I Want Ice Cream

If you are reading this right now I need you to get me Ice Cream.  Here is a list of some of my favorite foods:  Ice Cream, Chocolate, Chocolate Mood Smoothie, Cupcakes, and any frappuccino from the Cocoa bean.  I don't have a problem. I just know what excellence tastes like and I know that I would rather taste something that makes me feel like I am snuggling a giant ferby than eat somethings that makes me feel like I am normal.  I am better than normal.  Well my last week of school is over.  It was so . . . nothing special.  Just class wrap ups.  I was kind of hoping that when I left my last class that everyone would start singing and dancing about how I was done with classes.  Maybe that is still going to happen after I get my last final in.  You know what, that is probably the case.  Most of my finals are projects.  And I have a take home final.  It is going to be wierd to have no school.  To have no future projects/assignments on the back of my mind.  To not have class taking up random hours of my day.  It is going to be strange because I have been doing so much school for so long.  Well I guess I will have more time to do the important things in life like playing video games, reading, and maybe spending time with my baby girl is on that list.  I love my baby girl so much and she is the most perfect little angel ever.  Well here is my two cents now give me my ICE CREAM!

Chocolate, Yes I am Addicted

I write to you as I am drinking from my Peanut Butter Chocolate Mood from Jamba Juice.  We were just pulling in to home when Katie says (may be a little exaggerated) "Hey my hot manly man that I am so attracted to and always want to kiss you, do you want to go get some chocolate."  She had me at chocolate and I was willing to drive all the way (that is right, all the way) to Jamba Juice.  Chocolate is going to make me go broke some day.  Where did I get this addiction?  I believe that I have always been attracted to only the greatest things in life.  For example my wife is amazing, Pokemon is amazing, my dance moves are amazing, and chocolate is amazing.  So I am not only addicted to chocolate, but my real problem is being addicted to amazing things.  Thank you for listening to my soap box of a speech.  Tonight we went to visit some friends, Kelsi and Brian.  There we took funny/awkward Christmas card photos.  Just to give you a hint of how funny they were we gave Blakely a fake mustache.  Other than that it was a great day.  We ate chick fil a and started watching boy meets world.  Paradise. 

UNDAPANTS!

Ever since I heard that boy meets world is coming back (but as girl meets world) I cannot get my love for that show off my mind.  I really think that soon (Katie this is for you) that I will need to watch all of the episodes again from square one.  Today was a grand ol day.  I went to work and hung out with Craig.  I like optical days because I bring a book and when their are breaks I get to read.  And I LOVE READING!!!!!  In my future home I want to have a me room that will be mainly like a library with a nice chair and all of my favorite books.  I will make sure that my room is far away from Katie's craft room.  Because I will like my room quite and I know that she will be cranking party music while crafting.  And what will our kids be doing while we are in our personal rooms.  They will be pulling weeds muahahaha (that is a evil laugh).  Man the future looks fantastic, sorry future kids + Blakely.  Well so much for writing about my day.  I sort of got side tracked by my future plans for my future house.  So pumped for that.

I See Presents

I came home from classes to see Katie wrapping Christmas presents.  Christmas is a month away and it is killing me that it is so so so far away.  I don't want to wait anymore for it.  I am kind of sad because Katie has not written in her blog because she has decided to go on a strike.  Katie if you are reading this do you not remember what happened with the Hostess strike.  NO MORE TWINKIES.  Be careful what you strike for.  Today was just class.  Awesome part of the day was when Cody bought my a jamba juice.  He is trying to use up his money before the semester ends so it doesn't go to waste.  Pretty sure that Katie puts targets on her shoulder.  Every time Katie puts Blakely up to her should Blakely just aims for the targets and spews away.  She hits it every time.  She is stinking cute and I love how excited we get when she just does a huge poop.  I wish people could be that excited for me when I grab my book and head into the bathroom . . . definitely a TMI.  My baby is crying.  Off to save her.

What It Is All About

I got to bless Blakely today.  I was really nervous right before.  My heart was beating so hard.  I remember saying a little prayer telling heavenly father that I felt like I did all I could to prepare for this moment and that I needed him to help me to know what to say.  I let him know that I was going to completely rely on him.  It was an amazing feeling that once I started giving the blessing I felt at peace and perfectly calm.  The words just came to me and I knew when it was time to stop.  I felt so much love for my heavenly father and for my daughter.  It was a great day and we had a good amount of family down.   We had a gathering at Katie's parents house and it was actually nice and relaxing.  The only downside to this day is seeing Katie trying to be sneaky and eating my half of the sugar cookie.  Really Katie . . . you think you can just eat my half and get away with it.  Just wait until I get a sugar cookie and say it is for you and then eat it all.  I am so mad about this that I may just drink all of her cokes out of spite.

She Is Making Me

We took Blakely to church for the whole day.  She did great as well. I really enjoyed Elder Quorum lesson.  It was about parenting.  It is amazing how different lessons mean so much more to me at different points in my life.  I soaked it up knowing that I am a parent now.  Which I still at times find hard to even say the words that I have a daughter and that I am a parent.  But it is the best job ever.  Yesterday we ran lots of errands, got organized and got the CHRISTMAS stuff out.  I am so so so so so so so so excited for Christmas.  It has been a fun weekend where the three of us have just been hanging out.  I love my family and the fun that we have together like when we start dancing to the AMAs and when Katie and I sang "Some Nights" to Blakely and she actually started smiling and talking.  It is those little moments that mean everything to me.  The only problem with watching the AMAs tonight is that we now are thinking that it may be worth dropping $1,000 on tickets to see Justin Beiber in concert.  We probably should start working on growing up.  But that would take the fun out of everything.  And fun is my middle name.

Sorry I Have Been Neglecting You

Hey Blog,

Well I have been really off in writing in you.  It probably has to do with the fact that my sleeping patterns gets messed up everyday.  It is a good thing that Blakely is so cute.  Well I am super excited for this time of the year.  Christmas is coming ( yes I know there is thanksgiving but I like to look over that lame day).  We went to target and got some ornaments and I made a pile of all the ones I liked.  Each year we get to pick a new ornament for our tree.  We also got Blakely a stocking.  I just hope Katie buys me more presents than for her.  Not to be rude or anything as of now I know for a fact that I enjoy christmas more than she does.  I also have become a fan of Starbucks hot chocolate.  Only took me 6 years to work my way to that point.  Also college basketball is starting.  I love that junk so much.  Katie doesn't like it but I strongly believe that my manly points go up every time I watch a game and I know that she wants nothing more than to be married to the most manly man around.  Just look at what my name is under in her contacts on her phone.  I got lots of my big papers/projects done with school so my school work has been easier.  Last night I was asked to be a guest lecturer for the intro to health professions class.  I remember when I took that class and it hit me really hard that I am one of those students talking about how I got accepted into Optometry school. Katie and I really do have a lot going for us.   I just need to remember to step back and reflect on how truly blessed we are.  Well we have a clean house and clean clothes and the weekend is here with a holiday week next week.  What more can I ask for.

So You Think That You Can Slack Off Now?

I know I know just because my project is done shouldn't mean that I can slack off.  This weekend was just a little hard though because we were not feeling too well and Blakely didn't want to sleep well.  But lame excuses.  

I love this picture so much.  I think Katie regrets that she ever showed it to me because I laugh obnoxiously every time I see it.  Well school is great, work is great, life is great.  Katie and I sat down and had a great talk last night about how we can improve and what we are doing well.  I am trying to hurry up because . . . false alarm.  Blakely wasn't really asleep.  This past weekend we went through the Oquir (sp?) mountain temple because Cody and Meagan went through for their first time.  It was cool to be there as a family and Katie mentioned that this was what heaven would be like.  We will all be in white, not a care in the world, we won't be hungry, we won't be tired, we will be happy and we will be surrounded by those we love.  It was a really beautiful temple.  I am super excited for the holiday season.  I love that christmas songs are already on the radio.  Tis the season so so much.

My Streak Comes to an End

I did not get to write in my blog last night.  The reason was that Blakely went to bed at 8:30 so we decided to try and get some sleep at that time.  I actually did fall asleep but Katie had no luck.  She woke me up at 1 ish and we had a good talk.  Well at least I felt like it was a good talk. I went out and hung with my baby girl.  Today I did a lot of TA work.  I am grateful that I got a TA position here at BYU.  That is hard to come by and I am glad that it worked out that I got to do so.  After that I came home and cleaned while Katie was at the mall.  It was nice to just get some things done and get a little organized.  I went to class early and I almost have my whole mid term project figured out.  The only downside is a realized I was forgetting a key step and I think I forgot it for one of my home work assignments . . . Oops.  Katie made another great dinner.  So glad that not only is she smoking hot but she can cook so well.  She is the best  . . . ow ow.  After that we decided to go out.  We went to Barnes and Noble to look around.  I love books.  I want to have a room dedicated to books and reading some day.  We got some treats and I got hot chocolate and she got hot apple cider ( I would mention where we went to get the those items of joy but I will not be judged for supporting such a company).  Now we are back and I am writing down my christmas list.  Some of you may think that it is a little early but I think that it is never to early to get pumped for christmas.  Tis the Season!

First Time Voter

Well here I am continuing with my blog habit.  You better enjoy these Katie's because I am not a very well written person of a being. See what I mean!  Well I got to do some cool training today at work. The coolest part is when I numbed Danny's eye and used this cool tool to press against his cornea and take measurements.  So excited for Optometry school and all of the awesome things I will learn about the eyes.  After that I came home to watch Blakely so Katie could rest.  Seems like we have had a bunch of rough nights haha. Some nights!  I went to my TA job and after our little family went to vote. I VOTED! I voted for President Romney (president as in former stake president ok) but my vote was not enough.  I am ok with Obama, I mean nothing will be too different with him hanging around.  Best part was that I got a sticker.  After that I went to school and worked on tons of Homework.  But I am getting through it and the semester is almost to an end.  Tonight we just hung out and got organized.  We watched Modern family while cleaning up.  I also got to one of my goals by putting my paintball gear up on KSL.  Hard to go through it all and clean them and realize I would give away such great experiences.  Hopefully I can get some money money money from it. Peace!

Do I Go On?

This is the first day writing after successfully completing my behavior change goal.  I guess if I have gone this far I should keep on going.  Well today was just an Ok day.  Woke up to discover that Katie didn't get much sleep.  I took Blakely for a little bit and played Pokemon with her.  I hope she doesn't think I am a nerd too soon in her life.  After that I headed off to work.  It wasn't the typical crazy Monday.  I decided at work that my goal is to get my paintball gear and music gear up on KSL to sell.  I don't use them anymore so I might as well clear up some space and hopefully get some money from it.  After work I went to class and took a test.  I think I did ok, pretty good for not having any motivation to study about septic tanks and other items that have to do with waste.  Then I had my evening class and it seemed to drag on.  Luckily I use the time to work on papers.  I know I should be paying attention but Katie tells me I am such a great double tasker.  When I got home I took the baby and said Katie lets take care of you.  So we went to in and out so she didn't have to cook anything.  After that we went to look for fabric so Katie can cover a pillow.  Katie described what she had in mind and we looked and looked.  It was like a where is waldo game.  Bad news is I never could find Waldo.  We found one that we liked and went for it.  When we came home we discovered it wasn't the best fit for the couch.  So the search will continue and we will find that perfect fabric.  Look at me getting all excited about fabric.  Something that I enjoy to do is to take Katie's phone and take ugly pictures with it, unless it is of her bottom than that is a hott thing to take a picture of.  Ow ow.  Well I guess I should get some rest because it is early office meaning.  Barf.

My Baby Went To Church

Blakely slept well!  It is amazing how excited we get when Blakely sleeps 7-8 hours.  There is defiantly  a bug going around because we both feel kind of like ugh.  But I am sure it will come to pass. (Corny sunday joke).  Good news: Today is the last day of my behavior change project and I DID IT.  It is amazing how much I know remember to write in my blog.  At the beginning it seemed like a chore but now it is just a part of my day.  Funny how things that you learn in college actually work.  All that tuition money put to some good use.  This morning I hung out with Blakely while mommy slept.  I watched some shows and played Pokemon with her.  I am sure a grown up daddy.   I wasn't feeling too great but Katie said she would go to church with me today with Blakely so I got ready for church in 10 minutes (ya boy!!) so that we could go.  I felt so much joy and love that my little family was at church that I got up to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting.  It has been a very long time that I have done that and we sat at the very back so it was a super long walk to the pulpit.  Church was great and we stayed for almost all of it with Blakely.  So happy to have my little girl going to church with us.  Katie made an amazing dinner.  She seriously is the best cook ever (great plus is having a hott wife that can cook).  We have been hanging out and enjoying sunday (By enjoying the day I mean Katie drinking Coke and me eating anything with chocolate in it).  Great day and sad that the weekend is over.

Pumpkin Pie Adventures

I loved my night with Blakely.  Although it was a lot of work staying up with her last night, I got to read a ton.  I love reading.  Today I read a ton and finished the Mark of Athena.  It was such a good book.  I am grateful that books are still written and that people have such great imaginations.  Today was my Saturday to work at the eye clinic.  There was like nobody that came in so I just read a ton, that is the main reason why I was able to finish my book.  When I got home from work we just relaxed, organized a little bit, and did some laundry.  After that we went to Springville to hang out with the Prestwitch family.  We made Pumpkin pie together and it was an adventure trying to make it come out correctly.  They made it from real pumpkins, non of that can junk.  It took a while to bake but we just hung and talked a lot.  It was nice to get to know them better.  They will be going to SCO with us so it is nice to know that we will already have friends going out there.  We had dinner with them and the pies turned out good.  I really appreciated when my wife came to me tonight and said that she got an overwhelming feeling that she loved me.  Those few words were the best part of my whole day.  And that is saying a lot because I finished a good book and going to eat some ice cream.  Sometimes it is a few words that make somebody's day the best.  Thanks Katie.

Nothing Comes Close to GG

Blakely was up a ton last night.  That made for a long night for Katie.  I feel bad for her.  I want to help out more during the nights but I do understand if she doesn't want to wake me up because of work.  On Fridays I work all day the eye clinic.  Usually Fridays are sort of laid back and I can bring some things to work on.  Not today.  I made like 15 glasses and we constantly had someone to help or something to do.  It made the day go by super fast but by the end of the work shift I am done.  For lunch I hurried on home so I could watch Blakely while Katie got ready and ate.  I hope that helped her out some, if it was up to me and we didn't need the money I would just stay and play with Blakely all day.  After my long work day our little family went out to Jimmy Johns. Katie was too tired to go out to eat so that was the next best thing.  I got a good sandwich too with some avocado on it (I still am not sure how to pronounce that correctly, sorry Katie).  We came back and tried to find a good TV show that could compare to Gilmore Girls. Nothing comes close to that show. I wish something did to fill that void in my heart but we will just have to watch the series over and over to help with the withdrawals.  Now I am watching my two favorite girls laying in bed and resting.  They both sleep in funny positions.  I love it.

Shall We Hang

This morning was nice because I got to work from home.  While I was working I watched Blakely so Katie could get some more rest.  After that  I went to a test review and thank heavens for those.  Scott distracts me so much during class that I may not be paying as much attention as I should be.  The review went over the key points and I now feel good about taking the test.  I came home and helped out with Blakely and headed back to work on my Epidemiology Apps class.  I started working on Homework/Midterm when all of a sudden a box pops up and says the computer will shut down in a minute.  I was like, what the heck, why?  All of the computers went down and I was frustrated and looked for computers with the SAS program.  I found some and got to work. Computer coding takes way too long but I finished.  I came home and Katie made some delicious Mac n Cheese.  She seriously is one of the best cooks around.  She makes the best meals ever.  Sorry Mom but it is true.  After that we decided to finally hang some decorations on the wall.  It took a while but they look good.  Really good.  And I felt like a manly man using my tools.  After that I did my chores and did a lot of cleaning. I love having a clean organized apartment.  Because of my good work Katie went and bought me ICE CREAM!  She knows what I like.  Busy good day.  Ready for the weekend.

Halloween and Missions

We just got back from Highland.  We went up tonight for Halloween (to dress Blakely up as a little Tinker Bell) and Meagan and Cody got their mission calls.  I was getting so anxious for them both.  We waited an hour before opening them and I had a hard time.  There was a big group of people and a bunch on Skype.  Cody got his call to the Philippines and reports in January.  Meagan got her call to Brazil and is reporting in March.  So pumped for the both of them.  It will be so great to have more missionaries out and to hear about their experiences.  I dressed up at work and tonight as Buzz Lightyear.  It was an easy costume because it was just a hoodie.  Blakely had a rough night last night and I hung out with her in the morning.  Once I wake up I actually enjoy it because I read my book while I am up with her.  Other than that I just had class and work.  This will be a Halloween to remember because of being there for two mission calls.  Now I want to go play with my beautiful baby.  Do I talk about her enough?  I don't think so.

Computer Programming, Not For Me

I decided to write in my blog a little early.  I decided to do this because I plan on going on a Target trip with Katie and Blakely and I don't want to forget writing because I am on fire.  And check out this sweet layout.  Katie did it for me.  Well I got to get trained more at the eye clinic.  It is way fun to do the screening and more of the procedure type of things.  But there is a ton to learn.  But I am learning so much and I know that it will give me a head start in Optometry school.  I also took pictures of the inside of a patient's eyes for the first time today and it was awesome.  I am super grateful that I was able to find a way to work in this eye clinic.  After that I came home and took Blakely for a couple hours (2.5 according to Katie, but I would like to round it up so it makes me sound better).  That was fun to just spend time with my baby and love on her.  I went to go work on some computer apps programs.  Our teacher gave us two huge assignment these weeks and they are taking forever. Coding is lame because it could be all correct except one little character and boom you have to start over or figure it out.  I was there for almost 3 hours (maybe 2.5 hours again) and I didn't get that far.  I am so happy that this is my last semester.  After that I had more classes and then I plan on going to Target.  Maybe if I am lucky I will get a treat, or maybe I will get to read, or play Pokemon, or change diapers.  Probably change a diaper.  Life is great and I love the challenges that are thrown our way because it helps us as a family to grow and learn.

One More Frappe To Go

No worries.  By Frappe I mean the delicious ones at the Cocoa bean.  Katie and I had this little dialogue tonight.  Andrew: I have a chocolate problem.  Katie: I have a coke problem.  Andrew:  We have problems.  Well to me it is super funny so if you don't laugh then you have serious problems.  Well Blakely slept well last night! Wahoooo.  Work was fun.  It wasn't as crazy as usual Mondays are so it was a bit nicer.  Classes were not as bad today as well.  In between class and work Katie's mom came over to help with Blakely while Katie went to get a hair cut.  During that little time Blakely managed to spit up ( a ton!) twice on her grandma.  But she did feel better after.  After classes Katie made me dinner, it was really good.  Then we went to go shopping for food because we had none at all.  We saw like 6 people we knew during that trip. After that I went to get us (but mainly me) a treat.  Now we are just playing with the baby.  She is amazing and Katie looks so good with that hair cut. Like a can't stop looking at her new hair due with her new outfits on.  What a babe!

So Worth It

Well it is late again. Imagine that.  Another long night with Blakely.  I think us going up to Boise threw all of our routines and patters off.  This made some of the nights up with my family a little more difficult. We started the morning with basically getting ready to go.  It takes a lot longer to pack up with a baby and all of the baby things.  My dad was able to cut my hair and I can totally tell that it was done by him haha.  My Mom went out and got us some lunch while we got things together.  When my Dad and all of my siblings left for church they said good bye to us and each one kissed Blakely on the head. The one that got to me was Austin.  He kissed her on the head once and then looked at me and said can I have three more kisses.  My family didn't know this but that made me tear up.  Knowing that my family loves our baby girl so much and that she brings so much joy to them makes me so happy.  It reminded me that even though this can be a hard learning process and that there are some long nights, it is totally worth it.  The drive was pretty good.  I enjoy driving.  We got Mandi her glasses and she gave Blakely a hat.  We came home to a cold apartment ( dumb heater keeps on flaking on us). We are just getting settled back to our home.  We missed our home.

Best Shopping Trip Ever

Well we are still up here in Mer Town.  Last night was nice because my Mom made me go to bed to get some rest and it was nice to get some decent sleep.  This morning we got ready because the kids were getting their pictures done and they wanted to get some with Blakely.  She is such a pretty baby.  That was fun until Austin said he needed someone to take him to the bathroom.  I volunteered and once we got in the bathroom he told me he needed to go number two and that he needed help.  I should not have volunteered.  Then we came back and visited the Kinneys.  Always nice to see them and catch up. After that we got to go eat at cheese cake factory.  That place is so good.  I am trying to type fast because grandpa has crying Blakely. After that I got Katie to shop with my Mom.  Saved tons of money and got her tons of good clothes.  After that we went to visit Lori and grandma Z.  Not so fun because Blakely spit up all over early and this time got milk all over.  And now we are here hopefully going to have a more relaxing night.  Love my baby and she is so worth it.

Black and Purple

I really do love the fall time in the Boise area.  The air is so crisp that it is equivalent to the taste of coke with crushed ice in a cup with a straw.  Well today was a productive day after hanging out with Blakely  during the night.  I took our car in to get serviced.  After that came back and played with the family.  After that my Dad took me to the dealership to get the car and I went to visit Dr. Moorhouse.  He needed to fill out my SCO stuff and he hurried and signed it off and wanted to visit.  He talked about my family and want is really important in life.  He also talked about how much he loved his time at graduate school.  I am excited to be poor, tired, but having my loving family all the way.  They gave me the TB test shot and we came back.  We hung out and I tried to put Austin down for a nap.  Dumb kid can be impossible.  We went to Mason's football game and it was fun to watch him.  The best part was when they snapped the ball too high for him to catch to punt it.  Mason picked it up and instead of trying to punt it he picked it up and ran it.  He ended up getting a first down.  Well we are back at the house just enjoying eachothers company.  In the mean time Katie is the spit up target for Blakely.  Well tomorrow will be a busy interesting day..

Boise Sweet Boise

First off, I need to give a shout out to Katie for keeping my blogging up by writing for me while I was driving.  Glad that she could do that but she sort of abused the power.  O well.  I guess I owe her some goodies.  Well I got to get up with Blakely really early this morning and she was wide awake because she slept in the car too long.  Luckily my Mom was willing to help out.  So after 2.5 hours of hanging out my Mom took over and let me sleep.  We just had a relaxing day here with the family.  We went on a walk to the park where Austin decided he wanted to bring a armful of leaves home and he made Katie do the same.  My siblings have all wanted to cuddle with her and same with my mom and dad.  It is super cute the way that they treat her.  Mason gets the MVP award though.  For some reason, and it totally caught me off guard, he is super good with her.  She loves to cuddle with him too.  It has been a relaxing day which is great because yesterday and last night were a little rough.  We are super excited for a great weekend and busy day tomorrow.  Family is great.

Guest post by the smartest, most amazing person ever.

Hey, Andrew's blog. This is a guest blogger, his wonderful wife, Katie. As per his assignment, he needs to write daily. He is currently driving and as his supporter (I even signed a contract), I will help him out tonight. Plus I will do it because he is going to buy me a huge bouquet of roses. And a route 44 coke. Not joking.

We are making the trek up to Boise to see Andrew's family. Blakely's grandparents have missed her so we are going to go let them get their baby fix. We have plans to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, watch our little bro Mason play varsity football against Borah, maybe go to the Boise temple open house, and frankly just relax. We haven't been to meridian or eagle since the beginning of May, so we are a bit excited. We will have to show off our Blakely to the Kinneys and maybe convince Ryker of his future love for our daughter. He is about 7 months old so I think it will go well. Seriously though I want her in their family, they are the best and our favs.

Well I'm pretty sure I fulfilled the ten sentence requirement and will return to starring at my beautiful daughter as she peacefully sleeps in her carseat. She smiled at me two days ago for the first time and it took my breath away. Can't wait for those roses and endless supply of coke.

Lesson of the Day: I Don't Like To Be Alone

Nothing like starting out with an early wake up call from Miss Blakely.  We decided (by we I mean her) hang out at 6 something in the morning.  Today was my first day getting trained as a screening tech at my work.  I absolutely loved learning how to work.  I was able to catch on quick because Danny would just leave me by myself to start screening the patients.  It was fun working with people and to actually perform tests on them.  My favorite is the Tomo machine, that is the one where a puff of air gets shot into your eyes.  It is so satisfying being on the other side, aiming, and shooting that puff of air in the eyes.  I learned a lot and soaked it all up.  I can't wait to learn more there.  After work I came home to help out and do work/school.  Katie decided to go up to her parents to get some laundry done. Right when they left I got really sad. I knew I would see them again but it hit me so hard that those two girls mean everything in the world to me.  I would be nothing with out them.  I went to classes and got some assignments done and came home but sadly my girls were not home yet.  Katie did surprise me with an ice cream but the best treat of all was to just have my girls home.  I know I can't be with them every second of the day but for some reason today when they left it just hit me so hard how much I do miss them when I am away just at class or at work.  I love my girls.

Full of Pride but Not Prideful

We had a good night of sleep.  Two nights in  a row! Keep it up Blakely!  Well I had work at the eye clinic this morning. Well it was a typical Monday.  Crazy busy with tons of patients.  After that I went to class but didn't focus too well.  Luckily Scott brought me lots of treats and he was looking at video game stuff the whole time. #NerdsForLife.  Check out my sweet twitter practice.  Anyways my last class was good.  I have decided that I actually like learning about human behavior and theories.  Pretty sure if I didn't to Optometry I would have liked to do advisement or psychology.  I love learning about what makes people tick.  I had to give a little group discussion and it went pretty well.  It was on stress and our group is focusing on getting Elementary school kids to wash their hands well.  After that I came home to Nana and Papa in our apartment.  Never thought I would find those two in our tiny apartment.  It was a great visit and Nana approves of our cute baby.  Which is good because she is very honest when ti comes to things like that.  Nana and Papa kept on saying how cute our place was and how we are a great family.  Papa went and bought us Cafe Rio which was so nice of him.  After that we went to a FHE at the Stevensons.  The Ames and Whalins were there (Katie's old roomates with their husbands) and it was a fun visit.  It was so nice that when people were asking about our life we could say that I am accepted to Optometry school and we will be moving out to the Memphis area.  That I graduate in December.  Katie graduated and had job offers.  We have a baby and know exactly where we are headed in life.  That is a ton of big things in one year.  I felt so proud to be able to tell them that is what our family is doing.  It is so great to know that we have come so far and have a great family.  I love my family.

My Night With The B-Rose

Well because Blakely kept Katie up the night before we agreed (like a good husband should) that last night if she wanted to be up, I would be up with her.  Well she slept for a good five hours . . . and then it began.  I got to feed her starting at 3:00 am.  After that I got to change her.  She decided that the time to explode with yummy goodies was during the changing of her diaper and it ended up delaying the process.  After that we got to hang out.  I had her lay down by me in the other room and every time I would close my eyes and sleep maybe ten minutes she would decide that she needed my attention whether it was getting her binky back or wanting to be held.  The funniest part is when it was time to give her to Katie in the morning she took her in the other room while I got some sleep.  It turns out Katie took her in the other room only for the both of them to fall asleep.  Thanks alot Blakley haha.  Well we got to go to church (just the first hour) and Katie's parents came to watch Blakely.  It was nice to get to church but it felt so wrong being away from our baby.  We both felt that Blakely should just be blessed in our ward so we talked to the Bishop and we will get her blessed thanksgiving weekend as of now.  After that my good mertown brother, Spencer, was able to pay us a visit on his way home from St. George.  He was nervous to hold her but it was good to see him.  Blakely also decided to give him a nice juicy/wet fart while sitting on his lap.  She is so thoughtful like that to always be thinking of others.  After that Katie decided that she wanted to go up to Bountiful.  The rest of the liston family got to meet Blakely and we had a great dinner.  We are now home just getting ready for the night and getting ready to start a brand new week.  Life is good and I am learning how to show off my twitter.

Cookie Pizza Yum!

Well Blakely decided that she did not want to sleep at all last night.  I feel bad for Katie staying up with her.  She deserves a vacation to Paris.  Well this morning I worked and I noticed that I feel very comfortable working with patients.  I thought about how I was when I first started and I have really gained confidence with educating people about eye care.  After that I came home and Katie's family came over.  While they were busy with the baby we got some chores done around the house.  I did a few while Katie did a ton.  She did like a hundred loads of laundry no joke.  I am glad that we did do laundry because when I changed Blakely today she decided to have a geyser attack and it got on my hands, her onesie and the blanket.  After that Megan and Aaron decided to come and visit.  She always says that she won't stay that long but they stayed all day.  Which is fine with me.  I got to watch the BYU game (we should have always won!) and visited with the sister and her bf.  We went out to dinner to brick oven and I did this sampler thing and they had Cookie pizza.  It was really good.  But it was awesome because we all ate way too much (except Katie, she is and will always be the smartest of us all . . . brownie points?).  Over all a busy day just organizing and cleaning. I am grateful for Katie and I hope that she takes all of our money and goes on a trip to paradise.

I Will Not Say The 'T' Word

I know that at this point in time you are trying to think of all the shady/scandalous words that begin with the letter T to think of what I could possibly be meaning.  If you have been paying attention to my past blogs you will notice that I said that I will try to avoid the word tired.  That is the T word and I have been trying to avoid all day.  But I hate to admit it but I am tired.  I worked an all day shift at the eye clinic today and it was pretty crazy today.  Tons and tons of glasses sold and tons and tons of glasses made.  But it was a great busy day.  But now I know how my parents and Katie's parents feel because Katie all day would text me pictures of Blakely.  She always looked so cute in them but it made me miss her so much.  After work the three of us went to eat and then to target.  Katie needed to get out and I don't blame her.  The good news is the land lord finally discovered that the apartment heat was broken so they fixed that and it is so nice to have heat.  For a treat we went and got pie because Katie loves pie.  A great friday but we are both so tired. I know Katie is really tired because she laughs out loud ... loud over silly things.  And she has been laughing a lot tonight.  Well it is the weekend so go have fun.

I Knew This Day Would Come ... Explosion In The Tub

Well today was a great day.  One reason for me being in such a great mood and about to leave to go get Katie some Coke from the store is because I got lots of sleep.  Starting out the day great.  Went and helped teach the BYU shadowing class.  I enjoy seeing how much students here enjoy the shadowing experiences that I help organize and manage.  Glad that other students are discovering their passion in a way that helped me find Optometry.  I decided that today Katie and I are going out to lunch.  We went to Guru's (one of my favorite places to eat because I truly discovered sweet potato fries there).  After that we went and registered to vote.  I am excited to vote for the first time in my life.   I will not share who I will vote for, but I would bet my baseball MITT that it will be the right choice.  I had class was the only sad part of my day.  But after that we took an outfit back to the mall of Blakelys but she had been in  her carseat so long that she just wanted to be out.  That made it so we didn't have time to find her a new outfit.  We played with her and I love how much my baby girl is alert.  We gave her a bath and when I do that I hold her bum to support her.  Right before we started I said that I had a feeling that this would be the time she pooped in the tub. While give her the bath all of a sudden I hear this loud rumble and quickly see a shot of brown water shooting out of my baby.  I knew this day would come but luckily we were done.  We skyped tonight with my parents and they sure love this baby girl.  That makes me so happy to know that she is so loved.  Today was a great day.

My Last Visit To The Building of Many Prayers

Well I guess my title sounds like I am not going to go back to church or the temple.  But the building I am talking about is the Testing center building.  I know what you are thinking, that that was the best joke you have ever heard.  Well today was the day I needed to take my O Chem Lab test.  I was pretty scared because the professor said this is one of the hardest tests at BYU and that it would be a very challenging test.  I studied as much as my unmotivated being could . . . so about 30 minutes.  I went into the test just feeling that I need to do my best because I don't need an A.  Really I just need a C or better.  It really was one of the hardest tests I have taken at BYU.  It took forever and the questions really made me think.  When I left I got it think in the 60s.  Which is a lot better than I thought I would have done.  It was that hard.  Luckily that should get me some sort of B in the class and I am so fine with that.  As I was leaving the testing center I realized that my other classes don't really do tests and if they do it is in the class room.  So that may have been my last time in that dreadful place.  Well I decided that I like to do Katie's honey-do list that she has made for me.  I have learned that I will actually do things that are asked of me if I have a physical list.  Well now I am off to help with Blakley and hopefully get her to relax. She is exhausted.

GO TO BED!!!

If only I really said that to little Blakely.  So I decided to write in my blog a little early tonight because I am going to take care of Blakely tonight while Katie gets some things done.  So last night was a little rough because Blakely decided that she wanted to sleep, but only in one of our arms.  Any time we put her down she would start being fussy.  I was able to be up with her at 4:45 (that is right Katie, I am being a good husband and just agreeing with you) and hanging out.  It would have been totally fine but I had a meeting at the eye clinic at 6:30 am so by the time I got her down I had only 45 minutes before I  needed to wake up.  So today I am a little tired but I learned a great lesson in a video for one of my classes. It was about getting rid of excuses we make for ourselves One of the excuses was but I am tired.  I have found that I say that a lot.  But he said that if you just get rid of that thought than you are not egging your own body to be extra tired.  So I am trying out that theory by acting like there is no reason I should be tired and so far it is working.  But we will see tomorrow.  Blakely has been better today though and adjusting to not being constantly held by her family.  I love that little girl so much.  I always tell people about her.  School is going great.  Getting all my final stuff done for Optometry school.  Getting excited about my future.  And I love my little family.

Dancing to Death Cab For Cutie

I got a call from my boss, Don, at the car rental.  I skipped this morning knowing that last night would be a late night and I was not in the mood to wake up at 5 in the morning.  I was afraid of listening to the voice mail but I finally did.  He actually said that it sounded like I had a lot going on in my life and to make last Friday my last day of work. So I am officially done with that place! So awesome.  Well I just had the eye clinic, which was super busy.  Then class after, which was fine.  I came home to a tired Katie.  Blakely just will not fall asleep today.  So I went and grabbed Blakely so that Katie could just lay down and have some time to herself.  While I was with Blakely, Katie told me that she likes to listen to Death Cab for Cutie.  So I went and put it on and started dancing with her.  She instantly calmed down.  I kept on dancing with her until she fell asleep.  So cute that these little things just calm her down.  I love hanging out with our Baby Girl.  She got her social security in the mail today.  She is officially a member of society.  She is growing up too fast, just these past couple of weeks she has changed so much.  Well off to play with Blakely and get her ready for bed.

Grandpa Timmy Birthday

This is it.  Day 7 of writing in my journal/blog.  That is a great accomplishment.  We decided to take this great day of rest and head up to Bountiful so that Blakely could spend the day with her Grandma and Grandpa Smith.  I am glad that my Mom got to hold her.  She loves babies so much and I could tell that she has been missing our little girl.  It is hard on them to be so far away.  But I guess they will have to get used to that, especially with us heading to Memphis.  We spent the day hanging out with family and I got to play with Austin more.  We went on a drive to check out the effects of fall on the tress.  We got out and took some pictures and I chased Austin around while he was checking to see if there was any bears around.  Somethings that is so cute is that when Austin holds Blakely or gets close to her he loves to sing to her.  He just does it on his own.  I went out with my Mom to pick my Dad up from the airport and wished him a happy birthday.  I am glad that not only did I remember it this year but I got to see him on his birthday.  Right when we got inside the first thing he did was go straight to Blakely.  He just wanted to hold her.  Grandpa Timmy is so good to her and just loves on her.  When he blew out his candles on his birthday cake he was holding Blakely.  We gave him our present, a picture of him and Blakely together and he said that he was going to put that out so everyone can see.  It was a great Sunday but I hardly got to see my baby because everyone wants to hold her.  She is loved.

Catch The Ducky

I love the weekends because I don't have to wake up  at 6:00 am. I started out the day by going to a test review for O Chem.  I will be so so happy when that class is over.  In fact I am just excited to be done with my undergrad.  After that we got told that my Megan was coming down to visit with Austin and Makenzie.  We had a great visit and Austin was so cute with Blakely.  He can't say her name right so he calls her Blakey.  During their visit I took Austin to help me drop off some clothes at the DI.  We had a great conversation (he really is a smart kid) and he kept on bringing up Blakely and asked what her favorite animal is.  He went ahead and told me his favorite animals are snakes and frogs.  When we got back we went on a walk to the duck pond. When we got there Austin was obsessed with the idea of catching a duck.  So I went ahead and tried to help him out.  We got some ducks to get pretty close to us but we never got one.  It was nice to have them down and to have them love on Blakely.  BYU lost but they has sweet jerseys and played well.  Then Katie and I went out to dinner and got some cute beanies for Blakely.  Katie had some coupons and our total came to 63 cents.  Not bad except for the fact that we almost couldn't pay with a card because it was under 1 dollar.  Funny stuff but we found a loop hole.  We are just hanging out tonight and tomorrow we are taking Blakely up for the first time to visit Grandma and Grandpa Smith.  They love her so much.

Daddy's Work

It is amazing how much I refer to my self as a Daddy.  Today is my full day at the eye clinic.  I was excited because Katie had an eye appointment today and Blakely would be coming with her.   I was so excited to show her off to the office.  The office loved Blakely and she successfully distracted us all for an hour from work.  It was great and I am such a proud father.  I did get a strong feeling today that Katie and I should stay in Provo after I graduate and that I should keep working at the eye clinic.  I should be getting trained to do screenings in a few weeks and that way I can get more hours.  Plus I love working there and everything about Optometry.  Dr. Lewis worked on my eyes to fill out some information I needed for SCO.  He dilated my eyes and that is the first time I have had that done.  Oh boy was it so funny.  I could not see anything up close.  It was funny because he expected me to fill out some paper work right after.  Well life is good and I got a strong confirmation today that Optometry is truly the profession for me.  I just looked over at Blakely and she melts my heart.

I'm Official, SCO!

Happy 10/11/12 day.  Well there are some things to celebrate for today.  Today was the last day of my Organic Chemistry Lab.  I like Chemistry here at BYU as much as I like olives (totally anti climatic, I know that there are certain things that I do not like whatsoever but Katie and I couldn't think of anything at the moment.  Lame sauce).  I still have to take the test for the class, but hey, I don't have to go to 3 hour class blocks anymore.  Another great thing is that I paid my deposit for SCO.  That means there is officially a spot for me there at that school.  It feels good to know that all of my hard work here at BYU has gotten me to Optometry school.  Also a few weeks ago they called me and gave me a $20,000 scholarship for all 4 years.  I got awarded that just for being awesome. I would like to write more down but I am on Blakely duty and she just spit her binky out and she may wake up soon.  Life is great and I am excited to be done with school (for now) soon.

We Have Been Framed

So I started this day off with an early morning adventure.  Blakely was up and Katie was exhausted so I took her out and rocked her to sleep.  I was super tired and realized that I would be waking up in 45 minutes to get ready for work.  Instead I decided to call in sick because I knew I would be ruined for the day.  Boy am I super excited to not work that car job.  It felt so nice not waking up at six and still getting to work.  Bet my boss isn't too stoked but he is always stressing himself out.  So when I got home from class today I saw something that just melted my heart.  Katie was asleep in bed and Blakely was laying on her chest asleep.  Those are the moments that words can't describe how much joy it brings me. I love my girls.   Tonight Katie and I went to Hobby Lobby to buy some frames.  We got a frame for the picture that I (yes I was the one who wanted the picture developed) wanted and it looks so good. It makes me so happy to know that my family is growing.  It is amazing to know that I am a father.  And dang do we look so good in our picture.  Like we are super attractive and Blakely is the cutest baby in the world.  Katie just told me that Blakely is milk drunk.  Love that girl and she can get drunk as much as she wants.  Life is great, it really is.

I Felt Free

Well this morning I went to work.  I just got this feeling that I need to take it easy.  Working 35-40 hours a week, being a full time student, being a new father (which is the best thing in the world by the way), and trying to become a Pokemon master can be a lot on an individual like myself.  So I texted Katie and told her that I was thinking about putting in my two weeks notice for my car rental job.  It pays very well there but my boss kind of stresses all of us out there.  Out of the 3 jobs I have (ya I know 3 jobs is a lot) I don't look forward or get excited about this one at all.  I decided that it was time to throw in the towel.  It was a good reminder that it isn't about making tons of money, or working a ton.  It is about taking care of yourself and enjoying the journey.  And I want to enjoy the journey with my little family and have a balanced life.  It is amazing what lessons we learn.  I have learned alot about myself just in the past two days.  So I am super excited to leave that work and focus my efforts on more important things. . . like catching Pokemon (I had to say that Katie, I just couldn't help it).  Life is amazing and if you do it right, like enjoying the journey, then it is the most beautiful thing in the world.

I'm No Superman

Hey.  It has been some what of a rough day.  I guess the main reason is not enough sleep and trying to do too many things in one day.  I guess my weakness is trying to do everything on my on.  That is how I grew up though.  But every now and then things catch up to me and I feel just tired.  I hate to admit this but I need to ask for help more often.  I need to ask help from my wife Katie.  Sometimes I forget that we are supposed to be equal and instead I want to do everything.  I need to rely on others more often and especially others.  I don't feel like I have to many things on my plate but like I stated earlier sometimes everything hits me at once.  I need to remember that I am not super man and I need help.  I can't do everything on my own.  What I need is to relax and to rest.  More than anything I need to remember to think about myself every now and then and to not forget that in order to take care of others I need to take care of myself.

Just some ramblings and frustrations about myself and nothing more.

Prophets & Pokemon

Sounds like a cool band name.  Man alive I wrote in my journal/blog every day this week but one.  I did miss last nights due to a good cause ... at least in my opinion.  So this weekend was General Conference.  Some main things that I got out of conference is that just going to church is not good enough.  We have to step it up as members of the church.  We have to show our faith by action. We have to serve.  We have to teach our own families values of the gospel.  I also enjoyed the talks on family history and testimony building.  Two things that I really need to work on.  I also enjoyed Elder Holland's talk.  He talked about how the apostles of the lord ( back when he lived) were and how they grew their faith in christ.  Conference is always so nice.  We watched Saturday's session in Highland with Katie's family.   Then Landon came down for a visit and we met him at the mall where we bought Blakely another outfit.  Ya we spoil her so what.  Also it was awesome to hear the change in missionary age.  I did not see that one coming.   Exciting times.  I went to priesthood with Landon and Alex and it was fun to get back together with them guys.  We got dessert after.  My name is Andrew, and I have a chocolate problem.  I big reason Landon spent the night last night was so we could get the new Pokemon game.  Ya we still play that game so what.  We went to Wal Mart and there was surprisingly a line to get the game.   Not a huge line but there was a line.  I felt so proud to be amongst those sweet spirits.  It was really funny but all of the people in the line where like us, around the same age, and just expecting to show up and get it without anyone knowing.  It was awesome.  Especially when the cashier guy told me how great the breast milk storage bags were that I was buying.  Landon and I were able to play the new game and nerd it up.  Great weekend to relax and love on my baby.  I am grateful to have a loving wife who will always love me for who I am and would not change a thing about me . . . well at least that is what she says!

Is This What You Call A Family?

It hit me hard today that I have a little family.  Today was a big day for little Blakely.  Katie has been planning this day since ... probably when she was a baby hungry teenager.  We went and got Blakely's new born pictures taken.  I admit that I am not the biggest fan of pictures.  I am perfect at about everything I do except smiling for big pictures.  Luckily we went to a great place called Foto Fly (I am not getting paid to say that) and they did such a great job.  We were not planning on buying any prints on the spot but when I saw our first ever family picture I almost cried ( Katie does not know that so hopefully she really doesn't read these blog entries).  It hit me so hard that this is real, that I am a father, that my family has started.  Such a great feeling. I just remember driving home after seeing all of the great pictures we got on a cd, how much love I have for my wife and baby girl.  I am excited for a awesome weekend and I am proud that I haven't missed a day of writing for a while.  I will have to remind myself soon about getting into Optometry school.  Well it is half time of the BYU game and I sure hope we beat them Aggies.  Here is my family:

Sometimes I Get Jealous

Well our little Blakely was able to get weighed and measured and she grew a whole half an inch and gained a whole ounce.  That is my girl.  Growing like a weed.  Well Blakely is now officially one week old.  Kind of seems like a blur that it has already been a week.  But at the same time it seems like we have always had her in our life.  So the other day Blakely was being fussy and Katie held her up so high that her chin was right in front of her face.  Blakely decided to latch on her chin and start sucking away.  It was seriously super funny and Katie and I could not stop laughing.  Katie took her off her chin and there was a huge red mark where she was.  Katie and I got a kick out of it but she was not to happy that it wasn't the real deal.  After their first show Katie discovered that it was a little trick that they shared.  It was still funny but I was jealous that I didn't have a trick like that.  I tried to offer her my chin but she didn't like it due to me being a man ( a manly man indeed) and having hair on my chin.  No one likes a hair chin in their mouth (hopefully not!).  I just was jealous about this bond but today I held Blakely close to my face when she was being fussy and while I was giving her kisses she found the tip of my nose.  Wah lah!  I was a part of the cool group. And no worries she did not get close to the nostrils at all, that would be sick.  But now I am not as jealous of Katie (except for that Mommy baby relationship non sense).  It has been a blast seeing her grow after one week and our Blakely Rose is truly amazing.

First Time Katie Is In Bed Before Me

This is true.  Since the beginning of our wonderful marriage I have always been the first one in bed.  However, I am happy to report that Katie is already for bed and in bed.  I don't blame her though.  Even though being a mother is the most amazing thing ever, she is exhausted.  It is a full time job.  And I am happy to report that I just got back from a mission of changing Blakely's diaper.  Katie makes it look way to easy.  Today I had sort of a catch up day.  I graded a ton of papers, which is good because it brings in money.  I also started working on some assignments.  Not the most exciting day but not everyday can be exciting.  I have been thinking a lot about my future and my career and I am truly excited to become a Doctor.  I love the idea of helping others, especially to see. I am so grateful to have a wonderful wife to help guide me to my dream job. I am tired and am getting pumped for an exciting weakend.

Hey Andrew, You Look Tired

So I did not realize how much people love the fact that I am a daddy.  Yesterday in one of my lecture classes one of my group members asked if Blakely was born yet.  I said yes and she was like "well you need to tell the whole class."  That has never been my style but she said if I didn't announce it she would.  Then the professor asked if anyone had good news and everyone in my group pointed at me.  So I told the big class about Blakely.  I do love to brag about how beautiful she is.  Then this morning at the office meeting I look down at the form of items of business and one of the items on the agenda was to congratulate me on having a baby (well Katie had her, and she was pro at it too!) .  Then tonight in my Optometry class, Dr Lewis was the guest lecture and he saw me.  He stopped his lecture and said Andrew, you look tired.  He followed by asking the class why I looked tired.  He then went ahead and told the class that I became a Dad last week.  People cannot stop reminding me of this change in my life but the one person that will never stop reminding me is Blakely.  I am such a proud Dad.  It is so easy to be a proud Dad when I have a beautiful daughter named Blakely.  Oh and her Mom looks dang (girl you lookin fine) good today.  Life is beautiful when you are doing what is right.

My First Picture Post & Reminiscing

Look at this beautiful baby girl.  I just can not get enough of her.  I love her so much.  Any ways back to my serious of great memories from the birth of Blakely Rose.  So during the long night of Katie having contractions I was really focused on her.  I was very anxious and could not believe that in a few hours my life was going to change forever.  The doctors kept on coming in and checking on Katie to see how far she was dilated.  I thought that it was going to take forever for the pushing moment to come.  They came in one time and were like oh wow you are now at a 6.  I was thinking to myself we still got 4 more cm to go.  Thirty minutes later they came back in and said "Oh wow I can feel her head.  Looks like it is time to push."  The doctor turned to me and said you wanna help hold one of her legs so she can have some good pushes.  I jumped up to help, anxious and excited.  Then I felt really woozy and light headed.  I went to the bathroom to see what was going on and I saw that my pupils were dilated.  I came out and everyone told me I looked sick.  I was sentenced to lay on the couch and watch the delivery.  I was bummed and had no idea why I was feeling like that.  The birthing process was not grossing me out.  Then it hit me.  I did not take care of myself.  I had no liquids in hours and was all worked up.  I was dehydrated and almost passed out haha.  Luckily Katie, (while in labor) used her super motherly skills to send a nurse out to get me a drink.  After drinking some I felt loads better. (yes I used the word loads). Then the pushing part came.  It was amazing.  I remember seeing her head and wondering that for this to work out it truly was a miracle.  Katie kept pushing then all of a sudden her head came out.  I jumped up and fell to my knees crying.  I was so so so happy to see my baby girl. I had been waiting for her (seems like forever).  I looked at Katie while crying and told her that I love her.  At that moment I have never felt so much love in my life for two of the most amazing people in my life, Katie and Blakely.  They mean the world to me and I will never forget that night in the hospital when our little angel was sent to us.

I Love Blakely

It is amazing that I have wondered for so long what our baby girl would look like.  Right when she came out I saw her and was like "duh, of course that is what our baby would look like."  It is only day 3 with Blakely but I could not imagine life with out her.  She is truly our daughter and she is so perfect. There are so many times that I will walk into the room and I just have to stop look at Blakely's face, smile real big, and just say she is super cute out loud.  I find myself doing that about hundred times a day.  That is no exaggeration.  Although it was nice staying at the hospital because of all of the help we would get with Blakely, it is so nice to be home.  There seems to be space for everything to get Blakely to feel right at home.  She has tons of family that loves her to death.  My whole family drove down and I was so happy that they all got to meet my baby girl.  All of Katie's family (except Corinne) was able to meet her as well.  I am so happy that so many people love her and are so excited for her.  I will write more about my experiences about Blakely entering our lives.

My Blakely Rose

Well I am going to write my wonderful experience in pieces over the next few nights about how my baby girl came into our lives.  I remember when Katie was pushing during the labor.  I could not believe that she was at this point and that the next thing on the list was for the baby to be there.  When her head came out I jumped up and fell down full of happiness. I just started crying with joy about how amazing this experience was.  I have never felt anything like that before in my life.  That two people could work so hard for such a wonderful end product.  I have never been happier and I just looked at Katie and told her how much I love her for this.  When I went down to where Blakely would be cleaned there was a moment when it was just her and I.  I looked at her and just had an overwhelming feeling of love.  It was a godly love.  I felt so connected and over joyed knowing that this beautiful daughter of God was entrusted to me.  Those are some of the many feelings I have towards my beautiful little girl and I will write plenty more on the subject.  So grateful.

PERFECT

BLAKELY ROSE SMITH.  SEPTEMBER 27TH. 1:44 AM.  6 POUNDS 11 OUNCES.  19 INCHES LONG.  STRAWBERRY BLONDE HAIR.  BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL.  ALL OF THIS EQUALS ONE WORD. .. PERFECT.

And She Would Have Won Again!

So there is something new I found out today that I like to do with Katie.  I like to watch the price is right with her.  She is super good at it (she is smart at everything she does) and all I want to do is beat her.  It was the last show case and I had to run off to class. I threw in my guess and told her to text me who would have won.  Well as you can guess I get a text back her with the price and she would have won.  It is fun for me to be competitive with her and all I want to do is win.  Well I just realized I have already missed one day this week and I didn't write in it last night.  I was so exhausted I just passed out.  Well turns out the Doctors think that Katie will go past her due date.  BOO!  They said she hasn't really progressed that much and with the baby being smaller they won't induce early.  Double BOO!  So the game plan is to see if she comes on her own and Katie will keep going to appointments.  If nothing happens by a week from Thursday, we will go check in that night and get things started for October 5th.  We are so bummed because we want that little stinker here already.  And I know that she will be my little partner in crime and I need her here already so we can start coming up with games and awesome dance parties.  I love my baby girl and it just isn't fair ... especially to Katie.

A Weekend Away

Well I missed the past two days. Luckily for these first weeks I gave myself a little buffer.  Well I am going to make this quick because we got back later tonight and I have to wake up early for work.  Katie stays a lot at our apartment so this weekend we decided to go up and stay with some family.  We went up on Saturday to Salt Lake area to watch my brother Mason play baseball.  He was playing a couple games for the region teams.  He did alright and made some great catches but the main reason we were there was because of family.  We got to see lots of different relatives and it was fun to catch up and visit.  Katie was the main star this weekend, everyone went straight to her to see how she was and when the baby would come. . . if only we knew.  Today we visited more family and had some great talks with the grand parents.  Katie and I got to go to church with my Dad, he is in town for baseball games and work.  It was nice because I haven't been to church with my Dad in forever and it was the temple dedication.  I really enjoyed when President Packard (Brigham city temple by the way) talked about how grateful he was to see this and that the gospel is a family gospel.  He talked a lot about if we do our part that we will be taken care of.  After we had a really good dinner with Nana and Papa and the rest of my family.  We actually had a great visit with everyone and it was really nice.  It was a great weekend and now is game time where the baby is due by this Friday.  I am so pumped.

BRONCO! What Were You Thinking?

Well it is late (really not too late but I like to be in bed early) so I may not write as much as I would like.  I am up later this evening because we just watched the BYU vs BSU football game.  I have been so excited for this game to see my two teams face off.  I figured this would be such a fun game to watch.  It was actually the opposite.  It was ugly and after BYU finally got a touch down Bronco decides to go for the win with a 2 point conversion.  I don't have to be a coach to say, look buddy your team has worked 4 quarters to just get one touch down, just kick it.  And I was right.  I am frustrated.  The Broncos did win but not in the way I would have liked them to.  Luckily we had some friends come over to watch the game with us, Clint and Alissa.  Turns out they will be going to the same Optometry school as us.  So it is nice to know we will have fun friends with us.  Some good news is during my O Chem lab today (curse you BYU Chemistry) I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize.  I almost forgot to check my voice mail after class but when I got around to it I was surprised.  It was Sunnie from SCO saying she wanted to talk to me about scholarships.  I hurry and called her back and she had good news for me.  As much as she loves giving good new, I love receiving good news.  The good news was I they decided to award me with a $5,000 scholarship.  That will be $20,000 saved over my time at Optometry school.  Count your blessings babe cuz sugar we are going down swigin.
Good Night!

Nothing Like Long Walks On .... The Way To The Duck Pond

Look at me go!  Day three and I am on fire.  This writing in my journal daily was easy ... maybe because I promised myself some rewards.  That always helps.  So two things happened today that were funny slash awesome.  On my way home from school slash work I saw something random happen.  A car full of high school boys pulled up quickly to a girl who was walking and their trunk popped open and two guys jumped out.  First off I have no idea how those two guys fit in the trunk but it was funny. They ran up to this girl and took a picture with her and then they drove off.  I was like what in the world was that.  I am walking and all of a sudden the car pulls up next to me.  I was going to play hard to get so I kept looking ahead with my tunes on and they were like hey guy, hey guy.  I pretended I couldn't hear but they ran to get me and tapped on my shoulder.  It was those two guys from the trunk and said hey can we take a picture with you.  I asked them what it was for and they said just for fun.  So I gave them a good silly picture and they went on their way to their next victim.  I have a witness because I ran into Meagan right after that.  We watched as they tried to trunk pop and lock it jump attack a girl walking and talking on her phone.  She got really surprised by the situation and jumped back and walked really fast to get away from them.  From what we saw she got mad at them and they had a failed attempt.  But they jumped back on in and sped off to their, I am sure, many more victims.  Randomness like that can paint a smile on just about anyone's face.  So Katie didn't sleep very well and she has just been pregnant long enough already and it was not the best day.  So we went on a walk to the duck pond together ( maybe she wanted to go without me but I am annoying like that and followed her anyway).  Our times at the duck pond are amazing because the weather is so nice and the environment is comfortable.  We are able to just focus on us without any distractions and just talk.  It is one of my favorite experiences when we can just be outside and talk about life and the things that matter most to us.  We had a great talk together tonight and I sure love my wife.

Long Tuesdays and Not In A Good Way

Good evening ladies and Gentleman.  It is now official, I have written on my blog/journal more in the past two days then I have in the last two months.  This is going to be an exciting time for Katie to be able to be bombarded with loads (yes loads like the way Harry Potter says it) of grammatical errors.  But this is a price that we will all have to play.  Tuesdays are my longest days.  Start of the day with some O Chem lab ( most time consuming class for one lousy credit, curse you chemistry department and your hatred to non nerds)  but the rest of my classes are fine enough.  The hardest part of today is when I was in class while Katie was watching our new show.  That is right we now have something we can do together, finally after all of these years (just kidding, Katie can't you tell it is a joke).  The other night before the BYU vs Utah game ( I still have so much hatred I want to kill a ute) we were flipping through the channels and saw the voice.  I was interested by all of the hype and started watching.  Little did I know I liked the show and thought it was creative.  So Katie and I have been getting into it and we like it and I am proud of it.  Well we are trying to pass the time in the best way we can while we wait for out stubborn little girl to get out.  She is already not listening to me because every day I tell her to come out now or she is grounded.  Maybe an exaggeration but I do want her here more then anything right now.  It has been real P Town and Good Night.  I said Good NIGHT!

My Project is Making Me Do This

So it begins.  For my Health Behavior Change class I had to pick something that I would like to change in my life.  I was thinking about starting a work out plan but deep down inside I wanted to write in my journal daily.  This is something that I have done in the past and from my first blog I said I wanted to write in a journal.  If you look back through my posts you can see that I didn't get to far in my journal writing and really dropped the ball.  Now for my project this semester I am going to try and create a habit of writing in my journal daily.  One main reason that I want to is because I am so super excited for my baby girl to be born.  This project will force me to write about my daily life and I will be able to write the amazing moments I share with my brand new little family.  I am so excited for this.  Katie had a Doctor appointment today and they said that the baby will be coming around the due date.  If that wasn't just a week from Friday I would be upset.  But instead I am freaking out with joy.  I am going to do my best to write in my blog journal every day, but I do not promise that each one will be a novel.

Andrew

This Title Will Break Tradition Because Katie Always Informs Me That The Date Is Automatically Placed On The Blog

Well it has been a very long while since I have written on this.  My original plan was to keep this as journal.  But I guess like to be a rebel especially when Katie really wants me to write on this thing all the time.  I guess it is my fault that I said I would.  So big things in the past while ...  I have been super busy working so we can have some little money for the baby and Fall semester.   I also got interviews to every school that I applied to.  I went to two interviews at THE Ohio State University and Southern College of Optometry.  I went to OSU first.  It was great they sound like they have a great program there.  I stayed with a previous BYU student that I knew and they lived in a cool area in a nice town home.  I enjoyed my stay there and could see me being happy there.  But then I flew into Memphis and fell in love.  That are is so cool.  I love the trees, the river, and the culture.  The school was also top notch with an amazing eye clinic.  It was too much flying and traveling and I couldn't wait to get back to my babies.  I forgot to tell about the most favorite part of my past month.  KATIE GRADUATED!  She has always been telling me that she wants nothing more than to graduate.  I even wrote a paper about this goal of hers.  She decided to go the hard route and student teach during the summer while being pregnant.  It was so hard for me to see her come home everyday exhausted.  But she is such a champ.  She not only finished her student teaching but everyone loved her.  They wanted to hire her on the spot.  She blessed the lives of those children even with this being so tough on her.  Seeing her graduate was such a great event for me to know that she made it.  She would be able to relax and rest.  That constant school with troubles of being newly married and then pregnant paid off.  I am SO SO SO SO SO SO PROUD of her.  She is truly amazing and only she could do something that great.  Her family was in town for that and my mom came down.  Also Katie had her baby shower and we got so many great things for the baby.  I feel more and more prepared for her to come.  I am so excited for her to just be here and hang out with me and lay on my chest while I rub her back.   Well for Optometry school I cancelled my other interviews and I know where I want to go.  I got accepted to SCO and OSU so I am going to pick between those. That is crazy to know that I will be an eye doctor.  School starts next week and it is my last semester.  I am taking an easy load so it will be nice to work more and have more time with the baby.  Life is great and the pieces of the puzzle seem to be just falling into place.  I just hope that Katie can hang in there this last month.

Life is Beautiful,

Andrew

7/28/12

Howdy Howdy,

This one is for Katie.  It really is.  She said that I would be grounded if I didn't up date my blog.  I knew better then to argue with a pregnant woman.  Not any pregnant woman, but she so happens to be the most attractive pregnant woman I have ever laid eyes on.  Ow ow.  So some updates.  My good buddy ol pal Landon came down to hang out with us a week ago.  We got to spend the day with him, go to dinner with Katie's mom, and hit up Babies R Us.  Something he said that really struck my little heart strings was that he looks up to Katie and I as role models.  I guess Katie and I got something good going on.  After that we flew down to California for the Smith reunion.  Talk about amazing weather and I learned how much I miss the ocean.  Except for the time I got thrown in by Mason and Chase.  But it was such an amazing trip, it was short but so so so so sweet.  Katie is getting close to graduation. Crazy awesome.  Today was awesome and we worked hard on setting up Baby B's room.  She has such a cute room due to her awesome Mom.  I love that little girl so much and I can't believe how close she is to being here with us.  My Optometry school applications were just shipped out so hopefully I will be hearing back from some schools soon.  Also today we were at Babies R Us getting some things and there was a little game we played were you could win a 5 dollar gift card.  We had to compete against some other pregos by writing down as fast as we could things that are found in a diaper bag.  Katie ended up winning and it was so awesome.  The people at the store told me I beat the record for men.  So I am pretty proud of that.  We have been watching the Olympics a lot because USA just rocks and I was on my mission for the last one so I feel like I have to dedicate my time to USA! now.  Well I figure this is enough typing for me to get away without writing for another week or two.  Now I have to rub lotion on Katie's feet because I got caught eating some of her ice cream.....

WISH ME LUCK,

Con Amor,

Andrew

7/1/12

Dear Future,

I know what you are thinking.  I keep on promising that I will be better at writing on this blog but I have missed the whole month of June.  I know I know I am sorry.  Katie will be thrilled that after a huge drought I will have finally written something.  So here is a little update about myself.  I finished my Spring classes and did well in them while I was working about 40 hours a week.  I don't think I could do that again but somehow I made it and did well.  I just finished my Optometry school applications and it feels great.  In fact it feels so great to be done that I now realize that I have lots of free time.  I will need to pick up a new hobby or something for sure.  Basically I just need to keep busy until baby girl comes because she will defiantly keep me super busy.  Katie and I also just randomly decided to go to Cali for a few days for the family reunion.  My Mom was super excited about that.  So we have that planned in about three weeks.  It will be a nice trip to get away from P-Town and that could be the last trip for awhile before baby girl arrives.  We are getting so close and I am super excited.  It is funny how I set goals and think that applying to Optometry schools is like 2 years away.  And now it is here.  When we found out that Katie was pregnant I was thinking that September was so far away. Now it is just a couple months away.  So crazy how time just flies by.  That is a reminder to me of how we need to make the best of each day because before you know it a year has gone by.  Life is beautiful and it only gets better.

Con Amor,

Andrew

5/17/12

Dear Future,

Warning:  The following is spiritual and lacks my sense of humor.

I remember looking back on my mission and working with the members.  Many would say that it was hard to fit in times for spirituality because life gets busy.  Some would tell me to just wait and I would see.  I thought to myself that my life could never get too busy for me to have personal prayer and gospel study. A week or two ago it hit me hard that I was falling into that excuse.  I would be laying in bed at night realizing that I haven't been reading scriptures or the words of our modern leaders.  Recently I have tried my best to find ways to incorporate gospel study into my life.  I went to our book case and realized we have a whole shelf dedicated to the gospel.  I picked up a little book called to draw closer to God by Elder Eyring.  I looked in the front cover and saw that this was a christmas gift to me from 2005.  It was from one of my young men leaders.  I figured it was about time for me to see what this book was about.  I have done my best to read from this book every day.  I can not tell you the wonders that it has done on my past days.  I just feel a peace, I feel like that by taking a few minutes to study and pray I am putting on the armor of God and that nothing can touch me.  One of the best things about this book is that it is small and I can fit it in any of my school bags.  I think that will be the key to my success is to have small gospel books for me to carry around so that I can pull it out whenever I have a few moments to read.  I am glad that I noticed this hole in my life.  I am really writing this down for my future self to help me remember how to make time for the important things in life.  And this is the one of the most important things in my life.

Love,

Andrew

5/12/12

Dear Future,

More specifically Dear baby girl.

 I love you so much.  I worked all morning, a Saturday morning, to keep putting your room together.  Well we got more organized but we cleaned up some of your future belongings.  I am super excited for you to come into my life baby girl.  I felt you kick my hand this morning.  If I can already feel you now I can only imagine the pain you will put your mother through when your kick gets stronger and stronger.  We got you some clothes as well.  I picked you out a cute little hoodie.  You will love it.  I hope that you have your mother's eyes because her eyes are one of the most gorgeous things in the world.  I also hope that you have her smile.  Well maybe I don't want you to have both of those traits.  Because if you do I will have to constantly scare all of the boys who are after you.  But of course that won't be until you way later in life because as for now,  I am the only boy (man) that you will need in your life.  Baby girl I will always take care of you.  You have the best mother to look up to.  Get ready for the best life ever.

Love Andrew
( Your Dad)

5/5/12

Dear Future,

I know what you are thinking.  You have waited over a month to receive yummy goodness from non other then me, myself, and .... .  I digress.  In more recent and important news I told Katie that the perfect man would be Ryan Reynolds with Ace Enders singing voice.  She drooled a little bit then said no way Jose, nothing can top you.  On with the best news of my life, I found out the gender of my baby yesterday.  My baby is a ....... (drum roll with your fingers on the table)....... A GIRL! Just what I wanted. Now everyone for the next year has to always listen to me because I guessed correct on this one.  I am so excited to have a baby girl.  I don't know why but I pictured myself with a baby girl first and I want nothing more then to have Daddy's little girl. So pumped about that.  So the past month I took the OAT and scored a 340 overall and a 360 on the science portion.  That should be good enough to get me into schools.  I am getting my application read because I will be putting in my applications come July 1st.  That is so close.  Crazy awesome.  Quick shout out for Meagan to be the first person (besides my wife) to find my blog.  She is one of the few, the proud, the followers.  I am basically just working many hours and taking two classes.  The classes are not bad but my days have been longer.  BABY GIRL! Sorry I am just so dang excited about that.  Today I have been organizing my baby girls room so that we can have it ready soon enough.  Oh my goodness I love her so much.  I love it when she is full of energy and kicks her mommy.  That's right take that mommy haha.  Well I will try to be better and write to my future self more.

Thank you heavenly father for trusting me with one of your beautiful daughters.

We bought a ZOO!

Andrew

4/1/12

Dear Future,

April fools, but this is no joke.  After many many days of not writing I have decided that it is time to write. Life is beautiful and oh so busy.  I was recently blessed with an opportunity to work with a great optometrist in Provo.  It is all about networking and who you know and ba da bing ba da boom I got a job. So I now have 3 different jobs that I am working.  Talk about crazy.  I have been telling some people that I feel bad because sometimes it is hard in Provo to find one job, and here I am hogging three.  To whom this may concern out of you kids, we are pregnant with one of you.  Your mom and I are doing good but one of you is being difficult for your mom.  We didn't realize that she could get so sick.  But we are so excited to be parents and to be able to have our own baby.  It is what we wanted and I am so fine with it, especially  because I am the father.  I am working so hard to study for the OAT.  I take it in a week and I hope my hard work pays off.  They better not test me on all of the things I don't know.  If I do well enough on that I think I will be a shoe in for schools.  This semester has been keeping me way too busy.  Test after test.  Paper after paper.  Assignment after assignment.  I cannot wait for this semester to be over.  So so so close.  Katie treated me with taking me to see one of my favorite bands fun.  They did an amazing job and it was such a great concert.  Katie was miserable sitting in the corner by herself being pregnant.  But she owed me this.... ok she didn't.   But she was such a sweet heart to do so.  Plus she got a kick from seeing poorly dressed girls trip in their high heels.  Well life is busy and I can't wait until I have more time to write down my thoughts and experiences.

I love my wife, my baby, and our cute little family.

-Andrew

2/14/12

Dear Future,

Today is valentine's day.  I was so excited for this day because I love trying to surprise Katie. I say trying because Katie knows me way too well.  Which is good but at the same time it is so hard to surprise her.  She is so good at guessing.  Darn her smartness.  Last night I took her out to the garden.  I went last night because tonight I have my test prep course.  It was nice to go to the place we ate at Katie's favorite date, which happens have been 4 years ago to this day.  Way we are old.  I totally told Katie I was going to go vacuum the car out but really I went to pick up a flower order I got for her.  The best part of it was was that  it came with a giraffe animal.  I was going to have it delivered to her work but I decided to do just pick up (because I am cheap person who wants to save money haha) but thankfully (not really) Katie stayed home from work sick.  So it worked out perfect.  Happy Valentines day to my beautiful, ow ow, wife Katie.  She is so amazing.  I love her.

-Andrew Smith

2/3/12

Dear Future,

Big, big plans.  Sometimes you decide to make a plan and then boom boom pow, it changes.  Thankfully I would rather go with what my heavenly father thinks is best even though it may seem crazy.  Random thought is that at times I really just want to throw everything away and go into the music business.  I know that everyone says you should go for your dreams.  But if I did that they wouldn't be dreams anymore.  And a life without dreams would be so so sad.  So I will continue having those dreams of being in the music industry.  One day though I will get more into music and who knows . . . maybe I will surprise myself.

-Te amo

1/28/12

Sorry blog.   I have neglected you.

-Not showing much love, Andrew

1/19/12

Dear Future,

Really quick I just wanted to share what I think to be a funny experience.  This story shows how miscommunication works.  Katie was on google chat with me.  She said that we need to think of options for din din (Katie for dinner).  I started naming off a list of options which consisted of home made mac n cheese and cheesy potatoes.  Katie said that sounded good but we would have to shred the cheese and it would take an hour to cook.  Being the wonderful husband that I am, I told her that I would take care of the shredding of cheese.  For the mac n cheese there are lots of cheese used for it.  We had 3 different blocks of cheeses that would need to be shredded.  I started shredding away.  The seconds turned to minutes and the minutes turned into more minutes.  This was taking longer than I had anticipated.  After many hard minutes I had finished.  I called Katie to see if I could lovingly start the macaroni noodles (elbow style to be precise)  she asked me what they would be for.  I was confused.  I said for the mac n cheese.  She replied we are having cheesy potatoes.  Oops.  We had different ideas for this din din occasion.  We both laughed and I wanted to surprise her by having the cheeses all shredded in different bowls.  She came home and laughed.  Then she whipped me with a belt for my punishment.  If you believed that last sentence you should be ashamed.  Any ways I thought this was funny.  Maybe it was a you had to be there story.  Guess what, I was there.  Therefore it is funny to me.