Praise You In This Storm

One of my very best friends lost her dad last night.

Bill Sullivan was an incredibly great man. He had a rough battle with cancer for about the last year. He fought hard, but it overtook him close to 11pm last night. He was a great father. I have the privilege of being close friends with his daughter, Erin. I've watched, through her, the kind of father he was. He loved his kids. He supported every activity they participated in and was even physically there recently for one of his daughter's rehearsals (he has 2 daughters still in high school) because he knew he wouldn't make it long enough to see the performance. Such a dedicated father.

More than just his own kids, he love other people's kids. I remember one year, there was a band competition the night of the Homecoming dance. He cleaned out his huge garage and got it ready so that all the band kids and other various friends of Erin could still have a dance. We had the best time, because Bill cared enough about Erin's friends to make that possible.

He was also a great and respected pediatricians in Ft. Collins. He just loved to be with kids, to help them grow. From what I've read from some of his patients, he was well loved by the children privileged enough to call him their doctor.

Recently, he put a song up on his myspace profile that was very touching. I found a video of the song that uses The Lion King, because I thought that The Lion King reflected well the sense of family he thought was so important. I thought I'd share it with you.



Thank you, Bill, for touching my life.

Milestones

In the last 24 hours, both my boys reached a pretty major milestone in their lives.

First, I'll start with Tyler. After a year of varied interest in using the potty, he finally pooped on the potty for the very first time last night! We rewarded him by getting him the Spider-man potty seat that he really wanted. Because of the excitement of the success last night, Tyler has used the potty about 5 times today. We're not even close to being fully potty trained, but this is the step I've really been waiting for. Good job, Tyler!

As for Brayden, after 3 weeks of hard-core teething, we finally cut a tooth! It popped it's little point out sometime during the night. It's on the bottom left side, the 4th tooth back. It's actually a #3 position in normal teething order, so getting that one first was a surprise. I'm just happy to know that all this grumpiness hasn't been in vain. I still hope that with how intense this teething has been, more teeth will follow suit shortly. I don't know if I can endure 3 weeks of intense teething for every tooth!

Well, that's the latest news from the Spotts house! Until next time, this is Momma, signing off!

Easter!

What a great Easter we had this year! It's been so fun having Tyler old enough to really teach him about this wonderful holiday. One night we talked quite a bit about the story of the the crucifixion and resurrection. I asked Tyler what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane and Tyler replied "planted flowers!" Later, when I was talking about Jesus dying on the cross he informed me "Jesus needs new batteries." Then he went on to say "Don't nail me, Jesus!" Each instance made me laugh and was a great experience to correct and teach. How wondrous to see such things through his eyes!


We met with some friends on Saturday morning to have an Easter egg hunt! Spencer, Jamison, Teagan, Talon and Tyler were all ready to go out! They waited so patiently while the dads hid the eggs. Tyler and the boys had such a blast.









My only disappointment is how much candy Tyler found because he was not the easiest child to deal with that night.







Easter morning brought more excitement and more candy. Tyler actually sneaked downstairs and started eating chocolate before we even knew he was awake! He also got several cute little toys that he is enjoying.





















It was Brayden's first Easter. The Easter Bunny did not bring him candy, since he's only 5 months old, but he did get a stuffed bunny and a little chick that cheeps in your hand. Mostly he likes to chew on them.






We then got dressed up for church, the boys in their super-cute matching outfits that Grandma Spotts made for them (thank you, Loretta!!), and us, coordinating somewhat.













It was a beautiful morning with a little snow on the ground, but the sun was shining and it was fairly warm. We experienced beautiful music and touching messages all surrounding the Savior and His gift for us. It was a truly uplifting day at church.






After church, we drove down to Grandma Betts house for dinner and family time. We had a yummy dinner and Tyler and Brayden got some great Grandparent and cousin time.











We had a great weekend! Thanks to all who helped make it fun!

Brayden's Growing Up!

I know, I know, another post from me today. But I've got a cute baby who's doing cute stuff! Last night, Brayden rolled over! He rolled from front to back when he was 5 weeks old and he's been working on back to front for a couple weeks now. He was so happy with himself when he finally did it! Isn't this just the cutest proud moment?

Also, I thought you might like to see video of Brayden's first real food. He's been eating rice cereal, but this is Peas! It was taken on our photo camera with no sound and bad lighting, but it's cute anyway! Enjoy!

Phoenix

We really needed a vacation, so we spent last weekend in Phoenix with Dave, Janna and Ethan. We had such a great time! Tyler was so excited to spend time with his cousin. They have the best time together! Check out this picture as proof!

They played and played non-stop the whole time we were there and pretty much never had a disagreement! They shared a room; sometimes Tyler slept under Ethan's bed in the book area with a sleeping bag, sometimes Tyler climbed up into Ethan's bed and they slept side by side. We only had a problem getting them to go to sleep the night we got there (Thursday). Other than that, they just obeyed and went to sleep at bedtime. I was pretty surprised! Those boys love each other so much. I'm so glad we could get them together!

We did several fun things while we were there. On Friday, we went to In 'n Out for some truly yummy lunch, then headed over to Ikea.(You don't think my brother and I have fun together, do you?)

On Saturday, we went to a Jim Henson Exhibit at the Youth Museum. I thought that it would be cool, but I was seriously in awe looking at this exhibit. There were some real Muppets (Kermit, Rolf, Mahnah Mahnah, and Bert & Ernie to name my favorites), original sketches (and by original I mean on lined paper with a pencil) of favorite characters, such as Animal and Beeker, movie props from The Dark Crystal and various other photographs, videos and art from Jim Henson's life. It was seriously cool. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the exhibit, but they had an area at the end with interactive stuff that we were allowed to take pictures of.

Yep, you're seeing that right. It's the dad's putting on a puppet show. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to watch! It was hilarious.

In another part of the museum, there was a super-cool kid's play area with houses and slides and trucks and all sorts of fun things. They even had an area for babies, which was fun for Brayden.


We also went to the temple that day. It's always nice to be with your best friend on such hallowed ground. We saw a photography display entitled Reflections of Christ that was very beautiful. We also watched a documentary on doing the photo shoots, which was pretty cool.




Sunday, we went to church and just hung out for a lovely afternoon. On Monday, Janna and I went to lunch with Janna's friend April while the boys played video games. We met up South Mountain for a beautiful view of the valley.






After that, we went to a birthday party for Janna's friend Brandy. Her husband owns Rock Band, so the boys (husband and kids) had a great time playing.After a fun weekend, unfortunately, it was time to go home. At least Tyler likes the airplane!

This one's for you, Mom!

On request the of my Mother-in-law for more pictures of the boys, I decided that our family would start a blog! Brian says I should say "Behold the blog thereof!" Is that good Brian?

Anyways, this first post is just gonna be some pics of our family so Brian's mom can have some. I'll post more later about the goings on of our family, so check back soon!