China

Sam spoiled me this year and got me something I've wanted for a long time. 4 place settings of fine china With platinum rings around the edge and if you look close you can see a white swirl pattern around the edge. Unfortunately it had to be special ordered, and it didn't come in time to use for our Christmas dinner, but I'm very happy to have it, and I'm excited to build it up and and to the collection.

Christmas slide show

Sorry this isn't very long, our camera batteries died, so we didn't get very many pictures.

Christmas Centerpiece

This is the Christmas Centerpiece I made out of fresh flowers and I posted a picture because I am DANG PROUD of the way it turned out.

Behold Your Little Ones

A few days ago Nicholas came up to me with a blanket draped over his shoulders and said "Look Mommy! I am like Christ! He the proceeded to tell me that he was going to the tree to get some white fruit and that I should always be kind and good. Most kid his age dress up as spiderman or superman, and he wanted to be like Christ. At night when we put the kids to bed we sometimes put Nicholas to sleep in our bed until Christian falls asleep so they don't keep each other awake. 2 nights ago when Sam was moving Nicholas from our bed to his, he noticed that he had fallen asleep with a pen in his hand which he thought was strange but he didn't think much of it until he and I went to bed later that night and he discovered that Nicholas had taken that pen and scribbled all over my pillow. When I asked him about it the next morning he said that he was making a star so that Jesus could come. The First Presidency's message in the Ensign this month was titled "Behold your little ones". It talks about the Savior and reminds us of how in 3 Nephi, when he visited the people in America. He called all the children to him, and he blessed them. He told the people to "Behold your little ones". I thought about if my children were there, how he would hold them and adore them, and love them for all that they are, and not see all their little quirks that make me want to pull my hair out. I learned that I need to BEHOLD them, take them in and see them as the savior would. I have noticed that when I do, I am thankful for Nicholas' zeal for life and all that comes with it. I am able to cherish the star that now adorns my pillow because it is a symbol of Nicholas' testimony of our savior, his birth and life which was given to each of us.

Merry Christmas from Nicholas

Here are just a few cute clips... one is Nicholas wishing you all a Merry Christmas, He'll probably kill me for posting this one when he gets older, but I couldn't help it! The other is when he finally got to meet Santa. He has been dying to talk to him to ask him for a train table for Christmas.

Disney World

"Mickey Mouse's Big House"

A.K.A Disney world. What an adventure! After months of planning and endless phone calls to my sister Kathy (who works there and got us discounts),and a 10 hour minivan ride, we finally made it. We had a great time! We walked until our feet practically fell off. We ate like the word "diet" was taken out of the dictionary-(Ghiridelli's ice cream sundae, need I say more?). We saw all there was to see-including the Orlando emergency room. And we rode every ride you can imagine-even the scary one that went upside down 3 times, and the tower of terror that has an elevator drop you hundreds of feet- which is even scarier when it malfunctions at the end and you really think you are going to die. It was a great week!

THINGS TO NOTE WHEN GOING TO DISNEY WORLD....

1. All of the toilets flush automatically, this can be frightening to a 3 year old.
2. The "wait time" posted above a ride is not always accurate.
3. At Walt Disney World dreams do come true, but you have to pay for them, so bring a FAT pocket book.
4. The Norway ride is the single best Norway ride ever invented.
5. If your child has asthma, bring his medicine or you end up in the emergency room with a nurse who says "Don't you know you have to bring asthma medicine when you come to Florida?".
6. Bring a thermometer so that the nurse can't give you a hard time about not knowing that your child also has a temperature.
7. Buses are great for naps- just ask my brother David.
8. The magnet store in Downtown Disney doesn't sell Disney magnets.
9. Wear contacts, not glasses or you don't get to see any of the rides you go on because you have to take them off.
10.DON'T drink the soda from Italy.

I am thankful for Christian!

It was 1 year ago now that his beautiful fat cheeks and long black eyelashes made their debut appearance, and they have been lighting up my life ever since. Of course I am thankful for everyone else too, but since his birthday was on thanksgiving this year, I am especially thankful for him. We tricked a bunch of people in our ward into coming to his birthday party by telling them that they were invited to thanksgiving dinner (lets be honest, who would come to a birthday party on thanksgiving?). We had 7 families come, so we brought the Alder's table over and set it up in our living room, and put the kids at a coffee table in the kitchen. It was great! We had more food than we could eat in a week, and even more pies! I cooked my first ever turkey which was an interesting experience to say the least! Christian has always been one who LOVES to eat, so it really seems fitting for him to have a thanksgiving birthday. We gave him a mini chocolate pie with a candle in it while we sang happy birthday to him, and then we let him have at it, which was probably his favorite part of the day. Anyway it was a great day and I am thankful for all our friends who shared it with us!

It must have been GOOD!

I gave Christian a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, and a sippy cup full of formula, and after devouring the cookie, he dumped his formula all over the crumbs and then bent over and slurped up the slop. What a mess!

Please tell me you didn't!

You know it's going to be a bad morning when you get out of the shower and your 3 year old says "Mommy! I colored the stairs blue!" That's right. He had taken A blue sharpie and colored on the wooden part of our stairs. So I go and find the strongest cleaner that I have- C.L.R. to see if it will get it off, while I am scrubbing it he says "I colored more mommy." I asked him where and he brought me into the kitchen. There on the fridge was another blue drawing. So I took the CLR to the fridge. It took the paint off the stairs but not the marker, and it only faded the markings on the fridge. So I thinking "Great. Now I have to call the rental office to get the stairs repainted, and I don't have any idea what to do about the fridge. THey already probably think we are crazy because I have to call them every week with a new problem, you know last week with the lock out, the week before when nicholas ran THROUGH the sliding screen door. I'm sure they will raise our rent or something." While I'm on the phone with the rental office-who were really nice about the whole thing, Nicholas got a hold of the CLR. He comes up to me and says "I got lemon juice in my mouth mommy!" Yes, he had sprayed the cleaner in his mouth! I quickly stuck his head in the sink and told him to let the water run in his mouth while I called poison control. Luckily they said to just give him a big drink of milk and he should be fine. So that was my morning. If anyone knows how to get permanent marker off of a fridge, let me know!

Quote of the Day

Today Nicholas came out of nursery with a little book about honesty. Later while eating lunch we were talking about being honest and I asked him if he knew how to be honest he looked at me and shouted "Mommy! I am NOT honest! I am a BOY!

Locked Out!

Nicholas has a strange love/hate relationship with doors. At night, when he is going to bed,he freaks out and has a melt down if you close his bedroom door, actually even if he is in his room for a time out he freaks out if you close his door. On the opposite end, he has an obsession with closing doors. When we go to church, he has to close all of the classroom doors he walks past. Lately we have had a bit of bad luck when it comes to his door closing obsession. You see our apartment door automatically locks when you close it. The other day I was about to take the boys out on a walk, so I strapped both of them into the double stroller, put the keys in the stroller, and then opened the door and stepped outside to hold open the screen door while I pushed the stroller out. As soon as I stepped outside, nicholas kicked the door shut with his foot, locking me outside, and the two of them inside, and sice they were strapped in the stroller, I couldn't just have nicholas open the door. I had to go to my friend's house to call the appartment office, to have someone come open the door. The whole time I waited I could hear them inside screaming at me. I'm just glad it was duuing office hours so I didn't have to pay the after hours lock-out fee of $25. The next morning When the boys woke up they played in thier room for a while, which was nice- I could actually sleep in for a bit. Then they started screaming and wanted out. Sam told them to come out then, and Nicholas said that he couldn't because the door was stuck. He had locked it from the inside. Sam kept trying to tell him to push the button on the door and then open it, but Nicholas kept on saying it was stuck. Finally sam picked the lock, and as it turned out Nicholas had not only locked the door, but he had also pushed Christian's crib in front of it and then climbed into it. He can climb into it, but for some reason he still hasn't figured out how to climb out of it yet. So indeed they were really stuck. Then yesterday morning I walked out onto out patio to grab someting really quick and again Nicholas closed the door and locked me out. The Back door is really hard to open, so when I told nicholas to open it, of course he said he couldn't because it was stuck. Luckily this time after a little coaxing he got it open. I hope he outgrows this phase soon!

Christian walking- for real this time!

The Ward Halloween Party

WE went to our ward Halloween party on Saturday night. I'd like to say that my boys had a blast, but in reality Christian didn't know what to think, so he was quiet the whole time, but Nicholas sure enjoyed it! He got to decorate a cookie, make a spider sucker, eat a doughnut on a string, play mini golf, toss a bean bag into a pumpkin's eye, and best of all "Take a treat"(that's what he calls trick or treat) out of cars that had "scary fire pumpkins" Christian may not have enjoyed the party, but when we got home, I gave him a sucker, and I think that made up for putting him through it all. He LOVED it. It was his first sucker, and he absolutely devoured it. I think watching him enjoy his little red sucker was my favorite part of the night, That and watching Nicholas try to eat a doughnut on a string!

R.I.P

The death of our pumpkin. It was quick, painful and ugly. We learned the hard way the you don't carve pumpkins in North Carolina until just a day or two before Halloween. They grow mold inside from the humidity and then they cave in. Nicholas was really sad when we put it in the garbage. All he talked about today was how his pumpkin died.

Happy Halloween!

Christian walking-kind of...

So Christian is really stubborn and he thinks that he can't walk so he doesn't even try, even though he can. When he is trying to get something and he's distracted I have seen him take 2-3 steps but as soon as he discovers he is walking or even standing up on his own, he drops immediately. So here is a video of him pushing nicholas' bike- yes we do have a push walker but nicholas loved it so much that he still plays with it all the time, and he won't share it with christian. Christian was able to do this a few months ago, but he would scream at me the whole time I made him do it because he didn't think he could. Well he has finally discovered that he can do it, so here he is. Hopefully soon he will discover that he actually can walk, and start doing that too!

brady boys driving

The new love of my life

My new passion can be described in one word. CRAIGSLIST! Why didn't I know about this sooner? It is a community classified website where you can buy and sell stuff and it doesn't cost you anything to use it. I have found all kinds of good bargains on it. First we were having friends over for dinner, but we have a small table so I looked on craigslist for some folding chairs. I found a set of 4 nice ones being sold for $12! Then after the party we got to thinking it might be nice to have a bigger table. Well I looked on craigslist and found a nice solid pine dining room set- table, 6 chairs and a hutch all for $200! This is when it gets good... I sold my table on craigslist for $100, and a desk that we don't use for $25, and a slide that the boys don't play with anymore for $10, so after selling all that, my new dining set only cost me $65! It definently needs to have the seats reapholstered because I don't like blue, but otherwise it was a great find. Then I got a double stroller that had only been used 3 times and was practically brand new for only $55! My latest find is my boys favorite though. I got them a yellow power wheels hummer. They LOVE it and have so much fun driving around the back yard with thier friends. I will be posting videos of them driving it soon. Anyway EVERYONE should know about craigslist. It is fabulous!

The Hummer!

Are you kidding me?

We have been really working on getting nicholas to go poop in the toilet. he goes pee pee just fine, but we struggle with poop. Today I knew he needed to go, so I stuck him on the toilet and then told him he could't get off until he was done. he cried that he didn't need to go, but i knew that he did so I let him run around without his undies on because I know he won't poop an the floor, he always runs to the toilet. Well I put him on it 4 times in a matter of 20 minutes, and each time he said he didn't have to go and then would run and play. finally he came running past me faster than I'll get out yelling " I need to make a poop!" I followed him into the bathroom and lifted up the lid on the tiolet and helped him sit down. Then I stepped back, into something warm and gooey. He haddn't quite made it.
I went to Sam's Club today...As we were shopping we heard a loud noise. I sounded like someone pushing something heavy across the floor. Nicholas looked up at me in alarm and shouted "Stop the elephant noise!" It definently sounded like an elephant. Then he started yelling "Everyone get out there's an ELEPHANT!!!" He told everyone he saw that there was an elephant and they needed to get out, except for one lady who when he saw her he stuck his finger in his nose and said "I'm getting my boogers out!". I had to go around the whole store until I found what was making the elephant noise, so I could prove to him that there wasn't an elephant. It ended up being a floor cleaner. Then when we were checking out Nicholas tried to strangle Christian every time I turned my head to talk to the cashier, and Christian sat and screamed. Sometimes I wonder why I even go out.
I caught nicholas playing with my digital camera today. He likes to take out the memory card and play with it. Later when I was going to download pictures the camera said that the memory card needed to be reformated. I took it out to check if maybe he put it back in wrong, and as I pulled it out I realized that it was slimey and no, it does not work anymore.
I tried for 2 hours today to put nicholas down for a nap. When I went in his room to put him back in bed for the 5th time I realized he had dumped an entire bottle of lotion all over his bed. He had also pooped in his undies, and wiped the poop all over the bed and the carpet. The nap didn't happen.
I know what you are all thinking. No one's life is really that exciting and glamorous all in one day, but It's true, mine really is!

Get Out Of Debt

I just discovered this revolutionary approach to getting out of debt! You'll love it!

The 3 stooges

This is just a small sample of a typical game for our team, as you can see, nicholas isn't the only roudy kid!

Peewee Scoccer

So we put nicholas in scoccer this fall thinking it would help to constructivly get some of his energy out. He absolutly loves it! he gets to run as fast as he can, kick balls, and even take then from other kids without getting yelled at, what could be better? His only problem is his tackling. when the other kids take the ball from him, he chases them and tackles them to the ground. In his second game he succeded in tackling every kid on the other team, finally we had to make him sit out the rest of the gaame. I think the sitting out really got to him because in his game yesterday he didn't tackle a single kid! He also made his first 2 goals of the season, unfortunatly I had to miss it because I was at a stake womens day activity, but I was so proud of him! Anyway it has been a lot of fun!

I hate ticks!

North Carolina is tick country, so if you live here you just get used to them and they are an everyday pest. well I am not from North Carolina and so I 'm not used to them yet. Infact my great great grandfather died from a tick bit. So naturally I am scared to death of them, which is a bad thing because this place is crawling with them. This morning while I was changing christian's clothes I found one stuck in the fat roll of his armpit. I freaked out! I was so mad at the thing for climbing on my baby. I didn't know what to do because I didn't want to pull it off wrong and have it's head come off or something. sam said to put vasiline on it to make it come out, but since christian still crawls he uses his arm too much and he wipes it all away. I couldn't light a match to it's bum to make it crawl out either, I mean can you imagine trying to hold a 10 month old still enough to hold a lit match to the fat roll in his armpit? yeah right. luckily I had a visiting teaching appointment this morning with a lady who is a native North Carolinian. She has 5 boys and she said that she pulls at least one tick off of her kids everyday! she effortlessly pulled it off and put it in her tick burner-a jar candle, they put the tick in and then light it and the melting wax kills and traps it. The tick burner was filled with ticks! Yuck! I hate them!

Eczema

For those of you whoe don't know Nicholas has eczema. Those of you who know him a little better know that he has a patch of it on his bum that he scratches all the time. I am always putting cortizone cream on it to help with the itching, and sometimes when it is really bad he comes to me crying to put some cream on. The other day he came up to me with a bare bum and a tube in his hand and said " I'm putting cream on my bum!" I looked at the tube and it was toothpaste, and yes, he had it all over his bum!

OUR MOST RECENT FAMILY PHOTO

nicholas and christian

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WE'RE BACK!

So we finally made it back home after our 6 week vacation. For those of you who don't know our welcome home was fabulous. Ants and spiders had taken over our appartment, and I spent a good part of our first day home sqashing them. I had to toss all of our sugar and a few other things that they had gotten into. Our internet wasn't working, our phone wasn't working and the big kicker was that our air conditioning was broken! My advice to everyone is not to go home from a vacation on a saturday night because if anything doesn't work you have to wait until monday to get it fixed, plus we didn't have any food and couldn't go shopping until monday either. The AC was the worst though. It was record breaking heat here, and it was actually cooler outside then it was inside. Anyway that's over now and everything is fixed, so we are doing well. I am going to try to update as much as i can, but I'm way behind, so I might just give up on some things, and just go from here.

Christian waving

Fireworks

Today when I went to pick Nicholas up from nursery he saw me and shouted "Mama! I made fireworks and they're Beautiful!" I thought so too, and so I am sharing Nicholas' beautiful fireworks with everyone else. Happy 4th of July!

SAM THE JAM MAN

June and July are our favorite months here in north carolina. Not because of the heat and incredible humidity, those I could do without. The reason is the u-pick farms. Fresh produce that you pick yourself, and since you do the work of picking it, it is a lot cheaper. our favorites are strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. Not only is it cheap, but vine ripened fruit is incredible. Imagine blueberries as big as grapes! Nicholas loves to find the ripe blueberries and eat them, he goes around and finds the bushes that are full and says " look mama here's a good one!" then he starts picking and eating. Today he was trying to reach a nice ripe one that was just out of his reach and when he finally got it he said "I caught it mama, and it's a good one!" after we have picked a few buckets full we go home and wash them and freeze them or make jam, and eat them of course- even christian loves blueberries. Sam has become quite the jam maker. He's gone a little wild if you ask me, but it makes him happy, and I think it is kind of cute to see him all domestic. we have 24 jars of jam in our freezer! I have decided to call him sam the jam man.

My Life's Work Is Complete!

Or at least my life for the last 7 months that is. last august my friend emily and i went to a relief society class about making quiet books, and everyone in my ward can testify that if there ever was a child in need of assistance in being quiet, it's nicholas, so we decided to make the quiet books for our kids. the lady teaching the class said it took her about 60 hours to make it. Emily and i both though that was ridiculous. There was no way on earth it would take us that long. considering that neither of us are really experienced sewers, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. everything took longer than we thought. first there was finding all the materials-a story all it's own, then the cutting, tracing, reinforcing, sewing, coloring, and then the zipper case, neither of us had ever made a zipper case before, and the was on of the few things there wasn't a pattern for. well, 7 long months and 2 babies later(one for me and one for her)we finished. It's not perfect, but i have to say, I am dang proud of it.

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quick update

so we moved to a bigger apartment down the street, but we haven't switched our internet over yet, so i can't really blog right now, but i have lots of things i want to post, so hopefully i can do it before we go to utah in 2 weeks. for those of you who don't know we are going to utah for a month and half, so my blog might die a little while i'm gone, but i'll try to update it as much as i can. anyway i would add some pictures now, but i can't find the usb cable to download the pictures from my camera, so hopefully in a few days!

Christian trying to crawl

Christain really wants to crawl. he does really well when it comes to getting up on his hands and knees and then he rocks to work up to it, but then when he tries to go somewhere, he always falls over, poor kid. i think he is really close though.

I"VE BEEN TAGED!

My friend lisa tagged me, so i guess it's my turn to tag people, those who get tagged have to answer the following questions on their blog, so i'm tagging... Kathy, Dezra, Tiffany, and Russell.

1. What were you doing ten years ago?
Ten years ago i was 17, and just finishing my junior year in high school. I worked at mcdonalds, and hung out with my friends at the drive in movie all summer long. It was also 10 years ago that this boy named sam brady gave me a huge bouquet of red roses for my birthday. My dad didn't like that at all because at the time this boy had long hair, and he wore funny hats. I told him that sam was just a friend so he didn't have to worry about it. my dad said that no boy gives a girl flowers like that when they are "just friends". It was then that i said the fatal words" I don't know why you are all worked up about it, it's not like i'm going to marry him or anything." Little did he know that a few years later he would actually be talking me into marrying that boy.

2.What were you doing one year ago?
Throwing up probably. i was only a few months pregnant with christain. i was also getting ready for young womens camp, i was the camp director in my ward- yes i went to camp while i was pregnant and it was hot and miserable, and all i did all day was hike up the hill to the bathroom, then when i got back i'd drink more water and then hike back up the hill to the bathroom again.

3.Five Snacks You Enjoy:
do i have to just pick 5? I guess the top 5 are...
-most kinds of chocolate- especially see's.
-ice cream
-fresh fruit- pineapple, blueberries, watermellon, grapes, etc.
-cottage cheese
-cereal

4.Five Songs You Know All The Words To
Hmmmmmmm... Lately sam and i have been into classical music so it doesn't have any words, however when nicholas makes a pee pee in the potty chair we get to "fast dance" which means we turn on rascal flats and dance/run into each other for the first 2 songs, and once you do that 5 times a day, you have them memorized. so " bless the broken road" and "where you are" by rascal flats, and then at least 2 dozen nursery songs-snowman, popcorn popping, the wheels on the bus,and several primary songs.

5.Five Things You Would Do If You Were A Millionaire:
-go shopping all the time
-put my kids in private schools- public schools out here are crap.
-buy my dad a garage
-buy a house with a great big back yard for nicholas
-sam says he would make me invest.

6.Five Bad Habits:
-stay up way too late watching the home and garden channel.
-spend too much money
-forget to turn out lights
-i gossip too much
-i procrastinate

7.Five Things You Like Doing:
-shopping/ finding incredible bargains
-spend time with my family
-blogging
-anything crafty- scrapbooking, sewing, making decorations for my appartment
-cooking- believe it or not, but i do enjoy cooking, not always, but i love making certain things.

8.Five Things You Would Never Wear Again:
-my party clothes from my 20's:the black leather pants, the black shiny jacket, the "I love Me" shirt, and the "men" shirt, the colored wigs, and the blond stripes in my hair- no they weren't highlights, they were actual stripes. Yikes!
- a size 2, I would wear it again, but i have accepted the fact that it will never happen, but i guess a size 6 isn't too bad for someone who has had 2 kids.
-a 2 piece swimsuit, again 2 kids, the belly stretch marks are not attractive.
-hot pink spandex-yes i was a child of the 80's.
-my 9th grade choir dress- it was huge and purple and it looked like a maternity dress.

9.Five Favorite Toys:
-mini van- yes i LOVE my mini van
-digital camera
-sewing machine
-internet
-bread machine

one way to get your toddler to eat his veggies

What cookie mama?

I made some cookies yesterday, and nicholas kept asking me for one right before dinner, so i kept on telling him no. well i turned around from fixing our dinner plates and discovered a cookie was missing, and nicholas was running down the hall. i called to him to bring back the cookie, and of course he was silent, so i went looking for him and he was in his room hiding while he wolfed down the cookie as fast as he could. unfortunately the whole thing looked so funny that i had to let him finish it.

Faith

Tonight as i was putting Nicholas to bed he asked me to get him his cars, choo choo train and mater to sleep with. Well they were all buried in the toy box, and Christian was already asleep, and i didn't want to wake him up by digging around in the toy box, so i grabbed a few cars off the top, and I told him I couldn't find his choo choo train and mater. Then we said his prayers and in his prayer he said "Please help us to find mater and choo choo train." As soon as he finished he said "OK mommy NOW we can find choo choo train and mater!" How can you argue with that? So I went back to the toy box, and to my surprise i quickly found them both. I don't know why that surprised me, Nicholas fully expected me to be able to find them. I learned my lesson on faith.

Sharing

This was a rare moment when nicholas was feeling VERY generous. I asked him to share his toys with christian, usually he reluctantly gives him one toy, but this time he brought him almost every toy from the box! Poor christian didn't know what to do with so many toys, so he eventually freaked out. I think nicholas was offended by his lack of gratitude, because he refused to share with him for the rest of the day.

"Look at all the stars!"

The other day nicholas and I were playing one of his favorite games- the one where he pretends to put me to sleep. Well this time he rolled over and said "Look at all the stars!" and we laid there for an hour star gazing in our living room.

Nicholas and Chrisrian playing together

life with a 2 1/2 year old

Living with a 2 1/2 year old is kind of like living with someone with multiple personalities. you have a comedian who thinks everything is funny even when it's not, a marathon runner, sometimes a pregnant woman-completely irrational, moody and whiny, a salesman who will try to talk you into buying everything, and an old person in a nursing home, who's diapers and potty accedents you have to constantly clean up, and a foreigner who speaks english, but has a strange way of saying things, so you have to think for a minute what they are saying. The foreigner is one of my favorites. Here is just a sample of some of the funny things he has said lately...
-"Mommy will you broccoli my seatbelt?" (buckle)
-"I spilled!"(that means he went pee pee)
-"Christian is atchooing mommy!" (sneezing)
-"I'm gonna ticklish you!" (tickle)
-"Look at those lots 'n lots 'n lots n' lots n' lots of carsis" (lots of cars)
-"I can't go to bed now because i'm too happy"
-"lets hummer mommy!" hum a song

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