She's one!!!

My baby is one. Wow, I can't believe I am saying this. This year has been going by so quickly but it has been a good baby. Abby is happy baby, yes she cries but it is rare. She also will let us know when she is not happy with  something, that usually means that she screeches at us until she gets what she wants or is distracted by something else. She is full of joy, there is no other way to describe her, she is just joyful. 

Abby has been busy this month she finally conquered stairs and has been scaling them ever since. She loves to pop up and say hello and is trying to work out how she can get herself back down.   

In addition to stairs she is also feeding herself more and more. She has rather decided that anything with tomato sauce is quite delicious. Oh and berries, she loves berries. The messier the better which means we have at least one bath a day, something that she isn't always happy about. 

This little princess is the queen of drool which means she gets several outfit changes a day. But some times, if I move very quickly I can catch a picture of her drool free. 

Like all Bradley's she is a loquacious, her latest trick is saying "dada" and pointing at Christian- he is very proud of that. 

She also likes to pull herself up now and edge around things. No walking yet but I am sure it is coming. 

For her birthday we celebrated in style. Since she is can't pick what birthday treat she wanted this year I picked for her. We've had one to many days of cake in this house so we went with puff pastry, cream, and berries. It was a hit. She wasn't so sure what to do with the candle but she did know what to do with the treat. 

After a quick clean up we started on presents. She was not happy when we kept taking away her shiny new toys to present her with a new gift but she was a good sport. 

Happy birthday sweet girl, thank you for filling all our lives with joy and happiness. It has been such a wonderful year and we are so grateful to have you in our family. 

Happy 5th birthday, Matt!

Matt is now very happy to tell everyone he is one hand old. This loquacious, happy, superhero loving boy takes this very seriously. While playing "Halloween World" on Minecraft  yesterday (something that scared him the day before) he kept saying, "I can do this, I am brave now." Matt currently has career aspirations to be a food scientist on the Food Network by day and a ninja by night.  He also enjoys making "creations" with his legos all day long. He likes to pretend he is all grown up and dispenses his advice and opinions on things quite readily. You are welcome to ask his opinion on Trump, Hamilton, or any superhero and he will have a slew of strong opinions waiting to spew forth. He is a sweet boy who loves being with his friends and family and who keeps begging for another ocean trip. He reads, but it is not his favorite thing to do as it requires him to sit still and not talk for longer than ten seconds. He adores his older siblings and dotes on his baby sister though wonders why mom has outlawed wrestling the baby. Happy birthday little buddy. 

No official birthday party this year but we did have some friends over
for an awesome play date and ice cream. 

This boy was so excited to blow out his candles he did it the second
they were lit. So we had to try again. 

The birthday was filled with super heroes, a perfect day. 

4th of July shenanigans

I love the Fourth of July, it is by far my favorite holiday. Growing up with parents working in politics the 4th was always a busy time we would attend three parades that day, not counting the one or two we did the day before. If you were super lucky you got to ride in the convertible and throw candy. It was always a fun time that might be capped with swimming and a BBQ and fireworks, there were always fireworks. I love celebrating the fourth. I love spending time with family and friends celebrating the freedoms this country provides.So here is how we celebrated this fourth...

Cul-de-sac of fire. We had fun with friends and we had fun with neighbors
as we attended the neighborhood firework show. It even came with a fun
BBQ this year. It was fun just spending time with family and friends and enjoying
each others company.  I love my neighborhood

We only had two munchkins this year so the matchy shirt picture
was a little small, plus we wanted to get it before Abby drooled or spilled
over her shirt. 

Our annual breakfast out. Matt enjoyed some chocolate pancakes

As a little girl I always remember looking at this cake in magazines
and wishing that I could have it. Now I make it every year and it is my
favorite. 

 Christian got a smoker for Father's Day and really wanted to smoke a brisket so we invited our neighbors and family over for dinner. We had fabulous smoked brisket and great side dishes that everyone brought. It was fun to be together and enjoy great food. Later we had fireworks and had a rather scary moment. One of the fireworks decided to malfunction and send some explosions right at us. There were a couple of small burns and singed clothing but everyone seemed to be okay, if rattled.  We're still not sure what happened as the firework was was still standing up and everything appeared normal but it was a our scary moment of the night (well that and a tiki torch catching fire earlier in the night...it was rather eventful).

Matt and his cousin Sophie playing with Pop-its

Our gathering for dinner

Abby had already had to be bathed before the cake came out. I can
tell by her face she quite enjoyed the cake this time around. 

Relaxing and enjoying the fireworks. 

The older kids came home on Tuesday morning so we recreated the 4th for them, minus the firework mishap. They even had left over brisket and cake!

Pop-it time! 

Matt creates a new super hero - Termite man

Matt lit his first firework this year...I lit my first one too

Termite man evolved throughout the night- we love glowsticks here 

A quiet house

Our house has been very quiet the last two weeks with the older kids in Virginia visiting their mom. I feel like I am in the eye of a hurricane, just calm and quiet after a few weeks of crazy go-go-go and ramping up for the next go-go-go weeks. I know the older kids have had a slew of adventures while away, we have seen videos and pictures and can't wait to hear about them in person but here it has just been quiet.  We asked Matt what he wanted to do while the older kids were gone and he picked movies and games, I guess when you are number 4 of 5 you don't usually get your choice of movie, he also played with friends and that was fun, they had the run of the house- something Matt loved.  We've also been playing the Hamilton soundtrack at least once a day, Matt likes to sing along and ask questions about Hamilton and Aaron Burr. He also had a conversation about the difference between Abraham Lincoln's death and Alexander Hamilton's (I don't know where this kid gets all this).

We missed the older kids, the house has been too quiet and I think the dog has gone stir crazy, attention from Matt and me is not enough to get him through the day. But we did find some ways to fill our time....

Disney Movie Extravaganza 

We realized that Matt doesn't remember a lot of the Disney movies and we decided to rewatch a few. Matt would pick one or two movies every day and we would watch them. We made it though all of the Toy Storys, Bambi, Tarzan, Nightmare Before Christmas (nope Mom, I still haven't watched that one) Monsters Inc., Babes in Toyland, Finding Nemo, Princess and the Frog... I am sure that there were a few more, I just can't remember. We also got a babysitter for Abby and went to see Finding Dory. It was nice to sit in the nice cool basement and escape from the 99 degree temperatures. 

Abby thought Finding Nemo was the best movie ever. It was like her own
large fun aquarium. 

Cooking lessons for Matt 

After cooking for seven, cooking for four is a whole new ball game. I had to rethink my shopping strategy and still ended up overbuying on meat for the week. Matt thought it was fun to have some one on one cooking lessons. He learned how to brown meat and we even let him season it himself, we might have let him watch one too many Food Network shows, he also sauteed some veggies and now believes that he is a professional. 

Matt and his taco meat he added ranch and taco seasonings...oh and three pinches of salt.

Snuggle time

Most mornings I head to the gym about 6:15 so I can get a work out in before the kids wake up and the day gets rolling. On Friday I was just exhausted so we had a snuggle party instead, teddy bears were invited too. Then we went to the gym after, one of Matt's favorite places. 

Abby is still not quite sure how to hold still for a picture

Craft projects

Having only 2 kids instead of 5 meant I had a bit more time for myself and I spent it crafting and organizing! I had been looking for a fun beach frame for our pictures since we visited Newport last November but in December and January beach frames are rather impossible to find. Even with summer starting I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for so we made our own. I like the way it turned out.  

I started making a jean quilt before the kids even left, it is such a large project that it took me a few weeks.  Matt enjoyed this week when we had a "fortress" set up in the living room and I enjoyed being able to work on this project and take time to listen to the Alexander Hamilton biography (It's been a Hamilton summer) I have been trying to get through.  But now we have an awesome quilt to use for our park visits this summer.

Matt was the big helper on this one. He helped me pick out the
 backing for the quilt as well as the binding. He also laid under it while I
tied it together. 

So that's it. The kids are back next week and we go back to the bustle and hustle of a house of seven again, I can't wait.

60 days of summer left....

Another week down, time is running out on our summer vacation the days seem to be going too fast but we do have them packed full of fun adventures this week included....

Dinner and Swim party

All month long it has been hot and not much rain so of course the day we plan to go swimming it pours...all day long. We still went over for dinner and as always the Bradley family did not disappoint with the fabulous dishes that were available. We played games and chatted and a few of the kids decided that they wanted brave the 60 degree temperature and jump in the pool too. 

Abby is adored by her older cousins, they even fed her
some ice cream. What a lucky girl to have such a great
family who loves her. 

Park Days

This week Park days was a blast. Eve and James took off with friends and went to play in the wooded area, we saw glimpses of them every now and then. Matt and his buds found so many things to keep them entertained including "Snail Rock" where they named the snails and challenged the older boys who kept killing the occupants of snail rock. 

Taking a break from protecting snails to watch a duck and her ducklings

Games with Aunt Kate and Uncle Aaron

We love it when Aunt Kate and Uncle Aaron come to visit, the kids count down the days to their visits every time. We got to spend a few evenings playing board games with them and just enjoying their company. 

Matt LOVES Uncle Aaron, he'd probably move in with them if he could. 

Scout Camp

James got to head up to scout camp on Wednesday and Thursday. He got to shoot sling shots and bow and arrows. There was hiking and obstacles courses, he got to paint a rock and  get down and get dirty ...oh and he got to  buy a pocket knife too.  Natalie was lucky enough to join him for half a day and go on the hike and learn all about rocks. 

Don't let the look fool you, that is the look he gives anyone
taking his picture anymore. 

Get Air

While Laine jetted off to a Youth Temple Trip in St. George and Payson the other kids got to go to the trampoline park. We got super lucky that they forgot to call our wrist band color...so the kids got some good jumping time in and mom got some good reading time in. Abby obliged dad by taking a nap the entire time we were gone, good day all around. 

Eve is such a great sister, she spent the whole time playing with Matt
and having a good time with him. 

James tried a new way to get past the tight rope. 

Waffle Love

It had been a while since we had visited Waffle Love but we made up for it this weekend. Date night on Friday and a return on Saturday for breakfast. Oh Waffle Love why must you be so tasty and wonderful. 

Abby enjoys her grilled cheese waffle....she also really loved the
tomato soup that came with it. 

Digging into the waffles and gravy and waffle breakfast sandwich! 

Father's Day

Besides the zombie garden gnome that has joined our garden Christian also got an electric smoker and made us some delicious burgers. We are so lucky to have him as our dad, Matt even shaved his head this week so he can have a dad hair cut. I love the moments that he takes to work with the kids and teach them something.

Matt helps dad add wood chips to the smoker. 

There's 81 days of summer vacation...

We are big Phineas and Ferb fans around these parts. We love singing the theme song with each episode, and even though we aren't the best at all the words we get the first part down pretty well:

There's a 104 days of summer vacation

and school comes along just to end it

So the annual problems for our generation 

Is finding a good way to spend it....

Well, as you can see from the title of this blog,  there are only 81 days of summer vacation (don't tell my kids because  they will feel that life is unfair) and after having a family home evening plan we now know how to spend it so here's how we have spent the first 14 days of our break...

Trip to the Museum  of Natural Curiosity 

We made our first trip to  the Museum of Natural Curiosity on Memorial Day, we were lucky that the crowds weren't too bad and the kids had a riot exploring and running around trying out things, and touching, and just having a great time. I loved that they had something for everyone (something hard to find when we have a 12 year span between the oldest and youngest). 

The boys loved playing with legos, they both thought that this huge lego mat
was the best thing that they had ever seen. 

All the kids took turns hanging like a sloth, Laine made it the longest
quitting after two minutes but I am sure that she could have gone a lot longer.

In each area we went to there was a place for Abby. She loved the water table the best
I was just grateful I had a change of clothes for her when we were finished.

 Trip(s) to the Library

It should be no surprise to anyone that my kids are readers, James goes through at least 10 books a week in the summer so we keep our local library busy. 

Matt went right up to the librarian and asked, "Can 4 year olds have library cards?"
They told him yes and so he is now a proud owner of a library card! 

 Swim Trip

We put our swim suits to good use during the summer and we had our first trip to the pool already. 

This was Abby's first time at the pool,
after this visit I am pretty sure she is part fish

  The Leonardo 

I love the Leonardo, the hands on exhibits are awesome and my kids can spend hours there...they loved it so much that we ended up getting a year pass. The kids were super excited that they can keep coming back. 

James actually wanted to take this picture,
that was awesome. 

Eve found a mural she could sit and color.
I think she could have stayed in there for several hours.  

Matt again loved the big legos, This was the robot that he made,
he hopes it is still there when we come back. 

 Park Days

Our neighborhood visits a park each week. The kids love to play at each of the parks and with all their friends.  

Abby and her friend Simon, they kept trying to share each other's
bottles. 

 Pia Family Reunion

My grandma's family reunion was held at Hogle Zoo this year and the kids couldn't have been more excited. We had a so much fun, even if we were walking in the rain. The weather was nice and we got to see the otters (after about ten trips to the zoo this was a first sighting), we also got to see them train the seals, Christian does a great impression of the sea lions dance he would be happy to show. 

A yummy brunch at the zoo...or in Matt's case a doughnut, brownie,
cookie, brownie, and pineapple because pineapple is healthy. 

We loved seeing the new lion cubs, and we still love posing on the statues. 

It was fun to see the zoo with our cousins and do silly things with them. 

This little princess left the zoo with two new lovies, mainly because
mom and dad are suckers. She seems pretty proud of herself.