The first shall be last and the last shall be first!

Not exactly what the bible meant, but a fitting title today. Kaitlynn will probably not be the first at much, being the youngest of 5. But today (at least in my blog) she will be first. She is a fiesty and sassy little girl, but sweet and precious also. She is also a little bit spoiled. Standoffish to anyone she doesn't know and to lots of people she does know. The exception to this rule is Grandpa Braam. She was completely charmed by him from day 1.
Her favorite things right now are her kitchen set,( that I bought her at a garage sale Friday) her baby dolls, a red purse Abby gave her and playing cars with her brothers :) Much the same things Abigail liked at that age. Personality wise the girls are very similar, but not in looks.
Sunday I put her hair up in a pony-tail for the first time!!! It was soooo cute:) But once it started to dry it fell down.....I should have taken a picture.

Me

Thought I would post a small post about me, then each of the children in the following week or so.



I am 33 years old. I have 5 children. The oldest is 13 and the baby is 17 months. I have been married almost 14 years. I enjoy riding my bike, going to Museums, reading, blogging, and reading blogs, shopping, stamping, going for walks with my family, camping and traveling. My favorite kind of books are mysteries. The funniest thing is my mom, my sister and myself all read the same types of books. I live in Kansas now. I have lived in Kansas, South Dakota and Michigan. I must be boring that's all I can think of. hmmmmm I will add more shortly the baby needs to lay down for a nap :)

4th of July weekend

We had a GREAT 4th of July holiday. Sorry, no pics though. I forgot my camera. We went over to DeSoto for the fireworks, met up with several families from the church. We (not me) set off our own then we went to the city ones, then back to the park to set off more. Freddy was in his glory, he got to light some of the small stuff himself. We never made it home until 1 am. The kids were dead tired at that point and immediately fell asleep. Me too :) All in all it was a relaxing, fun weekend for our family. Kaitlynn and Miah got their pics taken by a photographer from the paper, guess they didn't print them though, or I would have heard about it. That would have been cool!
Nahomi is coming to spend the day with Abigail tomorrow and I'm taking the kids to the Summer reading program at the Library. It's getting hot here, was 94 degrees today. It's still 83 and it's 10:30 pm. Yuck. Thank God for air conditioning.

Last day of June

Can it be?!?? The last day of June already? Where is my summer going? I need to get out there and enjoy this beautiful weather. We ( read:ME) picked vegetables out of our garden today. Enough lettuce to make a large salad, some radishes, 3 cherry tomatoes, and enough green beans for a meal! I was soooo excited to see those green beans. There is nothing like fresh green beans. Fred must have thought so too because as soon as he walked through the door after work, he was eating those beans raw!! The garden has been a family project. This is our first garden EVER. Fred and his mother planted everything when they were here in May. Then Fred, I and the kids all weed it and water it.

I got my first comments today. Hi Sister Cheryl!! Love you and miss you!!! It's too funny because she started her blog the same day I did, lol. Here is the link to hers
http://cheryl-outonawhim.blogspot.com/

Some cute kids!!

Fred fixed the computer and downloaded the pics off the camera. Boy, were there some cute ones on it!!

New Car!!!

This is a memorable day in the Braam household. Today we purchased our first brand new car!! It's a Kia Rio and it's Fred's commuter car for his new job.

It's a cute little car, reliable and most important--good gas mileage!! We figure he'll use half the gas that he uses in the van. That is considerable with gas almost $4 a gallon and a 38 mile (one way) commute.

New Job

Fred started his new job Monday. Praise God!! It is so nice for life to get back to normal. The kids have been a bit out of sorts but are adjusting well. Time to finish our school year and enjoy the summer. The older kids have about 2-3 weeks left of school and will have August off. We will be heading home to Michigan in August, family camp in Wisconsin is the second week of August, then we are heading to the UP to stay with the Griffins for a few days (week maybe) then to downstate Michigan to visit family. I have not seen my family in 18 months, so it will be nice to see everyone again!! My in-laws visit me twice a year, they full-time RV so they come where ever we are. VERY nice.