Brothers, a growing, changing relationship

I just noticed it's been a whole month since my last post! My how time flies! But I will blame it on the fact that we moved at the beginning of the month and unpacking with three children is taking me forever! And since the computer still hasn't been unpacked, there are no pictures yet. They will come...

So we bought a house and we are loving it. It has been so good for our family. We have so much more space and room to play, we love it! The best part about it is that the boys seem to have become such better friends--they play together better and they have so much fun together. I don't know if it's just a coincidence, or if the new living arrangements have really helped. I think the new space and the new independence they have with their play area and their room has definitely helped. But it has been so much fun to watch.

Christian and Ethan really have been giving me some rewarding moments lately. Last week I was the volunteer at Christian's preschool and I decided to take Ethan with me rather than leave him with Owen at the babysitter's house. I was so glad I did. Ethan LOVED preschool, to say the least. He wasn't shy and just followed along and did everything the other children did. When the teacher called them to the rug, Ethan just went right on over and sat in a square. The teacher was so nice to have another little boy switch so Ethan could sit on the rug by Christian. When they did the alphabet, Ethan joined in, and he even knew the letters better than some of the kids! When they did a jumping ABC activity, Ethan got right in line and did it too. When they colored, he colored. When they had a snack, so did he. But the very best part of it was the way Christian was so proud to have his little brother there with him; the way he showed him what to do and where to go; the way he helped him when he needed to go potty and helped him wash his hands. How grateful I was to be their mom that day. :)

And then on Friday I took them to the children's museum and we went alone, which we don't typically do. Usually we take someone with us, because we have a pass and we can get a few more people in on our pass. But this day we hadn't found anyone to go, Daddy was out of town and I'd promised the boys we would do something fun, and so we went. Just me and my boys. It was so much fun. Christian didn't have a friend with him, so he and Ethan stuck together the whole time like little buddies. They were a little team, sometimes a naughty little team not sharing very well with other kids, but they stuck together. It was was so sweet to watch. And hilarious too. I didn't have anyone to sit and chat with while they played and so I had the privilege of witnessing these sweet moments. How grateful I was to be with my little boys that day.

Christian and Ethan have a growing, changing relationship. I have loved to watch it evolve, especially this last month. Don't get me wrong, they do not get along all the time. In fact, quite frequently Ethan comes crying to me that Christian hurt him. Christian is Mr. bossy most of the time and gets really frustrated when Ethan doesn't do exactly as he wants, which usually results in him hitting Ethan, or something of the sort. But there has been progress and it has been so fun to watch these little brothers be friends. The other day they set up and played an entire game of Sorry all by themselves! Can you believe that? Christian helped Ethan do what the card said, and he never even got frustrated with him. I was amazed. How grateful I am for changes that come into our lives to bless us with such sweet moments.

Rocket Launch

For Christian's birthday I gave him a model rocket that we would build and customize how he would like it. It was a Estes Wizard rocket and supposedly can shoot 1600 ft into the air and it is about 12 inches tall. We spent the week following Christmas making his rocket, purchasing supplies, and painting the rocket. He chose the nose of the rocket to be red and the body to be his favorite color which is green. After assembling and painting the rocket it was ready for its inaugural flight. We called Uncle Connor on a beautiful clear December day to see if we could launch our rocket. We went to Morningside Elementary to launch and setup the launch pad. Typically for the first launch you are suppose to use a smaller engine, but we decided tout a C5-7 rocket engine in it which happens to be the biggest standard size engine. When the rocket took off it went extremely high to a point that we almost couldn't see it. It cam down and had a safe landing on the field without any damage. It was a very successful flight and according to Uncle Connor it was the highest and best launch that he has seen for the year of 2011. We hope to build many more rockets in the years to come!
The rocket lineup




Minutes before launch

Jazz Game

At the end of December Christian and I were able to attend a Jazz game against the Philadelphia 76ers. We were able to go to the game thanks to Papa's self ban of not watching or following the NBA this year due to the recent strike. Christian and I had a great time and it was fun to spend time with him and to see how he paid attention to the game and would let me know hen the Jazz were ahead and when they were behind. It amazes me how he can be so content at just watching the game. In fact he sat in his chair the entire game and never asked for treats or anything. One of the highlights was watching the blimps fly around the arena and also seeing the Jazz bear sled down the stairs for the lower level concourse onto the court. Christian brought his good luck to the Jazz as they came out victorious in their home opener for the season.