happy birthday bro..

So my little brother Slade.. ain't so little anymore. Today is Slade's birthday!! Up in Fort Payne, he went to get his license, and I'm not talking about the drive with your momma kind.. I'm talking about the real deal drive by yourself kind. Slade is 16 and will be cruising through Ft.P in his LandRover - and yes.. i could go on and on how that one isn't fair!! Come on.. some of you remember the Prelude.
Many of you know how much I value authentic brotherhood.. and I can say that it is only because of all the brothers that I have been blessed with. My life would be completely different without them. Regardless of how far away in distance we are.. we always find a way to stay close in heart.

Slade has got that Smith charm. We always have a ton of fun.. and we always will as long as he remembers that no matter how "big" he gets.. I will always be able to take him down!! He knows it.

But I have to say how proud I am of Slade as a brother - both by blood and by spirit. Slade is a Christian. He knows where true life is found >> in Christ alone!! His deepest desires are for the Lord to be reflected through his life and his passions.

I love seeing the leadership in my "little" brother continuing to form. It's there with his friends at church and school.. and its there on the playing fields. I love watching compete with the talents he has been given and worked hard to train, but I love watching him more lead his teammates into the presence of the Father.

Happy Birthday #6
keep playing the game for Jesus.

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if you want to keep up with Slade on the ball fields..
his games are online at www.FortPayneSports.com
or the game coverage at The Times-Journal

you gotta love the weekends..

Meredith and I have been living it up on our weekends.. doing a ton of traveling for everything from football games (a lot of those) to beach trips and reunions. Putting a lot of miles on the car is always fun, but can get you tired for the week.. but hey.. come on.. you know its worth it.

we headed down to orange beach with the cool kuhlers!! had a blast just relaxing on the beach, throwing the football in the rain, and playing some putt-putt golf with the cooper's from redstone.

check out the heavily fortified sandcastle that patriso and i made with our flag waving high.

then we followed it up with another great weekend trip to nashville.

we had a straight up stellar time with the old au crew in nashville this weekend. great times of catching up and late-night celebrating of new things going on. definitely something we have to do more often.

mer and i didn't get to stick around for the dancing at decade.. but still had an awesome time hooting and hollering for those tigers at sam's for the auburn vs. lsu game.. war.eagle!!
we had a great time.. a great cooked breakfast.. thanks ladies for the hospitality.. but you always have to watch out for that chair.. hanna knows.