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. 

Thanksgiving Fun!

Kinlee had her Kindergarten Thanksgiving Program today.  It was so cute, they do sign language in it so she has been practicing at home.  She thinks sign language is Spanish so every time she practices she says, "Do you want to see my Spanish?"  Haha. Yesterday Kinlee got the Wellington Warrior Award for self control.  They only pick 2 kids out of each class each month so I'm pretty proud of her for getting this award.  Her teacher said she has been working so hard in school and is very well behaved.  

Matthew is so excited for Christmas he can't stand it.  We drew names this year and he got my name so he wrapped a present for me and wanted to put it under the tree so bad.  He begged Rory all day Sunday to put up the tree but Rory kept telling him no, so the next thing you know he's grabbed Kadee's mini tree out of her room, gotten the step stool to get in the totes to get out a few ornaments, and sets the mini tree up in the living room while singing, "Oh Christmas Tree, oh Christmas tree..." over and over again.  That kid is a problem solver and was so excited to put the present he got me under the tree.  He had his preschool Thanksgiving Feast today.  They made the cutest tee pees out of ice cream cones and frosting.  We took mashed potatoes and there were a ton left over, he told his teacher he needed to take them home so his dad could eat them.

Kadee and Kinlee both danced at the Helper craft fair this past weekend.  They were so adorable and were so happy to have Nana, grandma Deb, and grandma Rhea there to watch.  Nana even bought some fudge for her and Kinlee to share.    

Connor at our Veteran's day scout program

Kinlee made this Turkey Feather in school

Meet Maggie

Last weekend we had a birthday party for Matthew at McDonald's, it was a week early, but we will be in Mesquite for a baseball tournament on his actual birthday, so we celebrated a little early.  We invited his very best friend Myles and Kadee brought along her friend Baylee.  Nana Kelli, Grandma Debbie, Grandma Rhea, Zac, Devin, Booga, and Landon all met us there to have lunch and cupcakes with the birthday boy.  It was a fun little birthday party and Matthew loved opening his gifts and the blue cupcakes (as you can see in the pictures).  I can't believe he is going to be 4.  He is in such a fun stage!  He loves trucks, dad's phone, riding his bike, preschool, grandma's house, blocks, jumping off the couch (not allowed but he does it anyway), playing cars, house with Kinlee, reading books, and playing any sports the older boys in the neighborhood will let him play.  His favorite people are grandma Debbie, Myles, Logan, & Zac.

Saturday we went and picked up one of Bella's puppies.  She is so happy at her new home, but was so excited to see us!  We miss her so much and wish we could have kept her, but she had no where to run and now that we have a fenced in yard her new owner doesn't want to give her up.  Anyway, we picked one of her puppies and named her Maggie.  She is so adorable and is already so spoiled.  We love cuddling with her and playing with her, except Kinlee, for some reason Kinlee is terrified of her.  She is deathly afraid that the puppy is going to bite her toes!  Luckily we have avoided any serious toe biting and have had a great time getting to know our sweet girl.