Our new Home

Yes , we finally moved into a house.  I'm sure many were wondering, How many kids and how much furniture can you fit into a 2 bedroom apartment.  The anwser is 3 kids, a living room set of 3 couches and way too much stuff.  I will tell you, buying a house was quite the process, after trying for three different properties, we callled it quits and decided to go and buy a new home.  Once we did that it was so mcu smoother, no greedy banks and pesky real estate agents thinking oh.. you can go for $10,000 more.  I know they were thinking ... It's not my money, no skin off my back and I get a bigger commission.  No offense to those real estate agents out there that are honest and nice, we just ran into some bad luck with real estate agents.

So we bought a spec home in buckeye, az.  Once we picked a house and a mortgage broker, we were signed and moved in within 2 1/2 weeks.  It went so quick I couldn't believe it. So we bought a 2 story, 3/2 with a loft and a very open kitchen.  There is so much space were still not sure what to do with it all.  The good thing about cramming so much furniture into a tiny apartment is that we didn't need to buy any when we moved in, with the exception of a refridgerator.

Within the first week, we started to hear the ice cream man in our neighborhood.  That was a first for us, so bought each of the kids a looney tunes ice cream: ashley got bugs bunny, hannah got tweety bird and John got sponge bob.  I also thought it was a nice way to take a picture of our house.  I took one all by itself, but it looked so lonely.  A home definetly needs a family and kids to complete it, so here it is:

Easter and Birthdays!

                      Easter was filled with Easter Baskets, pictures by Grandpa and Easter egg hunts.  John's family always has an Easter egg hunt for all of the grandkids in their backyard.  It's fun to watch them and see how inpatient they get why they wait for the eggs to be hidden.

When I was pregnant with Hannah, I thought nobody wants to be in the hospital or have a birthday on easter, so I was induced early.  Well low and behold, guess who's birthday landed on Easter this year, you guessed it, Hannah.  She loves horses to death and can even mimmick their sounds to the T.  Whenever she see's one while driving, on tv or in a book she says "Bri....neiggghhhh" (okay so my spelling dooesn't do it justice, but you get the point). So she asked for a Horses for her birthday cake.  Luckily she has asked for a real one yet.

This picture is for you "joe".  Last year, Hannah got her face planted in her cake.  Since no-one in particular planted her face in the cake this year, she decided to do it herself and thought it was so much fun!

Hannah loves her new horse and her princess!

 Poor John, He had to spend his 1st birthday surrounded by boxes. This is what it looks like when you've lived in a 2 bedroom apt for 3 years, decide it's time to expand and have no where to stack boxes.

                This is one of John's favorite games, "peek a boo".  The girls didn't get into it that much, but John loves it and now plays it on our stairs. Only now he runs away and wants you to chase him.

Back to blogging !

Okay! So I am back to blogging after a bit of a break. However, it was a valid one at that. We decided to take a leap and buy a house. I love our new house, but boy do I hate moving. It is fun to have twice the space but it is a pain in the rear to pack, move and then find you don't know where anything is once you get there. I couldn't decide what photos to post so I figured I'd just start by updating our Easter pics and go from there. I guess the photographer in me has a hard time deciding what to share and what not to share, so why not just share it all. Hope you all enjoy!

climbing comes before walking

These pictures are just too cute not to share and it was too hard o pick just one, so I thought I'd share them all. I thought boys learned to walk first and then climb, but John wanted to mix things up a little. For all of John's fussing, he sure had a great time and he loves the dishwasher and helping mom unload the dishwasher when I'm trying to load it. He was next to the dishes one minute and the next thing I knew he had climbed up on top.

John Jr.

Here's a few pictures of John Jr.  It seems like our blog is filled with pictures of Ashley and Hannah,so I thought we would change it up a bit.  John is crawling and trying to walk along furniture.  He's getting so big.  He refuses to eat baby food and insists on table food. He just got his two bottom teeth and he'll bite if you'll let him.

Samsclub Chocolate muffins taste great, but there great only once.  They make the biggest mess possible and crumbs get left everywhere and get trailed all throughout our home.

John is comming for the camera, watch out!

We take our kids to cabelas' often and show them all of the animals.  We've even taken them fishing.  John decided he wanted to try a fresh lobster from the grocery store.  And yes it was live.  Ashley and Hannah wouldn't even touch the lobster.  John Jr. however, was more than willing to touch the lobster.  It was quite a sight.

Christmas Pictures 2009

Christmas time was filled with baking, sewing, shopping, wrapping and enjoying the Christmas Season.

I posted our Gingerbread house as a tribute to Joe and Christi.  One year we tried to make them completley homemade and needless to say after 11pm and 10 batches of gingerbread dough we called it quits.  It was an experience to look back and laugh at.  So this year we tried the store bought one, which actually stood up with John's help.  The directions said you can decorate after 15 minutes of setting up the walls... we found out this is not so.  The kids had fun eating the candy and licking the icing.  The girls were eating the candy faster than we could have them help us decorate it.

Our finished Gingerbread house!

Ashley and Hannah are just waiting to open their ponies.  And yes they already knew what they were and they had to be rewrapped before Christmas day.

Getting two kids to smile for the camera is enough, but getting 3 kids 4 and under to look is another.  The probablity is 2 out of 3. 

Ashley loves her pink pony!

Hannah is our little princess.  She hates to leave the house without a princess dress.

John seemed more interested in Hannah's princess costume than his helicopter.

Ashley and Hannah are our little princesses.  They love to play dress up and stay dressed up with necklaces and crowns and anything girly.

Blogging update: Ashley's Birthday

I can't believe its February already, where did the time go?  I've had pictures sitting on my computer just waiting to be uploaded to our blog.  Now that the holiday's have past, time for a little update.  So thought we'd start with Ashley's birthday.  Normally we make a cake of an animal or a cartoon character of some sort.  This year I asked Ashley what kid of birthday cake she wanted and she kept on requesting a pink birthday cake, so pink it was.

Hannah was just as excited to open up presents as Ashley was even though it wasn't her birthday.  The funny thing was Ashley didn't mind.

I still can't believe she is 4 years old already, where has all of the time gone.

My attempt at decorating a pink cake with icing tips.

4 years old = 2 years old

Okay so I am back to blogging after the holidays. Soon enough I'll post birthday and christmas pictures.

I have come to the conclusion that my 4 year old is really 2 years old. I know some things are my fault and I need to be more careful, but this one will make you laugh. So I went grocery shopping and didn't get a chance to put everthing away--meaning the toiletries cause it was time to make lunch and then feed the baby. So why does everything seem to happen and go wrong when I decide to sit down and feed john? So ashley decided to take my new bottle of shampoo from the kitchen counter and into her room unbenonced to me. A little while later Hannah comes out and says, "ashley make a mess". I go into the room to investigate and there is my full bottle of shampoo, entirely empty. Yes 13 fl oz of strawberry shampoo all over the floor. Shampoo doesn't clean up it just sudds up. So after 5 rinse and dumps with the steam cleaner, shampoo is still in the rug--- I'll have to tackle it later. Note to self... no more strawberry shampoo. The upside is that their room smells like strawberries.

Halloween Party, Games and Portraits!

This year for Halloween I got ambitious and decided to make three costumes. I didn't think it could be done- cause last year I ended up sewing Ashley's on Halloween. I got an early start and it was fun. John jr. was a dinosaur mostly cause it growls more than he cries. I let Ashley pick out her costume- so she decided on a blue tinkerbell. I added some purple cause she was a blue princess last year, Can you guess what her favorite color is? Hannah was Princess Minnie. She absolutely loves minnie mouse and I saw a costume online and said oh.. I can make that and it turned out really cute. It was a lot of work, but its always fun to see the end result. I even learned how to do an invisible zipper. Youtube videos are a lifesaver. It's good for more than just music and stupid videos. I had so many pictures that I liked from Halloween I had a hard time deciding which ones to post, so I thought I'd try and do a slide show instead.

We've been trying to get John to sit up on his own for weeks and he always would fall to one side or the other. No kidding, I sat him up to take his picture and he sat there all by himself and has done so since. Yeah! He was a cute dinosaur.

John's family decide to have their own Halloween party this year. It was so much fun with all of the cousins. They had a cottonball walk, bowling, fishing, donut eating contest, cake walk, coin toss, pumpkin pinata, prizes and candy. It was a bit crazy with all of the toddlers but it was fun to watch them play each game. The donut eating contest was quite funny. Most of the donuts fell off after a few bites and the kids didn't know what to do, they just ended up eating them.

After all of the games were over, Hannah decided she was tired and was going to take a nap on the stairs. Of course when I run to get the camera she perks up. It looked posed, but these are some of my favorite photos of the day.

It's become a tradition for Grandpa Bradshaw to take portraits of the kids in their costmes each year. They always turn out really cute. The picture with all three kids are hilarious. The box just wasn't wide enough for all three of them and John somehow forgot to sit up. Oh.. well it still made some great pictures to laugh at.

"One Liners"

As our kids have learned to talk and express themselves, they have developed some great one liners and even I have contributed.

Ashley: randomly in the car will say lets go home and gets some "ice cream sandwhiches" or "cheese" or "frenchfries". Each time it is something different.

Hannah: "I'm not crazy" When we tell Hannah to do something like don't throw a fit, she'll say, I not fit and then add never. Everyphrase ends in never.

Hannah's crying and fussing tends to go on and on and can drive one crazy. Hannah has now picked up one of my phrases- "I don't want to hear it" So when she cries now and she's not hurt, I say Hannah "hush" and her reply is always "I don't wanna hear it"

Another new one for Hannah is "What's your problem Daddy or mommy what's your problem" A little background on this one. Hannah is the flashlight queen. She loves them, a little too much. She'll bite the buttons off of any mag lite. And then continue to deconstruct the flashlight to the nuts and bolts including the bulbs. So earlier this week, she wanted John's mag lite and he was playing with her and teasing her with the flashlight. Well aparently she had enough and has coined the phrase, "what's your problem daddy".

This morning I have coined a phrase that made John laugh a little too much. We are potty training, Ashley and pee and poop are our lives. Sometimes I find a present right next to the toilet. Thank goodness our bathroom isn't carpeted. This morning while getting breakfast ready, I have coined a new phrase, "I stepped in something and I know it not water." Yes Ashley left me a puddle of pee in the kitchen. Why? is beyond me, she knows where to go to the bathroom. I guess that's why they call it potty training and not potty trained. Cause at what age are they actually potty trainied?