Our Ethan

 Ethan is celebrating his 8th birthday. 

 It seems like yesterday, he joined our lives and made us a family!

At only 13 months he became "The Big Brother"

By the time Ethan was two they were best buddies.

Shortly after he turned Three he got to teach Aiden all about the big brother role, when Aly came along!

By age four, he was all about trying new things.

By age 5 he had trained two younger siblings, and learned how to make new friends when we moved across the country.

By age six he had the school thing more than down pat!

By age 7 Martial Art's had become an important part of his life.

At age 8 Ethan is of course in our eye's our little boy.

But he is also a sweet, inquisitive, imaginative, smart young man.  He is a goal setter, the first day of school he informed me "My goal this year is to make honor roll, and to be the Student of the Month again." he informed me of this without me even asking.  He holds himself to high standards sometimes this brings on anxiety, he get's so worried about doing whatever perfect that he freezes up and gets super nervous. He rarely meets a stranger, and will talk your ear off if he has the opportunity.  He enjoys building things, and doing things with his hands.  He loves school, and really enjoys learning French. He is always asking questions about other countries, about the possibility  of traveling abroad, he loves seeing new things and new places.  If you ask him what he want's to be when he grows up he will tell you a robot mechanic, he is fascinated with the fact that college teams build bots and do competitions.  His favorite cartoon is Ben Ten, which is all about a boy super hero that turns into ten different aliens, it's your classic good vs bad story over and over again.  I doubt that it is a coincidence that Ben 10 has a Grandpa that has alot of similarities to my Dad, Ethan and PaPa have a great bond.  He enjoys reading magic tree house books, and anything with an adventurous plot.  He is helpful at home, and tries to be a leader to his siblings. Even before he was born he was a blessing to his Dad and I!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

We will celebrate his birthday at lunch tomorrow, hopefully Aunt Lydia will join us. We have a family trip planned for Sept. to celebrate all of the kids birthdays, and our wedding anniversary.  The kids think we are going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas, but we are surprising them with one of their favorite places...any guesses where?

In Family News: Rhett will be giving his 2 weeks notice at work on Monday, and starting a new job soon.  Rhett and I are excited about his new opportunity and would appreciate your prayers as our family makes this transition.  The boys are back in school, and were both greeted with smaller class sizes (Aiden's has 16 and Ethan's 15), as well as the teachers I had hoped for.  Aly starts on Monday, we went on Fri to meet her teacher and see who was in her class (they have two classes and they mix the girls up every year).  Aly's teacher will be great,  the teachers aide is also one of her favorites and she was thrilled to have some of her favorite girls in her class. (there are 12 in her class)