Rose

Here she is folks.........The newest member of our family. She is a twenty year old pony. We were fortunate enough to borrow her from a good friend. She will hopefully be a Smith for the rest of her days. Isn't she the cutest, tiniest, hairiest thing you've ever seen.

Headed home with us!! Scout was so excited and still is actually. This also gives you an idea of how short she is.

Reno especially loves Rose.

It is the coolest thing for Scout to be able to brush and love on her. We tend to forget the horses are too big for our little ones to really bond with.

P.S. Seriously people! I can obviously use a little help on the spelling and grammar on this blog. This morning I pull it up and see the post about Howdy Doody. Well, instead it says "Hoody" Doody. In my defense, Hoody or Howdy whichever you want to call him was probably pulling at my leg. So, please comment and correct me. You aren't going to hurt my feelings.

Scoutie and Howdy go together pretty well. lol

Wood-Townsend-Smith-Adams 2011

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Merry Wood-Townsend-Smith-Adams Christmas 2011!! I intended to head for NM on Tuesday, December 20, weather permitting. Guess what, weather was not permitting. lol The problem wasn't here, it was there.

The road that we might have traveled between Clayton and Springer was closed for I think three days. You know, it's where the couple and their five year old daughter were stranded for two days. They say their vehicle was completely consumed in a drift and the snow plows crashed into it when they were looking for them. Nuts...and not for me!!

This is Riley all bundled up riding pens right before we left. A storm hit down here about the time we were heading up there.

So, I waltz into their cozy casa and what do I see? None other than this turquoise beauty. Seriously I love it so much. Cool find Jane! Pinterest worthy for sure, I posted it myself.

Mimi and Scout made sugar cookies. Let me just say they were delish. We all had a hand in it actually. The recipe makes a gazillion and Pat and I were tired of working on them too. I would never tire of eating them though, especially not with that cream cheese icing.

KD and Tandy arrived on Saturday and cooked this beautiful prime rib. I'm not one to call much of anything beautiful, except for my children, a "beautiful" piece of junk, or delicious food. Let me tell you PW prime rib and whiskey cream sauce is BEAUTIFUL.

Cousin Miley is super cute and sweet as pie. She of course was decked out in her Christmas sweater and Scout absolutely adores her.

Pakers and Scout looking at family photo albums. Pretty special family time, wouldn't you agree?

The Riley Smith Family

Christmas Day 2011

Reno sporting his Carhatt overalls that Sarah loaned us. How'd she know we'd need them there? lol

Scout and Riley ready to go outdoors. It really wasn't bad and not even much snow left. It's always fun to bundle up though, right?

Reno sat on his little camo four wheeler acting like an angel. When we gave the kids the OK to open gifts, it caused such a commotion and scared him to death. Poor guy!!

The Camo Kids

Yes, Scout is wearing her princess dress and heels with the camo shirt. Tandy is the only one that could convince her to even put the shirt on for a few minutes. Now she loves it and I think all the camo is just precious. Maybe next year we should do it for the adults.

Hoody Doody

Does the name ring a bell for anyone? I had no idea what Mom was even talking about when she kept saying that Reno looks like Hoody Doody when he makes his funny face.

This is the fellar I found when I googled it. Pretty cute. I forgot to search for info about what years he was popular, etc. So I can't provide much except for these pics.

When Reno makes a funny face he tries to make his mouth flat which does funny things to his cheeks. Pretty much just like Howdy Doody!

So, do you agree?

Uh-huh...I'm here again!!

I'm feeling pretty funny today, so I thought I would continue with a few more tid-bits from Vegas. I know my last post was all over the place. That's just me. I start something, move to something else, go back to the first thing. Can you say A D D? I've got it. I'm bouncing my leg all around while I'm sitting here trying to type. It's just me.

So the funny story. Here are a few pieces of important information you need to know before we start the story.

#1 - Riley does not carry a wallet. He never knows where it is. It could be in about three different pickups, on the dash, in the console, etc.

(One time we stopped for milk at Allsup's on a Sunday afternoon on our way home from the feedyard. Riley goes in for milk and promptly comes right back because he had no money in his pocket. We ended up finding "the wallet" in the pickup with $100+ dollars inside. Nice!)

#2 - I took 2 purses and 2 carry-on bags to Vegas.

a) A regular purse to carry on the way there.

b) A small, across-the-body purse to carry while there.

c) Two carry-on bags to carry all my loot home.

d) Oh and I bought a purse while we were there.

So you have to have your id to get through security, right? At Amarillo, no problem. We put "the wallet" in a bag or purse. I'll admit, I have no idea where we put it.

On the way home, we get to LAS to check our luggage curbside. Keep in mind it's not just us. There are a few people in our group right there with us. They ask for IDs. I get mine out and Riley starts to look for his. Where is "the wallet"? Which bag or purse might it be in cuz goodness knows it isn't in his pocket.

Before I know it, he has our suitcase open throwing my clothes all over the sidewalk trying to find "the wallet". He says, "Tori this is serious. We can't leave here.". I quickly inform him that I can leave because I have my ID. lol

So, "the wallet" was safely in the zipper pocket of one of the carry-on bags. It had probably been there the whole time. lol

Uh....maybe you had to be there.

This photo is from the plane. Pretty cool, eh?

Now on to a phone dump sort of thing. Random pics, but it's our life.

Monkey A doing her thing.

I wrapped up this gift, a Bonnie Concho gift certificate, for my cousin. Kind of proud of my fancy wrapping.

Monkey A again. She can dress herself unless I pick out the clothes and need her to get them on because we are actually going somewhere.

Ketchup on tacos! Riley fell back into his old ways for a minute the other day. Yuck!!

My prissy little cleaning lady!

Viva Las Vegas!!

Riley and I had never been to Vegas.....ever. Dimmitt Veterinary Supply so kindly sent us on a complimentary trip to the National Finals Rodeo this year. We had the privilege of seeing the 8th and 9th rounds. They put us up at the Monte Carlo, which isn't the fanciest place on the strip but was plenty nice to us and right in the middle of everything.

It was so cool.....the rodeo that is!! Oh wait, let me rewind for just a minute. We have never left our children. Scout stayed two nights with Tripp and Hope when Reno was born. We of course saw her during those days. So when we were asked to go I was all over it. Riley was a little hesitant but I was just certain that it was the thing to do. As the time neared, I started to dread it more and more. We had snow and some of our friends weren't able to fly out as planned. I was hoping it would happen to us also. Gigi and Papaw came to stay with the kids here at our house.

I woke up at 6:30 am that first morning we were there almost in tears wondering how I would manage. First thing we did was go out to The South Pointe Casino, which has an arena inside,to watch the World Series Roping. There was some shopping there and at that point I decide that I would

survive.

Next we went to the Convention Center for more Cowboy Christmas. That evening we went to our first ever NFR performance. Tanya Tucker sang the National Anthem and I was wishing Scout could hear it since she is absolutely obsessed with the song. The rodeo is such a cool show. It happens fast and is an "edge of your seat" kind of thing for me.

It was sickening to see Cody Ohl and Tuff Cooper acting like....well lets just say they aren't the guys that I root for.

(So Riley and I both love to eat very much. I have to say I was a little disappointed in the quality and the cost of food. Maybe we just didn't get out to the "great" places. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have wanted to pay what they cost though. The buffet was fun because I like to try new stuff. On Friday evening we ate at The Brand Steakhouse inside our hotel. The ribeye came with the rib. Pretty funny and I should have brought it home considering what we paid for it, but was afraid I'd get stopped at security. lol)

That first day we talked to Scout two or three times. She was good without us. She and Papaw had built a snowman. Ladies tend to be happy when they are calling the shots, right?

The next evening when we talked to her they had gone to Autumn's ball game and she literally didn't have time to tell her Mama "I love you". Wow!! It was kind of upsetting but then again it would have been much worse if she had been upset herself and missing us. Yeah right. lol

Here we are in the airport ready to come home. Can you tell we were getting pretty excited?

No, I'm not trying to turn my 3 year old into a showgirl. lol She is very much into dressing up, so what could be more fun than a tutu with matching wings? You should see her jumping off of chairs trying to fly. Not a joke.

Google Upgrade

Ok, so I've been getting this prompt in Gmail for ages about how my Internet browser needed to be updated. I thought "whatever, whatever" but then tonight I got this wild hair to check it out. Seems as if Google Chrome is quite amazing.

I finally posted on the Sandhill page of this blog and was so excited. Wait, let me back track.....the first thing it let me do was comment on my sister-in-law Kaitlyn's blog. That in itself was super. I'd been telling her that it wouldn't let me but I could clearly see it was letting everyone else.

So, back to the other reasons why I love it. The spacing and adding pics, etc was so easy. I had been having major trouble with making my posts look even sort of decent. Waa Laaa....Google Chrome hooked me up.

I have tons to share.....Riley and I went to Vegas this past week for the National Finals Rodeo. Neither of us had ever even been to Vegas, much less to the rodeo. For now I'll just share this pic. You'll see it soon enough as it is this years Christmas card photo.

We spent Thanksgiving in San Antonio with Baby Saylor Quinn. I wonder if we will still call her that when she's 20? Oh and her parents were there too, and the grandparents......lol.

There is just something about being an Aunt. It happened to me so many years ago, almost 19 actually. Crazy to think Summer Lynn aka Princessa is going to be 19 soon. Any who, being an aunt is just an amazingly fun thing no matter what age they are.

We've had some normal time at home before all the going here and there of the holidays hits.

Scout and I have decided to bake for some of the neighbors, well mostly just the old neighbor men. Wonder if they read this? Who am I kidding? Ah well, I'll bet they will eat the goodies regardless. Scout mostly likes to eat the Rolos off of the pretzel cookies. I on the other hand prefer the finished product.

Reno can walk very well now. Of course he still crawls almost everywhere though. He walks in circles just for fun.....with his sister's boots on his hands. Lately he has been very big into having two of something......two bottle brushes, two gas drop bottles, two of Scout's flip-flops. Well you get the idea. Oh and how could I forget? Two pacis!! All of a sudden he loves the paci. Not sure where that came from.

Hope you all are staying warm!!

ts