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!

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!!  

Sweet Friends!

My kiddos have these wonderful, new friends.  Ok, ok......backup......I have a wonderful, new friend and these children just so happen to belong to her and have everything in common (same as the mother and I). 

Two (twins) of these fun kiddos celebrated their 5th birthday and we were lucky enough to join them. 

Their mother really did things up with major food, organized games, and decor.  So this might be the one way that she and I aren't alike.   

 Pillowcase Race

 The donut eating contest was too hilarious!

 Suspend a donut, tie up their hands.  

 My Scoutie actually finished the whole donut.  

 Mustaches for everyone!!

 Birthday Girl!

 Scout and Cake!!

 This boy.....have you ever seen prettier eyes?   He and Scout have been married a few times.  I'm kind of hoping it sticks.  

 Big Brother Buster

 The Dad and Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

Birthday Boy was pretty proud of his gun.

Most of all, the Smith Family is pretty proud to call the Barnes Family friends.  Isn't it the neatest thing when you make friends that you just click with?

Summer Visit in NM!

The kids and I were so lucky to spend almost a week this summer with my parents in New Mexico.

We celebrated Mimi's birthday with their ranch friends.  It was kind of a big birthday.  I seriously hope to look like her at 65!  I'll be proud to tell my age.

 We didn't have much of anything that we had to do.  We played and played for days. 

 You might remember that Scout adores Mimi's dog Sandy.  In the past she found my child harness in the vehicle and used it to lead this poor pooch around.  This time Mimi took Scout into Big R and they picked out a new red leash for Sandy.  Bless her for being such a sport.

Papa brought a few heifers in from the sale.  We processed and Reno's job was to pick up the sale barn tags off the ground.  They made countless trips to the barn.  We made red velvet cake for Mimi's birthday.  The kids enjoyed ice cream with their Papa.

 I love this pic!  Everything about it is perfect to me..........my babies, high-water pants, palm leaf hats, the windmill, old red wooden boxcar!

The older cousins went on a train ride with Mimi and Papa from Trinidad to Raton awhile back.  My kiddos were too little so we finally got to take a train ride.

I hadn't been on a train either.  We loved the freedom of moving around the cars. It would be a fun way to take a medium length trip with a large group.  Our problem is the large group getting to one spot to take a trip together.  It's usually a meet up kind of deal for us.  

We shopped a few places downtown Raton as we waited for the train.  The kids had fun just playing as we waited for the train.

We also swam at the aquatic center in Raton.  It was pretty crowded and a little cold, but a very fun place.  Maybe we can rent it over Christmas break since it's indoor.

 Let's see next year they can probably do Mimi's Summer Camp without me.  (Except for I love going too!!!)