the bradberry family

I had been excited about taking our vacation for months! Vacations are exciting anyway, but I was more excited about seeing my very best friend Courtney and her family. Even though we still talk on the phone every day, it's been really hard not being able to hang out with her on a regular basis. We had such a fun time visiting with them in CT, and to make it even more of a fun time our great friends Lisa and Josh drove from Maryland to visit, too! Here is a recap of our vacation...

Saturday: Leaving on a jet plane...
Though I was very nervous about taking my sweet girl on a plane, she did wonderfully! She slept almost the entire way from Nashville to Baltimore, and then ate lunch and played from Baltimore to Hartford!Isabelle, Madi, and Anna Kate playing at Courtney's parent's house.

Anna Kate wanted to walk like the other girls so bad!

Sunday: A fun day spent with friends...
Good morning! Three still sleepy headed friends.

It was surreal to have all three girls together for the first time. Lisa and Josh moved away a couple summers ago, and then Courtney and Bobby left Chattanooga last October. Sure do wish that these three could have regular play dates!

I met Courtney and Lisa at Lee University almost seven years ago! I spent many a night on their dorm room floor, because I just loved being with these girls so much that I did not want to go back to my own room! Who would have thought back then that we would all have our own little girls now?

Courtney and Bobby took us on a beautiful walk through a quaint little New England town. The houses were dated all the way back to the 1700's! They were beautiful! It was such a relaxing morning walk, and we followed it by a quick visit with Courtney's grandparents and then a scrumptious omelet for brunch.

Time for an afternoon swim! Goodness these are three little bathing cuties! I love this picture... It was very hard to get all three of them to hold still long enough to get a good shot.

friends for always...

Chris and AK with Josh and Madi (we missed you while you were at work Bobby)

On Sunday night we had to say good bye to Lisa, Josh, and Madi... It was so great to see you! Wish we had more time together!

Monday: We (heart) NY...
Want to know how to cover 60 blocks of NYC, seeing almost all the the main sights, in under 12 hours, with two babies and a pregnant woman? If you don't mind sore, swollen feet, achy backs, a good bit of sweat, and a long day, it can be done! Monday morning (with the help of a rented mini-van) the six of us took to the road and headed to the Big Apple. I was very excited about my first visit to NYC, and we had so much fun! Here are a few (OK more than a few) of our favorite pictures from the day. I will try to get the rest of them in an album on the side of the page.

The Empire State BuildingIn front of Macy's

Per my request, we got to eat lunch in Little Italy! I had a scrumptious dish of lobster ravioli.

For desert, we went a few blocks down where we found a Pinkberry. It is amazing! They serve non-fat frozen yogurt in three flavors... original pinkberry, green tea, and coffee. While none of us were fans of the coffee, we all loved the original and green tea! I opted for green tea with fruity pebbles on it ( heard Ellen talking about how good it was so I HAD to try... yep... AMAZING)! Anna Kate could not get enough of it either! The best thing of all is that it is very hard to order soming in this place that is more than 100 calories. The worst thing about it is that they are only located in CA and NY. :o(

Nap time for my baby! Thank goodness for the baby bijorn. Both her naps were taken straped to the front of me or her daddy.

Visiting the World Trade Center site was very humbling. You can't help but think about all the lives on the very ground you are standing on. It brought back all the terrible pictures seen on the news of people running terrified through the streets that we were walking.

This is the space were the towers should be standing.

There is no way that we could have passed up the financial district. Chris was so excited to be in the most famous area in his field of work. We arrived on Wall St. right at 4:00 p.m. as the closing bell for the market was ringing. Because of the down day, the people in suits filing out of the Stock Exchange had very somber faces...

Anna Kate petting the bull for good luck. With his friend the bear raring his ugly head here lately he needs some encouragement to get back into the game full force. :o)

Because of our extreme time crunch, Battery park was as close as we got to Lady Liberty. She was still beautiful from afar!

What the big deal about a coffee shop? Well any fans of the show Felicity will understand. We were disappointed however to not find Ben, Felicity or Javier inside to make our iced latte. (not really sure who the guy is that is posing in the back of our picture)

Rockefeller Center... This is where the ice skating rink and huge Christmas tree are in the winter months.

Da-Dup, Da-Dup, Da-Dup, dadadadadada! That was my best written impression of the theme song from The Appentice. This is inside one of the many of Donald Trump's shiny towers in NY.

The only store on 5th Ave. that I just HAD to make time to go into! Love me some Tiffany's!

Anna Kate and Isabelle taking a break from the strollers to play in Central Park. I know... the t-shirts are a little big. We found them for a $1.50 and the only size they had were medium!

a beautiful view of Central Park...

We were so hot, sweaty, and tired, but had to pose for a picture in Times Square!

It was after 8:00 p.m. by the time we ate dinner, so the girls were delirious. Isabelle cracked us up showing off her tricks with her sippy cup.

I could not get over how neat Times Square was at night! Everything just comes to life! This was probably my favorite part of NY.

All in all, I would say that our day in NY could not have gone any better. Isabelle and Anna Kate both were amazing. I think that they really liked the hustle and bustle of city life. I really can't believe how much we saw in just one day. Thanks Bobby and Courtney for going with us!

Tuesday: Happy birthday Courtney!
Tuesday we had the privilege of celebrating Courtney's 26th birthday with her. We had an early lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!), and then browsed around at a super nice shopping mall.
We were all chatting at the table and looked over and saw this... It was so cute! Isabelle was very coordinated in feeding AK, and Anna Kate opened her mouth right up for Isabelle! Maybe Issy is just practicing for helping out with her new little sister.
After the girls took a nap on the way back, we all went for a swim at Courtney's parents' house. Daddy and AK had a ton of fun swimming together!

So very sad to leave our friends, but always glad to return to Chattanooga! I don't know how much longer I could have survived without some good ol' southern sweet tea! Ha!

Our niece, little Addie, was born four years ago on the Fourth of July. She is so cute... Every time she hears a firecracker, she reminds us that everyone lights fireworks to help her celebrate her birthday. We love knowing that all our "Fourths" will be spent at a party for this little cutie.

Here is Addie, with her cousin Evan, blowing out her candles.Anna Kate loved all the toys at Addie's Granna's house!

Who could resist that smile?

So happy to have Liam join us for his sister's birthday this year! At only ten days old there was talk about him looking like Russel Crow or Ty Pennington. His hair is the cutest thing ever! Good thing his daddy works for Regis! Get that boy some product!

Here is Anna Kate in the bounce house. She did not quite get it until Daddy helped her bounce around... then we had trouble getting her out of it!

Addie (I mean Stephanie) in her new Lazy Town costume.This little girl is so full of drama! She's always loved playing dress-up!

Flashback... Here is a picture of Addie when she was only about a week old! My goodness time flies.Happy Birthday sweet girl! Can't believe you are already 4! We love you very much!

This is our "sweet little beautiful, wonderful, perfect all-American girl." Anna Kate had a fabulous first Fourth of July!

All four of her grandparents and Uncle Brian came over to spend a little time with us before we left on our trip, and to eat yummy banana pudding that my mom made!

The guys played Bocce ball, while the gals opted to sit in the shade and chat. Our family is usually a little more festive on the Fourth, but decided to keep it simple this year since we were leaving for vacation the next day. Actually, the simplicity was very nice to me.

I am a couple days early on the ten month post, but I wanted to get it up before we go on vacation. This has been a really fun month with Miss Anna Kate. She is not walking yet, but still shows a lot of interest! We introduced her to her first meat a few weeks ago. She absolutely loves shredded chicken. Other "new" favorite foods this month have been lima beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, zucchini, and corn. She really loves anything that she can feed herself independently. Still not saying Ma Ma. I just don't get it... My granddaddy say that when mothers are with their babies all day that they do not have to call for them. I will just have to think of it that way. She has, however, added another word to her vocabulary this month... Chester, or "Caj-Tah." Yes, that's right... I am still having issues with her saying our dog, and my parent's dog's name before Ma Ma. The cutest thing she has leared this month is clapping and waving. I've been tring to capture these two things on video, but have not been successful. Hopefully I will have some to post soon! She knows when she does it that it is something new and fun! Here are a few fun pictures from this past month.

One morning my mom called and asked me how Anna Kate was. My response to her was, "She is EVERYWHERE!" She is a very mobile and curious little girl (to say the least). I love this picture that my mom took last week. She captured an expression I see several times a day on this cute little girl. The caption does say it all on this one.

This month Anna Kate has started going to Granna's house once a week to play. I've been taking her after her morning nap and she has been staying until dinner time! It's been a wonderful break for me, and has allowed me to clean my house in peace! Anna Kate loves going to Granna's and has not cried at all!

This little girl likes to play in the water! Although we've not been out to play in her kiddie pool a lot, she enjoys splashing around when when I do suck it up and brave the heat!

Kicked back, studing her color book, and chewing on her brush... what could be better?

My daughter has a new obsession... pacies. She has never been much of a paice girl, but liked them a little bit until about five months of age. Well they are back, but not like you would think. No, no... she does not suck on them, but she does think that they are the best toy ever! Pacies keep her entertained for a long time! I just put two or three in the floor with her (or the bathtub in this case) and she is good to go! She will actually dig through her toybox, pass up all her real toys, until she finds her pacies. Go figure...

I could not capture a good shot of her claping, but thought this was just too cute. I caught her claping along to her music. Awwww...

Obsession #2: Baby dolls. She adores them. "Bae-Buhs." Granna taught her how to "kiss the babies." The result is a very slobbery open mouth kiss.

You are growing and changing everyday little one! We love you more than words could ever possibly express!

The Moncriefs ever so graciously invited us for a fun (and free!) day at the zoo last Saturday. Yes... those of you who are paying attention will notice that Anna Kate and I visited both the TN Aquarium and the Chattanooga Zoo twice in one week. We have not been to either place in over a year, but go to both twice in a seven day span of time?!? Probably won't happen again, but we had fun! Here are a few shots from our visit to the zoo with Ada.

"Don't worry Ada... I know it's your first time here, but I'll show you the ropes. This place is a little crazy, but the animals are so much fun!"

Isn't this guy cute?

"I'm not so sure about this guy daddy... Is he gonna eat my new shoes?"

Any of you who know me well, know my hatred of camels... They are by far the nastiest animals on this earth... they make such an awful moaning noise and spit wads of nasty who knows what at you for goodness sakes! YUCK!

Look familiar? This is AK's favorite spot at the zoo.These are the crazy guys capturing her attention.

Thanks Jimmy, Brittany, and Ada for a fun day!