Happy 11th Birthday Austin!

Ahhhh ... check it out ... fun times just 11 short years ago. Let me tell you, I'm so glad it's today and not 11 years ago. I got out our old photo albums to scan some pictures from the day Austin was born and these two pictures caught my eye right away. I forgot how painful and stressful childbirth was. The first picture is me having a not-so-fun moment before my epidural. The second is before they let me hold Austin. He gave us a little scare for the first few moments of his life. He wasn't breathing right away and the doctors wouldn't let Marty cut his umbilical cord. They suctioned him out and everything was fine. But it scared us to death!

And then they handed me this perfect little angel. This is just a few minutes after he was born and this remains one of my favorite pictures of Austin. He's just so sweet. I fell in love with him immediately. He is probably our sweetest kid. And he's always been really affectionate.

Here are a couple of pictures of the proud mama and daddy. We were both crying from a combination of being so happy that we had another son and then being terrified that something was wrong to being thankful that he was perfectly healthy.

As I was digging through some old pictures I found this one from 2000. It's another favorite of mine. So I scanned it and then made Austin take another just like it today. Cracks me up because to me he looks just the same. You can even see the scar on his forehead that he had gotten just a few weeks before the first picture was taken (he learned that it was NOT safe to run with a metal spoon!).

Tonight we had a little family celebration. We're going to have Austin's party with his friends in a few weeks. But tonight we gave him his big present. Oh yes ... an electric guitar. We must be crazy! But he is so excited. And the amp has a headphone jack so maybe it won't be THAT loud at our house! RIGHT!

And that's all for now. I just wanted to post a few pictures of my sweet little guy. It's hard for me to believe he's 11 already! I love him so much and I'm so proud of him! I asked Austin to pick out the song for today's post and he has chosen Guns and Roses: Welcome to the Jungle. He says it has an "awesome guitar solo!"