Oh what fun it is to ride....

To Austin and Waco for Christmas!! We had such a great time with our families over the Christmas holidays! We left Saturday, December 20 for Austin and stopped in Waco that afternoon to attend the annual Christmas party that Dave's mom hosts for the kids in their extended family. It was lots of fun! We continued on our journey to Austin and stayed there until Christmas Eve. A couple of highlights during our stay included: 1) Dave and I going on a date to see the Nutcracker for the first time while my parents babysat Katelyn and 2) participating in the 1st annual family Christmas dance tradition that my youngest sister Brittany created this year! You have to dance to a song of your choice before getting to open your presents (see below for pictures and see the previous post titled "Christmas Update Appetizer" for videos of the dancing). I'm pretty sure Katelyn ended up being a part of each person's dance! She was a dancing queen...or should I say princess?!

Mommy and Katelyn gettin' down to Garth Brooks "Wrapped Up in You"

Aunt Brenner and Katelyn dancing

My mom dancing to the song "I'm a Believer!" from the Shrek soundtrack

Then it was off to Waco until the 28th! We had a great time enjoying Christmas morning with Dave's mom, grandmother, aunt, and cousin! We ate some yummy homeade (not by us!) tamales for lunch too! One of the highlights of our trip was watching Katelyn play with this huge stuffed ladybug that Dave's mom was given by one of her friends! Click on the video below to watch Katelyn give that ladybug some sweet love!!

Christmas Update Appetizer!

OK-so I haven't had time to sit down and update our blog with stories/pics from our Christmas holidays, but my youngest sister Brittany sure has! Until I get my camera charged enough to download pictures from it onto our computer, a snippet and link from her blog will have to serve as an appetizer for you...Enjoy!

From Brittany's blog: To add to the Christmas festivities, I decided to start a new Christmas tradition this year. I've heard that it's not a tradition unless it's happened for 3 years. So, I'll rephrase. This year was the 1st annual Bradberry Christmas Dance. What does this even mean, you might ask? This means that each person in attendance, in any way related to the Bradberry family, must dance to a song of their choice before they can open their presents. It was AWESOME! I've included some videos below...

To view the videos from Brittany's blog, visit www.getreadyeurope.blogspot.com, and scroll down to the bottom of the post titled "Happy Birthday Jesus!" Note: Kristen's dancing was the only one from our family not videoed....still not really sure why! :) Maybe it was just too good for one video to hold!

Our Family Advent Tree!

So I got together in early December with a group of ladies from my M.O.P.S. (Mothers of Preschoolers) group, and we made these Advent trees. We cut out 25 symbols representing meaningful stories in the Bible that represent God's love and faithfulness. Each night (from Dec. 1-25th) we read a prayer that goes with a specific Scripture, and then Katelyn puts the assigned symbol on the felt tree. Below is a picture of our tree and then a video of Katelyn putting a symbol on the tree.

On another note, we are traveling this week to Austin and Waco to spend time with our families. We went to Waco this afternoon for a Christmas party that Dave's mom hosts every year, and then headed to Austin....which is where we are now (Saturday) and will leave for Waco on Christmas Eve (Wednesday) and then back to Dallas on the 28th (Sunday). We'll be hosting our Chinese friend from SMU on the 29th/30th to celebrate a belated Christmas and share our special traditions with him.

Take time to linger at the manger in the coming days, and in doing so, may you have a wonderful Christmas!

Holiday Fun!

My grandparents (Mom and Pop) sent Katelyn this really cute little winter outfit! Katelyn loved feeling the "fur" on it, and we loved watching her look so stinkin' adorable in it!


Also, Katelyn really got in the spirit of decorating the Christmas tree this year! Look closely and you'll see her shoes nestled in the branches! Thanks for the special touch, Katelyn!

Giving Thanks!

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday with my family in Austin, and we also were able to visit with Dave's family in Waco on our way back! We have so much to be thankful for...as I write this tonight, I am thankful for another day to live! The highlight of our Thanksgiving was having my grandparents (AKA mom and pop--my dad's parents) from Beaumont there! We hadn't seen them since May, and my dad drove to pick them up so they could share the holiday with us! Katelyn and I had a little bit of a stomach bug, and my sister Brittany was also a little under the weather during our stay in Austin, but the way I see it....what better place to get sick than at home with people who care and want to take care of you?! Here are a few pictures from the trip! Enjoy!

The gang!

Mom and Pop

Katelyn in her oversized PJ's

Katelyn after waking up from a nap and seeing a room full of people looking at her.
She's seen better days. :(

Katelyn playing with Jerry dog and MaMaw

Katelyn sharing her goldfish with Jerry dog

A Fun Thanksgiving Craft!

So...one day Katelyn and I had a free afternoon, and I had this brilliant idea (actually, my friend Bethany gave me the idea last Thanksgiving because she did this craft with her son)! We made a handprint turkey! It was so fun! I tried to take a picture of the finished product, but for some reason, I couldn't get it to show up well in any of the pictures I took. So....I'm just including the sample picture from the internet that we used as a guide (http://www.familycorner.com).

We (read: I) had so much fun doing this! Katelyn just kept looking at me like "Tell me again why you're painting my hand??" I'm not the craftiest person, but motherhood is really starting to do something to me (especially on rainy days when we're inside most of the day!)!!! I also found a little poem from another website (http://www.dltk-holidays.com) that I thought was cute, so we included it too! We sent these to our family as a "We are thankful for you!" card.

This isn't just a turkey as you can plainly see
I made it with my hand which is a part of me
It comes with lots of love especially to say
I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving day!

Buzzin' Along!

We really enjoyed our Halloween! Katelyn dressed up as a bumble bee! Actually, truth be told, we dressed her up! She didn't really have a say in the matter! Thank you to our dear, talented, oh-so-creative, friend Dangela who let us borrow the costume she made for her daughter Molly to wear last year! So here is the breakdown of our October 31st events:

On Friday morning, Katelyn and I visited the nursing home that we go to every Friday. I dressed her up in her cute costume, and the residents just ate her up!! It was really cute because all of the residents were dressed up too!

On Friday evening, our family participated in an outreach through our church to a local apartment complex. A couple from our church who lives in the apartment complex set up a few fun games, bought lots of candy, and gave us (along with two other couples from our home group) the opportunity to love on and serve people in our community! Dave was in charge of the "eyeball toss" game (eyeball=ping pong ball with an eye drawn on it), and he did such a great job! Katelyn and I manned the welcome table and gave kids trick or treat bags to hold all their candy in that they would be accumulating at each game!

Another highlight of our October 31st was that Katelyn started walking on her own!!! She really is buzzin' along now! That bee costume must have inspired her! Enjoy the video below that I recently took of her walking!

Katelyn costume (front)

Katelyn costume (back--please don't miss the stinger sticking out of the too-too! So cute!!)

Fun at the nursing home!

Crowd at the Fall Festival apartment outreach event

Us!

Here she comes just a walkin' down the street.....