Wow! What a weekend.

Who knew that the end of April could bring you snow on the ground in the morning and green grass by the afternoon? Well I guess when you live in MN it is just part of the weather but I hate to repeat myself from a few previous posts but I would like to know where Spring is hiding. We caught a glimpse of her last Wednesday when we were at the park with friends but she went back into hiding. I guess May is just a few days away so maybe she will like that month better. The boys had fun while I was at jazzercise. They got out all the winter clothes I put away, put them on and went outside to build this-(click to make bigger)

Yes, the biggest Spring snowman ever. Poor dude was wilted by the warm weather though and toppled over after he was built. See, even he knew he wasn't suppose to be here in April. We do have a nice large snowball in our backyard amongst the green grass-ahhh-the memories.
I had a spa night with the women from my church group Friday night. It was so much fun. The hostess went all out and put so much thought and care into the night. When we got there she had hand towels and wash cloths tied with a ribbon and inside was a cute postcard with a scripture verse, a headband for the facials, nail file and a little bottle of nail polish remover. The food was unbelievable. She had some yummy salmon inside little croissant buns, a veggie salad, cheese and crackers, dried mango, a chocolate strawberry ganache cake, filled mini puffs, ice cream, 3 different kinds of drinks-cute spa drinks and of course little chocolates located all over her house. She even had a masseuse there if you wanted to buy massages. The best part was sitting down and actually having time to talk to everyone. In our group you exercise, get announcements, guest speaker and small groups-so it was nice to talk to those who weren't in you small groups and get to know them better. She had sent out an email to our group earlier asking us to pray for the presence of God to be there for the focus to be on Him and us not the food or the set up. I think that was accomplished everyone had a great time. We also brought a gently used beauty product we didn't need and played the dice game. I came home with a candle, some hair frosting stuff-that I don't think I'll use:) and some Arbonne NutriMinC RE9 Anti-anging body serum and lotion which I will definitely use because I just finished my bottles this week and was worrying about buying more. I love this stuff! Great on dry spots. Estelle- I know you have this at your place-give it a try-you'll like it.
Sunday was a great talk on Science vs. the Church. Our pastor did a good job. You can hear it here.
We also had family movie night. Caden earned a movie by sleeping all night in his room and not waking us up when he got up in the middle of the night. We got the Bee movie-it was okay. He started working on his second movie earning last night.

Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Psalm 25:21

It only took a year.....

Yes, I have all these projects roaming around in my head and house-much to Doug's dismay. I got one of these to dos off my list yesterday. You see last year when I was visiting my mom and dad we went to Aberdeen and I made mom stop at the Salvation Army-you never know what kind of treasures you'll find. Well, I looked and found a few books for Caden but that was it-or so I thought. A week later after I got home I remembered two large pictures sitting there for $8 and $3, so I called my mom up and asked her to pick them up next time she was in Aberdeen. Well a month later she came to visit and brought me my treasures. And so they sat for 1 whole year in our garage-Doug loved that:) Yesterday I got the energy and supplies and completed my task.

Old picture-not my style but gotta love a large $8 frame...

A little hot glue-although next time I'm using double stick tape, some rolled cork, a staple gun and here you have it .....(click to make larger)
Caden now thinks he needs one for his room. We'll see, I have some different plans for his room. Oh, and I do have plans for the other frame just got to complete it.........
One more thing that business card for travel plans would be our own Miss Vicky....www. travelthecontinents.com
A little side note for Vicky.... We were at Target yesterday and Caden wanted to know who we were buying a wedding present for next and I said we don't have any wedding left this summer. He stated "Well, Aunt Vicky can get married this summer if she wants to." So he's leaving it up to you.


I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessings.
Ezekiel 34:26

Shhhh....the sun is peeking out

Thank you for answering me Spring! The sun is shining this morning and that seems to make all the difference in waking up. We had a relaxing weekend-stayed home Saturday and did laundry. On Sunday we went to church-awesome session on David given by Leland Eliason from Bethel Seminary. He talked about praying David's prayers. One that stood out to me was an undivided heart-I think all of us need that prayer. You cannot go both ways, I want to go towards God always but I'm human and there are times when I find myself in conflict so praying for that undivided heart is much needed. If you'd like to listen to it click here and click either play or download.
This morning the boys and I headed off to Jazzercise. They love it as much as I do and Caden is my biggest advocate. He always asks if we can go and when I stopped for awhile he was quite upset. You see the boys get to stay together in the playroom and Caden gets to take care of Colton and then right before we end our session they get to go and get a snack in the lunchroom. The snack is probably the biggest reason for Caden liking to go, but I'll keep pretending that he cares about my health!
I've been doing some digital scrapbooking so you may be seeing "old" pictures along with some new ones. It goes so fast-I have gotten all of 2006 completed and have started on 2007-yes, I'm behind-but catching up fast. I've done some 2008 so I just have the "middle" to finish.

Once again...Spring where are you!!!

This is getting a little bit tiring. Where is Spring? I'm so happy we did not get what they got up north. Right now we have slushy, heavy, watery snow outside. I'm told we are suppose to get more but I'm still holding out for a warm up.
Caden had kindergarten round up a few days ago. He didn't want to go. He doesn't want to go to kindergarten and get older. He also doesn't want Colton do get older either because he thinks he is cute the way he is and doesn't want him to talk. I think Noelle or Kate had this problem right? About not wanting to get older? Anyway, once I freed myself from his tight grip around my legs I walked out of the room to the parent's session. When I was checking in, I found out there are 2 Cadens-with the same last name! One is Cade and one Caden-go figure. Caden got to go on a bus ride and a treasure hunt. I think he thought the treasure hunt was like the egg hunt because when he got to the first treasure he started filling his bag instead of taking just one! He had in 3 sets of chalk before I got to him. I think he may like the idea of kindergarten now-although come September it may be a different story.
Here are some catch up pages.

Coloring eggs

The hunt
Everyone getting a sugar high




Grandma Braun getting smoochy with Colton-who wouldn't love to kiss those dimpled cheeks!

Caden celebrating with another cake. Grandma made him the bunny cake!

My boys! LOVE 'EM!

Yes, we love Coborn's!! Even Colton now knows all the perks that go with shopping there.
He is getting really good at putting things on his head and face.My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek.
Psalm 27:8

Spring, where are you?

I thought we might be getting Spring. The snow had melted, the sun was shining, the weather was slowly inching upward and WHAM!-blizzard the last day of March-well a heavy snow advisory. I guess I have to remember where I live. The good thing is that this snow is melting as I type and we should be seeing grass-brown grass-but still grass again soon. I have so much to catch up on but what is new with that? I'm seriously thinking of changing our title of the blog to "Catching up....again"
Let's see I last left off the beginning of March-looks like I'm starting a pattern-posting at the beginning of the month:) Caden celebrated his 5th birthday. Wow-5 years old. I cannot believe next week we will be attending a Kindergarten Round-up meeting.

Here are some of his favorites at 5-as always click to make bigger

We did our second annual visit to the Retro to see his name on the board and get free ice cream. Again they spelled his name wrong and we asked to change it-how hard is Caden to spell? They always put an "i" where the "e" goes. Oh well the owner, Heidi came in and noticed it and noticed that the staff forgot the age so she went out and did it. She is such a sweet person!



Colton also got to try the ice cream. His reaction was priceless.


Caden wanted to pick out his cake for me to make. He also got to pick out the decorations and decorate the cake. We went out to eat at Pizza Hut and then came back for cake and presents. For Valentine's Day I had set up a treasure hunt to find the goodies and he liked it so much that we did it again for his birthday. I had him running up and down all three floors looking for clues. He had more fun doing the hunt than opening his presents.
On St. Patrick's Day we once again got out the Leprechaun house/trap. Daddy was in charge of staying awake and watching for the little dude. Apparently Doug was too loud because the little guy got away once again. The good thing is that he left chocolate coins in his trail. Our Leprechaun isn't as messy as some of those guys running around on St. Patrick's Day. We have been lucky to get one that just leaves a little confetti and coins.



An Easter post will be coming up soon:)

You are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:26

In like a Lamb.....

It looks like March will be coming in like a lamb-they say it could hit 40. I'm not sure I want it to go out like a lion though-does it have to go out like a lion? Unless of course it is a gentle lion and we get some rain showers. Oh well....most of you know what time of season it is-well those who graduated from Canby do. Yes, Doug is at the state tournaments today. He met up with his friend Craig and away they went. I believe he will meet Randy and the whole town of Canby there. Caden didn't want to go-"it's boring". Doug believes he is getting punished for his younger years. First the Packer thing and now Caden doesn't like wrestling. Doug tried reverse psychology again last week by saying "I like the Packers" (yes, Doug said that-I think he had his fingers crossed) and Caden said" welcome to the Packer Fan Club!"Yeah- didn't work.
We spent a few days at Wisconsin Dells at this resort. The boys had fun. Caden, who doesn't like getting his hair washed because a drop of water might fall in his eyes, had a blast and now misses the Dells. He kept going up and down the slides. Colton even got in on the slides. We went down this family tube ride where it is completely dark until you come out at the bottom. Well, we finished the ride and I was going to take Colton's life jacket off and he wouldn't let me! I asked if he wanted to go again and he shook his head yes, so up we climbed and flew down the dark swirling, twirling tunnel again. After that I was done-it got me dizzy.
Here are a few photos from the trip.

Caden kept busy with the computer game Bugdom but for some reason I forgot all about keeping Colton busy! So we played the game take off my shoes and sock, no wait I want them back on. That game got old fast for me. (as always you can click the picture to make them larger.)

Caden was on his own at the slides. He went up them as fast as he flew down them. I should have counted how many times he went down.

Colton got tired with the toddler area when he saw the balls flying in the big kids area so we had to go and collect balls.

Some highlights of our trip-Caden help out making this list.

The boys like our room. All the rooms are condos that are owned by different people. I like that the place smelled new and everything looked neat and clean:)

Colton in the toddler area

We could not keep up with Caden. He was fast climbing. The poor guy ran so much that by the time we were ready to head back to our room he was beat.

The boys at one of the water parks

In one of the lobbys they had a black bear so we had to have a photo shoot. They also had a few other animals hanging around.


One of the boys' favorite activities in the room was hiding under the sink. They thought it was a pretty good hiding place. We heard "come and find me" many times.
And just because he's smiling and is my baby......

"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."
Galatians 5:25

Valentine Treats

Caden was so excited to go school and deliver these Valentine's.
He was just as excited to receive all the loot too!

The sugar high will hopefully be over with this weekend. We went to cousins Gracie and Josiah's today for lunch and deposited a couple of cupcakes there and there is one left in the house from Doug's birthday so we shall be sugar free by tomorrow. We had a fun time. Josiah is getting so big and such a happy little dude! Caden loved to make him smile. In Caden's words "He's so cute!" Caden also played with Gracie and had her laughing. Colton and Gracie were on a milk sugar high for awhile-climbing, laughing, running, spinning. Gracie even shared her toys-thank you Gracie!
Pictures of Doug's birthday will hopefully be up this weekend. I have a PR piece for our MOPS group church and then our MOPS newsletter due so after that I'll get those posted.