Spencer's 1st T-Ball Game

Today was Spencer's first t-ball game, technically, his 2nd, last week was rained out. He was very interested at first, but next thing we know here he comes walking off the field. He was tired of playing. After a nice "talking to" by Tim, he went back out on the field. He hit the ball really good. He's still not very sure about being on the field for so long.

We did have a nice visit with Elder Wilson. He was in town to see some friends, and we got to visit for a few minutes with him. Here are a couple of pictures.

Thanks to all of our family that showed up to support Spence. Grandma Sandra, Gdad Jerry, Gdad Harold, Michael, Uncle Geoff, Aunt Leslie, Emma & Trent. We appreciate you being there.

Love at First Sight

Everyone knows about Diego, but here are another couple of pictures from Spencer's party. I took these with my 35mm camera and just got them developed. Above is the first meeting of Spencer & Diego. Below is Spencer's dog cake. We just wanted to share this special moment with everyone. Who would've guessed that Diego would grow as fast as he's growing. I know you aren't suppose to compare dogs to kids, but Diego is just like a baby. He eats, pees and poops of course, but he takes regular naps and goes to bed almost every night the same time as Spencer. Pam laughed at me the other day and said that I had put the dog on our schedule, SHE'S RIGHT! But we love him!! What did we ever do before Diego?

Marigold Eggs

Today we decided to do some gardening. I saw on tv how you can use eggshells to plant seeds in. Whenever the seeds are ready to transplant, you plant shell with plant in the ground and the eggshell will desentegrate {sp}. How cool is that? We are testing it out to see if it really works. ..and you know Spencer, anything that involves dirt or getting dirty. We'll keep you posted to what happens. We should know in about 6 days if the seeds are going to come up or not.

Isn' the shirt appropriate?

Gymnastics : To Participate or not to Participate?

As some of you know, we switched Spencer from Carolina Gymnastics in Columbia to the Rec Dept in Camden {which is instructed by the same people}. Every week, I have to convince {BEG} him to participate. First of all, he went from an all boys class of 5 to a boy/girl class of 20, mostly girls.




He just does not like it in Camden, but we couldn't switch back to Columbia. Look closely at the picture above on the left and you will see him sitting on the mat while all the other kids are warming up. We finally decided that April will be his LAST month. Every week, he asks me to take him back to the other school. So today I decided to take as many pictures as I could since this will be his last month. The bad part about him taking gymnastics, he doesn't like the class but he knows how to do everything they are teaching him. He is always practicing on the trampoline.
The main reason we switched him was because his teacher was advancing him to another group, so we just decided to go somewhere a little closer to home...didn't really work out like we wanted it to. We'll know in the future. So if he is interested next year, we WILL be driving back to Columbia to attend classes on Rabon Road. Of course, we will keep you posted!!

Our little "Future Missionary"








We began our Easter by going to church, where Spencer sang the prelude hymn with the Primary children. After church we came home and took a few pictures and then headed up to Grandma Ruby's house for our traditional Easter lunch. As tradition also has it, we hid eggs for all the kids. We had about 250 eggs so as you can guess, most of the hiding spots were obvious. After all the eggs were found and pictures taken, we headed to Ridgeway to Curt & Pat's to see Grandma Spradley. Since the weather has been so warm, we decided to churn homemade ice cream with Geoff, Leslie, Jenny & Brandon, and the kids of course. While we were sitting around in the back yard chatting and watching the kids play, Tim's mom unexpectedly comes walking up. So we all had ice cream and then when everyone was getting ready to go, Erica stopped by and then my mom came to see if Spencer wanted to stay the night at their house.

These are just a few of our pictures from Easter. Spencer & I are in front of the pink dogwood tree in our front yard, Tim & Spencer are in Grandma Ruby's front yard {we will be taking donations for Tim's NEEDED dental work}, and G-Ma Sandra & G-dad Jerry with the grandkids {and Mallory} at Gma Ruby's house and of course one of Spencer hunting for easter eggs at Gma Ruby's house.

Spencer's Easter Basket/Dog

Happy Easter Everyone! Spencer woke up bright and early this morning around 7:30. Up to see what the easter bunny brought him. He said that he heard him in the night. We all got up and headed down stairs. Spencer had gotten a dog bag filled with candy and snacks. Diego even got a few things, including a new shiny,silver tag with his name on it. We miss Sullivan emensely, especially on days like today. Notice the reindeer pj's....cute huh?!

Our Anniversary & An Egg Hunt

Today Tim & I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. We started our day by taking Spencer to an Easter egg hunt at church this morning. Spencer found 10 eggs and then decided to call it quits. He played a game of egg relay and then had a snack. After the egg hunt we went to lunch at Red Lobster and ran a few errands. My emotions got the best of me while Tim & I were eating, and I started crying. I'm sure the people in there thought I was crazy, but sometimes I just can't help myself. We did enjoy our meal though. Then we went to get Spencer and headed over to Emery's 1st birthday party. We finally made it home around 9. We colored some easter eggs, left a snack for the Easter Bunny and then tucked Spence into bed. We thought we could somewhat settle down for the night when Diego decided to go pee in the floor outside of Spencer's door. So while we are trying to clean up his mess and take him outside, Spencer gets up with a nose bleed...of course, he had blood all over his pillow and sheets, so we had to do a quick cleaning of the bed. Our anniversary is almost over and we still have a lot to do. Our lives seem to be so fast moving lately. Things just aren't the same without Sullivan. Everything constantly remind us of him, and I'm sure it always will. Our lives will never be the same again, thank goodness for our memories. I just sat down the other day and watched the video from last Easter. It's so nice to hear his voice and see him and Spencer together. These things can never be taken from us. We just pray and keep going, that's all we can do.

Fun in the Pool

Spencer had some fun in the sun today. We decided to hang out outside today since in was in the 80's. How do ya like this HUGE pool? He really enjoyed jumping around and playing in it with Michael. Diego had to try it out as well. So far, I think Spencer has had a nice spring break.

Spring Break Fishing Trip

We spent some time today fishing in a creek in Centerville. Tim, Spencer, Elizabeth, my Dad and I all decided to go and fish for a little while today. Tim caught most of the fish. Spencer & Elizabeth reeled in one each, but spent most of the time playing and throwing rocks in the water. As you can see, they couldn't keep themselves from getting in the water. And as you know with kids, somebody always has to use the bathroom....or maybe it's just the boy in him wanting to go outside. Either way, we just love nature!!

Spencer went fishing today with Grandma Sandra, Aunt Patricia, Michael, Elizabeth & Tyler at Aunt Patricia's pond in Ridgeway. This is where he caught his first fish. 10 LBS......just tricking! We put his fish in our pond in the backyard. We'll see what the next few days brings.

Disney on Ice

Leslie, Emma, Pam, Grayson, Macy, Spencer & I went to see Disney on Ice on Friday night. My day started off ALL WRONG! First of all, I got a call from the monument company that is making Sullivan's headstone to let me know that the stone was in and they were sending a truck to Georgia to pick it up. However, it came in with a crack in it. It could be polished out, but it will probably come back as the stone settles over time, sooo, they will have to order another one. Hopefully in a few weeks we will have it. Next, I'm off to Spencer's school for an egg hunt. Everything went well at school. Afterwards we came home and Spencer & I decided to give Diego a bath, so I sent Spencer upstairs to get the shampoo. As he usually does, he dropped it downstairs to the living room. I glanced over and saw it laying in the floor and didn't think anything about it. There is always something being dropped downstairs that I am use to it now. So I go to the bathroom and Spencer comes around there saying, "uh oh" Little did I know that when he dropped the shampoo, the bottle busted in the floor. Not only did it break the bottle, but Spencer brought it to me and drizzled shampoo through the kitchen, hallway and bathroom....and did I mention the 4 puddles of shampoo in the living room. Once everything was cleaned up and Diego had his bath I decided to pack my bag for Disney. I got the tickets out and looked at them to make sure all were there....They were, and they were for Thursday nights show. So after a few phone calls, that led nowhere, Tim came to get the tickets to go and take care of this in person at the Colonial Center. After everything, we got our tickets exchanged and we all had a good time. I guess you live and you learn!! Everyday around here is ALWAYS a new experience.

Class Easter Egg Hunt

Spencer had his egg hunt at school this morning. Today was his last day of school before Spring Break. I don't think he really understands about being off for a week. He still gets up in the mornings and says, "Do I have school today?" We hid 200 eggs for the kids to find. Most of them were easy to find, but some were a little hard. We are having mixed emotions over Easter....every occassion seems harder and harder.

Diego's first bath

Today was Diego's first bath. YES, he is in the kitchen sink....HOWEVER, I cleaned the sink before and after with antibacterial cleaner. Spencer just loves his new dog...can you tell?

Field Day

Oh how we LOVE field day. Spencer's class had their field day yesturday, April 6. They got to draw with sidewalk chalk, go to the music room, sack race and face painting {as you can see Spencer's was hand painting} and then finished up with a snowcone. "Lil' Romeo" is all about girls. Mrs. Rolling said if they polled the girls for the most popoular boy, Spencer would win, hands down! Like she said, it's cute now, but it 10 years it could prove to be a challenge.

I especially like the sack race picture. I guess I am a good photographer huh!?!

Happy 5th Birthday Spencer

Spencer turned 5 on Sunday, April 2. He was sooo excited about his new dog. Spencer was up at 5 am wanting to take Diego outside to potty. Luck for us, Spencer went back to sleep for a little while. After breakfast, we decided to give him his birthday present....his bike. I had a hard time emotionally with this gift, but it was what he wanted. He tried a few times to ride, but most of all he just wanted to make black marks in the sand. Thanks to Grandaddy's trailer in his backyard, Spencer got a nice bruise on his crotch. After that, he didn't want to ride. We spent the rest of the afternoon outside playing until 8:20. Then he had a nice bath in our BIG tub {as he calls it}.

We did some of our routine birthday stuff. We sang happy birthday and he blew out his candles. He said that he was 5, but he felt like he was 8. Before bed, we always sit down and talk about what we like the most about whoever's birthday it is. So Tim and I told Spencer what we like about him. He laughed and thought the things we were saying was funny. We gave him a special card from us and one from Sullivan....this was a pretty emotional thing for us, because I had written Spencer a special message from Sullivan.

Sometimes we think that we are doing well emotionally, and then we celebrate a birthday or a special day and it is tough for us. We will continue to pray diligently and we ask each of you to keep us in your prayers.

Tim promised me if I took his picture that he would shave his beard, so here it is....your last chance to see Tim's beard. We shaved it off a few hours after this picture was taken.

Spencer's New Dog

Spencer and his new dog "Diego". Spencer was shocked at his birthday gift from Tim & I. All the kids at Spencer's party got to adopt a dog. Little did Spencer know that his dog was real. He LOVES him. If he only knew that we bought this dog a month ago and had to board him for 3 weeks. We wanted to tell all of our friends, but NO ONE knew that we got him, until the party...but now everyone knows!!! We will have more pics soon.