the bradberry family: January 2009

Monday, January 19, 2009

fun on the street (part two)

Now, for part two of our "street" themed weekend.

About 12:30 Sunday afternoon a commercial for Sesame Street Live came on the tv and my baby girl started dancing, squealing and clapping. I knew that the show was coming to town, but had pretty much written it off for this year. Although Anna Kate loves the show and its characters, she is only 16 months old. We did not want to pay for the show not knowing if she would be antsy or crying ten minutes into it. Her reaction to the commercial, kinda made me second guess our decision. I got on my computer to find that the last show here in town was in about an hour and a half! I broached the subject of taking her with Chris, and he was reluctant. We came to the conclusion to go see if there happened to be any ticket scalpers that we could talk into a good price. No such luck. We were on the verge of giving up, when we passed the huge truck for all the show's equipment. On the side there were larger than life pictures of the whole Sesame Street gang... Anna Kate's face lit up when she saw them! After we past the truck, she got sad and proclaimed, "MaMa, Daddy, MORE!" Her sweet request and a pouty lip from me is all it took to convince Daddy. Five minutes later we were in line at the box office buying three tickets.
I am happy to report that it was well worth our money. Sweet little Anna Kate was mesmerized. She enjoyed it as much as any kid ever could. When the Elmo, Big Bird, and the rest of the gang came out dancing and singing the theme song, she first- squealed and clapped, second- looked at us like "Guys, are you seeing this?", then thirdly- danced like crazy. She was precious. I am so glad that we made the last minute decision to go!

starting to clap, as big bird came over the speakers to make the announcement that the show would begin in three minutes

here's the whole gang!

seeing her "real, live" friends sing and dance for the first time

watching intently with "Mo" (Elmo)

A,B,C song! Loves it! What more can you ask for?

la, la, lala, la, la, lala, Elmo's World... her FAVORITE!

"Big"- another one of her favorites

still glowing after the show!

thanks mommy and daddy for such a fun day!

fun on the street (part one)

1 comments Posted by Amy at 12:20 PM

I let my baby play in the street this weekend-twice. Trust me... it is not as bad as it sounds!

After dinner at Ya Ya and Granddad's house on Saturday night, Addie looked out the glass door and very excitedly yelled "snow!". We looked out to see that the roads were no longer black, but completely covered in white! After scurrying to find shoes and socks, yanking on coats, and putting on hats, Addie and AK tromped outside (with mommies and daddies, of course.) The streets were completely covered in a layer of sleet. While it does not sound very exciting to most, it was amazing through our little girls' eyes. This is the most "white stuff" we've seen all winter.

Anna Kate checking it out.

It's so cold!

Addie showing us how it sticks to her mittens, AK mimicking her cousin. :o)

She was super proud of her snow angel.

...so she had to make another one!

I love these bundled up cuties.

warming up and watching Aladdin

Don't forget Liam! We love him bunches and bunches, too!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

happy birthday granddaddy!

1 comments Posted by Amy at 12:12 PM

On Sunday the 11th, we celebrated my good ol' dad's birthday. We ate some yummy pizza at Crust, then came back to our house for a trifle (layered angel food cake, fruit, cheesecake pudding, and cool whip)-so yummy and gifts.

Anna Kate colored her granddaddy a card and "delivered" it to him. She was very proud of it.

My dad is a wonderful father, husband, son, and grandfather! He is such a special blessing to our family.

rock star moms, dads, and babies!

3 comments Posted by Amy at 11:05 AM

Until last Saturday, it had been WAY too long since there had been a fun gathering with friends at the Bradberry household. We were thrilled that three set of our friends could join us for a night of football, letting our kiddos play, snacks, a little Mario Cart, and Guitar Hero World Tour! We had such a great time, we've decided to make it a monthly tradition!

some shots of the action

The older kids all got a chance to show there vocal skills (aka eat and slobber on the mic)

We were all floored by how wonderful our kiddos were! They stayed so happy, that we rocked on until midnight! All but baby Jackson -who slept so sweetly on his mommy and daddy- stayed up and danced and played well into the night! My floor was about an inch deep in goldfish crackers, there were sippy cups everywhere, and toys were scattered all around, but I did not care. Everyone was having fun!

More pictures of the kids... Just because they are all so cute!

There was one pre-party disaster... the finger incident. While slicing sweet potatoes for a dish for the kids, Brittany accidently removed one of her fingerprints. Yes people, we are talking a chunk of her finger laying on the cutting board. Dispite her tragedy, Brittany persevered. She sang, played, guitar, and even the drums with the best of us. She is quite the trooper, but said it took her mind off the pain.

We took turns playing and watching the kids, four at a time. Ada and Anna Kate were a little sneaky while their mommies were pre-occupied.
For Ada, it was cow's milk.
She swiped Anna Kate's sippy cup and took her first sips (well more like gulps) of good ol' moo milk. It was love at first gulp. Just wait Ada, only a few more weeks until you can taste that creamy liquid through your straw every day!

Anna Kate snuck in a first as well. CHOCOLATE!
She swiped someone's cup of chocolate pudding/brownie mixture and went to town. She had us all doubled over with laughter on how serious she was about not giving her treasure up. Of course though... she only got a couple of bites in while we took the picture, then had to surrender it. I cannot in good conscience let my one year old gobble down chocolate.

AK rockin' the drum set.

Helping Mommy clean all the remnants of the goldfish crumbs.

Thank you Moncriefs, Commanders, and Hamptons!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

a very bradberry christmas

4 comments Posted by Amy at 10:43 AM

Whew! My decorations are down and the Bradberry Christmas post is up! It took a few more days than expected (doesn't it always?), but I've consolidated all our Christmas pictures into a slide show. I also wanted to post a few of my favorite highlights on their own.

Family. Tradition. Memories. Praise. Gifts. Laughter. Lights. Conversation. Hugs. Smiles. Thankfulness. Yummy food. Prayer. Love. These words pretty much sum up our Christmas season. Christmas is my favorite time of year because I am surrounded by and get to enjoy these things.

I was raised with Jesus being the center of Christmas as He should be, but so often is not. I am so thankful that my parents instilled that in my heart from such a young age. Chris and I are very passionate about passing this along to Anna Kate. Her love of "all things baby" made it very easy to start talking about Jesus this year. Every Nativity we passed she would pick out the "baby." We would then tell her that it was baby Jesus, not thinking much about it. One day, she was looking at my mom's Nativity and very clearly said "Jesus." It melted our hearts. This has become her new favorite word. Although I did not catch her saying it really clearly, here is a clip. This is by far my favorite Christmas memory this year. *you might have to turn your volume way up to hear her soft little voice!

Another precious moment was when my beautiful niece, Addie, sang to us on Christmas Eve. After the hustle and bustle of food and gifts, this sweet song was a quiet moment. The perfect end to Christmas Eve. I especially love her version of Joy to the World... "repair his room."

After Christmas Eve with Chris' family, and before spending Christmas day with my family, we enjoyed Christmas morning as three. We had so much fun watching Anna Kate open her stocking and gifts. This is the first Christmas that she had been able to "participate." After she found the baby from Santa, the rest of her gifts were not really exciting. She held on to her baby the entire morning.

The Saturday after Christmas, Anna Kate and I kissed Daddy goodbye and went to FL with Granna, Granddaddy, and my dad's parents. The trip had two missions. The first- take my dad's parents home who had been visiting with us all week. Secondly, we wanted to spend sometime with my mom's parents who spent Christmas in Dallas with my aunt. We had a great visit and even got to stick our toes in the sand!