Happy Birthday Brayden!!

3 years ago, June 23, 2005, our lives changed forever when we welcomed Brayden Joseph Sickler to our family. He is such an amazing little guy and it's hard to believe that 3 years have already passed. He makes us smile and laugh on a daily basis and we are greatful for every day we get to spend as his parents. We love you B!

Zoo B-day Party

This past weekend we celebrated Brayden's 3rd b-day at the MN Zoo. He had several friends and their parents come and celebrate with him. They made a craft, played in the kids' den, ate pizza and cake and opened presents.

His friends were very generous and we all had a great time!

Wisconsin Dells

Last weekend we drove to WI Dells and met up with Steve's parents, his sister and nephew and a family friend and his daughter. It was nice to see everyone, especially those who hadn't yet met Burke. Brayden still wasn't huge on the water stuff and doesn't like water that is too deep or in his face. He thoroughly enjoyed the kiddie park however, where he took many many rides on the airplanes, etc. Burke just napped and enjoyed baby life.

8 Weeks

Well it's been 8 weeks since Burke arrived and for the most part, it's been great...still working on that whole sleeping thing and some feeding issues, but we'll get there. Brayden is still very helpful and a great big brother. Burke's growing every day and at his last appointment he was almost 12.5 lbs!!

Sickler Boys

Just a cute picture I took yesterday that I thought I'd share with everyone.

Brayden's Scary Faces

Those who know Brayden know that he is very into Spiderman, Superman, etc. right now. Lately, everytime I take his picture he does his "mean guy face." Boy, he looks very scary, doesn't he?? :)

6 Weeks

Well, it's been 6 weeks since Burke joined our family and it seems we have all adjusted pretty well. Well, I guess I'm still adjusting to the lack of sleep as Burke still wakes up at least twice in the night. At least he goes right back to sleep, which is nice.

He's cooing and smiling more and more each day and it is such an amazing thing. It's hard to believe that it's been 6 weeks already- my disability pay is almost done and it's scary to think about going back to work already. I only have a month left before I return! Time sure flies by. I thought that the whole daycare routine would be easier the second time around, but I think it will be just as difficult with Burke as it was with Brayden. Although we love our daycare and Brayden will be right next door in the pre-school room, it will be hard to hand him off to someone else to take care of him, when it has been me for his entire short life. I'm sure he'll do great though, just like his big brother did. And come this fall, he'll have his new friend, baby Pace, to play with at daycare.

Brayden is doing great and loving up his little brother. He's the 'star of the month' in pre-school this month so we picked out a bunch of pictures for him to bring to school this week, which really excited him, looking back on all his baby pictures. We were also able to find a ton of pictures that look like Burke. Steve actually couldn't tell in one picture which kid it was! :)

June will be a fun month for us as we celebrate Brayden's B-day and my B-day and also take a trip to WI Dells and another trip to visit the Sicklers in Land O' Lakes. We miss them and can't wait to see them. Other than that, nothing new to report. Happy June!

I Can Smile!!

I'm finally beginning to smile. I started about a week ago and smile for mommy and daddy more and more each day. It's hard for mommy to actually get a good picture of me smiling, but here are a few attempts.