Passover

This was the 2nd year I celebrated passover with the Jones'. Last year I went has Jenna's friend. This year, I went as Jenna's friend and future sister in law. Len, Jim and Bud and Helen all celebrated their first Seder. The food was AWESOME. Brisket and some potato dish... YUMMY... Jimmy ate FANTASTIC. My picky husband is out to prove he no longer is picky. He ate his entire flelta fish. Jim even "drank" some fruit juice. (He didn't try the wine - shocker). The amount of juice he drank, by the way, was the amount of juice you drink at communion.
Oh, yeah... who knows how to spell felta fish?

Easter Egg Fun

Dad taught the kids how to decorate eggs. They had so much fun! But let me say, what a mess :). Their smiles were worth it!

You Decide 2008

I actually had some free time this week to watch something other than Dora, so I thought I would catch up on my current events. It was about 7ish at night so really there wasn't much on local news stations so I turn to national news. What is the topic of conversation? YOU DECIDED 2008! They go on to talk about how much money goes into JUST RUNNING for president of the United States. It DISGUSTED me. Seriously... lets spend 20 million on HOPING to RUN for president! Obama is at $25 million and Ms. Clinton is at $24 million.... What disgusts me... is that here there are third world countries who are dieing of aids and we are raising all this money for two or three people to simply TRY at the presidency. Where are our countries priorities? PLUS you know what they are going to do with this money in order to TRY at the presidency? They are going to make commercials that SLAM their opponents! Trash talk.... I know I mentioned two Democrats, but the republicans are just the same! I just don't know what figures they are at with TRY at the White House.

In case this doesn't come as a shock to you after reading this, this is one of the main reasons why I hate politics ... I know it is important, bla bla bla... but I just get disgusted at all the trash talk, and all the money we waste. Isn't there a better way???

Glitter Glam Fun

For those of you who don't know... our church has done a Glitter Glam thing in March (this is our second one). This is where girls can come and get all dolled up and treated like a princess. They get their hair done, make-up, nails... all done. They get to make body glitter, color pictures, get a tattoo (water of course). Then at the very end, they get to walk down a cat walk in front of parents and loved ones. The idea comes from a store in Anaheim in Down Town Disney but for the life of me I can't think of the name. Jane showed me. My friend Jane is who organizes this HUGE event. There were over 100 girls there. Haley had a BLAST!

The above picture is of Haley (the princess - before she changed to the Teenie Wahine girl) and her friends, Kaylee, Gracie and Mikayla.

Haley on the cat walk posing :) Here she is the Teenie Wahine. She changed because her crown was making her head super red and her skin is super sensitive as it is so I went with something we had left over and traded in the crown.

Haley and her friend, Grace, eating their Chik-Fil-A. The whole car ride home was filled with non-stop talking. These two girls had the time of their lives. it was the most precious thing. It actually made me choke up... but right now, that doesn't surprise me. I am a walking hormone :). Non-pregnant Stef wouldn't have cried over something like this :)

Happy 29th Birthday Jim!

His Birthday was March 19th. We had dinner at my parents house. It was a family party. My mom made Jim's favorite BBQ sandwiches and french fries.

The T-Shirt I got him for his birthday :)

M&M's and Rocky Balboa

Hunter enjoyed gramma's cake... or should I say frosting :)

Jim with his kiddos... where will the third on sit?

Name Poll

So this weekend we were at a birthday party and the women of the group were sitting around a table helping me with baby names. Hannah is DEFINITELY our girl name.... the middle name is up in the air still... both Haley and Hunter have middle names that are from Jimmy or me. Haley Joy and Hunter James (yes I know, HJV). I would like to CLEARLY state that Jim and I did not INTEND to be cleaver like that and make our children have the same initials... BUT it happened. Our options on the Hannah's middle name is ... Hannah Joy (and keep all girls with the same middle name) Hannah Janelle, Hannah Grace (forget having the same initials), Hannah Jean, Hannah Jane, Hannah Joelle. What do you think?

Now for our boys choices...
Haley wants baby boy to be named Bear. Hunter's name is blanket. Jim and I are thinking that we will leave the naming to the adults :)
As of right now our boy name is Hug. (We are not serious for those of you who think we are). Because we can't think of a name that we agree on, we are referring to this baby as baby Hug. we are nerds what can I say.
Some names we are thinking about are: Hayden, Harrison, Jack, Jonah, ... I know I have said this before, but I don't want to just settle for a name because it starts with H. My thought is if we can't find an H name, then why don't we go with Jimmy's initials and that way the boy matches someone :) JBV... Any thoughts?

Another question...
We have a boy and a girl... we really can't think of which sex we would want over another... but the name thing is killing me :). Plus, Haley thinks we are having a girl... Would you find out if it is a boy or girl? I have ONLY experienced finding out and I have really enjoyed that! ... Please tell me your thoughts... I may or may not follow it, but I am interested :) Jimmy wants to find out... and I am still in the air. I have a feeling we will find out :)

"Are there Cinderella dresses in Heaven?"

Haley always asks questions... about the signs along the road, why it takes FOR EVER to have a baby, why is she the oldest... She asks about God all the time. Asks about Heaven and where He lives... "what kind of food does He like? Will there be yogurt in Heaven? What about Jelly Beans?"

After my Aunt past away, she would ask things like... "we need to take to Susie when we go to Heaven, I think she is missing it." This Sunday started out the same. "Why did Jesus die on a cross? Will I have to die on a cross too?" We try and answer her the best we can. I have underestimated my daughter and her brain. I would try and answer her in a way where I think she will understand.

Later in the car she tells me, "Mom, I know why Jesus died on the cross."
"why?"
"Because He died for our sins?" she says so matter of fact.
I didn't realize she knew the word sin so I ask, "What is sin?"
"Bad chooses we make sometimes."
"Yeah, you're right Haley."
"Jesus lives everywhere."
"Yeah."
"He can live in our hearts."
"Yeah... does he live in yours?" I am asking to see if she even knows what she is talkign about.
"I don't know... I want Him to."
"Will He can if you want Him to"

So that night she prayed for Jesus to come in to her heart. She was so cute about it. So childlike in her faith. She was so excited afterwards she wanted to call the world. Then she turns to Jim and asks, "Dad, does God have princess dresses for me to wear in Heaven? Like Cinderella?"

I got a little sad. I know that sounds weird, but something about her innocence and blind faith just stuck me so sweet! I didn't (and still don't) want her to grow up and learn what a cruel world it can be out there. I don't want her to get to that point where her innocence is lost. I want to keep her in a bubble that keeps her this age all the time (hey and me my age too)... but I know that isn't what I am called to do as a mother. I know I need to let her grow and learn about life and encourage her and be there for her as she learns about the real world. All I can hope for and pray for is that she keeps that faith, that childlike faith.

We have been married for 7 years!

Jane and Ryan and Jim and I all went to dinner to celebrate our anniversaries! We got married the same weekend one year apart. Their anniversary is March 24 and ours is March 25. We have other friends, the Siana's, who got married a year after Jane and Ryan on the same weekend, March 23. They couldn't make it to dinner.

We had a great time. We went to Steakhouse 55 in the Disneyland Hotel. The food was AWESOME... maybe because I am pregnant and craving red meat... It was good. The service was amazing. The atmosphere was just fun!

We had talked about doing a celebration for our anniversaries before but this year we finally did it.

Wee did it :)

Yes I know, I spelled we wrong. I meant to. Hunter has been going thru a naked phase. He likes to take it all off, regardless who is around. He also loves to watch his pee go onto my floor. Really, it is driving me mad. So I was talking to a friend of mine, Jenn, for a little advice. She suggested not making it a bad thing, but to redirect his attention elsewhere (not her words, my summary). We hang up and no longer than a few minutes... Hunter comes in wanting his diaper off. Thinking of my conversation with Jenn, I say, "Want jelly beans?" of course his answer is yes! I then explain that he needs to go pee pee in the toilet for jelly beans and he could be naked all at the same time. He RAN to the bathroom, jumped on the toilet and peed! YEA... lets hope this keeps up!

What age?

I just got done reading My Sisters Keeper, by Jodi Piccoult. In the story, one of the main characters is dieing of Kidney failure. She turns to her sister and asks, "When you are in Heaven, do you think you get to pick the age in which your body is? Not your mind... your mind is like an adult." The girl goes on to say that she would pick to be the age 19 because she was currently 16 and thought 19 would be a great age to be.

I am asking this question to you, not because I think it is true or not, but just because it is a fun question... If your mind is an adult mind, what age would you want your body to be? So far my favorite is from Bill and Carrie. One said they would be 92 because they wouldn't care, and the other picked the age 4. I had laugh... I pick 17 because I was really into sports and was in the best shape of my life... BUT I would NOT have picked my hairdo at age 17... it was NOT PRETTY!!!

Haley is registered!

So this morning I went and registered my daughter for kindergarten ... KINDERGARTEN.... How is my baby going to KINDERGARTEN already? Strange as it might sound... I am excited for her... I did not get emotional or cry (which wouldn't be out of the ordinary being that I am pregnant). I know she will love it. She already loves doing school with me at home and at pre-school so I know she will enjoy kindergarten.

These pictures are old :) the top one is Haley as a flower girl in Scott and Jenny's wedding. The bottom is Haley and Hunter posing for the Flipside camera at the Christmas eve service.

Survivor Baby!!!

For those Survivor watchers out there...
Jim and I ALWAYS enter into a pool when a new Survivor season comes out! We have actually won, once... we had Amber for the Survivor All -Stars... to think about it, I think Jim had Rob that time too? Anyways... This season we got Dre, who I think is Dreamz....

Who do you think will win this season?

Happy Love Day :) & Jenny's is 22 :) (Really)

A week ago, my mom and I gathered up all our courage and strength and went to a Mervin's Super Sale. Scary! There we found this beautiful red dress for Haley. When we saw it, we instantly thought it would be a nice, cheap, dress up dress for Haley to "play" in. I think it was a whopping 2 dollars. Anyways, Haley fell in love the moment she saw it and told me, "mommy, this is going to be my valentines day dress." Sure enough, this morning she HAD to wear it to school for the party in her pre-school class. She was the most dressed up student at school today! Jenny just turned 22! Her birthday is on the 9th. This is her with all of her sisters... old and new ones :) (I am the new one in case you didn't figure that out) :) Her sister Hayley, is hard to see, but she's there :) By the way... I took this picture so it is just lovely of me :)

Scott turns 22 :) because that would make me 24 :)

Early January, My good friend Kim came out from Indiana. Jen, Kim and I got together for a little catching up :). Kim was my teaching partner for four of the five years I worked in the Etiwanda School District! I miss her, but I know she is happy living closer to her family.

Scott really turned 27. :)

For his birthday he requested our family mac salad. Now it isn't like most macaroni salads that are out there. this one is made with four different onions, lemon juice, olive juice, green olives, tomatoes, and much more. It is heart burn city! But it is AWESOME. We joke that you have to be a true Smith to enjoy the salad.... I love it, Jim doesn't, Hunter spit it out before it really went into his mouth (which is funny because he'll eat anything) and my VERY picky eater, Haley, wanted seconds :).
Jim loves to play tickle monster with the kids. Wait, I should rephrase that... the kids love to play tickle monster with dad. On this one evening, Hunter wanted dad to wear his Dinosaur costume to play tickle monster. This is a picture of Jimmy banging at the door talking like cookie monster...

My Aunt Susie

Top left: Susie in our first home at our house warming party.... then my grandpa (her dad) and Scott and I as kiddos
Bottom left: Her holding Scott at 3 days old .... and then her with Mindi and I at our 16th birthday party at Disneyland. Well, as most of you know, my aunt Susie past away this last Saturday. To read more about that, check out my mom's blog at the right of this entry under Smith's...

My Aunt suffered from Lupus for the latter half of her life... She suffers no more :)

This entry isn't to tell you how she died or all the obituary stuff like that. I thought I would simply share with you all some kind memories I have of her and if you have any you would like to share go for it. Most of you who read this didn't know my aunt.

She was always there. We were all the family she really had. She always treated me like a daughter. She did not have children, so Scott and I were like the only children in her life, really.

On my 20th birthday we found out that she was in kidney failure (I know there is a more medical word for that but you get my point). I remember going threw the process of her having to deal with getting her shunt (for dialysis)... dealing with the LONG three hours + of sitting there in a depressing dialysis center. I went a few times to keep her company. If you know me well, I didn't like all the blood that you see in a place like that. I remember crying thinking how depressing it must be to spend three to four days there a week. A WEEK!! No more vacations.... (Unless you went on a special vacation that had dialysis.)

Anyways...
I wanted this to be happy memories so I will get to a happy memory. Sometimes it seems that to get to the happy memory, you have to endure hard moments.

Fast forward to just after I turned 22.

Susie got a kidney. She was so excited and over come when my mom offered to give her a kidney. (For those of you who have read this far in my blog and don't know, my Aunt Susie is my mom's sister).

The kidney gave her 6 more years of NO dialysis, vacations, time with family and friends....

HAPPY things I will remember:
- Talking about all the movies and TV shows we followed.
- Christmas eve, sharing a couch, boobie rubs
- Her finger nails
- Joking around together
- LAUGHING A LOT
- Libby (her dog)
- What a great gift giver... she always got us great gifts, from the heart...
- How much Haley loves her
- Her Red bug
- How sweet she was
- Her telling me all the funny stories of my mom as a kid... how they would get into trouble laughing at the dinner table...
- She was very real...
- being there for me when both kids were born...
- every birthday, or holiday she was there!
- Making the Cheese Cakes for Jim and my wedding Cake :)
- Making most of the cheese cakes for my birthday parties... I asked her and she always was willing.
- Her "doggie talk"

Well, for now I am going to stop... :) I am sure there is more.... and I am sure you may not understand all those memories :) but that's ok :) I am not really writing this for you anyways... this is for me :)

Counting down already?

Here is our ticker count down...

According to the Chinesse...

Have you heard of the Chinesse calendar? A friend of mine at the Flipside heard I was pregnant and asked if I had checked this calendar out.... I told her I didn't believe in that silliness... she laughed and said that for her and her group of friends it was accurate for every kid they had. So curiosity got to me and I went on line to check it out. Sure enough for both Haley and Hunter it was right on. I, then, asked my friend Kelly if it worked for her, and it was right.... I have since asked a few more friends and it was right for them too! So I'm not saying I totally believe this silliness, but when you find a lot of people who claim it was right on, well....

So go to this link and tell me please, was it right on for you too?
Calendar Chinesse Pregnancy

So we told the kids...

We sat down with the kids this weekend and told them that we were going to have another baby. Immediately Haley came up with baby names for a girl of course... Rainbow, Flower, Angel, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. I said, "Those are very creative names Haley, but what if we have a boy? God may give us a boy. Can you think of any boy names?" Then she looks up at me with her big brown eyes, sighs, then says, "We can name him H."

Hunter really doesn't know what is going on. He knows I am having a baby... but other than that, he doesn't care :) The only name Haley could get out of him was Chair.

We're Expanding

January 1, 2007 we found out that we are having baby number three. With both Haley and Hunter we pretty much told people right away, but with this one, we really wanted to wait until we heard the heart beat. January 18 we got to hear that heart beat! We are very excited. We are due the beginning of September. If this one comes like Haley and Hunter, 3 weeks early, then we are expecting an August baby. At this point, we are just happy it is healthy.

People have asked us that if we had three would we go with another H name. Our answer is this... :) a girl, we already had the name Hannah Grace; a boy... well, we haven't found an H name that we love yet and we don't want to just name him with an H name just because it fits the kids... I would rather name him a name we like then just settle for a random H name. So at this point, we have our girl name, but we are really stuck with the boy name. I think we have PLENTY of time to figure it out... we aren't worried :) but we are taking suggestions :) Both Haley and Hunter have the same initials too. HJV When we went to pick Hunter names, we always knew it was going to be James as the middle name, but it took us FOREVER to come up with Hunter and it WASN'T because it was an H name. We have thought that with this one, if we can't come up with an H name we love then why don't we switch the initials around to JHV and name him with a J.... we will see :)

We haven't told our kids yet. Hunter isn't going to know the difference but Haley will. I know she will be excited, but I am sure she won't understand the waiting period of it all. With Scott and Jenny's wedding back in March when they got engaged, all I heard was, "When is the wedding?" it was all she talked about... she had to act it out, all that and I DON'T want that with this :).

Here are two pictures of my family at Scott and Jenny's wedding. Soon we will be complete with a family of five :).

Two birthdays, Hanukkah, a Wedding ... and Happy New Year

We have had a list of activities this month. I haven't been very good at staying on top of my blog and updating it for those of you who look at it often. I have a TON of stories to fit EACH of these activities, but really, no time to write them down :). So... if you see me and wanna know more, just ask :) otherwise, here are some cute pictures of our eventful month:

Our Christmas tree :)

Hanukkah with Jenna and her family.

Happy 29th Birthday Mom!
A day trip to Santa Monica with friends - Carrie and Melissa.

Not a good one of the kids ..... Christmas!!!
Haley getting her nails done. Reminder to all moms out there of four year old girls... When you leave your four year old to have your hands dried, the nail painter lady will ask her if she wants flowers and all the other added expenses, your four year old most likely will say yes :) and then your 5 dollar paint job will end up being 15 dollars :)

My Brother, Scott, and Jenny get married ... December 29th
This is a dark picture, but it is the only one that I could get downloaded for the blog... sorry :)New Years Eve - we went to Jim's grandma's (Ruth) house for dinner.
New Years day, we went down to visit friends, Kelly and Sam in their new home!