A SUPER SMOOTH 16th BIRTHDAY PARTY!

With Austin turning 16, he needed a big party! Of course, he's not a girl, so we couldn't do a "Sweet 16". What better theme to do than a "Super Smooth 16"! He refers to himself as Mr.Smooth, so it was perfect! Here Austin is waiting on his guests! He greeted each one of them at the door!
I have to tell you for a minute about the power of prayer...Friday, he had seizures. One of those resulted in him scraping up the side of his face. We were worried that he would be so out of it come Saturday, that he may not be able to have his party. Let me say that I prayed all day and night that he would be able to have it. We decided that depending on how his night went, Saturday morning around 7am, we would wake him up to see how he responded. This way, if we did have to cancel, it would give the out of town people enough notice. Low and behold, he woke up himself, AT 7 am! He slept fine and other than some scrapes and being a little slow, he was good to go for his party! THANK YOU GOD!
This was the star outside by the front door.Now onto the inside. These pictures are in no particular order. Sorry.The above pics are the dining room. The glorious cake! YUMMY! Thanks to my Aunt Terry for cutting it.I made 4x6's of the above picture to give to Great Grandparents, Grandma, Great Aunts and Great Uncles, Aunts and Uncles, and of course God Parents!We had different chips and dips, pizza, and sodas!
After eating, we showed a video we made of Austin through the years. We were able to get pictures of him with family members and friends that we knew would be at the party, as well as many other pictures. I had a very hard time keeping the pictures to a minimum, to where it wasn't more than 10 minutes! I'm telling you, I have enough pictures of this boy to make the video a week long viewing! It was about 9 minutes long, with some of his favorite songs on it. I think everyone enjoyed it! I thought it was quite cute!The party favor basket. A bag of Hershey kisses for each guest. Austin's favorite candy, Hershey.Mimi and Austin.Uncle Chris, Grandma, and Austin.Cousin Brandon, Me, Mimi, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Shawn, Great Aunt Terry, and Austin.Cousin Amy, Carli, me, and Austin.Kevin S. is in this picture.
I wish I would've gotten pictures of everyone there!!! I was a tad busy though, so thank you to my bff, Deyanira for getting these pictures!
There were some other cameras flashin', so hopefully I'll get some of those pictures to post soon. HINT HINT!!
We thank everyone who was able to make it. You made Austin's special day, that more special! It means so much to us!

Mr. Smooth

We had an awesome weekend! Saturday, we had a birthday party for Mr. Smooth, Austin!
A couple of days before his party, he tried on his party outfit, we broke out the camera, and he was havin' a blast! We finally had to tell him, "Okay Austin, that's enough pictures tonight!" Let me just say, not only do I have tons of pictures of him because he's the first born, I have them because he's such a ham! This boy loves taking pictures!Be still my heart...my sweetie is so handsome!
Party pictures to come Tuesday or Wednesday, you won't want to miss it, we all had a great time!

Big kids

I LOVE babies, I REALLY love babies! As much as I miss that baby stage and it makes me a little sad to see my kiddos get bigger sometimes, I've realized that I also really love this big kid stage too! I mean, who wouldn't love it? I no longer have to fold laundry! Carli can even do it too! WOO HOO!!! Ahhh...my chore list is dwindling down!!! :)

The bands have entered the building

The SILLY BANZ that is!
I knew this craze would make it to my house eventually and it did! The kids love 'em for some reason. Carli has princess ones and the boys each have rock band. There's tons to choose from and are cheap too.

Austin's 16th Birthday

What great birthday Austin had yesterday! We still can't believe he's 16! It's bittersweet!
He picked here to eat for his birthday:It's always an adventure when we go out to eat! FUN times! Then, we came home for cupcakes!He was happy to turn 16. He is even happier to be having a party on Saturday! Earlier in the day he asked, "When are they coming?" meaning, he thought his party was then. He didn't even want a cake on his actual birthday because he said he wanted to wait for cake at his party! We can't wait either, we're excited!

HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!

On June 22, 1994 at 5:25 AM, weighing in at 7lbs.3oz.: 16 years later, in the year 2010:

Okay, here it goes, with a big ol' lump in my throat, tears in my eyes, and a big smile on my face...
Our sweet, sweet, funny, handsome, first born, the child who gave us the title as parents, is 16 YEARS OLD today!I'm just shaking my head. I don't know how we got to this point so quickly!?!? I thank God every single day for giving us Austin!

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU AUSTIN! YOU ARE 16 YEARS OLD! WOW!
We love you so incredibly much!

Our Toy Story

Halloween 1999- Tyler was Po and Austin was WOODY! Probably one of my FAVORITE pictures!

That cowboy hat got a lot of use! Look at baby Tyler!
Austin with his Toy Story jammies and his Buzz Lightyear toy! Austin had several Woody figures, but THIS one you can see was his absolute favorite!Carli has her own collection starting!

Now, OUR Toy Story: Back in 1995, when the movie Toy Story came out, my baby Austin was a year old and then in 1999, when Toy Story 2 came out, our other baby boy Tyler was a year old. So, you can imagine how into the movies these boys were! Years and years of everything Toy Story in our house, mainly with Austin. Now, Toy Story 3 is out and our baby girl Carli is 4. She's all about the movie. She's been watching the other two for over a year now and has them memorized, she's even got quite a few of the toys. Watching her fall in love with Toy Story is so wonderful! We're getting to experience it all over again! It's made me very sentimental...well, I'm pretty sentimental anyway, BUT this, plus Austin turning 16 tomorrow, has been quite a bit! I've been doing lots of "stroll down memory lane". I came across the above pictures and one of Austin's, Woody dolls. Oh how he loved Woody! Really loved him! He had a few different types. On one of the plastic action figure Woody's, when he was three he even scribbled on the bottom of his boot and told me it was his name, like what Andy did! Melted my heart!
We saw the Toy Story 3 movie Friday evening and we absolutely loved it! I, you know me, got teary eyed...okay, maybe more than teary eyed!! Just thinking back to that time in the boys' lives and...*big sigh* it just got to me. The years really do go by so so fast! I say it all the time, but true!
Here's to not throwing away toys or putting them in sacks in the attic!
(If you saw Toy Story 3, then you'll understand that!)

Happy Father's Day!!!

Austin, Daddy, Great Grandpa-1994
Tyler and Daddy-1998Carli and Daddy-2006TO THE VERY BEST DADDY IN THE WHOLE WORLD! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!