Luke Michael Spurlock

Many of you already know that Kristin gave birth to our second child, Luke on the 1st of October. After a lengthy stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for low blood sugar, Luke finally came home with us about a week ago. I posted some pictures below since alot of people have been hounding me mercilessly for a picture of him!

As you can imagine, it's been quite hectic bringing him home, adjusting to a 2 child family and keeping up with Drew and his schedule. We're doing good, though and just enjoying the time at home with Luke and Drew together...





P.S. The shaved spot on the side of his head is from one of the IV's he had in his head...

Drew Can Ride His Bike!!!!!!

This isn't all that "new" but Drew learned to ride his bike this summer without training wheels. All summer long it seemed as though he wasn't really all that interested in learning to ride his bike. Most of the kids in the neighborhood just ride scooters around the houses and don't ride bikes that much.

Well, my sister was here visiting and we looked around the side of the house, and there he was, just cruising down the road like it was old hat for him! We love Drew's determination to do something he has set out to do! Great job Drew, we love you so much!

Wild West City

This summer we went to a cool place in NJ called Wild West City. It's basically a mock-up of an old western boomtown where they conduct themed skits and shows with live actors riding horses and cracking whips and all things western!

Drew's favorite was "Jack the Whipper..."


Jack the Whipper conducting all sorts of stunts with his trusty whip


The town drunk...



For those of you who remember the WWF from back in the 80's this is Tito Santana who was a guest speaker at the Military Appreciation festivities going on that day.

Toothless Drew!

I'm sure that most of you out there reading this who have younger children have gone through the whole loose tooth experience rather recently. We experienced our own "first lost tooth" this past week...well we sort of experienced it. This is how it went...

Drew has been fiddling with a loose tooth for about the last 2 weeks on and off and really has not been all that concerned about it. Some of our friends who have had children with loose teeth have had a completely different experience. Everything from crying to fussing to laughing. Drew really didn't exhibit any of these "symptoms." His treatment of the loose tooth was more of something to fool around with when he was bored.

So on Friday we were sitting down to eat lunch and Drew was fiddling around with it a bit more than usual. I had been on TDY the whole previous week and was remarking how much looser the tooth was than when I left. So about halfway through lunch, Kristin stopped eating and asked Drew where his tooth was! So he sprung-up and went to the mirror and sure enough, this is what he looked like...


We can only surmise that it was lost in the piece of cantaloupe he was chowing-down on at the time I informed him he would be revisiting his tooth in a day or two to which he gave me a weird look and went about eating the rest of his lunch. So much for the Tooth Fairy...

Go Tribe!!

Despite how bad the Tribe have been performing this year, we went to a Cleveland Indians game on Memorial Weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Spurlock. We had an absolute blast and this was the first time Drew had been to Jacobs Field (now technically called Progressive Field).

Typical of their season, the Tribe lost to the Rangers, but we had a great time just being at the ballpark and watching the players take batting practice...

A view of the "jumbotron" from our seats in upper left field.


It's not a ball game without cotton candy1




Drew, Daddy and Grandpa before the game...

This is Drew's cousin Gregory who lives in Ohio and is a Tribe game veteran!

Prepping for Luke part 1 "Pimping Drew's Room"

In an effort to post something different than just places we go and things we do, I'm starting a "Prepping for Luke" series to highlight some of things we are doing to prepare for the arrival of our second child. For those of you in the know, you already know we have named him Luke Michael Spurlock.

Part of the preparation process has been to close down "Hotel Spurlock" otherwise known as the spare bedroom and move the big bed from there into Drew's room. So, Drew's bedroom got pimped on Thursday...complete with queen bed, reorganized toy shelves and just a general polishing. He is very happy with it mainly because he get s to "snuggle" at night with both Mommy and Daddy for book reading time.

Part 2 of the Prepping for Luke series will be a before section of the spare room, soon to be Luke's room...in the meantime here are some photos of Drew's pimped room...

Space Farm Zoo

In early May as the school year was winding-down, Drew and his Kindergarten class went to a neat place in northern New Jersey called Space Farm Zoo. The zoo started out as a family farm that began as one of the family members bringing home strays and eventually it became a zoo and museum. The museum portion included old farm machinery, antique cars, toys and all sorts of interesting stuff.

The strays being brought home eventually added-up and the pictures below tell the story as to all the things that Drew saw and did there...


Drew's kindergarten class from Trinity Christian School



Mr. Bear...we actually don't need to go to a zoo to see these. we can stay in our house and watch the bears on Picatinny!



Drew's class in the original Deckertown Jail!


This is Mrs. Prohl, Drews Kindergarten teacher after the class escaped and locked-up the teacher!

Drew and his friend Jon-Luke




Some sort of bison-like creature...




This picture really captures Drew in his element! Such a ham having a blast all the time!! That's why we love him so much!!

Hilton Head 2008

We took our family vacation this year as we did last year in the Spring to Hilton Head Island, SC. As we typically do in Hilton Head, we had a BLAST!

We stayed at the Marriott's Surfwatch Resort and loved the resort. I can't really remember all that we did that week since I was so lazy in posting anything since April...I just finished perusing our friends' blogs and felt really lousy. So I'll let the pictures tell the story for me...

Enjoy,
HSHLD 5


This was the view of the rest of the resort from our room





Drew and I built a circular castle and had a "battle with his Army men (look real close). I think the good guys won!


A nice picture of "the man" sitting on the porch of the main building just before our fishing tournament!

This is the winning fish caught by Drew (well, as the war story is told by him). A nice size catfish caught in the lake at our resort. I think Drew was more afraid of the fish than excited that he caught it based off of the look on his face!

Daddy and Drew on the beach

We traditionally go to a restaurant called Hudson's on the Calibogue Sound for dinner when we are at Hilton Head. It's on eof the best places for seafood on the island and has cool fishing boats to explore!

Mommy and Drew flying his Dragon kite on the beach at our resort

One of the days while we were there we took a morning kayak trip on Broad Creek which runs East/West. We didn't see any dolphins but saw plenty of other wildlife such as crabs, egrets and a giant sea ray!

Playing shuffleboard at the resort turned out to be one of Drew'
s favorite things to do! We played more games of shuffleboard than I can count! He got pretty good by weeks end!

Storm Troopers!

We were in Philadelphia for a family members wedding this past weekend and were going to head back to Picatinny on Sunday morning after the wedding...that was until we saw the sign for the Star Wars exhibit at the Frankin Museum in downtown Phila!

It was a cool museum and a good Star Wars exhibit! Here's some pics...

Who's Your Candidate?

This is the only time I have gotten into politics on this bog. One of my friends from college sent me this link:

www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

Take the quiz and see who it spits out. It pretty much hit the nail on the head as far as who I plan on voting for...but we'll not discuss that for now!

HSHLD 5

City Trip

This past weekend as part of the ongoing Unexploded Ordnance Removal project here at Picatinny, we were forced out of our house all day on Saturday (and Sunday). On Saturday, we took a bus trip to New York and to the American Museum of Natural History.

What a cool museum! And what a cool location. This was Drew's first trip to the city and he had his face pressed up against the glass of the bus on the way through downtown trying to see the tops of the buildings.

Words can't really do the museum justice so I'll just attach pictures with explanations.



Drew with amazing growths the size of pre-historic Wooly Mammoth horns coming out of his head!


The main entryway to the museum off of Central Park West Blvd.




Cretacious period shark...RRRRR!

The infamous Giant Blue Whale


Drew called this the "Wall of Creatures" which included models of animals as old as 500 million years to ones as recent as modern day birds...pretty cool!


There's a pre-historic alligator eating Drew's head!!!

T-REX!!!!!!!

Big Big Big News!

Well, we and a select few relatives and friends have known for a couple weeks but we wanted to wait for the first ultrasound to tell "the world" that after alot of effort and time Kristin is pregnant with our second child!

I was actually in Yuma, AZ when we found out and I don't think Kristin could have waited so she called me out there. We are both very excited and so is Drew! He's been asking for a baby brother or sister for some time now and is very thrilled he will be a big brother. Kristin is not due until October, so many updates will follow, just wanted to let you all know it's official! God is so good!

Attached is a picture of baby peanut:)

New Car!!!

I know...some of you family members are thinking "they just bought a new car like 2 years ago!" You're right, we did...but it was a piece of @$%^! For those of you out there that are possibly considering buying a Chrysler Pacifica, continue reading...

We bought the Pacifica in 2006 just before we PCS'd from Fort Riley. Got a great deal on it b/c it was a 2005 that was still on the lot when the 2006's began arriving. We should have seen things to come when we had it for 1 day and the DVD/CD changer gobbled-up 3 of our DVD's and wouldn't spit them back out. This happened twice in the first month. We finally got the DVD system fixed and largely had success with the car until about a year later when Kristin noticed a small "ticking" sound coming from the front end. Up examination at the dealer, they said the entire All Wheel Drive system had to be replaced (basically the entire transmission). the mechanic at the dealer told me that it would have been a $10,000 job had it not been covered under the warranty. Fast forward to a couple months ago when we had to have the rear axle-seal replaced, brake drums replaced and the gas pedel started sticking all of which was not covered under the powertrain warranty. So, with only 39,000 miles on it I had had enough.

So I started research on the internet and the field quickly narrowed to either the Honda Accord, or Toyota Camry, both of which are great cars. We test-drove both and felt the Accord to be a better car. So yesterday, we brought our new Honda Accord home! This is my first Honda and I must say that I am very, very impressed! The engineering is superb, the interior is awesome, the power and engine are great...I could go on for quite a while. Plus, the CD player is still working so we are already ahead of where we were with the Pacifica at this point.

So if you want to know more about both cars if you are in the market for a new car I have quite a bit of info. to share. Just email me if you want more info. Until then, I have attached a couple pics for your enjoyment...

Karate!

I have been meaning to post for a while but it has bee a really busy month at work with travel...

A couple of weeks back Drew finally started Karate, which he has been really wanting to do for some time now. He is very excited each and every lesson we got to and his attention could not be diverted by anything short of a nuclear explosion. So we are happy he has found something he really enjoys...let's see how long it lasts!

Here's a few pics of some of his "moves"


Drew in his "strike position"


This is his "ready position"