What's been going on?

Well...Where do I start? I guess there's a lot I could talk about when I've let almost 2 months go by. I'll start with some fun news. I had my ultrasound a few weeks ago and we found out we're having another boy! We're very excited. Here are a few more random events:

Happy Anniversary Mike!

April 13th was our 6th anniversary.

Laura got a hair cut. We chopped off 8 inches this time! She had several inches cut off last year too. That's alot of hair to cut off before she even turned 4. I loved her long hair, but I have to say that I love it short too, much easier to take care of.

I was hoping to get some cute Easter pictures outside before church, but that didn't happen. I did get some pictures the following Sunday. I was just lucky to get one where they're both standing next to eachother, not moving around and smiling.

Poor David got the chicken pox. NOT FUN! We're pretty sure it was a reaction to the vaccination he had gotten the month before. His arms and legs were covered. This picture definitely doesn't show how bad it really looked. I felt so bad for the poor little guy. Glad that's over with.

We finally got a minivan! Something we've been talking about doing for a while. I have to say, I love it. I didn't know I could be so excited about a minivan. So much room, no more bending over to put the kids in, automatic doors...it's great!

Somewhere in there I got the flu too. Sorry...no pictures.

Happy Birthday Laura!

Laura turned 4 on March 24, but we had her party on Saturday which was the day before Easter. I thought as part of the festivities that an Easter egg hunt would be appropriate. So grandma's and grandpa's and all the cousins came and brought their baskets and had a great time. Most of the kids were of course trying to find as many eggs as they could. Well, David could care less about the number of eggs he had, he just cared about the content inside the eggs. As soon as he found an egg, he sat down and proceeded to chow down on the jelly beans. Wish I had a picture.

I had to throw this one in. As I was looking back at all of Laura's baby pictures, I had such a great time remembering her crazy hair. Crazy hair that I didn't know what to do with! This picture was on her blessing day when she was a couple months old.

Back to the birthday party.


Now if anyone has been to Costco lately you have probably seen this airplane teeter totter on display. Well, Mike has been wanting to get this for the kids ever since he first saw it, so he took the opportunity while we were gone for spring break visiting Rhonda and bought it. The kids all had a great time on it.

Now, one more thing. I know I've taken even longer to post this time than I normally do. That's pretty sad. I've still got January stuff I need to post. It's probably because I usually try to blog in the evening after the kids go to bed. And for the last couple of months I can't stay up long enough to do anything. Mike keeps finding me asleep on the couch sometimes even before 9:00! That could only mean one thing....I'm pregnant! Yes baby #3 is coming in September and we are so excited!

Hope to get more updating done soon!

Sweet Grandma Bradshaw

My sweet Grandma Bradshaw, who lived with my family for most all of my life, passed away a couple of weeks ago on January 26th. She was 92 years old. She was doing really well up until a couple of months ago when she was diagnosed with meningitis. She had a couple of times where she seemed to be doing better, but the longer she had to stay down in bed the weaker she became. At her age we knew it would be hard for her to make a full recovery. I was glad that I was able to take my kids and go up and see her a few times these last couple months. My grandma had lived with my family almost my whole life until shortly after I got married, she moved up to Prescott. She went up there to live at the Pioneer Home which is an assited living home. My grandma has a lot of fond memories of Prescott from when she lived there as a young teenager. When my grandma was only 13, she lost both of her parents within a couple months of eachother. It was then that she moved to Prescott to live with her older sister. I think she enjoyed the years that sshe pent living there and probably liked the idea of going back there to live again one day. Well, not long after grandma moved up to the Pioneer Home, she met a man named Larry who she became quite good friends with. When we would talk to her over the phone, it sounded like she was spending all of her time with him and that they loved the companionship of one another. They eventually decided that they wanted to get married! Keep in mind grandma was 88 years old (I think Larry was several years younger). I don't think any of us saw that coming, but when we went up there for the wedding, it was very clear that they were so happy together. It was so neat to see my grandma so happy, she couldn't stop smiling. She deserved all of this happiness especially after of all of the sad times she endured throughout her life. As the months went on after the wedding, we got to know Larry even better as we would go up and visit. It was so sweet to see the way that he cared for grandma. They both made eachother so happy. I feel kind of like we became Larry's family, especially because Larry had no grandchildren of his own. Grandma was always so happy when we came to visit and to see her great grandbabies brought her so much joy. There are so many wonderful things I could say about grandma. Me and my family were truely blessed to know her and be so close to her. She definitely blessed all of our lives in many ways and will be missed very much. My family will always be so grateful to Larry for making grandma's last few years such happy ones.

On their wedding day

Holiday fun with our families!

A few days before Christmas my side of the family all got together to have a special family home evening. We had all the grandkids act out Luke 2 from the Bible. It was so cute and rather funny at times, especially when one of the wise men (Justin) took off with baby Jesus. So Mary (played by Mandy) took off after him fuming and yelling "Justin!" I was just happy that David who was supposed to be a wise man finally went and handed Mary some "gold" for baby Jesus.

Laura and Daisy were the shepherds. Cutest little shepherds ever with their little stuffed animal sheep.

Christmas Eve at Mike's parents house.

Laura and her cousins Hannah and Sariah singing Christmas carols for grandma.

My sister Rhonda, Joe and baby Owen visiting from Las Vegas. Joe almost has 2 years of Dental school done and then 2 to go. We're so glad when they come to visit. We miss you guys.

Laura and Danny have such a good time when they're together. Too bad we only see them a few times a year now.

My mom and my brother's little girl Isabelle. She is so sweet. She has the prettiest little brown eyes that twinkle when she smiles.

Rhonda and Owen. So many cute babies!

My sister Rosie and her one and only red-head, little Sammy and my mom. Sammy won't be the baby for very much longer. Rosie is due with baby #5 in May!

Decorating Christmas cookies with the gradkids at my mom's house.

You try and tell them to only put on a few sprinkles.

Lots of sprinkles eaten that day. But they sure had fun!

Merry Christmas!

We finally found some time to take a family picture last Friday, which also happened to be the first day in David's 2 years of life that he had NO nap. He was pretty much in a daze by the time we finally took pictures that evening . Laura on the other hand, was having a great time laughing at her cousin Robyn.

Busy Weekend!

Happy Birthday David!

David turned 2 on Sunday, but we had his party on Saturday. I can't believe my baby is 2!

He got right to work on the cake and ice cream

Friday night was our ward Chirstmas party and of course Santa was there. I asked Laura what she asked Santa for and she said a bear and a house. I knew about the bear because apparently mommy and daddy picked out a cheap-o bear last year that is now falling apart. However, I wasn't sure what she meant about the house. So I said, you mean a dollhouse and she said ,no, a new house. I'm thinking this is like on Miracle on 34th Street where Susan asks Santa for a real house. And then she says, a house like Austins. You see Austin is Laura's friend in our ward and at there house they have this awsome slide that starts half way down the staircase and goes down into the basement. Maybe one day. I hope this year she'll be happy with and art easel and Barbie Island Princess!

Mike was busy chasing David when it was our turn with Santa, so we got him by the Christmas tree instead.

This is Carrie, she was my roommate at BYU. We also went on a 2 week church history tour together. She came down to visit for the weekend from Washington. It was so good to see her again. We had so much fun together and lots of fun memories.

Sunday night was dinner at my parents with Rosie and Dave and their families. Afterwards the grandkids helped grandma and grandpa decorate their tree.

Here's my brother Dave and his baby Isabelle

Las Vegas trip #1

In the last couple of months, we have been to Las Vegas twice to visit my sister Rhonda. Her husband Joe is in dental school and she just had her 3rd baby a couple months ago. They named him Owen and he is so darn cute. Her other 2 kids, Danny and Daisy are the same ages as Laura and David, so the cousins were very excited to see eachother again. Joe had a break from school while we were there, so we actually got to hang out with Rhonda AND Joe. We all had a lot of fun, it was a good trip. Vegas trip #2 will be coming soon.

Laura and her new cousin Owen.

Me and my new little nephew.

My guys!

Laura and Danny

Daisy and David

The first night that we were there, Rhonda and Joe were so nice to watch our kids so we could go out. Mike made reservations at the Mesa Grill inside Cesars Palace which is one of Bobby Flay's restaurants for all you Food Network fans out there.

Here we are at dinner.

I had to get a picture of Mike and his steak, he was so excited.

The Bellagio! The water show was great, I think we stayed and watched it a couple of times.

I kept thinking of Ocean's Eleven.

Inside the Bellagio.

Here we have the ceiling.

The rose garden was so pretty.

Then, we went to the Venitian and Mike suprised me with a gondolla ride. This clearly is not us, they just passed by on the other side.

Here we are.

I don't remember where this fountain was, but I wanted to stay right there for a while because it felt about 10 degrees cooler sitting by that water.