It's Great to be 8

The proud new scout
Singing Happy Birthday
My mad cake decorating skillz

Lego guys, he loves to collect these.


Anna getting ready to get in the canoe



Isn't it gorgeous? Wish I could have been there.

On August 29th, Ethan turned 8. It was a Sunday so we invited a few families form the ward with boys Ethan's age over to celebrate. I made to cakes, a white cake and a chocolate cake. To celebrate over the weekend, Randall took Ethan and Anna camping Friday night with some families from our ward.

The campsite was near a lake so the kids were able to canoe and kayak for the first time. At first they were very nervous and really wanted to "get back to shore". After some time though Ethan jumped in a kayak and paddled all around the lake on his own. Randall said he was a natural and Ethan was so proud and ended up loving it. Anna even warmed up to the canoeing and in the end told Rand that "it's good to try new things". I guess it was a beautiful area and there were even blueberry bushes all around. They even threw some of the berries in the pancakes for breakfast.

When the kids got home we let Ethan open his Wii game and he played quite some time that day. On Sunday he opened his other gifts and one of his favorite things was his scout shirt and neckerchief. He immediately put it on and wore it for most of the day. He has been waiting for years literally to be a scout. Thankfully now that he's started he is still very enthusiastic. He will receive his bobcat on Saturday at his first pack meeting, and is well on his way to his Wolf already. We are hoping to help him along quickly while he's excited about it all.

Ethan is a good boy and a lot of fun. He does well in school and is very charming and gregarious. We think he will end up being quite the popular kid at school. He already has a girl at school named Olivia that really likes him. In fact, Olivia's mother called me last night to see if they could have a "play date". Randall said if he was asked to have a play date with a girl when he was 8 he would have died, Ethan on the other hand is really excited about it. We'll see how that goes.

We sure are glad Ethan came to our family a BIG, bright, blued-eyed boy. It's hard to believe that 8 years have passed so quickly. Next Sunday he will be baptized and both of our parents are coming out for the baptism. We have lots of fun things planned and hope to all go in to NYC to celebrate Anna's birthday and have some fun. I haven't been to the city since we moved here so it's about time. We're glad the kids have great things like birthdays and baptism's to celebrate!