BBQ

Saturday before last, we had BBQ with Dustinn's co-workers. James took all of these awesome pictures.:

21 Months Old...and what we've been up to

Lack of internet access has made blogging (cough cough *everything* cough) slightly more challenging.

Dustinn is feeling some pressure at work. We don't know yet whether the Department of Defense is renewing the contract (i.e. will we be in Virginia this fall? or will we be relocated to another office?)

The deadline to renew our housing lease is tomorrow--so there's been a lot of deliberating. If we don't renew our lease, but stay in Virginia, it will be very expensive. If we renew our lease and move from Virginia, breaking the lease will be even more expensive. *Sigh* We love it here and, as of June, we have lived in Virginia 10 months (longer than any other state since we've been married.) Anyway, I can imagine my little sister reading this and at this point saying, "bor-RING...what's Bradshaw up to?"
We talk to Bradshaw everyday about Olivia. We are reading him library books about being a big brother and letting him be involved in preparing for her. Anyone have any fun, creative ways to get a child ready for a new sibling? Our almost two-year-old:

• loves trains. Today he was sitting in his high chair and I hear "choo-choOOoo" and he has pulled off all the crusts of the bread and has lined them up and is driving them around the highchair tray. We've caught him doing the same thing with an assortment of our shoes, again with clipped coupons, and also with rubbermaid storage bins.
• regularly pats the couch beside him and smiles sweetly at Dustinn or I to come sit by him. (It's cute.)
• gets little spurts of insane hyper-activity where he runs in circles screaming and laughing.
• has entered the tantrum phase. The two greatest provokers are his carseat and when we misunderstand what he is saying.
• gets on his knees and waits for Mom & Dad to come to prayer (and calls us to come.)

P.S. The Wiggles have been stuck in my head all week.

P.P.S. It's firefly season...magical.

Camp-out

Camping was an all-around hit! Bradshaw was ecstatic to find Annie as soon as we arrived and rarely left her side.
He also took it upon himself to warn all the other kids about the fire. =)

We had AMAZING dutch oven desserts (and full-out pancake, sausage & egg breakfast in the morning!) One of the highlights of the trip for Bradshaw was seeing (and chasing) a toad. We only had one hiccup--Bradshaw was feverish at night--but we'd brought children's tylenol and it quickly cooled him off and then we all slept SO WELL (the sounds of the forest & the birds were very soothing.)

[one extreme to the other]

[Here's the infamous toad...but you can't really see him]

[Just us in the morning]

We hiked to some waterfalls that afternoon. Dustinn said at one point it was steeper than 45 degrees so I'm quite proud of our mountain goat skills. =)

And to top it all off, we returned home tothis text from Stefanie:

We know we are really blessed to have Stefanie in our lives. It always makes our day to hear from you, Stef! And [drum roll please] Stefanie is coming to visit in a couple of weeks. Any ideas of super fun things we should do?

Love Notes

When I came out to the kitchen this morning, Dustinn had left little pink notes everywhere! And this picture is just the tip of the iceberg! I opened the cupboard to grab a bowl and there's one in the bowl, on a mug, on a plate. There's one on the milk carton, the cereal box & others sprinkled throughout the apartment.
I gathered up my faves to put in "our book."
[What book? Dustinn and I decided we wanted to marry each other after dating for just a few weeks during BYU Spring term and then I went home for the summer, got really sick & my dad saved my life. (I know that sounds overly dramatic, but it's true. Several doctors have told me that they're surprised I survived.) Anyway, that changed my perspective--I felt very fragile. I felt like I wasn't ready to get married because I needed my parents to take care of me. For the next year, Dustinn & I were on and off...but I always missed Dustinn. Anyway, you know the ending; but that first summer, even before I got sick, Dustinn wrote me a several "love letters" that I've kept in a book.]
I'm going to add the notes to that book.

Thanks for making my day!

You can do it Cinderelly!

I am officially declaring June 7th to the 14th, "Spring Cleaning Week!" For several months, I've had a list of things to accomplish but unfortunately time keeps escaping me. So I'm setting some rules to use my time wisely:

• In bed by 10pm
• Awake no later than 6am
• Start the day out right (ie s.s.)
• Set a timer and limit myself 30 minutes of Internet per day (this is going to be the hardest part)

I have a lot of things I want to do! Among other things, I need to clean this off the wall:

Dustinn claims it's a Jackson Pollock; I see an insightful rendition of T.J.

Off to bed before I turn into a pumpkin!

(P.S. And as a reward....this weekend we are taking Bradshaw on his first overnight camp-out!)

20 Months Baby!

His face in this picture reminds me of baby Dustinn. Anyone else concur?

He's 1. She's 4. This picture kinda makes me feel like Andre the Giant's mother. =)We used this shirt to announce Olivia Kate.Bradshaw got to spend Memorial Day weekend with his Great Grandma & Great Grandpa.

He loves them so much...and REALLY did not want to say goodbye.Here he is with Grandpa Fiddy

This was my birthday. Apple fritters. Yum.
Like mother, like son; Bradshaw loves donuts and chocolate chips....

...which he decided to help himself to!

This sleeping picture is for ma Maman

Stories...hmm...let's see. Bradshaw is a binky boy. He regularly walks around the apartment saying "BIIIIIIIIIIn-ky AAARE you?" His sing-song voice is really cute.

He also has a fascination with the bathroom. Please forgive us if you have used the restroom in our home and shortly after closing the door you heard knocking and a little voice asking "poo-poos? poo-poos?"

During family prayer Bradshaw cupped my face in his hands and kissed me. I open up my eyes and smile at him. He says "uh-uh" and re-closes my eyes. haha

Getting some practice...

I watched my friend's baby the other day and caught my first glimpse of Bradshaw-the-big-brother.

The first time I held baby "D" Bradshaw was scrambling to get on my lap. I thought he might be jealous and want to push D off my lap. Boy, was I wrong!
He just held D's hand and leaned his head against D. We had this baby boy for a few hours and every time D let out the smallest noise Bradshaw would jump up and bring D his pacifier and blankie. He kept kissing D and when calling him "mine baby."