So glad you were BORN!

Today is our youngest son Lee Austin's 22nd Birthday! Where has the time gone? I can't believe that he is that old already!
I thought I could tell you alittle about him with all these fun photos of him in our lives. Obviously you can see why we are so glad he is a part of our family!
He wasn't our biggest baby, but by far got to be our biggest baby AFTER he was born.  Like this shirt on the right that I made for him and Lauren to match. It was so tight getting it on ( just look at his little wrist ) that we had to cut it off of him after the Christmas photos! :)

But you can see him here at Lauren's wedding last year, that he has slimmed down a bit and looks great in his clothes! :)

Lauren was so excited to get a baby but yet wasn't sure when she came to the hospital to see him. Think she finally figured out that he might be taking a little bit of the attention from everyone. She wasn't sure about that. She couldn't wait for him to grow up and learn to pretend. She had always wanted a puppy, so as soon as he could crawl, she taught him how to bark and put a rope, string, fabric, phone cord or ANYTHING she could find around his neck. Yes, he is lucky to be here and lucky that we rescued him from his Big Sister Lauren on a daily basis!

He she is, still has something around his neck! At least he is big enough to take it now!

He is always one for an adventure and has always been easy going!

He is crazy about his cousins, wish we had more photos of them with him. Here he is with Bethany and Baby Jesus, yes he was our Joseph that year, it fit him perfectly because he has such a Good Heart!

Now look at them all gron up ( on the top right ). 

Lee has always been his Aunt Shirley's favorite and everyone knows that! 

He also has been a Favorite Uncle Lee to all the kids!

We lovingly call him the Child Whisperer! :) It's true, he is a Natural at that! 

Now you can see why!

We call Lee ...Austin, as much as we call him Lee. Austin is his middle name and he was named after his Great Grandmother Bertha Mable Austin! She was still alive when he was born and she was so excited that we gave him her maiden name! 

One of his favorite places is also our family's favorite places ...Port Townsend, since he was born, we have gone there for Family Reunions, yes it's part HOME to all of us!

Right now his home is in Idado where he is going to college, yes I am afraid he is becoming a bit of a cowboy at heart! I am sure the love of Country Music will be next! :)

 
Lee's first word was BALL, and I swear he hasn't let go of one since he was born. He has always been a Natural Athelete too!

Well Lee, we love you and are so glad that you were BOURNE ( private joke with this photo), to our family! We wouldn't be complete without YOU!!!!

Happy Happy Birthday to you!

Getting ready to say good bye!

Well, this is our last night in Austin. How grateful we feel that we were able to come here and help them out. We got most of the things unpacked and it actually looks like a beautiful home already. I am glad that it does, because it would have been even harder to leave them living out of so many boxes. The hardest part is still being so far away from them, but hopefully we will be able to get together for Christmas...so we are excited for that.

Disconnect to Connect!

I guess this should be my next post ( this youtube below)...since we have been in Austin we didn't have internet, or even any time to connect even when we did. We flew in to help Brad, Krystal and Kai move in here from Boston. Brad is going off on his own and we are so excited for them.
Our first day here we didn't even have a fridge or a washer and dryer. So we spent most of that day trying to look at all the stores to find what we wanted. The next day Jeff and Brad left early to find the appliances and Krystal, Kai and I unloaded boxes and unpacked the kitchen completely. Then when they got home, we spent the rest of the day getting the appliances in and getting groceries...still the gas won't be on till Monday sooooooooooooo we are taking cold showers each day! We did get a small grill so that we can have some type of hot food.
 Still all in all it has been fun getting to be with Kai and having him get to know us better. Man do I miss this boy! I hope we will continue to get to have moments and time with him, so he knows that how much Nana and Poppa love him.
Tonight we went to downtown Austin, saw the capital and the university. At 9:00 at night it was 98 degrees, I kept thinking when the sun went down that it might get a bit cooler....wrong! But it was 102 degrees today so 4 degrees lower I guess was better?
Saw this youtube video on disconnecting and thought it was pretty important to watch, hope you enjoy it! Good night dear friends!
here:

Here is their back yard...Keeva is a brave dog to stay out in that heat. Still she is excited to have a place to run around!