Fun Stuff in June

Its been about a month and a half since I last blogged. Finding the energy to do so after long days on the computer is sometimes hard; however, I created Rhyder his own email account and I want to copy/paste my blog postings into emails to him so he'll have them someday if he wants them to learn about his early years. That keeps me motivated. 

Rhyder got to swim for the first time! Our friend's parents have a super nice pool and they are generous enough to share it with us all...oh my goodness...Rhyder LOVED it. He looked at it like it was a giant bathtub (he loves baths!) He was so cute...he moved like a mermaid. Kicked and wormed his entire body like he knew what to do in order to swim. It was awesome.

He didn't know the goodness that was coming...I LOVE this pic :) 

When I put him on his back, he'd put his arms up by his head like "aaahhh...this is the life." 

Tired and happy boy

Rhyder got to go to his first car show with Daddy. We found out about it on Facebook and we took Derrick's 1950 Chevy over to Central Park to check out all the old cars. Daddy has a special place in his heart for old cars and I'm sure he'll share that love with Rhyder.

Random cute picture of Derrick and Rhyder after church:

Derrick traded in his truck a while back for this 2010 Ford F150. He has absolutely loved this truck and it was finally time to get a Ranch Hand on it. Of course Ranch Hand is a big part of our lives as I work for the company every single day :) so D had to have his Ranch Hand! I feel better about him driving so much now. A whole lot safer!

Looks great! He can safely take out a deer now! 

For Father's Day, Derrick's family was in town to keep Rhyder while we went to my cousin's wedding. On Sunday, Robert wanted Texas Roadhouse....yummm! 3 generations of really great men!

Rhyder is getting harder to photograph. He's blinking at the flash and not wanting to sit still and smile. Boys!

So for months now, I have told Derrick that I wanted patio furniture for my birthday in July. We were on the verge of buying a traditional set that we found on sale, but Derrick hesitated and said he wanted something more "unique." So in the true Ratliff way, he decided to build something! We had some extra wood left over from a project so didn't have to buy any new wood. I spent some time on Pinterest and came up with a top design that I kind of liked. We made it happen!

The whole time we spent in the garage building the table, Rhyder spent in his new baby pool compliments of Pappy and Grandma. This kid loves water! He spent 2.5 hours in that thing and was happy as a lark!

My table! We used some leftover cedar posts that we used in the house (as seen in background). These cedar posts were taken from Pine Cove Christian Camps by Derrick and my Uncle Doug. The drought killed a whole whole bunch of them and Uncle Doug was able to get on the property to harvest some for the house. So much more meaningful!
I still need to stain it and find chairs...looking on Pinterest for finishing ideas.