Jamesy turned six

I have no idea where all the time has gone but James turned six this week and it was met with much fanfare and giggles at our house. 

James is a quiet boy, very shy, very smart. He is also the best big brother I know. James is learning how to ride a bike, well i take that back. He knows how to ride a bike, I have seen him do it several times. The problem is he doesn't like bike riding so he pretends he doesn't know how to do it. He is also learning to rollerblade with weekly lessons from his sisters. James is a swimmer and loves when we can get him into swim lessons.

James is a talented artist and has a great ideas. He is so inquisitive that I don't even know all the answers to his questions and he enjoys looking up the answers on the internet. 

We love this guy and are so grateful that he is part of our family. 

When asked what he wanted for lunch on his birthday he said soup. So a trip to zuppas was in order. 

We even let him get a chocolate birthday treat.

He was excited to have grandparents over though for presents and cake.

James always asks for the most interesting cakes for his birthday. We have done a blueberry cake, a strawberry cake, and this year it was an orange cake.

Happy birthday James!!!

Easter Fun

Easter time!! We had so much fun this past weekend celebrating Easter with our families and participating in so many fun egg hunts. 

We started our fun Easter weekend up in Oakley with the Bradley family. There we participated in a fun egg hunt provided by Grandma and Grandpa. The kids had fun trying to find their eggs and they all enjoyed exploring great new hiding places. 

Oh and for today's entry into the mother of the year contest- I left my 21 month old's jacket sitting at home on the kitchen counter. Good thing he really does have the brother of the year who was willing to let his little brother wear his jacket all day.

Later that day we dyed Easter eggs all together. We also discovered that the brown and yellow chicken eggs from Uncle James and Aunt Kirsten's chickens dyed fabulous colors.

The next day we woke up to the Easter Bunny hopping through the cabin and leaving our dyed eggs in his wake.

The kids were great sports this year posing for pictures. The girls were proud of their dresses, which they picked out themselves this year. James wanted matchy outfits with Matty so I was very happy to comply.

Of course Matty decided that he had enough of pictures and decided to tell his sisters all about the injustice of having to sit still outside when there were some great toys right on the other side.

Since I got a new camera for our anniversary earlier in the week I used the nice clothes and great backgrounds to take new pictures of each kid. The ones I have of the girls and Matty are almost two years old. So we snapped some new pictures to update the wall in our bedroom.

I really can't believe how fast they are all growing up. It just makes me sad a little bit but excited about the adventures we have to come.

After a relaxing morning in Oakley we headed back home so the girls and I could sing in our ward's Easter program and to get ready for the Bellamy Easter dinner.

Dinner was fabulous and we discovered that our yard was the best place to have an egg hunt. We hid about 165 eggs for everyone-including adults- to find. It was a huge success.

This was one of my favorite pictures. We sat all the kids down to take their pictures and my niece Sophie decided that she needed some of Matty's candy too.

Notice that they are still going for the Candy in the picture below.

We had a great holiday!

The five newest Bradleys

I am not a pet person. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy other people's pets and I enjoy the idea of pets but I am not good at taking care of pets. I hate cleaning up after them, feeding them, and dealing, in some cases, with their hair. As I type this I realize that some of these same things could be applied to motherhood but I enjoy that- hmm, something to analyze later. I tried to like pets, I really did. I would take care of the neighbors' cats when they went on vacation only to have my dad come over and feed them so I wouldn't throw up. I would have to cover my mouth and nose every time I went to feed the dog because the smell of dry dog food made me gag. And don't even ask me about cleaning up after the family pet- I hated it. 

When I was in eighth grade my parents found the perfect pet for me- a box turtle. Teancum and I spent many great years together. She lived in the garden during the spring and summer and I would throw her a strawberry or peach to go with her diet of garden snails. During the winter she slept in the aquarium in my room, yes slept. I occasionally had to bath her but I never had to feed her anything gross or clean up her waste- it was fabulous. 

When Christian and I got married the kids had a beta named Blue Tail. Blue Tail lived about a month after our marriage, Laine stopped feeding him. After that we just decided to take a break from the pet thing. Even though the kids asked for chickens, or dogs, or even a snake we just said no, it also helped that we had a rental agreement that only allowed fish. 

Then came the move and it was time to revisit. When I suggested that we start with a fish and work our way up. I was assuming we would get a nice bowl. maybe a small aquarium and house a couple fish. Christian though had another idea. 

We ended up getting a very big aquarium one that will house many many fish. 

The kids had a ball figuring out what kind of fish they wanted and how they were going to rotate taking care of them. They were very sad on Saturday when we just left the store with a tank, filters, rocks, a light, glass cover, and various other sundry products. Yes, we left without any fish. That night they helped haul pitcher after pitcher of water to fill our 39 gallon tank. Monday night we took them to the store and the chose some hardy fish to be our aquarium homesteaders. Though the name process took quite a toll on everyone. 

 We ended up with five fish- Campfire, Brownie, Peach, Orangey, and Mango and the kids adore them. They are even looking forward to vacuuming out the tank on Saturday, there was even a fight over who would get to do it today.

I know that this won't last. That soon I will be reminding them to feed the fish or cleaning the tank but I love how much they already love these little scaly things.

 The night we got them I overheard Eve talking to her, at that point, unnamed fish. She told the fish she was very sorry she hadn't come up with a name yet for him yet but that she loved him very much and she was grateful that he came to live with her. It was a sweet tender moment she didn't know I observed but it made me grateful. It also made me think that just maybe we might be able to be pet people.

Valentines Day- or that one day in February

You've all seen the story, it is a situational sitcom favorite. Middle aged woman hates Valentine's Day and refuses to recognize it. Usually these women are single, occasionally they are married, sometimes they find the joy and love in the holiday, other times they are shown moping by themselves not enjoying anything- and usually pigging out on chocolate.  I used to be one of those. I have never liked Valentine's Day. There might have been a time prekindergarten that this statement was not true but I am not so sure. My husband has tried for three years to change my mind, it has become a personal mission and though he has moved me a bit on the subject I still am not a huge fan of the holiday.

Now just because I am not a fan does not mean that my kids should suffer from the same dislike so I try every year to make Valentine's day the best I can and it seems to be working. Laine informed me that she no longer wants to grow up, her reason- there are no Valentine's Day parties in middle school. 

We made our boxes the night before. I am of the belief that kids make their own boxes so I gave them the supplies and let them go for it. 

 Laine decided to create a Valentine Eating Monster- with mustache and all.

 Eve revisited the Harry Potter Theme and drew pictures of all the couples in HP on the sides of her box.

James was James and just covered his box with a lot of silly. Dogs wearing mustaches was his favorite. 

 The kids did candy valentines this year- does anyone remember when you were excited to get a sucker or a few conversation hearts in the envelope. Now it seems like all the cards come with candy.
Anyway the kids filled the cards out and I noticed that Eve was taking extra care to let the boys know how she felt about them...

 Yes those romantic messages of - hope you have a wonkafilled day, or Happy Valentines day have been crossed out on every valentine going to a boy. We had a talk on how we should be nice to everyone and just because you wish them a Happy Valentine's day or worse a Wonkafilled day does not mean that you like them.

The next morning the kids work up to Valentine gifts from mom and dad. This year it was a sock monkey and a small box of chocolates.

Growing up my mom was always big on making food holiday appropriate. I find myself doing the same thing. This year for breakfast we had overnight stuffed french toast topped with strawberries and whip cream. We stuffed this with chocolate cream cheese it was so good.

 Then the rest of the meals were full of heart shaped meals. There were heart shaped sandwiches both closed and open style. And heart shaped pink mashed potatoes with dinner.

That was this years forary into the battle of Valentines day and I have to admit I found myself even slightly excited for the holiday this year. Maybe I am finally thawing towards the candy and card company holiday, then again maybe not.

We bought a house!!!

Wow, it has been ages since I posted which my husband kindly pointed out to me just last night. I promise I have a very, very, very good excuse.  We bought a house!!! In late November we were finally able to find a house. From that point on I felt I was on a high speed track that was rocketing me at speeds faster than I thought possible. I had always heard finding a home you like was difficult. I was prepared to spend months finding what I wanted  but we found it on the fourth house.  We were in love with a 1919 five bedroom, three bathroom farm house and next thing we knew our offer was accepted and we were set to close in six weeks. 

 We bought this home from a lovely woman who had lived here for 38 years. She let us come in the week before closing and tear up her basement so it was ready for when we moved in. We ripped out wallpaper and the carpet. Matty loved carrying around the water bottle and finding odd bits of carpet to sit on.

 We were so happy that so many people were willing to come help. Christian's brothers, friends, parents and even our niece Sophie got into it.

Due to a scheduling error...don't even get me started..our carpet install was delayed a week all our downstairs furniture, plus a lot of upstairs furniture was all crammed into our front room.

I spent the first week in our new house getting the upstairs unpacked. I am loving the space in this house. I have empty cupboards and closets and drawers and all my boxes are now empty.

The day the carpet came every one was happy and Matty could finally go downstairs. He celebrated by rolling around and we celebrated by having a couple guys from the neighborhood come help us move the funiture. 

So the boys did not get new paint or new carpet so they had the first room unpacked and they got to pick wall decals for their room. Matty went with Mickey. 


 And James went with Star Wars.

When we bought the house we asked James if he wanted his own room but he told us that he wanted to share with Matty. Those two have a ton of fun together. It is not uncommon to hear peals of laughter coming from their room bright and early in the morning. 

We have a small kitchen downstairs. With new tiling and fridge! It is fabulous. 

We also have a food storage room so I can get serious about that Zombie Apocalypse that others keep reminding me is coming.

 Eve's room was stripped of wall paper and painted an agreed upon shade of blue. She seems to like it and keeps the room super clean.

 I love having a playroom. We painted a chalkboard wall and the kids have loved it. It was also a lot of fun to paint.

Laine wanted a green room. it was hard to find a green that we both agreed on but she liked the way this one turned out.

 Look an upstairs room no longer covered in a whole lot of boxes and furniture

 The master room is a bit big. We don't know what to do with all space but it is nice to have a big room with an awesome built in closet.

 Our formal dining room. We really haven't had a family dinner in this room yet. I don't trust the kids with the carpeted floor.

 one of our favorite features of the house is the huge attic. They had a woodshop up their before and we now have storage and a play area. The kids love running around up their and showing friends. I love that it has a staircase so it is easy to get things up and down.

 My huge kitchen with more storage than I girl could ask for. Also a laundry chute!!! Yes!

 Our family room.

 The back yard. It is so big and has so many trees! We can't wait for spring and summer so we can see it in all its splendor.

So that is it. Our new little home, nestled on the top of a circle. Since living here 12 days we have already had two parties and it was just great to have a place for everyone to spread out and not feel crowded. Yup, I think we're going to like it here.