Soccer

We signed the boys up for soccer this spring.  Spence is coaching and the boys get to be on the same team.   I love that their practice and games are all on the same day.  It has made life a bit easier. It does make for a crazy day playing soccer in the morning and then church later in the evening.  

My man the author

We are so very excited about this.  It has been such a labor of love and hard work and sacrifice.  I am so so proud of Spencer.  He has worked so hard, and done such a wonderful job.  You can get one on Amazon :)

The People of God

This man.  Ya'll this man.  That's my man signing a book contract.  Yes, he sure did.  Be looking for his book next spring.  And it's gonna be good.

March Madness

Spence in India

Spence and a couple other guys from the church got an opportunity to go to India and teach some local pastors.  It was a really cool trip for him to go on especially because some of our sweet friends happened to be there for the upcoming birth of their daughter.  Hurray for getting to see and love on some of our international church planting friends.  Craig and Spence worked together at the church for a couple years and we were also all in small group together before any of us had kids. Spence had such a great time with them and well, we missed him but survived here at home :)

 

 

Spence and Levi

Spencer and Craig

Garrett, Spence, and Daniel

Danielle, Levi, Craig, and Spence

Highlight of any day daddy was gone was getting to FaceTime

Ben starts a band

He got a band member on this one :)

Thirty, Flirty...oh wait...

Spence turned 30!  It's funny but I think guys have a harder time with aging then the ladies do.  We had been teasing about him getting old for months.  I wanted to make the day exactly whatever he wished.  We planned for him to go fishing in the morning, golfing in the afternoon, and dinner out that evening.  That all came crashing down around us, when over the weekend Spence began feeling some pain.  So, we spent the morning at the doctor and the afternoon getting an MRI. 

All of that did not stop us from celebrating him all day long.  The boys and I had 30 presents for 30 years.  They were so excited to give him gift after gift to open.   We were also able to still go out to dinner at Bull City Burger (super fun place, a little pricy for a burger and hot dog, but great atmosphere).  Our hope is that he will look back on turning 30 and remember all the fun but not the bad :)

Birthday monkey muffins for breakfast

Ellie thought we were singing to her

And she wasn't quite sure what to make of the candle blowing

We really don't think 30 sucks, but isn't this fun?!

The gifts ranged from needed (shoes), to fun (big league chew), to practical (fantasy football magazine) to silly (toy pickup truck).  The boys and I basically just got him tons of things that made us think of him

Ben and Zeke LOVE balloons, so we put up 30 balloons to greet him when he got back from his MRI

We said goodbye to Spence's youth

Our last picture with the mustang.  I had been trying to convince Spence since we had Zeke that it wasn't practical to have a two door car that couldn't fit a carseat in the back.  He held on until just before we had Ellie.  We were blessed with a bigger car for him in November.  Spence held on to his car that he had driven for the last 11 years.  He contemplated parking it and waiting for it to become a cool old classic.  I contemplated things like getting hard wood floors or trips to Disney.  He finally broke down and got it all cleaned up and put it on the market.  So long 'stang.  You were a great "race car" (as the boys called you).  You will be missed... mostly by Spencer.

So You Think You Want to Date My Daughter?

So you want to date my daughter?


I read this here today, and just have to make sure it's in my blog book so I can have it to refer back to one day.
It's also good stuff for parents of sons to read

So You Want to Date My Daughter?

Posted by Jared @ 7:20 pm CDT

Filed under: Family, Parenting

1. You must love Jesus. I don't care if you're a "good Christian boy." I was one of those too. So I know the tricks. I'm going to ask you specific, heart-testing questions about your spiritual affections, your daily devotional life, your idols, your disciplines, and the like. I'll cut you a little bit of slack because you're young and hormonal and your pre-frontal lobe isn't fully developed yet, but I'll be watching you like a hawk. I know you. I was you. You will think you can fool me, and you likely have fooled many other dads who didn't pay much attention to their daughters' suitors, but I will be on you like Bourne on that guy whose neck he broke. Which guy was that? Every guy. So love Jesus more than my daughter or go home.

2. You will install X3Watch or Covenant Eyes on your computer and mobile devices and have your regular reports sent to me.

3. I will talk to your dad and tell him I will hold him responsible if you don't treat my daughter like a lady. If he thinks I'm a crazy person, you fail the test and won't get to date her. If he understands what I'm saying, that bodes well for you.

4. You will pay for everything. Oh, sure, every now and then my daughter can buy you a Coke or something and a gift on your birthday and at Christmas. But you pay for meals, movies, outings, whatever else. Don't have a job? I'm sorry, why I am talking to you again?

5. You will accept my Facebook friend request.

6. If it looks like you need a belt to hold your pants up, I will assume you don't have a job. See #4.

7. Young people dating are putting their best face forward, so if you appear impatient, ill-tempered, or ill-mannered, I know you will gradually become more so over time. I will have no jerks dating my daughters.

8. If I am not your pastor, I will talk to the man who is. If your pastor is a woman, why I am talking to you, again?

9. You don't love my daughter. You have no idea what love is. You like her and you mightlove her someday. That's an okay start with me, so put the seatbelt on the mushy gushy stuff. Don't profess your undying love, quote stupid love song lyrics to her, tell her you'd die for her, or feed her any other boneheaded lines that are way out of your depth as a horny little idiot. A lady's heart is a fragile thing. If you play with hers, I will show you yours.

10. If you ever find yourself alone with my daughter, don't panic. Just correct the situation immediately. If I ever catch you trying to get alone with my daughter, that would be the time to panic.

11. It may sound like I'm joking in threatening you harm, and while I might not physically hurt you if you offend my daughter or violate her honor, when I am addressing the issue with you, you will not be laughing.

12. You may think all this sounds very legalistic. That's fine. You can be one of the many antinomians not dating my daughter.

Herb the Hernia

Spence doesn't know that I named his hernia, but I did.  I think it's catchy, don't you?  Here is the short version of what happened. Around Christmas, Spence got a bad cold.  He coughed for WEEKS!  The second weekend in January, he went to Texas to teach about smal groups.  During his first session Friday night, he felt something kinda pop while he was talking.  Somehow he pressed through and made it to the break.  He went to the bathroom and found a big red knot sticking out of his belly.  He did not know what it was, but did what any real man would do.  He pushed it back it, and then proceeded to teach 4 more sessions over the next 36 hours.  Once he got back to NC, a friend took him to the ER where he was diagnosed with a hernia.  We found out that he could wait to have surgery but that at any time he could need emergency surgery.  With the baby coming, we decided it would be best to go ahead with the surgery as soon as possible.  He had his hernia repaired Tuesday.  He will be out of things for about a week.  He will not be able to lift over 20 pounds for 4-6 weeks.  This should make for an interesting few weeks at least...

Christmas activites all in one

I have been so very slack about Christmas posts, but we really have been doing a lot of fun things.  We jumped right in as soon as we got home from Thanksgiving.  The boys have had a blast doing all the activites we have planned.  We actually haven't done as much as I would have liked because of my extreme tiredness and Ellie's recent desire to send me to the couch for hours while I am having some strong Braxton Hicks.  Here are some of our pictures that I have caught, please excuse the picture quality they are all from my phone.

 Ben wanted to put all the ornaments on the tree

 Zeke wanted to watch Snoopy more than put ornaments on the tree

 We walk over to see our neighbor's decorations often... Ben decided to become part of the decor

 The boys room got festive with lights around the room. 

It is very bright, so we sneak in and turn them off after they are asleep

 For the 12 days leading up to Christmas, we are pulling a family activity from a jar. 

One was bundling up and taking a walk through the neighborhood to see the lights. 

A few of the others have been having lunch out as a family, getting donuts, and buying new Christmas books.

The boys have enjoyed these activities so far

 What's Christmas with out an ugly sweater party? 

Spence took it to the next level and wore one while making announcements

 Ben go involved with a candy marathon while we visisted YaYa's

 Our staff Christmas party included some special  entertainment from some of the staff...

The church hosted a Ladies Night.  We had a women only band, yummy desserts and one of our pastor's wives shared about our life being a race and that we have the security of knowing our finish line and staying the course.

TAR

HEEL!

Zeke went to his first ever Carolina game a couple weekends ago.  We have friends who have season tickets in the blue zone (apprarently a really cool thing with free food and great seats).  So, Spence and Zeke met up with them and enjoyed a beautiful day (they left before the game ended so to them it stayed beautiful).  Zeke was a hit with the crowd around him.  He enjoyed yelling the TAR-HEEL chant.  He has been running around yelling some other chant that I can't quite make out.  His favorite part was any kicking/punting.  He has talked about it for days on end.  I am only a bit jealous of Spence getting to share this day with him, I am more excited for the future fun times they are going to get to have. 

it's time to move

I am a country girl. I was raised on a beef cattle farm.
Spence is a city boy. He was raised in what can now be called straight up ghetto. He did move out to the country at 15, but has always held to his city boy roots.

You could understand why I would be confused and concerned by this:

This is Spence fishing on a ladder over our back fence into the rentention pond behind our house. Someone please take my husband fishing before we are asked to leave our neighborhood.

Oh and for those couple of men who care, no he didn't catch anything. Yes, he did have to jump the fence to save his line after it got caught up in all the grossnes of the pond. And for the women, no, I wouldn't have cooked anything that came out of the foulness that lives behind our house.

Pumpkin, pumpkin

Finished product (pic out of order but I really wanted to use it)

We decorated our pumpkins right before Halloween. Zeke and Ben have enjoyed walking our neighborhood for "pumpkin hunts" so I just knew they would be into it this year. Well, not so much.. They enjoyed about 32 seconds of painting and then ran around the yard while Spence carved.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin

round

and fat

Turn into

a jack-o-lantern

just like that

Daddy DayCare

I am leaving today to go visit the Atwood family. Trevor, Keva, Micah, and Isaac moved to Murfreesboro in July. Keva and I have now not seen each other in 3 months. Seeing how we have seen each other other at least twice a week for the past 4+ years, this has been a big adjustment for us. To say that I am excited would be a huge understatement.
While I am super excited, I am also a bit nervous. This will be the first time Spence has been single parenting overnight (his longest to date is 8 hours and this will be about 76 hours total). So, please be praying for him and the boys (and nervous mommy 8 hours away). Oh, and feel free to call and check on them or bring them food :)

Spence's new workout

I...really.... no words, just watch. Oh, and maybe get some tissues...

Happy Birthday to my Favorite Guy!

Spencer, I am so very thankful you were born. I didn't want to do a whole mushy thing on here because well that is so not our style. Just know that I love you and I hope your day is awesome!
And because I can't do a post with out pictures, here are some fun recent ones of you and the boys.

Ben imitating you taking a picture

Zeke teaching you how to eat cake batter

I love watching you read with our boys

Ben takes his batter eating more seriously than you do

Daddy's helpers

Spence decided it was time to wash our dirty cars one afternoon. Zeke and Ben were great helpers.

Zeke kept saying he was gonna wash daddy's horse

Ben observed the action

and then jumped right in

boys hard at work