Fabulous Find

You know how sometimes when you are at a yard sale, you just snap up fantastic deals as soon as you see them because you don't want to miss out, but then you neglect to look closely enough to notice that you do not, in fact, need this particular find before you spend the $10 on it? What? You DON'T? Yes, well, me neither. However, if you happen to know anyone who would like to purchase a set of used kids' golf clubs for say . . . oh, 10 bucks, send them my way. Just make sure they know that the said golf club set is for a lefty. NOT a righty, as all of my children happen to be, but a LEFTY. Thanks so much.

Flashback Friday

Christmas picture of the Fesler family (1980ish). Obviously our family was a little large for their prefabricated Christmas scene. (And that was BEFORE Jacob, Seth, and David were born.) So they just cut Mom and Micah off. Problem solved. Can you tell which one is moi?

Fesler family at Micah's wedding (2006ish). Look! We all fit in this one. Maybe because it wasn't taken in a studio . . . by a professional . . . in 1980.

What a Strange, Strange Little Man

Adam, having a routine breathing treatment (steroid twice every day, Albuterol as needed for wheezing). He usually screams and fights during every single second of the treatments. The only thing that I have noticed that distracts him is when I am yelling at the other kids. (I have to yell to be heard over the nebulizer.) For some reason, he thinks it's funny.

When he was learning to crawl, he spent literally 1/2 of his time in this position. Upside-down was his preferred view of the world.
Upside down is also his preferred direction of the pacifier.
Weird.
He still enjoys crawling up and over anything he can possibly get to. The other day, he had crawled under the stroller and up through the foot rest of the stroller and got stuck. He yelled till he was rescued. Since I didn't get a picture of that one, you can enjoy this view of his head, coming out of the end table.

Our Annivesary

Yes, I am quite aware that our 12th anniversary was last month. I am journaling this entirely for my benefit. Zach and I headed up to SLC while my sister watched the kids. We stayed at Little America. Here was our fabulous view. If you squint just a little and focus only on the top 1/4 of the picture, you can see that we had a great view of some hills. Sort of.
We went to dinner at the Garden restaurant in the JSMB. We also got to go to a movie and had the best breakfast buffet on the planet. I'm hungry just remembering it. We headed back after breakfast b/c turns out Adam had an ear infection and I forgot to pack any sort of painkiller and he was up half the night. Ummmmm, whoops.
On our actual anniversary, we decided to take the kids out for dinner. We haven't done that in . . . well . . . ever, really, with all of the kids. They actually behaved quite well and a good time was had by all.

Creativity

To thwart or not to thwart? That is the question. After dinner, the kids ran down to play for a few minutes before bed. Upon finding a hole in one of the couch pillows, they discovered the delightful fun of playing with fluff. They panicked when they heard me coming downstairs--apparently I am a little too quick at getting annoyed with such shennanigans. Darn that innate desire for a perfectly ordered house! (Which, by the way, is so often unfulfilled, one would wonder that I even have it anymore.)

So after asking what they were pretending (the fluff was ice cream), I asked them to clean it up when they were done, and I left the room with a firmer resolve to allow them more creative expression. Because really, who wouldn't want to play in a room full of fluff? (And, let's just be honest, I've always hated couch pillows. They just get in the way of everything. The majority of the time I've had them, they've been stuffed into closets. Good riddance, couch pillows!)

Adam

I know every mother on the planet thinks her babies are the cutest ("preservation of the species" and all that). Adam was a little funny looking at birth, but look at him now. Cutest. Kid. Ever.

The big, fat sausage hand

Okay, this is the last post of the day . . . promise. Zach was stung by a wasp on Saturday night and on Sunday, his right hand and wrist started swelling . . . and swelling . . . and swelling. These pictures don't do it justice, I'm telling you. These were taken once it started going down. I have to admit, I got a lot of joy out of the fat sausage hand. It seemed really funny, especially when he took Benadryl and tried hydrocortisone cream-- all to no effect.

Breakfast

And in what's proving to become quite the daily tradition at our house, I present to you Isaac's version of breakfast. *Sigh*

The Fourth--2008

Our day started off at my sister Becca's for our now-annual Fourth of July breakfast. Zach and Spencer started the day a little earlier with THEIR now-annual bike ride to the Larsons (8 miles). The moms and dads make the food and the kids take orders and serve us. After some fabulous service and the tips that followed, the kids ate and we headed to BYU to set up our blankets to save our place for the Stadium of Fire fireworks show. We got to Provo just as the parade was ending, so it took us a leetle bit longer than it normally would have to get to BYU. Zach and Spencer decided to bike to BYU from B&B's and got there just a minute or two after we did. (BTW, their total mileage for the day was just over 20 miles.)

When we got back, the kids decorated their bikes for a bike parade up and down the sidewalk. It was extremely thrilling, especially riding through the neighbor's sprinkler. After a rest at home, we gathered back together for a bbq and some exciting games of lasso golf. Then we went to BYU for the fireworks. The view was fabulous, the show was fabulous, and the kids were fabulous. I feel perfectly satisfied that I won't need to take my kids to the overcrowded, overloud, overlate SpaFo 24th of the July fireworks in a few weeks. Whew! All in all, it was a very enjoyable, pretty laid back day. I love the Fourth!

"Liberty Lucy"

Isaac's "Red, White and Blue Rocket"
And in what surely would be the most original name ever, the "Kye-Kye."
Adam and I: assigned spectators

The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent‏

I loved this video, sent along to us from our Bishop. It shows a Living Apostle testifying of Jesus Christ. Let me just add my testimony that Jeffrey R. Holland is an Apostle of Jesus Christ. His testimony is a powerful thing to hear. Take a minute to view it here.

Flashback Friday

Celebrating the Fourth of July in South Dakota--2003

Lucy

Hannah and Lucy at our flag-raising ceremony
More flag raising

Top Ten--June 2008

Top Ten things said, done, and heard on the homefront.

10) Non de plumes: I know I am using the term incorrectly, as there are no literary ambitions among the children just yet, but whatever. The kids LOVE play names. Lucy’s current favorite is “Katie.” Kye is “Peter,” and Isaac adamantly refuses to answer to anything except “Hot Wheels.”

9) Spelunker: Adam’s future career, if his current interests have anything to do with it. He will roam the house looking for the smallest possible space to wedge himself into. He crawls through the piano legs, up and over the end table, around the benches, and under his crib.

8) Electrician: Adam’s second choice for future career. He likes to suck on plugs. Unlike my nephew, however, he has not yet electrocuted his eyes (no permanent damage done).

7) Kye: My favorite holidays are Christmas, Halloween, July 4th, Easter, and the day that guy turned our macaroni green. (We were festive this year for St. Patrick’s Day.)
6) Lucy’s lemonade stand: she’s been dying to have one, but I just can’t get her to understand that $1.00 a glass constitutes extortion. So instead we had a toy sale and she made a whopping $4.50.
5) Isaac: Mom, are you sick?
Me: No, not as sick as you.
Isaac: (taking a running leap at my legs) Now if I hug you soooooooo long, I won’t be sick, eeder.
Oh, if only it were that easy.
4) The kids foraging the house for food. Turns out they were pretending one day that their mom and dad had died and they had a really MEAN step mom and step dad who wouldn’t feed them. I was assigned to be a nice neighbor lady who always gave them food when they came begging. Apparently I didn’t feed them well enough because soon they had to resort to making their own and cooking it over a bark chip fire. Poor, starving children.
3) “Fumbs up, mom.” Isaac’s current expression of approval or happiness.

2) Lucy: Mom, during summer vacation, do dads still have to go to work?
Me: Yes, why?
Lucy: Well, then why is daddy home again? (Family in town, sick, more family, and a little more sickness. . . maybe we’re on to something here.)

1) Kye’s future as a diplomat. During one gruesome basement cleanup, I was a little, ahem, grouchy. Just how grouchy I won’t say, because THAT is self-incrimination. During yet another lecture to the kids about how I wasn’t going to do all the work myself, and I wasn’t going to help if they didn’t do their part, for crying out loud, Kye interrupted my soliloquy. “Mom, I love you. You are the best mom ever. Why don’t we sing a happy working song to make the time go faster?” Was he oblivious to the tension? Could he not HEAR my incredibly grumpy words? Apparently not, thank goodness. I stopped the lecture, started singing the song from “Enchanted,” and he interrupted again with, “Not that song, mom. Let’s sing ‘I am a Child of God.’” How can you say no to that? Seriously . . .

War of the Words

I think Darin won.

Highlights from the Family Reunion

Consider yourself lucky. I've decided to do 2 top tens this month. THAT'S RIGHT . . . TWO!! Here are the top ten things done, said, and/or heard from the Bradshaw family reunion.

10) Arrival day: As the cousins unloaded from the car, I saw Lucy uncharacteristically inside the house. When I asked her why she wasn’t out meeting her cousins, she replied, “I’m feeling shy.” That feeling lasted for approximately 8 seconds. She and the boys were then attached at the hip to one cousin or another for the next 4 days.

9) SLC (Temple Square): Even for Utah, our group had a disproportionately large amount of children to adults. I think we might have been a little overwhelming for some of the tour guides, but it was wonderful for us. We toured the visitor’s centers, the Tabernacle, checked out the view from the 26th floor of the Church Office Building, ate at the Lion House (FYI, the food isn’t exactly child fare), took turns watching the Joseph Smith movie (except Kye, who pointedly refused to go), toured the Conference Center, and went to the Distribution Center. Though the Arizonians scoffed, I thought it was a little hot. I know it wasn't 115, but 98 is still hot, people:).

8) Game night #1: While the younger kids watched a movie downstairs (HSM 2 seems to keep kids of all ages entertained), we played the Name Game upstairs. Apparently the hardest name to remember is “Oz,” so congrats to Derec for coming up with that one.

7) Bridal Veil Falls: no broken bones, the water was freezing, but fun to wade in, the hike up to the falls was fun for those who went, and the picnic was great, except for my slight miscalculations on how much food we would need. Sorry to those who went sandwichless. Maybe next time I’ll actually count.

6)Provo Veteran’s Pool: it was hot and therefore extremely crowded. The kids loved it. Our awesome neighbor, Lynda, watched Adam (who was starting to get really wheezy), so he had a great snooze while the rest of us swam.

5) Pizza in the Park for Cade’s birthday. Happy 8th Birthday Cade. Nothing like a little Ultimate Frisbee to get the blood flowing. Of course, I didn’t actually get to play b/c Adam needed a treatment, but everyone else had fun.

4) Adam getting lots of love. As he is the only baby that is currently old enough to play, Adam was slathered with attention. I think Kambree said it best, "Baybuh Adam is so tute. I want to marry Adam betuz he's tute."

3) Golfing, Fishing, playing Wii, and Brunch.

2) Bribing Kye with popcorn, candy, and more Wii time to get him to go to the movies. *Sigh!* Of course, he LOVED “Wall-E” and the short film before it. He made out like a bandit. What a stinker.

1)Water fight: according to Zach, it was the family against Derec. All I know is everyone got soaked.

So thanks to all who came. We loved having you here. A good time was had by all . . . er, well, most anyway. WE LOVE YOU, BRADSHAWS!

Pictures from the Reunion

A rousing game of elbow tag.

The sponge races.

Isaac and his buddy, Skyler.
All of the Bradshaw grandkids so far (minus 2)
Bridal Veil: If you look closely, the two black dots are Zach and Kye.
Lucy and Madi
Kambree and Kinley

Am I Lucky or What?

The night before our family reunion, I still had a million things to do around the house, plus a flat of raspberries in the fridge, waiting for something to be done with them. Thanks to Rachel for inviting me over and "helping" (aka "pretty much doing the whole thing") me make raspberry jam. I came underprepared and stayed pretty late, but it got done. THANKS! The day everyone arrived, my sister Becca came over to watch the kids so I could make a run to the store, and my brother Seth came over to mow the lawn so we wouldn't have to worry about it over the weekend. As President Kimball said, "The Lord loves us and watches over us, but it is usually through another person that he meets our needs." Thanks so much. You guys are awesome.