Happy Birthday Kadee!

Yesterday our beautiful Kadence celebrated her 10th birthday!  I can't believe it!  Since her birthday was in the middle of the school week we had her party last Friday at Apple Country Crafts.  It was the easiest party I've ever done and the girls had so much fun.  Each of the girls got a wood cut out of their first initial.  They got to paint it, modge podge their choice of paper on it, tie ribbon around it, and put a wire at the top to make it a photo holder.  We also had cake and drinks and the girls were of course silly and laughed a lot.

Yesterday, for Kadee's actual birthday, I took cupcakes to her class at school, we had parent teacher conferences (all the kids are doing fabulous and are right where they need to be, the only negative I heard was that Connor likes to talk a lot, just like his dad), then we went to dinner at Arby's (Kadee's choice).  After dinner grandma Debbie took her to Coldstone for ice cream and when she got home Rory surprised her with a rose and a stuffed panda.  She decided to go to Activity days at the church and they made sugar cookies and sang Happy Birthday to her.  She said she had a great day but it went by way too fast.

Kadence is such a sweet girl!  She loves gymnastics, dance, musical majors, and anything that keeps her busy.  Her favorite book series right now is Dork Diaries and her favorite colors are blue and green.  She loves school (especially art) and is the best student.  All of her teachers rave about her perfect behavior and how hard she works.  She also has Perfect Attendance so far this school year and is trying to not miss a day of school all year.  She is a very loyal friend and loves to be silly with her friends.  She is such an awesome addition to our family and I'm so excited for her to be 10 and to see what's in store for her.  

Spelling Bee fun!

This past week Connor and Kadence participated in the school spelling be.  All 4th and 5th graders were invited to participate and were given a list of words to study and prepare for it. Only 11 kids decided to participate and of those kids Kadee took 4th and Connor took 5th. I couldn't be more proud of them for trying and putting forth the effort.

Thursday my friend Brittnee got us tickets to the Provo City Temple Open House. She had enough extras we were able to invite Debbie, grandma Rhea, and Hyrum, Paola and the kids.  It was a beautiful open house and the kids were very well behaved.  At the end of the tour grandma Rhea got out of the wheelchair she used through the temple and pushed each of the kids around the visitor area, they loved it and it was so cute to watch her push them around. Afterward we all went to eat and visit.  It was a great day to spend with friends and family. 

Monday Kinlee's kindergarten class celebrated their 100th day of school. They dressed like they were 100 years old, had 100 different treats, and each brought 100 small items to count. They made a picture of what they would but if they had $100 and Kinlee said she would buy a big orange bus.  They made lots of fun memories and looked so adorable as little old people. Kinlee's teacher is so fun and even dressed up as an old lady with the kids.  What a fun way to learn to count to 100! 

 

Service

On Martin Luther King Jr. day I had the opportunity to spend the day volunteering.  As part of my job with AmeriCorps I am required to volunteer several hours throughout the year.  It has been a life changing experience.  Serving others has been such a blessing in my life and has made me realize the importance of service and helping others.  For our big service project we went to the Carbon County Animal Shelter and cleaned the dog cages and played with the dogs.  I fell in love with those precious animals and was so heartbroken to see them caged up.  After we helped feed them, cleaned their cages, and played with them we were able to visit with the people who run the animal shelter.  They truly love their job and take such good care of the animals there.  I pray all the dogs (there weren't any other animals there) get adopted out quickly and to loving families. 

After volunteering at the animal shelter the other volunteers and I went to the Community Closet on Main St.  It is a non profit clothing store for people in need.  Everything there is absolutely free and is in decent condition.  Any clothes that have stains our holes are bagged up and made into rags.  They then sell the rags to local businesses to pay the building rent space and utilities.  The girls and I took several large garbage bags and cut rags for hours.  It was very tedious and we didn't even get half way done before our day of service was over.  I brought a few bags home for the kids and I to work on, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  Hopefully we can get them done soon and do our part to help keep this amazing business open.

One of our New Years Resolutions was to go to church more frequently and to pray and read scriptures as a family.  We've been doing really well and the kids seem to enjoy the consistency.  Connor even set a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon, and has been getting up early every morning to read it for 20 minutes.  Sundays meeting went way over and the kids were really good but getting very antsy so I gave them my phone and they took these adorable pictures I just have to share. 

Basketball & Scooter Party

Not much new has been going on at the Bradley's.  Connor is still playing basketball and so far his team is still undefeated.  He practices morning and night and is really in love with the sport.  We have had a great time watching him play and cheering for his awesome team.  Rory is the coach and he loves it just as much as Connor.  Sorry about the terrible team picture, I didn't have time to edit it before updating my blog this week.  

Kinlee's teacher has each student set individual goals and then has a party for the kids who completed their goals.  This months party was a scooter party.  The kids got to bring their scooters to school and scoot around the gym.  Kinlee was bringing her Princess scooter and everything was fine until she was riding it up to the school and the handle fell off and she fell face first onto the concrete.  Luckily she wasn't hurt at all, but she was super sad her scooter broke.  Connor let her borrow his (big brother saves the day) so the day wasn't a total bust, but I feel really bad that her scooter fell apart on her. 

January 2016

Happy New Year!  So far the year has been fabulous!  Last week I was asked to be the mystery reader in Kinlee's Kindergarten Class.  I chose to read the book Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons.  After reading the book we sang Pete the Cats version of Wheels on the Bus, played pin the button on Pete's coat, who stole the button from Pete's coat, had a graham cracker treat that looked like Pete's coat and had a Pete the Cat coloring page.  I think I had just as much fun as the kids!  I love being at the school and being involved in the kids activities.

As the end of 2nd term is next week I have some bragging to do.  The kids have done fabulous this term and all have straight A's.  They have awesome citizenship and Kadence hasn't missed a day of school all year.  At the beginning of 2nd term Connor, Kadence, and Kinlee sat down with me and wrote down some goals they had for the term.  Everyone of them completed their goals.  Each of them had a goal to read 1000 minutes (Kinlee to read 500), Connor to memorize his Constitution Bee facts and learn 90 new spelling words, Kadence to memorize her times tables and learn 90 new spelling words, and Kinlee to learn 30 new sight words and receive her Silver Math Medal.  Matthew is still working on speech and is learning how to spell and write his name.  I couldn't be more proud of these crazy kids of mine.

Connor's basketball team has won all 3 of their games they've played so far and Kadence has begun working on her front walk over in gymnastics.  We are living and loving life!

Christmas 2015

We had an awesome Christmas!  Christmas eve we went to Derk an Debbie's for a delicious prime rib dinner. The kids reenacted the Christmas story then Debbie read us the story of the Christmas orange and told us a story about grandma Archie and grandpa Hollis and how an orange was one of the few gifts they got on Christmas.  The kids then opened their presents from grandma and grandpa and Kyle surprised his family with a trip to Disneyland!  We had dessert and then headed home to wait for Santa.  The kids had a hard time winding down, especially Kinlee.  It was 11:00 pm before she finally fell asleep.  Then, Connor was up at 2am begging to open presents.  Finally at 5:00 I let him wake everyone up and open presents.   After opening presents we went to Nana and Papa's for breakfast and more presents.  Breakfast was delicious and the morning flew by!  After breakfast we went to Derek and Nicole's to talk to Taylor.  It was so fun to see him and talk with him.  My favorite part was when Nicole asked Matthew if he remembered Taylor, we all laughed and reminded her he's only been gone 7 weeks.  The rest of the day was spent napping, playing with toys and visiting with family.  I can honestly say it was a perfect day.

This has been an amazing year and I'm so grateful to spend it with the people I love.  Here is our top 10 of 2015:

1.  Matthew and Kinlee learned to ride their bikes with no training wheels.  Kinlee tried it first, Matthew saw her do it and decided he was going to do it too and the rest is history!

2.  Rory began his job as a detective for Carbon County and received the Employee of the Month award for the month of May.

3.  Connor received his Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts and promoted to Boy Scouts.  He also received his Hunter Safety certificate and ran for student council President and won!  This is his last year of elementary school before he's in middle school, so crazy!  He is still playing baseball, basketball, and tackle football.  He also does guitar lessons and Musical majors, so he is one busy kid.

4.  Kadee joined Musical Majors (an after school singing group at Wellington Elementary) and got to sing her first solo at the Christmas concert.  She also did cheer for a few months in the Spring and is now in dance and absolutely loves it.  She is still in Gymnastics and is working on perfecting her back hand spring.  She is an awesome student and was picked to be in an accelerated learning program at school called Peak.   

5. Kinlee started Kindergarten!  She has started to read and learn addition and subtraction.  She loves school and loves her teacher, Mrs. Penry.  She also started dance this year and loves Mrs. Tori and making up dances in our living room.  

6. Matthew started his second year of preschool.  He played t-ball for the first time this Spring and totally loved it.  He took it very seriously and even whacked the ball several times, we have another ball player on our hands!  He is our animal lover and outdoorsy kid.  If he has shoes on when he goes outside we are all shocked, lol!   

7.  We finished the new house and moved in April 25, 2015.  It is so wonderful to not be renting and each of the kids has their own room. 

8.  We adopted our puppy Maggie.  She is a German Shepard and is so lovable.  She loves to learn tricks, bite ankles, and play with Connor.  She has been a fun addition to the family.

9.  We were able to go on a few camping trips, a few trips to the Living Planet Aquarium, take in a bee's game and Jazz game, visit Fish Lake, spend a long weekend in Glen wood Springs CO., spend a few weekends in St. George playing ball, playing at Sand Hollow and a girls weekend to the Tuacahn.

10.  We have been blessed with the best family and friends. I am so looking forward to 2016 and what the future holds for our little family.  

Christmas Cheer

 Last Thursday the kids had the opportunity to perform at care centers around the area.  I was invited by their teacher, Mrs. Grant to tag along and run the music.  It was an amazing experience.  The kids sang a handful of the Christmas songs they've learned in musical majors and and completely rocked it.  Kadence even got to sing a short solo.  It was so fun to follow them and be apart of the experience.  I liked it better than their big performance because I could really hear them and watch them on an individual basis.  My very favorite song they sing is, "Over the River" because of the way the music is put together.  Kadee's favorite song is,"This Holiday" because that is the song that she sings her solo in, and of course Connor likes, "Silly Holiday Song" because he gets to tell jokes in the middle of it.

Friday Kinlee's Kindergarten class made their Christmas Candy trains.  I had to work at the school, so grandma Debbie helped her.  They got their aprons on and went to work.  I had bought Kinlee some extras to put around her train so she had gingerbread men and a candy tree as well. She had lots of fun with grandma and was so excited to bring her train home.  At first she wanted to save it until Christmas, but the candy was too tempting, so her and Matthew ate several pieces.  That night Max Powers decided it looked too good to resist and he helped himself to some of it as well.

 
Finally last Saturday Connor got to go to a Jazz game with his dad and grandpa Derk.  They had really really good seats so he got a visit from the Jazz Bear and Matt (Taylor's dad) gave him a basketball and wrist band.  I think it was one of the best days of his life.  This Saturday he played in his first Jr. Jazz game of the season.  He played awesome and his team won!  He loves his sports and is seriously obsessed with basketball right now.  I'm super proud of him and all the effort he puts into school and the things he loves.