Flying by.....camps and birthday

July is coming to an end..does that mean summer has to end too? Caden is done with camps. Last week he finished his water water everywhere summer sizzlers camp at our church. Miss Lois is awesome. She has everything planned out to the littlest detail and that is what makes the kids want to stay and want to learn. Caden learned a new song so if you want to hear it ask him next time you see him. I might try and get it taped also-it's really cute. No pics of water water everywhere so I'll leave you with this.......

What is this you ask? Why it is the new 4 year old American Turtle

Caden had brought me a teenage mutant ninja turtle and said he wanted to dress like him....so we did a little improvising and came up with a better turtle...who wouldn't want to be an American Turtle. Especially if you look this cute doing it.
Oh yes....we cannot forget a very big event that happened on the 22nd. Our little Mister baby turned ONE!

This year went by too fast. Colton is such a happy little baby. Our little 1 yr. old is tottering around, more steps each day-although he prefers to crawl, his favorite foods are blueberries(takes after Caden!), grapes, strawberries, any fruit really and oatmeal-oh we cannot forget chocolate teddy grahams. We are introducing more foods each day.The only dislike we have found so far is peas-he actually gags when you put them in his mouth! He also lets you know which foods he prefers. The other day I had blueberries and Cheerios on his highchair. He was putting in the blueberries and accidentally grabbed a Cheerio-it went in and came right back out! He no longer has the bottle and really had no problem giving it up. The nuk on the other hand could give us a wee bit of a struggle. He loves napping in his crib and car seat. The baby toys don't hold his interest much anymore.

Even in the church nursery they opened up to the 1yr. room and that is where he climbed, walked, pushed and pulled-he loves that room.He can scribble with a crayon on paper. He thinks he is really a big boy when he does this-loves paper and pens. We had his 1 year check up. He did really well until the shots came, the nurse got the evil eye after that. Colton weighs 18 lbs 14oz (so no forward facing yet little guy-gotta pack in the protein and gain some weight!), he is 29 inches long and his head is 18.25 inches. Caden at this age was 21 lbs 7 oz and 28.75 inches long.
Happy Birthday Little Mister! Heidi from the Retro continued our new birthday tradition and put Colton's name on the sign!

"And God himself has said that one must love not only God but his brother too."

1 John 4:21

Where does the time go?

Can anyone answer that for me? It's the middle of July with one more month to go before fall starts. I love Fall but.......I know what comes after that.

Well I guess this will be a mish-mosh post of a little bit of this and a little bit of that catch up.....

On June 30 we headed over to Green Lake to visit Randy, Donna and Noelle and Kate(Amber had left the night before to go to a friends cabin) Keith, Jill and the kids also came up. It was a fun day. Caden brought his digital camera and took some pics of the day but that is a post all to itself:). He had a great time tubing until he and Doug bumped heads-then he wanted off.

Caden spent most of the day at the beach and "pool" otherwise known to most of us as-the lake.

Colton loved his freedom and crawled all over the place-still a little unsteady on his feet but going farther each day.

One of Caden's favorite parts was making smores or should I say roasting the marshmallows because he did not like the smores! He needs to keep his food separate not smooshed together-unless it Reese's PB cups!

July 4th- we headed over to Delano to watch the parade. Caden was so excited-he again took his camera and I think ran out of pictures before the 5th float went by. He wanted me to take pics of everything! We were at the end of this 2 mile parade(one of the longest routes in MN) so there was either no candy left or we got the rest of the bucket dumped by us. Caden came home with enough to rival trick-or-treating-a few days later it ended up in the garbage-he ate all the tootsie rolls. We then headed over to the carnival. Caden is one for fast rides-just like his father. So glad I don't have to go on those anymore. Daddy finally found his partner-now if Caden would grow a couple more inches he could actually go on the rides he really wants to:) (sorry I looked for July 4th pics and either downloaded to an odd place or erased before I downloaded! oh I hope not!)

July 9th- we started VBS this week. I say "we" because I volunteered a few days and Colton got to spend time in the nursery and Caden had loads of fun. I'm so happy he is enjoying his camps. We did take off thurs. and headed to the Sonshine Festival in Wilmar. I went to shoot some photos for my friend Amy's husband's band. We all had a great time. Caden and Liv got to play together and share a slushy and Cheetos-how much better can your day get?

July 14th-We headed out to A-maze'n Farmyard by Eden Valley.

We saw this place a few weeks ago when we were headed out to Green Lake. It is a small farmyard with mini golf, animals, a giant maze and slide.

Colton's favorite thing was the bouncy house. He was laughing so hard every time I jumped or stepped.

All three boys liked the giant slide. Colton preferred trying to crawl up rather than sliding down.

Caden got to ride another pony. He loves pony rides.

Caden gave the day a thumbs up with a wink! Must have been a great day!

July 17-My friend Dayna from Texas came up to visit family and spend time with friends so I hosted our 3rd annual girls and munchkins luncheon with her and Amy and the girls. It was great to see her again. We all met at Normandale when we were doing our teaching degree. Dayna was our center link-she introduced Amy and I. We all have teaching degrees but right now 2 of us are SAHM and Dayna went back to get her librarian degree-much better than having a classroom full time:)

The night before I put together little favor bags-who does love little treats:) I got the bags at the Target $1 spot(which is now 1/2 off). Inside I put in some B&BW lip gloss, B&BW lotion and a beaded bookmark I made that night:) I also glittered the tag with their initials. For napkin rings I used Martha Stewart's mini pom poms. I also did a huge one to hang from the fan. I love crafty details!

I got Caden and Liv lollipops from Target $1spot also. Caden was in charge of their places setting. He wanted ribbon around the boxes and had finding nemo napkins, spiderman plates and napkins. He did a great job!

He also made our center piece:

Here is the gang-I cannot wait until next year!

Well I think that gets us caught up! Whew! Colton's birthday is in a few days so another post should be up after that:)

"The Lord is gracious and compassionate."

Psalm 145:8

Visit to the farm, another sharp feeling and a waddle waddle here and there...

Last week we spent time in South Dakota visiting Grandma and Grandpa Gronke along with Uncle Nick and Stacie, Levi, Trevor and Little Miss Averie. Both of the boys had fun on the farm. They got to "drive" the tractors.

While out there Little Mister had another tooth pop through. Well almost pop through- I can see it but it doesn't seem to be through that layer of skin yet. He also performed four steps for us. Yes- he did his little waddle-waddle all by himself. He is still unsteady but thinks he's pretty cool walking. He is really good at walking with the little push toys. His walk kind of reminds me of a stiff march! I'll have to video record that and put it on here. Colton also discovered his like for Rice Krispies. It is so cute to watch those little fingers try and grab the puffs of rice and then gum it down. Of course I did take pictures of that-who can take 40 pictures of a kid eating Rice Krispies? Why his mother of course!!

Trying to get the puffs in between your finger and thumb is the trick-never mind the 20 that are already stuck to your hand and arm.

Now into the mouth-with all that are stuck to the hand and arm at least one in bound to get stuck to the tongue.

The farther you push your hand in the better your chances are that one will stick.

Okay now gum it to the front and gnaw it until it is dissolved.

Caden was very patient waiting for his turn at picture posing. I believe we got about 20 of him and his toys.

Caden and one of his favorite type of books. "I SPY"-he loves to spy things. He chose this pose by himself.

This week we have MOMS club meetings, strawberry picking, church meetings for VBS, and on Thursday I get to be the reader at the Retro Fountain and Roast in Loretto for MOMS club. Caden always enjoys going there. They have the best grape soda and biggest chocolate chip cookies ever!

Busy week-OVER and baby you've got that sharp feeling......

Wow! What a week. Caden just finished his 2 week swimming lesson classes. The first day he had no fears-jumped right in but after that well, the water looked to deep and he got scared. He did everything else but jumping in. He found out today that he passed on to level 2 next time around. We might have to see if we can fit it in this summer still.


Caden also had Western Days camp at our church. He LOVED it! On the first day they got to enter through a "gate" made of cardboard. When they entered the corral they got a badge with their name on it, a scarf and a cowboy hat. He had so much fun learning about Rahab, crossing of the Jordan River, the fall of Jericho, and of course Jesus dying and rising again. On the last day(today) they got to ride the ponies.

I'll have more pictures later:)

Here is a picture Caden took:

And now on to that sharp feeling....yes the little mister has a tooth poppin through-sharp little guy. I didn't even now it was there-no swollen gum, no redness, not too crabby-just very messy diapers. I just thought I would check it out and there it was. I should have looked at my tube of lipgloss because it now contains all these little teeth scratches! Wonder how long they have been there!

For the Lord you God is with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9

Good-bye May and Hello June......

Wow! That was one quick month. I'm not sure what we did but for 31 days it sure went by quickly. Lets see....On the 18th we took a drive down to Des Moines, Iowa and spent the night at the Stoney Creek Inn. When we got there I saw a school bus and thought "oh no" but it was amazely queit and we even got the pool to ourselves for about an hour or so. Caden LOVED the pool. He wasn't too sure at first but I had to remind him that his life jacket would help keep him afloat. After that all he kept saying(as he went zooming away) was "I'm doing it" "I'm swimming". It was so adorable-he was so excited and proud of himself. He even took off and went through the curtain that lead you to the outside part of the pool-Doug had his hands full keeping up with him. Favorite game in pool=SHARK.

Colton also loved the pool. He swam around in his little-well I'm not sure what you call it-floaty thing. He was even okay all the times Caden came over and splashed water in his face-very happy content baby!

The next morning I got the boys picture infront of the Big Moose at the hotel-well tried to-Colton found the rocks more interesting.

After that we headed to O-MA-HA(as Caden would say). We went to the Henry Doorly Zoo with John and Becky. John should get a part time job there because he knew where everything was-amazing.

Becky had to leave part way through our day to go to a banquet back in Ames, IA-where she is the womans soccer coach-(go cyclones!)-but it was greating getting to know her better. Cadem ask me at one point if there were hippos there and I said I didnt' know and he replied well if there are not we need to go to another zoo!

the sign says "double trouble"-had to get a picture of my double troubles:)

After the zoo and a short stop at Hy-vee we went over to John's house. There John grilled us asparagus and some of his famous burgers-yummy! Becky is so thoughtful-she had a little gift for Caden waiting-bubbles and scooby-doo candy-Thank you Becky! Both were a big hit

After the bubbles came sanbox and soccer time-all the boys enjoyed that...well almost all

John made this lovely sand sculpture for Becky:

one of the Braun boys didn't go for the sand-bewteen-the-toes-see below:

After a good night's sleep we headed for Sioux Falls, SD to visit Aunt Jackie, Uncle Rick and cousins Derek and Jordan-although the camera didn't make it out during that visit-yes surprise, surprise!-we had a great time. Jackie got out a racetrack and cars and had made a feast for us-BBQs, dip, chips, special K bars, rubarb crisp, lemonade and I know I'm forgetting something because I'm talking F-E-A-S-T! A few hours past and we were headed back to Minnesota. Colton slept some but Caden was wide awake the whole time-talking the whole time-wonder where he gets that from?

Whew!! 4 states in 3 days-ROAD TRIP- MAY 2007!

The water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

John 4:14