To: My Beautiful Son, Austin (Who will one day prefer that I don’t call him beautiful)

From: Your Loving Father (Who promises not to call you beautiful in front of your friends)

Austin,

Almost 2 weeks ago you came into our lives. Truth be told, we had been waiting on you for the past 9 months. Mom was ready for you to get here! Yesterday we found out something Mommy and I already knew in our hearts. Yesterday, you were diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Austin, we are not worried. We feel like you are a blessing in our lives. There is nothing that can change that. On that night that you arrived in our home you helped Mommy accomplish two things she has always wanted to do - you were born at home and you were born “naturally” (Naturally = a lot of screaming and clawing at Daddy’s arm). We felt a peace that night that was different from anything I think either of us has felt before. It was an awesome experience. That night Thalia, our midwife, told me that she was concerned you might have Downs and that we needed to get you to the doctor to make sure. I was surprised that what she said didn’t worry me. Austin, ever since Mommy and I got married I felt that we would have a child with special needs. As I watched your mom and I grow over the years I became more and more convinced that it would happen. That night, as I held you in my arms and watched you sleep, I came to know how much God loves you, and me, and our family. We’ve been waiting on you for some time now, and we are so happy to have you with us. You will never need to fear not being loved, because you are so loved. Mommy told me, after the midwives had left, that the first time she held you, she also thought you might have Downs. Her first thought was for your tiny little heart. Austin, we want you to know that we will never look on you as anything but a blessing to our family. You’re stuck with us, so you better get used to being an Angus! You have a brother and a sister who have also been looking forward to your arrival. James is ready and willing to teach you anything you want to know, and help you grow and play, and learn. Jade’s only concern at the moment is that you learn quickly to kick a soccer ball. There is no doubt you were meant for us and us for you. Life will hold some different challenges now, but nothing that we can’t handle together. The scriptures tell us “… In all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” We are honored to have you with us, and without you our family would not be complete. Your Mommy is one of the strongest, caring, and loving women I know. She has so much love to give you. You will soon find out that she is an amazing person (As proof to this statement I present the fact that she has been married to me for almost 10 years, and isn’t tired of me yet!). Our home is perfect for you, and I hope and pray that you will feel the love that we have for you. I hope you know that we are ready and willing to help you learn and grow. We will give you every opportunity that you want. You are amazing, my beautiful baby boy. We have received so many tender mercies from God, and we feel so blessed that you are with us. I promise that you will experience skinned knees, bee stings, bike crashes, and many other things that little boys do. But with them you will also experience the love, hugs, and kisses that come from a family that would not be complete without you. We love you Austin. Welcome home.

Love,

Daddy (who will always secretly think of you as beautiful)

To our family and Friends;

We wanted a way to let everyone know about Austin in a way that would let you all know that we are OK with it. We really have felt at peace. We have great friends and family and are so excited to have this sweet blessing in our lives. We do not feel cheated or sad. We are mindful that the future may hold some challenges, but doesn’t it always? We are grateful for the trust that our Heavenly Father has in us to have Austin in our lives. There is an old adage says that it takes a village to raise a child. At some point many of you will have an influence in his life as you have had in the lives of our other children. We plan on treating him the same as James and Jade. We hope you will to. Thank you all for your love and support. We have faith, and know that God is good. He is with us. The scriptures say “We love him because he first loved us.” We are honored and truly amazed at the blessing of having Austin. We are aware of parents who have children that go through, and as a result themselves, so much more than we have, or will have to. We pray for them also. Families are meant to be forever. We are nothing less than grateful for our newest addition, Austin Paul Angus!

For more information on Down Syndrome you can go here http://www.ndss.org/

To: My Amazing Wife, Who Is Smarter Than I Am. From: Your Amazed Husband Who Is Grateful For Your Intelligence.

When you told me several months ago that you wanted to have our baby at home, I knew you had lost your mind. At Home? Seriously? We don't have any monitors, nurses, or fancy beds that come apart. A home isn't where you have a baby! A home is where you bring a baby to AFTER you have him at the hospital! They check to make sure I have, in my infinite wisdom, installed the car seat correctly before they let us leave. Isn't that smart? Who will check that at home? The neighbor? He's not a certified car seat inspector! I distinctly remember that you didn't care about most of my arguments. In fact your mind was made up. I could have boycotted, but that wouldn't have gotten me anywhere. So finally I went. I met the midwives, they were nice. They SEEMED knowledgeable, and they answered all of the questions that I had, MAYBE a little too well. Like they had practiced those lines over and over.... that must be it, I told myself. Yep, I was still convinced, I was right, you were crazy. Hospitals are for Baby's, homes are for ..... not for baby's. I mean, well you know what I mean right? does that make sense? Doesn't matter, your crazy.
Somewhere in the midst of then and last night, I got more on board. MAYBE you weren't completely crazy. Just a little. Nevertheless I supported you because, well, I have to live with you. Then, something very strange happened. Yesterday morning when you told me that you were having contractions every 5 minutes and I should stay home from church, I felt... calm. I knew that was the day. I knew that those " too knowledgeable for their own good" midwives would be on their way at some point. No matter, I was calm. I sensed that you were in good hands. As the day progressed, and you did too, I noticed that I wasn't antsy. Things seemed right. We didn't have to hurry to the hospital, we didn't have to be admitted, we were just here. The midwives came to us. As soon as they got here they set up shop. They checked you. They let you do what you needed to to get through it. They included me. I started to realize that things weren't the worse case scenario that I had in my head. I know you were in pain, but YOU WERE AWESOME! I am amazed at your strength (you really clawed my arm to pieces a few times). I kid! Your strength of character is phenomenal. I don't believe that I could every truly express the depth of love I felt for you as I saw you do everything you could to help Austin come into this world, healthy and happy. I said it before, you are amazing. I noticed, through it all, that we could focus on one another. Those beeps and buzzes of the delivery room that I thought I needed, were comforting in their absence. I wasn't looking at monitors or stressing over heart rates, I was looking at you. You were looking at the ceiling, bed post, the pillows, basically whatever would get your mind of the pain! I saw how much you went through to bless our family. That is the kind of love that only a mother can give. Thank you, for showing me that. The midwives were great. You did awesome. All is well. Turns out, you aren't crazy. At least on this point. The only thing I wish would have been different is if I would have come up with it myself. Thank you for proving me wrong. You are a testament to womanhood. And don't worry, I talked to the neighbors... they heard the screaming, thought we were fighting, and were relived to know, for my sake, that you were having a baby! We're all proud of you! Great Job!

Love,

Your not so worried anymore husband.

Jade's 2-year Well-Check

Jade had a great check-up with Dr. McCrory. We love Dr. McCrory!

Jade's (tiny) stats:

Height - 32.5 inches (16.70%)

Weight - 20.4 lbs. (0.30%)

Although on the itty-bitty side, Jade is growing healthy and strong. We love our little 2-year-old girl and hope she continues to be healthy and happy.

Lake Powell

And our road trip begins with hotel stays - yea for James! He has this weird thing about hotels. We'll be in town and he'll see a hotel and say, "Mom, we haven't stayed at that hotel?" My obvious response is, "Because we live here." He likes being home, but something about hotels is amazing to him. He'll choose it as an activity if we ask him something he'd like to do.


Farmington, NM - Jade knocked out after our first day of driving

Cortez, CO - James with a couple of his favorite characters - Rocket & T-Bone



Hotel Time







Headed out for LAKE POWELL!!!



We camped out on Halls Crossing Monday night. We woke up early Tuesday to take the boat with all our stuff over to Bullfrog Bay to meet up with all our Grubbs Family. We spent the first day setting up camp, visiting, eating, swimming and just getting everything settled. We already having lots of fun at the Grubbs Reunion!


Wednesday Begins - Jade's 2nd Birthday!!!!

Uncle Bill making breakfast




Silly Birthday Girl




Sleepy-heads waking up - Andrew, Angela & Jaycee




Ashlee & Abrianna




Tiffany, TJ & Jade - her 1st Sea-Doo Ride




Our cute Lake kiddos




Brandon & Karen




Beautiful prego Kathryn




Aunt Kaye & Emme




From the first day we were out there the kids played and played in the water. Some of the kids saw spiders on this litte group of shrubs in the water in the left side of the picture. From then on they called it Spider Island and always had adventures going along with attacking it or making up stories about it.




The kids were often throwing mud balls at Spider Island.




Ashlee & Julie



Our home away from home with Moab enjoying the small amount of shade.

Play Time

Jaycee, Conner & Lydia

Walking Moab



Moab has always loved the water and so the lake was the perfect vacation to bring him on.








Plaster grandkids getting Aunt Karen







Our bright-eyed birthday girl is all ready for her party!



Jade picked out this outfit for her birthday to bring for our trip. I knew this hot-air balloon outfit was hand-made for me when I was little, but I never knew who made it. I'm so glad Jade picked it out because now I know Aunt Debby made it. It still looks amazing and adorable almost 3 decades later :)



It was also Iesha's birthday - celebrating together!



Of course, it's TJ's birthday too but it's quite over-shadowed by Jade now.



Birthday song with strawberry cake!



Blowing out the candles!



I think she likes it!







James donned the hat for me because he knows I love em'.



Campbell, Davis, Conner and Jade enjoying the party bags while watching a movie.



Prego ladies trying to rest from the heat. We didn't know Karen was pregnant at the time, but the news it out now.



Todd & Todd (TJ) visiting (Uncle Jim in the back).







Paddle-boaters - Abrianna, Jaycie, Hallie and Ashlee



Paw was often enjoying the back porch to himself.



TJ slalom skiing on his 31st Birthday - Go, Baby, Go!


Our Lake Powell spot for the week...



Beautiful Sunrise



Treasure Hunt

This kids played some games before

All the girls!

Back - Hallie, Jade, Abrianna, Ashlee; Front - Aubrielle, Megan, Jaycee, Lydia, Emme, Iesha, Jaycie

The boys!

Back - Andrew, Dallin, Benson, Daric; Front - James, Conner, Kimball, Campbell, Davis

The kids found pirates treasure after following the map they found floating in a bottle. It has become quite the tradition over 20 years of Grubbs Reunions at Lake Powell. Somehow we always park where a treasure it and somehow we always find a bottle with the treasure map while we're there. Gotta love it! After their treasure of coins in a box was found the kids all enjoyed their Otter Pop treats.















Benson and James enjoying some H2O baseball







The man crew unloading the many gallons of gas we refueled to make it to the end of the week.



Mack (Captain of the Seabo II), Bill, Camron and Jim



Our mass of Sea-Doos to enjoy for the week



More TV time. Can you imagine going to the lake without being able to watch your favorite movie?



Aunt Kaye, Granny and Kim in the kitchen



Conner passed out with Todd



Debby and Granny were often working on Granny's life story. Debby was typing away everything she could.



Granny was writing away to try to keep up with Debby.



Lake play time really wore out our babies.



A little more TV time while packing up to go..............so sad to leave everyone.



We enjoyed getting to spend time with everyone, playing, hiking, eating, visiting, and just having so much fun. The only thing I missed this reunion was singing together. Uncle Bill forgot his guitar at home so we didn't have a musicians to play and sing for us. That tradition is by far one of my favorite things at every reunion. I wish his musically talented kids could have made it too. I missed seeing all my cousins who couldn't come, but as the years have passed it's obviously more and more difficult for everyone to come. I cherish every reunion and hope I never have to miss.

Saturday morning the house boat crew left out early while we finished our clean-up. Lake Powell is always like a dream to me after I leave. I know I was there and I remember everything, but it's just such magnificent beauty that I don't see everyday that it's almost like it can't be. I love living in the forest, but Lake Powell is by far one of my favorite places on earth.

After leaving we found a couple places to stop and stretch our feet. Butler Wash Ruins was our first stop - still far from civilazation. It's just a self-guided tour with just an information board and signs to follow. It was a nice short hike to see some amazing ruins hidden in the rocks.







Can you see it?



This was an awesome lizard we found on the trail. We don't have quite this kind in East Texas.




The ruins...
















James wanted pictures by there number signs that guided the path that went with his age. He is currently 4, but....



he will be 5 in October so he was pretty excited about this one.



Jade is now 2, but still wearing 12 month clothes since she's barely 21 lbs.!

Our love-driving-his-truck Daddy. He was enjoying some sunflower seeds so that accounts for the funny face.



Another landmark we stopped at in New Mexico was the Mormon Batallion. We saw a sign for it and thought it would be neat to see. There weren't very good directions to it, but we finally got to it. I wanted a picture from my youth experience in the Mormon Battalion. Our 1997 stake pioneer trek included the men being called off to war. I didn't know why they were taking the guys off and I figured it was to do something "manly" so I thought I was tough enough to do whatever they were doing. I tucked my long hair up in my hat and snuck off with them. My leaders were a little worried while I was missing, but once we joined back with our families I realized if I'd stayed I would have had to do the tougher work the women were left to do when their husbands were called off in the real Mormon Battalion. It was a great stake activity I've always remembered and the monument reminded me well of the experience.

We had a wonderful vacation together celebrating TJ (31) and Jade's (2) birthdays and an unforgetable Grubbs Reunion at Lake Powell. I love being with my family as well as all my extended family too. These are always my favorite vacations.