Fatboy's Pizza and Pasta

My dad just opened a new restaurant! He closed down his Godfather's Pizza restaurants at the first of the year and remodeled the building. The new restaurant is his original restaurant called Fatboy's Pizza and Pasta. Everything I've tried there is fabulous- my favorite are the salads, tomato and herb pizza, garlic knots and the stromboli- which is basically everything I've tried. So far the new restaurant is a success. Ben has been working there as well which has been really fun for him.
I'm really proud of my dad for taking a risk and doing his own thing. I love all the food at the new place and it's so fun to take people there. This is one of the only places I'll take Chase (outside of the pediatricians office) and I love being able to get out a little.

Chase and his fans

Chase has an awesome aunt and uncle who completely adore him.
Whenever they come home they compete for time to hold him.
I think he loves all the attention.

There's his Uncle Will.

I tell Chase about Will all the time.
He's an awesome big brother.
I want Chase to grow up to be that awesome big brother for our little family.

I also hope Chase learns from Will's fashion sense.

This is his uncle who drove all the way from Rexburg for Chase's blessing.
Right after the blessing he had to turn around to drive back with classes early the next morning.
He's dedicated like that.

I think they are best buds.

And then there is his beautiful Aunt Heidi.

I'm pretty sure she likes Chase more than she likes me.
He's pretty cute.
I can't say that I blame her.

She's so sweet to him.
She will sit and snuggle him all day.
He loves it.

Chase is a pretty big deal around the Smith household.
I won't even start on his Grammy and Grandpa...

Something on my mind

"God does notice us, and He watches over us.
But it is usually through another person that
He meets our needs.
Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom."
- President Kimball

My Grandma gave me a tile with this quote on it for Christmas this year. I look at it all the time and I've been thinking about it a lot lately and how true it is. I've been thinking about those angels in my life who have helped me along. I'm very grateful for my wonderful husband and a supportive family, but today's post is about how grateful I am for wonderful friends.

It has been over a year since Ben and I got called to be in the singles ward. Although it turned out to be a wonderful experience, at the first I was a little scared and not that excited about the calling. I loved the married ward we were in and I loved my calling there. When the Bishop told me that I was being released as Primary President I almost started to cry, and then he added that although we'd be serving in the singles ward our records would stay in their ward and we would still be home taught and visit taught in that ward. Immediately I felt better. My visiting teacher was one of my good friends in the ward, Ashley, she is visiting teacher extrordinaire. She never missed a month of visiting teaching, and her visits always lasted over an hour because we always had so much to talk about. She made me dinner during finals week, she helped me clean my apartment when we moved, and she was just an awesome friend and example. I never felt that she came visiting teaching just so she could check it off her list for the month. Every time she visited she lifted my spirits and motivated me to be a better person. There have been many times in my life where my visiting teachers never came, which was fine, but during this time of my life I was so thankful for a wonderful visiting teacher.

Becoming a mom was wonderful and brought along with it a whole new spectrum of stresses. My friend Heidi Goodyear had a baby a year before I had Chase, and although she moved away last summer she wrote me in an email expressing that she knew how challenging this would be and that I could call her any time for advice or support. When Chase was 5 days old and still not eating well I was starting to get very frustrated and worried. Then I remembered what Heidi had said about calling her. I gave her a call and talked through everything with her. She had great advice and just talking to her made me feel so much better about things. It was just the lift I needed that day.

There was another week that I was just feeling a little lonely. I felt cooped up in the house all day with this brand new baby and RSV season, Ben and my mom and dad are gone at work all day, and I was so tired. My friend Meghan called out of the blue and asked if she could bring her baby up and hang out with me for the day. It completely made my day. She drove up from Provo and we spent the whole day together with our babies. It was just the distraction I needed.

A few weeks ago I was still feeling a little stressed about one aspect of feeding Chase that still was going well (although he was doing so much better than that first week). I had been frustrated and worrying about it for a week when I had a thought to call my cousin Heather, who has four young kids and is one of the nicest people in the whole world. Technically she isn't even my cousin, she's married to my cousin(How Rich got so lucky I'll never know), but I love her so much I claim her anyway. She is the type of person that I just can't have a conversation with and not feel amazing afterwards. She had wonderful, helpful advice on my problem and after 45 minutes on the phone with her I felt not only good about things, but confident and awesome about life. That's what Heather does when you talk to her.

Without any of these people and experiences I would probably be fine. Things would have been a little hard and then life would go on. With these wonderful people, many of my burdens were made lighter. I choose to see it as the Lord's hand in my life. He's blessed me with amazing friends- and this is just a short list of the wonderful blessings friends have been to me. There have been many other people, recently and not so recently, who have touched my life and lifted me. Hopefully I can be that angel in others lives, to lift them the way I've been touched.

Hapy Birthday Ben!

This handsome man (the big one-not the baby) turned 26 yesterday! I'm sure feeling lucky to have him in my life. He is such a sweet, thoughtful, fun husband and is a darling and attentive dad to Chase. Last night my mom gave us money for a date and then volunteered to watch Chase. Ben and I had an amazing dinner and night on the town in Salt Lake. We ate at Mazza, a Lebanese restaurant, which is in the most charming part of Salt Lake. We ate amazing food in an elegant restaurant with candles and white table clothes, talked about our amazing adventures traveling abroad last summer and watched the snow whirl around outside. After dinner we walked over to the Gelato shop a further down the block and had some of the most delicious gelato we've had since we left Italy last July. (Although eating gelato in the middle of a snowstorm is a little eccentric) We had a fabulous evening out together, and we were so happy to come home to our little sweetheart who was contently asleep in his Grammy's arms.

Blessed

We blessed our sweet Chase a week ago today. It was such a beautiful experience. We are so happy to have him in our lives. We are also so grateful for our family and friends that came to support us and show their love for this little boy.

Ben's dad came out from Virginia. He was only here for two days, which is why we blessed him on a Tuesday night at home. I loved having the blessing at home, it wasn't stressful (Is the baby going to cry through the whole thing?!?!? We waited for him to calm down) and it was just a nice atmosphere. I was so glad that my baby boy got to have both his grandpa's in the circle as he was blessed.
Will drove down from Rexburg (3 hours one way) just for the blessing. Talk about a dedicated uncle. I think Chase and Will have a special bond. Nate was sad he couldn't be here, but as he wrote in his letter home the day before, "statistical probability indicates I'll be there for the next one."
Here are all the men who stood in the circle as Ben blessed Chase: Kevin (our new brother-in-law-to-be), Bishop Cottrell, Ben, Will, my dad, Ben's dad Ray, my Grandpa Smith and our friend Chad Bennett. I hope Chase will grow up to be strong like these men.

Chase with his Grammy.

My mom made this cute blessing outfit for Chase. He looked darling in it.

Chad and Alyse drove up from Provo for his blessing. They are such awesome friends.

Ben gave Chase a beautiful blessing- I am so grateful for this worthy priesthood holder in my life. I'm thankful every day that I was blessed with such a beautiful, wonderful little family. I love my sweet baby so much and I'm so happy he's here with us!
>

Happy Valentines Day!

Love,
Ben, Courtney and Chase

I Passed

On Wednesday morning I took NCLEX, the nursing boards. I was so so nervous. With having a baby a month ago and being so busy with him and sleep deprived, I really hadn't put as much time and effort into studying as I had wanted to. This was the highest pressure test I have ever taken. It was $300 just to take and if I didn't pass it would mean that my entire college degree was pretty much worthless. I was so nervous I hardly slept the night before, and it wasn't all my baby's fault. I spent a lot of time praying for help. I knew I would need it in order to pass the test.

Also, for those of you not familiar with the NCLEX, it is a smart test. Meaning the more questions you get right the harder the questions get. If you answer a question wrong then you get easier questions. The test shuts off once you've either passed or failed (and it doesn't tell you which one it was until 2 days later). The minimum number of questions you can possibly get is 75, the maximum is 265 and you have 6 hours to complete the test. There is a test bank of thousands of questions so every person who takes it gets a different test.

My test took me just about one hour and the test shut off at 75 questions. When it shut off I completely felt like I'd failed. I've been told this is actually a good sign, everyone that passes leaves feeling like they failed. However, it's still not a good feeling to leave a test feeling that horribly about it.

I was completely relieved this morning to see an "ACTIVE" next to my name and an RN license with the Utah Department of Occupational and Professional Licensing. I have completely enjoyed the last few days, not worrying about studying and just hanging out all day with Chase. I'm also glad I don't have to go out and get a nursing job right away. I love nursing, but I love being a mom even more.