Our face of Autism - Day 30 of 30

Just this past weekend at Mustang Fest at Ashton's school.

the boys had a fantastic time!! :)

I hope you've enjoyed our "Face of Autism" series this month :)

Our face of Autism - Day 29 of 30

This is when getting direct eye-contact in pictures got hard.....

18-19months .... VERY difficult but still OH SO cute!!!

Our face of Autism - Day 28 of 30

I know this was around 13-14months .... look at the long hair in the back!

He LOVED straws back then!!!!

Our face of Autism - Day 27 of 30

I'm guessing 15-16months old.... he had started to slip into his own world

and getting smiles in pictures was getting harder and harder

Our face of Autism - Day 26 of 30

Gummy Grin!! He had to of been around 9-10months old here :)

Look at those HUGE blue eyes he had!!!!!

Our face of Autism - Day 25 of 30

Halloween 2006 (so, age 7) - His laugh is EXACTLY the same!!!
He was trying to eat the stem of the pumpkin and I caught him mid-giggle ;)

Our face of Autism - Day 24 of 30

Well, we got our confirmation - it looks like this was lucky #3!
Ashton will get to surf with Surfers Healing again this summer!!

Thanks to Emily Peat for taking this gorgeous picture of Ashton and his surfer last year!

Our face of Autism - Day 23 of 30

In honor of today being Surfers Healing Virginia Beach signups... 

one of my favorite pictures of Ashton and his surfer, Kalani, from his first year!

Our face of Autism - Day 22 of 30

Ashton was trying to whistle and TOTALLY cracked me up in the process! LOL!

Our face of Autism - Day 21 of 30

I was messing around combing his hair after his shower this morning,

and he said he wanted to keep the spiky hair - so spiky it is!

Our face of Autism - Day 20 of 30

Look at that SUPER AMAZING report card!
ALL As!!! WTG Big Guy!!! We KNEW you could do it!

Our face of Autism - Day 19 of 30

Look at that sweet happy face and those bright and shiny eyes!

My super handsome boy! :)

Our face of Autism - Day 18 of 30

How could you resist this sweet face?! :) I know *I* sure can't!

Our face of Autism - Day 17 of 30

Another picture from the same trip/day as yesterday's..... 

look at that smile on his face!!! :)

Our face of Autism - Day 16 of 30

This was a shot that was completely unplanned but remains one of my favorites! :)

Ashton kissing a camel at the Reston Petting Zoo in June 2007 when we made a trip to NOVA

Happy 10th Birthday, Holden!

Holden Christopher McCormick

Born 4/16/2002 at 3:02 AM

6lbs 1oz, 18.5in long

Reston, VA
Proud Parents: David & Jennifer McCormick

Proud Big Brother: Ashton James

You didn't wait for ANYBODY! Not even the doctor!

You were born just an hour after we got to the hospital!

Cute as a button, long feet and mega chubby cheeks!

We were in love, all over again!

Look how cute you were ....... 16months old .... such a sweet little baby! :)

Amazing how fast you were growing! :)

Look at that impish silly grin! 2.5years old - and soooooo cute and stylin'!

Age 4.... you became my little poser! :)

Even at age 5, you looked like a pro soccer player!

Bend it like Beckham!

Age 6, you helped assemble a world-record breaking puzzle for F.A.C.T.

You have always had a huge heart of gold for those children with Autism...

At age 7, you started wrestling and won the first of what would be

many, many, many wrestling medals - You go Dude!

I couldn't resist this shot at the zoo when you were 8years old.... LOL!

you wild animal you! ;) We love you anyways!

last summer (age 9)... you rode the innertube by yourself, for the first time

You LOVED it!! But your face looks so serious - SMILE!! :)

Last weekend at the Autism Awareness 5K .... 

yep, yet another activity you are involved in and enjoy...

RUNNING - Thanks Ryan Carroll! ;) lol

HAPPY 10th Birthday Holden!!! We LOVE YOU!

and yes... I promise, Rascal Flatts concert tickets will be yours,

as soon as they go on sale and are available! Until then, enjoy the CD!

Boy oh boy little man, 10years old - absolutely amazing! These past 10years have flown by! You've always been the independent type, and never really relied on those around you for your own entertainment, you WERE the entertainment! Fiesty and alert from the beginning! You were wanting to walk around rooms holding our hands at 5months old. I remember the ladies at the La Leche League meetings staring at you in awe, and at me with pity.... they knew what I was in for! ;) You started walking at 9months old and started talking pretty well shortly after your first birthday - and we haven't had a moment of silence since ;) Nor have you stopped moving since then, either! ;)

You are an amazing kid. Thoughtful, helpful and considerate and FUNNY as heck. But you also have one killer temper; when you get mad, you get MAD. Sadly, I think you're a lot like me in that aspect ;) We tend to butt heads once in a while but I still love you very very very much little man!

You are super smart, super handsome and you have an old soul in a little kid's body. Your birthday wish this year was to get Rascal Flatts concert tickets. This was after I told you we'd do a bowling party at the bowling alley with all of your classmates, but I told you that you had to pick one or the other. To my amazement, you chose the concert, so we will attend your very first concert this summer and I can't wait! You enjoy Rascal Flatts' music because they are a clean-cut group of guys, who sing great music, are amazing musicians and in your words "they don't use any cuss words in their music". I LOVE that you're attentive to that sort of thing, but it lets me know that *I* need to be a lot more careful.

You are so kind and generous. You have been your brother's biggest fan since day one! You've brought him out of his autism shell like no one else could have. He LOVES YOU so very much Baby Gizmo! ;) (better than Baby Swinub! ;)) You fit in well with any group of peers - older, younger, special needs or not - you make friends with everybody and in turn, that's earned you a lot of respect from adults. The other day we went to visit Ashton's classroom and you blended in just like one of the other kids, that's not something most kids your age could easily do.

You're incredibly active and keep us on the go go go! You wrestle, you play soccer and as of last year, you've been bitten by the running bug! You've done a few races and your times have been pretty impressive considering you've never had any formal training and didn't really "train" for any of the races that you've done.

You are the best little brother, one of the best sons and the best Holden that you could ever be! I am loving watching you grow into the young man that you're becoming. I can't wait for the next few years as you grow into teenagerhood and see how you become an adult. But, remember, you're still my baby and will always be..... and enjoy your childhood :) It goes by far too fast!

I LOVE YOU and I hope you have the happiest birthday ever!!!
--- Mom

Our face of Autism - Day 15 of 30

Okay... so you can't see his face, but .....
Ashton and his very favorite uncle, Uncle Kevin who took him to the zoo on his birthday
They look like they were sharing secrets or something! :)

Our face of Autism - Day 14 of 30

He wrote his name in the snow on my car when we went to visit a friend in NC

Happy 13th Birthday, Ashton!!

Ashton James McCormick

Born 4/14/1999 at 5:04 PM

5lbs 14oz, 17.5in long
Reston, VA
Proud Parents: David & Jennifer McCormick

Sweet as pie and cute as a button!

You had beautiful hair, a beautiful sweet face, and the wisest-looking eyes I've ever seen in a newborn. 

Look at that sweet, smiley, inquisitive, cheeky grin!

Here you are at 1year-old (I'm thinking you were 13-15months old)....

before you slipped into the world of Autism....

Look how fast you grew! Here you are with Mommy, at age 2. 

What a handsome little boy you were becoming!

Little did we know that you were about to rock our wold with a diagnosis of Autism.

Look what happened a couple of days after you turned 3!!

You became a BIG brother to a little brother!

That little tiny baby was the key to bringing you more into our world,

instead of you existing solely in your Autism world. I love you both so VERY MUCH!

Look at that smile! You LOVE your little brother so much!

Around the time that you were 5, and your brother was 2, your relationship with him changed. You were more aware of his presence, and therefore, craved being in his presence. He made you (and still does) very happy and elicits giggles and grins from you like no one else can! You call him baby swinub (thanks Pokemon for that, lol) and teasingly call him a kookie baby when he's crying. You're such a stinker to your brother! lol But you love him like no other, and he's your bestest best friend! :)

Look how big you were getting! Here you are at age 7, and wow!

Such a handsome little dude but you hated to have your picture taken. There are very few from this time frame where you are looking at the camera AND smiling. STINKER! :P You look lost in your thoughts, and you probably were :) I wish you could have told us what you were thinking about.

I know we can't see your face in this picture but here you are at age 8, holding one of Grandaddy's lizards. Around this time your infatuation with animals peaked and you LOVED lizards and dinosaurs and all things creepy, crawly. Yuck! ;) But I have to admit, knowing what your face looked like holding the bearded dragon, you loved this experience. 

Christmas of 2008 (age 9).... you'd been pretty sick with pneumonia prior to Christmas and was still taking daily 2-3hour naps. But you were awake long enough for me to catch an awesome picture of you smiling, yay! :) You loved Christmas that year and had a great time opening presents - your first year of really "getting" Christmas and that all those presents you were opening were for YOU! :)

Family camping trip in July of 2009! 10 years old! You LOVE the water and it shows! Look at that big smile you have on your face, and the scary thing is, you THINK you can swim, even though you can't! ;) Stop giving me so many grey hairs!!! :) 

Your first Surfers Healing experience and you got one of the best surfers around to take you out - Kalani! You were 11 years old and you had a blast!! :) To be honest, I think Kalani did too! :) Again, you adore the water and I'm so glad you got to experience this, at least once, little did we know, that the following year you would get to do it again! :)

You got to experience Surfers Healing again in 2011 at age 12. But this year, you got to meet Izzy Paskowitz, co-founder of Surfers Healing :) You loved meeting him and remembered seeing him on TV so you called him famous! :) You had a great time chatting with all the surfers that year and it was amazing the amount of social growth you'd experienced in such a short amount of time :) You had a blast, once again!

and last weekend - a week before your birthday you participated in your second race with Team Hoyt of Va Beach, with Joe Moss pushing you! You LOVED it and it was great getting out and experiencing the wonderful autism community in our area and the family and warmth of the Team Hoyt family! You are LOVING IT! :)

look at you NOW! A TEENAGER!

So anyways ... yes you, my son, are now a teenager! Wow what a journey it has been! A wonderful roller coaster. Yes, I said wonderful! For all the things that we have gone through, both good and bad, it's been wonderful watching you learn new things, overcome the challenges that Autism causes you to face, and become the wonderful young man you are becoming! You are so funny! Hilarious as a matter of fact! You pick the most unexpected moments to come up with some of your funniest sayings! I can't remember any right off the bat, but know son, that you keep us laughing with you, all the time! You have a beautiful personality.

So sweet and caring, yet so funny and stubborn - all wrapped up into a handsome package that is 125lbs and 5 foot tall! YOU are amazing! When I think back on the last thirteen years, I can't believe it's gone by so fast! You were just that tiny newborn that everyone so afraid to drop. That sweet little baby that had such a hard time with formula and foods. That little baby that rolled over just before you turned 3months old! That sweet smile you have always had. Those eyes that portrayed a soul far wiser than his years. You were a beautiful baby, a beautiful child, but I can no longer call you beautiful. You are a very handsome young man with the most intriguing eyes. Hazel - but with a green overtone and blue and gray highlights in them. Absolutely breath-taking. You still portray a soul far older than your years. You are so SMART! You know far more than you let on and boy, are you quick and sneaky! Sneaky like a fox we say. You enjoy movies (all kinds... though as of late, you seem to enjoy action movies like Hunger Games, John Carter, and you greatly enjoy the older James Bond 007 movies) and you still greatly enjoy books (you're moving away from comic books and enjoying some more age-appropriate reading material, though I wonder how much of it you understand). I do think you comprehend far more of what's going on in the world around you, than you let on. You are like a window that's left slightly cracked open. You let everything soak in - a little bit at a time. But when a wind gust comes and blows in, that window opens up suddenly and you let it all come out.

You make people fall in love with you. Look at your wonderful teachers, both past and present! I still keep in touch with your VERY FIRST preschool teacher (and multiple other teachers from over the years) because they still love hearing about you, seeing how you've grown and watching what you're becoming. 

With everything you've gone through in the last two years, from a less than ideal placement into the WONDERFUL placement that you're in now in regards to school, you are amazing! You came through it all with such an amazing amount of courage and bravery! It took a lot to get through everything you did but you succeeded baby boy! You are awesome and TOTALLY ROCK!

We all love you very, very much and are so VERY proud of you! I hope you have a stupendous day today, tomorrow at your party and in a couple of weeks when we do a party with your friends!

I LOVE YOU and HAPPY, Happy 13th Birthday to the best teenager in town!!!
-- Mom

Our face of Autism - Day 13 of 30

LOVE THIS ONE!! It's a couple of years old but he's so darn cute!!! :)

Our face of Autism - Day 12 of 30

You silly goose! You put that noodle on your nose to make you look like Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda. ;) What a personality!

Our face of Autism - Day 11 of 30

LOVE this face!! totally makes me laugh whenever I see this picture

Our face of Autism - Day 10 of 30

Love that sweet sleeping face .... this was taken 6yrs ago on a family camping trip :)

Our face of Autism - Day 9 of 30

Ashton, yesterday looking for easter eggs at Grandma & Grandad's

Our face of Autism - Day 8 of 30 (HAPPY EASTER)

Moose Ashton! ;) I love this picture!! (from 2011)

TASA Autism Awareness 5K

What a great day! COLD and WINDY! But so much fun and the guys all did so GREAT!
David ran with a time of 43:06 - great job Honey! :*
Holden ran with a time of 30:37 - great job Little Man! :)
Ashton and his runner, Joe, ran with a time of 27:57 - great job Joe!!! :)

Enjoy the pictures!

Ashton and Joe Moss

David (hubby), Joe (Ashton's runner), Holden and Ashton

Team Hoyt VB Runners and Riders for the Autism Awareness 5k

Ryan Carroll (Team Hoyt VB runner & Cousin)

David, running! 

Holden, running and lookin at me

and now he's just ignoring me LOL

FAMILY PICTURE!!!

Holden with the basket he won at the raffle :)

Basket that Holden won