Blogging Failure

So it has been two months since we last blogged. We have plenty of excuses on why. Mine would be that I have been really sick the past two months and just haven't had the energy between teaching and daily tasks to blog. Christian's would be that he hasn't had any pictures in which to blog with so yeah. We were blogging failures for the past two months but we are repenting and promising to do better with the new year.

We were also much better at taking pictures during December, so without further ado Christmas with the Bradleys.


One of Laine's school assignments was to teach the class about her culture. She got her Hamoni to come to school to talk about Korea. Hamoni made each of the kids a wonderful outfit. Unfortunately I only got a picture of James in his. But what a cute boy he is growing into.

On Christmas Eve we spent time with both the Bellamys and the Bradleys. First up at the Bellamys we had the traditional Bellamy Christmas Eve lunch/dinner-beef sandwiches with cheese and many different salads. This was the first year we didn't have Christmas Eve at Nan's so it was slightly bitter sweet not to have the night with all the cousins, but it was still a fun day. Mom and Dad Bellamy decided that we were going to make Gingerbread Houses this year and the kids had a lot of fun!!

Adam and Amy show off their lovely two story home full of windows and a lovely hedge on both levels.

Bart and Hilary show off their down home trailer home. Including tire tree and everything that a down home trailer would need.

Our kids show off their industrial strength home. No really it was full inside, there was no way that house was coming down ever.

James breaks the crackers to help build the industrial home.

After the party at the Bellamys it was off to the party at the Bradleys. We had a great tamale dinner and then there was singing and the traditional acting of the Nativity story.

Eve was the angel this year, dressed in Grandma's sheets. Jacob and Andrew were the sheep and shepherd with the sock ears and all.

Eve continues to deliver her good tidings.

Laine decided to be Mary this year and James was the baby Jesus. I have to admit that James was a rather energetic newborn. There seemed to be more wiggling and jumping then there was that first night in Bethlehem.

After we got home the kids opened their Disney Christmas Pajamas (which the wore the whole next day and the day after...we couldn't get them out of them) and then went to bed. The next morning we went to go and get them and two of the three were waiting eagerly in their rooms for us to fetch them up stairs. While the third woke up really quickly when he found out Santa had come.

Santa was very good to us this year. To quote James, "Santa must really like me, he brought me a lot of chocolate."
We didn't lack on gifts this year either. Our Christmas Tree had some wonderful packages underneath it. With lots of fun and exciting treasures within.

Each of the kids received a pillow pet. They were the hit of the year.

James tries to balance on the chair as his pile of presents starts to grow. He was having way to much fun.

Laine was ready to rip into the packages and have a good time.

James happily shows off his Octopus. Something he had asked for over and over again.

After a fun Christmas morning we spent time with both families. We played games, put together puzzles, and just enjoyed everyone's company.

As an added bonus on December 27th Adam and Amy added another addition to the Bellamy family. Baby Ezra Joseph entered the world weighing nine pounds. Mom, dad, and new big brother are happy to have him here.

I am slightly jealous on how great Amy looks only five hours after giving birth.
And big brother Boston was very excited. Bost rarely smiles for pictures but his grin is just great. Of course about thirty seconds after this picture he gets bored of holding the baby and drops him. Yeah, we have a way to go with the learning curve.

So that has been our Christmas season. We also went to see Tangled, have had movie picnic dinners, and just have had a good time spending time together.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Trick or Treat!

Halloween has come and gone for the Bradley household. We had a pretty adventurous time this year. I was out of town on business right up until Friday, with little Eve in tow to visit her mother in Virginia. That left Natalie to head up the preparations for the festivities and she did a bang-up job, especially considering Eve's birthday is the 30th of October so we had to prep not only the annual Halloween extravaganza but also a birthday party for a six-year-old. First, let me introduce the cake: Mr. Giant Black Spider. With Gummi Worms. Never let anyone tell you that six-year-olds don't know how to pick a cake.

Here's Eve getting those candles handled after the ol' Happy Birthday to You.


Nat put together a stellar spread including leaf-shaped-pie-crust-ham-and-cheese sandwiches (thanks kids for working the assembly line on those), killer dip with home-made pumpkin shaped chips, and green chocolate popcorn. I made some pretty good witches' brew with a combination of a few different sodas and lemonade bubbled up with some dry ice.

The grown-ups seemed to like the food, but the little guys mostly like stripping off the bedsheets and jumping on the bed in James' room.

The Indian Princess (like from India) and the Snow Fairy had all sorts of fun.

And Buzz Lightyear put on his wings and starting blasting aliens with his arm laser.

We finally got all the kids to pile on the couch for a picture.

Anyway, after the morning party we took a little nap/reading time to get ready for the afternoon party over at Grandma's house. Over there we got to play with more cousins and have all sorts of gory party food like witch fingers (string cheese pieces with almonds for fingernails) and blood soup (it was a creamy tomato). We started out our trick-or-treating there, hitting up Grandma's neighbors and scoring some full-sized candy bars. Yes!

While we were out we left a bowl of candy and a sign that Eve made on the doorstep. Can you believe someone cleared it out with instructions like these?

Anyway, from Grandma's house we headed over to hit Grammy and Poppa's street, picking up plenty of loot there. As the rain picked up, we drove home and the kids decided they wanted to do the handing out for a while. We broke out the Clue board and taught the girls how to play. James was on my team in charge of rolling the dice. It went pretty well except for Eve's tendency to yell out "I have that card!" After the kids went to bed we watched a scary ghost flick that had a few good little jumpy moments and left Natalie unable to go to sleep, so we watched an episode of Psych to mellow out and she conked right out. All in all a great day.

Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize

Fall is here and with it my favorite time of the year. I love that football is in full swing. I love where ever I go this month everything is pink or has a pink ribbon slapped on it. I love the changing leaves and the falling ones too. I love harvest time. I love picking out pumpkins. I LOVE fall baking. And I love the kick off to the holiday season.

I have always enjoyed Halloween. I love the fun projects you can do and the places you can go, though I hate haunted houses and spook alleys. So far this month the kids and I have decided to go out with our Halloween celebrations. We decorated the house, made Halloween candy, and visited a few Halloween festias.


Our first adventure was a Halloween craft night. During the Priesthood session of General Conference Amy brought over Boston and we had a craft night. I had gone to Michaels the day before and found some great deals on kid Halloween crafts and grabbed a bunch of different items. Then we let the kids have at it. They worked on wood decorations, door hangers, necklaces, pumpkins, and mugs. There were also Aunt Amy's fantastic sugar cookies to decorate.


Boston and James decided to forget the crafts after making pirate necklaces. It was much more fun to run around with a bucket on your head.


Also, why put the frosting on the cookie if you can just eat it right off the plate. Smart kids.

The girls seemed to have a better time at the crafts, completing one after another and begging for more.

Yes that is a butter knife in his mouth. I will be accepting my award for World's Best Mother later this month.

This little boy is the spitting image of his father and when moments after this picture he colored on my table I realized he was the reincarnation of his father.

Buckethead boy!!!


Here are half the finished cookies. The ones that look good Amy did. The kids each frosted one, had enough, and left the rest for Ames and I to finish.

Most of our finished projects waiting to be hung around the house.

Since this weekend was UEA we got to do even more fun Halloween activities. On Thursday myself and half the Salt Lake Valley went out to Gardner Village for the Witches Festival. The kids had a great time finding all the witches and wading through many people to pick a piece of candy.

Finding a moment of peace before stepping into the mob.

The kids were happy with this picture as I wasn't making them face the sun.

The kids with their favorite witch.

On Friday Christian took a half day and we met my sister and brother-in-law up at This is the Place State Park for a little spooks party. We got the kids in their costumes and headed up for some trick-or-treating and Halloween games.


On the train because by this point we were all tired of walking.

Birdie was too enthralled with her flower and James wouldn't come out of the shadow. Oh well, they are still cute kids.

I love this little girl. She swipped her sisters hat and decided that she would be the new witch. She is just a doll.

Our girls listening intently about Navajo homes.

Playing a fun Halloween game.

Playing in the children's play land. They loved the train.

Laine, taking the lead and driving the train for eveyone else.
Lu is there too, she is the one with the pointy hat in the back.

Dancing in September

Wow, I don't know where this month has gone. A moment ago school was just starting and now the month is over. It has been so crazy, so very crazy. We have been busy. Three of us have gone back to school, one of us is working very hard on potty training, and one of us is working very hard to avoid potty training.

We have had a busy month. It seems that every weekend if full of a new adventure or two. We started off the month at one of my favorite festivals- The Greek Festival. I wish I could say I had been attending this festival for as long as I remember, but sadly I have not. My first visit to the festival was maybe 8 years ago. I have been attending ever since though. It has become a yearly tradition where I go and partake of that delicious food and eat enough Greek food to last me a year. We decided to take the kids this year and let them sample some of this great food.

We stopped off a the Farmer's Market first and picked up a few odds and ends. While Christian packed the treats back to the car the kids and I stopped and played at the play ground. It was so much fun. James decided that he was going to try the monkey bars but then decided that he was just going to hang by his hands till he couldn't hold on any more.

When we finally made it over the festival we realized that we had about forty minutes to wait before they opened, well we pondered the idea of going back over to the playground when we realized that a line had formed behind us and was wrapping around the block. Now the festival is known for its very long lines so we stuck it out. The kids thought it was fun to go and play in the double fence area where they found some very interesting twist ties that became their obsession.

When we finally got in to the festival we had to wait an extra fifteen minutes for the food line to open. Thank heavens we were first in line as the food line was very long behind us. We grabbed something of everything so the kids could have a taste of Greece. They enjoyed the rice and James seemed to like the spanikopita, a boy after my own heart.

A week later we decided to attend the fair. We saw big pigs, big cows, baby cows, rabbits, and bigger pigs. We ate cotton candy, sno cones, fresh lemonade, a baked good I don't remember, and hot dogs. Then of course with all this we had to ride the fair rides. My sister and her family actually met us at the fair. James, Eve, and Laine had a fun time riding all the rides with Lu while I took Birdie on the merry-go-round many times as that was the only ride she could ride. That and Birdie and I found a lot of Yellow. My camera battery was dying and I didn't have much time to snap pictures, but I did get one of Lu and Eve on the train.

The next day my dad, sister-in-law, and I canned 42 quarts of peaches. It was quite an adventure and despite some missteps it seemed to work okay. They looked good at least. And we were all very proud of ourselves.



My month at school was also busy. We ended it with homecoming week, which was a grand success. To top off our busy month we took the kids to their first live football game- The Riverton Silverwolves' Homecoming Game. We started at In-N-Out burger for a pregame dinner. The kids loved their grilled cheese sandwich and I enjoyed my Neapolitan shake.




James had fun but he thought the band played the fight song a little to loud.


The girls thought it was fantastic. They got ballloons and face paint. Plus they made a new friend, who wouldn't love that? Oh and our Silverwolves pounded West Jordan.

All in all here is to a fantastic busy September--bring on October!