the bradberry family

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!

Although Anna Kate loved the beach mere months ago, she is a bit more particular now. She was not crazy at all about the sand sticking to her.

Here are our family Christmas photos! Hope you enjoy!

We pray that blessings will find their way to you all in 2009!
p.s. I hope to get Christmas pictures up tomorrow, so check back soon!

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads...

While playing in her room, Anna Kate first took her tutu over to Bella and tried to put it on her. I gave her and hand, and then she looked at Bella like something just was not right... After thinking for a second, she went to the other side of her room and came back proudly carrying her pink shoes and saying "shhheewws... Bellwa." She then proceeded to take her shoes and try to put them on Bella's feet. This was the end result. She was very tickled and proud. I foresee many days of humiliation to come for poor Bella.

Last week we had our first family photo shoot with our friend- the lovely and talented- Brittany (of Moncrief Photography). It is a rarity that the three of us ever get photos together, because I am almost always behind the camera. It was so nice just to relax, be ourselves, have fun together, and have someone document it. I absolutely l-o-v-e the shots Brittany got. She truly captured the "little moments" between us. The funny thing was that Anna Kate was a little confused as to why Brittany was not playing with her. She kept taking her toys and looking at her like, "Where is Ada?" I realized that day more than usual that Anna Kate is a "serious" child. Don't get me wrong, she is very happy and all smiles most of the time, but has a very serious side as well. We had so much fun Brittany, and can't thank you enough! Here are "some" of my favorites from the day... there are really so many more, but don't want to bore you!

"Giving is Awesome" is a project that my friend Brittany is participating in. Not only is she a wonderful photographer, she is such a sweetheart! Please check out this post on her blog, and nominate someone for a fabulous photo session!

Ok, ok. I am well aware that it has been two weeks since my last post. I am comforted in the fact that I have seen very few updated post from my friends... what can I say. My excuses are the same as anyone else's. It's the holiday season, that adds up to very little extra time. Our past two weeks have been busy and fun filled with visits from family, broadway plays, Thanksgiving celebrations, putting up Christmas decorations, and me turning 28. Here are some pictures with a few updates... Hopefully I can keep up better for the rest of 2008!

"Auntie" Pam came to visit from TX! We had a great time shopping and just hanging out with her. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we took a "girls night" and went to see Annie. It was fabulous as always. Annie has been my favorite musical since I was a little girl. I can't wait until Anna Kat is old enough to go!

This picture is blurry, but just too cute not to post. Anna Kate is loving hanging out with Uncle Brian these days.

She had a blast watching the Macy's TG parade! After she finished her waffles, she got down and danced to all the songs and waved back to the people in the parade who were waving. She really got excited when the Sesame Street float came by!

Our first "feast" (yes we pig out not once, but TWICE on Thanksgiving) was at my parent's house. My mom always sets such a beautiful table!

This was, of course, Anna Kate's second Thanksgiving, but it was her first to partake in all the yummy food! Here is her plate. She devoured everything!

Eating turkey... Here's a quick funny story. My family is not crazy about turkey, so we opted to have only ham this year. Chris' mom was fixing a chicken casserole instead of turkey. When Chris found out that there would be no sign of turkey at either household, he got a little upset! I shrugged it off. He's a big boy. No turkey for one year won't kill him. So after we woke up Thursday morning, he started talking about how sad it was that Anna Kate was not going to eat turkey on her first Thanksgiving meal. That is all it took! Ten mins. later I was at the store looking for a "small" turkey. Keep in mind that is is about 3 hours before we are going to mom's to eat. I left the store empty handed and laughing at myself... it became VERY evident that I've never even thought about fixing a turkey of any kind. I learned that day (after picking up and examining all the FROZEN SOLID butterball turkeys in the store) that fixing a turkey is not at all a last min. thing! So off to Cracker Barrel. I got a couple laughs when I ordered one pound of turkey to go... oh well. Chris and Anna Kate and Uncle Brian had their turkey.

playing at Granna and Granddaddy's house

typical after turkey pose...

playing in Granna's decorations

pretending with Granddaddy

She loves this old baby doll of mine!

love her face in this one

Our second yummy meal at Ya Ya and Granddad's house! She loved the casserole!

It is so super hard to get a good picture of these three cousins.

Granddad and Great-Grandmommy

Ya Ya and AK

Wednesday was my 28th birthday. Yes... I feel very old. I got to celebrate with my parents, brother, Chris and Anna Kate that night. We had a fun time eating at Provino's a tradition that is at least 12 years in the running. Then came back to our house for cookie cake and ice cream. Yesterday, Chris' family had dinner and desert for me. Thanks everyone for helping make my birthday special!
My beautiful daughter is the best present ever!

my loves...
giving the card to mommy...