Austin Scott: 10 Years Old!

Austin Scott is 10! 

This boy is handsome, kind, and good.  I am so proud of him and how much he is learning and growing and who he is becoming. Ten years old seems like a pretty big deal - double digits! Austin is the greatest 10 year old around. He is such a good brother, has such a loving heart, and is so much fun to be around. We are so excited to celebrate a decade with him. 

Here are some things about Austin: 

-He's so sweet, he often comes up to tell us how much he loves us and how much he appreciates us. 

-His hair grows so fast! Almost as fast as his fingernails, which have to be clipped at least once a week or they turn into long gangly nails. He doesn't love clipping his fingernails, but it's a mandatory job (sometimes it seems like a full-time job). 

-He loves audio books. Like, he would listen to an audiobook every minute of the day if we let him. (Maybe not, but sometimes it feels like that.) Reading hasn't come super easy to him, but I love that he loves stories and that he's starting to engage in longer and more complex story lines. I have seen improvement in his reading skills as he has been listening to so many books and that's been so good for him. 

-The biggest thing that happened to Austin over the last six months is the unfortunate experience of getting his front tooth (permanent) knocked out. In August, we were at my parents house with the Haderlies in Lyman, helping them get ready to move into the house there. The kids had set up a Zipline. As Austin was riding it he let go early and the seat came up and hit him in the mouth. Lydia found it in the grass and we immediately put it in milk and rushed Austin to an Emergency Dentist in SLC, where they were able to reimplant his tooth. David gave him a blessing the next day and we are hopeful that his tooth will be able to recover. Austin was so brave and so sweet through the whole thing. He was understandably scared and worried, but I promised him that I would be there for him no matter what happened and that we would make sure he was taken care of. He was sore for a couple of days, but now we just have to wait and see if the tooth is able to recover and live or if he'll have to have it replaced. He still has the splint on, but everything is looking good. We have lots of dental appointments ahead of us, and we will take them as they come - but at this point we are just grateful for the good and grateful it wasn't worse! 

-His best friends are Audrey and Ellie Ward who live across the street (and Lydia). The four of them play as many days of the week that they can and are basically inseparable. Almost literally inseparable. Even when they have to come home they go straight up to the upstairs window and write notes with big letters that can be seen by their friends across the street. It's fun and funny and I'm so happy that Austin has good friends. 

Some things that we've been up to over the past 6 months:

-Austin won a medal at the Science Fair this year. He did such a good job! Science Fair - "Does the cooking method change the volume of popcorn?"

-End of School: Lagoon, BizTown, Coop Market Day

Summer: Mowing the lawn, Jacob's farewell, 4th of July with the Wards. 

- Nauvoo. We were able to go on an amazing trip with the Peaden family to Nauvoo. We saw all the Church History sites like Nauvoo, Far West, Independence, and Winter Quarters. Austin loved the performing missionaries, especially Elder Shaw. He was particularly nice and the boys thought he was the coolest guy ever. He did a magic trick for them and then the rest of the week they kept an eye out for him so they could keep showing him new magic tricks. . We also squeezed in a trip to Great Wolf lodge in Kansas City and Austin loved that. Austin and Lydia were old enough that they could do all of the waterslides by themselves, and they just had a blast. We ended the trip in Colorado and visited Garden of the Gods with Bruce, which is one of the places that we went for Austin's 6 year old trip. It was fun to be back 4 years later. 

Other summer activities: Neighborhood Market Day, Baseball, and lots and lots of swimming. 

Vernal, UT (Dinosaur Land). We ended our summer adventures with a trip to Vernal with the Middletons. They are such good friends and we had a great time together. It was the perfect end of summer-start of school kickoff, especially because this year is Austin's Utah History year - so a kickoff in the Dinosaur Diamond was the perfect thing. We hiked and kayaked and played on the zipline at the airbnb and we loved it. 

Back to School

Austin is doing so great in school. He started back at the Middleton coop again this year (now called Blue Moose Elementary Coop), is doing Makerspace at Thanksgiving Point, and is studying Utah History this year (which I am so excited about). We have some fun field trips planned for the year and have already done some great ones like the Fort Bridger Rendezvous, the Golden Spike at Promentory Point, and the Spiral Jetty. 

Wyoming

Because my parents are moving to Wyoming from Morgan, we've been spending a lot of time here. We've been helping them prep the house to move into and plan to spend two weekends a month in this little corner of heaven. In August, Austin worked SO hard and helped with haying the fields for the first time. He spent hours and hours and hours out in the field on a tractor and it was hard work. I'm so proud of him and so happy that this gets to be a part of his childhood. 

Misc pictures of our favorite Austin boy: 

I sometimes tell Austin about the night that he was born, because he loves to hear the story. I usually just tell the parts about getting pulled over by the police officer and being worried that the nurses were going to send me home - only to be holding you six minutes later. But this spring as we were driving in the car headed to a baseball practice I started telling you this story again. Austin had been a little worried about a few things and as I was telling him, I included the part about how strongly I felt the word "Magnificent" as you he came into the world. In that moment when he was born, I felt such an incredible connection to his spirit and the only word that could describe the greatness of his soul was "magnificent". At the time I felt a little twinge of sadness that I hadn't been able to find a name that meant magnificent, even though his spirit clearly is "impressively beautiful, or great (late Middle English: via Old French from Latin magnificent- ‘making great’, based on magnus ‘great’.)"

Later that very same week I was at a Mothers of Influence meeting (a group of homeschooling mothers who gather together to learn, support, and create goodness) and the topic turned to the importance of names. We talked about the names of Christ and the power of our individual names in our lives. It was a really neat discussion and I felt again that I wished I had been able to find a name with that meaning. So I googled it again, right there during the meeting (now using 2024 phone technology) and somehow, after nine years of not knowing this - I found your name as the second one down. "Austin." Baby name website Nameberry confirmed that Austin means great and magnificent.

I am in awe of the fact that your spirit was so magnificent that there was no other name that could be given you - other than the name Austin. Even though we didn't know exactly - the Lord knew and guided us to find the right name for you. There is power in the name Austin and I feel so strongly that you have a great work ahead of you that you have been prepared for before you were even born. Your spirit is great and is up to whatever task is asked of you in this life. 

Austin, you are magnificent. We are so grateful that we are your parents and that we get to watch you learn and grow into the amazing young man that you are.