My amazing husband

I married the most wonderful man. There are dozens of reasons why he is awesome and amazing - enough reasons for countless posts. I will limit this post to one reason, though, OK? Today, I am going to tell you about his amazing talent. He can build anything! And he does a terrific job. He always laughs because he did not do well in Wood Shop in school, but something must have stuck! Or maybe he is just naturally talented. Whatever the case, he continues to impress me with his creativity, his patience, his attention to detail, his skill, his knowledge.

Staining Spencer's Toy Box

He started with staining and finishing furniture that we bought at Ikea and other unfinished furniture places. I have mentioned before that Poppy has always built wonderful pieces of wood furniture. He was always David's idol. I can see him now, in a tiny basement storage room in our stairwell in Germany. He would be sanding, staining, applying polyurethane, sanding, applying polyurethane - going through all the steps. And I would say, "D, Poppy is not here. Why are you struggling with all of this?" And he would smile and say, "But he will see it someday, and I know he'll notice any mistakes." He was probably right. BUT Poppy has never been anything but proud of David. No other men in the family have ever been too interested in wood working, so David has been like his little protege.

Anyway. The first big thing he built was Jessa's toy box. He was very cute and spent a lot of time on it. And Jessa was right there with him - helping. She loved it once it was finished. And once he saw the finished product, it only made him want to do more.

Jessa inspecting his progress.

She was quite pleased with her awesome toy box!
Spencer has benefited from his desire to do more. . . With Jessa, we would buy a piece and he would look at it and think, "I can do that!" So with Spencer, he built a lot more things. Plus, in his defense, when Jessa was moving into her big girl bed and room, he was in Iraq. Not too much free time for building, you know?? But he has built almost every piece of furniture Spencer has.

First were his shelves - he used Jessa's as a guide, but made them his own.

Next was his "big boy bed." Spencer was done with the crib when he was about 15 months old.

While we were in Atlanta during Lucas's treatment and transplant, David built this.

Then it was time for Spencer's toy box and then some shelves.

The latest and coolest thing my awesomely talented husband has built is a train table for Spencer. Holy Cow! This thing is incredible! And Spencer is so excited! Poor D, he has already agreed to build another one for our neighbor who watched him building Spencer's. I guess when you are talented, you have no choice but to share it with the world.

Spencer has been needing a train table. He was not really ready for one until we were preparing to move - not the best time for new furniture. Then David deployed, and I did not want to try to buy one without him. Plus, I knew he could make us something that we would like even better than anything we could buy. So we waited. Poor Spencer was in need of a place to play trains badly. He did not play as often as he wanted to because he had to drag it all out each time. He had to patiently wait, but now the wait is over! He is beside himself. He ran around the house singing "train table, train table, train table" all afternoon after David presented it to him!

Spencer enjoying his new train table - a whole bunch!

Spencer is in love with his new table. How did Spencer and I get so lucky to have such a talented Daddy and husband?? And now that you have seen his handiwork, I bet you'd agree that he is pretty amazing, huh?