The official graduation portrait

Here's the official graduation portrait that they took at school! Too cute!!!

The little graduate

Goodbye preschool,

Hello elementary school!!!!!!

It's hard to believe that my baby is going to kindergarten in a few months!!

Ellie graduated from preschool this week. Actually she did it twice. You see since she's in 2 classes (MWF, and TTh), she went to both graduations. They were both awesome! And I'll have you know that I didn't bawl at either one!

Somehow they managed to make them not so sad. They went through and handed each child a diploma, the kids sang some really cute songs, then they had a slide show that had pictures from throughout the year.

Both were great nights. By the second night though things had gotten pretty casual for Ellie.

Grace, Erica, Mom, Dad, Stuart and Logan all came to see her on her special night(s).

We love you Ellie!! We're so proud of you!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day everyone!!

The day started out full of promise. Here we are before we left the house this morning. I do like our new dresses!!

We walked right in to Olive Garden at 11:00, no wait, no problem. We asked the waiter to take our picture. He took this one shot and I think it came out great!! So far so good!

The rest of the day didn't quite turn out as planned a (see Erica's blog for further explanation), and I seemed to get myself into quite a funk for some unknown reason. I tried to sit there and list all the things I have to be thankful for and I am thankful, but I just couldn't seem to let myself enjoy the rest of the day. So tonight I decided to have a do-over. I think next Sunday should be my new Mother's day. Gee, I wonder if Stuart will go for that one!

Easter

We had a great Easter. We woke up late. The kids opened their Easter baskets and hunted the eggs the Easter bunny hid in the house. (That's a Smith family tradition I didn't become aware of until Logan was born. It works pretty well though!) Then we got ready slowly and leisurely while the rain stopped and the sun came out.

We went to church Saturday night so we wouldn't have to worry about it on Sunday morning. What a great idea that was!! Also, Gateway's Easter service was great. I love that place.

We even had bunny pancakes!

Then we went to Erica's for brunch and an Easter egg hunt. They can't wait to go hunt!! Do you like Logan's shirt he got for Easter? What, you've never heard of Easter skulls?

When they came back in and opened their eggs, Logan was a little disappointed to find an Elmo figure in his!!Ellie however found the only money Uncle Ray put in an egg!! For this she was declared the champion egg hunter extraordinaire!!!

Good Day!

Sixty~Eighty

Last weekend we went to Houston to go to Stuart's grandparents 60th Anniversary/ 80th Birthday party. Yes, that's right, Stu's Mom's parents have been married 60 years!! Amazing, huh?

We had a great time at the party. Logan and Ellie were really good and we all looked nice. We even took a family picture. I liked how I looked in this one the best (and we all know that's the most important thing :-).

Here's Stu's mom, Cindy. Doesn't she look nice? They had it at a nice place near Tomball where they live. Last year Stu's grandma (aka Memaw) asked me to help her with some invitations. You see they don't make 60th Anniversary invitations and they certainly don't make 60th Anniversary and 80th Birthday in the same event invitations. So I used my MS publisher software I have to design these for her. She said she wanted them simple and blue is her favorite color, so here's what I came up with.
Here's Stu with his sister Becky(almost 30) and his "little" brother Garrick(19).

Even more important is that the whole family was together. Memaw's 3 brothers were there (yes, they're all still living) and all the cousins, grandkids and great-grand children too! I know we all felt lucky to be able to share in this special day with them!!

I only hope Stu and I are still around for our 60th!! We've only got about 48 years to go!!

Logan's flag football game

I told him to "look tough", so this is what he did. Funny little turd!

Logan just started playing flag football. He had his first game on Saturday. Considering he's never played any kind of football and they'd only practiced once, I think it went really well. He had one pretty long run with the ball. He didn't score, but I was really proud.

Ellie found some kids and some dirt to play with, so she was happy too!

Lookout football, here comes Carter!!

Oh happy day, for Ray that is! His little football player is ready to go!!!

Erica, Grace and Carter came to our house one day and Logan dressed him up in his football uniform that Stu got him a couple years ago. Who knew Carter would love it so much! He wanted to take it home. I guess we know what to get him for his birthday!!