Happy Holidays! Please forgive us!

Hello everyone! Wow, we have a lot to update you on. First of all, please forgive me for not having any cute new pictures of the kids to post. I've been really busy and haven't taken any pictures. To compensate for lack of kid pictures, I have posted a picture that Eve took of my *beyond fab* holiday shoes because she's too short and stubby to take a picture of a standing grown-up's face. Laine took the other picture of us before we left for our one and only date that we've been on (to Chris's company party) since we moved to DC. A daughter of one of Bradley's Babes (one of Grandpa's missionaries on temple square) babysat for us.

Anyway, life's been hectic. As you know, earlier this past week we sold our house in Sandy which was a fiasco! Which reminds me, Wayne and Lisa, I'm putting you guys in charge of rounding up the neighbors to throw your next door neighbors a party. A great big egg and toilet paper party!!! Gee whiz, they made our lives miserable bending over backwards to fix a million stupid things, shelling out a ton of money to make their dumb financing situation work, and they're still complaining about the electrical work that we had repaired. Oh well. It sold. So then, we bought our townhouse and have been busy doing all the things we needed to do for that. For example today was spent getting rooms painted before furniture arrives, getting a king size bed up a very narrow stairway, and ordering blinds so that in 3 and a half weeks, we can finally walk around the house naked again. Well, the kids do that anyway privacy or no privacy. Then this afternoon, we get a call saying that our moving van is arriving tomorrow instead of the end of next week like planned, which is great, but it meant I had to scrounge up muscle power at the last minute and make treats for my neighbors so they don't hate us when we take up all their parking spaces with the moving van tomorrow.

What this means for you: You may not get a card or gift from us this year. I was going to spend today and tomorrow writing Christmas cards and getting/making gifts for all our friends and family that have been so good and wonderful for us this year, but instead it has to be spent unpacking and moving. So please forgive us for not doing Christmas this year! I know what you're thinking. "All year I've been so nice to those Bradleys. I spent so much time (insert kind deed here, e.g. babysitting, giving them free moving boxes, offering moral support, shoveling their snow, raking their leaves, etc.) for them and they haven't so much as sent us a card!" I promise I'll make it up to you on Valentine's. We love you dearly and are thinking about you this Christmas, but I've just been a terrible slacker and I apologize. If you want, you can blame Chris because I started doing this in November, knowing I'd be busy, but he ridiculed me for doing Christmasy stuff before December 1st.

The kids are doing great. Laine and Eve are busy playing lots of new pretend games and exploring nooks and crannies in their new home. James decided that moving week would be a great time to enter Erik Erikson's phase of weineriness vs. toothiness or whatever it's called where babies become insecure and cry loudly when their mothers set them down amongst a pile of toys in order to do something productive. We only have limited internet access for the next two weeks, so I apologize for the sporadic blogging and poor e-mail response. Please be patient with us! We love you. Merry Christmas!

New Home!

Kitchen

The view from our back windows. Won't this be beautiful in the fall? At the bottom of the hill, there's a stream.

This is our new house! We don't have internet access right now, so I'll write a more detailed blog entry later when I'm not stealing a few minutes at our apartment. Basically, closing went well and we're waiting for our furniture to arrive, and we're stressed and relieved at the same time. More info to come...

Missing Mama

This has been a very busy few weeks. We got the old house under contract, picked out a new one, filled out a billion forms, went to inspections, performed repairs, packed boxes, flew across the country, lost our voices, started pre-school, made friends, attended our new ward, worked, read, played, went to the library, saw old friends, made phone calls, booked a moving truck, moved furniture, and prayed that everything would work out.

No wonder we're tired.

Christine has been in Salt Lake all week finalizing the packing and coordinating the move, all with baby James in tow. Good thing he's such a little sweety. The girls and I are staying in Virginia where Laine and Eve are quite enjoying their week of preschool while I go to work. Every day I get there to pick them up and find them dancing or playing or making art from pasta and they yell "Daddy!" and jump up for a super-sized twirling hug. Then we go on outings or eat dinner, then play a little and have a story before bedtime.

For the story, they each get to pick one thing for the story to be about. Invariably, one of them picks a "Princess named.... (insert randomly chosen Disney princess here)" and the other chooses something completely random. Thus we have had the story of "Snow White and the Mean Crocodile", "Sleeping Beauty and the Wicked Stepmother", "Princess Jasmine and the Dragon", and "Cinderella and the Wicked Witch" (I liked that one, Cinderella ended up going to the ball with feet so inflated by a magic spell that she had to wear rowboats for shoes). I think I liked the old days better when they chose to have princesses named "Princess Laine" and "Princess Eve", but I shouldn't complain, at least they are still young enough to think my stories are fun.

In other news, the campaign for literacy is going quite well for both of the girls, but Eve's potty train appears to have been derailed indefinitely. "I'll be a potty train when I am four years old." Bleh, we've got to find a better bribe or something to get that train back on track.

Anyway, we sure miss that beautiful Mama, it will be wonderful to have her back tomorrow.

-Christian

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Here are the girls asleep on the beanbag together.

And of course the angel boy James who is every bit as good and sweet awake as he is asleep. Unfortunately, my camera isn't equipped with halo-capturing technology yet, but trust me, it's there.

Little Video Clip of the Kids

I had a way funnier video clip of the kids, but try as I might, I couldn't get it to post on the blog. I think it might have been too long. If you can't get this one to play, don't worry, you're not missing anything huge. Just a little glimpse at the day to day lives of the Bradley children.

WANTED: MARSHMALLOW BANDITS!!!

Suspect one is approximately 40 inches tall with auburn hair and brown eyes. Second subject is approxinately 34 inches tall with short auburn hair, brown eyes, and a button nose. She is easily identifiable by her vehement dislike of clothing. Found at the scene of the crime was the following:

The bag of marshmallows was previously known to be at least half full. Suspects were last seen fleeing the scene of the crime in a hyperactive (no doubt high fructose corn syrup induced) frenzy. If found, please return to the Bradley residence where the outlaws will be severely punished with a heaping plate of brussel sprouts.

Gearing up for the holidays!!!

It's getting Christmasy around here! The weather here is still very pleasant and doesn't show any signs of snowing any time soon, but we're still excited. The other day, we went and picked out our tree. It's very small this year, but the girls had a great time deorating it with colorful lights. They each got to pick out an ornament too.

So have you ever wondered what would happen if a kid's hand got stuck in an elevator door? Well, wonder no more. We have the answer for you. The other day, we needed to stop by Chris's office to fax something and on the way out of the elevator, Eve was "helping the door to open" and her had slid right into the space between the elevator door and door frame. Chris yanked at her wrist, and much to my relief the fingers followed (intact). Other than some swollen knuckles, she was okay.