Swinging Places, Happy Faces!

After months of saving our money and looking for the perfect swing set, we found one! We also decided the time to put it up was Memorial Day weekend. John started on Saturday afternoon and following 14+ hours of hard work.....DONE!

I decided to take a pic of all the hardware needed for the swing.

Some of the parts put together

Some of the wood

Our sweet friends, the Harringtons, had sympathy on us and came Sunday night to help. The kids had a great time playing together and kept Dalton distracted from the swing. On Saturday, he asked several times, "Is it done yet, Dada?", but Noah and Lilly kept him busy Sunday night and made putting the swing together a lot more bearable. Thanks guys!

John Herring and Jeff Harrington...what a pair!

Guys hard at work

Monday afternoon at about noon.....he got to take his first climb on the ladder!

Look at that face! Makes it all worth it!

First time down the slide! Weeee!

Sitting at the picnic table

His secret hideout underneath

Just a swingin'!

He climbed the ladder, went down the slide, and got up to the top and then decided before he got on the swings, he wanted to go get his friends to enjoy it with him. We went across the street and got Daniel, Claire, and Ashley to swing too! So sweet!

Thanks Dad!

The finished product!
(Sorry about the glare on the slide.)

Putting in the last bolt with dad! I can't wait for the many afternoons this summer spent playing on this swing set. Thanks babe for all your hard work! Your a great dad!

Catching Up

It's been a while since I have blogged, so I have a lot of catching up to do! My nephew, Tanner, turned 10 years old a few weeks ago and here are all the kids at the party.

Mother's Day weekend, Dalton and I had a Mom and son outing. We started that Saturday morning at Krispie Kreme...yum! Dalton likes their donuts with "fintles" on top (sprinkles). After we got all sugared up, we went to Barnes and Noble for their Saturday morning story time. They read a book about 2 pigs named "Toot" and "La-la" and look who showed up to get pics made with the kids!

After the story time, they had flower pots for the kids to decorate and dirt to plant flower seeds in for Mom. Here he is decorating his flower pot.

We then went to Firefly studio for him to decorate me a bowl. Paige West got me a gift card from there for Christmas and we have just gotten around to using it. I had one of those great moments while there where you wish the ground would swallow you up! You can't really see this in the picture, but the guy that was helping us has a lip-ring. Obviously, Dalton had never seen one of those before and kept asking me very loudly why he had a ring on his lip. I tried to get him to be quiet about it, but too late, the guy had already heard. He told him he had it because he liked it. Of course Dalton replies, "Why? I don't like it!" When do kids start developing filters? Sooner than later, I hope!

Getting his hand painted. He said, "That tickles!" We had to practice a few times before he actually put it in the bowl to be sure he knew what to do.

Caught ya' red-handed!

I love this saying, "What are little boys made of? Snips and snails and puppy dog tails". This is so true. I love my bowl! It has the year painted on the back. Nothing like a child's handprint to help you remember how small they once were. I have it displayed on top of my refrigerator on an easel. Too cute! Great gift....Thanks Paige!

I had a great mother's day! We went to church that morning and my 2 guys took me to one of my favorite restaurants for lunch, El Chico. Before church that morning, I hear John telling Dalton that it was a special day called "Mother's Day." Dalton says, "What do I get?" Typical 3 year old mentality....world revolves around them! Then on the way to church that morning, Dalton says, "I love you mom! Happy Valentines Day!" I just laughed and said "Thank you, Dalton! I love you too!" So great being this boy's mom!

Last weekend, we went to Quitman to see Grandma Stacy. We have not seen her since Christmas so we were excited to go. We realized that Dalton thinks her name is "Grandma Stacys" because when we talk about going we say, "We're going to Grandma Stacy's!" So when he was talking to her there, he called her "Grandma Stacys". Funny! He had a first while there...he got to pick fresh strawberries from her garden and eat them (washed, of course!). He loved that!

We invited John's mom to go too and while she was there, Grandma Stacy had her roll her hair for church the next day.

Maumelle had there Grand opening for their new fire station and police station this week. They were giving free tours of the stations. Dalton got to see where the firemen sleep when on call and he got to get in a fire truck.

When asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" he answers, "A fireman!" I had better start praying now!

Doug, Cindy, and Saigel came too. I got a picture of these two at the police station...."Bonnie and Clyde!" Dalton has been asking us lately if policemen were bad. We explained to him that policemen are there to protect us and they lock up the bad guys. They are not bad. He got to see a policemen at the station and got to ask him for himself if he was bad. I was reminded this week how often we take for granted those people who put themselves in harms way everyday to keep us safe, my dad being one of them! So thankful for these men and women who feel it is their calling to protect and serve! Thanks Dad and all the other police and firemen!

Had some words of wisdom from Dalton today....while eating lunch at a Chinese restaurant after church, Dalton was admiring all the decorations in the restaurant. He said, "Wow! Dod (God) is a genius!" He really is, Dalton!

P.S. I was showing Dalton this post and he corrected me on the names of the pigs at Barnes and Noble. Their names are "Toot" and "Puddles" not "La-la". What was I thinking? :)