The Steele Family: Super Bowl Baby

I was going to dig out several pictures from "way back when" Austin was first born. I decided against it though because it would have taken me all year to figure out what pictures I wanted to include in this post! I mean, I'm already late in making this post seeing as how it's almost 10pm on the 8th! I knew that if I started looking back at old picture discs, I would be lost forever in the memories! 6 Years is a LOT of pictures.

Austin is a BIG 6 years old now. He was born on Super Bowl Sunday back at Fort Campbell, KY and this year, the Super Bowl fell on his birthday again. It's always special to think about watching the game with our newborn. Well, watching as much of it as we could...the TV reception was horrible and I was exhausted!

Austin spent half of his life in Hawaii. The boy definitely looked the part of beach bum with his long blonde hair.

Here he is "posing" on the Big Island.

Austin was almost 4 years old when he became a big brother. He was excited to have a little brother and was always SO careful when holding Colten. In fact, when we came home, he didn't want to hold Colten for a few days because he "didn't want to drop and break him."

Of course, now, he's a big brother to TWO little rascals! Aiden came into this world and Austin was just as excited with this newest baby.

Austin makes me smile. I look back at these pictures and it is just so surreal to think that he was this little less than a year ago! He has always been pretty adventurous, but with a carefulness about him that makes him think a second before he jumps.

Austin is very athletic already. He has played 2 years of t-ball so far and is excited about his 3rd year. He listens so well to his coaches as well as his Dad when they are trying to show him how to do things out on the field. He is eager to learn and get better and just loves to play!

This summer, Austin was so proud to take his training wheels off his bike. He worked hard at trying to balance with uneven training wheels, then when the time came to go without them...well, I think you can see the excitement in the picture.

This year, Austin was also diagnosed with epilepsy. It was not an easy thing to hear about the first time (as he was spending the night with friends down the street), but it was even harder to watch the 2nd one he had and not be able to do a thing to help him. He has been so good about it all though and with the help of medication, has not had a seizure since!

Kindergarten was another milestone this year! I can't believe we have a kid in school! It's been nice to see him accel in something that he didn't want to have anything to do with just a few years ago! The boy refused to do anything that had to do with learning and picked up pretty quickly when you were trying to slip some learning into a game! He would just stop whatever he was doing and tell you he was done. He's learning so much now and doesn't seem to want to stop. Well, except when there's homework to do!

Just a couple of years ago, I don't think we would have been able to get him to walk down the aisle in a wedding. This year, however, he was excited to do it! We thought he looked so handsome and he did a SUPER job. Our little boy is growing up!

This year, he prepared for his Daddy's deployment for the 2nd time. The first time was tough. He wasn't sure what was going on, but had a really hard time with accepting Daddy back. Now, he knows exactly what's going on and is just SO close to his Daddy. This is going to be a long year for him. The year and a half that we had together as a family in Arkansas was key. I am just SO glad we had that time.