

p.s. we have added some more photos to the link in the previous post. some highlights of the first week include the first full view of the belly button and the first full bath.

Introducing Skyler Lincoln Smith

2008-03-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

The wait is over!

Skyler Lincoln Smith
Born 03/08/08 @ 9:42am
8lbs
22.5 inches
Total sweetheart

Enjoy the photos!
We'll be back as soon as we can with the full story and details of how it all went down. Short version: We are all very happy, healthy and about as blessed as we could be.

Cut and paste the address below.
Gallery: Skyler Lincoln
Password: king

http://artsmith.smugmug.com/gallery/4496793_YD4m7#264692901

Love,
Pops

Holding Pattern

2008-03-01T13:29:00.000-08:00

What up party peoples?!

We here at SmittyTownUSA sincerely apologize for the blatant lack of posts lately. Moms is making excuses of course and the best one she could come up with was that she was wrapping things up at work. Pops says that the dog ate his homework, his alarm didn't go off, and he had a fever. Those were his best excuses. We'll leave it up to you to sort that out.

In all seriousness Moms did just have her last day in the office yesterday. She was very busy wrapping everything up, but it was also very exciting. Her boss and his wife brought in lunch, a delicious cake, and lots of wonderful baby items and gifts. It was SO terribly sweet and thoughtful especially on top of everything they have already done for us. It made for a really special send off and Moms is eternally grateful. Now, it is all about not having to squirm in the office chair all day while wearing the same pair of maternity jeans and the handful of shirts that still fit over this HUGE belly! Wooohooo!

Yesterday was also exciting because we got some actual news at the weekly doctor appointment. We still have no official word of when this show will get started of course, but there was some real progress towards the goal this time. It was a welcome change after no news for the 2 weeks prior. Let's all cross our fingers now and start thinking lots of happy thoughts about the Little Dude joining us before the next doctor's appointment on our actual due date of March 7th.

We are posting two photos of the almost complete nursery for those curious to see how we managed to pull it off in our sweet little apartment. Pops did the majority of the work of course, what with the assembly of both the rocker and the crib. The pièce de résistance is the beautiful dresser we bought unfinished and that Pops did a beautiful job staining in a lovely blue. The wood grain still shows through and looks great! We are pretty darn happy with the results overall and can't wait to spend time in the new room rocking our baby boy to sleep.

More news as we get it of course. Take care every one!

Much Love,
'The Rents

Showered With Love Part Duex: Shower Fresh Yo!

2008-02-07T13:35:00.000-08:00

We are happy to report that the second showering was also a wonderful experience for the 'Rents. We got to catch up with a lot of good friends, some of whom hadn't even seen Momtown since she became large and in charge. All of the non-preggers drank many a mimosa and/or beer and we all munched on a fabulous food spread complete with a super awesome fancy cheese tray and home made chocolate cupcakes. (Those were a huge hit and not just with Moms. Everyone was rocking those suckers hard yo! Cupcake crack!!)

Aunt A's apartment was very full of friends and love! We would like to thank her, Aunt Bug, Aunt H, and Aunt L for all of their efforts in pulling off what we think ended up being a pretty hard core party for an afternoon baby shower. Hey, Little Dude's gotta get use to it sooner or later right?

Here are the picks to prove it:
http://artsmith.smugmug.com/gallery/4289780_a5J6H#251392467
password: littledude

Be sure to enable the captions (click the box) if you watch the slide show.

Lots of Love,
The 'Rents

How you doin'?

2008-01-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! SmittyTown done had their doors blown off yo! January was a whirlwind of baby prep and big time fun.

The 'Rents have been diligently preparing for the arrival of the Little Dude. Pops has put together and shown Moms how to work many a baby gadget. Space has been cleared and organized to hold all of L.D's tiny things and while SmittyTown is not fully baby-fied, it is nearly so. In fact, Moms car is officially BabyTownUSA with the car seat properly installed. (Very much to Dexter's dismay we might add. This new "thing" cramps his car riding style yo! The lack of Moms lap space was already bad enough, now this?! Really, how much more can a spoiled little doggie take?) All in all, things are going smoothly and we even had a little test run of some of the set up when R&L let us watch their beautiful daughter for a few hours. (she is the angel in the photo included with this post.)

We are full speed ahead and a okay on Project Baby Incubation. All of the doctor's appointments are going smoothly. We have one more of our bi-weekly appointments on Feb. 8th and then we will be rockin' it hard core at the doc's office every Friday until L.D. decides to join us. The 'Rents kicked it Smitty Style during all of the baby classes and the tour at the hospital. Moms is sportin' some super sweet preggers cankles, however she has somehow managed many a foot and leg massage to wage war on those swollen suckers! Big ups to Pops and H for lending their helping hands (hehe) in said war on the cankles.

We had a super fun fantastic baby shower on the 26th and will post another photo gallery for everyone to check out asap! More about those goings on in our next post.

Much Love,
Momtown

Showered with love!

2008-01-09T14:21:00.000-08:00

The founding members of SmittyTownUSA took a vote and decided to try something different with this post. Since we had so many nice photos from our shower on the 6th we decided to put together a little slide show for you on smugmug. We posted one photo here just to wet your whistle. Enjoy!

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/4174447#243902035
password: littledude

Little Dude wants to give an extra special shout out to his Auntie D for hosting the event that his parents enjoyed so much! He would also like to thank everyone for coming. He will repay all of you in drool and dirty diapers upon his arrival.

Luv,
Da 'Rents

Ahhh...the holidays!

2008-01-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Team Smitty sure had a fantastic holiday season and we are hoping that you all did as well. Thanks to everyone and their well wishes sent to us. Things went well around FH with all of the events and with getting the toys out to all of the little ones staying here and that made for a very Merry Christmas indeed. We even managed to get a little bit of family time in when we were lucky enough to have a celebratory lunch with our cousins D & J and the whole family. It was great to see all of them and they brought the little dude his first KU text book and his first adorable pair of little booties! And congratulations again on receiving your white coat D!! We here at SmittyTown wish you the best this coming year with all of those hospital rotations. Woohoo!! We can't express how nice it was to have some time with family at the holidays.

The little dude was particularly spoiled as you might have guessed and he is very grateful for everything that he received. We have posted a photo of our little tree with some of his gifts around it. You can see his text book in there, his super sweet wooden dump truck that Santa brought him and his very first Radio Flyer. He is really looking forward to being big enough to scoot around on that and beep the horn at Dexter. It was the first Christmas gift he received this year and it was from the FH Staff and Board. The little dude is lucky that AM has such a keen eye for the awesome and picked that up for him. The 'Rents seem to like it a lot as well because they keep pushing it around, beeping the horn and laughing.

We were lucky enough to be able to make it down to Santa Cruz to spend the NYE weekend with very close friends. (thank you again to M & H for hosting as they so often do. they rock socks and we all know it!) We got to hit the Cake show at the Catalyst so that little dude could rock out to some cowbell and vibraslap. It was pretty cool to get one last concert in utero for him and the adults had a nice chill evening catching up with each other after the show was over. On NYE proper we were able to rock out with the band for several hours and had a fantastic time! It is always such a treat when weekends like this work out and it was made all the more special with the time we got with R & L's sweet little baby girl. 2008 is lookin' mighty fine so far if you ask us!

More to come as soon as we can upload photos from little dude's first baby shower that we attended today thrown by his super sweet Auntie D. In short, we assure you it was awesome!

Peace out peeps!
Momtown

p.s. News flash! Change of plans....looks like the little dude will NOT be sleeping in a cardboard box as first planned:) Thanks to his grandparents, Santa and others Papa Smith is currently putting together his safe and sturdy crib as Mama Smith types this.

Catching up!

2007-12-20T16:44:00.000-08:00

We here in Smittytown know that we have been falling down on the job the past couple of weeks. Things have been busy to say the least, but we do have something to show for it. We had a fabulous visit with Aunt C and Grandma T which you can see from the photos. Momtown relocated her offices and lived to tell the tale! Little Dude got his first Christmas presents and the holiday business is in full swing at Family House. With so much to tell we are gonna do a couple of posts over the next week to catch everyone up. So keep checking in, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel kids!

First and foremost we had a great visit with the lovely ladies. Little Dude managed to kick both of them at least once and Aunt C even got more comfortable with touching Moms baby belly. All in all we would call that a success. The ladies managed to get in some sight seeing and we all hung out in the evenings. They were even nice to Momtown when she would fall asleep watching movies. That silly Moms!!

It was really great to spend some time together and Grandma T was taking nice walks in the mornings and getting familiar with the neighborhood. She seems to know her way around pretty good now which should come in very handy once the Little Dude arrives and the 'Rents need to catch some shut eye during Grandma's visit.

Phototown:
Just had to post several of these photos that Dadtown took during the visit. There were so many fantastic ones to choose from that it was tough to narrow it down. Big props to Dadtown and his photo skillz yo! The first photo is just of the girls being silly and excited to see each other. The second photo is of Grandma T getting a good swift kick yet again from the Little Dude. The third photo shows the timidness with which Aunt C approached the baby belly at first. (If you look closely in this photo you can also spot one of Momtowns scars from the surgery to remove that pesky cyst that was cramping Little Dude's style early on in the pregnancy.) The final photo is all of us with our "bellies out" which required some effort on their part and none at all on mine:)

We are so happy that they made the trip. Thanks again ladies!!

Little Dude loves the wine country!!

2007-12-04T15:20:00.000-08:00

We got out of town for the weekend and had a fantastic time! Team Smitty needed to have a quiet weekend with no cell phones and boy did we get it. We stayed at this place:

http://www.pinkmansion.com/

We had our own cottage above the main house. (Yeah, it was pretty sweet.) We took a dip in the pool every morning before being served a fantastic freshly prepared breakfast. Dex got his required fireplace time and a new sweater for entertaining this holiday season. We wandered around St. Helena together as a happy family unit and admired all of the artwork and the wonderful fall colors and holiday decor. The Napa Valley wineries really go all out for the season and the drive to dinner on Saturday night was almost as wonderful as dinner itself. Little Dude loves Christmas lights and fancy Napa Valley food!

Here are a couple of photos of the 'rents playing around in the main house and of Dex in his favorite spot. More photos next week after the Grandma T and Aunt C visit!

Take Care everyone!!

~The 'Rents

Love that turkey hangover!

2007-11-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

Yo Peeps,

We here in Smittytown trust that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We know that we sure did. Aunt L and Uncle J (or Uncle Storm if you will) made the trip to our place to celebrate with us. It was good food, good friends and good times as you might expect!

We have posted a couple of photos here for your viewing pleasure. The first photo is all of us as dinner is winding down. As you might note, Moms is the only one with a clean plate. The little dude and her really went to town on the meal. We think that he likes turkey. He definitely likes pie and ice cream that is for sure! The second photo is of Pops with his "leftover sammie" that he put together in an effort to clean his plate. Believe it or not he actually did save that thing and ate it later. Apparently it tastes way better than it looks!

All is going well with Project Baby Incubation. We passed our glucose test and so avoided any finger poking associated with gestational diabetes. Woohoo!! Turns out that Moms needs to get a little more iron though so she is taking an extra pill in the mornings now. Hopefully that will help to give her some energy back. She needs it since the little dude squirms around in her belly on a fairly regular basis. Seriously, what the heck is he doing in there?!

Grandma T and Aunt C will be here for a visit in one week and little dude is very excited to kick them. They are gonna help Pops with some painting in the nursery and hang out with us for a week. It is very exciting times in Smittytown and we are very much looking forward to it.

In closing we would like to ask that everyone send good vibes, thoughts and/or prayers to the just arrived today, Cooper William Keefer. This little guy is going through testing today to look at his wee little heart and the defects they have been watching while awaiting his arrival. We wish him, his parents and his big sis all the best and send them our love!

The 'Rents

Babies, babies, babies....awwww yeah!

2007-11-12T09:04:00.000-08:00

Just a quick check in and I will post more later in the week.

Spent the weekend working around the house. Had to do a little re-painting sadly because one of the colors just wasn't doin' it for the 'rents. Got it all done though with no problems and now the massive house organization/baby-ening can continue!!

Also got an extra special treat on Sunday when we got to go meet our friend's I & K's new little baby boy. Woohooo!! It was of course totally awesome to see the happy family and hold that sweet little Theo.

KU won 2 basketball games, a football game AND we got to hold a baby. I would say that is a pretty darn good weekend yo!

Rawk Chalk Jayhawks!!

P.S. Check out me and the boys carving pumpkins!

No Cardboard Boxes!

2007-11-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

In an effort to make sure that the little dude doesn't have to sleep in a cardboard box (really though, how bad could it be? We'd poke some holes in it so he can breath just fine) we give you the Smittytown USA registries. These links will be permanently added to the sidebar here for easy reference. At each site you just need to look us up by name under the "registries" section.

www.target.com
www.babiesrus.com

Message from the 'Rents:

Regarding the crib and mattress- Due to crazy return policies DO NOT buy us the crib or mattress off of the website. If it shows up to us missing parts or damaged, the store will not take it back. We would have to box it all up and pay for shipping to return it to the website (ridiculous, we know). Instead, If you would like to help us with the purchase of this crib or mattress(please!), just send us gifts cards from Babies R Us and we will use them to go buy the crib locally so they will allow returns/exchanges if necessary. Your only other option would be to order by phone directly from the store closest to us (Colma, CA Babies R Us phone orders number:(650) 449-5106) and they will mark it off of the registry as "purchased". Gift cards may just be the easiest way to go--you can still tell us what you want us to use them for.

Regarding Disney, et. al.- You will note that we are going for the basic items to care for the little dude on these registries. Things like clothes, books, toys and other fun stuff aren't fully represented because we figure that peeps like to pick this out on their own and we totally want to encourage such things. We only ask that people shy away from watered down or overly mass produced characters whenever possible(like a lot of the Disney/Warner Brothers). That said, good design is still good design, and rocket ships and super heroes are always bad ass so have fun and help make sure our little dude is looking good while not looking like every other kid in play group.

Things went great with the room painting this past weekend. M & H both made it and brought their boys along. Kent, M & H knocked out all of the painting while the boys and I carved pumpkins and went to the zoo. Somehow I think that I got the better part of the deal on this one because the zoo was awesome. They even had trick or treat stations, haunted houses, and extra animals out for the kids to touch. SF Zoo is super sweet on Halloween! The room looks great and we are still trying to think of ways to thank M & H for spending a full day with us and working so hard on our place. Man do they rock!!

This weekend Kent has class both days so it looks like little dude and I will be spending some quality time together. Time for a mani/pedi me thinks!

Luv ya!
~momtown

Little Dude's Fancy Carrying Case

2007-10-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

'Sup Peeps!

Here ya go. A couple of photos, as requested by my adoring fans. No autographs please.

How to make sure I post more photos: A cautionary tale in two parts.

Act One: Where you refrain from making remarks such as...
"What are you having twins or something?!"
"Wow, you are SO big!"
"You are definitely eating for two now."
and my personal favorite...
"My friend was way smaller then you when she was at this point in her pregnancy."

Act Two: Where you lie if you must.
In order to avoid the aforementioned blunders please feel free to lay it on thick.
"You are so thin!"
"Wait, are you even pregnant? Gee, I hadn't noticed"
"You are glowing!"
and my personal favorite...
"You are just the cutest preggers I have ever seen!"

In all seriousness, the remarks in Act One are actual quotes said to my face. Some I have even had the sad pleasure of hearing more then once. Now, there is no reason to get all sappy and feel sorry for me or anything, but let's not kick a girl while she is down a'ight.

All is well with Little Dude. We are getting ready to paint our bedroom this weekend and might even be lucky enough to get to see M & H out of the deal. Woohooo! Well, when I say "we" I mean Kent, and M &H will be painting the room with the sweet No VOC paint that we got. Right on! I will be working on other projects out of the paint area.

Luvin'
Momtown

Let's get this party started!

2007-10-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

Yo Peeps!

The little dude wanted you to see this sweet/creepy photo of him. This was taken at our most recent appointment on October 9th. We were able to confirm that the little dude is in fact a dude. His Pops did a dance of joy that made the techs and doctors very happy.

Everything else with the scan was perfect. He is about a week ahead on size still so we will keep an eye out and see if he keeps up that pace. So far, he still gets the "good eater" award. We looked at his brain and his heart and everything is a-okay. All of the bloodwork was so good from the first round of screening that they didn't even have to take any this time which made Mom happy.

So all is well here in SmittyTown. We are running errands and doing lots of projects around the house. While we were out and about over the weekend, we even got to make our first visit with R & L's new baby girl. She is awesome!

Hope that everyone is doing well and we'll post more about our adventures and more photos soon. (yes, photos of me will be included as requested Aunt C.)

Luvin!