Dough babies for my dough baby

All Bradshaw-family descendants should know what that means...we got to see Grams & Gramps!!

(For the rest of you, dough babies are the delicious scones Dustinn's grandma makes; we were all together in NJ last weekend.) While we were together, we also celebrated Deanna's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Ode to Pancho

Some of you might have seen some comments from the infamous "Pancho"? Pancho is a nickname for my youngest sister Polly; and Dustinn gave her this nickname.

[2007; Dustinn & I are in our bedroom at the family cabin; Polly is knocking on our door]
Dustinn: Who is it?
Polly: Polly
Dustinn: Who?!
Polly: Polly (last name)
Dustinn: Who?!
Polly: PANCHO!
Dustinn: Well why didn't you say so? Come on in.

So every time I see her clarify that it is indeed "Pancho" who left a comment, it makes me smile. This little lady is so full of zeal and spunk. One of her gifts is exuding love. She has never been shy to link arms, hug, give you a kiss on the cheek and tell you constantly how wonderful, beautiful, smart and perfect you are.

I often think about this--how each sibling brings so much character to our family. And since Polly is the baby, sometimes I panic and think, "What would my life be if my parents had decided to stop before Polly? Or before Hottie-Man? Or before..." Oh it makes me so sad!
I am very grateful for my parents and the huge sacrifices they made to have & raise us.

17 Months

His vocabulary hasn't changed much but sometimes he says, "Badsa" (Bradshaw) and if we ask him where his belly button is when he's wearing a onesie he'll search and search and with a shrug says "Gone!"

Bradshaw loves his bedtime routine (scriptures, prayer, kiss for mom, then Bradshaw waves as Dustinn carries him down the hall.) and Dustinn runs the show when he's home. Well, one night when Dustinn wasn't home, we finished prayers, Bradshaw gave me loves and then he proceeded to walk down the hall, looking over his shoulder and waving the entire way. He only realized something was amiss when reached the crib and no one lifted him in!

Bradshaw has learned to pivot on one foot and loves spinning until he falls over.

He is a really good eater. When Dustinn's working late, I usually don't make dinner. Instead Bradshaw & I will have bowl after bowl of steamed broccoli. Or for a snack, I just wash off an apple and hand it to him. I am so glad to have a low-maintenance child!

Sisters, Sisters.

My siblings and I had a magical childhood. We lived on the edge of the Blue Hills of California. We had all sorts of adventures running out the door into the tall grass and through the hills. We said we when all grew up we would build our homes side-by-side on that land. I think we even decided that each sibling/spouse would choose a different profession (doctor, dentist, architect) so our community would be self-sufficient. We are now quite spread out geographically but we still love to be near each other just as much (probably even more.) So you can imagine what a treat it was that two of my sisters, Kate the Great & Lindylou, flew in for the long weekend. YAY!

B-Rad & his Grumpa

[Sorry I caught you with your eyes closed Dad!]
My dad was in town for business and came to see our place and visit his grandson. Bradshaw was sooo excited for him to come. He kept checking the front door and asking to look-out from the balcony.

Toy of the Week Award...

...goes to the plastic spoon

A few of it's uses include:

• taking little tastes of everything around you (such as a box of crayons or your feet, Bradshaw thinks these things are yummy)
• calling your Grandmas
• deflecting sink water all over the kitchen counter
• balancing your toys on the end and walking carefully around the apartment
• trying out for American Idol (see pict.)

Crocodile Tears

Bradshaw has a stage cry

and a camera smile.

Perhaps we'll live in France someday and this petit garçon can have a real chapeau.

Imagine this as a flip book

Lucky You

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a song. It may be a self portrait or maybe even some creation I haven't yet dreamed up. I may draw. I may bake you something and mail it to you. It may not be big or impressive. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! But lets be honest here. This is me and I will likely do something amazing. =) So come on, sign up!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!

Camera shy?

I got a fancy-shmancy new camera at Thanksgiving, but for a myriad of reasons (including intimidation) it remained untouched until today. I'm glad I didn't have an audience to watch me fumbling around. I was too afraid of the lens spontaneously shattering to be able grasp it firmly & lock it into the camera body.

Anyway, once I got past myself, the difference in image quality is shocking! The pictures are clear & sharp and the camera takes shots at rapid-fire speed. Here are the camera's inaugural shots:

(If you can't tell the difference, right-click and open the image in a new window.)

Date night at Chuck E. Cheese

(What cool wife planned this date?) We used the 10 bucks/100 tokens coupon which goes a looong way when every ride/game is one token.
Of course, Bradshaw's favorite part was watching all the other little kids and he also liked the musical show but he did not like meeting Chuck E.

My favorite thing was the sketch machine. It's built for little kids, so in order to place our faces in screen, we had to slouch down until only our backs were on the bench. That alone (scrambling to fit in the picture) was making me laugh, then sketch artist said all sorts of crazy things about us! Anyway, it was a fun night.