Welcome Ethan Phillip Garrett!

He's here!! Little Ethan Phillip was born on Labor Day (Sept 5) at 6:11 am weighing in at 8 lbs 7oz and 19 in long. The fun started at 6;30 am on Sunday the 4th when I thought my water broke. It wasn't a huge gush (sorry if too much info) so I didn't want to jump the gun and be sent home from the hospital for being too freaked out. So I went back to sleep for another hour and figured to be better safe than sorry so we got our little bag and made our way to the hospital. Needless to say, I was right and my water had broke. They got us all settled in and the delivery room was HUGE, I was very impressed. The only let down was there was only a loveseat couch in there so it was a little tight when Phil and mom wanted to take a nap. They started me on pitocin and I was started to feel the fun. I wanted to get the epidural for sure (im no hero here) but they wouldn't check me to see how far along I was because they didn't want infections. They would only check me when I got the epidural. It was annoying because what if i was only like a centimeter when they gave me the drugs...finally I went as long as I could and they gave me the epidural it was heavenly. i recommend them to everyone. So they checked me and I was at 3cm. ya im a wuss. So I took a nice nap and waited til 2am for them to come in and tell me I was fully dilated! Yay! I started pushing and between every contraction I took a little cat nap. The whole pushing thing was frusterating too bc I had no idea if I was progressing any. After two hours of pushing they told me I wasn't. haha damn. Apparently, he was face up and looking to the side and my tail bone was kinda blocking his way out. They said I could push for another 30 mins on all fours or I could get a c-section. haha I opted out of the pointless embarrassment and got ready for surgery. It was very weird not being about to move my whole bottom half but 30 min later he was out! It was so nice of my doctor too because she let Phil and my mom come in to see him be delivered! It has been so fun finally having him here, he is a little mini Phil! We are so blessed to be able to have him in our and even though it gets hard sometimes, we are so thankful to be able to start our family. We have more pictures to post but when we got to the operating room, mine and my moms cameras died to we had to use our cell phones.

UPDATE!

Wow, I'm pretty bad at this. So much has happened since December! One I am pregnant!! I am 32 weeks right now soo i haven't posted obviously, we are having a little boy and naming him Ethan Phillip and he's due Sept 19. Everything has been going great throughout the pregnancy, but needless to say I am ready to be done! So since Christmas besides our little bundle of joy on his way, Phil got accepted to dental school here in San Antonio so we didn't have to move too far. I'm so grateful we got in to this school because we finally live close to a temple!! We are staying in a townhouse just down the street from the campus so Phil just rides his bike to school! He isn't too stressed out yet which I'm sure will change soon. Before we got all settled in here in San Antonio we got to go on a little vacation back in May after Phil got done with his semester in Corpus. We got to go on an AWESOME cruise to the Bahamas with my sister Dana and her husband Marshall. I had never been on one so I was absolutely blown away! We started in Miami and then took one day at sea, then Grand Turk, then Turks and Caicos and then Nassau. I loved being on a cruise pregnant bc I really didn't care the late night snacks and trying everything on the menu! We got to go on some excursions, the only thing I would change for our next vacation is to possibly not be pregnant haha. It kinda put a damper on some of the excursions bc prego girls can't do all the things that non prego girls can. Needless to say, I want to go again really soon! After the cruise we went to AZ for the month of June and just hung out with the fam! My mom and sisters through me a baby shower and I got so much cute stuff that made me that much more excited to meet my little man. hes going to be so cute! On the drive back to TX we stopped in El Paso for the night and got to hang out with Phil's sister Shelby an her cute little family. It was fun getting to see them again and we got to skype with Phils parents back in Michigan and it's always nice seeing them! The drive went by fast to me, only bc I slept like the whole way (i take so many naps these days :)) I felt bad when we got here because I couldn't really help unload anything because of my growing belly, I had to kinda just watch Phil take all the trips back and forth. So finally we are settled in, we got to go to our new ward and have met so many nice people. Phil is meeting new friends from school so its been fun! At my last appt at 28 weeks the doctor said he was 3 lb 8 oz and that he's like 9 days ahead of his weight. so at least he's growing as he should haha.I have another appt this Friday at 33 weeks and hopefully he's keeping his weight up! The sooner he comes out the better! I am so ready to finally meet him. Especially seeing all the other cute blogs with all the other girls just having their babies, I'M SO JEALOUS. Anyways here are some pictures from the cruise!

Sorry Sorry Sorry for waiting so long

So its been quite a while since I've posted anything. I still don't have the cord to plug in my camera to the computer to upload any pictures so I'll just review. So since Feb, I took my national board and passed! I also took the WREB which is the clinical part where you have to clean a actual patient and I got a 99%! Finding the patient was so stressful, I had a guy named Candy (Candelario) but I didn't have a good feeling about him so last minute I called a friend who had taken the test the day before and asked if her guy could come in again to get another part of his mouth clean and then Candy could be a back up for someone else. The next day my blood pressure was through the roof, my friends patient came in for me (he looked EXACTLY like my uncle albert but with no hair it was so weird to hear him talk and not hear my uncle alberts voice) and Candy never showed so I would have been up the creek if I hadn't called this other guy. It went well and then we had graduation. Mom and dad were able to come to my banquet and visit san antonio a bit while Phil studied for finals. After Phil got straight A's again we made our way back to AZ. I took an anesthesia course that was 5 days and for 4 days straight I got and gave 8 different injections spots. it sucked. Then for that WREB Phil was my patient (what a guy I know) he only got 2 shots though and I passed. So while I was waiting for my license to come in for AZ and TX I worked at my dads office while Phil studied for the DAT. All his studying paid off bc he got a 19 (for those who don't know, thats good!) Also while we were in AZ, Phil, my dad and I started doing INSANITY. its a work out video that kicks your butt everyday.

When school started back up for Phil he drove one car and then my dad and I drove the truck. We drove the 18 hour trip in 2 days and it was hilarious bc the first night we wanted to go to Fort Stockton which for us was like another 1 1/2 away from where we were and it was like 2 am and we were so tired. So we pulled over and got a monster energy drink. Note to all Smiths...energy drinks and any other meds/ supplements work very very well on us. We get to Fort Stockton after laughing and telling stories and get to this best western. My body was beat but that stupid drink was still in my system so my eyes were wide open. Turns out we both never got to sleep, one, because the A/C would sound like a jet engine starting up everytime it came on and, two, because our brains wouldn't shut off. 6am rolls around and we just decide to keep driving bc sleeping wasn't going to help. Never again am I going to drink that. So after unpacking everything we drive dad to the airport and I start looking for a job. Right off the bat I was lucky enough to get a Mon-Fri 8-5 job. What was even luckier was that the dentist had a good friend on the admissions committee at San Antonio Dental school. Needless to say Phil got in and now we are just waiting for July to make another move.

Corpus Christi has been fun though, we've made lots of good friends, phil plays basketball with the boys every wednesday night and we always have something to do on the weekends. Its going to be sad to have to move again and make new friends all over again but its worth it. Since I have a job now and a steady income for a bit, we are planning a cruise trip for next june and I am beyond excited considering we never went on a honeymoon!! if anyone wants to join us by all means we would love to have the company!!! For Thanksgiving we went to see Phils family in Tennessee for a weekend, it was so good seeing them since its been 3 years! Phil got to play a lot of catch and we went on walks to see the pretty leaves changing. Hopefully it won't be another 3 years until we see them again. Now that I'm up to date again, Phil just finished another semester and got straight A's again, how did I get so lucky to marry such a smart guy! We are heading down to AZ for Christmas this Thursday for a week and a half and I am so excited to see the family! Its pretty depressing...you'd think this would be longer for not writing for a whole year...sorry guys we are kinda boring over here. its going to be pretty funny when I finally post all these old pictures though.

Valentine's Day/ Anniversary Weekend

So I'll just say right now that I have tons of pictures from this weekend, but lost the little cord that connects my camera to the computer, so when I put them on in like another 6 months just read back to today and it will all make sense. It's been really hard to get away this semester, Phil's taking 3 classes with the labs and I'm in my last semester and all my teachers are trying to cram nutrition, dental materials, ethics and contemporary in before National Boards on March 15th. So we are pretty busy, but Friday the 12th we got tickets to go to the San Antonio Rodeo with Foreigner playing afterwards. The rodeo was so fun and it is cool to see it all in person. There were tons of vendors and things to look at along with rides and stuff from the fair. I was a little nervous for the concert because I usually just go to concerts where I know the songs and I didn't think I knew any. Turns out I knew a couple of the 80's songs that rung a bell and it was so entertaining to watch this guy run around the stage with his tamborine acting like he did back in the day. He had on his skin tight pants and flowy shirt which made all the difference. Saturday we did lots of studying in the morning and then at night we went to the nicer restaurant in Beeville (which was pretty impressive considering it was here) and then opened our presents. We're both not very good at keeping presents until the actual holiday. I got Phil some chocolate covered strawberries, cream soda (his fav) and the new OneRepublic cd. He got me some fabulous chocolates and Time Travelers Wife, which we watched when we got home from dinner. On Valentines we went over to some friends house and had a little potluck of treats and watched the All Star Game and played games. Romantic I know. So today being our anniversary I had class this morning and Phil has class til like 8pm tonight. So I think I'm going to clean up around here and make a nice big dinner. I can't wait to be out of school (and have money) to make our anniversary a little bit more memorable haha. Anyways that is all I have for you, sorry about the lack of picture. Maybe I'll stumble upon the cord while I clean!

A little recap...

So I know I've been a crumby blogger but here is a little review since Phil's birthday... NOTHING! We have been either studying, sleeping, eating or at school. I'm on my last year and it is getting pretty intense especially from only seeing 1 patient a week last year to 7 a week! I know to those of you who are dental hygienists or to just Shawneen that doesn't seem like a lot but it is to us little students! The only thing that is pretty cool is that I was in a parade last weekend! Beeville puts on a little parade for "western week" (which I thought every week was western week here but anyways...)and our college volunteered the hygiene department. We made our float look like a classroom with a blackboard and stuff and we were toothfairies! It was pretty fun, so I'll post a few pictures of that. Oh and since its been so boring here I decided to dye my hair...again. poor Phil probably thinks I'm going through some kind of midlife crisis or something. We also got to go to a rodeo where a friend of ours was in calf roping and steer wrestling! He got 2nd in the calf roping and 1st in steer wrestling winning $400! We got to walk around the little carnival and I almost got a fabulous carny indian fry bread but we didn't have any cash. Anyways, I'm going to a Halloween party tonight without Phil because he has to study...so I'll post some pictures of that too! Have a Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday Phil!

Here is the biggest post of the year! It's Phil's birthday today and he turned 26! He is at school all day today form 9am- 11pm so its not the most exciting birthday. And it actually didn't start well. This morning at 2am I heard some noises in the front room so from past experiences I knew not to ignore them, I had my big brave husband go into the kitched and check it out. Luckily it was the the apartment creaking from the wind outside. I don't know what I would do without him. Phil is such a great guy and I feel so lucky to be married to him. To tell those of you who don't know him that well, he has a great sense of humor and always makes everyone feel comfortable, he is hard working, sincere, a great example in all aspects, he's smart and loving and is a friend to everyone. He is an awesome guitar player and is currently teaching himself how to play the piano. Here are some picture of my big boy.

Here he is Easter morning right when he woke up




Happy Birthday Phil, I love you!

Keith Urban!

So heres a little update, nothing too exciting has happened since I last posted except we went to the Keith Urban concert!! We went for Dana's birthday and it was fabulous. We have all gone to see him before but couldn't miss a chance to see him again. Out seats were a little higher up but it was still amazing. We were a little disappointed when we bought the tickets because Sugarland was going to open for them and we aren't the biggest fans, but she backed out last minute to "save her voice" for something else. Lucky us, instead we heard from Sara Buxton and she was pretty good. My dad was saying that at one of Keiths other shows a man was holding up a sign that said "I'll let you kiss my wife if I can kiss yours", Keith jumped into the crowd and kissed his wife and then said "Good luck getting your end".  So, before the show you were able to send a text of whatever you want and it would show up on these 2 huge screens. People were saying "Keith I love you" or "Thanks mom for the tickets". Phil sent one saying "Keith I'll let you kiss my wife if you give me a guitar"...needless to say he didn't get a guitar and I never got my kiss. Taylor sent in one that said "Keith dump Nicole and marry me" and "Hey this is Keith Urban thanks for coming to my show" but none of hers made it on the screen. So overall it was a great night, her are some pictures!

So to start off I want to apologize for not posting anything for a while, I haven't been very motivated with moving around for the summer. Since I last posted I was in Beeville, Phil and I finished off our finals and headed for Arizona for the summer. We had the opportunity of going to Disneyland (courtesy of mom and dad) with the family and it was a blast. It was Phil's first time to the happiest place on earth and he loved every second of it. I didn't take any pictures because my mom, Shawneen and Dana all had cameras so feel free to check them out on their blogs. I forgot to mention that I got to come down for my good friend Aimees wedding, it was such an awesome experience to go see them get sealed together in the temple and their reception was beautiful. I took a couple pictures of that. When we got home from Disneyland, Phil was officially initiated into the ward by going with the young men and my dad on the "Enos Journey" where they hike 25 miles in northern Arizona around Mt. Baldy area. I didn't think he would come back in one piece considering it snowed a couple inches the night before, but Phil and dad made it back with only a couple blisters. Since then I've just been going up to my dad's office a couple times a week to work and Phil's been selling health insurance from home. We love coming home for the summer and may also be able to go out to Tennessee this summer for a family reunion on Phil's dad's side. Well thats it and I hope it doesn't take another month for me to post!

Oh what were we thinking...

To start off, I hope everyone is having a great Easter weekend! During this past week, some friends and I were talking about how much fun it would be to spend the night on the beach because of the long weekend break. So yesterday while Phil was at school, I packed up the air mattress, a couple blankets and some marshmallows and went on my way. Since we didn't want to buy a tent, we thought up the great idea of just putting the air mattress in the bed of the truck. (why not, dad does it all the time). I met Phil and the rest of the group down in Corpus Christi and found a great spot to set up camp. We made our tin foil dinners, and blew up the mattress and I laid a blanket over it so it wouldn't blow away. (Being next to the ocean can be REALLY windy). We spent the next few hours eating our delicious food, roasting marshmallows, and hunting for ghost shrimp. Midnight rolls around and Phil and I decide its time to go to bed. I grab the pillows and blanket that goes over us out of the truck and hop into bed. To our surprise the bed was soaking wet, okay I'm exaggerating but it was pretty wet, from all the humidity in the air. Awesome...we get into bed anyways because our pillows and other blanket weren't wet and can't even fall asleep if we tried because people were still up talking. By the time everyone was in their tents, the wind had picked up and our pillows and blanket were soaking wet. It had gotten so cold that we put the covers over our head and were snuggling just to keep warm. We got to sleep for an hour or two until I heard someone getting into the car next to us, I peek my head out and realize its RAINING! I wake up Phil right away and we were back on the road in less than 10 min. When we got home at 6am later, and went straight to sleep til 11:30am Thats what we get for trying to be social I guess. Oh and not to mention I was in board shorts and a thin sweatshirt. So I'm sure it doesn't measure up to my family's camping trip a couple weeks ago but it was quite the experience. Heres a few pictures to document the occasion

Spring Break!

Here's some pictures from our Spring Break. We haven't done a whole lot, mostly just reading (on my part) and lots of homework for Phil. But we got to go to the beach on Tuesday with a couple of friends. It was so much fun, mostly because Phil had a friend so he wasn't begging me to go into the ocean with him. (It was absolutely freezing when I put my feet in). After the beach we went to Cici's Pizza and it was so good. Naturally we got totally burned, but it was worth it. We've also been just getting together and watching movies and playing games at night, so thats been fun! We can't wait for the semester to be over. We are officially half way!! (P.S. Phil is digging in the sand because they were looking for sand crabs...I think)