Senior Butterbean

When I was in kindergarten, we found out that a little surprise was coming along! My mom was pregnant and I was no longer going to be the baby! He arrived the beginning of my first grade year, and life has never been the same!!

Chase was always my little shadow. During highschool, I took him everywhere with me! This happened especially when my mom was sick. I hated leaving him at the house while we were able to go off and get our minds off things, so he went along with me everywhere! (I even had a few phone calls from my mom and grandmother around midnight saying that I better get my little brother home now.) He was my shadow and I loved it. I feel like I helped raise this kid during the times when my mom was unable to.

The following picture was taken the spring semester of my freshmen year of college... when I think of Chase, I still like to picture him like this! Really short, kind of chubby, and super young. But somewhere along the way, my little butterbean has grown up...
...and today he starts his senior year of highschool. It seems like just yesterday when I was the senior and he was always hanging out with my friends and me. But now, he is the big man on campus. It makes my heart ache a little to think of how grown up he has gotten. He is so tall and handsome, and literally the funniest person I know. (And that's not just me being partial! My friends would all agree with me!) While it's hard to believe he is a senior, I couldn't be more proud of the man he has become.

This picture was taken Christmas of my senior year. I was only 17 here... Chase is almost 18! It is hard to believe that he is currently older than I was in this picture!!

To Chase--- my little butterbean, my No-No--- I wish you the best senior year possible. I hope you live it to the fullest with no regrets. Be safe, have fun, and make tons of memories! Senior year can be so exciting and I hope you don't let a minute of it pass you by!! I ams o proud of the man you have become. I know that mom would be too! I'm sure that this year will be tough in some aspects without her there, but I just want to tell you that she would be so, so proud of you. I can just hear her bragging on you! You are her baby boy and her pride and joy-- she would have loved every second of this senior year (and she probably would have cried through the whole thing too, since you are her baby!) I know that she is smiling down on you from Heaven! Enjoy your senior yerar! I love you so, so much!!!!

(This was Chase and me sweating it out at Salt Like this past July in Austin! Best BBQ ever!)