Freedom!

Andy is oficially done with his first year of Law School! Woo hoo... so today we celebrated. We went to Harbison State Park. It is 20 minutes from our house, and it was beautiful. We will be exploring more there this summer I'm sure. Stella loved it, of course! We are proud of you Andy - and glad you get to enjoy a little freedom!

She graduated!

Well, last week Stella and I flew out to Utah to celebrate with my sis Michelle as she Graduated from BYU. WOO HOO. More posting to be done tomorrow - but here are a couple of pics...

Sorry, can't post all about it - but Andy is saying...come to bed right now! He has his last final of his first year of Law School tomorrow - so, I guess I better go. Goodnight!




P.S. Sorry some if not all of my pictures look a little odd...I have been experimenting with photoshop the past two weeks. Maybe one day I will get it right - but until then, you get to look at some pretty funny retouching! :)

Double Digits

Today Stella turned 10 months. Crazy! She has been extremely wild today - in the middle of sacrament meeting, out of nowhere, she screamed at the top of her lungs for everyone to hear. The young women behind us started giggling, and about 20 people looked back at us including the guy directly in front of us - who turned around while clenching his ear. (sorry dude - hope there is no permanent damage) We had no warning she was about to let her feelings all out - she literally just screamed for no reason. She wouldn't sit still at all during church, or all day for that matter. At one point I took her out of the chapel into the hall because she was being so noisy, whining and whining because she was tired. In the hall she was a perfect angel, just staring at everyone as they walked by (the other ward had just been released) so I decided to take her back in thinking maybe she was all good. As soon as I got to our row, and Andy started to clear the seat for me, she arched her back and burst into tears. Man - DRAMA QUEEN! After church we went outside and blew some bubbles - maybe I will add pictures of that later.


Stella is becoming more and more of a daddy's girl. She loves her time with him. He says I can make her laugh more than anyone else - but you wouldn't know she loved me if you saw the three of us together. I pretty much don't exist when Andy is around. I am glad they are both so fond of eachother, and one day - maybe one day, she will actually show me some attention while her Dad is around. Until then I will try to enjoy the little breaks I get when he comes home from school, or on the weekends.



Every morning when Stella gets into bed with us - she goes right for the monitor. She loves the lights. She is growing so quickly - and we cannot get enough of each stage (except maybe the screaming in sacrament stage...but that one probably won't be done for a while). We love watching her learn. She picks up on so many things these days. She is independent. She basically refuses to eat anything from my hands, she has to do it herself. This makes for quite the mess, and I'm pretty sure she isn't getting enough food because most of it ends up in her hair and on the high chair - but she will learn soon I hope. She LOVES drinking out of Daddy's cups - and from a straw. She has learned to get herself off of the couch, and is very proud of herself for that one. She loves to stand by the window and look/YELL out. She still loves being outside. She has re-learned to like her baths. (good thing too!) She has outgrown her infant carseat in height - and her new one is on the way. We are hoping she will love it. Lots of people say how tall she is. (Thanks to her Dad) We love her so much and are enjoying how fun she is right now.

Skinny Dipper!!!

Remember the lake that is 3 miles from our house? Man we love that place, and we have been going there frequently these last two weeks. We bought a season pass - so I am sure we will get our fill this summer. Lately we have enjoyed a little exercise walking along the Dam. It is 3.2 miles round trip - so it is a nice walk. Today we let Stella get her feet wet - and she wanted to get deeper and deeper - so we gave in, took her clothes off, and let her at it. She loved it of course. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera - so we only have camera phone pictures to share - but don't worry... I'm sure you have no doubt there will be plenty of pictures next time.

WOO HOO

Yesterday Andy finished his last class of his first year of Law School. Now he's done with all classes, but he still has finals (the worst part). He has his first final Friday, and his last one is May 2nd. Then it will be party time! (Not really because he is going to observe a judge in court for two weeks after that. And then he will hopefully be clerking for a lawyer somewhere, but we don't have those plans nailed down yet). Stella and I are very very proud of him. We appreciate his willingness to work so hard so that he can support our Family and take good care of us. We are glad the first year is over, almost, and only have two more to go... We love you Andy, and we will try our hardest to be quiet so you can study for your finals!

L.O.V.E.

Today was a great day! Andy got some things on our car fixed, and we took care of a lot of other buisness that needed to be taken care of because Andy got out of class early. Then we went looking at furniture for fun, and picked up some slurpees...I love slurpees. Especially when it is as hot out as it was today. We ate a delicious dinner, cooked by Andy, and then topped it all of with a little photo shoot outside. Stella was super sweet today, mimicking us, kissing us, and just hanging out. Loved today!

P.S. Stella is wearing the first homemade shirt I made her:)






Of course no time outside would be complete without some play time with Dad. Andy told Stella he would practice with her for cheer tryouts if she ever wants him to.







I love this picture - before I went outside I put some lip gloss on, and Stella was all curious, so I put a little dab on her too...you can tell in this pic.

On Her Own...

Stella was standing at her toybox on Monday, and all of the sudden she let go. She stood there on her own, and I was in shock. I couldn't believe she was already trying that since she doesn't even crawl that well. So...I grabbed the camera and had her do it again a couple of times so that Andy could see since he was at school.

On Her Own from Melissa Smith on Vimeo.

One of my Favorite things

I am a film freak. i LOVE LOVE LOVE to make films. I still remember clearly the day I found out I was accepted into the film program at BYU. Thank goodness they let me in! I lived for my production classes. I really absolutely loved every minute of all the assignments because there is something about starting with nothing but some paper, a pen, computer, and a camera and making something wonderful out of it that people can enjoy over and over again. The whole process is so interesting to me.
When I was younger, I used to make music videos with my sister Julie and cousin Alaine. They would lipsync to Britney Spears, and we would do it all... hair and make-up (with the help of my sis Michelle who is awesome at doing hair), choreography, shots from different angles and multiple costumes. Some of the best home videos we have are of my little sis at five years old seductively taking her sweater off while singing "I must confess, that my loneliness...give me a sign, hit me baby, one more time" because I sat her on a desk, hair flipped out and lipstick on, and told her to "Act like Britney Spears". During one video shoot with Julie and Alaine, I made them do one shot over and over so many times because it had to be just perfect, that when they started it was sunny out, and by the time they get the shot right, it's was dark out. Poor girls, how mean I was, but I was so into it.
During school I lived for shoots. I would work on anyone's film - I even Production managed a horror film, fake blood and all, where we shot all night long in the dark with a "bad guy" on the lose. But my favorite student film was "Showtime", a film by Tom Morrill which was part of the Coca-Cola Refreshing Film-maker competition. Coke payed Tom (and the crew of his choice) $10,000 to make a film for them, with the chance to win money (I can't remember how much...$20,000 or something? maybe I am way off) plus his film would play at the beginning of movies in the theaters. You know the films I'm talking about right? Where the student comes on and Says... "I am so and so from such and such University and this is my film". Well, anyway, I was UPM and 1st Assistant Director on that film, and I really, really loved the experience. It was truly one of the highlights of my life, and definitely of my college years. It was on that set that Andy fell in love with me. You see, the job of the 1st Assistant Director is to make sure things keep going, to yell out "quiet on set" and "rolling", deal with the cast, pretty much keep everything running smoothly so that the Director can keep his mind focused on the artistic aspect of the film. Basically they yell a lot and boss people around even more. Andy really fell for that side of me. Funny thing is, I think I am ONLY like that on set. Sorry Andy.
Wedding Videos have become one of my favorite things to do. I love everything about romance and weddings, so filming them is perfect for me. When I first started doing weddings, my sister and her friends would come over and watch the cuts I had finished, and they would cry... I love capturing someones most happy day, and putting together a video for them that they will be able to watch over and over again to remember how special it all was. Here I am shooting beautiful Ashley's wedding in San Diego while hugely pregnant... and of course, Julie, my trusty side-kick who is always so helpful stood close in case I needed her to carry my tripod again because I was off with the camera trying to capture it all...


So at Young Womens tonight, we were planning our short film on Sariah that will play at girls camp. HELLO...how exciting! I get to help the girls make a film for girls camp. I was all into it, and my only fear is that I was too into it. I am going to have to remember that this film is for them, not me...and I should help all that I can, but make sure not to help too much. This is going to be exciting though...

Progress

Oh don't let her fool you...

Stella will make these faces all day long, trying hard to fool us into letting her stay up super late, eat or not eat what she wishes, take her outside, let her walk with the help of our fingers rather than making her crawl, or read her favorite book to her for the tenth time...only to seconds later be staring up at us with a face like this...


Her latest and greatest is fake crying, and it is really funny to watch. She will make all of these absolutely distraught faces that make your heart want to sink, until you realize that there is no sound coming from her mouth, or if there is it is quiet whining, or even resembles laughing on occasion. She will make a face, which usually involves closing her eyes or at least one of them, and then she will quickly snap out of it to look at you and make sure you are noticing how hard she is "crying". They learn early how to try to get what they want I guess.