Thursday, May 9, 2013

Easter 2013

 This Easter can be summed up by just a few words... Eggs, Candy, Wound Up Boy, and FUN!!!

We started out our Easter weekend with Brayden's first public Easter egg hunt... It was a lot of hype and preparation for about 1 minute of egg searching fun!

Lots of waiting!
Brian despises big crowds like this, I don't think he was a huge fan of the egg hunt!

I hung with my S girl, who did this the whole time :)

More waiting patiently behind the rope, look at the  huge crowd in the background!

I think Brayden got about 6 eggs, he definitely wasn't the most aggressive child there!

"Yay!"
We got home and let him have a few "treats"
This is one of the very few times Brayden has had chocolate candy like this and to say he loved it is an understatement!
After his nap we went over to my Granny Rehkopf's house to celebrate her 90th birthday with our family.
My beautiful 90 year old Grandma and sweet cousins Kristen and Chloe
Brayden had never played in a sprinkler up until this day.  My Uncle Fred got out the hose and of course Brayden was drawn to it so they plugged in the sprinkler for him.  Brayden had a BLAST!  He was hilarious running through the water, squealing and laughing, and chasing people around spraying them with the sprinkler.  I'm pretty sure our sweet boy loved the attention he was getting through all of this too!
Right before his soaked diaper came off!

And he's off!!!!

Little S spent most of the afternoon getting snuggled by her Grandpa Rehkopf

After the sprinkler got turned off, Brayden played in the bird bath and gave himself a mud bath!



I wish I had pictures but when Brayden wasn't playing in the water he was searching for Easter eggs.  My incredibly sweet cousin Chloe (who Brayden absolutely adores) spent most of her time hiding eggs for Brayden and helping him find them.  She must have re-hid the eggs at least 3 times and she refilled them every time!   Brayden was also definitely a fan of the m&m's hidden inside!

We had such a fabulous afternoon spending time with family and celebrating my incredible grandmother.   Brayden was worn out and after a quick bath at Granny's  we headed home!

But not before stopping to pick wildflowers!!!
Brian's family has a tradition of picking wildflowers and making a nest of flowers outside for the Easter bunny. When they would wake up in the morning their Easter basket is inside the nest!  Brayden was tired, but not too tired for picking flowers!







On Easter morning Brayden was excited to find his basket and empty out the contents!  His basket consisted of some books, legos, trains, and a few treats.

I love these action shots of Brayden running to get his basket 




"treat, treat"
Our treats were animal crackers and marshmallows


While I got myself and Sterling ready for church, Brian and Brayden played with bubbles that he got for Easter.  What is it with kids and bubbles?!  They are like magic!!!


In love with this picture!  Look at that pure joy!  You can just hear the squeal coming from him in this picture!



S girl slept through church

After church we headed over to GaGa and PaPas house for some more Easter fun:

Thanks Ms Kim and Mr Tre for my beautiful gown :)

Funny Easter Bunny

Naps with PaPa

After naps Brayden got ANOTHER Easter basket

GaGa helping Brayden sift through his treats

TRAINS
 And one last egg hunt...


Sorry Nash and Mia, nothing for you here!

Aunt Chris with her God daughter


Uncle Sandy and Aunt Becky brought gifts over too!

GaGa lovin on S

After an incredibly busy weekend we were all exhausted!  So much fun spent with family :)


                                                          

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Sterling's Baptism

Our sweet baby Sterling was baptized April 20 among our most amazing family and friends.  We were so honored to be able to use the "Barron baptismal gown".  Brian and most of his cousins wore this gown when they were baptized and it is made with the lace of his grandmothers wedding dress, how cool is that?!  The only thing about this particular gown is the neck is pretty small so if we wanted to use it we had to get her baptized fast!!  It was good though because it just put a little fire under me to get organized and get it done!!!  One of the things I love about the way they do baptisms at our church is that they have a private ceremony so it feels so much more personal and you don't have to worry about interruptions from a certain two year old!!!  Speaking of that sweet two year old, I think there are just as many pictures of him from this morning as there are of Sterling!  Of course, he always steals the show and had a great time with a big audience to entertain!  

Brayden was dying to get into this holy water!

Father Conor performed the baptism

Brayden getting some love from Father

Pouring of the holy water

Lighting his baptism candle

SILLY


I like the way Father looks here, he is always a little tentative about holding our babies!

Sterling with her incredibly sweet Godparents, her Aunt Christi and our  great friend Jerad 

Shout out to the photographer of the day, Thanks Keithy!  I am guessing since you took this pic that you wanted me to include it :)

Happy Grandmas with sweet S


Brayden decided to act bashful and wouldn't come out from between my legs!


Brayden with his Godmother Aunt Sarah Rehkopf
Sterling girl and Grandpa Rehkopf
Okay so I am annoyed that I couldn't get these two pictures to line up but here is a quick comparison showing how much Sterling looks like Brayden!  Brayden was baptized at four months though so is quite a bit older in this picture
Brayden at his baptism
Sterling girl at hers!  
Afterwards we had everyone over for lunch.  We all had a great time, Sterling got passed around plenty, and Brayden had a BLAST playing and loved all the attention!

And...presents!
Thanks for coming down from Dallas Grandma!!!

Happy Godmother

PaPa and Keithy

Aunt Sarah and Aunt Christi

Brayden with his buddy Colten

Great Mamer and PaPa Barron




Brayden's BEST buddies!  Such good boys! :)
Cooper took Brayden for a ride!
The Rehkopf's
And, the end of the day!  Sarah put Sterling to sleep after a long day :)

Such a blessed day, definitely felt lots of love!!!