Scout is 8!

Happy 8th Birthday Scoutie!!  

I honestly can't believe that our girl is already 8!  The other day I saw someone post about their kiddo having spent half of her time with them already.  Ugh!  I'm not ready for my kids getting bigger, but I'm thankful that they are healthy and growing.

This year I had a dainty little girls only party in mind.  Turns out that what Scout really wanted was a feedyard party.  I was thinking oh goody I won't have to clean my house so much.  Uh, it is much easier to clean that to drag everything that you need for a party up to the feedyard.  

The girl made her own "s'more" party favors.  I typed up a little card and she and her brothers put them together with a little help from their Gigi.

These two guys are big pals.  It might have to do with Trail always giving him coke, candy, brownie.....any type of sugar!

 So like I was just saying....... When there is a coke (or even Ginger Ale) to be had, this is what you will see.  His face will be attached!  ha ha

 Scout got her 1st sewing machine which we are both super excited about.  Of course our summer has been a little busy and we haven't cracked it out just yet, but we are hoping for a visit from Granny Great soon.  I think it will be so special for her Great Grandma to teach her to sew.

 I present to you the Townsend grandsons.  

Pake Adams(17), Reno Smith(5), Ranger Smith(1), Trail Townsend and Tate Adams(14)

 The birthday girl made it to the top of the rope.

 She pretty well made her own dream catchers.  We will be making a few changes and putting them in her room.

 I remember her Dad giving me a bad time about something, so he got the job of lighting the candles.  Yeah right.

 The 5 of us!

Ranger wasn't going to be left out of cupcakes and ice cream.  Thanks Papa for helping a little guy out!

There are pictures that I missed.  We played kick ball boys against girls.  Boys (as in Riley Smith) cheated, as usual.  I missed the expressions of a few astonished folks when we turned out the little pigs for the kids to chase.  I missed water fight pics.  Riley Smith gets a little carried away.  I'm certain you do not want to be in a water fight with him.  He doesn't get people wet.  He tries to drown them.  He will fuss that I've gone into such detail about this, claiming it isn't near as bad as I make it sound.  It is!  Instead of folks leaving and saying goodbye, they were running for their vehicles.  He was chasing them with a big orange water cooler full of water.  The mental picture is better than any photograph I could offer.  ha ha

Happy Birthday Scout Girl!! 

Ranger Lee is 1!

Ranger Lee aka "Baby"!  

We did have a little trouble settling on a name for this squirt.  It wasn't like Reno where it just clicked and that was it.  The kids and I had to call this fella something before he arrived.  It just became "Baby" and even after he was born we continued to call him that.  

It probably explains why when he was about 2 weeks old Scout says, "What did we name Baby?".  A little shocked I answered, "Ranger Lee".  She says, "Ah man, I wanted to name him Spur!". We got a pretty good laugh out of that.  

Mimi would continually correct me from using Baby instead of his name.  He probably should thank her that someday he won't have to answer to Baby Smith.  You hear lots of unique names and nicknames these days, but I haven't come across a grown man called Baby.  I think his name goes well with Scout and Reno. 

Lee is after Riley's paternal grandmother Francis Lee.  I had asked for names from his family before but never remembered that this was her middle name.  A short time before he was born I asked for names again and we tried our first name choices with the different middle name choices.  Ranger Lee is a winner.  Frannie was a very neat, talented woman.

This baby is wise beyond his year about selfies and chocolate chip cookies!

The Townsend, Adams, and Smith cousins!

Farm animal and tractor theme party!!

There wasn't even a moment of hesitation with this boy.  He dove right in!

Brother and sister wanted to help, but he really didn't need it.  

Mimi wanted him to stop eating before he had a tummy ache!

He was pretty well covered in that blue icing, so we took a dip in the sink.

Presents, presents, presents!  Thank goodness for sister's help.  

Jennison loving on our Mesa Dog.

Ranger discovered that he loved the trampoline on the day of his party.  We can no longer leave the stool out by it. He is super dangerous because he no longer crawls, but stands up and runs.

The Riley Smith Family!

Loving his baby bedroll from Gigi for about 2 seconds!

This little man has been such a joy.  He is pretty easy to deal with.  Most of all he loves to eat and to be outside!!

Happy Birthday!

Swimming Lessons

Our swimming lessons are not the normal swimming lessons.  We go to "Aunt Jody's" for some pretty special swimming lessons.

We get to see some pretty special friends that live there in Seymour, the Basshams and Cokers.  Here is Ranger man with Miss Ivy.

This year we had an extra special treat........Aunt Vick and Pappy and Missy and Taileigh.  Of course there was yummy food and crafts.  Jody and Vicky are probably the two craftiest and sewie-est ladies I know.  My kids loved it!

Scout and Jerrin practicing their hula-hooping while siblings are in lessons.

Ranger had a big time exploring Aunt Jody's porch.

Scout and Taileigh were instant friends,  Here they are with sweet, new cousin Maddie that we finally met!

Reno, Colt, Scout, Maddie, and Taileigh

I even took a dip with the kiddos!

Ranger visiting with Uncle Kevin and Maddie.

Each morning during lessons Ranger napped in the stroller.

Little Ranger is not one bit afraid of the water.  It's a wonder he didn't just jump in with the girls!

Boo!!

Surprised ya, didn't I?  ha

I know this post comes as a surprise, but here we are......

the Smith family all new and improved!!

Ranger Lee is not only here, but also half grown. :)

Most of you know all about him and us too.  If you don't, maybe I'll go back and fill ya in.  Maybe I won't.  No promises from this new and still adjusting mother of three!!

Halloween costumes were a breeze this year.  Tradition since Scout's first Halloween has been for me to make the costume. Not just to make the costume, but to make the costume on Halloween Day!  

This year Reno wanted to be a Ninja Turtle, which was plenty easy to find and purchase.  We bought the costume first of the month and he played in it quite a lot.  He was obsessed with swords.  Luckily that only last for a few weeks.  By the time the actual day rolled around he was more into nunchucks.
  

Scout wanted to be a bride, but couldn't find a bridal costume that suited her.  We looked online, we looked in store........Lord help us when she really is a bride.  She finally settled for this queen outfit.  Of course she wanted me to cut the hoop out and a few other changes that I refused to do.  She was fed up with her costume and was going to just be an S-E cheerleader, but I persuaded her with the promise of fancy hair and make-up.

Ranger was the sheriff, same as Reno was four years ago.  It is the hokiest outfit, but precious on a baby boy.

Halloween Day was pretty busy.  Reno and Ranger had well-checks in Amarillo, both getting shots.  Funny story about Reno, he had been asking all summer long if he was 4?  At Scout's 6 year well-check it was mentioned that you get shots at 4 and then not again until age 11.  Right then he decided that he could hold up on being 4.  Day of he was pretty nervous about getting them.  He did great though.  He watched, like a weirdo, and said "ow, ow, ow" and then that's it.  Super proud of him for being tough!!

We met Bronc and Tucker at the Lazbuddie Football game for Trunk-or-Treat!  We were kind of late and didn't get much candy, but that was actually perfect.  We don't need all that junk anyways.  Little Woody won his division of the costume contest.  He was the cutest, funniest Woody I've ever seen.  It turned cold quickly, so we hurried to Pizza Hut in Muleshoe to finish out the night.

I thought it was a perfect time to take Ranger's belated two month picture.  I can't believe it's already time for me to take his three month pic too!!

He is such a happy 'lil fellar!  He sleeps and eats and that's about it.  He is too good to be true and I wish everyone could have a sweetie like him.  

Mother's Day 2014

Every year Mother's Day is on the same weekend as the RHAA Finals in Abilene.  Lucky for us, it means that Mom is always here and we get to celebrate.  This year we added Summer's college graduation to the mix.  We have some pretty fun pics going on.

Some sweet nieces of mine told Reno to make a funny face when it was our turn for a pic and so you see the many faces we captured.

Mimi with some of her grandbabies.  We missed the Adams bunch this year.

Isn't my mom so cute?  I sure think so.  Funny thing Reno said as we chatted over lunch in Abilene.  I guess I was saying "mom" a lot and Reno stops me and says, "Mom, wait.......you have a mom?".  So since then we've been going over who belongs to who, siblings, etc.  It usually turns into a pretty fun conversation.

Hopes and her two "grown-up" daughters! 

The looks on all three of their faces here.

Hope - "I'll get you girl!" 

Summer - "I'm staying out of this one!"

Autumn - "I'm graduating in a few days and I'm not too scared of you lady!"

Scout will be as big as her Mimi before long.

Reno got a new hat in Abilene and if you can't tell he's pretty proud of it.  Also had to have his pants "under" his boots like Tripp.

Celebrating Summer girl being a WTAMU graduate.  Autumn, Reno, and Trail being silly while the rest of us try to take a normal pic.

Posing with my sweet babies!

Scout loves to pose and Reno loved running around the pillars.

The little guy had all he could take and crashed on Autumn while shopping.

The ZOO!!  We couldn't make the trip to Abilene and not visit the zoo.  Trail was a perfect guide!  The kids just chased after him and mom and I kind of tagged along.