I'm Trying to Catch Up, Brian's Trying to Catch Fish

Since it took an hour to upload the new picture to our blog (slow internet?), this post will be a lot shorter than I had intended, but I'll be back with more soon.  I'm out of school for the summer which makes me feel like I have all kinds of free time...even though I have yet to see any of it.

The boys are doing great.  They are smart, healthy, and so entertaining.  Grant is almost finished with first grade.  He has been learning Aikido on Saturdays through Parks and Recreation and is enjoying it.  He takes it much more seriously than most of the other children in his class, and he also appears to have some natural abilities (I couldn't possibly be biased, could I?).  Brian got Grant his own fishing pole and has been fishing with him as an opportunity for some father/son bonding time.  I was beginning to wonder if Brian's fishing gear would ever see the light of day again.  Up until a couple weeks ago, he hadn't gone fishing since before we had children.

While Grant is counting down the days until school is done, Christian is counting down the days until he gets to start school.  He and Grant will be in summer school together for four weeks in June; then he will begin kindergarten in August (although Christian will likely go to first grade for math and reading).   Christian is my sweetest boy.  He loves to draw me pictures of hearts and flowers or pictures of me and him together.  I think he is getting bored here at home, though.  I will miss him very much when he starts school, but I am glad he will soon have some new experiences and challenges that I can't give him here at home.

Justin has been changing and growing up so fast lately.  He wants to do everything his older brothers do, and he is interested in everything they are interested in.  He is still like a combination of Grant and Christian in appearance and personality.  It's cute now (how he follows them), but I hope he will be able to find his own identity as he grows.  I can't believe he's about to turn three.  He loves to go swimming, swing, watch bugs, play sword fight with Grant, and eat cookies - among other things.  He is still talking about our trip to the St. Louis Zoo almost two months ago!  He especially loved the hippos.  I'll have to post pictures of the zoo and other happenings later this week.

~Andi