Tickets Tickets Tickets

HAVE YOU BOUGHT YOUR TASTE OF THE FINEST TICKETS YET?

We are a little over 3 weeks away from one of Little Rock's premier young professional events - benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! This event boasts tastings from our FINEST local restaurants including: Flying Saucer, Cache, Arthur's, BJ's Brewhouse and more! Enjoy wine, beer and a signature cocktail by Glazer's and a live concert by Tragikly White. 

I promised Crosby that I would raise $5,000.00 for Taste of the Finest and I am just a little over halfway to that goal. Will you help?!?! Lance and I would love for you to purchase tickets and join us for a fun evening out. If you can't make it, please consider making a donation - any amount will be much appreciated.

TASTE OF THE FINEST

When:     Friday, Aug. 22 | 6 p.m., VIP | 7:00 p.m. general admission
Where:    Metroplex Event Center, 10800 Colonel Glenn Road
Tickets:   $75/person
Info:       Arkansas.CFF.org/tasteofthefinest

Ticket Purchases: Tickets are $75/person. To purchase tickets, click here

General Donation: Can't make the event? Please consider making a donation in any amount and click here

Sponsor Opportunities: click here

{I've gotten some questions about tickets. The tickets are virtual, so once you purchase them, your name goes on a list and the night of the event, you just show up. If you want tickets but don't want to/can't purchase online, please let me know via text or email and I can handle it for you.}

Lance and I are on a mission to continually raise funds and spread awareness about this awful disease. A while back I wrote this blog post about CF being an "orphan disease" and how drug companies and the government will not fund research for rare diseases like Cystic Fibrosis because there are not enough patients who would buy the drugs to make the investment profitable.

Through private donations, the CF Foundation is able to fund the research and development of new treatments for this disease. Nearly every approved CF drug available today was made possible because of funding provided by the CF Foundation. I have not mentioned it on here yet, but you may have heard of a groundbreaking new drug called Kalydeco. This first drug of its kind actually corrects the defective gene and how it works in the body.

Right now, Kalydeco is only effective for about 4 percent of the CF population (about 1,600 people). There are over 1,000 different mutations of CF that someone can carry, and Kalydeco is only effective for one of those mutations. While this is incredible progress, this leaves over 95 percent of the CF population waiting for a cure. Crosby is waiting for his cure. AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!

The CF Foundation invested over $75 million into research for Kalydeco alone, and is currently putting more than $120 million toward finding “daily cures” for other mutations of CF. There are several drug therapies in trial phases that could be effective for more of the CF population. Please help us continue this progress by donating here:

https://finest.cff.org/carmen-smiths-finest

From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!!!

Love,

Carmen, Lance and Crosby

Crosby @ 10 Months

Dear Crozzie Bear:

You are 10 months old today!

This past month has been a big one for you. On our way out of town for vacation, I discovered two new bottom teeth had popped through! We didn't even know. Last week, three top teeth decided to torture your tender little baby gums on their descent. This time, you, me and Daddy definitely knew these teeth were slicing on through. My poor guy! Nothing breaks my heart more than seeing you in pain.

Showing off the bottom row

You have also learned to crawl and are constantly on the move and into everything. Changing your diaper is now more like wrestling a pig. You say "Momma", "Dada", "Nan Nan Nan" and you are obsessed with Zoe, much to her chagrin. You have also started pulling up on things and are so proud of yourself when you do!

You are eating all kinds of new foods and loving new textures and things that you can use your pincer grasp to pick up and put in your mouth. This month you've tried: barley, bacon, roast pork, broccoli, parsnips (not your fav), cheese, cherries, watermelon, bell peppers, and purple hull peas. 

I love to nom nom these little tootsies. 

You love to snuggle with Momma and rough-house with Daddy. You love to untie shoes, pound on things, take baths, and go for walks. Something so cute that I want to remember is that when you are playing with your little piano or singing stuffed bear, you will lay your head down real still, like your snuggling them or just listening real close.

Crosby, we love you more than you'll ever know. Your smiles, your giggles, your faces remind me what life is all about. Thank you for always giving me something to celebrate. 

Love,

Momma and Daddy

Crosby and his BF, Campbell doing their thing.

41 Weeks In, 41 Week Out

41 weeks is all the time it took for me to grow a human. To me, that is a pretty impressive feat in such a relatively short amount of time. Last week, on July 9, Crosby was exactly 41 weeks old. That means he has now been living and breathing here on the outside for longer than it took me to form him on the inside.

While I certainly don't miss pregnancy, I do miss having him with me everywhere I went. Knowing that he was safe and that where I'd go, he'd go, provided a sense of comfort. I remember sitting pregnant at my desk at work and feeling him kick kick kick. I would think about how soon there would be a time that I would be sitting at that desk working and my baby would miles away, being looked after by someone else and not right there with me. I tried not to think about it, tried to just be grateful that he was healthy, I was having a healthy pregnancy and not to worry about the coming days when we would be separate.

Before Crosby, I never knew the weight that motherhood carried with it. Heck, I didn't even have a clue as I carried him around with me those 41 weeks. But the gravity that comes with being a momma is so immense, it grabs your heart, fills your cup with a joy that overflows, a love that weighs you down and is deeper than any ocean. It’s the purest feeling, a swelling in your soul that is inexplicable. And I never even knew it existed. I never understood the weight. Until him.

Crozzie Bear, I am lucky to know you, lucky to share this portion of our lives together, lucky to be your Momma. I loved those 41 weeks of you growing under my heart and I have grown more and more in love with you the past 41 weeks since your birth. I am regularly brought to tears, overwhelmed by the amount of love and I grasp for courage everyday and wisdom to be the momma you so much deserve. Motherhood, with all it's weight, has been by far the most amazing transformation. It's changed me forever. For good.

Love,

Carmen

Family Beach Trip 2014: Part II

I am recapping our family vacation to Grayton Beach, Florida. If you missed Part 1, click here.

Grayton Beach is funky and the five families that went together on this trip fit right in. Grayton is east of Destin and Santa Rosa but before you get to Watercolor and Seaside. If other spots on Scenic Highway 30A are pastel and linen, Grayton Beach is bright colors and burlap!

The people of Grayton Beach like things just as they are and condominium projects have been vehemently opposed by the residents.

We mostly fixed our meals at our beach townhouse or the big beach house where the other families stayed. One night, we did venture as a group of 16 to the famous Red Bar, which draws locals and folks from all over 30A, nightly. {I also think the owners have Little Rock connections. The Red Bar was actually right across the street from our house. Our town house was right behind the "Nice" Dogs sign in the picture above.} I was going to try to describe the dive but a Southern Living article did it so adequately, I'll just quote it here:

"Red Bar, Grayton’s unofficial clubhouse. Just follow the sounds of live jazz or bluegrass, which act as a clarion call for Graytonites to bathe in the Moulin Rouge glow framing an eclectic decor awash in movie posters, disco balls, Mardi Gras beads, chandeliers, and sombreros."

Waiting on a table. Croz was taking in all the action. And the loudness.

First time in a high chair! He was so good. {I did bring anti-bacterial wipes and wiped the table and the high chair down. I say that not to demonstrate my over-zealousness for disinfection, but because I know some of Crosby's medical team reads this blog and they would tsk tsk public highchairs!}

Picture of Aunt T trying to take a picture of Crosby! 

The little girls were obsessed with the Croz! {Can we say "apple" and "tree"?}

Lance, Crosby and I drove to Destin one day to meet some friends for lunch. We ate at Hog's Breath and Croz and I took this pic:

We could not have asked more from Crosby. He was so good. He loved the water, waves, and even the sand. My little beach bum! Here are more beach pics from the second half of our trip:

This guy slept like this on the beach everyday. 

Natalie, Paul, Miles, Lance and Miss Magnolia Mae.

Gary, Uncle Scott, Crosby and Lance. Gary lives in Tallahassee but he and his girlfriend, Ashley, came to spend one day with us. Gary is one of Lance's best friends but Gary and I went to school together, like literally Kindergarten to 12th Grade! 

Maggie loved her some Crosby. She is the sweetest and so tan. A little brown berry!

Great vacation. Yo amo a mi pequeña familia!!!

Love,

Carmen