The Bradford's

Ok...so I can't decide what I am, either AWOL or MIA. I'll let you choose. Because at times in the past 6 months either one would be an accurate description of what I was as a mother, wife, friend, human being and definitely blogger. I do have a good excuse though.

We are blessed to be expecting a baby girl in January. YAY!!!

However, me + pregnancy = sickness. A lot of sickness! The kind of sickness that would put me in the hospital for IV treatments if it weren't for modern medicine. The kind of sickness that still lingers if I don't take the said medicine. Fortunately, my kids are old enough to fend for themselves most of the time. And I have a fantastic husband who held down the fort by himself for close to 3 months. He cooked, cleaned, did the laundry, bathed children, grocery shopped and worked his normal week at Blue Shield. I am so lucky to have him!

Since August, I have felt for the most part well enough to function like a normal human being. Just in time for school to start and family to come into town. So, I have been busy catching up on my life that passed me by. Working on projects, taking care of the family and home, volunteering in the kids' classes, doing my calling at church and preparing for baby. One thing that has been haunting me is this blog. I read them but just haven't the energy, time or desire to make a post myself. So here I am. Beginning the long road back to blogging with post #1. Now the real challenge begins as I update you on the life of my family since May.

Maybe I'll start tomorrow! The need for dinner awaits me. :)

A few days before Easter, I had a surprise visit from a long time friend. And she didn't come empty handed either.

She brought yummy cupcakes!!! But more than that, she brought her friendship and concern for me. I thank you Annie McHall for being such a good friend. We don't get together as often as we would like but I always feel like our conversations are effortless. We seem to pick up right where we left off from the previous time and just get to the nitty gritty of our lives without all the small talk.

Having GREAT friends is such a BLESSING!

In March, Morgan was invited to go to a Royal Tea Party. Morgan decided to dress up as Belle. We painted her nails and did her hair and makeup. She loved being all glammed up...can you tell?

I have now come to the realization that I STINK at blogging (well...at least lately). It is mid-April and I have only posted a couple of things that happened in January. Yeah, I'm lame...and it's ok to agree with me, I give you permission.

So here goes... A little recap of FEBRUARY.

We celebrated Grandpa Glen's 90th Birthday!


We expressed our love to each other on Valentine's Day.

Morgan also shared with us that she LOVES Scot. She thinks he is handsome and that they are going to get married. Even now she still feels the same way and constantly writes love notes for him. We are soooo going to be in trouble when she is a teenager!
Here they are at the playgroup Valentine party.


The kids painted pictures to send to Grandma and Grandpa in Ireland.

Morgan, being inspired by Valentine's Day, painted hearts.

Sean painted a picture of the future tree house he would like to have.


We celebrated the Boy Scouts 100th Birthday at a party with Sean's pack. Sean's den told jokes as part of their skit. It was cute.


I'm sure more things happened during this month, but my memory is limited by what pictures I took (the down side to waiting so long to post).

St. Patrick's Day in the past, has been a holiday that often gets overlooked. Sure we wear the color green in fear of someones pinch happy fingers and growing up, on occasion my mom would make corned beef and cabbage to pay homage to our Irish roots. But for the most part, our lives would be too busy to plan ahead and would rather save our energy for a more important holiday... like Easter. This year however, with my parents in Ireland... I decided to do a little something extra.
Morgan and I baked and decorated clover cookies.
We watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People,
and I made a special dinner, which included Irish Champ (mashed potatoes with green onions),peppered pork tenderloin with dijon sauce and green beans. Ok, so it may not me the most authentic, but it was delicious and a great tribute to our Irish ancestors and my parent's hard work in Ireland now.
Who knows... maybe next year we'll go on a hunt for the gold of a naughty leprechaun.

In January we experienced a first...Pinewood Derby. Jeff was never in Scouts and I don't remember much from my brother's scouting days. So when Sean brought home a chunk of wood that needed to be carved, painted and wheels attached we were all a little excited. Sean drew on the design, Jeff cut it out and both of them sanded and painted it. The final product:
On race day Sean was super excited to show off his car and to see how fast it would go. Here are some of his competitors:

To our suprise Sean's car did really well. Here is one of his races:

Sean did so well that he won 1st place in his den (Wolf). Here is our champ...we are so proud of him!:

OK... so it's been a long time since my last post. And a lot of healing has taken place during that time period. For those of you who haven't figured out (or asked me) what had happened back in January... I experienced a miscarriage. I was only 6 1/2 weeks along but was completely devastated. I had never had a "known" miscarriage before and I say "known" because after what I now know about them, I have probably had a couple before. They were just miscarried early enough that I never knew about them. And to be completely honest I would prefer not knowing. It really messes up your psyche. Through all of this I have come to realize how precious my children are. And if Jeff and I are supposed to have more children...we will. In the meantime we will be grateful for the two little (or not so little) bundles of joy we have.

Thanks to all those who have said kind words of encouragement. It is such a blessing to have wonderful friends and family.

Other things have happened in the past couple of months that I do need to post about. I have lots of pictures that I want to post as well, and as soon as I get them uploaded to the computer then I'll get them on here.

Thanks again for being there (in cyber world).

Sending Love your way...XOXOXOXOXO!