Sad News

We just wanted to let everyone know that we lost our baby girl last week at 22 weeks. I went in to see the doctor last Wednesday and after a last minute ultrasound, the doctor wasn't able to see her heartbeat. The next morning we went to the hospital and they began inducing me. After a long day of waiting, our little girl was stillborn at 2:07am on May 6th. She was so tiny and delicate. She was about 10 inches long and weighed just under a pound. We found out that the cause was hyper torsion of the umbilical chord - where the chord gets twisted and kinked around itself. Our doctor has seen it happen before, but this was the most extreme with 4-5 kinks total. He explained that it's not a common thing, but it's one of those fluke things that can happen. Since I was past 20 weeks, we had to fill out a birth certificate for the hospital and give her a name. We named her Lottie Adaire Smith. (Lottie after my great grandma. Adaire after Lance's Grandma)

It has been a really tough week, but we're doing okay. We have felt so much love and support from those we've already shared the news with. We're so grateful for the eternal perspective that the gospel gives us. We have such a greater understanding and testimony of eternal families now and look forward to the day when we can meet our little Lottie again.

We're Having A. . .

GIRL!

I had my ultrasound today and we found that the little jumping bean inside me is a girl. I was super nervous that she wouldn't cooperate and that I'd have to go the next 4 months not knowing. I heard that drinking something with sugar or eating a candy bar beforehand might help, so I drank a little lemonade and popped a few pieces of candy in my mouth before the appointment and it paid off! The very first picture showed us exactly what we wanted to know. She was extremely active, so the pictures aren't very clear. The tech was having a hard time catching her before she twisted/rolled/flipped again :) Needless to say, we're super excited and happy to finally know what it is!

Yes, that's the umbilical cord punching her eye.

Check out that awesome quad muscle!

Birthdays and Some News

Lance just celebrated his birthday on the 6th and I "attempted" to make a sweet snowboarding cake. The cake below isn't really cake. It was supposed to be, but I underestimated the amount of cake I would need to make a mountain even half that size. So it's mostly fondant and icing, but I think it turned out pretty cool. Thanks to Jessie and her quick thinking we came up with this "cake", complete with a snowboarder, an ice climber, a girl buried in an avalanche, and a mountain goat.


Since I haven't blog in a while, and we're on the subject of birthdays, I thought I'd share a picture of mine back in August. Lance made me my favorite birthday dinner out of cupcakes. I can never resist fried chicken :) He was so proud of his creativity and I must say that I was quite impressed. And the best part. . . it's all edible, unlike the cake I made him!


And for some more recent news (at least for some of you). . . We're expecting a little addition to our family on September 2nd! And we couldn't be more thrilled! I'll be 16 weeks tomorrow, and everything seems to be just great with the baby. We find out what we're having next month and I'm afraid the time will go by slower than ever just to spite me :) And here it is, the first belly shot.

It's about time!

Well, we finally did it! Lance and I built our first piece of furniture together. I fell in love with this apothecary tv unit quite a while ago on knock off wood, and we finally worked up the courage to try and build it. By the way, if you haven't checked out knock off wood, you should! So, we sold our HUGE entertainment center (which was probably made before I was born) before we left for Alaska this summer in hopes that we would have more motivation to build our own. We rented out our storage unit through September, so we set up shop and built the whole thing there. We learned a lot along the way, and of course made a few mistakes that prolonged the whole process, but we're proud to say that we made it. So here it is!

We actually modified the plans because the original would have dwarfed our tv. So it's about a foot and a half shorter than it's supposed to be. The original plan has 2 drawers on each end and a set of doors in the middle. We didn't feel up to making drawers, so cutting it shorter and only making doors sounded like a good idea....turns out it was more difficult. I don't recommend changing plans unless you're a real carpenter :)

Obsessed with crafts

Lately I've been in a VERY crafty mood. I love looking at other people's blogs and seeing how creative they are at making one of a kind things instead of buying them. Some people out there seriously amaze me! So with all the crafting I've been able to squeeze into my schedule, I thought I would share my finished projects here.

My sister just finished her Masters a few weeks ago, so I sent her a little birthday/graduation package to celebrate. I found this sweet idea here. Edible crayons, cool huh?! They're just pretzels dipped in colored candy melts, then wrapped in the classic crayon wrapper. I wanted to do something "school" related since she's now an English teacher and this was perfect, and not to mention tasty.


I'm trying to expand my sewing skills. (which is easy to do since I know practically nothing about sewing!) I started with an ambitious project, but I think it turned out pretty nice. I found this cute little bag online, and the pattern was free! It was surprisingly pretty easy and I might just have to make another one. I think next time i'll enlarge the pattern. I'm more of a purse/bag type of gal, so this purse was a little small for me

This cute flower doesn't come with the pattern for the purse, but you can find it here. It's super easy, and no sewing required! That's my kind of project. It's super cute as a broach too.


And on to the last project...for now :) I made this blanket for my good friend who just had a little boy not too long ago. I think this is what got me into the whole sewing fest in the first place. When I was in Idaho, my neighbor upstairs helped me sew my first blanket like this. It's a self binding blanket which turns out so cool when you do it right! My neighbor deserves brownie points (or cake balls ;) ) for putting up with my lack of thinking and sewing skills. Anyway, I think it turned out so cute and I can't wait to make a few more.


Well, that's it for now. I have a few other things to share, I just need to get my camera out and take pictures!

Birthdays Galore!

A couple weeks ago we celebrated my father-in-law's birthday. He turned...well...I probably shouldn't say since we live under the same roof ;) Anyway, we had quite the feast with almond crusted pork and all the works to make it a great meal. Needless to say it was delicious and we were all stuffed by the end of dinner.

Lance and I gave him a "generous donation" (which is yet to be determined) to his Bison fund in the form of an oversized check to make it official.

Corbin and McKenzie enjoying the after dinner conversation

Ryan was showing me all of the tricks he can do with string.

On Mother's Day we also celebrated Ryan's 7th birthday. Lance and I were in charge of dinner that day, so I decided to make a rainbow cake for his birthday. (for the directions, just click on the link) I didn't use the same cake recipe like the tutorial, I just followed the directions on the cake box. For the bright vivid colors, I used Wilton icing colors instead of liquid dye and I think it worked out great. I didn't have my camera out for the whole process, but here are some pictures of the end:

Isn't that the coolest cake?? I was so excited to make it and cut into it! The best part was when Ryan's friend came over and while they were staring at it while it cooled on the racks, he said "that. is so. cool!" It was the talk of the evening and yet it was so easy!

Giveaway!!

I was contacted by Adventure of Baby Kaitlyn and she offered to host my first GIVEAWAY for my Etsy shop. I've been thinking about doing something like that for a while, but I just didn't know where to start or how to go about it. So, of course, I accepted! If you'd like to participate in the giveaway, go to her blog (click on the link) and see the many ways to enter.


I also started a facebook page for Beezie Bee Boutique to help out with the giveaway. It took me a while to figure out how to get it all set up, but I finally got it!