They're Gonna Sell Me To The Gypsies...

I used to think that no one wanted me to be married and Collin to have a father more than me. After this weekend, I think I come in a VERY distant third. This is the weekend that I became the most hated woman in my family (well, at least for about 7 hours of it anyway). I had innocently asked Grandpa and Uncle Jed if they would be willing to put the swing set, that I had been saving all winter for, together for Collin. When I told them it just had 3 swings, a slide and monkey bars, they quickly agreed. I might have forgotten to mention the playhouse they all attached to. And the fact that there was "some assembly required".

And the fact that it all came stuffed into two very LARGE and heavy boxes.

Did I mention there was a lot of lumber involved?
They called in for some "reinforcements". The bigger ones were on their way, but Collin was willing to step in until they got there.

Once they arrived, Grandpa and Collin decided to "take a break" and mow the lawn. Between you and me, I think it was to stay out of range of the tools Jed was about to start throwing.

But eventually, they all got back to work.

Isn't he cute?

And soon, there was a playhouse.

And a slide, well sort of.

And then swings.

Collin was so excited to try out the slide that he wouldn't wait for it to actually be ATTACHED to the playhouse. Some people use bolts to secure the slide in place. Collin uses Uncle Matt. All in all, it took 7 hours, 2 very large buckets of chicken, 3 Mountain Dew's, and 1 and 1/2 Pepsi's, but finally it was finished. And I forgot to take a picture... Oh well. Thanks family for all the time and the laughs. And I promise to wait a few weeks before I tell you that it's blocking a sprinkler and we have to move it a little to the left. Yes, Jed, I know you told me that to begin with...

Does It Get Any Better Than This?

Dear Collin,

Sometimes I think of the little boy I first met in Haiti two years and I think of how precarious your situation was at the time. Then I look at pictures like this and it takes my breath away.

I stand all amazed at how Heavenly Father brought us together.

And I'm humbled that He trusted me enough to be your mom.

See that light in mommy's eyes? You're the one who put it there.
I love you my sweet son!

A Hunting We Will Go

This was our second Easter together. This year, the Easter Bunny decided to branch out a littele and try an Easter Egg hunt.

Clearly should have thought that through a little better, since all Collin noticed was the scooter...

But I never get tired of this face.

When we finally got around to hunting for eggs, I tried to tell Collin that the Easter Bunny left some eggs behind and that we had to find them and clean them up. He looked at me and with his best "exasperated parent" voice, shook his head and said "Why he do that?" At first he wasn't too excited about cleaning up somebody elses mess...(Naughty Easter Bunny)

But eventually, he got the hang of it.

Happy Easter Baby Boy! Next year I'll be sure to have a talk with that messy Easter Bunny.

Round Two...We're Getting Good At This

After we colored eggs at our house, we headed over to Grandma's house. This time, we had friends. (Aren't they cute?)

This was Collin's first taste of hard boiled eggs. I wasn't sure what would happen when he tried it, but I had to watch... Here's how Collin eats an Easter egg. First we lick it...

Then the tentative first bite. Hey that's not too bad!

Until you get to the yolk anyway.. "Hey mom, sumtin's in there..."
I tried to tell him it was yummy. I was, apparently, not too convincing...

I'm pretty sure that was the end of the taste testing. On a side note, we usually go through at least a roll of paper towels when we do this as a family. 19 grandchildren can get a little messy. This year, Aunt Jess had a stroke of genius and instead, put each of the kids in a white t-shirt and told them to wipe their messes on their shirts and see who's would be most colorful at the end. They didn't quite believe they were ALLOWED to make a mess on themselves so we had to give them a little hand...

That's grandma, mommy and a pregnant Aunt Jess "coloring" a shirt rather than the eggs. We might possibly have gotten a little carried away...

Oh well, the shirts turned out darling, and so did the eggs, later, when we got back around to coloring them.

Easter Time!

We've been quiet for awhile. Mom's had to work. A lot. But always in the back of my mind is that little voice reminding me that I have many a blog post awaiting publication. Time to quiet at least one of the voices in my head.

This year was Collin's second Easter at home. Time to start some family traditions don't you think? First up was the coloring the eggs. Collin was anxious to help. And I mean REALLY anxious to help.

I don't think I've ever been more grateful for dark colored counter tops!

Anybody else think he's about to launch this puppy?
The finished product:

I know, there's only nine. One rolled to an untimely demise off the counter (not the one Collin tried to launch) Not sure what happened to the other two. Hmm...