Braden is 4

Braden celebrated his 4th birthday this month and had a lot of fun at all of his celebrations. He got to go to the Children's Museum with Grandma, Papa, Aunt Tina, Uncle Lance, Toby, Zach, Sammie, Conner and mom and dad. It was a great time as always at the museum! Then we celebrated with the Thomas family the next day and Braden had the honor of sharing his birthday with Tasha, Steve, Shannon and Cody. It was quite a party! Then he got to have his big boy party at Chuck E. Cheese with all of his buddies. He had a great time and everyone was exhausted at the end. We are now done with birthdays for a while here in the Thomas house (much to Braden and Conner's dismay). The constant parade of toys the last 3 months for them has been exciting. Here are a few pictures from all of the festivities.

Brotherly Love

Braden and Conner have reached a milestone recently that makes me a very happy mommy (most of the time anyway). They will now go and play together pretty regularly. Now you may be asking yourself "Didn't they play together before now?" and yes the answer would be certainly. However, they will now play together without my participation. Braden actually enjoys being the big brother and taking Conner into his room to play tools, out on the deck to push cars or downstairs to play basketball or jump in the bouncy house. I have actually been told on a few occasions recently that they would like me to leave so they can play by themselves. This leaves me torn. One the one hand I am so happy to see this independence with them, I love that they enjoy each other's company so much and I love to have a few minutes to clean, cook or just sit on occasion. However, a part of me is sad that my babies are growing up so fast. Braden is such a big boy now and Conner is following close behind and always loves to imitate his big brother. But for now I will enjoy this new development and figure out a way to deal with the increased competition that has arrived with both of them for everything.