Braxtyn's Baby Shower

Emily was so sweet to host Baby Braxtyn's baby shower! And, even sweeter was that she let Brookelyn co-host!

Brookelyn was the perfect little co-hostess! And how cute is the wreath that Emily made?!

Emily did a beautiful job decorating! She was super crafty and let the kids help out making little signs and picture frames!

A BIG thank you to all the ladies that came to celebrate with us! And, another BIG thank you to Brookelyn's friends who also helped out.  They were just adorable!

Braxtyn is fixed up on baby gear! Thank you for all the beautiful baby gifts!

Of course I didn't get a picture with Emily! Isn't that always how it works? We were so busy having fun that we forgot! Thank you Aunt Emily and Uncle David for putting together such a beautiful party to welcome Braxtyn to the world! Hard to believe the little guy will be arriving a week from today!

One Mile Fun Run!

On Saturday Brookelyn ran her first race of the season!  Daddy had been training her on the weekends, and Brookelyn was so excited!  Uncle David even decided to run with them!

Here they are before the race.

And they were OFF!

Mommy and Braedyn cheered them on! 

And here they come back to the finish line!

Brookelyn was leading the way!

Thumbs up for a GREAT finish!

Super proud Daddy!

Way to go!

After the race we headed to the half marathon route to cheer on Aunt Emily and our other friends running the race.  It just so happened that the PowerBar aid station was right next to where we set up, and they needed more volunteers to hand out gels to the runners.  So, we agreed to help out.  The kids had a BLAST!

Ready to hand out the gels!

Braedyn in action!

Up next, Daddy is training Brookelyn to run her first 5K!

Happy Easter 2013

Easter morning was very exciting around the Bates' house! Brookelyn and Braedyn waited for Daddy to say that it was ok to head downstairs and start collecting their eggs!

And, then they were OFF!

Here they are checking out their Easter basket goodies:

Finally, a shirt "with buttons" (as Braedyn calls collared shirts) that he is excited about!

Then, he spotted all the eggs...

and they headed off to collect as many as they could!

Daddy helped with the ones they couldn't reach!

Finally, it was time to check out all their loot!

Some of the eggs had quarters in them, and others had puzzle pieces!

Then, it was time to crack some confetti eggs on Daddy's head! (Check out Allen mouthing the word "ow" in this shot!)

Braedyn got a few cracked on his head too!

The boys cracked them on each other's heads too!

Happy Easter!