Guinn family update

Hi All. I thought I would sit and write a bit to update everyone on my crew. We are all enjoying summer, although it has been really hot already this year. Ashley graduated from high school on June 5th and she is going to go to college at Texas State University- about 45 minutes from home. She wants to become an elementary school teacher. She is working as a dental assistant for a friend who is a dentist for the summer. She babysitts most weekends (for other people :( ), so we don't see her much any more. She always tells me I should get used to it since she will be going away for college soon. (Am I the only one who thinks it's weird to have another generation of adults in our family all of a sudden?)

Sarah is loving being out of school. She keeps talking about being the big sister of the family once Ashley leaves. She is such a little mommy to the boys, especially to Austin. She carries him around all the time and it looks so funny because he is getting so big. But he lets her cradle him in her arms and they both just love it. Sarah is becoming quite the little reader. She loves to read "chapter" books and her favorite ones are from the Junie B. Jones series. She just laughs and laughs at those books. (They are pretty funny.) She is really toothless right now. She had to get 5 teeth pulled to make room for her permanent teeth. The dentist said her permanent teeth are really big and she has a tiny mouth. She said that Sarah will definitely need braces, but hopefully we can make the crowding less severe now. We'll see. I miss her baby teeth smile. She looks a lot older with big teeth and gaps!

Liam is a little squirt. He keeps us all on our toes. He is such an active boy, but he is also so loving. He likes to grab ahold of Austin's hand in the car and tell me "mommy look, look". It is really cute. His new word this week is "nexterday". I am not sure if he is trying to say yesterday or tomorrow. Nexterday kind of works for both. He discovered the word a couple of days ago and he uses it every chance he gets. He definitely picked up the Guinn talkative gene. I am not really sure who the kids learned their gabbiness from- neither Jeremy or I are very talkative. But our kids sure can fill the air with talk! He likes to tell me "mommy, I yuv my baby brudder". It just melts my heart.

Austin is growing like a weed. He is definitely the baby of the family. We had a check up with the pediatrician today. She asked me how many words he says. I could only think of 3 or 4 words and she said he really should be using that many in addition to momma and dadda. I was a bit shocked because all the kids have always been a bit ahead of "normal" developmental milestones and Austin isn't. He is very baby'd by everyone, so I guess that explains why he is "delayed". Of course, I still think he is totally brilliant. Yesterday we were in the car and Liam fell asleep. Austin reached over and grabbed onto Liam's hand to hold it- he gave me a big smile and then went to sleep holding his brother's hand! It was so sweet- I think Liam is teaching Austin to be loving.

Well, I will close for now. We miss everyone. I hope we can work out something to get everyone together again. It would be great to re-connect with all the sibs! I love you all.

Steph