February 2012 Nuts and Bolts

Here is our family newsletter entry for February. Enjoy!

February was a wonderful month for our family. First, we are saddened by Junola’s passing and like all of you, our thoughts and prayers go to Brian at this time. We are certainly better people because of her.

Things seem to be going just fine with our baby. Elizabeth has been feeling great, a little fatigue here and there notwithstanding. We find out the gender the first week in March and could not be more excited!

Kadence unbelievably (at least to her parents) turned six this month and celebrated in grand fashion. We had six girls from the neighborhood over for a princess party, with games, cake, and some wonderful presents. We also celebrated as a family and then with our extended family at our monthly gathering (at Dad and Donna’s). She continues to read voraciously—at a near second-grade level. She also plays with friends often, dotes on Stockton, and loves kindergarten. What a sweetie!

Tayah still loves preschool and comes home to proudly show us her newly gleaned knowledge, as well as the various projects they do. She is doing an excellent job sounding out words and is really recognizing a lot of sight words. She also is a social butterfly, but actually seems to interact better with older kids (Kadence’s age) than those her own age. We love our Tayah!

Stockton is starting to exert a little more personality (aka persnicketiness), but all in all, it’s pretty tame for a two-year old. Most of the day, he is sweet, happy, and very loving. He always wants Mommy and Daddy’s attention. One fun story: after stake conference, he burst out crying—not because it was so long, but because we told him we didn’t have nursery that day!

Elizabeth received a new calling, teaching Primary and working with Activity Days. So far, so good. She went to a Relief Society meeting early in the month. She helped secure our Smith Family reunion locale once again, as well as did our Disneyland legwork. 

It was a busy, busy month for me. Work continues to be wonderful. We hosted BYU—Hawaii’s president Steven Wheelwright at a Telefund devotional and we had a full audit/assessment of our Annual Giving office. My calling is very fulfilling—a full slate of stake conference meetings, two more ward conferences, touring all four of our stake’s buildings with the FM Group manager, and so forth. I love my writing gigs, although the Jazz had a rough go in Feb.

Other activities/events: ward sealings, joining the Cougar Club, a Valentine’s Day date for us (dinner and the Living Legends concert), going out to dinner, taking full advantage of Netflix, a high priests social.

Our big event was our annual trip to Disneyland. This time, we surprised the kids right after stake conference—they had no idea we were leaving within the hour for California. The looks on their faces were priceless, as was the whole week. We spent three days in the Happiest Place on Earth. We happened to be there on Feb 29, when the park was open from 6 am-6 am. We made it for 14 of those hours—not too shabby if you ask me! Another highlight was being there with Elizabeth’s parents, as well as her brother and his family—right after he returned from his tour in Afghanistan. The kids loved meeting many Disney friends and all the rides. We loved watching things through their eyes—something that is truly magical to us.

We have a Six-Year Old!

Goodness gracious, we have a six-year old! Kadence keeps defying my wishes to stay little. What can you do? We had a wonderful time celebrating. Here are some shots from her party with six of her cute friends. Elizabeth made a beautiful Princess cake for her and Kadence did us proud by blowing out the candles.

Here they are playing "Poisoned Apples" (basically hot potato, with a Princess twist).

And here was part of our family celebration. She got a lot of wonderful gifts and we had fun going out to one of her favorite places, Red Robin.

Kadence, we are so utterly blessed to be your parents. You are such a joy to us. We could not ask for a sweeter six-year old this side of heaven. Thank you for being so sweet, wonderful, smart, and gorgeous. WE LOVE YOU!

Neonatal Care in South America

While this is not part of my direct responsibilities at LDS Philanthropies, I am so grateful that good people around the world contribute money and other things to assist in wonderful causes like this--neonatal resuscitation--saving babies' lives.

Finding the Incredible: What Cancer and Trials Can Teach Us

This is yet another amazingly touching Mormon Message. What examples this couple is...the epitome of true faith in our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Beethoven's 5 Secrets - OneRepublic (Cello/Orchestral Cover) ThePianoGuys

Everything LDS cellist Steven Sharp Nelson (and his comrade-in-arms, Jon Schmidt) touches, turns into gold. Enjoy another beautiful music video with an amazing play on OneRepublic's latest hit. You won't be disappointed!

Stocktonisms

Stocktonisms:
"I big boy! Daddy big boy, too! Mommy, big girl!"

David: "Who's Daddy's boy?"
Stockton: "I do!"

Elizabeth: "Can you throw this away for me, Stockton?"
Little Man: "Course!" or "Sure, Mommy!"

January Nuts and Bolts (family newsletter)

To catch you up on our last month, including all our exciting news, make sure to read every single word of our newsletter entry...yes, every word!

January got the year off to a great start for our family. Our biggest news is that we are expecting Smith baby #4! We’ve heard the heartbeat twice and everything looks healthy and actually a touch ahead of schedule. The due date in 07.20, but knowing it’ll be a C-section, it’ll be earlier that week…just in time for our anniversary. Happy Anniversary to us! We had two miscarriages in 2011, so we are extremely grateful for our upcoming bundle of joy.

Stockton has not the faintest clue of how life will change. What a sweet little boy, so happy and fun. He has shown a little more attitude lately. He loves his toys from Christmas, playing with his train set, his golf clubs, his cars, etc. all the livelong day. We find it miraculous the way babies learn how to talk—he adds things out of the blue, usually things that melt our hearts. He loves nursery and adores his sisters.

Tayah continues to really enjoy preschool. We went to our first-ever parent-teacher conferences for her and Kadence, with both getting glowing reviews. Tayah’s teacher says she is bright, loves learning, plays well with everyone, and is a wonderful listener. In fact, she was shocked when we told her she doesn’t always listen at home! She’s a budding artist and loves to draw pictures all the time (she and Kadence always have one to run up to me after sacrament meeting).

Kadence too is beloved by her teacher. She’s got this kindergarten thing down pat! She is reading at a near-second-grade level and is mastering a lot of advanced concepts. Her teacher said she is a very sweet, an excellent listener, and that it takes her a bit to warm up sometimes, but gets along with others. She is a voracious reader and loves reading to her sister and brother, now that she can!

Elizabeth is feeling good, just a little more fatigue and a few bouts of nausea. She has phenomenal pregnancies (easy for me to say J). She was released as the Visiting Teaching Leader and called to serve in Primary teaching eight and nine-year olds. She also works with Activity days. So far, so good. She has been our researcher, helping our little family gear up for what has become our annual Disneyland trip, as well as our Smith Family reunion this summer.

All’s well on my end. We have had some sweeping changes within LDS Philanthropies, things that are exciting for the organization. Our team changed a bit and we’re eager to see how things continue to shake out. I am very blessed to do what I do and for the people I get to do it with. My calling keeps me quite busy, but what a blessing to serve. I attended three ward conferences, ward temple nights, gave a talk in another ward, and for the first time I can remember, hit three sacrament meetings in one Sunday. Along with our weekly ward basketball, I’m playing Church ball for the first time in years. It’s been fun, but I saw quickly why I’ve not played for a long time…

Back in December, I was offered an opportunity to help the Deseret News with their Utah Jazz coverage. My duty is to write an instant analysis that appears about 20-30 minutes after each game. It’s been a great experience, although sometimes it’s fun getting things written during the game, especially when it’s close. I still blog for the Utah Jazz website, too. I also had a once-in-a-lifetime experience: the owner of the Utah Jazz, Greg Miller, tweeted me one morning, inviting me to attend the game with him. A few other bloggers and I ate dinner with him and then watched the game from the front row. Amazing!

For more on our baby news and an account of my front row Jazz experience, go to our blog: http://kadenceandtayah.blogspot.com/.

Other January fun: New Year’s party, our belated Christmas celebration with our family, monthly family dinner at Danny and Mary Sue’s/Chinese New Year’s celebration, family night at Trafalga, a UVU basketball game with tickets Kadence got at school, many dinners out, the Smith Family Chuck-A-Rama Birthday party, group date with ward friends.

Have a great February everyone!