First Rose Bloom of the Season

Our first rose bloomed this week and it's absolutely gorgeous and smells so good!!! I'm so happy that our roses are doing so well and can't wait until the rest of them start blooming!

Visit from Rick's New Jersey Family and Brother

Rick's Aunt Bobby, Uncle Jeff, Cousin Janice and her children, Justin and Kaylee, came to South Carolina from New Jersey for a visit this past week (it was their spring break). They drove down to Rick's parent's apartment in Charleston and stayed there from Tuesday to Saturday and everyone had a wonderful time!!! They came on Wednesday to Columbia to spend the day with Rick, myself and Will. We went to Riverbanks Zoo and had an amazing time there with each other and afterward headed out to eat - we chose Carrabba's Italian Grill - everything was delicious!!! After dinner, they all came back to dinner to drop Rick and I off and headed back to Charleston. They took Will with them also so Rick and I had a couple of days to ourselves (we didn't know what to do without Will around but did go out for Frosty's as soon as they left us Wednesday night (Rick knew I might need a pick me up since I was sad about Will leaving) and then Thursday night we went out to dinner together to O'Charley's - was nice to have a "kid-free" dinner). They headed to the South Carolina Aquarium on Thursday and played on the USS Yorktown ship at the Aquarium. They also took a horse-drawn carriage ride and Will, Justin and Kaylee all fell asleep by the end of the ride. They went to the Isle of Palms on Friday and played in the sand, built sand castles and played on the swings and slides! They went out to dinner Friday night and were surprised at dinner by uncle Mike and Lacey (Mike took a flight in to surprise them all and Lacey picked him up from the airport and took him to meet the family for dinner). Lacey, Mike and Janice were the keepers of this wonderful secret and it was such a wonderful surprise for all of them!!! The kids were so excited to see Mike and loved "beating" up on him all night and on Saturday morning! Will, Justin and Kaylee had so much fun having sleepovers together, playing with cars on the car table, watching movies, and acting like dogs! They had pancakes each morning (Will's favorite) and were so excited about this too! They had a wonderful time "vacationing" together but I'm sure the grandparents and Janice were very worn out by the end of the week after keeping up with 3 3 1/2 year olds!!! We appreciate this wonderful trip since Will had so much fun!!! He's already talking about the next time he's going to the beach with grandmom and grandpop!!! Will told me this morning on the way to school that he misses Kaylee and Justin!!! I hated to hear that! I know that he really does miss them - he had so much fun with them - we'll just have to look forward to the next time! :)

Thanks to Rick's cousin, Janice, I have pictures to provide from all of their fun:

More Yard Projects

We just finished up our natural area in our back yard this past week (May 11th - May 15th) and are very pleased with all of the hard work that we put into everything. I also gave Rick a bird bath last night (early father's day gift since we'll be on vacation for father's day) to add to the area and it seems to be attracting some birds already along with the bird feeders that we have set up right by it! Next project is trying to get some more grass growing! :) Rick's already started one patch of grass so we hope that it will work and then we'll go from there! We are definitely enjoying our backyard these days - very peaceful out back!

Numbers

These are the numbers that Rick has done every year of Will and his life in a year:

The 1
Pictures of Wills first year.
For the full size version go to:
http://www.baseballonlinenews.com/numbers/the1.jpg

The 2
Pictures of Wills second year.
For the full size version go to:
http://www.baseballonlinenews.com/numbers/the2.jpg

The 3
Pictures of Wills third year.
For the full size version go to:
http://www.baseballonlinenews.com/numbers/the3.jpg

Macy's 1st Birthday Party

Our little cousin, Macy, had her 1st birthday party today (4/3/09)! All the little children had so much fun! Macy enjoyed her enormous cupcake once she really starting "digging" into it! All of the food and cupcakes were delicious! Macy got some wonderful gifts from everyone: her mommy had to open most of them b/c once she opened her second gift - a bug puzzle - she wanted that open and was ready to play and wanted nothing to really do with present unwrapping! :) She was a precious little "BUG" and we can't believe she already almost ONE!!!

Bryson James Howell

Bryson James Howell was born at 7:07 pm on Thursday, April 2, 2009. He weighed 7 lbs., 14 oz. and was 20 3/4 inches long. He has a full head of dark hair! We are seeming to think that he really favors Ben. He's absolutely precious and we have all enjoyed holding him in our arms and welcoming him into the world! Emma is quite the proud big sister and Will is loving his little cousin! Can't wait to watch him grow up and make some special memories with him!

Yard Projects

It seems like there are always projects that come up when you own a home but the ones that we enjoy the most are the outdoor ones! Rick's been working so hard on building retaining walls and keeping beautiful landscaping all over the yard. These are just some of what's been done.



















We just recently made the decision to "fence" Hawker in within our fence to help with "saving" our yard - he was peeing all over the plants and digging up landscaping and everything else in sight so this was the solution that we came up with and he actually likes it!