Bathtub Warriors

Our boys LOVE to take baths. I think they think they are in a mini swimming pool. We never have fights over whose turn it is for a bath. On the contrary, if a person wants to take a bath or shower by themselves, chances are good that they will get a shower buddy who strips and hops in. Grandma sent us paint for Christmas and of course it turned into war paint- the boys have been loving being bathtub warriors.

except Charlie who always feels picked on if he doen't get the color that he wants. Jack drew hyroglifics on the wall- "Indian paintings" as he calls them.

My symbol is a toilet

Sitting down to write this and all I want to write about is how frustrated I am that I'm 24 weeks along and today I had to change my clothes 4 times because of puking incidents. (Not that I puked on myself 4 times, I have actually gotten quite good at waiting until I can open the car door or make it to the toilet. Apparently after pushing something the size of a small melon, certain types of tissue don't bounce back- blame it on relaxin hormone). The other day Laura told us about how she had to draw a picture of her family and assign them symbols that would represent that person to her. For example, Charlie was represented by a cookie, my Dad was some sort of tool, Adam was a boat. Adam asked if she had represented me with a toilet... she hadn't but it shows where I've been spending most of my time lately.

But I don't want to be a depressing blogger and go on and on about how I can't sleep and can't exercise or even walk very well because of this pain or that pain. I tried looking up pregnancy blogs to get an idea of how I can post positively but couldn't really find anything helpful. I feel like I can't complain or at least I shouldn't because I am incredibly blessed. I am not dealing with a terminal illness, pregnancy is temporary. But most importantly, this pregnancy will result in a joyful addition to our family and there are many who would give anything for the opportunity to feel as crappy as me- but can't. I don't feel like there's anyone I can talk to about this because of the above reasons- I don't want to feel shallow or ungrateful.

So I guess I'll talk about the kids. Jack and Charlie are doing well and being very cute. Charlie has more energy than anyone I know and he has decided he never wants to sleep. He feels things deeply. When I pick him up after work his face goes through a range of 6 emotions from surprised to elated and yells, "Momma! My Momma!" and runs up to me and hugs me. When he's happy, he's SO HAPPY and when he's sad, he's SO SAD. Im hoping we don't get reported to the CPS because just since Monday when Charlie did a superman 1 1/2 off my bad and landed on his face to this morning when he was trying to pour his own cereal and slipped off the kitchen table and hit the bench with the back of his head, he has more bumps and bruises than I can count. What can I say, he is 100% 2 year old.

Jack is getting to be a great artist and his fine motor skills are improving and he is showing more and more interest in his letters. I am so glad we held him back from starting kindergarten this year because he will be so much happier at the head of his class than at the tale end. He's loving and snuggly and willing to help. In primary he sings all the songs with gusto and answers every question whether he knows the answer or not. He is a cute lovabug jackson (he just typed that which shows his new interest in letters and how words are put together). He is sweet and lifts my heart.

They are the reason I can look for the light at the end of my tunnel and although most days I want to crawl in bed and hide as soon as I get home from work, sometimes I do but most of the time I push myself to get up and get them fed and try and be a mom until I crash with them at 8 or 9. Here's to hoping I get more energy soon and can be less pathetic in the future.

Happy New Years Adventure

We started a new family tradition of having chocolate fondu on New Years Eve. The boys absolutely LOVED it! Their favorites were pinapple and pretzels dipped in chocolate.... mmmm mmmm good.

So Laura talked us into going and doing a race for charity at midnight. It was down in Winston Salem and began at midnight. It was a 5K that wound through all these Christmas lights. Since Charlie's favorite thing this year is Christmas lights, he loved rolling through the lights yelling "Christmas Lights, Christmas lights!" Which actually sounds like "isas ites, isas ites."

Since we were keeping such an awesomely fast pace, we felt we could afford to stop and take a picture along the way. These were some of the cool lights we passed.

Here's the crazy pregnant lady with the best stroller (and the best boys) in the world. They were such good sports. this photo was taken at 1:00 AM when we went to get our hot chocolate and chips after the race. So even though it was a little crazy and we didn't get home until 3 AM, I have to say it was the healthiest thing I've ever done to celebrate New Years (excluding the chocolate covered goodness and Mountain Dew we indulged in as our pre-race snacks). Hopefully this means that 2011 will be a healthy year full of more fun adventures.

2010 Christmas Letter

Christmas 2010

This year has flown by. It’s hard to believe that we have been Virginians for over a year. Our family has grown this year as we’ve been joined by my sister Laura. She is extremely busy working on her Masters degree at the University of North Carolina, working at the hospital with Becky and teaching early morning seminary. We do enjoy our occasional glimpses of her and are very appreciative of her help with the boys. They love having an aunt in the house and occasionally get confused as to whether Becky is Laura’s mommy too. Laura just finished her finals and is officially the smartest in her class (or so she says since she got a 98% on her final). We are very proud of her and appreciate the life and pets she brings to our home. (Since Laura has joined us, we have obtained a turtle, two bunnys, one fish and five chickens…)

Adam has been working very hard as first counselor in our Branch Presidency. He has lots of meetings, appointments and secrets to keep. He has also enjoyed some good Daddy time with the boys and is working on a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering Tech. Since we just now qualified for in-state tuition, he is going to hit the classes really hard this spring with Old Dominion University. In his spare time, he still enjoys his home theatre and has officially become a boater. We bought a boat this spring which Adam overhauled and put a new floor into. We had fun almost every week going swimming in the incredibly warm water of the Philpott reservoir.

Becky has been working hard at her job as an occupational therapist and her second job as Young Women’s president. Both Adam and Becky got to go to Girls camp this summer which was quite the adventure of sleepless nights and silly songs. Speaking of sleepless nights, Becky is preparing for more of those come May when baby number 3 is due! Becky has been very sick and relied heavily on Adam for all smelly tasks especially including cleaning and diapers. (Thanks honey!) We are excited about our new addition and should find out a gender a couple days before Christmas.

Jackson (5) has turned into a cute little kid who would surely correct me and tell me he is a BIG kid. He is getting more excited about drawing pictures and learning letters. When we asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said he wants a computer. Then the next morning he woke up and asked, “Dad, when can I go to college?” He has been doing very well in pre-school and loves to draw pictures of space ships and Christmas trees. He also enjoys bossing his younger brother around a bit. I can’t imagine who he inherited that from.

Charlie (2) is a character! He has just really started talking in the past few months and is still kind of hard to understand. His favorite phrases are: “Me eat!” which he says when we pass some of his favorite restaurants. “Hi Ja jack” “No Mama” “My Oh (blanket)” “I got you jack”-when playing tag, “Me watch Buzz and Woodie Peeease” –when he wants to watch Toy Story which is his favorite followed closely by Nemo and baby signing Time. Charlie is a very loving boy and gives really good hugs and kisses. He is also an eater- that boy can out eat his brother and sometimes even his Mom or a visiting missionary. After a cough cough incident with clippers, Charlie’s beautiful locks had to be chopped off and he now looks a lot like Jackson did at that age that sometimes I even call him the wrong name. (Pretty sad when you only have 2 kids and you forget their names).

Although we are enjoying our Virginia adventure, we sure do miss our family and friends from home. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May God’s blessings bless your life and may we continue to share the love that we have received.

Love,
Adam, Becky, Jackson, Charlie & (baby)

Our Christmas announcement

The day before my parents arrived we had our first ultrasound and our doctor said that "It's a girl!" Needless to say, we are very excited about having a little princess join our family. The doctor said not to run out and buy a bunch of pink, but we couldn't help it, we just had to go get some cute pink dresses.

This pregnancy has not been a fun one to say the least. I've had terrible bachaches, normal fatigue, and AWFUL nausea/vomiting. I've been taking the super medicine Zofran but as of this week, my doctor won't let me take it anymore. Even with the pills, I would still throw up almost every morning and evening , especially if my stomach was empty, if I went from sitting by the warm fireplace to the cold upstairs, or if I smelled anything strange. It wasn't too bad when I had the week off while my parents were here, but when I started back to work it came back with a vengence. I've thrown up on the side of the road, in patient's yards, it's very disgusting. Although Adam claims that I am his alarm clock because he always knows when it's morning from the lovely sounds (and smells I'd bet) emanating from the bathroom , he has been very patient through this ordeal. Adam has taken over extra diapering duty, all the driving duties, extra clean up, all care of the cheap cheaps, and he has even slept without a cuddle buddy so that I can get a good nights rest on the guest bed. What can I say, I know how to pick em. Adam is a GREAT Husband and Father. I am extremely grateful and I wish that this nausea would go away quickly so I can feel like my old self again.

We found out last week that my cousin in laws Jessica and Shanna are also going to have girls in May! We had our boys right around the same time as Charlie and now we are all having girls. Hurray! We are going to beat the Bradbury curse. In some ways, I wish we were still living in Utah so we could share this experience with them. We may try and go out to Utah after the baby is born as part of my maternity leave which would be very fun.

Christmas with Family

We had the most wonderful Christmas present of having Grandma, Grandpa and Robby all fly out to visit us and since Laura was already here, that meant the whole family was together. We enjoyed lots of gaming, movie watching, meal preparing and spending time together.

We had the first snow fall of the year, so we went out and bought a sled and the boys slid down the backyard. (Is slid a word? IDK)

Charlie looking a little nervous... but he LOVED it! We had our second snowfall last week and it wasnt enough to sled on so they were pretty disapointed (it was enough however to close school for 4.5 days... hmm Virginians and snow, I guess they don't mix.)

Here are the boys sprinkling magic reindeer dust so that Santa will be sure not to miss them.

Jack's legos got some good battle playing in.

Decorating cookies. Favorite pastime for snowy days.

And gingerbread houses and gingerbread babies, even better.

Playing games and eating- our two favorite pastimes.

Charlie liked leaving cookies and carrots out for Santa.

Santa definately spoiled us. We got packages mailed in from Adam's parents and felt very blessed. One of the boys favorite things this year was an advent calander from Grandma Julie. Every morning in Dec ember after breakfast the boys took turns opening a little door and getting a treat. Charlie was sad when it ended and keeps asking if he can open "Christmas tree, me?"

Christmas jammies- I love that tradition- mine even have footies.

Charlie decided he was a hair dresser and had to do Grandma and Grandpas hair everyday. He tried Mommy's and Daddy's but they had more problems for obvious reasons.

Charlie's new piano game- name that tune- just like in BIG, you can play this piano with your feet.

"Buzz Woody" Charlie's new passion.

DC Trip - Dec 2010

We went up to the Washington DC temple with Grandma and Grandpa to show them the beautiful temple lights. It's almost like a mini-temple square. We got there early enough that Grandma Grandpa and Becky could do some sealings (Adam was a good sport and tended the little boys). Laura and her friend Erin from our branch did baptisms. It was a quick trip but enjoyable. The DC temple is our temple that we are assigned to (even though it is 5.5 hours away - 8 if you have children and pregnant ladies needing potty breaks.)

Beautiful lights

On the way up, we watched Night at the Museum II. We went to the Smithsonean and saw as many things as we could from the movie. We went to the Air and Space and saw Amelia Airhart's plane. We went to the art museum and found Mr Thinker, and we went to the Natural History museum of course. Grandma Grandpa and Erin went to the Holocaust museum and got sufficiently melancholy.

Here we are eating our $15 happy meal. Seriously we got like 8 chicken nugets and one drink and a teeny pizza and it was $15. Adam doesn't look to happy about it.

We stayed right across from the action in a place where we had a view of the Capital building from our room. It was beautiful in the early morning and at night. Now when Jack sees a quarter, he says, "That's the temple we went to." The boys LOVE hotels. We scored a great priceline deal and got the rooms for $60/night but then they added on an extra $25 for parking. The nerve of these big city people...

dad and I demonstrating the freezing temp.

We ce;ebrated Adams birthday dinner at the Mexican restaurant. Nothing says Happy birthday like whip cream up your nose.

Our crew with Erin (She's the other curly red head in the picture- the one who's coat actually zips) She is probably our sister in another life. She is a lifeguard swimmer and does triathlons too).

Fighting Ninjas

In December, Uncle Robby came to town and the boys played Ninjas with him in the backyard. They had so much fun and got nice and dirty and loved every minute of it.

Playing war at President Hodnets house with their new nerf guns. Needless to say, Robby takes his battles very seriously.