Our Boy is 5!!

It has been a fun day of celebrating in our household! Five years ago (that honestly feel like 10+) the Lord gave us such a precious gift of parenthood by bringing Austin Joseph into our world and hearts forever. To say that the days leading up to today have been emotional for this mama is a MAJOR understatement. I am emotional at each of my kids birthdays, but this one took me a little by surprise. It has been 5 amazing, but very hard years of us living in an infant/toddler world with more dirty diapers than we could ever count and many more good than hard days in the 'chaos' that became our normal when you have 3 kids in 3 years. :) I used to say, "If we can just keep our heads above water until Austin turns 5, we will be okay" and HERE we are! We have officially survived and now will be entering the next scary stage of parenting where you continue shaping hearts and character, but in a different kind of way. Austin seems like such a big kid these days taking on more independence and responsibility. The Lord has given him such an amazing personality with a lot of compassion and exhortation mixed together which usually ends up in one huge ball of energy and life. We can't wait until he starts using all that energy and passion in his pursuit of Christ! We know that the Lord has big plans for his life and we get a front row view! I am so grateful for this life and through it all my children are helping me be the woman Christ has called me to be.

What is a big birthday without a trip down memory lane?? Here are some pics of our little man. :)

2 days old

1 month


5 months

6 months

look at those chubby legs!!

7 months

10 months

1st Christmas

2 years - LOVE that smile!!

2 years - this pic makes me smile every time! even then he was as silly as ever

3rd birthday

3 year old cutie

4 year old birthday

4 years :)

Today - Happy 5th Birthday, son!!

Austin,

Mommy and Daddy love you more than you'll ever know and we are so very proud of you! You are one amazing kid and we are so thankful God gave you to us as a great gift 5 years ago!

In the week between Christmas and New Years, we drove down to Ft. Worth (1 1/2 hours from our house) to have Christmas with different family members 3 times. It made for a kind of long week, but it was great to see family that we love. :)

Here are some pictures from the week:

Austin with his two cousins - Peyton and Sophia. LOVE these girls!! (Their family was with us at all 3 family events. :)

Mack the truck! Thanks Uncle Graham and Aunt Alisha!

Cannot believe that this beautiful girl is now 11!!

Unwrapping gifts with Grandma Werley.

Ains loved all that tissue paper!

And Grandpa loved his new hat! :)

This girlie is ready for ballet!

Look what Daddy got!!

He was so excited! He has been asking for that mixer for years. :)

Dance time! Love how great these two get along!

Cousins!!

Best buds anxiously waiting for present opening time once again.

Can you see Audrey under that pile of presents??

Nana outdid herself once again with the grand kiddo gifts. :) Thanks Nana!

More playtime...

Way to go Sophia!!

Audrey loved her Veggie Tales Castle. It was a great week visiting with family. I wish I would have taken more pics of family members, but the kiddos keep me pretty preoccupied. ;) How many more days until Christmas 2011?? Can't wait!!

Christmas Day 2010

It's Christmas!! Our sweet kiddos (older two) came and got in our bed WAY too early, but it was so fun to see how excited they were for the day to begin! WARNING: There are a LOT of pictures in this post, but I am blaming it on my sis who is in Africa and said she wants to see tons of pics of the kids opening presents and such. ;)

Waiting for Daddy to tell us that we can go into the living room to open presents.


There's baby Jesus in His manger!



The BIG reveal


One happy and excited boy!

He loves all things CARS right now. :)

This sweetie is excited about her dollhouse and mini van. ("Just like Mommy!")

AND of course every Disney princess you could imagine!

Stocking opening time! Fun story: Austin got a Chick Fil A comic book for a friend about a month ago and loved it. We decided to try and get him all 5 in the series, but couldn't find them at any locations because they were in the kids meals this past summer. Andrew tweeted asking if anyone had the books we could have and Dan Cathy the CEO of Chick Fil A contacted Andrew himself and asked him for our address so that he could mail us the comic books. We put them in Austin's stocking. So cool! Gotta love social networking!:)

Our sweet boy

Audrey looks so BIG in this pic to me!

Playtime!

Thanks Aunt Zuzu!! She loves these Disney dolls!

THIS was the most wanted present...Slinky Dog from Toy Story 3 - Thanks Aunt Zuzu! We missed her a lot that day, but got to talk to her via skype. Always great to see her face. :)

Ainsley had fun opening all her presents and playing with new toys, too. Can't wait until next Christmas when she "gets" it like the older two. :)

We were all pooped by lunch time because of the stay up late/wake up early combo.

Hanging with Papa. Uncle Cory and Aunt Kristin joined us for lunch and a VERY casual and laid back day. We even stayed in our pj's all day! It was great!

We ended the day with a birthday cake for Jesus. Chocolate, of course!