Mei Mei Comes to Play

Today, Mei Mei came over to play with Reed. She really ended up helping keep Reed so that Abbey could do some work.



Reed loves to play with Mei Mei. She is so sweet and she loves Reed.



They went swimming and played with trucks and cars.



Peek-a-boo.

Friends and Fun

Reed is totally into cars right now! It's the first thing that he asks for when he wakes up and the last thing he talks about before going to bed. I thought this picture looked like he was opening up a used car lot. Getting them all in order and straight.



He is really good at playing by himself. Today, I woke up and mowed the yard. When I finished, we came in and had breakfast. Then, Abbey and I worked to clean the house. We decided that we would clean together today instead of our normal divide-and-conquer approach. This worked well, and we got to see each other more!



Reed came to visit us every few minutes, but generally played throughout the house the entire time. Although he is good at playing by himself, he's also really good at moving from room to room.



I'm sure that most normal people would think that the picture above might look like Reed is lining up a parade of cars maybe, but for the demented child of a mortician, I automatically saw a funeral procession!



When we finished cleaning, Manya arrived to keep Reed so that Abbey and I could go on a date.

We went to see "The Proposal". It was a cute movie. Sort of a common story line, I thought, but good nonetheless. It was good to see Sandra Bullock in a movie again.



Manya reported that they had a good time. The original plan was to take Reed swimming, however, Reed was not interested in swimming. So they stayed home and played with trains and cars.



When we arrived home, Reed was napping, so I decided that I would join him for a siesta. Apparently Manya and Abbey decided to go back to Wal-Mart (a store they have visited 3 times in the past 2 days!) and buy a few items for our meat and veggies supper with friends.



On the menu tonight was:

Pork Roast, Ham, Green beans, corn, fried okra, mac-n-cheese, and corn(bread) cakes.

Dessert was apple pie and brownies. Yummy!



On the guest list was Danny and Megan, Jane, Candace, Brandon and Tamara (and Britton), plus us.

We had plenty of food and plenty of conversation.



We decided that since it was a "country" meal we would serve tea and lemonade in mason jars.



We were delightful hosts indeed!

Baby Grayson

Reed has gotten into stacking and lining things up.



Today, Abbey and Reed kept a little baby named Grayson. He is the child of a friend of ours and his Mama needed a baby sitter today and tomorrow.



Reed was pretty sure that this little guy was too small for him. When you ask him if he wants a little sister, he says, "No, big sister." You think we might ought to change our preferences with our agency?



A picture of Reed stacking!



... and lining.



Reed loves to swim these days. He was jumping off the side of the pool and was going under the water and everything. Bitsy is supposed to be giving him swim lessons this summer. Maybe now that the Miss Tennessee pageant is over, she will have a little more time.



Reed tried his hand at self-photography today.







Reed decided that he would try Grayson's baby carrier out. It's hard to believe that just a short while ago, Reed fit into his own baby carrier just fine!

Gone Swimming!

Reed decided that he needed an ottoman, so he made a purple bajoon ottoman.



Reed loves his Elmo chair right now. He goes through phases.



But, he does love Chillaxin.



Can you find Reed in the pillows?



He is so funny!



Reed went swimming today, twice!



He loves swimming.



He is getting more brave each day.





He likes to help us leave, too.

Shutters on Saturday!

Father's Day is tomorrow. My life has changed so much since I have become a father, not to mention the fact that I've gained a lot of weight!

My sweet baby and my wonderful wife got me a nicely wrapped Father's Day present. Reed helped paint the wrapping paper. He was just really adamant apparently about having pink paint.

It's pretty much normal around here that we don't ever wait to open up presents on the actual holiday, so they let me open the present tonight. It was what I have been wanting for a long time! Adirondak Chairs! I've been wanting them forever! Now, I have to put them together and paint them, but that's okay, I finally got some!

While Uncle Bill and I were outside working on our Saturday project, Reed and Abbey were inside cooking and so forth.

Reed pretended to eat "carrots" —playdough.



He loves playdough!





Yummy, yummy!



Today, we put shutters up on our house! We've been wanting them for a long time and early this week I found 4 sets on Craigslist for $30.00. That's about all our budget could afford, so I bought them since they were the right color, right size, and definitely the right price.



The first two were horribly hard to put up. I asked the guy at Lowe's to recommend a drill bit for drilling into bricks. It took us forever.



After that, we took a break because it was a million degrees outside. We went back to Lowe's and this time, another salesman recommended another bit. It was way to hot when we got home, so it was time for Reed's nap, so everyone rested.



After nap, it was still scorching hot, so we all went to the neighborhood pool. It was wonderful.

It cooled off by the time we arrived home, so we went back to work on the shutters. The new drill bit was like a hot knife through butter. Well, maybe not that good, but after the morning we had had, it was much better!

We're pretty pleased with the results. We achieved a more welcoming feel I think. Now, I'm going to list the other two sets of shutters on Craigslist and try to get my $30.00 back!

I didn't forget you!

I didn't forget to blog, but it has been a very busy few days. Abbey and Reed went to Memphis this weekend, so I was home for a few days.



Abbey got Reed this water toy that is a beach ball with sprinklers on it.



Reed loved the fact that it was a ball, the fact that it shot water out—not so much.



He did enjoy playing the water though.



The big news for tonight is about the weather. It was horrible.



After church, we were waiting on parents to come and pick up there kids (in case you don't work with kids regularly, I have found that parents tend to forget they have children when they are at church.). Anyway, while we were there, the tornado sirens started sounding.



By the time that we left, some time later, there were several fire trucks and firemen all around and in our church. Reed was quite impressed by the firemen walking through our church looking for the mechanical room that had sent a signal.

We finally arrived home and are still hearing the rain and thunder outside. Sleep might be nice tonight!