My sweet niece is one today!  We celebrated her birthday last weekend, and of course, Paige did an awesome job with her Candyland theme.

Braden, you are changing so much and each month brings on new things so I wanted to document this fun stage we’re in!

You have such a sweet and easy going personality.  Your smile and laugh are infectious.  Anytime we’re out in public, you are friendly and always saying “hi” to someone.

Your most favorite thing is to be outside, either playing with Riley’s car or Bear & Daisy.  We hear “side” a lot around here!  You love for your sister to take you on rides in her car and are content to be her passenger.  You are, however, closer to being able to drive it yourself - you can reach the pedal but have not figured out how to steer.

You love ALL things tractor-related (any construction vehicle you see you squeal tactor). 

You still adore your papa, and love when he takes you outside to ride the tractors!  You really enjoy your Sunday evenings with papa and “ganny” while the rest of us are at church.

You have become quite the little chatterbox and repeat (or attempt to repeat) just about everything you hear.  Some of my favorites include your recent uv you (love you) and mornings when you wake one of us up with mornin!  You are quick to say thank you and often times follow with a quick welcome!

You are still a very good eater, although you are currently getting a new molar and have only wanted soft foods. 

You are learning your counting, although you have a few numbers you prefer over others!  You usually skip ahead to 2, 5, 8 &10.  You also love to repeat animal noises, with moo, meow, & woof being your favorites.

Your bedtime routine these days consists of sitting in the rocking chair in your room singing songs (Row, row, row your boat is your recent fave…you usually interrupt other song attempts by saying boat over and over until we start singing that one again!).  We’ve never been able to get you to sit still long enough to read books until the last couple of weeks.  Not you love story time (repeat again after each book!).

Cheese!

You are such a busy boy and we are just loving this age!!  You bring our family so much joy and we are so thankful for you!!

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends from college.  Although we don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like these days, when we do, it’s always a good time when we do get together.  Several of us were able to get together a couple of weekends ago for Katharine’s baby shower and then have a fun girls’ night.  After the beautiful shower, we headed to our hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon/night hanging out and catching up on life.  We ate a delicious meal at the hotel and then ended up calling it a fairly early night.  It’s so funny how times have changed now that we all have kids or one on the way!

Love these girls so much and cannot wait to meet baby August soon!

We had a wonderful day celebrating our country’s freedom!  We got started early and participated in our neighborhood’s annual parade.  Riley was very excited to decorate her car this year, so we hit up the dollar store a few days prior and let her have her pick of red, white & blue decorations.

This little man was pumped about riding with sissy!

These two were in awe of all the other kids and mix of red, white & blue!

Riley takes her driving very seriously!

After a quick nap and a stop for a snow cone, we headed to my parents’ house to celebrate my sister’s birthday.

We were the first to arrive, so we hit up the pool, had a few snacks and took the tractor for a spin.

I am so proud of my sweet girl.  She has really braved the water these last couple of weeks and is becoming quite the little fish.  After spending the weekend with her cousins in their new pool (post to come), she has a new confidence about her and loves to show off the new things she can do.  We started swim lessons last week, so I can imagine this is just the beginning!

This boy gave papa quite the workout…pool, tractor, pool, snack…lather, rinse, repeat!

Braden with the Fuentes boys in their matching duds.

Happy Birthday Aunt Paige…we love you!!

*picture overload*

We spent Father’s Day weekend at the lake with my family and had a great time!  This sweet girl had worked on a special gift for her daddy at school and was so excited to give it to him (plaque with key holders).

Papa with the grandkids