This holiday I really missed my brother Spencer. He is one of my best friends and his presence was missed by all the relatives this year. He is often the life of a party! Growing up together he was always someone I looked up to and wanted to be like. I thought he was pretty much the cream of the crop.
Spencer is someone who takes time for the individual and makes everyone feel special. I will never forget how special it was for him to come and visit us right after both of our children's births. He came and held them and loved them so sweetly. I love that all my children will share his great name as their last. It really is pretty awesome. I knew at a very young age I wanted to name one of my children after my brother but now they all carry it. Spencer is a role model I hope they'll look to, they are blessed to have him as their uncle.
He is a man of great courage, kindness, creativity, love, compassion, sense, adventure, skill, smarts and joy. Spencer truly holds some of the most important traits a human being should poses. He gives everything in life his all and does a job well done in all that he's given. I love his drive for life and his care for people.
There are so many fond memories of Spencer. Many of them take me back to childhood...finding clay and making Indian pots, building a hot tub under the porch, making cookies, pretending, playing dress up, selling lemonade and Rice Krispies, putting on plays in garages, building forts, all those things that make a childhood awesome!! Then in the teenage years he kind of had his own group of friends he did things with but he still made me feel like a special sister. We were in choir together for a bit, we were in the high school play together, we went to WA DC together, we still shared in adventures.
One very sweet memory and keepsake I have of Spencer was given to me on the morning I was to go into the MTC (Missionary Training Center) for my mission to Pennsylvania. Spencer had bought this awesome little journal and had written a letter in the first pages. He told me this was to be passed back and forth while serving for a year and a half. It was SO fun to find that book in the mail on my mission and is something I now treasure. My brother has always shown great care for me and all my siblings and everyone he meets.
I'm so grateful for siblings. Each one of mine has taught me something valuable and important. I'm grateful for the blessing of being in families. You learn priceless and valuable things you truly can't learn in any other way. Thank you spencer for being one of my best friends and greatest examples, I am SO grateful for you!!
