Team Smith

A friend of ours had a baby! Yay! And tonight we were talking about baby names and being a big sister. Me: Cassidy what should our baby's name be? Cassidy: hmmm, we should name her Kate. Me: Really? Kate, huh? Cassidy: Yes. Baby Kate! Me: Well, what if the baby is a boy? Cassidy: But it's not. She's a girl. Me: Well, what if we have a boy, then what should we name him? Cassidy: Could you please make it a girl? Me: A girl named Kate? Cassidy: Well, we could call  her Auntie Ellie! Anyone read any good books on preparing the first child for a sibling? XOXO J

Baby did not wish to reveal to us this week if we should keep all of Cass' hand me downs or donate them :-) The ultrasound tech, Christina, was about 50% sure of the sex. This made me laugh! We're either having a girl or a boy. And a very healthy one at that. Everything looked great. The spine, brain, heart, kidneys, stomach, etc all showed up during the hour long procedure. Thank you Lewis Nixon for kicking things off in 1906 when you invented sonar!

Just clear to things up, yes we went to the ER last Friday. And everyone is happy and healthy again! Sorry if you have heard tidbits and were confused or worried. I woke up at 5:40am with breath stopping pain above my stomach. But I felt the baby moving so I wasn't worried about him/her. I asked Matt to brew some tea. As he was in the kitchen I suddenly started throwing up bile. Which tastes gross and smells even worse. So he started freaking out which started me freaking out and we called our midwife. I love that I can call her at any time of day! Midwife Mary, who is also a Nurse Practitioner, said if it continued I needed to go the ER and if it stopped I needed to come in and see her at some point that day. So I crawled, was half carried by Matt, to the couch and just tried to catch my breath. I started feeling better. Now I'm thinking maybe I just ate something weird the day before? Cass gets up and Matt gets her dressed. Then dropped her off at daycare super early. N

Today was a fun day. At church, Pastor Steve gave an awesome sermon and we celebrated Margaret's 100th birthday. And there was a guest choir of about 20 people or so, an all women chorus that sang in barbershop fashion. It was beautiful! We took a walk downtown and played in the fountains, just enjoying the sunshine. Finally, Matt cooked hamburgers for dinner and Cass and I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. She also played with bubbles and rode her bike, a birthday present from grandma and grandpa Smith and watched Veggie Tales, videos from Rene and Mark. Then Cass "helped" me get this blog up to date! I think we are all caught up now.

Cassidy Grace Smith is 3 years old! Because we were having so much fun, we did not take a lot of pics to commemorate this event, but she had a wonderful day. We went to church where she got to go up to the altar and be serenaded by everyone. We went to Chucky Cheese for the first time! It was super quiet at 11:30am. We had pizza and veggies and played games and danced. She did have one mishap where she crawled up into this play/jungle thing and got to the top and was terrified to come down. She wet herself. Matt ran to the car to gather up the extra clothes most parents of toddlers carry around and I got my pregnant self up that monstrous contraption disguised as a place to play to rescue my baby. I mean, my big girl. After a change of clothes all was well! Once home again we went for a long bike ride around time and the park before having dinner and birthday cookies. Cass still does not like cake, pie, ice cream, candy, brownies, popsicles, or really any other sweets. So weird. I do

All I will say is that I volunteered Matt to sing in the community choir for this event and after hearing him at the rehearsal, they gave him a solo to sing for the event that was only days later...

It was 5th grade. My second school. We moved a lot when I was little. And a boy named Omar was picking on me. Then this feisty girl in pigtails came over and told him to shut up and knock it off. So we became instant BFFs! Yes folks, this was how I met Ellie Chang. We have been friends ever since! Even through college we made it a point to visit one another and now we try real hard to see each other at least once a year. Anytime we are in the area because of work or whatever, we call to make sure the other is around and available if even for a quick cup of tea in the hotel lobby. Ellie currently is working on an MBA at her alma mater (USC) and working full time for Nestle. She is pretty much brilliant. She was in town for a conference and made time to hang out with us for a couple days! One of the best things about hanging out with a true friend, is that there are no expectations you actually do anything. We spent most of her time here in our PJs snacking on my couch and talking. The

Easter is always a joyful event! However, I will take a moment to say I was slightly annoyed by the amount of people who repeatedly asked Cassidy the following questions: Did the Easter bunny give you lots of toys? What did the Easter bunny bring you? Did you get a lot of candy? Since when did the Easter Bunny become the Santa of Springtime? Cass gave most of these people blank looks. And I began to jump in and explain that we met the Easter Bunny in person at the park where she got a few eggs. And by few I mean five. We celebrate Easter to celebrate the resurrection of Christ in our home. Not candy. No judgement to those who go all out with the baskets and toys and candy, but may we please have that same courtesy and not be judged because we didn't buy all of that stuff? Thanks. So Easter was a fun time! There was a huge egg hunt in the park. I got Cass a super cute Easter basket with a bunny on it- thank you Target special for $3! And that was all I got her. We went t