Happy 4th Birthday my wonderful Brayden!!!

I can't believe it's been 4 years since you've joined our family!

What a joy you are!!!
You love riding bikes, scooters, skateboards...

You love to play and hangout with your sister and brother!


You and Piper are good buddies...when she's not biting you or pulling on your pants and when you're not kicking and teasing her



You have always been so strong!
I remember when you were learning to walk, you had the strength to lift yourself up holding a basketball


You love playing-around with daddy, Kylie, Colton and Grandpa!
You're always up for helping Grandpa with chores

Your favorite movie is CARS and for your fourth birthday we took you to see the sequel--Cars 2

You have the most charming smile!

You love your aunts and uncles!

You were in soccer this summer and you are so good at it. You are a fast runner!!!

I am so proud of you!!!

This summer, you were in your first swimming lessons.
You were so brave!!!

(here you are with your teacher, Megan)

You learned so much and you graduated to the next level- advance preschool beginners

You love to:
*play sports

*fix things with dad

(a couple of months ago you told me when you grow up you want to be just like daddy-- get married, have kids and fix things with daddy to make money)

*do chores and work with grandpa and daddy

*read

*you paint when mommy gets the paint out and you play with play dough

*you like to bust some crazy dance moves
*your second favorite movie is "Despicable Me" and you quote from it quite often

You come snuggle with me when you wake up from your nap or in the morning.

I love your snuggles!

I love your hugs!

I love your kisses!

I love you and everything about you!

June happenings

Oh man...I am really getting behind on blogging. It's so much easier to post pictures on Facebook, because they load so much faster and all at once. Anyway, that is not a good enough excuse to neglect my darling blog. All that being said, here's what we have been up to in June...

Kylie and Brayden took swimming lessons at Flora Park.

* One weekend in June, we drove down to Ames for a couples' shower for Carley and Dakota. (It was a really hot weekend and the air conditioning in our van died... ugh! Thankfully, we were on our way to drop off Piper to Benji and Abby's and they felt bad for us and let us drive their car.)

Car troubles aside, the shower was held at a beautiful mansion and we had a good time!

*Before we headed back to Dubuque, Carley and Dakota took us to the Farmer's Market in DesMoines. That was a lot of fun!

*Kylie has been practicing her reading...here she is reading to Brayden during rest time.

*Kylie had a father/daughter breakfast date with her daddy to celebrate her hard work and graduation from Kindergarten!

*The kids love riding their bikes up and down our street

Piper likes to get in on the action

Chris and Kate's visit

First of all.... Kate and Chris are engaged!!!

Check out this rock! (great job Chris!)
CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS Kate and Chris!!!

Here are some more pictures from our weekend...