It's Official....Here comes baby!

Sooooo, I know I have not really spoken to anyone formally about it, but we are having another baby! Our tentative (OB appt coming up soon to confirm exact due date) is July 12, 2010. Still not sure how I feel about the whole thing since I really have not been having a very easy time so far with this pregnancy (much like the ordeal with Yasmin!). Curtis, of course, is very proud of his accomplishment and for the opportunity to try and beat his odds to hopefully have a boy to pass on his name. If it is a girl, I have already given Lisa dibs to keep the baby for herself : ). There is just way to much female hormones in this household already!

So far I have been pretty miserable. Hyperemisis gravidarum is the formal name of my condition which is severe nauseau and vomiting and I have already had to be hospitalized for rehydration! Fun times. As well, while in the hospital I found out I had a bladder infection and Group B Strep (not strep throat). So, after trying 3 different anti-nauseau meds, we finally found one that helps, but keeps me in a coma. I think that I have been asleep for 3 weeks out of the 4 that I have been feeling horrendous.

With that being said, it is 3 days til Christmas (my most favorite holiday of the year) and I can not find the desire to put up my tree. Yup folks (like my new Texas lingo?) the girl who usually has her tree up the day after Thanksgiving and loves to decorate the house to look like a gingerbread house (see last years Christmas photos) is feeling bah hum bug. To make matters worse, the freaking storm on the east coast has made it so my sister will not be joining us for Christmas. So I am left familyless over the holidays and a little depressed! I can't enjoy coquito, I wasn't able to finish Christmas shopping (yes most of you will be getting your gifts after Christmas as I was in that 3 week coma), and I am not in the mood to go food shopping so my kids are starving.

I am almost finished my first year of school and proud to announce I am currently at a 3.6 GPA! Very proud of myself, considering I work full time, stay home with the baby full time and go to school full time. My last class for the year is an Intro to Films which is quite interesting. Only 3 more years to go, although I would like to try to finish sooner so that I don't have to go to Iowa in the winter to walk in my graduation!

Jason is a terror who is driving me off the wall. He has a new thing, screaming for no reason when you tell him no. Our doctor has recommended we have him screened for ADHD. Appt is in the new year.

Angel is your typical teen, driving us insane with her attitude. She started playing basketball and Curtis is coaching. I was supposed to be the asst coach but being preggers kinda sidelined that opportunity. Joy!

Yasmin. Yasmin. She is mean. She likes to beat up Jason and to terrorize the house every opportunity she gets. If she sees paper, she will tear it up. If she sees cardboard, she will eat it. Oh, Chris, I have to find your Christmas gift card because she emptied my wallet and likes to hide things. So it is a constant treasure hunt in the house!

So send me some cheer, help lift up my spirits. I am having a rough time this Christmas and just want to go back into my coma! The kids will be lucky if Santa is able to wrap gifts under the tree that is not there.

Bah Hum Bug and a Merry Christmas! We love you all and wish you the best for the holidays!

March and April 2009 Pics

March and April 2009

T-Ball games, Easter, My Dallas Birthday Party, and just fun pics!

Our visit to the Guzman's in Tampa

It has been a minute since we last dazzled you with the life and times of the Smith Family! We last left off with the crazy antics of Yasmin. Now we are going to update you on the goings on from the our adventures in March.

For Spring Break we visited the Guzman's in Tampa! What a wonderful time; but it certainly started out in true Smith catastrophe style! Enroute to Tampa, our plane was delayed leaving Dallas heading to Atlanta due to the rain. We ended up landing in Tampa with an hour to spare to catch our connecting flight. Oh but what fun! We sat on the run way for an hour and thirty minutes waiting to taxi! By that time there were no flights left leaving out. We had the most horrendous customer service experience with AIRTRAN but thankfully we were able to stay at the Doubletree that night at my employee rate!

The next morning we left to board our 9 am flight to Tampa. The upheaval ended up hampering Curt and Alex's plans for a fabulous Saturday morning golf game, but we were finally in Tampa! Michelle and Alex live in a quaint little neighborhood, with thier house being very prominent amongst the many smaller homes. In true Shel fashion, her home looks like something straight out of remodeling magazine. (Come do my house!!)

We had a wonderful Saturday eating wonderful home made chili (yummmmmm), the kids playing Wii, the guys going out to hit golf balls, and best of all - gossiping with my Shel over Starbucks coffee. That evening we headed out to Channel Side and had a wonderful time bar hopping, piano dancing, and howling at the moon! (Thanks, Alex! You definitely know how to bring out my wild side ; ) After a long evening out, Michelle and I stayed up having additional catching up time until 3 am. Fun times.

Sunday we spent the day just lounging around. Alex made waffles (yum) and we enjoyed more of that Starbucks coffee. After a leisurely morning, Curtis headed home. When Alex returned we went to Apollo Beach and watched the space shuttle take off. The kids enjoyed the ocean breeze. It was a wonderfully relaxing day. We spent the evening watching Slum Dog Millionaire (great movie).

Monday we went for a walk with the dogs. When Alex came home we went shopping. I bought a very nice bathing suit for my many summer travels (8 more lbs and I will be at my goal weight and plan on looking sexy this summer). We celebrated our mutual March Birthdays (Michelle's on the 17th and mine on the 19th). What better way to celebrate my 30th than with my bestest friends!

We can't wait until our next trip to Tampa in June!

It's all about Yasmin!

Here is Yasmin showing off her crazy crawling skills!

Enjoy!

Here is Yasmin making clicking noises - she is so funny!

Yasmin sitting up all by herself.

Yasmin playing in her Tea Party Exersaucer.

Yasmin beating up Jason!

The Kids are Growing Like Weeds!

My Angel turned 13 yesterday and we had a nice day of shopping, lunch at Cheddar's, and delicious cake! I am beginning to get a little sad that my first born is no longer going to need me in a few years - What's a Mom to DO???

Then Yasmin goes and sprouts 2 teeth this past week and starts crawling! Time to do some major baby proofing.

Jason, well, T-ball starts on Wednesday, he already leaves me to go have dinner at the neighbors (because his mommy makes lasagna! I'm on a diet for goodness sake!) and thinks he is a little man.

Things are going really well at the Smith residence. The kids are happy, I've lost 21 lbs, Curtis is losing his love handles and going to school for his real estate license. I will complete my first class this week with an 'A'! My next class is Psych. So now I will torment my husband since he has his degree in Psychology. I am becoming active in our HOA and helping to put on a great Easter Celebration for the neighborhood! I've made some friends and have some events planned for the next few weeks.

We are in search of a church home and have already tried out one church in the area. We want to make sure that we are in the right environment for our family and our continued spiritual growth.

We are counting down the days until we go to visit the Guzman's in March. Hopefully, my mom will be coming out in April, otherwise I won't be seeing her until Mother's Day Weekend : (

Here are some videos of Yasmin and her silliness!

Back to School!

A lot has happened in the past 3 weeks and we have been incredibly busy in the Smith household.

For New Year's, we celebrated at the Meneses house and had a great night. The kids had a Wii tournament and just had a blast playing pool and Wii. The adults drank tequila, played dominoes, and listened to Dick Clark! We celebrated East Coast time as we were all from the East Coast and wanted to ring in the New Year on our family and friends time!

I started back to school on January 20th to pursue my Bachelors of Arts in Public Relations and Marketing with Ashford University! I am so excited to finally be pursuing my degree. My classes are 5 weeks long and is considered full time. My estimated graduation is December 2012!

Yasmin is trying so hard to crawl! Anyday now and I will have to baby proof the entire house - thankfully we live in a one level. This past week she has decided that she doesn't like naps and I am pulling my hair out trying to get her back on schedule!

Jason will be starting T-Ball in February. He is so excited. The T-Ball program is considered part of the Little League here in Texas, so they have the opportunity to play in tournaments. Jason is also a gabber mouth (just like his mama!) and has made quite a few friends in the neighborhood.

Angel, who is about to turn 13 next month, is your typical teenager. She is making lots of friends at school and went to the movies with her girlfriends for the first time! Yes, she is getting to the age where they want to talk all day on the phone and hang out at the mall. Everything in moderation! We are working on the attitude and she will be starting cheer classes at Cheer Athletics as long as she keeps it in check and does well in school.

Curtis has been speaking with Mallory every night before she goes to bed. It is their new father-daughter ritual and I am very proud of Curtis for putting in the effort. Mallory seems to be doing well. We aren't going to see Mallory until the summer. Since her mother allowed us to have her for extra time this summer, she will spend spring break with her mom and her brother and sisters in Mathis.

Curt went to Boston during a much wintery mess to take the last of his Rich Dad/Poor Dad seminars. We missed him while he was gone, but we were definitely glad that he was able to catch a flight home after his flight was canceled!

Unfortunately, it has not been all fun and sunshine. Curtis' maternal grandmother passed away and was laid to rest on 1/24/09. I only got to meet her one time and I am glad for that opportunity. She was such a sweet lady and from the stories I have heard, and the amount of people that came out to show their respects, she certainly touched many lives. Curtis went to Detroit, and despite the circumstances, had a nice mini-family reunion and met cousin's he had never known.

Miki and Lisa came to visit this weekend! I was so happy to have some female companionship. It has been awfully lonely here in Texas. We got to meet some of Miki's Dallas co-workers and found out one of her colleagues lives 2 miles from us. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the cafe in the Dallas office and took home a bottle of Fortress Vineyards wine. We came home and played Wii, talked, (Miki did some work and studying), exercised and went for a run on the trail in my neighborhood. We had dinner at Cheddar's and drank Margaritas. (Lisa got to experience the digusting water in TX!). I made a nice healthy breakfast on Saturday and then we headed out to Firewheel Mall and then to Toys R Us. We had a nice light dinner at Brooklyns Restaurant and had the Manhattan and Bronx pizzas. We stayed up looking through Avon catalogs, talking about life and our plans for the future. I am so happy they came to visit me!

As we get ready to end this month, we hope that everyone is blessed this new year! I am well on my way in my new year's resolution to lose 40 lbs, run the 5K in May in Reston, VA, to do well in school, and to enjoy my family! So far I am down 12 lbs!

Christmas 2008

What a fabulous Christmas - even though I missed my mom and my Titi Lisa!! I did get to see my Miki and Michael on the 22nd which was a lot of fun! We went to Kohls, had coffee, made strawberry daiquiri's and harassed Lisa! We made a lovely appetizer dinner with pecan crusted chicken strips, buffalo chicken strips, home made guacomole and salsa, and Shrimp Scampi - yummy!

Mallory came to visit for a short trip this year and got to spend Christmas day with us but had to head home the next day. We took family pics - can't wait to get them!, we goofed around, went Christmas shopping, made Christmas cookies, had hot cocoa and just really enjoyed our time with Mallory.

The kids made out fairly well but could have gotten more if they would have behaved this year!

Jason got gameboy games, Pirates toys, tee ball set, Spiderman set (thank you Titi Miki and Michael), Batmobile remote control car (Thank you Titi Lisa), Batman Dark knight toy (Thank you Titi Krystal and Chris), bubble bath, AMC gift card (Thank you Grandma!), toys r us gift card, hot wheels card holder, hot wheels cars from Angel, Money (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Smith), and a stuffed animal from Mallory.

Angel got her Nintendo DS and Nintendogs (courtesy of Titi Miki), digital camera (thanks Titi Lisa), AMC gift card (thanks Grandma!), Birthstone jewelry (thank you Titi Krystal and Chris), make up, money (thanks grandma and grandpa Smith), bracelets and rings from Jason, suspenders and belt from her fave store Hot Topic, lip gloss, clothes, Twilight book, CDs, Hillary Duff perfume, and a stuffed animal from Mallory.

Mallory got Mario Cart, Nintendo Babysitting game, iPod (thank you Titi Miki and Michael), birthstone jewelry (thank you titi Krystal and Chris), Mani/Pedi kit, lip gloss set, AMC gift card (thanks grandma Tita!), money (thanks Grandma and Granpa Smith), CDs, bracelets and rings from Jason, clothes, purse, Love's Baby Soft perfume, high school musical bicycle helmet set, High School Musical poster, High School Musical accessories and Akeela and the Bee movie.

Yasmin got an exersaucer, a little leap drum, a little leap catepillar, 2 teething rattle toys, a moose rattle from Grandma, and money from grandma and grandpa Smith. From Titi Krystal and Chris she got a Santa suit but we haven't put that one on her yet because we had gotten her one too - I promise to put her in and take pics soon to upload.

The family got a Wii with Cooking Mama, Wii Play, The Price is Right, Sims and Wii Sports. We are getting Mario Cart soon we already have wheels but the game was sold out! The kids also got a Basketball hoop for outside.

Curtis got a bar set, a weight lifting bench, a pillow from Mallory, CDs from the Angel, UT cup, socks and his PS3 (we made him go through a scavenger hunt to find the game in the oven and microwave!) and Madden 09 and iTunes from Miki and Michael.

I got a Vera Wang purse, a Bulova watch, lots of clothes, a Coach bag fom Titi Miki and Michael, the Deceptively Delicious Cook Book, Simply Delicioso Cook book, Extreme Fat Smash Diet book and CDs.

We spent Christmas Eve at home with a simple dinner together and me and Curt staying up until 12:30 wrapping gifts. Thank you children for another year of not waking up before 8 am! I am so glad that my kids are not like I was when Christmas rolled around and woke up at 5 in the morning! The kids slept together in Angel's room and giggled themselves to sleep!

Christmas moring I made biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs and of course a nice big mug of coffee! We played Wii and stayed in our PJs until 1pm when we had to start getting ready to go to our new friends the Meneses' for Christmas dinner in McKinney (about 25 minutes north of us). I made Arroz con Gandules and a Chocolate Silk Pie with Oreo Cookie pie crust -YUM! Dinner was very good at the Meneses - we had pernil, pasteles (PR style - direct from the BRONX), yuca with garlic sauce, fried chicken appetizers, ham and this yummy Strawberry desert that Selina and her husband Rudy brought. Annete's mother and stepfather were there visiting from NYC and made me miss my mommy so much. They danced salsa and we just partied!

The weather was 70 beautiful degrees on Christmas day!

It was a very pleasant holiday and we miss everyone very much! I can't wait for my sisters and my mom to come out next year!