Christmas 2011

Over the last couple of years I have not kept up with this blog as much as I would have liked. I used to really enjoy posting but between going back to school and then becoming pregnant again, it definitely got away from me. I often think that I may go back and put up some past entries, more for myself than anything, but time will tell. For now I am just hoping to move forward and start again.

As we approach another year's end and I realize that Dave and I have been married for almost four years, I am amazed at some of the challenges we have faced. I think that when you get married you are so wrapped up in each other and delirious in love that you can't imagine that anything might go wrong. Since we have been married we have faced risky pregnancies, premature birth, major medical problems including stroke and heart surgery, economic worries, death in the family, a flood in the middle of the night... telling some of our stories sometimes sounds a little unbelievable. But we have also had some amazing highs. The birth of two healthy children. Two baptisms. The opportunity to be sealed together. And the everyday miracle of being in a happy marriage and family. This year before Christmas when we asked the kids to make their lists for "Santa" we also asked them to make a list of what they were grateful for. We were so impressed with the lists they came up with. We were all happy to discover how much we had to be thankful for and how lucky we all were. Our list of Blessings was much longer than our list of Wants. By pages. I am so very grateful for my family, my faith, my Savior, and for the love I feel in my home everyday.


Since I have not kept up the blog very well, here's a little bit about what's been going on with us:

Ben turned 11 in August. He is in sixth grade now and is enjoying school a little more now than in the past. He is an excellent reader and loves science although he still hates math with a passion. This year he decided to follow in his parents' footsteps and join the school choir. He is really enjoying it and had his first concert at Christmastime. It was great to see him enjoying it so much! He also has an interest in the guitar and has been teaching himself through online lessons.
Jacob turned 9 in November and is in third grade. He really enjoys school and likes math and doing things where he has to focus on a project like puzzles and big Lego constructions. He is starting to take tennis lessons at our Rec center and wants to start taking piano lessons when his tennis lessons are over. We are excited that the boys are showing an interest in music.
Zachary is 2 and will be turning 3 in February. He loves to do art projects, drawing, painting and playdoh. He also loves to read books and sing songs. He loves to learn new things and is such a smart little guy, he has already learned his ABC's and can count to 20. He is also our little troublemaker and everyday is an adventure with him in the house.
Daniel joined our family in March and just turned 9 months old. He has the sweetest little spirit and is always up for a good time. He wants to be in the middle of the party and doesn't want to be left out of anything. Whatever Zach or the other boys are doing, he crawls right over and dives on in. He also likes to join in when we sing. At church he wants to have his own Hymn book and when the music starts he croons out loud and strong.
Dave and Marisa are just living life and enjoying our houseful of rowdy boys. This year Dave became involved with a new start-up company and has been kept very busy. Anyone who knows him knows how exciting this has been for him. Marisa had to take some time off from school during the pregnancy but hopes to return soon and take some classes part-time.

Here are a few pictures of some of our highlights this year:

Daniel was born March 25, 2011

Bradshaw Family Reunion, Memorial Day Weekend

Hetherington Cousins :)

Camping in the back yard

Annual end-of-summer-back-to-school hot dog roast

Pinewood Derby - Jacob won a trophy! All had fun :)

Little Bradshaw cousins :)

Pumpkins

Family picture, October 2011

Going Trick or Treating

Our mini zoo

Thanksgiving Weekend at Temple Square

We hope that all of our friends and family had a wonderful year and a happy Christmas.
Love, The Bradshaws

Baby Daniel

Daniel Haldane Bradshaw joined our family on March 25, 2011 at 7:11 pm. It was a very difficult pregnancy and delivery but we are so very grateful to have him in our family! He is such a sweet and happy little guy, it is impossible to imagine our lives without him. I have not been very good about keeping our blog up to date lately, but here are some picture of little Daniel over the last few months.

Christmas 2010

Decorating the tree

Grandpa took us on the Heber Creeper version of the Polar Express and, of course, Santa scared Zach to death.

Christmas Morning :)

Fannie Flagg

I would never have started re-reading this book if I had remembered that this was in it:


She could... never forget that gray, sterile, concrete-walled intensive care waiting room where she had spent all those weeks, frightened and confused, just like the rest of the ones waiting there; knowing that their loved one was lying just down the hall in a cold, sunless room, waiting to die.
Here they were, perfect strangers, in this small space, sharing what was probably the most intimate and painful moment of their lives, not knowing how to act or what to say. There were no rules of etiquette. Nobody had prepared them for this. Poor people, terrified like herself, trying to be brave, chatting on about their everyday lives, completely in shock, pretending everything was all right.
Everyday they waited together, knowing the moment would come, that awful moment when they would be called upon to make "the decision" whether or not to turn the machines off.
It's for the best.
They'll be much better off.
It's what they would want.
The doctor says they're already gone.
This is only a technicality.
A technicality?
All those calm, adult discussions. When all she really wanted to do was scream for her momma, her sweet momma, the one person in the world who loved her better than anyone ever would or ever could.
She felt as if she were in a dream and listened carefully to what [the doctor] said. He made it seem so simple and so natural. "No point in prolonging it..."
He made perfect sense. She got up like a zombie and went home.
She thought she was ready to accept it, to let her go.
But then, nobody was ever really ready to turn off their mother's machine, no matter what they thought; to turn off the light of their childhood and walk away, just as if they were turning out a light and leaving a room.

-From "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe"

My Beautiful Mother

Ann Elise Eastin Hetherington
September 2, 1951 - May 22, 2010

Our Sealing

Today was a very special day for us. We were able to be sealed in the Bountiful Temple. It took much longer than we expected to have all the paperwork done, but the day finally arrived and we are so happy to be able to be a family, sealed together forever. We were able to have Dave's parents and a few of our siblings attend with us and we were so happy to have them there.

GRADUATION!

Today Dave can finally say that he is a college graduate! At some point along the way, years ago, he lost his way and wound up a few credits short of his degree. Although because he owns his own business this has never held him back in his career, it was still a nagging glitch on his potential resume. After we got married and I discovered just how close he was to accomplishing a degree, I (very strongly) encouraged him to complete it. With a LOT of help from his wonderful sister Jayne who figured out all the logistics in terms of class schedules and degree requirements, Dave finished his last two very difficult but very worth it classes and is now GRADUATED! Congratulations to my dear, sweet, wonderful, hard-working, long-suffering, dedicated, intelligent, handsome, college graduate husband!! I love you!

Christmas 2009

This year was Zachary's first Christmas. How cute he was :) We put up a tree strategically in the corner of the living room so that it could be easily baby-gated and he often went up and shook the baby gate trying to get to it. Dave sometimes took the gate down or held Zach up close enough that he could reach the ornaments and mess things up a little. He would get so excited. Mostly Zach just loves to get into anything that he knows he's not supposed to. Pretty typical. We also put a big snowman stocking up on the door - facing inside because the boys wanted to be able to see it- and Zach liked to go up to it and wave a lot.

On Christmas morning, Grandma and Grandpa Bradshaw and Uncle Matt were here with us and were able to see the boys open their presents. The boys were really excited about their gifts, and Zach was really excited about the wrapping paper. After the gift opening, my dad took us out to brunch at the Little America downtown, a Christmas tradition he has started that we don't mind one little bit! Yum! Afterward, we came home to relax and lounge.

The day after Christmas we had a big Bradshaw family dinner with a lot of Dave's cousins that were in town for the holidays. It was fun to see everyone.

Grades

So, I don't mean to toot my own horn... but here I go anyway :)

I got straight A's this semester! Woo Hoo! :)

It makes me feel good to have done well in my first semester back at school after so many years away. Although I felt relatively confident at the start of the semester, it's nice to have the validation. Now I know I can do this. Here's to next semester :)


I'm also going to take this opportunity to brag on Dave as well. Most of you know that he was also taking a class this semester and is about to finish up his Computer Science degree. His class was in Java programming and he also got an A. :) Way to go Dave!!

Old Movies

I love old movies, especially musicals. In the couple years I have started exposing the boys to some of these. It started during my pregnancy with Zach when I was on bedrest and watching lots of movies (thanks to my subscription to netflix - thanks Lizzy!). I got some of these specifically hoping the boys would like them, and some expecting the boys wouldn't even watch. One that I got for the boys was The Music Man. We sang "Shapoopie" for weeks.... One that I was surprised they even sat through was An American in Paris. After they liked that one, I got Singing in the Rain, which is a favorite of mine. They liked it too :) Anyway, I have a point, and I'm getting there.

The most recent musical that we have added to our list is Annie. It was actually on TV a couple of weeks ago and Dave and I recorded it on the DVR. The boys liked it much more than we expected, although we were hoping. We both remembered liking it when we were kids. So, last night we watched it together as a family (Ben's choice) and when Annie got to Daddy Warbucks house and they are all dancing and singing "I think I'm gonna like it here" I said, "Wow, can you imagine if you lived in a huge house like that and had all those servants to take care of everything for you?" Then Jacob said, "Well, you're kind of like our servant Mom..."
Huh.

First Steps

Zach took his first official step on the day after Thanksgiving. Yes, just ONE step :) For those of you who don't have his birthday memorized :) he won't be one until February. Since then he has continued to try to walk and occasionally takes one or two steps when he is playing around in the living room. He never does it when we try to get him to do it, only when he is playing on his own. Although he can be clingy in some things, he seems to be very independent about this one.
Regardless, it looks like we will have a walking Zachary by Christmas!

The End is in sight

Next week is the last week of classes for Fall semester, and I have survived. I have one more paper to write and one more final to take... and then I just have to finish the rest of my degree. But at least I will get a break for a few weeks :)

Jacob's Birthday

For Jacob's birthday this year we let him have a party with friends because we had also let Ben have one this year. He invited some friends from school and church and we had his party at McDonald's. Although Jacob was definitely excited about it, this was my choice. Now that I'm going to school full time, I wanted something that I didn't really have to plan. Luckily our local McDonald's has a playland and doesn't charge to do birthday parties! All we had to pay for was the happy meals. Now that's my kind of party :)

Halloween

This year for Halloween we went and picked pumpkins at a local farm in West Jordan near the Jordan River Temple. I found this place back when Ben was a baby and we used to live over there and I've gone there to pick pumpkins every year since then that we've been in Utah. Last year Dave wasn't able to come with us, but this year he took a couple hours break from work :) and we took Zach with us as well. The hay ride there is free and Zach had a lot of fun just looking around at all the new things to see. We got a fun new family picture while we were there and then came home to carve our pumpkins.







The weekend before Halloween, our ward had our Trunck or Treat. Except we did it indoors :) There was also a great little carnival in the gym beforehand with games and crafts and refreshments afterward. And the whole thing was planned by Mike and Sally because they are in charge of the activities in our ward. It turned out really great and all the kids had a wonderful time. Ben and Jacob were both ninjas this year for Halloween and Zach was a lion. Mike and Sally found the lion costume and it was just too cute.

The pictures of the kids in their costumes are on Dave's video camera, so I'll have to get them up on here later.