December happenings

Time really does fly. I meant to update this blog with all the fun December activities that we have been doing but now December is almost over and I haven't post any of them. So here we go- all our December adventures in one blog post.

We made gingerbread sleighs-
And went to James' preschool program.
He played a chime in Silver bells and was awesome.
Matthew also became a red-nosed-baby at the program.

Participated in the Bradley family nativity where Laine was Mary, Eve was the angel
And I think James was a shepherd.

We made caramel and chocolate dipped pretzels.
Went and visited the elves at Gardner's Villiage
Went bowling with the Bradley cousins. Even the babies had fun there.
Wore funny hats with the Bellamy cousins
Santa came to visit and brought way to many presents.
So that is about out. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Bradleys.

5 months

Some how my little snuggly baby is now a big 5 month old. He is jabbering and laughing and working on his sitting. Of course he can't roll over yet but we are working on it. He is all smiles and is really a happy baby. He has discovered his toes, loves his teddy bear and carrot, thinks that crinkly paper is the best thing ever. He loves to bounce, jump and raise his legs over his head. He hates tummy time and sleeping in his crib. He is getting some independence which leaves me with a bit more time which has been great.
He is particularly enjoying Christmastime and lying under the tree. He just stares at the lights and ornaments. He keeps trying to grab all these things too but I am able to place him where he can't reach.
We also started rice mash this week. It has taken him a bit and he seems to spit out quite a bit but he likes it. He is becoming quite the eater and is finally getting that food goes in the mouth and stays there. Though today he got some on his bib and decided he wanted to eat that instead.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The Christmas season is upon us and that means parties! We had our first Christmas party on Friday followed by the second on Saturday so Christmas is in full steam.

The party last night was our ward Christmas party. The gym was awesome. They had made a tent with Christmas lights and the food was great. I loved that they took time out to make coloring books for the kids and even made them chicken nuggets while the adults got a great herb chicken.

Matthew thought the party was great.
The girls were super excited to sit with their friend Natalie at the table nearest the stage.

Well they thought it was fun until the entertainer for the night decided to sing to them.

They weren't a fan of that. The kids did love dessert though-

Then came the highlight of the show- The Primary Christmas Pageant. The kids practiced for a few weeks for this and were super excited. James got to be a sheep with the other three-year-old boys. He was super cute.
The girls were Lullaby girls...don't remember them from the nativity story? Yeah I didn't either. But they stood up there and sang rocking baby dolls and just looked cute.

Of course James started to get bored with the whole thing and spent most the pageant playing with his new sheep ears...

...or his shirt.

It was fun though as was the party this morning. We can't wait for the next weekend's extravaganzas.

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Things have been crazy this month in the Bradley household. Thanksgiving weekend was no different.

The kids had Wednesday off from school and Christian decided to take the day off. So we decided to take the kids on a pre-Thanksgiving outing to the Aquarium. They love this place and they got a chance to see the workers feed both the sting rays and the Caimans.

We spent Thanksgiving with the Bellamys. There were great games and crafts for the kids. James had a fun time playing with the glitter pens. It took a full 48 hours for the glitter to actually dry but it looks great with the lights on the tree.
On Friday we went with the Bradley's to a tree farm to cut down a Christmas tree. We had a great time and loved that we could stroll through rows of Christmas trees that they would cut down for us. It was an adventure driving home with the tree on top of the car but we made it and the tree is now lighted and looking good.
James and Atticus thought it was fun to play hide and seek between the trees.
Matthew had a great time all snuggled in. He was got to go through Christmas trees, be carried over some of the rows and had quite a bumpy ride.
Christian and I took turns pushing him. I have decided that who needs weight training when you can carry a 16 pound baby in his stroller.
The fam with the Christmas tree!

4 Months!

So this happy kid is now a big 4 month old. He is usually this happy and this smiley. At his doctor's appointment was today and he is weighing in at 15.19 lbs (55th percentile) and 24.5 inches (32nd percentile). So he is growing well. He is also very strong. He loves to sit up and he is moving around during tummy time. He hasn't quite gotten the knack of rolling over but we will get there. He also laughed for the first time last night.

He is starting to get some favorites too. Now the swing is still the favorite of all but he has recently formed an attachment to a stuffed carrot from IKEA. He also loves the crackly paper and plastic keys.

He has become a drool machine. I usually have to change his clothes a few times a day because of the drool. He is a good little boy though.

Halloween and Eve's Birthday

Despite my many protests, Eve has decided it was time to turn seven. I tried to convince her to stay six for another year or two, but she wasn't going for it. Apparently fun things happen at age seven, who knew? Anyway, since she insisted on aging, we figured we'd better put some candles on some cake and sing a little song for her. First she wanted it to be an apple cake, then for a little while she wanted it to be a peach cake, then finally decided what she wanted was apple pie. I've never been a stickler for tradition, so birthday pie it was.

Eve's birthday is the day before Halloween, so she probably thinks that every year everyone gets dressed up to celebrate her. They even give out candy cause they're so happy she was born.

This year the girls decided they wanted to be witches, Harry Potter style. Eve chose to be Ginny Weasley, so she needed some red in her hair.

Laine opted to be Hermione Granger, so her hair got the frizz treatment via the magic of sleeping in dozens of very tiny braids. The boys both wanted to be dragons, which mostly means James wanted to be a dragon an little Squidgy got put in a green jacket with a dragon hood,.

Here are our monkeys together with the Bradley cousins at a little get-together we had at our place. I thought Atticus in the skunk outfit was pretty awesome.

Just for kicks and extra candy we went to a trunk or treat, the candy was good but they kept not putting any in Matthew's bag (for me).

On Halloween night we got all ready to trick or treat, serving a light dinner with soup and sandwiches which James took an hour and a half to got through. He was so slow he missed the first street of trick or treating over at Grammy and Poppa's street and had to stick with them until he finished his sandwich.

We hit a couple streets in our neighborhood next, the kids were so super excited that they ran from house to house, usually with James trailing along behind yelling "Wait up, guys!" After a couple dozen houses of this James and Eve were ready to call it a night. They went home with Mom to pass out candy while Laine and I went took on a few more blocks. We ended up with a pretty good haul, now I'll have plenty of candy to bribe my Primary class with for the rest of the year.

Pumpkin carving

I learned something reading friend's and family's blogs these past weeks. If you blog you have to show pictures of kids with pumpkins. I realized that I have kids. I have pumpkins. And I have a blog. So now those three things are combing to present our offer to the kids with pumpkins blog universe.

First we start with a story. We decided this year that we would get the kids sugar pumpkins. One of the reasons was that I plan on making homemade pumpkin pie, but the main reason was so that the kids could carry their own pumpkins from the Farmer's Market back to the car and we wouldn't have to bring a stroller and a wagon. The kids thought this was a great plan and each got a pumpkin that was easy to carry. Everyone that is but Matthew. See a few weeks ago I thought it would be cute to get a really big pumpkin, clean it out, put the baby inside and snap the pictures. I mentioned it at dinner one night and the kids latched onto the idea. Next thing I knew we were at the Dan's buying a 34 lbs pumpkin.

There was one person that was not on board with this idea- Matthew.

He was not happy we woke him up from his nap to take this picture. In our defense we had a nice warm bath and a bottle waiting for him.

He didn't think that was a good trade off.

Of course later he was fed, bathed, and happy so he was happy to oblige for photos. He even cracked a smile.

The girls carved their own pumpkins this year. They even cleaned them by themselves.

Eve's had spooky fangs.

Laine's was all goopy inside and she had a hard time cleaning it out. Eventually though she beat that pumpkin.
James had a bit of help from dad on his. He was most insistent that the pumpkin have an oval nose.

All together our pumpkins made a nice addition to the Halloween decor...I just hope they taste as good as they look.

UEA adventures.

Last weekend the kids had Thursday and Friday off of school so we jammed packed those days with adventures. We had all planned to go to Lagoon but after measuring we found out that Laine was the only one tall enough to ride. Instead Laine and Christian went to Lagoon on Thursday while Matthew, James, Eve, and I went up to This is the Place for their Little Spooks.

While there we...

Rode Horses...

...Pet sheep...
...panned for gold...
...made crafts and got candy.
Then on Friday the whole family went to a Halloween Party at the Expo Center. It was billed as a fun family party with trick-or-treating, bounce houses, Star Wars, Disney, and movie characters to take pictures , crafts, and just good old family fun. Instead it was a glorified ad for whomever was wiling to buy booth space.

It did have bounce houses though and the kids loved it.

There was also a rock climbing wall which Laine conquered very quickly.
The kids had fun dressing up though
Oh and the characters were cardboard cut outs.
So that one was a dud but the rest of the weekend was full of Halloween cookie making, one last visit to the Farmer's Market to get pumpkins and family pictures up at Camp Tracy.