Field Trip #1 - Farm Show

Last week we ventured to Amarillo to check out the farm show.  We thought it might be a sort-of educational experience for the kiddos.  You can see how seriously they took it.

Is this how a loader model is to pose?  Reno is soooo in to loaders right now.  He was in loader/farm equipment heaven.  So was his dad!

They all climbed in and out of each piece of equipment about 50 times.  We are considering upgrading our loader at the feedyard so Riley was really quizzing each company.

I said this thing could be their playhouse.  The cab has two huge seats and lots of empty space.  It also looks like it has a balcony.  The thing is it mostly likely cost more than double what my house cost.  It's hard for me to wrap my mind around how much all of this equipment costs.

These little crazies played and played in this bucket.  Pretty glad Dad had the people occupied or they probably would have kicked us out.

Peace, Love, & May your farming dreams come true!!

PoPo Smith #90

On our way back to Earth (ha ha) from New Mexico we stopped in at Channing for Popo Smith's 90th birthday celebration!!

It was nice to get a photo with him.  I'm not sure if we have one with him at all.  

Four generations of Smith men right here!!

Wayne's wife Cathy is too sweet and a kid at heart.  She played Hopscotch with the littles and had the sweetest favors for them.  They had fun running wild out there just the same as Papaw and Dad did in the old days.  Memories!!

Turkey Day in NM

This year is our turn for Turkey Day with the Wood/Townsend Family and Christmas with the Smiths.  Does everyone have to share like we do?  So far it has worked quite well.  Everybody is pretty easy going.  

Preston, my step-dad, we can just leave the step out but that is a different story for a different day, organized a gathering of his family at the NRA Whittington Center.  Since someone always has to stay and work at Sandhill, unless it involves team roping or rodeo then they find a way, just my little family cruised over for the occasion.

I very strongly considered sending this as a Christmas card.  It is pretty much just "us".  

This statue of the Santa Fe Trail scout was pretty cool.  Reno of course wanted to ride it.  

Not super, good quality pic here.  At the Whittington there are tons of shooting ranges.  I was trying to leave all that out and just get some beautiful New Mexico scenery.

Sleepy head and I sat in the car when we got home while Reno and Riley shot the gun.  Reno was dying to since we didn't at the range.  

Next day I made myself a little circuit from the house to the barn.  Did a little walking and jogging.  Thank goodness for the beautiful mountains,

because OUCH!!  I haven't really done any post baby anything.  You can tell by the look on my face that it wasn't pretty.

Meanwhile, Mimi and Scout made sugar cookies.  It's hard to see in this pic just how much flour those two had all over themselves.

Papa did lots of baby holding.  Ranger looks so long here and Reno just looks so grown-up.  Ugh!

Scout let Mimi and Papa teach her how to play dominoes.  I was proud that she stuck with it.

Mimi pulled out the Bubba teeth.  I love how Scout is looking at her.  Reno was downright scared of them at first.  You know my family did this to us at our wedding don't you?

We had a very restful Thanksgiving just hanging out playing with old toys (you can see the mess in all of these pics).  Hope you enjoyed the same with your family!!

9 years ago today......

we were rushing around decorating, getting beautiful etc.  You know just the normal wedding story. 

Well, something that I will always remember is how calm I felt when it came right down to it. 

I mean things haven't necessarily been calm since then, but I can honestly say I've never been so sure about something in all my life. 

I'm even "surer" about it and about him today. 

This guy is a gem.  We couldn't make it without him. 

Miss Scout snapped this of us last spring.  It is one of my favorites.  I mean what is a more fitting shot of us than in the branding pen?

I honestly can't believe it has already been 9 years.  Truly time is flying!!

A few jobs, a few houses, more than a few horses, and most importantly 3 babies later we are going stronger than ever. 

🏠🐴👶👱👧😍❤️👍

#WIDN

The other day I was tagged #WIDN (what I'm doing now) on InstaGram by my friend Kristin.  This is what I was doing.

Sitting on the couch, 
in my jammies, 
with my three babies, 
doing school.

This year we have chosen to home school Scout.  When I say "we" I don't just mean her dad and I.  She is included in the "we".  Of course I'm not going to turn down the opportunity to spend precious time with my kiddo, but I'm also not going to keep her from public school if she wants to go.

It is going quite well.  She's a smart cookie if I might say so myself.  I do know that she is getting very spoiled this year. Of course it isn't always perfect.  We have a couple of trouble makers here but for the most part they behave and don't keep us from learning.

Reno has come along pretty well.  In the beginning he told me that "cowboys don't do school" and would get boots, hat, leggings on and wait for Riley to rescue him.  

Now he has been telling people that he's in 1st grade.  I have a few things specifically for him.  The other day he was participating in our Compare/Contrast discussion.

Ranger, well he's just a happy to be watching brother and sister. 

Freak Deal

So last Friday the big kids are having breakfast at the school desk and we are right on track for having a great Friday.  I am changing "Baby Love" as I chat with my SIL on the phone.  I pull his little foot out of his footed pajamas and this is what I see.......... a bright red, almost purple toe.

Talk about freak out.......I did!!  

My first thought was that he had been bitten.  I quickly discovered instead that hair was tightly wrapped around two of his toes.

I yanked most of the hair off in my initial panic.  I was able to find some to grab onto from the underside.  Next I had to hold him down screaming, pull the skin away from the line and slide my (not sharp) tweezers across to get whatever was left.  One hair broke when I did that.

Luckily Kaitlyn's mom is a nurse and my friend Jessica's mom is a NP.  After much conversation we decided that I didn't have to go in, but watch it super close.  Capillary refill seemed to be fine so as long as the hair was all gone there wasn't much to be done.

Needless to say we spent most of the day examining his toes and took lots of comparison pics.  I all but flagged people down on HWY 70 to make sure they couldn't see a hair still around his toe.  

It was bright red all day and some of the next.  Now pretty much all you can see is the line or cut.

Talk about mother of the year here.  I've earned that title so many times it's sad.

It's embarrassing, but it happened and luckily we still have all 10 toes.

 

Ranger Lee Smith

First of all.......Do you know how handy it is to have a photographer in the family?  Not just any ole photographer.  A really awesome one that I would choose even if she wasn't my SIL.  

Ranger was 6 weeks old in these shots.  Funny how kids are different.  He acted like he was brand new with the sleeping this.  Scout was 4 days old in her newborn session and there isn't one sleeping pic.  

Ranger was my name.  We said it early on, but at that time Riley was still hopeful that I would decide to like Ruger and Claude or who knows what.  We said we liked Ranger, but weren't sure it was "it".  When you have a little person inside you they just need a name.  The kids and I called him "Baby".  Baby's room, Baby this, Baby that....... Now I still catch myself calling him Baby.  Hopefully we don't still call him that when he's grown.  

Our biggest hold up on really deciding on Ranger was that we couldn't come up with a middle name.  I was time to use a Smith or Creamer name. Scout's is Preston after my step-dad and Reno's is Wade, same as Riley.  About a week before he was born I called Gigi and asked for all the names she could remember.  Riley's maternal grandmother was Francis Lee.  They called her Granny Franny and she was a dear!  I knew immediately that Lee went perfectly with Ranger.  Our other options as first names were Miles and Spur.

Boy do we love Baby!!  He is precious and the perfect completion of our family!!

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.

GOALS

So, my husband has set "GOALS" for me.  That is exactly how he worded it the other night when he explained that my goal for the next day was to update the blog.  So here we are......

My lack of blogging is most definitely a direct result of my laziness.  It just seems that any extra time I have right now I'd rather spend sleeping. Sorry 'bout ya!!

I'm also getting old, in a number of different ways, but most recently it has been that I'm impatient and aggravated with the "e-mail the pic to myself from my phone save it to my computer" process.  I'm feeling super old and even sometimes have trouble finding the pic.  That is a major confession.  Don't judge, I will take any blogging, computer advice you might have for me.  

So, I kind of did a little test.  I put the Blogger app on my phone, grabbed a few pics, saved it as a draft.  Then all I had to do was pull it up on the computer and commence to typing.  So far so good, we'll see how it continues.

It makes me sad that I rarely use my good camera anymore.  Truly I stink at it.  The phone fits in my pocket, yada yada!!

The good thing is that I didn't quit taking pics or semi-documenting our lives like I've always done.....I simply fell off the blog-wagon!

My Scout girl, she loves the camera!!  I mean truly, there are lots of grown women (myself included) that don't savy angling your body and bending one leg for a pic.  She must be hanging out with Aunt Kaitlyn too much.

These pics pretty well signify the closing of lots of things.  Winter (hello spring and wind), high school basketball (and Autumn's senior year...wah!), and another NFL season.  

The final pic, well it just explains just how fun our lives are right now!!  Kids just being kids.  Yes of course it's exhausting sometimes, but if you just stop and look at it......it's fun!  

We have news!!

Scout and Reno are bursting to share our news.  It is after all big news.......to a big sister and brother!

Scout can't wait to be a big sister AGAIN, which mostly means that she can't wait to be a little mama! Who can blame her??

Reno, well.....all he says is that he wants it to be a boy!

It is a bit early to tell the whole world, but I'd rather you all find out from us than anyone else!

Ahhh.....I'm tellin' ya!!

You better not cry, you better not pout, you better not cry, you better not pout!!!  (repeat like 100 times)  

Scout was asleep while brother was singing.  I guess that is obvious because she would be correcting this poor guy.

We did bump into the jolly fella at Trail's Christmas Program.  Scout was excited and anxious.  Reno wouldn't sit in his lap, but did grab onto his arm.

So we've never tried to convince our children that Santa is real.  We mostly just don't say much about it.  We usually don't even say "what do you want Santa to bring you?".  

So, not too long before Christmas this was our conversation.

Scout: Is Santa real?

Me: What do you think?

Scout: REAL

I'm sure that if I had been trying all along to convince her that he was real, she wouldn't believe me! 

A Football Party

 This past October my Reno turned THREE!!  I still can't believe he is so big already.  He loves football so much and since the season was even right, we decided on a football party.  Every year we have been able to have it mostly on the back porch.  Not this year!!  It rained and was pretty cold.    

I did the cakes myself.  Talk about cake fail!!  I tried this recipe and that recipe and I think I figured that I made about 8 recipes of white and chocolate cake by the time it was over and done with.  This is the little that I ended up with.  

The good part is that kids don't know the difference!!

Reno Wade Smith........loves horses, football, basketball, pizza, sour yogurt, and his Sissy.  He calls Mommy "cowgirl" and lives to "give shot of cows with Daddy!"  Oh and he was not potty trained by his third birthday!

 I love watching his sister's expressions as she helps him out with the candles.

 He of course received great gifts from family and friends.  A football party wouldn't be a football party if the birthday boy didn't receive a Broncos get-up!!

I'm not sure why I don't have pics of our other guests, but here is a great one of Uncle KD and Aunt Tandy!!

 Happy 3rd Birthday Big Boy!!