Starting Christmas Break

We have really enjoyed Josh being out of school so far. I still can't believe that we get him home for a whole month, but already the time seems to be flying by! I have started making my bow instructional videos, which have taken a LOT of time, but it's going to turn out great! I went to my first staff meeting at church this past week. I got up with 30 minutes to get myself and the girls ready, and boy did I learn a lot! Gum is not a sufficient snack for an hour! Kids will not sit and just color! And who knew that white out could be used as Mascara (Makayla is so talented)! Let's just say, I didn't stay for the whole meeting, but I am still excited about my new job! Josh's dad came and visited us for a few days, unfortunately I got sick and was locked in the bedroom for most of it. Josh and his dad had some great times playing Wii until the "wee" hours of the morning. The girls also enjoyed a lot of the attention from Grandpa! He took them to Marbles, a kids "museum" but more like a play wonderland. I put some pictures of that adventure below. Other than that we are just gearing up for lots of Christmas parties!

Back to Ministry

Today the elders at Brooks Avenue church of Christ announced that I am going to fill the position of Children's Coordinator. We have been praying about this opportunity for a long time. I've never been more at peace with the future of our family. I can honestly say that no matter the outcome, I knew that God would be taking care of our family. I am so thankful for this opportunity to work with the kids at Brooks and help them to grow in knowledge and spiritually and a little fun too :) Of course, there is always the financial blessing that gives our family great peace as we reach the midpoint of Josh's nursing program. This Tuesday he is done for the semester and does not return to school for over a month! We are so thankful to have this time as a family to gear up for a long stretch until July. We have pretty big plans for his break! Josh's dad is coming to visit us this week. We will celebrate with my family here this year on Christmas day. After Christmas we will travel to Ohio to visit Meemaw and Papa and some of Josh's other Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. And of course, we end his break with my surgery in Colorado. This time will speed by, but were are thankful to get to spend so much time with family and friends.
It was very cute to watch Makayla tonite. She is such a reflection of her parents, it's a good refresher for us. Tonite she proceeded to put her dolls in time out, telling them to be quite and sit down, she even made us turn on the "Time Out Bear" (we have a bear with a timer on it so she knows how long she has to sit in time out, it works GREAT!). Then she put her dolls nite-nite. She does a great impression of us! It's quite humorous, but it also shows us some areas to work on as well. She has no inhibitions in repeating what we say, and sometimes hearing it from her voice lets us know if we need to change some things.
One of the most precious things from this week is a holiday tradition that we are starting. I got together with the ladies and did an ornament exchange, not just any ornament exchange, but a Jesse Tree. Each day there is a different ornament that takes you through the story of Jesus starting at the very beginning with creation. Each night you read a passage in the Bible and hang the ornament. Even though my girls are still too young to understand fully what is going on, it is so sweet to watch Makayla with her "mock" I'm interested face and to hear her sweet prayers. I think that this might become more than a holiday tradition.
On other news, we had our first major Craft Fair this weekend. I hosted 18 vendors at our church. We invited the community and surrounding churches to join us. For our first event like this I think it went well, there is a lot of room for growth and improvement, but a profit is a profit and I am thankful!

Here are some fun pics from our week:
Gotta love those cheeks!
My new sassy hair cut

Believe it or not, our cat voluntarily got in the stroller

Thanksgiving week

With Josh on Thanksgiving Break, we have had a nice relaxing week enjoying friends and family. I have been plugging away making hair bows and accessories for the Craft Fair Dec. 6th. Besides my fingers being numb from using the lighter and pulling ribbon, I've made good progress. If people would stop giving me orders, I'd be able to make more bows for the Fair, but I guess that's a good problem to have.
Josh had a great time with his traditional Black Friday shopping. He and my mom go out each year and shop (she's the only one willing to get up that early). This year he came home with a real treat. He used his birthday money to get Rockband! We LOVE it! We are like wiiaholics now, wii, wii fit, now rockband, anyone wanna come over to play?
The girls have gotten to some great stages in their development. Makayla continually says, "I can't, Mommy, you do it," and Caroline has begun "No!" Can't you just imagine the fun we're having at our house? Caroline has really developed a cute personality. Makayla has become a little more shy and Caroline is really coming out of her shell (as you can tell from the photos below) She has a thing with putting things on her head.
Hope you enjoy the pics. I hope to get somemore Thanksgiving pictures e-mailed to me.

All the Cousins playing piano together on Thanksgiving

Caroline's First Hair Cut

Tonite was family hair cut night, at least for the girls. It was Caroline's first ever hair cut, which was a little sad for me, because her hair is so long and I had to level it off, so she lost some precious curls! It wasn't easy, but we got the job done. All girls love a hair cut!

Cuddle time with Daddy before bed

Let it Snow!

Yep! Mark it on your calendar folks. It snowed in NC on November 18th! Craziness I know! Of course, it was only for about 5 minutes, but snow is snow. I snapped some pictures from our front porch for proof, so look real hard and you'll see some flakes.

See all of those flakes in the air!

All those flakes on the stairs! Don't fall!

How is it snowing when it's 45 degrees outside?

Welcome to Moe's!

So we have had an exciting week, and not just because it was Josh's birthday on Friday (29! Can you believe it?) My sweet husband spent the night outside of Moe's to get free burritos for a year. Thanks to him, we have 52 (well, 50 now) free burrito coupons to use as we please. He had a great night with two of his friends playing Wii, and hanging out. Hey, it was his birthday, he can do what he wants! At least he enjoyed the surprise party I threw for him, for about an hour :)

The girls and I had a fun week playing at home. Nothing too big to talk about, but some cute pictures to admire!

Notice Makayla running up behind Caroline to pull off her underwear

What great Chef's I have!

In other great Bradley news: I'm gearing up for another craft fair. This one is going to be HUGE! We are having it at church and so far we have 16 different vendors, name brand and handmade. I'm looking forward to it...and the profits :)

Our Little Addition

After a little mix up at the SPCA, we finally have our new pet cat. We took the girls to visit the SPCA to just see the dogs, but when we saw the cats, we just couldn't resist. After spending all Saturday checking out cats at various places, we finally found a cat that we loved and who loved the girls as well. We spent the time and money adopting the cat and when we got home, we realized we had the wrong cat! We spent the night with the cat, thinking we could make due, but my heart had already bed sold to another cat. I made the trip back to the SPCA with cat #1 in tow, begging and pleading for an exchange. We had two things against us, 1) they don't do exchanges 2) the cat we had fallen in love with was 2 months too young for our girls. So I stood there and made puppy eyes at our cat (can you do that?) while I waited to talk to the manager. After much sympathetic pleading, she agreed it was an honest mistake and kindly switched the cats. We are SOOOOOOO happy with our new cat. His name is Mason. He is friendly, loves people, loves attention and loves to play, which is as close to a dog as we can get, so we love it! He's litter box trained and doesn't bite, what could be better? So welcome Mason Bradley to our family!

Mason Bradley

Not Mason, but a really cute picture from this week

Trick or Treat

Friday night we dressed the girls up for the third time (we had already done a Trunk or Treat and had costume day at daycare). The girls got to go around our complex and trick or treat. They had a great time, but got used to saying "Nobody's home!" Makayla did well telling everyone "Trick or treat." Caroline just wanted to hang out with everybody, she just stood in their doorway until we picked her up. One family actually invited her in (we had met them before at the park) and she actually started going in. So I would say it's been a great success. Josh and I sure have enjoyed their candy.
In other Bradley news: Josh is plugging away in school. The test he thought he failed he got a 97 on, so I would say he's doing fairly well. He got his classes registered for next spring. He's doing his pediatric and ob/gyn clinicals, so that should be interesting. I spent a week at my daycare job and quickly realized that is was not a match. I literally got a doctors note for Friday for Caroline, so I had to stay home with her and then I let them know I would not be coming back. So, yet again, we are still trying to figure out what God wants us to do. At least at this point I am at more peace with our situation. I trust that God will lead us through this, whether He blesses us with money or not.

North Carolina State Fair

On Sunday, Josh and I took the girls to the state fair. We had hots dogs, chicken fingers and funnel cakes. What great Fair food! We had a blast walking around looking at all of the games, rides, but most importantly, checking out the farm animals. I think we spent just about all of our time looking at the "doggies" or what most people call them, cows, pigs, sheep and horses.









In other news for the week, I started my job today at Treasures of Joy Christian Learning Center. Wow... you guys think two girls 11 months apart it busy! Try changing 10 diapers at once! I enjoy being in Caroline's classroom 1) because she's my baby and I still want to be there to teach her 2) because lesson planning is a whole lot easier :) It is quite a bit challenging handling all those babies, but they are so sweet and they don't talk back! It was sad for me to leave Makayla in her classroom, I missed her this morning. She is only like 10 feet away, but it seems so far. The other teacher in my room would let me take some "Makayla breaks" so I could peak in the door to make sure she was having a good time. Of course, my Caroline was the only child to refuse to take a nap and they both pretty much just ate applesauce for lunch, but they will learn. I had a lot of learning to do myself today, but I think I can handle it. It's only for a season. God has blessed us so much in the past two weeks, my trust in Him has grown immensely! I appreciate your prayers as we are challenged while Josh is in school!

Go Buckeyes!

I apologize for not getting any video footage up of Caroline falling asleep at the table. Our camera died right after we taped her, so we couldn't download it. Anyone want to get us a new one for Christmas???

This has been a fun relaxing week for the Bradley's. I'm not ready for Josh to go back to school. Why do we have to work? Speaking of work, I have put out my resume for some daycares and preschools so that Makayla and Caroline could come with me to work. I have a couple interviews lined up, but since I'm so picky about who takes care of the girls, I think I will be interviewing them more than they are me. It's nice to have some options to think about. I got to babysit a 3 month old today and I decided it would be really fun to get another degree in Child Development so I can counsel parents. I was really proud that I did not get the baby bug!

I think the best part of this week for me happened in Ladies Bible class on Wednesday night. We are doing a Beth Moore study on the life of Paul (so happy to be in the New Testament!). I hadn't done a lot of the study for this week, so I did more listening than talking. This lesson really spoke to my heart. The women were discussing hardships that we go through and how to deal with them. I felt like the whole class they were talking just to me (partly because they were :) And then we looked up this verse and it has transformed my week, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." 2 Corinthians 4:17. It just put everything in perspective for me. I get so stressed worrying about where our money is going to come from and how we are going to make it the next year, but it doesn't matter, because Heaven is awesome! The Lord blessed Josh and me with some awesome time meditating with Him and I am so thankful.

To end up this post (since the week isn't over yet) we had a blast tonite at my cousin's rehearsal dinner. He had a football themed dinner and we got to wear our team colors. Thanks to Josh's mom, the girls looked absolutely ADORABLE!! Everyone was talking about how cute they were (good thing they aren't going to be at the wedding or the bride might get jealous!) We had a good time grooving to blue grass, eating great bbq and welcoming Allie into the Longaberger traditions of the Safley's. So... I hope you enjoy a few of our snapshots of our Buckeye family!

Special thanks to Bows by Emily for providing the bows seen in these pictures ;)