Kailah in the 2nd Grade

Kailah at the end of the year assembly.




Kailah singing her solo in a very confusing play about Aesop's Fables. She was by far the best one...not that I am biased at all....





Kailah showing off her costume...she is supposed to be a red ant and was very upset that people thought she was a ladybug. She was very proud of her teacher's costume skills and insisted that it looked nothing like a ladybug. Isn't she a beautiful red ant?

Build-A-Bear

Kailah and Melanie got to celebrate their cousins Destiny's birthday with her at Build-A-Bear!! Their super nice Aunt Brianne bought all the kids an animal and an outfit! How amazingly super nice is that???



Melanie with the Birthday girl Destiny!!



Kailah with her Bunny Butter. She was very disappointed when we got home and she realized that the Build-A-Bear lady had written "Butler" on the bunny's birth certificate. We laughed alot and now we like to call him Butler just to bug her.




Melanie with her new friend Flowers the Bunny.

First Annual All American Jamboree

My sister-in-law Jen and I had a 4th of July party with a parade, hot dogs and a water slide! It was so much fun and I really hope we make it a tradition. It was so great to have everyone over to celebrate the birth of our nation!!








John led the parade in this excellent wig.

Our parade getting ready to head out!

Bradshaw Sisters!

This picture of me and Rachel makes me smile. We look like dorks but happy dorks. This is one of my favorite pictures of all time!! It is hard to get Rachel and I in a picture where we do real smiles. I tend to intentionally sabotage pictures and make faces like the one at the top of my blog. :) This picture rocks!

Every time we get together we get super excited about taking a sister picture. We giggle and plan who should sit where. The one above is from 2009 and the one below is from Easter of this year. I am looking at the wrong camera but the other girls look fabulous, so what can you do? I love these girls and hope that we take this same picture every year until we are old and wrinkley....I vow to still wear awesome jewelry and heels covered in sequins or bows or something else amazing even when I am sitting in my wheelchair and one of the other girls has to push me around.

Let's Go Jaguars!!

Melanie just finished her first year of indoor soccer and LOVED it. She never made a goal but she kicked, she ran, she cheered for her friends, she did alot of waving, alot of thumbs ups at us and loved to run to where we were sitting to get kisses and hugs (I don't think the players in the World Cup are doing this but it sure makes a mommy feel good so I'm not gonna stop her) and she had a great time. I She can't wait for next year. It is funny to have girls that are so different. Kailah loved playing indoor soccer but always stayed at the back of the group of kids and only touched the ball when it ricocheted off her body from someone elses kick...Mel on the other hand really got in there and tried to get the ball. Good job my little Jaguar!

Our 1st Harvest of 2010

Kailah was so excited to discover our first zucchini a couple weeks ago and has wanted to pick it ever since. We were making Albondigas and Larry thought the perfect way to spruce it up was with our little zucchini!! He said it was delicious which is good to know since I foolishly planted a bajillion zucchini plants that have ALL survived. Who knew they were so durable? Poor Larry will be eating a whole lotta zucchini since no one else likes them. Isn't our little zucchini adorable??

Our Little Preschool Graduate

We decided to put Melanie in preschool for the last little bit of the school year. She loves/hates it. She loves her teachers but she hates it when her Mommy has to leave. She learned some songs and they let her participate in their graduation ceremony. It was pretty stinkin cute. I will post the video of her songs later. And by later I mean whenever I figure out how to use my Flip Camera. :)

Melanie and her BFF Lainey...


Melanie with Miss Julie and Miss Christy...

It Totally Sucks!!!

My wonderful sister in law Brianne used her amazingly awesome employee privileges to get me a Dyson Animal for 1/2 price. It was really sad to say goodbye to my decade old Hoover that made sounds that frightened the children, smoked and made funky smells....but farewell old friend and HELLO Dyson!!!!

I was so excited to use it that Larry put it together in the middle of the night so I could get started. He laughed at me as I vacuumed and laughed hysterically but I just couldn't help it, vacuuming makes me giddy especially when use a new fancy vacuum. I was slightly disappointed, I wanted to have to empty it after every room but I guess we just aren't that yucky. I was happy to suck up some more of the pet hair that the previous owners had left behind.(seriously what was their deal? They must have had 50 dogs and cats in this house) So here it is...this is what I found in my carpet after one use of the Dyson...

Tamale Time!!

Back in December we had our annual tamale making festival. Here is how it ALWAYS goes....we are very enthusiastic at first and by the middle of the night we are tamaled out and ready for it to be over. Sadly, we still have tons of stuff to clean, tons to put away and have spent the night gorging ourselves on tamales (which is delicious and nauseating at the same time). Larry's favorite part is instructing us on how to make the perfect tamale. I always make mine too big because I have no patience and want it to be over. The girls usually make a few and then wander away to do something fun while Larry and I are stuck for hours spreading masa on cornhusks. I LOVE tamales but....I am so glad we only do it once a year, it is exhausting!

San Jacinto is so SMRT

Melanie and I were recently leaving one of our favorite parks and as we were driving away I noticed something amiss about the street sign. I slammed on my brakes and got out of the car so I could take this picture. It made me laugh and also made me a little sad inside. Good ol' San Jacinto.

Bubble Blowing

Kailah has desperately been trying to teach her little sister the art of bubblegum blowing. They are constantly asking for bubblegum and just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore...I heard hysterical laughter coming from upstairs and found Melanie with a perfect, giant bubble!! Of course it popped before I got a picture but this is her reenactment:



And of course Kailah the Teacher wanted to show off her skills too:

Easter 2010

Happy Easter!!!!

We had a wonderful Easter with Larry's family. We ate ham and tried to pretend that 7.2 earthquakes don't frighten us. Melanie was the most unconcerned about the rockin' and rollin', she just wanted to know if we would ever have our easter egg hunt. Poor Kailah was scared out of her mind and was convinced there would be another one any minute. The girls wore their lovely dresses given to them by their Grandma Ruiz, Melanie asked everyday for a week if it was EVER going to be easter because she loves wearing pretty dresses so much. On Saturday Melanie woke up and said to me "Tomorrow is the day Jesus was resurrected". I was very proud of her! Anyway, we have the Bradshaw Family Easter coming up on Sunday, it should be fun!!

Our 2010 Snow Trip!

During Kailah's week off we decided to head to Mammoth (again) to play in the snow. We did lots of sledding and lots of napping...all in all a great vacation. :) We stayed in the oldest condo I have ever seen with walls made of paper. The people staying above us were quite the night owls...yikes. Melanie was convinced that either a dragon or a ghost lived above us...personally I would have rather listened to a ghost then those people sneezing, showering and well, you know. Bleh. At one point our brakes decided to stop working and we started fishtailing down the mountain. It was the most calm I have ever seen Larry, it was slow motion, he clamly pulled the emergency and we slowed to a stop. It was pretty sweet. Anywoo, here are some pics from our trip!

Proof of Conception

When we finally saw our doctor we gave him our baby. The nurse asked what was in the container and after a little hesitation, I think to spare our feelings, the doctor said “Proof of conception.”

I thought it was an interesting statement. It was accurate I suppose but left me contemplating the meaning of those few words. “Proof of conception”.

Yes it was physical “proof of conception”, it contained my DNA as well as Larry’s. It was proof of how far development had occurred. It was proof that he/she could have fit into the palm of my hand. I saw the proof myself. I saw legs, arms and blue eyes that will never have the chance to grow and develop. I saw a tiny face that left me wondering if he/she would have looked like the girls or if they would have been more like me with freckles and pale skin. So yes I saw the physical proof of conception.

More then that though it was emotional “proof of conception”, it was “proof of love”. The love we have for that little baby, for each other within our family and for our Heavenly Father. It made me really realize what a miracle it is, what a gift a baby is. I saw our baby. The baby that we had been so excited to meet, to get to know, to love. It was the little person we had tried to think of the perfect name for, the person that we wanted to add to our family. And although he/she only had the chance to grow for a short time I am grateful to have had the opportunity and know that Heavenly Father has plans for me and for our family and I look forward to discovering what those plans are.

Our Baby

At our regular check up this last week we discovered that our baby's heart had stopped beating. We were devastated. We have spent the last 15 weeks jokingly referring to him/her as "Little Herman" and planning for his/her arrival in August. I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone that has listened to us vent, helped with the girls and brought us food. It has been such a tremendous help during such a sad week.