Austin's appointment

Last Monday, Austin had his check up with the neurologist. It went very well. We're tweaking his medicine just a little. We've also enrolled him and Tyler into a national study. It's a pretty big deal. There are only 26 centers in the U.S. participating and our neuroligist is heading it up. It's in it's fourth year and basically it's studying the DNA of siblings who have both had seizures. Tyler had probably about four absance seizures when he was two years old. Once he was on medication, he never had another one. He was on medication for about three years and was taken off and has been fine ever since. Even though Carli had febrile seizures, she is not classified as seizures. So, who knows....in the future, people may know if there is a genetic cause for seizures in siblings and if so, what is it? There is also something else we are working on in reguards to Austin's seizures, but that's for another post. Anthony and Austin. You know we had to bring Miss. Priss along with us. She's always good though, so it's not a problem. Just makes for her a long day!

T-Rob

T-Rob is one of his nick names.
Tyler had a good two weeks off from football camp, and now he has started back for a couple of days. It's some hard work, but he is really enjoying it!

PAR-TAY TIME!

Well, no partyin' for me. More like chaperoning! Ha!
Saturday morning, we all loaded the car back up and headed to Bryan/College Station. While Anthony and the kids visited Anthony's side of the family, my bff, Deyanira and I had some serious party planning going on. That night would be Sam's 16th birthday DANCE PARTY! The party was from 7-11pm at a local teen center. I can't even describe the craziness that went on while getting ready for this. At one point her car was nicely packed with all our party stuff and then...BAM, we had to put the balloons in! There was then total disarray of our goods all in order to get these balloons in without popping them! OH, let's add the extreme heat outside too! We did a great job because not one single balloon popped and nothing was broken! Once we decorated the teen center, we went to get dressed. Soon after the guests started to arrive. How crazy is it that I'm old enough to attend a birthday party for my best friend's son and ALL THE GUEST DROVE THEMSELVES!?!?!?! It was strange...no parents in sight. The only adults were the birthday boy's parents, his aunt and uncle (the uncle was the DJ), and myself. No other grown ups or even kids. Just Sam and his crew! After Anthony came to drop off Austin, he went back to Deyanira's house and stayed with all the little siblings. Thanks Ant! Austin and Sam! Austin was so excited about going to his first dance! Would you believe they played pin the tail on the donkey?! We had glow in the dark necklaces, beads, and sunglasses. And of course there was dancing...oh the dancing and the music!! Deyanira and I had a hard time not going out on the dance floor! I even recall a time when I had to stop her from going! HA! We tried hard to remain non embarrassing and remember that we ARE the parents!

I have to admit, I was a little nervous about Austin going. Would they include him? I worried for nothing! When I say that this was a great bunch of high schoolers, I mean it! Really, they had him in the mix the whole time. Showing him the latest dance moves was so touching! Who'd have thought they would be so good at the Cumbia?! This dance Sam ALLOWED us to do! I'm not even gonna tell you how giddy we got! HA! All that food! They hardly touched it! I thought teenagers ate a lot! Not this night! Too busy dancing!We did get most of them to eat some cake!The guests! Yes, Austin was in heaven with all of the girls! If you know Austin, you know how he is about GIRLS!!! Bart, Sam, and DeyaniraDeyanira and myself. Two mommas of 16 year old boys!

The party was a blast! I enjoyed spending time with my loved ones and helping (or as Bart and Anthony would say, BOSSing"!) with the party!
How am I not the one who's 16? Where has the time gone??? HA!

Family Vacay!

This past week we were in for five whole days! We were suppose to do four, but we weren't ready to leave yet!
Our home away from home was FABULOUS!

We went out to eat a lot, of course spent lots of time at Sea World and the water park, and vegged out at the hotel. I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures. I think I was just too in the moment to do so. Really, most of the time we were in water!The kids loved the shows!!!My guys, my sweet and handsome guys!!! They went off on their own to do the big rides for most of the time, leaving Carli and I to take in some shows, kid rides, and water fun!You know muscle man had to try out his strength! :)While Ant and Austin were riding this ride (see top left corner), Tyler and Carli stood at the bottom and got soaked.They love staying in hotels, especially because of the pool. Well, our hotel had a beautiful outdoor pool, and we were always so tired by the end of the day to go swimming, so the last day we were there, we decided to just do that. It ended up raining, but not to worry, they still got to go...in the hotel's indoor pool!

On our way home (actually on the way to SA too), we stopped at the wonderful Bucee's. You know it's a must to always stop at a Bucee's! Awww...hooray for clean restrooms, Beaver nuggets, and Bucee shirts! We then loaded up our five tired bodies and drove off into the sunset!Then, the very next day, hopped back into the car for another trip!

Still on....

Will be back soon with family vacation pictures. I know you can't wait! Ha!

Happy Birthday Monique!

(Monique and Austin-1995, 4th of July)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONIQUE! HOPE YOU HAVE A TERRIFIC DAY!!!

Happy Birthday Sam!

Austin and Sam as babies! Awww!!!
So strange that Austin just turned 16 and now SAM is turning 16 today! WOW!
Sam, you're an awesome young man! Have an AMAZING 16th BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE LOVE YOU SAMBO!!!!!

And we're off...

We're all packed, car loaded up, and we're off on our family vacation! We're so excited!
D0 tune in this week for a couple of scheduled posts I have!
See ya soon!

Special Birthday

Today, is my mom's birthday. She would've been 52...man, that sounds weird! I still see her as a 34 years old! Since it's summer time and in this picture, she's in a swimsuit (she loved to sun bathe!), I thought I would use this picture! She doesn't have her signature smile in it, but isn't she beautiful?!!!!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Workin' Hard!

We've all been doin' some exercisin' and eatin' better around here. It's because of Tyler. He's signed up for football next year in junior high, which means he's been all business this summer. Every weekday for the past month, he's been going to football camp. Hot gym, hot outdoors. We are very proud of his determination, despite some rough days. Yesterday was his last day. He'll go back for a few more days at the end of the month. His shirt says it all!

Happy Birthday Chad!

My baby baby brother, Chad is celebrating his birthday today... We LOVE YOU CHAD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Way to "GROW" Austin!

At the beginning of summer, Austin had his annual appointment with his endocrinologist. He was born with his thyroid, however, it doesn't work, but with the medication he has been taking since two weeks of age, it does. He's also lacking a certain growth hormone, but hormone injections won't work for this type. He's always charted in the zero percentile for height and weight. Tyler was always fifth percentile and Carli is almost that as well. We're all just short folks. It's always been known that IF he stayed on a normal growth pattern, the tallest he would get, would be 5ft. 1in. Well, we weren't sure he'd get to that, since he never had a normal, good growth pattern. His height and weight has always struggled. Even there for a while stalled out! Since we were (and are) struggling with his seizures, we (meaning Ant and I) just decided to not worry about the growing. As long as he went through puberty, he was going to get as tall as he was intended to get. Well, in the past year, Austin has GROWN! Height and weight! His doctor was SO SO EXCITED to see his progress! She couldn't believe it! (Inside the exam room...a TV! YES! THANK YOU GOD! It sure made it easier with having Carli in there too!)
The charts below are hard to see, but do try to look at the growth! AMAZING! These start at age 10. The above is his weight and the below is his height.He now weighs 88lbs. Which is 0% in weight percentile.
He is 60.5 in. tall! Which is 1% in height percentile.
Who cares about the percentile...the main thing is that he has grown and looks like he will continue some!!!! And because of this growth, we needed to really increase his thyroid medication!
GOOD REPORT!
Way to "GROW" Austin!

Occupied

The other week, we unloaded a box in the house. Carli immediately took possession of this big empty box. She LOVES it! Yes, it sits in the living room right now.
First, she used it as a giant bed for her babies and animals.Then, she just played with her toys on top of it.
Now, she's "decorating" it. She started off with using pens. She's gone through four pens. They've all ran out of ink. She used markers for a little bit, but she realized crayons work best!Almost every inch of this box is colored and she said tomorrow she's "gettin' the stickers out!"It has been the BEST TOY EVER! Aren't the boxes always?! Ha! Thank you "boxy" for keeping Carli so occupied!