New Year's Resolution..........

What New Year's Resolution? Jackie wanted to remind of one I had. Something about posting once a week.....hmmmmm must be the pregnancy mind.....yep I'm going with that:)
Since January's been kind of slow I'm going to recap December-well Christmas. Oh before I forget I need to post the kids and Santa photoWe went to our bank. They offered a free 8x10 and free juice and cookies-who could pass that up? Colton was wide eyed the whole time.

The boys had a lot of fun this Christmas. We did our family Christmas before we headed out to do the big parties. We got a birthday cake for Jesus.

The boys decorated their own tree so they thought that they should have their own presents under them. Caden put his gift from his teachers under there and then he and Colton made some pictures for us and wrapped them up. They also each decorated a plate. Caden put all of our names on it including Matthew-who he and Colton have named the baby. I feel sorry for they baby when he comes because he is going to want to know who this Matthew kid is. Colton also went around wrapping up old toys to give us. It's the thought that counts right?Both the boys got 2 Eric Carle books. Colton loves his Brown Bear, Brown Bear. He even reads it to us at night.

Caden got his own ipod shuffle. He loves listen to our ipod so we thought this would be a good gift especially when we travel. He was so excited and happy when he saw what it was.The Saturday before our Christmas we took the boys to Target and they got to pick out a present for us and for each other. They both had a good time doing that. I think that will be another tradition. It was one of the activities I put in the advent stockings.

Colton was more into unwrapping this year. He finally understood what was under the paper.

They both thought their football slippers were cool. Colton's were too small and I have yet to take them back. Oh well I guess baby boy number 3 will enjoy them!

I caught Colton with my camera and was in the process of telling him that my camera is not for him to touch unless I'm with him and as I'm doing this I'm going through the photos he took and look what I found....I guess he wasn't the only one taking pictures when I wasn't looking....

Once at the Brauns the kids performed Away in the Manger....

Opened presents......

Reading together.....

Posing for pictures.......after I took this picture Colton said do one of our backs.....so they turned around for me.

There were many outtakes before I got one with all four eyes open!

Played with the leftover paper and ribbons.....

Hung out with family....

Woke up Christmas morning, opened stockings and spent some more time with our cousins....

Then we headed to South Dakota and opened more presents and spent more time with family.

I still have the after affects of my cold and sinus infection. I'm told that it may linger. I'm not sure if its pregnancy related or not-I'm betting it is. I had a dr. appt. on the 28th and little boy Braun is growing right along schedule. He is an active little dude-moving and kicking. He really gets going when all is quiet at night. I think he's wondering were the screaming and crying of his big brother are. It's weird how you forget the feeling of when the baby moves. Slowly rolling his way across the tummy and then power kick. I wonder how you can preserve that memory? More to come on what we've been doing in January......update in ummmm February? just kidding-I think.

And onto December we go.....

I'll have to look back on November and see what happened because it flew by too fast. So we are going to move onto December since we have a few days left. December 1 was a busy day for us. We got to see this precious little miracle..

We started our Advent stockings
And we also got to start unwrapping a Christmas/winter book each night. And since I had more than 25 both boys got to open one for a few nights. Although I must say Colton did very well on the taking turns.The activity for the 5th was to put out your shoes for St. Nick's day on the 6th. Caden remembered from last year and was excited telling Colton all about it. It was cute to hear him explain it to Colton. Caden even tried to get away with putting Mom and Dad's shoes out there and also a pair of my shoes for baby brother:) Don't they look thrilled with their goodies?

Next came the activity of getting and decorating the tree. Daddy and the boys went out and got the tree while I was doing some Christmas shopping on our sister's shopping trip with Doug's sisters.

And of course Caden had to decorate his tree also but that brought tears when Daddy was trying to put it together and "snap" went the base, even duct tape wouldn't hold that tree together. In all fairness I have had that tree since college so it was getting past its prime. So Caden inherited my little trio set of trees. I think he did a good job decorating.

We then had Caden's singing concert on the 19th. He did a good job. His class got to be the Christmas trees. Doesn't he look so happy in the first picture? They sang their songs and then we headed to his classroom for some juice and cookies. Isn't his teacher cute? Looks like she could be one of the kids.
We then had to get teacher gifts and bus driver gifts ready. Caden's bus driver got a gift certificate to Pizza Hut along with a custom wrapped chocolate bar. His speech teacher-which I forgot to take a picture of-got some antibacterial soap from Bath and Body Works along with a custom wrapped chocolate bar and his kindergarten teacher got a basket full of goodies. We went to her classroom wish list and grabbed some of the stuff on it: antibacterial wipes, easy reader books, foam sticker letters and Caden said she loved pink erasers so she got a package of those. We also threw in some B&BW soap and the chocolate bar.
Next we decided to go out sledding in the blizzard! The boys had fun but I took the pictures and then headed straight for the van. Colton joined me after a few runs down the hill. Caden probably could have gone forever.
Colton enjoyed going down with daddy
And even tried it by himself once...ended up in the snow!
Caden came back to the van with snowflakes stuck to his lashes. Look at those red cheeks.
We ended the weekend with a wrestling tournament. Caden did well. He ended up with 2nd place in his weight.
Come back after Christmas and we'll see if I can have an update:) I told my sister that my New Year's Resolution should be posting at least once a week on the blog-but then I had to remember that most resolutions run out by March so I guess we'll see. Have a great Christmas! I'll be seeing many of you soon.

Happy Late Halloween

Here are some pics of our Halloween. The boys and Doug went out to a few houses in the neighborhood and then came back and both Caden and Colton handed out candy. Some kids made out great when Colton was at the head of the candy giving line-he gave hand fulls-and we still had some left over. We shut off the lights at 8:15. The biggest thing of the night is probably when the firetruck comes and hands out glow sticks. This year they must have had extra because after we went to the truck they came back around to the houses and walked to the doors and handed them out to the kids.

Caden also had his nursery rhyme celebration in school. He had to pick a rhyme and recite it infront of his class. He did great. They then paraded around the school to show off their costumes. While we were walking to Caden's class Colton was following behind me while the older kids were coming out of their classrooms and there must have been a scary costume in the mix because all of a sudden I hear Colton start to scream and come running up behind me. They should outlaw those scary costumes in schools. Colton had fun in Caden's classroom decorating a cookie and then playing with Caden and his friends.

Apple Orchard and stuff

Bubbles-check, jets on-check, toys-check, goggles-check! Cannot take a bath unless you look cool doing it!
Woohoo! I may actually be caught up after this post...well, I'll be in the month of October at least. I think I do probably have some pictures on my camera to download. I did a few photos for church this past weekend so I'll have to download soon:) The children's director wanted me to get some photos of the preschool age kiddos for the church website. Plus Caden sang in church so I have those to post too-wait did I say he sang? I meant he stood on stage and looked good. No, he actually did do the movements and sing the words to one of his favorite VBS songs from this summer-Tear the Roof Off. Amy this song is on your mp3 list:)
Colton has been trying his hand at fashion designing. I don't think it's in his future. His latest design is ziploc mittens and socks/boots/shoes. He thinks they are pretty cool and bound to be a hit. They are great if you don't want to buy ice skates also-works wonders sliding on the carpet. If you would like to place an order just gives us a call:)
We had our annual MOPS Fall bake sale in September. I made some yummy caramel crispix and packaged it all pretty because if you are like me it's all in the packaging:) We also had some left over wood and tin pieces from a craft we did so I made up 8 magnetic frames with magnets for the sale.

On to the orchard...this year we went earlier than other years. Last year we had a hard time finding the apples-most were at the top of the trees. This year there were apples aplenty. The boys-and by that I mean Doug also-had a blast filling full 2 bags. Colton could not get enough of the apples as it shows in the picture below.s.

Welcome to my world

I have to post this Caden funny before I get on to finishing up our summer catch up series. Doug brought me home a Sprite and as he was opening it for me said "I'd better take a taste to make sure it's good" and Caden piped up from the table "welcome to my world" Background story: after church we stop by the Retro and grab a coffee/smoothie drink and the boys get a huge cookie and soda. We Doug opens Caden's soda and every time says"I'd better take a taste to see if its good". so I guess I now know what it is like to live in Caden's world.
On to the month of August-yes, I know it's October but still........

We went to the Hamel Rodeo......The boys thought it was okay for awhile but got bored. We did manage to stay to the end by buying some goodies.
We went to Valley Fair with Doug's company. Caden had a blast-too bad he wasn't tall enough to go on all the big rides like he wanted to. Maybe next year.
We had a double birthday party for Colton and Gracie. Both of them had fun opening presents, swimming in the pool and eating yummy food.
We then took Aunt Amy out to the farm and the boys enjoyed so fresh garden veggies. I was surprised they both ate the peas, carrots and potatoes-and liked them. Colton was brave and tried a green onion and liked it so much I caught him eating the whole thing-green part and all.
We also finally got to use our gift certificates from Terri. She gave the boys cards for Build a Bear workshop and they were happy to go in there and use them up. Caden has been in there before. He built a bear for Colton when he was born and he built one for cousin Gracie when she was born. This was Colton's first time but he did everything. They even had enough left on the gift card to outfit the bears.
And just because he always does something too cute...

That is so last year........

That would be Caden's new saying. I'm not even sure if he knows what it means but he uses it a lot-sometimes in the right context and sometimes not so much.
Caden is still liking school and the bus ride to school. We will find out by the end of the week if he will switch classrooms. I'm hoping not but we have talked about it so I think he'll be okay with it-a little sad but okay. Colton has had a fever since last Thursday. I finally took him in yesterday. I thought he was probably just getting his 2 yr. molars in. They did a mono test and strep test and both came back negative. The doctor said it was just a virus so unfortunately there was nothing they could give him but on the bright side we are still antibiotics free for both boys. She did say that there is a virus going around that leaves the kids down and out with a fever for up to 5 days. Of course as soon as we left the doctor's office he was doing much better and today is running around like his normal self. It's so hard to see them sick because it takes away from the happy, healthy little child that you are blessed with and you realize then how blessed you are to have healthy happy kids.
We had our Fall kick-off at church this past Sunday. I'm in the one year old room this year. Boy, was that a workout. Out of the 10 kids, 4 were crying and 2 had to have their parents called back into the room because they started that heaving crying. We just didn't have enough arms to hold all the crying ones. And when one starts it is like a domino effect. Oh did I mention that I was the only adult in the room? I had a junior high helper but I think she got a little scared with all the crying kids. It did help when 2 parents stayed in the room with their kids because the crying ceased a little bit. My arms are so sore from holding/juggling the kids all hour:) A great workout! Oh and we did not get to the lesson that was on the board!
Speaking of "that is so last year" here are a few pictures from our summer week at the lake in July.....these are soooooo a couple of months ago.

as always click photo to make larger

I'm Baaaaaack.......

I'm back but wondering where did our summer go? I'm not complaining too much though since I love Fall.
Caden started Kindergarten on the 2nd. He loved it! When he got home I asked him to tell me 2 words that would tell me how kindergarten is and he said fun and happy. The bus stopped by and put a little bug in Caden's head about riding it to school. I was going to take him but now he wants to ride the bus!! I can't believe it. I was suppose to take my baby to school and pick him up. He's not suppose to be wanting to ride the bus already!!!! So we made a deal-he could ride the kindergarten bus to school-only kids in his class are on the bus but I would pick him up after school since we went to 1 tier busing he would have to ride with all the kids-k-12-and be on the bus for 1hour and 20minutes. Caden got the teacher he wanted but we will have to see if it stays that way. There are 27 kids in his class and if everyone that registered shows up they may consider adding on another PM kindergarten class and splitting all the classes up again-what a pain but I do want him to have a smaller class-he likes order and routine.

As always click on photos to make larger.
I left a blank spot on this scrapbook page because I'm going to have Caden write his name on the paper once I get it printed off.And what is with sending home a fund raiser on the first day of school? I couldn't believe it. I sent it back with Caden today. Nothing like putting pressure on these kids.

Of course Caden couldn't be the only one with a backpack and going to school. Colton started to cry when I got Caden's backpack ready. He wanted one also. So we found one of Caden's old ones and he put in his blanket and Gracie's baby. Bonni-he really loves that baby! He even slept with it last night but he did tell me he would give it back to Gracie when we see you guys!

And since I left off somewhere in the middle of the summer here is what we did the end of July. On July 22 we celebrated Colton's birthday.

We also had a new neighbor move in so I made a movie night basket that included a popcorn bowl, couple bags of microwave popcorn, 2 bottles of water, 2 bottles of Root Beer and a movie certificate for a new release movie at our local movie rental place. The boys and I took it to their place and met the dad and the son. The boy is a year younger than Caden and I think the girl is a year older.