Thursday, June 19, 2008

Last Reunion Pictures

These pictures were taken when most everyone had left the reunion, my boys saw some cupcakes in a plastic container sitting there and Bryson picked up the whole container and brought it to me. Everyone that was still there was laughing at him. Needless to say, I gave in and gave them both one each, well, Bryson, of course, made a terrible mess. I took him over to was his hands and mouth off and he loved the water. He cried when I turned it off so I turned it back on and this is what happened-- they both got soaked but had a really fun time doing it.

He loves water so much, he is not afraid of it at all.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The awesome museum!

Mommy, the firefighter!

This is a beehive, this boy even showed us the queen bee.


The heart, another climb-in! (Right next this, where the little girl is standing is a huge Operation game, I should of taken a picture of it but I forgot.)


I guess because I was having to much fun with this, it is an organ that you play with flip-flops.


This is a 3 story hospital crawl through. All this stuff was downstairs and there was more stuff upstairs we didn't even get to see. There is always next year, especially since it is all free.

Playground & Museum

This playground is sooooo cool!

Even Randy wanted to have some fun!


The train right next to the playground, it only cost $1 to ride and the driver took us around twice. There is also a tunnel that the train goes through.


The stomach, it has two levels, it is way cool.


Another angle of the stomach!

If you look closely, there is a hermit crab in this shell.
If you look closely at the this picture, you will see a blue crab, I thought it was really cool.
This starfish was moving in Randy's hand and when he put him back in the water he buried himself back in the sand.


This was a baby starfish, too cute!


This is a stuffed fish mounted on the wall.

More Nature Center

This is a chinchilla, it looks like a ball of fuzz.

I really hate snakes, I am glad they were behind glass.


Yuck!


Yuck again!


These are 2 flying squirrels, wrapped up in balls.

More Nature Center and Museum pictures

Madagascar hissing cockroaches, Yuck!

These animals have all been stuffed, but they are still really cool.


So many birds!

Stuffed wild turkeys!

Thank goodness these bears are stuffed!

Pictures from the Nature Center and Children's Museum in Kinston, NC

This bird is amazing, his name is Oliver and he talks to you. Bryson had a fun time screaming and Oliver screamed back.
I thought this alligator head was amazing so I had to take a picture.
This frog is cool, I wish he was facing the other way.
This tarantula is spooky, thank goodness he was behind glass.
This is a huge lizard, I don't even remember what type it is.

Pictures from the Bradshaw Family Reunion 2008

This picture is of my Great Aunts & Uncles (minus my Aunt Martha)
Aunt Doris, Aunt Marie, Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Lady, Uncle Herbert, & Aunt Runt

This is a picture of Christopher & his cousin David. They are from April to July apart in age. They had so much fun together all weekend.


This picture is of my cousin Lisa and her little boy, he is the newest member of the family and what a cutie he is.

This picture is of Bryson & David. David was sitting there and Bryson came and sat next to him just out the blue, it was sooooo cute I had to take a picture.

This is my Aunt Lady's Great Granddaughter, Avery, her dad, Ryan, was one of most favorite cousins growing up. We had many fun times together and now our kids play together, which they did this weekend for about 3 hours Saturday and again on Sunday.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Bradshaw Family Reunion

This past weekend was the annual Bradshaw Family Reunion, down in Kinston, NC, where my dad grew up. My Grandpa Robert (my dad's dad), was that oldest of all my Great Aunts and Uncles. There were 12 or 13 and now there are only 7 still living. My Grandpa Robert died when my dad was 12 years old, so of course I never knew him, just in pictures and stories and my Grandma Daisy died when my dad was in his early 20's, long before my parents were married. So, needless to say, I have become very close with all my Greats because that is my only connection to my Grandparents that I have. It is so neat for me to listen to stories of them, they really just come alive to me and I am so grateful for all my Greats and I love them all very much. One of them, my Aunt Martha lives in Gloucester, VA and she usually comes to the Reunion but was not able to come this time, so there was only 6 Greats there. They all live in Kinston, or right outside of it so it was easy for them to be there. I was also able to see a ton of my cousins. (My dad's 1st cousins and their children and some even have grandchildren.) I love them all very much.

One day, when we are all in Heaven, I will have a huge family there. It is going to be great. On Saturday, we went over to the nature center where we normally camp at but we didn't this time. They have a wonderful nature center, with animals and a cave underneath all for free. Next to it, they have a planetarium and a children's museum and that is free also. I have been to the Nature Center tons of times, but I had never been to the planetarium/children's museum. I will never go back to the children's museum here in Richmond and pay $7, when I can just go down to Kinston and pay nothing for something better. They also have a brand new playground and a train that you can ride in with a tunnel for $1 a ride. It was so cool. My boys loved it, they rode the train Saturday and Sunday. The reunion was at the nature center pavilion. After being down there, I don't know why everything is so much more expensive up here, it just doesn't make sense. Overall, we had a fabulous time in Kinston and loved every minute of it. It is always bitter sweet when it is time to go back to Virginia. If we could move down there, I would in a heart beat, you would not have to pull my leg or ask me twice.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Two becoming one!





YEAH!!!!!!!!! I have tried for 3 days now to figure out how to put "My Masterpiece" on my blog and I finally figured it out!!!! It was kind of by accident, but hey it worked. I am all smiles right now. I have text on most all of the slides but for you all to be able to see it, I would have to pay for it and I am not sorry. It makes it so much better with the text, but oh, well. I also figured out how to post pictures in with the text which I didn't know how to do before and I found that out by accident also. I guess it is all about trial and error.

Well, life in my household has started to calm down now since last week, we are starting to see some form of normalcy. Thank goodness! Randy started today working for the contractor for ADT. He left this morning with his shorts and t-shirt and tennis shoes and was very happy. So hopefully, all will be well. This has been very hard for me, but I know life will go on.

We have been having a very unusual weather pattern, it has been soooooooooooooo hot (over 100 dgrees and extremely HUMID), it just takes your breathe away and you can only be out in it for a few minutes without you feeling like you are going to pass out because it is so HOT!!!!! So, needless to say, Randy is very glad to be wearing shorts! Christopher will be turning 4 years old on July 1st and I just can't believe it. Time flies!!!!! My absolutely gorgegous little bundle of joy is now a funny little BIG boy who keeps me laughing 24/7 and also on my toes most of the time. Last year for his birthday we were up in New York visiting his Great Grandparents, with all his little cousins and had a party there with them. So, this year, I am making it up to him and we are having a construction themed birthday party. I am really excited for it to get here. I found a whole construction themed party write up in Family Fun Magazine a couple of months ago and we are using alot of those ideas. I will definitely post some pictures of it afterwards.

This weekend we are going to North Carolina for a family reunion. We haven't been there for two years and they have never seen Bryson, so we are really excited to go down. We are camping there in the town at the campground and that is actually where the reunion is going to be there at a shelter, so we are really looking foward to it. Like I said before, the boys love camping and Christopher is very excited, he kept saying last night at my parents house that he "wanted to go right now to NC", I had to keep telling him that we weren't going until this weekend, he didn't like my answer at all. I will also post some pics from the reunion.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

No one ever knows where life may take them

The reason I say this is because this past week has been very hard for me. I think many times we just go about our business living our life's and get so comfortable in our lifestyles that we forget what life is all about. That just happened to me this past week. My little family has been doing so good financially, making our house our home. Just really living comfortable and then we got a very big reminder that is not what it is all about. Randy had some issues at work that he didn't think anything of and then he got suspended because of it and now no longer has his job as of Thursday (he can be hired back as of March of 2009 but no earlier). They say that life is like a roller coaster well I agree 100%. This past week our roller coaster broke down and was sitting at the bottom of a valley and not moving. I have cried many tears and prayed like crazy and wondered, "Why is this happening to my little family?" Life has been so good to us and then this. It really makes you get back to basics really fast. The Gospel--are we doing everything that we should be doing? What more can we be doing? And what is really the most important things in life? Boy, I have really been thinking about these questions alot lately. I talked to my sister yesterday morning and man, is she wise and helped me realize the bigger picture. Shelly, you really helped me out more than you will ever know. She shared with me a story that I knew about but forgot. A few years ago, just about this time of year, she quit her job so she could finish nursing school. She left her comfortable secure job to finish something that she wanted more than anything, to be a nurse. She said over the summer she worked for $12/hour at the ER @ MCV and was scared to death and cried alot because she didn't know how she was going to make it. But, to tell you how proud I am of her not only did she make it and graduate as an RN she still works at the ER @ MCV now making alot more than $12 an hour. She is also one semester away from getting her bachelor's of nursing. Go Shelly!!!! She also told me that this whole situation probably happened because there is something better out there for us we just have to find it. She said that now when looks back on the situation she wonders why she didn't leave her job sooner to pursue her dream. A blessing in disguise!



Well, Randy has found something else, he will be working for a Contractor for ADT, doing the exact same things he been doing just not as an ADT employee, and he will be making more money. Go figure. The only few downfalls are that he won't have a company vehicle anymore and he will have to pay for his own gas, :( . But, he will only work as far as 50 miles from the office, no more Winchester or northern neck or even out toward the mountains. He will have to use our van for the first little bit until we can get him a small non gas guzzling car. He can work as much as he wants now because he won't have to worry about overtime and the thing he is most excited about is he won't have to wear an ADT uniform and he can wear a t-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes. He was never allowed to do that before. And the best news of all is he starts on Monday. I guess the biggest lesson I have learned is that when life throws you lemons you make lemonade. The Lord knows each one of us personally, more than we probably know ourselves and he won't leave us hanging, he loves us too much. The most important thing is that we need to go to him often in pray to recieve what he has for us (blessings--more than we will ever know).



Well, last thing, one major thing that I have been really worried about is Health insurance. We will have it until the end of the month through ADT. Yesterday, Randy and I signed up for insurance through the state and we are going to put the boys on medicaid. One last thing, after you finish reading this if you could please pray for the Jones' family that everything will work out for us would really be wonderful. I need all the prayers said on our behalf as much as possible right now. I really just need to put my faith in the Lord and go from there.



I love my family and friends more than anything and am so grateful for them. They allow to be a better person and I want to live my life better because of them. Yesterday was my nephews 13 birthday. I can't believe how big he is and his 15 year old brother also. I love them so much. They bring so much joy into my life. We went out to eat last night for his birthday and let me tell you I really needed that after the week that I have had. My brother the prankster decided to put a bread stick under Logan's bum when he leaned over without him knowing it. When he finally figured out what was happening, he pulled it out and it was flatter than a pancake. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, I couldn't even hardly breathe, I was laughing so hard. The one major thing so far I have learned from all of this is that happiness and joy can be found in so many things and you don't need money to find it.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Memorial Day Weekend

I've needed to to write on my blog for some time but I just haven't so here I am. A lot has happened since my first entry. We went to our ward campout on the Friday night of Mermorial Day Weekend and it was so much fun. Our stake is really blessed to have such a nice facility to have all of our functions at. It has a pavillion and a really nice lake with a peninsula in the middle of it. Our Bishop's family brought their canoe, and everyone was taking turns on it. Even the Jones' family made there way out on it, even little Bryson. Mommy liked it until Daddy started shaking the canoe to tease me, then I was ready to get back on solid ground. Randy and Christopher both have fishing poles so they went fishing along with several others. Christopher caught a fish but saddly enough I never got to see it. To tell you how much fun Christopher had we were one of the last families to leave on Saturday and we had to drive to where he was and Randy had to put him in the car kicking and screaming all the way. Poor little guy did not want to go even though all his friends had already left.

On Saturday, when we got home we were so exhausted that we just relaxed the rest of the day. I didn't sleep good at all on Friday night because the kids didn't sleep good and I was awake with them so needless to say I was very tried. I mustered up the energy to give them baths Saturday night because they were both so dirty from the campout. After that I was trying to get them dressed and they both ran into their room and the next thing I heard was a very loud outburst cry like someone really hurt themselves, so I jumped off my bed where I was waiting to dress them and ran into their room and Bryson was on the on the ground with blood coming out of his mouth. I FREAKED! And of course Randy had just left to go to Walmart, I called him and he came home as fast as he had left. Well, the end result, Bryson knocked out his front left tooth, root and all and took a chunk of wood out of the bed railing. I was in hysterics. It was Memorial Day weekend mind you and there was no Denstist offices open anywhere and the other bad thing was that we could not find the tooth anywhere so he had to have swallowed it. Well, I was able to call a few people and they gave me some advice (thank goodness for all my dental student friends). I showed his mouth to an old Bishop of mine (who is a doctor) on Sunday at church the next day and he looked at it and said it looked okay to him. I took him to a pediatric denstist on Tuesday and he x-rayed it and said that he does not need a spacer because it is a front tooth. So he will be toothless until he is at least 6 years old. Poor little guy! Even now when I brush his teeth or he smiles it makes me sad.

So after all that excitment we went camping again Sunday night with my parents at Pocahontas State Park here in Chesterfield. It was really nice despite the mishap from the night before. The boys really love camping. We had a cookout for dinner and almost my whole family was there plus a few extras. My parents and the four of us, Naomi, my sister with her dog Chewie, Robbie, my brother and his girlfriend, Maribel, and her father who was visiting from NYC, and Randy's Uncle Malcolm and his son Tyson. It was a lot of fun. The only people that we were missing was my other sister Shelly, and my two nephews, Alex and Logan, they were with their dad for the weekend and I am not sure where my sister was. But, we had fun nonetheless. Robbie ended up spending the night also. Bryson had a blast playing with Chewie, he loves that dog. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. The next day we went swimming at the pool there at the park and it was nice but the water was freezing. Christopher felt the water and refused to get in after that but Bryson wouldn't get out of the water, he is definitely my fish.