Happy Birthday Caden part III

Yes-another birthday post! just some pictures for this one.
The "store" from Aunt Amy...

Grandma and Grandpa Gronke got him a wonderful water toy that he should have fun with this summer...

And Grandma and Grandpa (or should we say Grandpa) could not forget the little man.....

He got some ducks to play with.

Aunt Vicky got Caden 3 books-we've read 2 of them and are saving the Easter story for Easter.

St. Patrick's Day?

Sure why not....So I'm a little behind on this post.....
A few days before St. Patrick's Day we went out and bought a Leprechaun trap (i.e. bug cage). Caden loved painting and decorating it. I do believe he may have gotten as much paint on himself as he did with the "trap".

After the paint dried we set the trap in the front room and hung some green leprechaun garland. We filled the trap with green coins for the Leprechaun to come and take. Good thing Caden is young and hasn't yet asked questions on how everything works. Daddy on the other hand needs to be gagged! Caden took my explanations very well on how the Leprechaun comes in and how he will go into the trap but the door will (somehow) close and he will be stuck in there because there is no door handle on the inside-we haven't learned about the push/pull thing yet!
Well the next morning Caden came into our bedroom and had forgotten all about it until I mentioned it. He had me go down the steps first and when I got half way down I turned around to look at Caden and his eyes were huge! That sneaky leprechaun left a trail of treasure from the trap to our front door!

Not only did he drop some of our treasure but also some from his little bag and the best part was the treasure he dropped was GOLD coins filled with CHOCOLATE (these are very rare gold coins as it took daddy a late day trip to 2 different stores to find them!)

The best part was Caden calling Daddy on the phone and trying to explain what he was seeing! It was so cute.

I think we have a new tradition started. Although after, he told me he had an idea on how to catch the leprechaun and from what I could understand it all sounds like an elaborate plan that I'm not sure I'll be able to re-create next year! Afterward he had a crate and was "trapping" all his toys!

But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, "You are my God."

Psalm 31:14

Happy Birthday Caden part II

Finally downloaded the pictures of Caden's little family party. We went with Spiderman because Caden loves super heroes and it was clearanced at Target! I won't pay $3.99 for 8 paper plates, but .84 I can handle:) Caden loved all his gifts and help decorate. He even helped with the cake-I lost all control over how it should be decorated-he had his own ideas and even explained why he felt something should go in a certain place.

Doug thought we should have gotten him the candles that stay lit when blown on but it took Caden a couple of tries to get this one out!

After Christmas we just happen to be at Target when the toys went 75% off and I picked up a few things. One of those was a batman laptop computer that you can play games on-he loves it. He like to play office (just like Aunt Vicky did when she was little)

We all had to become super heroes at this party-meet the spiderman family-mommy spiderwoman, daddy spiderman, spiderkid and little bitty spiderbaby! In one of the pictures little bitty spiderbaby demasks himself so we couldn't show you that one-you must not know the true identity:)

Our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 124:8

Happy Birthday Caden part 1

I know I'm a few days late with these pictures. I will have an installment part 2 after some more editing.........

I cannot believe my little man is 4. When people use the phrase "it seems like yesterday.." how true it is. It does seem like yesterday he was brought into this world screaming loud. This tiny little baby (with big, strong hands!) was in my arms. The first Braun boy after 35 years(his daddy being the last one). I was looking back at his calendar where I recorded all those wonderful little things he did as a baby and smile. I don't ever want to forget those moments. He himself now refers to "when I was small" or "when I was 3" I did this or that. He's grown so much and has learned much more than I remember teaching. Haircuts are now looked forward to, so is going to MOPS and doing crafts. Independence rears it's sometimes ugly head and we are left with the thought of raising a strong willed child. BUT like Pastor Paul said this past Sunday-it is okay for your child to be strong willed as long as his will and spirit are connected to the Lord-that makes a strong connection of the heart. For example today at MOPS Caden made a craft that has a picture of Jesus taped to a craft stick and then you poke the stick through the bottom of a paper cup. This shows how Jesus walked on water. Well according to Caden Jesus goes under the water(pull the stick down) and He comes back up and pops out of water (push the stick up). There is nothing about walking on water and at the time being there will not be any walking on water because Jesus is going under and coming up, going under and coming up and that is the end of the story according to Caden. I wonder what they are teaching him there or the better question is I wonder how much of the story Caden listen to while he is there..........Yes that is his story and he's sticking to it.

On Caden's birthday Caden, Colton and I went to the Retro in Loretto. Heidi the owner had asked last month if Caden would like his name on the sign for his birthday and of course he said yes. We drove by and noticed it said "happy 4th birthday cadin braun" and Caden said that's not my name. Well into the retro we went and Caden said "do you think they can change the "i" to an "e"? We asked of they did and all was well!



Caden had a HUGE chocolate chip cookie and a crush grape soda(this is becoming a favorite of his) and then they told us he could have a birthday ice cream so chocolate ice cream it was. Aunt Vicky said this is a Braun thing -all about chocolate:)

After that we headed out into the mud to grab a few pictures of the sign. Caden is such a great big brother he wanted Colton to be in it too. I think we might make this a birthday tradition. The retro is so much fun.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

John 15:12

Gallbladder OUT,tongue tattoos, and cute babies:)

Well the gallbladder is out! I'm doing well. I was scheduled for a 1:15 surgery and finally made it into the OR at 3:30 and home and relaxing in bed by 7PM. They only had to poke me 6 times with 2 burst veins before they got the IV in but hey all the pain should be gone now:) Thank you God that I'm recovering quickly. And thanks to Terri for taking the boys-they have a lot of fun staying at her place. Also thanks to my mom for coming up and taking care of Colton for a couple of days and also thanks to Daddy for changing all those wonderful diapers of Coltons:) I had 2 of the nurses ask me if I found out about this gallbladder problem when I was pregnant and then I found out my neighbor had hers removed after a pregnancy also-interesting.

We spent the last 2 days with grandma Pat. We went to visit great grandma Catherine. She of course had a birthday balloon, card and 4 dollars for Caden-he was so excited. We also went out and found a leprechaun trap. We have to decorate it for St. Patricks Day. Now all we have to do is find some gold coins and trap that Leprechaun!

Thought I would leave you with a picture of Caden's tattoo. Don't worry grandma Estelle it's just a tongue tattoo that comes off after a few drinks:) Just disregard the mis-spelling of tattoo on the picture-mommy slip! You come for the pictures anyway-right? Also we cannot forget little blue eyes:) Check in later this week for Caden's birthday pictures. He's already opened a few presents from Aunt Amy and Grandma and Grandpa Gronke-pictures to follow on that too:)

Finding Nemo/Valentine's

Well I finally got pictures from Doug's party edited. Caden got to choose the theme for the party. We were going to go with a Vikings theme, although Caden thought it would be funny to get Packer stickers and stick them everywhere. We could not find any Vikings items so Caden picked out Finding Nemo and baseball-since daddy likes baseball too:) I let Caden decide where we would decorate-take a peek at his finished project. Oh yes-we also had to get some heart ballons since it was Valentine's Day too!

Happiness make a person smile.

Proverbs 15:13