Reese

It's so true. Time flies. It feels like it has especially flown with Reese. She's gotten so big, so fast. She has a heart of gold, a competitive nature, is very funny...and knows it, loves her sisters, lives life passionately---whether good or bad, but is absolutely full of life. She sets a great example of how to give 100% all the time. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for her....she has no fear of tackling this world. She's the Roo and we thank God for her every day.

1st birthday

Happy 3rd Birthday Reesie Roo!!!!

Reese has had quite the week. First, her Granny flew to Dallas to pick her up, along with Hailey and Trey's cousin, Courtney. Granny and Dan zipped the girls off to Port Aransas for a few days (Texas beach) and to San Antonio too! The girls haven't stopped talking about the beach and all the activities like building sand castles, feeding the birds, collecting sea shells, swimming, getting shaved ice....basically they made lots of memories. Each time they called, Trey and I just laughed because they talked a million miles a minute and were so excited to say WHATEVER it was they were saying. It was great.

So Trey, Landry and I went to San Antonio this weekend to meet up for Reese's birthday. Plus, Trey and I got some time to ourselves. Wonderful.

Reese had her party at Chuck E. Cheese. She loves the place. She's never been scared of Chuck (or anything for that matter). She partied like a rock star. It was great to celebrate her third birthday with family.

Before we got there, she fell asleep in the car. I was afraid she was going to be too tired for the party. W-R-O-N-G! It's Reese, she was born for action and partying.

We got to see Opa and Mimi. And, we saw Trey's cousins Courtney and Kristen, too!

And, Granny was there too! Always had some granddaughter with her! And we even got to see Uncle Kyle!

She needed no help blowing out the candles. Lungs are working just fine. She also loved the hat. Wore it the entire time.

So happy to see Chuck and take a picture!

Birthday girl. Love this one.

Dance, Reesie, dance! Can you tell she liked the chocolate cake?

And she played a ton of games. I just put up one of her playing air hockey against her daddy. The competitive juices were flowing!

She even got some gifts. Hailey was very well behaved and helped her. She was really happy for her and knew that it was Reese's day (of course, she did start telling me about what she wants to do for her birthday. And she reminded me that hers was next because she is, indeed, five...AND A HALF). I was impressed with Hailey and Reese!

And, the birthday girl got to go into the "Ticket Blaster." They turn on a machine and you get to collect as many tickets as possible in 30 seconds. Since she was so young, Trey got to go too (he was not upset about this). They both loved it.

Hailey....whacking something and driving Chuck.

Great week, weekend and birthday!

Where Have We Been?

I've been blog vacationing for a bit. Actually, we just completed the traveling phase of our summer, so now that we're home, hopefully I'll catch up on everything! After Disney World, we made a trip up to Kansas to get Landry. We came home and a few days later, I was off again....with NO children.

My great tennis friend, Ruth, asked me to play in a tennis tournament at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO. At first, I said, "no." Then she asked again and I said, "no way. Can't leave Landry again....I never do that and I already am feeling guilty." Then, Trey stepped in and said I should go. So....I said that there was only one way that I'd do it, guilt-free. And that would be if Granny (Trey's mom) could come to town to watch the girls while I was gone. Why Granny? Because, if Granny's here, my children do not even notice if I'm gone. They just adore her and she is so wonderful with them. So, I e-mailed Granny and she immediately responded, "YES!" So....what's a mom to do? I was OFF TO COLORADO!

It was awesome, beautiful, relaxing, full of laughs, tennis packed and a quick two days. The tournament was Rally for the Cure, so it honored breast cancer. Breast cancer has hit way too close to this Smith family with my mother, and also Trey's mom.....not to mention other family members. I do not like to talk about breast cancer too often because it's....well, it's just plain hard for me. I have a very difficult time with it. But this was the perfect way for me to support the cause and do something positive too. And it just so happens, that my partner and I won our level in the tourney, we got to drill with a former pro/current tennis commentator, Murphy Jensen, and I got to play on clay courts for the first time in my life (this tournament took place during the same time as the French Open, which is also played on clay, so I just pretended that there was some kind of connection there :). Here's Ruth and I after the tourney in our pink and white outfits (this will be the only time you EVER see me, or Ruth, match outfits....I'm not that kind of girl....).
How'd you like to see THIS every morning from your back porch? This is Pike's Peak and I took this from the house we were staying at. This is literally, the family's house view. Breathtaking.
And I made it home safe and sound. And Hailey and Reese played so much with Granny that they didn't care I was gone. Landry, on the other hand, let me know that I was on strike 2. Strike 1 was Disney and after this, I was on my last leg. She kept screaching so I'd look at her in the car, and when I would, she'd turn her head the other way to let me know she wasn't having this from me anymore. Luckily, her attention span is so short that by the time the car got home, she forgot that she was mad.
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The Two Year Old Fish

Reese completed her first session of swim lessons. For the girl who stayed on the ledge for the first four lessons, she kicked it into gear for the last four and is now very close to swimming from side to side on her own. She's holding her completion checklist and goodie bag!



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Saturday Morning Drive

Landry is also brushing her teeth during the ride. Multi-tasking is her strength.


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Super Goggle Baby

She laughs at herself when she puts these on. It melts my heart.


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Read This Landry

Since Landry keeps trying to get into Trey's office, Hailey made her a sign that clearly states her feelings on the matter. She hung it right on the door so Landry can read it each time she tries to go in...



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Disney World

Well, we did it. We had a MAGICAL vacation this year! We just returned from an incredible trip to Disney World. It ranks at the top of my list as far as favorite things we've done as a family. Trey and I took Hailey and Reese to run and play for 6 days. Landry, on the other hand, told me that she would rather go to Kansas than Disney World due to the heat and the fact that there was really nothing she could do there. I listened to her and sent her away on a dream vacation to Topeka, KS where she lived the high life with her Great Aunt Rhonda and Great Uncle David (I add the great because, seriously, they're great). In fact, when we returned she debated for a few seconds who she was going to live with permanently. Thank goodness she chose us, but she most definitely has developed a liking for them!

Here are just a few of the things we did! I have yet to order our group pics, so these are some of the ones I snapped along the way.

We ate breakfast with the princesses. Cinderella, looking stunning, as always:

Trey and the girls at Epcot. We LOVED going to that park and it was a 3 minute walk from our resort!

I even caught a pic of Trey just hanging with his girlies. We were waiting on our backlot tour of a movie set at Hollywood Studios:

We dined with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto. I loved these because Reese is just happily staring and Mickey and she's cracking up laughing at Goofy. He was really funny.

Hailey exploring Tom Sawyer's Island:

Daddy and Reese. I'm putting this in Reese's room because all she kept saying was, "LOOK!! IT'S MY CASSSSLE! I LOVE MY CASSSSLE!" You could just park her stroller in front of it and she would just oohhhhh and aahhhhhh for as long as she was there.

Trey and I even got to do fun grown up stuff. I tested out a Segway and he tested out Germany at Epcot by eating a brat with sauerkraut. We gave the Epcot food two thumbs up.

We danced and ate lunch with the Little Einsteins and Handy Manny:

Putting on our glasses for the 3-D Toy Story Ride.

Reese had her own version of wearing the glasses. Whatever floats your boat, right?

And we spent time swimming at our resort.

We played hard....and crashed hard. The monorail lulled them right to sleep.

Hailey summed it up best when we were leaving, "I wish we could just stay here for 100 days, it is so much fun." Me too, Hailey, me too! :)