Brad Arms (1984-2004) We miss you!

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Brad Arms passed away 7 years ago today, and oh, how we miss him.  He was a smiley, fun, passionate, and kind kid.  Steven and I had the privilege of going to school and church with Brad growing up.  Brad was an incredibly hard worker, a great athlete, and a kind friend.  He was always thinking about other people and was willing to put himself below others in order to care for them.  Brad went to Georgia for College (where we heard he was quite the ladies man...but look at that picture and I am sure you can see why) and he also served in the US Marines.  He was strong, both in mind and body.  He was passionate, and that passion is what led him to sacrifice his life in order to save the life of a fellow marine while serving in Iraq.  We are so proud of him, and we miss him.  When Brad died, Steven and I were not dating.  But in going to Brad's funeral, and spending time with each other and other high school friends after his death, we were reminded of how much we cared about each other.  Shortly after his death, we started dating again and we definitely attribute so much of our getting back together to Brad.  We are so grateful for him.  And our gratefulness is what led us to name our son, Braden after Brad.  He was named for Brad.  While it is not his exact name, his name is intended to be in memory of him, because we love him, are proud of him, and hope that our son (and family) can learn from him and can one day grow into the passionate, loving, and Godly man that Brad was.  (update: How we chose Braden: The etymology of -en is that it is a "Suffix meaning 'pertaining to', 'having the qualities of', 'like'" (site).  We hope that Braden can grow up to have the qualities of Brad, hence, Brad-en)  .Thank you, Brad, for blessing us with your life and death.  Thank you, Bob and Betty Arms for sharing your sweet boy with us.  We miss you, love you, and are so incredible grateful for you, Brad Arms.

Bob and Betty Arms came to meet Braden a few days after he was born. 

Braden is already starting to resemble his name sake.  He is smiley, ambitious, and strong.  We look forward to telling Braden more and more about Brad as he gets older. 

Date with Daddy; Braden is 7months!

So this post is a bit late, but as always, things are a bit busy around here.  Since Braden was born, Steven has been taking Adelyn on outings every couple of weeks so that they can have some special daddy/daughter time.  They usually get Christian's pizza and ice cream and talk about their day or whatever comes out of her little 2 year old mouth.  This past week, he took her out and I painted her nails for the first time so that she could look especially pretty on their date :)  She loved it! 
Last week, we also had the privilege of having a sleep over with Henry Kelly, who is precious and sweet, and we all love!
And last but not least, Braden is 7months old.  He is smiley, energetic, and busy!  He continues to adore it sister, although they fight a bit more b/c he can crawl over and take Adelyn's toys.  She usually says to him, "No buddy, no buddy, that's not yours."  It can be really nice b/c she takes things from him that he shouldn't be playing with, or warns me if he's getting into things.  It is really fun to watch them interact and actually start to play together!   
  

Headed out for their date.

Showing me her painted nails

We brought the pack-n-play downstairs so that I can contain Braden if I need to do something and can't supervise him all the time, but Adelyn has decided it is going to be her play space.  If you notice the pink chair next to the crib, that is how she gets into it. 

Play time with HENRY! (And, yes, I dressed them all in overalls, but don't they look so cute!) 

7 months old!

attempted to get away from my photo shoot.  I had to drop the camera and grab him a couple times before he leaped off the bed. 

Playing Piano! His favorite new activity.  He loves to crawl over to it and bang on it.  My little piano man!

Halloween

So this post is super late, but I didn't have the halloween pictures, my mom did, so I finally got my act together and am posting from her computer.  Anyway, we had lots of fun on Halloween, continuing our tradition of going to the lawn.  We didn't do any trick-or-treating in our neighborhood b/c the houses all sit on 2 acres, and we would have gotten half way to one house and then Adelyn would have given up, so instead we enjoyed the kind students who were handing out candy on the lawn only 10 steps away from each other.  My parents came to the lawn to see the kids and got to take Adelyn around, which was wonderful because then I could talk to friends and didn't have to fight the crowds, and they got to be with her and Kate.  All of Adelyn's friends dressed as monkeys (by chance, not on purpose) and were super cute.  We decided last minute to do some VERY homemade costumes, so Adelyn went as Princess Leia and Braden was an Ewok.  By the time the pictures were taken, Adelyn's hair had come down for the most part, but I thought they looked pretty cute/silly :)

At one point Steven asked Adelyn if he could have a piece of her candy, and she looked at him and said, "No Daddy" and pointing to one of the lawn rooms, "They are just giving it away over there."  IE  why would you take my candy when they are just handing it out over there?