Come Listen to Living Prophets

This is a wonderful weekend, one where we hear the words of our inspired leaders and prophets. Their counsel will help us learn, grow, feel, and be more. We can become better disciples of Jesus Christ and receive the answers to some of life's difficult questions. We hope you all enjoy General Conference!

Stocktonisms: What would we do without our sweet boy?!

Stocktonisms:
"No, Tayah...that's mine Daddy!"(anytime one of the girls simply calls out, "Daddy")
"I want Cocoa Mismies!" (Cocoa Krispies)
"Hold you!" or "I want you!"
"I still awake Mommy!" (the unwanted proclamations during what is supposed to be nap time)
"What doing Daddy?"

Elizabeth: "Are we having a baby girl, Stockton?"
Stockton: "No, it's a boy!"

This munchkin definitely knows how to work the system. At bedtime, he'll alternate his allegiance/love/desires to be with Elizabeth and me...knowing it's a way to stall the inevitable. This little ones are sly, I tell you!

When reprimanded by both of us, he will promptly run over and throw his arms around Kadence for some sympathy.

WE LOVE OUR STOCKTON!

Three Down, 77 More to Go...

...teeth that is! On three of the past five Fridays, our Kadence has lost a tooth! Like many children, she was excited and nervous when the first one "gave up the ghost." Suffice it to say, the notes and rewards from the Tooth Fairy have helped ease any worries!

Here are some photos with evidence!

Sisters :).

Stockton Will Be Severely Outnumbered

Well, family and friends, in case you have not heard our news, we found out that we'll be having another sweet baby girl join our family in July! We went to get our ultrasound Wednesday and could not be more thrilled. Elizabeth had a feeling it was a boy, while I thought it'd be a girl. Thank goodness one of us was right :). Everything looks great and we have the photos on the refrigerator to prove it. 

To make the announcement to the children, Elizabeth bought little gift bags--one with a baby Minnie toy, one with a pink rubber ducky, and one with "It's a Girl" candies. She threw them off, because the bags were blue (she couldn't find any other colors). They are excited, although Stockton still thinks it's a boy, as Elizabeth said. 

We are now officially accepted name suggestions. It's got to be a fun, unique name...after all, she's a Smith! We try to not use names of anyone we've known in school, wards, missions, or my 540+ BYU student employees from years ago. 

WE ARE THRILLED! We can already feel her sweet spirit in our home and cannot wait to welcome her to our family. We feel very, very blessed.

It's a ....

We don't know yet! We get to go have our ultrasound in a few hours and the excitement is building! I haven't felt strongly whether it's a boy or girl, but others in our family have. I've been trying to think this morning of a creative way we can tell the kids if they're having a brother or sister, but am not feeling super creative. Our neighbor, Heather, did some really cute cupcakes that were filled with pink frosting so her kids could find out after they bit into them. I thought that was so cute and the pictures they got of their kids expressions were so priceless! We usually just tell people what we're having, but after seeing what she did, it made me want to do it in a fun way also. The problem is that I have 2 hours now. I've been looking online to get ideas, and I think I found a few, but we'll see. Most involve a little bit of time for planning (which I don't have). Stay tuned, and the announcement will be made later today!

Looking through Windows

More inspired counsel from President Monson. How grateful I am for our Prophet who teaches us important life lessons.

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.