I have made it painfully obvious that I am NOT a faithful blogger ;)

I guess Facebook is my Blog, and Facebook is so much more active conversationally, so this method of updates/journaling seems fairly futile. But in case anyone is listening, here's the Smith Update for the 2nd Quarter of 2010 (haha).
Kenlee is finishing up Musical Theater, Ballet & Jazz. She is done with cheerleading, so we already feel freed up. She finished Rocket Math Multiplication and has made all A's all year in school. She gets her UIL Awards in 2 weeks and is excited about that (She won 1st in District in Music Memory and 6th in Spelling and also competed in Ready Writing). She has gotten into the 15 Mile Club, and this week she is most excited about her new baby cousin Mallory (born Wednesday to Darren & Sandra). Kenlee is a HUGE helper with Blakely, and Kenlee has been entertaining me with a fashion show with 2 of her friends for the past hour.

Daddy's Girls on Mother's Day

Mmmmmm.... Kenlee made vanilla milkshakes for Mother's Day!

Kelton has been working so hard at Tae Kwon Do. These photos are from his Belt Test in April. He earned his Yellow Stripe Belt. He tests the 1st Saturday in June for his Yellow Belt and is already feeling confident and ready. And Sweet Miss Blakely sleeps through Tae Kwon Do twice a week. God sure blessed me with that easygoing, sweet girl!

Here's her 3 Month Picture from April 25th. She is about 26 inches long and 11 pounds and is a big ball of smiles, coos, gurgles, and giggles. She rolls from her stomach to her back and is starting to slobber on everything.
Here's Kelton in the dugout of one of his baseball games.

I have dove into a photography venture. My photography Blog is www.tifanismithcaptured.blogspot.com
and my website is www.capturedphotography.zenfolio.com
(currently building a home page with a more simplified name).

A Celebration of Blakely

Meeting Blakely

We met Cricket and officially named her on January 25th at 12:50 PM.

Blakely Shayne was 6 pounds, 10 ounces, and 19 inches long.
Dark hair, big blue eyes, and a more olive complexion. She had the same due date AND exact same birth weight as her big sister Kenlee... to the ounce!

She has been an absolute joy! A pretty good nurser, a great sleeper, and her big brother and big sister have been phenomenal with her. I haven't posted in a while~ went through Full Throttle nesting, then I spent a couple of weeks staring at her and staying off of the ocmputer mostly, then we went to San Antonio for Kenlee's National Cheer Competition (more on that later), then my laptop with all of our birth pictures was stolen, then recovered, but we did not get back the cord to upload pics from the camera. Then I was busy celebrating our other little Valentine's 9th birthday and all of Kelton's Kindergarten Valentines activities and some Tae Kwon Do thrown in there~ a beautiful but glorious whirlwind.

Blakely's Birth Day

The nursery

Is December Over?

Hmmm... wonder when that happened? Days have been a giggly whirlwind lately.
Since November, we paticipated in the Christmas According to Luke musical at church where Kenlee played the role of Hannah, Justin was reprising his role as the "Man from Damascus", and since the Angel of the Lord was a little too pregnant for that role this year, I was townsperson ;-)
We also went to Fort Worth for another cheer competition where Kenlee and her squad earned 1st place again. Those girls work so hard, and they have developed really close bonds. I love that we have a local gym based on Christian principles where the coaches incorporate Christian virtues and lessons into the tumbling practices.
The next weekend Kenlee was a Tunnel Kid and an Elf in Once Upon A Christmas Eve, a dance musical that has become an annual tradition. My other favorite part of the weekend was having dinner and watching White Christmas at The Paramount with my grandmother Liz, aunt Cathy, friend Nancy, and my brother's girlfriend Ann-Maree.
The 3rd weekend of December we were honored with a baby shower at work Friday afternoon and a baby shower hosted by my friends Friday evening. The shower was so much fun; when we had baby showers with Kenlee & Kelton, we didn't know the gender, so it was fun to go all out girly this time to the theme Deck The Halls With Ribbons & Bows.

YAY for SNOW! We had so much fun celebrating a white Christmas!! Justin did some catapulting of kids into snow banks, and we tried really hard to pack the dry snow into snowballs. The last time we had real snow here was in 2001, I think.

CHRISTmas Time! Kelton performed in the Kindergarten Christmas Program and took his grand bows at the end. So funny- the kids were supposed to be "asleep, snuggled in their beds", and of course Kelton was peeking through one eye thinking he was being oh-so-inconspicuous. He wants everything on TV commercials, which is concerning, but we had a great Christmas traveling around to visit family and spending some snow days at home.

Lucky Me

Well, keeping with the tradition of the monthly blog post, here are the updates from 10/28:

For Halloween, Kenlee was a "Japanese Girl", and Kelton was Snake Eyes from GI Joe.
Justin & I wore camo since that's all we had that fit me.

November 7th we went to Austin for a cheer competition. Kenlee & her team worked so hard, and they earned Division Champs and Level 2 High Point. We had fun traveling as a family and spending time with our travel buddies (Miller family). It was 11 PM when I realized we had driven to Austin, and I had forgotten Kenlee's cheer uniform! My pregnancy brain! Luckily Scott & Nikki went to my house, got the uniform, delivered it to Abilene around 1 AM, and Tracy brought it to Austin with her the next morning. "I get by with a little help from my friends!"

So it seems appropriate to toast my friends now.

They make me appreciate every aspect of life more. They each serve a different role in my life, and it is so evident why God has put us together to navigate. It's within that circle that God shows His magnificence to each of us and uses earthly arms and mouths to reach and speak to us. I'm grateful to have a place where tears can be raw and laughter can give me an ab workout.
Stacey, Lisa, Erin, Tif, Kandi, Nikki, Holly & Dayna after Christmas Carousel


It was these lovely ladies (Dayna, Nikki, Kandi & Holly) who whisked me away for a Pre-Three-Oh weekend to celebrate turning 30. We missed Erin, but we had a great time on the road trip to Fredericksburg where we had great food, a fireside chat, and then shopped 'til we dropped onto the massage tables!
Seems like the whole last year has been Thanksgiving. Here's a fun picture of The Cousins... can you imagine Easter when we have two more babies to add to the picture??? Kenlee's lap isn't big enough for all of them! I LOVED the barrel races, trampoline games, and playing Ninja Turtles with my cousins. It's so much fun to see our kids play together, too.

Audrey (21 months), Kenlee (8), Kirsten (8 months), Corbin (14 months), Layton (20 months), and Kelton (6). Coming this February: Brenna and "Cricket"!
Here's a picture of me at 30 weeks and my cousin Amber at 29 weeks. We had a sonogram 11/21 in which they estimated Cricket to be about 16-17 inches long and 3 pounds! She was too smooshed for us to see her sweet face, so we will try again 12/1. Her feet were pushing against the uterine wall toward my ribs. She was sucking on her fingers. We have been busy working on home renovation, picking out nursery furniture & colors, and choosing a name. The next 10 weeks will likely fly by!

Corbin Sweetness!

When my nephew Corbin turned 1, the kids and I took him a cake to celebrate. I think he wants his Aunt Tif to come back with cake anytime!

Beamers Blue Squad

Cheer Power Competition

Level 2 Champions!