C. Wade Smith

My grandpa, Charles Wade Smith passed away on February 18, 2011. Exactly 28 years to the day after his sweetheart Betty Smith passed away, and only hours after our sweet Calvin Wade Smith was born.

We had chosen to name Calvin after my grandpa a while ago, and it only seems fitting that we gained one C. Wade Smith as we lost another.

My grandpa was a true hero. He was a highly decorated officer in the army. He has silver stars, bronze stars, and three purple hearts. As decorated as he was, he never was proud or boastful of his accomplishments. But this is not what made him a hero to me; it was the small things he did that made him so special.

He taught through example what it means to love and care for others. Even though my grandma passed away when I was a baby, I never had any questions if he loved her. In my family we have always used the word "cherish," and my grandpa truly taught what it means to cherish your wife and family. I knew I could always count on my grandpa for support, advice, a good laugh, or just a hug. (If you ever meet him, I'm sure he gave you a hug instead of a hand shake)

I was lucky to have grown up close to him and was able to go with him on trips to army bases around the country, have him come to track meets, take me to pole-vault camps in Kansas, and even have him attend Holly and I's sealing in the Denver Temple.

Charlie Wade was a hero in many peoples eyes, but none more than mine. I am sad to see him go, but overjoyed that after 28 years he gets to be with his sweetheart once again. We love you grandpa!

P.S. Thank you to my Aunt Robin who posted most all of the pictures on her blog that I took and posted here. She has several wonderful posts about my grandpa on her blog here.

Calvin Wade Smith

More (non cell phone) pics to come.

3:27 am baby Calvin is here! 6lbs 6oz 19 inches

Full dilation, it's go time

Holly is dilated to a 9!

Holly is napping getting some rest before the baby comes. The nurse thinks it's going to be in the next hr or so.

Holly is dilated to a "good 4" and his head is starting to come down

Place your bets on when this little guy will come out and how much he will weigh, wait it's the middle of the night, most people are asleep, nevermind.

Holly is dilated to a 3 and realizing that the epidural did not work at all with Tucker.

Holly just got the epidural. She did great. Hopefully she can get some rest before this baby comes!

Holly is doing well. Hooked up to pitocin. In for a long night.

The baby is on the way!!!

Holly's water broke at 7:50pm. We went to the hospital and they admitted her. So far, everything is going well. She is 37 weeks so she is "full term" but a little nervous and surprised (as am I) that this is happening now. I will do my best to keep everything updated on the blog and on the twitter/facebook. Keep us all in your prayers!

Melo's People of Utah

(This is Curt posting)

What a great commercial. I feel so alone being a Nuggets fan in Utah. Its good to know there are others out there.

Go Nuggets!!

Funny Friday: Curt Edition (since Holly is slacking)

I thought this was hilarious. I could watch the first 5 seconds over and over and over and over again. I also like the double pump dunk at the end.

Funny Friday: Every Dinosaur Poops!

Holly wanted to make sure everyone knew this is Curt writing about dinosaur poop, not her.

The other day I was watching Dinosaur Train with Tucker and was caught off guard with the topic of the episode. I don't think Tucker is old enough to understand just how funny it is, but on the other hand, I am probably too old to think it is funny.

My favorite part is at 0:51 and 3:05.

Watch and enjoy, and remember, no need to be embarrassed when you have to go, because... every dinosaur poops!

Being A Dad

Being a dad is great. I love coming home and seeing how excited Tucker gets to see me. Recently he has started to play ball with me and push golf balls and mini basketballs back and forth to me. It sure is fun to be a dad.

I was getting a new tire on my truck this morning and saw this commercial on ESPN and thought it was great. Makes me want to cut out of work early and go play with Tucker.

Recipe Fad

It seems like the new blog fad is to post recipes on you blog. So I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and post a recipe. I found this through a great new blog. It's All About the Bacon (A blog about bacon, what a great idea!!)

"The Bacon Explosion"

Ingredients:

2 pounds thick cut bacon
2 pounds Italian sausage
1 jar of your favorite barbeque sauce
1 jar of your favorite barbeque rub

Its made from by weaving the bacon together into a latice and rolling the sausage into a log with a filling of more bacon. Then rolling the log into the bacon. Looks like you can do it in a crock-pot, a smoker or the grill.


You can eat it in slices or make it into sandwiches. Any way you choose to eat it sounds delicious to me. Here is the link to the original recipe.

Here is video with the creators/geniuses behind "The Bacon Explosion"



If anyone gets to try "The Bacon Explosion" before I do, please do share!

The Smith Family has Upgraded to Wireless

We always joked that one day we would upgrade Tucker to the "wireless" model, and we are happy to announce: that day has finally come! As much as we joked, the best comparison really is like going wireless. If any of you have ever upgraded your laptop to wireless, or upgraded to a cordless phone, you might come close to understanding how excited we are to have his cords off.

We are amazed at the places we can take him now! We just keep saying over and over again, "I can't believe he is wireless!" Before, he had two stations where he would hang out: in our bedroom by his pack-n-play, and out on one corner of the couch. Now he can go anywhere with ease! We can't believe we made it this long tied to monitors and oxygen. Looking back, it sure complicated things to have him on a 7 foot leash. It seemed like when he had his cords, the "Tucker tornado" would always pass through--since he could not go to his things (diapers, wet wipes, clothes, etc.) they would have to come out to him, and thus his things would get spread all over. Now, if we need to change him, we simply take him back to his changing table--and it's even better because only one of us needs to take him! (before it took two, one to carry Tucker, and one to take his monitor and oxygen tank)

We got the news today after Holly went to the doctor to get him weighed, and he gained 1.5 oz since yesterday! (He now weighs 10 lbs 13 oz!) So since he gained weight and his numbers were still good, the doctor told us to "send all the equipment back."

Tucker seems to be almost as happy as we are to have the tubes and wires gone. Here is a picture showing how happy is to be wireless. We told him on Monday that if he did good with his numbers we would let him sit in his in his new Bumbo chair. He seemed to enjoy it.

You can just see the joy on his face!

Holy cow, what the duck!?

Tucker went to visit his cousin Karli yesterday and they both dressed up for Halloween.

He sure does love his cousin!

His outfit had a little cow in the pocket.

Karli ate the cow, Tucker ate Karli

My mom also came into town yesterday to help us out and visit Tucker. On the way back from the airport I took everyone to this area for a little stretch. I am doing a job in this area and I love the drive home, it is beautiful, and I wanted everyone else to see how beautiful it is. It also happens to be the same place that Holly and I had our engagement pictures taken.

Grandma and Tucker

Our little family 2005!

Our little family 2008!

Sesame Street

I still remember when I learned the concept of the number zero. It blew my mind! I remember sitting on the floor watching "Da Count" explain how he had zero pencils. My life was never the same. I'm sure many others have had similar experiences watching Sesame Street. Now that I have a son, I want him to be able to watch and learn like I did.

One of my favorite web sites is www.hulu.com. They have tons of full episodes and movies and clips for free. As I was browsing the other day, I saw a Sesame Street tab. Holly and I watched some classic clips for almost an hour. They had a ton of great clips, not just the classics like "Rubber Duckie" but also some great celebrity clips. I think that's how a celebrity knows if they "made it," if they are invited to be a special guest. Here are just a few of our favorites:



We play this one to help Tucker go to sleep. Only problem is we always laugh when we watch it.




Hootie...so 90's.




I love Elmos "air guitar."


So next time you want to watch some good wholesome clips check out http://www.hulu.com/sesame-street