What?

Seriously - my last post was July 1st?!?! Where has the time gone? So much to catch up on... I'm workin' on it :) To be continued... SOON!

What on earth?!

What could Bradley be looking at with such utter confusion and horror on his face?! Naked Saunder running through the sprinklers!!I think he thought this was wrong in SO many ways! We've never been naked outside - whenever someone is naked Bradley automatically says they are taking a bath, because that IS the only time people are naked (in our world :)). So the fact that Saunder was naked was COMPLETELY throwing Bradly off. And, sadly, we'd never run through the sprinklers before, so he really didn't understand the whole concept. I was trying to get him all excited and told him he could run in his clothes and go get wet, like in the pool, but he just was not having it. I finally got him to crack a smile and seem somewhat interested, so he took off (bat in hand of course!) - being very careful to keep his distance from naked Saunder :) - but he would barely touch the water with his little toe as he ran around. We'll have to practice this some more before he realizes that sprinklers can be fun :)

ACTUALLY DATE: Even though I'm posting this now this actually happened back in May 2010! Urgh! Am I really almost a year behind?!?! How did that happen?

Nothing out of the ordinary...

just Gracie being cute :)

Good exercise!

Dad and Jan got Bradley this cute interactive video game for Christmas - you jump and run on the mat (kind of like we used to do with nintendo - which was SO much fun!!) and learn shapes and colors - it's really cute and Bradley just LOVES the racing part! He's so good at it too and he'll do it for hours - I wish I still had that kind of energy!!!

Balls everywhere!

We've been working on decorating Bradley's Big Boy Room and it's so easy to do - anything that has to do with balls and sports he loves. I am a BIG fan of Hobby Lobby and we found the cutest things there - a lamp, clock, wall decals, shelves, posters (Kevin threw in the Transformers poster just for him I think :) ) and I found these foam shapes in soccer, football, baseball and basketball - I didn't know what I was going to do with them but I thought they were cute and I could figure something out so we got them. Bradley started playing with them and would rub them back and forth on the wall until the static electricity built up and it would stick - SMART BOY! I would have NEVER thought of that. What a creative little mind :) So he loves putting them up, taking them down and doing it all over again in a new spot. Since this video I got him a sport bed set that I just love so now everything is set for the move - I just have to bite the bullet and do it! Especially since Gracie barely fits in the bassinet anymore!

Jumpin

First time in the jumpy. She was sure smiley but she wasn't jumping much, I think she was just happy she was upright and could see Bradley better :)

No more kisses Daddy!

Remember what I was saying about how her talking has changed? :) Sometimes I think that she thinks yelling IS talking :) And I don't know if it's Daddy's whiskers or what but she gets SO feisty when Kevin is giving her kisses :)

Goose Again!

So we kept telling Bradley that he was a silly goose, then everything became a silly goose. He would hit his ball and it would hit the wall and he'd say "Ball hit wall" and I'd say "The ball hit the wall?!?!" and he'd say "Yeah, silly goose!" then the ball would hit the door and it'd be "Goose again!!" then everything was goose again! Then it got to the point where you'd call Bradley a Silly Goose and he'd say "No Silly Goose! Goose Again!!!" He didn't want to be called a Silly Goose anymore - just a "Goose Again!" I'm so sorry about the sound on this first video - I don't know what was wrong with it, it sounds like I'm SO close to the camera but I'm holding it like I normally do.

Again :)

I know I've probably posted many videos like this before - because we do this all the time :) But I just can't get enough of it. This time I was trying to capture his silly way of running, but this isn't even the best example of it. His left arm is bent up and goes back and forth a mile a minute and the right arm is outstretched - it's so funny :)

3 months old!

Almost 2 months ago :)

Talking

This was taken at the end of April and it's amazing how different she sounds now :) It's quite a bit louder and not at all timid anymore :) But still just as sweet!

Diapers

I love when I leave Bradley alone for a little bit and then go check on him and he's doing something adorable - it makes me so happy, probably because in my mind I'm always thinking, "oh no, what's he doing now" :) I guess puppy needed a diaper change (notice he layed out the blanket and everything :) )

Workin' on the yard and a sad goodbye

Here's a few pictures of us enjoying the backyard - well, let me rephrase - Gracie and I enjoying the backyard while the boys do yard work :)

These are the last pictures I have of my sweet sweet puppy Carmel. It's almost 2 months ago while I'm writing this and I am crying, still, right now and almost daily as I think about how much I want to cuddle him and love him. He was the sweetest dog I've ever known. I have always been a cuddler - ever since I was little - and I have never known a dog that wanted to cuddle as much as Carmel. He always wanted to be near you and could never get close enough, even if his 100 pound body was sitting in your lap - he would still try to nuzzle up closer and closer... never close enough. He had so many quirks about him that I miss every day and I'm so so sad that he's gone. We are still mourning in our house, we carry his collar around with us, and we just can't bring ourselves to throw away all his medicine we still have in the cabinet. A few weeks ago we had some neighbors - that we have never met in the 5 years of living here - come up to the back fence when we were in the yard and ask where Carmel was - yes, we had never spoken to these people, but they knew our sweet dog's name and they missed him too. It makes me so sad that I will have no more pictures of him to post and no more new memories to share. I will never stop missing him no matter how much time passes and I look forward to the day when I can hold him again.

Easter Day

We had people over for Easter Lunner (instead of Brunch :) ) We had a wonderful meal which everyone had a hand in, and we had a nice hunt in the backyard. Man, I sure do love my backyard. And by the way, out of the 80 some eggs that we hid we were missing 2 at the very end - and they were 2 that I had hid - I must be an amazing egg hider :) I should get a job with the Easter Bunny :)Have to do the Easter Bunny pose :)Then of course we had to play some games - If you've ever played games with us you would know that "Up and Down the River" is one of our favorites and it involves knocking on the table at the beginning of every round - so even before we started playing anything Bradley sat down at the table, grabbed some cards and knocked on the table :) He sure is observant, even when you don't realize he's watching, he sure takes it all in.