Growing Up

I think I have been slacking in the kid information department for a while. This is probably because I write the most stuff about them in my hard copy journal, and all the funny things they do I write on facebook, so I forget to write about it on here.

Harrison is getting ready to have a birthday. It's hard to believe that he is turning 14. That just makes me feel really old! Still, he has accomplished a lot. He started playing the viola in 5th grade. If I had been on top of things, I would have helped him practice and given him musicianship lessons. He would be a lot farther a long. :) Still, he is doing really well. This summer I worked really hard with him to achieve his goal of being in the the local youth chamber orchestra, and he made it in. It has been a lot of work for him, but he really enjoys it, and it is so cool to hear him play and becoming a good viola player.

He is also amazing at building things with his legos and bionicles. When he first gets a set he will follow the instructions and build the set, but after that....his brain is his set of instructions. He has built some pretty amazing things, just by looking at the pieces and then deciding what he wants to make. This first started when he was four and built a tyrannasaurus rex out of his duplo blocks.

I keep hoping that he continues to be the great son that he is. In many ways it is very spoiling for me because he is such a good teenager. Like all teenagers he has his days, but for the most part I can't complain.

It is interesting to look at his baby pictures and see how much Emmett looks like him. There are a few pictures where he looks like Jeffrey. This is especially interesting because everyone, on both sides of the family thought Emmett was his own look and didn't look anything like any of the other kids. I always just thought you could see more of my side of the family in him, where the other kids just looked a lot like Shane's side of the family.