4th of July

The day Kevin counts down to every year :) and one of my favorites as well! We had a nice day, hanging out together and playing games - and watching the weather. I NEVER remember the fireworks being cancelled due to rain - never. But as the day went on, it was raining, and kept raining. But we stuck to our plan to go over to Mom's house and walk to the park like we do every year and we just kept hoping that the rain would stop in time. And - just like every other 4th of July - it was perfect. As soon as we pull up to Mom's house the rain stopped and 2 beautiful rainbows came out - just in time!! It was such a nice walk to the park, we got a great spot next to the lake and had a great time. No earmuffs for Bradley this year :) He loved them - and he managed to stay awake JUST long enough to see the finale and then he was out like a light! He slept the whole way home in his stroller even though there were people all around us, walking, screaming, yelling, and setting off fireworks - he was a sleepy boy!

Ups and Downs

Well, now for a little story :) Kevin and I had been trying to get pregnant again pretty much ever since Mr Bradley was born. We had no idea how long it would take this time, seeing that last time it took 2 1/2 years and several procedures before we were blessed with Bradley. However, we thought maybe that last surgery I had right before I got pregnant with Bradley had 'fixed' me for good :) I started weaning Bradley off breastmilk after he was about 13 months, hoping that that would help me get pregnant, and I spoke to my doctor about it at Bradley's year appt and 15 month appt, wondering how long we should wait until we started to take more medical steps. Then - almost right after I completely stopped breastfeeding - on April Fools Day, I took a pregnancy test and was VERY surprised by the results. It was definitely positive and we went in to the dr right away to get it confirmed and we were so happy we started spreading the news. I had a very uneasy feeling in my stomach that something bad was going to happen, and low and behold at about 5 1/2 weeks, I miscarried. I know that a lot of people have to go through something like that and I'm sure I don't need to explain how it felt. It was very depressing and sad, but looking into the eyes of our little angel every day and thinking about how - for a while there - we thought maybe we'd never be blessed with a child at all - it was hard to stay sad for long. We mourned that little baby and counted our blessings. We thank God for Bradley every day and sometimes I almost feel like it would be selfish to ask for more when we already have so much.

The doctor told me to wait 2 months before we could try again, I must have made a face because then she smiled and said "well, at least 1 I guess" :) And, what do you know - on June 6th I took another pregnancy test. I was due the day before and thinking about it all day long, I even told my mom that I was due and hadn't gotten it yet (which is very unlike me to even make it to that day) and she said "just don't do anything, just wait...". But - I am impatient and can't wait, I was never able to, I think I took a pregnancy test every single month we were ever trying :) But at least I made it until the next day. Then Mom and Tammy came over to play games. I decided we would tell them while playing Taboo - so Kevin and I were on a team against Mom and Tammy. I was reading and Kevin was guessing (and we planned this ahead of time). Mom was watching my card to make sure I didn't say the words and Tammy was just listening - so a couple cards into it, I turn one over and say "I am this" and Kevin says "Pregnant" and I said yes, turned over the card and kept going. Tammy said "Is this a joke?" and Mom said "That's not what's on the card!" It was very funny :)

So, this pregnancy is going great. Seems to be the same as Bradley, I was sick in the beginning until the 13th week, then I have felt much better. I seem to be a lot bigger than I was last time and the belly popped out right away, which I was kind of expecting being the second pregnancy. These are the first pictures I have of us after we found out - I would have been about 8 weeks at this point. With Bradley I didn't even start taking pictures of my belly until the 14th week because it wasn't there - but as you can see - there's no denying this belly!!

Finger Painting

Bradley and I decided to try finger painting one day. It took a LOT of coaxing to get him to try it - he does NOT like his hands (any of part of him for that matter) to get dirty - he'll look at me with his hands turned up and say "mess" :) But I finally got him to get into it, although most of the time he was very careful to only use about 3 fingers and keep one clean hand back behind his back :) It turned out to be a beautiful 1st painting! :)

Outdoors and Painting

Here are a couple pictures of Mr Bradley and I enjoying our wonderful backyard on a great summer day. You'll notice the house in the background is in the process of getting painted at this point. Ever since we moved into our house - 5 years ago in March - we have HATED the colors on the outside. As soon as we bought it we swore that would be the first thing to go. However, seeing that the whole inside was yellow - indoor paint is a whole lot easier and cheaper than outdoor, and we spend a lot more time looking at that than the outside of the house - the outside painting got bumped back. Then over years, other things always came up, and the time was never there. Kevin was always planning on doing it himself, but it was just a question of when he'd actually get the 'extra' time to do it. We got a bid from College Pro Painters, we told them our budget and time constraints (we wanted it done before 6/27 because of 4th of July coming up), and when they agreed we decided to go for it. I will take this time to tell everyone NOT to hire College Pro Painters :) They were very unprofessional, didn't finish close to on time, didn't start on time, didn't clean up around the house or be sensitive to Bradley's nap times like they promised - and worst of all, they never TOTALLY finished the job. They finished the main house, got their main check, said they'd be back for touch ups and we didn't hear from them for over a month. So Kevin ended up finishing it himself, which I guess saved us more money which is fine - but I would never recommend them to anyone. Anyways... :) I do like how it turned out and the house definitely needed it (it was not only cosmetic reasons).
And here's a cute little video of Mr Bradley scrunching his nose like I just love :)

Posing

Since I'm trying to catch up, I'm pretty much just going through all my pictures - trying to remember what we did based on what I have documented :) Good thing for cameras! Here's just a couple random pictures again that I just love of Bradley, just enjoying his table and chairs and posing in his cool sunglasses (which he refused to put on for the longest time and will now wear them at the most random times!) :)

Drive In

First drive in experience. The whole family got in our cars and made our way to the drive in. Waiting for the movies to start Bradley was playing the fun game of 'throw stuff out of the truck and have everyone fetch it for me' :) which kept him occupied for a long time. When the movie started he got a little bored :) Everyone took turns holding him and there were several times when we thought for sure he was asleep because he wouldn't move or make a sound for the longest time - but his eyes were wide open, just looking around and checking everything out. FINALLY he fell asleep and was so tired that he was in DEEP sleep. He slept in between us in the back of the truck for the rest of the time and even when we moved him to go home, he was OUT - didn't wake up again until the next morning. I forget what movies we watched, but the next month (in July) we went again and this time he was way into the movie in the beginning - Ice Age 3, and watched it for quite a while - until it started raining and we had to get all the blankets and pillows in the truck and turn it around and watch from the inside. He must have been more comfortable inside because this time he fell asleep pretty quickly. I loved it because I got to cuddle with him the whole time, which I don't get to do much anymore while he's sleeping :)

Kissing

Here's that video of Mr B kissing, back and forth, he'll go on forever :) He no longer sticks his lip out like this but everything else is still the same, it's almost impossible for him to just give 1 kiss! What a sweetheart!

June Pics

Here's June in a nutshell :)
Kissing Daddy through the railing, something both of them love to do.This was Bradley's kissing face for a long time, he no longer puts his lip out like this - but it sure was cute :) I'll have to put a video up later, because he always needs to make his rounds when he's giving kisses away - once one person gets one he's very fair and he has to give everyone kisses - sometimes multiple kisses... such a sweet boy!Enjoying a snack while watching Katie play softball with Tammy.Mountain Dew should hire us for a commercial - Kevin empties bottles and Mr Bradley loves to carry them around and pretend like he's drinking.Kevin sure loves his Mountain Dew - I have never been a fan - this is pretty much the same face I make when I have some...

Yard work

We went over to Mom's house to help her cut down a couple of dead trees in her yard - well... when I say "we" I guess that means that Kevin cut down a couple of dead trees and Mom and I played with Bradley and took pictures of him in his new little red hat :)I'm so sad because she has this huge Cottonwood tree that has been in her front yard forever, and it's dying. Half of it is dead. She's had several people give her bids on cutting it down or pruning it, but if we pruned it you'd lose half the tree - which probably wouldn't be very safe. I'm very sad - the house just wouldn't look the same without it.

Go Rockies!

Tammy's friend Josh was kind of enough to invite us to a game one night - his work gets season tickets right behind the Rockies dugout and they weren't using them one night so we got to accompany him. They were AMAZING seats! The players were so close to us, we could actually talk to them - which I was tempted to do - yell a few "I love you Clint Barmes!" or "Go Helton!" but I didn't. I sat there wondering how many people actually yell at them like that in the middle of games and if it bothers them or not :) So I just stared at them in awe! I've never seen them so close. It was such a fun game (which all of them are) and such a nice night for baseball!

Random Pics

Goodness Gracious I have a lot of catching up to do :) Here are some of my favorite pictures from May - no special occasions or anything, just Mr B being his cute little self!
Here he is posing with his new table and chair set that fit him perfectly :)Pretending to be shy...He sure loves his Daddy!He likes to hold onto the fork, but rarely uses it because he likes to just hold it there while he eats with his other hand :)Being fascinated by his cute little round belly! :)