18th Birthday

We all had a great time on Austin's 18th Birthday!

He loves bowling and eating, so that's just what we did!

After we ate at Wings N More, we went to bowl.

 After bowling, we went home for icecream cake

Thank you Uncle Chris for spending the day with us. It really made his day!

Austin talks about his uncles pretty much everyday ( and I'm so not exagerrating!), he loves them.
He has no short-term memory, but his long-term memory is great. He remembers so much before the age of eight. Most of those years were spent with his uncles when they were all so much younger.

I sure wish he could spend more time with them.
I still can't believe he's 18 already!
Thank you everyone for all of the birthday wishes!
 I read them all to him and he grinned and laughed from ear to ear.
And in Austin's words, "I had too much fun!"

My first born

18 years ago, I became a mommy!

We had no idea what God had in store for us.

This little precious gift came with loads of lessons for me.

Boy has it really been a journey.

Hypothyroidism, Epilepsy, Mental Disability...

lots of hard times, really hard times, but wow are there ever some amazing times!

Austin is the cutest, funniest, and alot of times, the sweetest thing!

Quite the charmer!

Very confident!

KNOWS he looks GOOD!

His loves are FOOD, movies, drawing, and Sponge Bob Square Pants.

He is surely strong willed!

He is definately determined!

When he was five and in a private kindergarten,

 the teacher gave each of the children a character trait at their lil' graduation.

 Austin's was: PERSEVERANCE!

PERSEVERANCE-

1. steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles,or discouragement.

2. Theology . continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation.

This trait is so Austin! It has so much meaning to it, NOW. And the fact that at that age, when she gave him that character trait, we hadn't even began our journey of challenges with him.

There were no seizures or diagnosis of mental disabiltiy.

18 years....seems like just yesterday he was born! I absolutely can not believe he's that old! Unreal!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY PRECIOUS AUSTIN! Oh how we love you so very much!

The BEST Dad!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

to the VERY BEST DAD!

WE LOVE YOU!

Weekend Ramblings

I've been trying to pack the house up and fight a gross cold at the same time.

I finally got out of the house after beeing cooped up for A WEEK.

We enjoyed a graduation party for Austin's friend Matt.

 It was so nice! Even nicer, was that we saw a lot of family there.

Half of Matt's family is OUR family, but Matt and Austin are not related.

Matt and Austin

 With Charlotte, Matt's girlfriend.She was in there class and graduated last year.

 The guys with their teacher, Mrs. K She's so awesome!

We love her!

 Austin's other teacher, Mrs. J. She teaches cooking! She loves to feed Austin! 

 Look like Anthony in the middle? Well, that's Anthony's Grandpa's brother, Uncle Julian!

He was there too!

 Miss Priss

 Mr.Cool!

We went out to eat lunch Sunday and when we were leaving, a large group of people came in.

 They were a part of a Corvette club.

 Well, that meant in the parking lot, their cars would be out there. It looked so cool.

Cell phone dump

 (The only thing she did at her last day of school picnic and about a minute before she threw up)

 (Carli and Mommy road trip: Casa Ole. Duck pond. Buccee's)

 (Gonna miss them!)

 (Found this self portrait and

 also three different videos of her favorite tv show on Disney, "Good Luck Charlie")

 (JJ's snowcones! Nothing better! MMM...Red Velvet!)

 (Of course puppy love went too!)

 (Grad Sam!Work it!)

 (Fun party! Deyanira did a wonderful job!)

 (Tyler & Christian...the FRESHMEN!)

 (Always smilin')

(Another self portrait!)

I like to use all of my pictures I take on my blog. If not, then what's the point in taking pictures. I don't like them just sitting on my computer or on my cell phone. SO, I thought I would dump some cell phone pics out onto my blog today. Ones that didn't make it to a post.

Sam, our graduate!

I still can not believe that our Sam graduated from high school today!

I never could have imagined that day. That just seemed so far away.

The time flew by...
I still remember like it was just yesterday, him being THREE years old, sitting in his little brown rocking chair, READING Brown Bear!

He went from a cute little round baby

 (Babies, Austin and Sam)

 to this handsome young man!

He graduated Magna Cum Laude (GPA over 4.0)

He was in the National Honor Society

He was only one out of nine that received his

International Baccalaureate Diploma.

And now, he's headed to TEXAS A&M in the fall!

We are so very proud of him!

Talk about a good, sweet, hard working guy.

We sure love him!