Norton Pictures

We finally have both sets of Norton pics back! Over half of our first session pics were lost, so we had to take another session. Of course Ryleigh was not as cooperative the second time around. At least he got a few good shots!

The Things that Entertain Us

Afternoon at the Park

Ryleigh and I had an afternoon together with Emma and Whitney last week. We ate a good dinner at Newk's (our fav!) and then let the girls play at the duck pond park. They had a lot of fun and it was good to get them together to play!
Here are some pics from their play date.



Yea RIGHT Ryleigh!

New Best Friend

The Cram Family has a new best friend and member of the family...meet Emily!



Jarred and I had been talking about getting a dog for the last few weeks. We thought about adopting one, so we went to the pound and have been looking at Pet Savers. We called our vet to ask some questions and Jarred asked if they had any dogs they knew of that needed a home. They had 3 dogs, so we went up there to look at them. The first was a little too hyper for Ryleigh. The second was just perfect...



Emily is a 5 1/2 year old Irish Setter mix. She was being boarded at our vet because her owner is in hospice. Emily had been boarded for 73 days! Her owner was sending her to the pound if she would not have been adopted in the next few days. Emily is as sweet as can be and we knew in the first five minutes of being around her that she was the dog for us! She has never jumped up on Ryleigh...she just loves to give her kisses. Ryleigh just LOVES Emily. She is so excited to see her and play outside with her in the evenings. The cat...not so much. Ellie has ruled the roof for 3 years now that we have been in our house. We'll get there!

Giving Daddy a Helping Hand

It's so funny and amazing how Ryleigh picks up on things. We bought her a picnic table yesterday. We got home, took it out of the box and started putting it together. Before we knew it, Ryleigh had the screw driver and was helping put it together! Guess she thought Jarred wasn't doing a good enough job. :)

Day at the Park

Jarred and I both have been on "vacation" this week. We sent Ryleigh to MiMi and Pap Paw's for an extended weekend. She went back with them on Saturday and we went to Ruston and picked her up on Tuesday. She had a good time and it was nice for me and Jarred to have a date night and get some things done around our house!
Today we took Ryleigh to the park. We attempted A.C. Steere, but it was closed during school hours. So we went over to Betty Virginia only to find a school bus of kids playing at that park, so we ended up at the Duck Pond Park. It was really nice...Ryleigh loved seeing the ducks and playing on the playground. She especially loved the tunnel slide...she wanted to slide again and again. It wasn't too crowded except for a few little boys that showed up towards the end. :) Here are some pics of our day at the park!







Jumping Up and Down:

Around...

And Around...

And Around...

Boys invading her space

Make-Over

So our flowerbeds were in desperate need of some maintenance. We have been in our house 3 years and for the last 2 years we have been talking about re-doing them. We were tired of the random yard guys knocking on our door asking if they could work in our flower beds! :) So we spent the weekend updating and giving our flowerbeds a face-lift! We took out all the old mulch and pine straw, added pavers as edging, added some topsoil, planted new flowers and shrubs, and put down new black mulch. It looks 10 times better!
Here are some after pics:

FINISHED!

After 13 weeks of waking up at 5:00am, leaving the house by 6:00am and not getting home until after 6:00pm most days, Jarred has completed the Bossier Sheriff's Academy!! His graduation was this morning at 10:30am and pretty much our whole crew went to his graduation. This was the largest class to graduate as of yet from their Academy, with 38 graduating. Jarred received the Academic Award for his excellent scores on his tests throughout the 13 weeks. We are SO proud of him!

Academic Award Recipient (with Bossier Sheriff Larry Deen):

Easter