We're Home!

We made it back to Knoxville! After about ten hours in the car yesterday, we finally pulled into our driveway and slowly unfolded ourselves out of the car. (Have you seen that hotel commercial about the family on their summer vacation? The one where the dad is stuck in the driving position and the mom and kids carry him into the hotel so they can relax? Yeah!? That's what we looked like). What really matters, though, is that we got here safely and sanity in tact.

My mom made the trip so much easier, and I seriously could NOT have done it without her! Today we dropped her off at the airport so she can fly back to New Orleans. Isn't she a trooper!? Not to mention, my grandmother (my mom's mom) had to be hospitalized yesterday while we were making our drive back up here, so my momma is trying to get back soon so she can go be by her side.

Anyway, I have lots of stuff to post about our trip to NOLA, but for the moment, I will tell you that I am recovering from the trip, doing laundry, organizing the car, and laying LOW! I'll leave you with one pic from our trip!

Just Checking In

Well, we've only got one full day left in New Orleans before the kids, my mom, and I make the long drive back to Knoxville.  We have had a great time visiting with my family and some old friends, but we do really miss Jonathan and wish he could have been here with us.  The kids have been having a great time at Nana and Grandpa's house, so busy exploring, playing with the dogs, eating snowballs, and seeing the sights of New Orleans.  I can't wait to blog about all of our adventures, but I don't really have the time or ability to upload photos here, so it'll have to wait until we get home. 

In some news, though, Liam has been getting lots of practice with walking while have been here.  Before we left he had been going from sitting to standing on his own, but couldn't stay balanced for very long before he'd fall down.  His standing has improved, and if we can get him to do it, he's taking steps.  He'll talk about 6-7 in a row before he loses his balance, so I think it's only a short amount of time before this boy is a full-blown walker!  Can't believe it!

Nora is such a little charmer to everyone.  She walks up to people and asks their names', unafraid of putting herself out there.  She just loves it here in "New Or-wins," but who wouldn't!  We get to play with puppy dogs, sleep on a special pallet at nighttime and naptime, go for snowballs almost every night, and Grandpa even bought her her first pair of ballet shoes for her ballet classes that start up in just a few weeks!  So many pics are to come!

Please pray for our safety on the way back. The trip down took us eleven hours!!!  It was a long day, but all in all the kids did great.  There WAS a little while when we all were about to breakdown into a meltdown, but the kids fell asleep and we were all able to regain our composure!  Until next time....

Here We Come....

Tomorrow is the day!  The kids and I (minus my precious husband) will be making the 10 hour drive down to New Orleans to spend some time with my parents.  We have been planning this trip for such a long time, and I am so excited to go!  My mom is flying in to Knoxville this afternoon, and tomorrow morning she will be helping as we load up the car and make the trek way.down.south.

This will be a first for me.  Driving the kids.  No husband.  Gone for ten days.

Please pray for me and my sanity.  My sanity will be staying back home in Knoxville working hard and missing his wife and kiddos.  I haven't been gone from him this long.  I haven't been gone from him this long with two kids.  I haven't been gone from him this long with two kids in another state.  I will miss him like crazy!


BUT, we are going to have a great time with my parents, my sister, and visiting lots of family and friends.  Not to mention the fact that I plan on eating VERY WELL while down there.  I am envisioning fried and boiled seafood, gumbo, snowballs, and plenty of Momma's cooking.  I'll be sure to report in as I can and to do a full-blown recap post once we return and catch our breath.

Please pray for our safety as we drive down to New Orleans tomorrow!

In the meantime, I will leave to ponder the dilemma I am in.  What am I to do with this?

The mess.  The hair.  The food in every crack and crevice.
And then there are the cheeks. 
That's the hardest dilemma ever!

According to Nora...

I realize that I have not done many posts on the kiddos lately and what they are up to as little individuals.  Nora isn't changing in her looks or abilities so much anymore--resulting in monthly updates so I can remember all of her stats and skills--but she is learning so much all the time.  I know that I am forgetting all of the little things, so I need to be consistent with recording things she says, silly things she does, etc.  So, while I am taking the time to think thoughts about my not-so-little girl, I'll record them.  Hard to believe that she'll be three years old in only six short weeks!

According to Nora...

...bedtime is not complete without her Baby, Bear, Pillow, Sheep, Bunny, and two blankets (the white one and the pink one).  (How there is enough room in the bed for her AND all of those things is beyond me).

...her baby brother is mostly referred to as Buddy Ma-yan.  You have to get the double syllable of the Man in there for it to be accurate.  (We do live in East Tennessee, people, forgive us).  But, he also goes by "Wee-um,"  "Wee-um Piper,"  "Stinker Boy," and "Rugrat."

...suckers are a "very special treat."

...while riding in the car, Nora's two big things involve the music and the air conditioner.  She is now aware that Momma can control the flow of air to the back of the car.  She is CONSTANTLY asking me to adjust it...sometimes to blow faster, sometimes slower, sometimes off, only to be followed shortly thereafter by faster, slower, off, slower, off.  As usual, we love to listen to music in the car, but we've recently gotten on this kick where we listen to audio stories on CD.  LOVES THEM!  She basically has the story of the Gingerbread Man memorized.

...it's much more fun to say things repeatedly when trying to emphasize a really important point:  "Hey Mommy, Hey Mommy, Hey Mommy."


"Yes, Nora."


"Hey Mommy, can I, can I, can I, can I......."  (Forgetting what she wanted to ask in the first place).
"Hey Mommy, Hey Mommy......"

...sharing her dollhouse with her little brother is the worst possible situation she can be in.  I am trying to teach her and train her to share and play together with him.  I will say, however, that the moments when they play together unsolicited are increasing in number.  I just love to hear them laugh together and be silly together.  Liam absolutely adores her and loves playing by her side, but sharing is hard when you are almost three (and just over one), so there's lots of spats that go on between them.

...going "peep" in the potty is the norm now.  She wears panties all day, even for naps and at bedtime.  Right now she typically wakes up once a night to go pee, and then goes right back to bed.  Pooping in the potty is still a no-go, though.  She'll come to me and ask for a diaper/pull-up to take care of her business, which we are currently allowing her to do, and then she gets changed and puts panties back on.

...wearing a ponytail is our most common hairstyle.  It took this girl forever to be able to wear  a ponytail due to an overall LACK of hair, so now we wear one often, and I must say, it looks so stinking cute.

...she wakes up everyday and asks to wear a "spin-around dress."  If her nightgown is clean, she sleeps in that (as opposed to a pants/shirt ensemble or a footie pajama which I think she is altogether TOO big for.  So sad!), but shortly after waking up or eating breakfast, she is asking to put on her dress.  We have several pairs of shorts and capri pants, but they haven't gotten worn much this season so far because we rotate between the 4 dresses in her closet.  Such a girl!

...Capri-Suns are fabulous.

...she and Daddy have "relax time" together several times a week before going to bed.  Just as soon as we finish saying prayers and it's about time for Jonathan and I to make our way out of the room, she starts.  "Daddy," she says in her sweet, precious, little voice.  "Will you relax with me?"  9 out of 10 times, he can't say no.  They'll lay in her bed in the dark and talk about the letters and animals on her wall, talk about what they did that day, or what they will be doing the next day.  They laugh, they giggle.  Sometimes I have to go in there to see if Jonathan is ever going to come out ;)  I love to listen to them in there...so sweet.

...our iPhones are pretty much hers.  She knows how to use those things!  She can work the camera, turn it on, turn it off, find and play the games we have on there for her.  It's so weird that already our kids are tech-savvy.  I wonder what they'll be doing technology-wise when they are teenagers?

...she's all about peoples whole names.  First Names.  Last Names.  Families.  She likes to make the connections.  She introduces herself as Nora Kathryn Bradshaw.  She likes to talk about Mommy is a Bradshaw, Daddy is a Bradshaw, Liam is a Bradshaw, Nora is a Bradshaw.  We are a family.  She wants to know all of her friends' last names.  Talk about who's in their families.  It's funny and fun to hear her make these connections and learn the structures of a family.  She knows that Momma is married to Daddy, and that Daddy is a husband and Momma is a wife.  She'll tell us often that she is not married and is not a wife.  So cute!

Ok, that is all I can think of right now. Everyday with this girl is an adventure, and she is growing too fast before our very eyes.  I love her so much, and I am so thankful for the gift that she is!

The Kitchen Saga

We love our house.  If we could add one bedroom/bonus room and increase the size of our living room a bit, I think we would stay in this house forever.  We love the neighborhood.  We love our neighbors.  We have a pool just down the street.  A playground just next to the pool.  It's great for walks.  It's safe.  It's in a very central location.  We love it!  However, since we won't be able to add another bedroom and increase the square footage of this house, we know that eventually we will have to move on.  (But we are taking our next door neighbors with us.  We are now a package deal!).

Anyway, since we moved in three years ago, we really haven't done much maintenance or made many changes.  We did paint the garage shortly after we moved in.  And last year, Jonathan painted Nora's room when she moved out of the nursery into where she is now.  The previous owners had painted the house just a few months before we bought it, and we were really pleased with their color selections, so we decided we didn't need to change anything.  Plus, Jonathan didn't really want to paint if we would be moving on in just a matter of time.

Well, due to work situations and a desire to save some money, we have decided not to move anytime soon.  We fit really well in our house, and so we are staying put until a later date.  However, I decided a few weeks ago that I was ready to make a few changes that we had been wanting to make but just hadn't done.  For example: our kitchen.  Our kitchen was a very bright red.  I would have to say that it's probably not my top pick for a kitchen color, but it was really cute with matching curtains, and so we've kept it since we moved in.  I decided, however, that I was ready for a change.  I wanted to choose something that was more our style and taste, and I think that if/when we sell, a more neutral color in the kitchen would be more appealing to potential buyers.  They will either LOVE the red or really hate it.

So, Monday, after our REALLY long and busy and tiring day celebrating July 4th, we decided to paint the kitchen.  Jonathan worked really hard all day taping off all of the nooks and crannies of the kitchen, and primed two coats with the yellow color I picked out.  As we were working, I started having doubts about the color choice.  It was bright.  I am so wishy-washy about making decorating decisions and just don't have a lot of confidence in myself, so I just kept saying:  It'll work out.  It'll look good.  Just wait till it's all done.  The yellow was just so different from the red, so I was having trouble adjusting and imagining something different from the bright red we were so accustomed to.  I didn't say anything to Jonathan about my doubts.  And he didn't say anything to me.

Around 5:00 in the evening, we had pretty much primed everything twice.  It was REALLY bright yellow.  Not schoolbus yellow, not mustard, just cheery.  Bright.  (The name of the paint color we chose was Cheerful Hue....do you get me!?).  We had dinner plans, so I was thinking, "When we get home, the sun will have set, the paint will have dried, it'll chill out some and not look so bright.  It'll be fine."

Well, at about 8:45 when we got home and walked into the kitchen, it was AWFUL!  AWFUL!  TOTALLY BRIGHT.  Where are my sunglasses?  Ugh, I had that terrible empty pit in the bottom of my stomach feeling.  How was I going to break the news to Jonathan!?

I started off by asking him if he liked it.  "I like it if that's what you like," he said. 

Such a cop-out answer!

Then, I told him the truth.  I don't like it.  At all.  We HAVE to do something.

He was so gracious.  I was so upset.  I told him I was never going to make a home decorating decision ever again.  Apparently, I am completely inept at this and should never be trusted to purchase or make decisions about our home again.  He had worked so hard and look what I had done!  Not to mention that I was a little frustrated that everything from inside my kitchen was spread out throughout the rest of the house while we painted.  It was chaos.  I couldn't cook, I couldn't use the stove.  I had gates up and appliances everywhere.

I just wanted the nightmare to be over!

But here we were stuck in the middle of no man's land!

UGH!  To make a long story short, Tuesday Jonathan took the paint that we had already purchased and tried to have it lightened to see if that would help DULL IT DOWN.  It didn't work.  SOOOO..... On Wednesday, I did what I should have done from the very beginning.  You see, I got the idea and inspiration for my yellow kitchen from a picture out of a Pottery Barn magazine.  (This whole saga is PB's fault, I tell you!).  Pottery Barn sells their paint colors through Benjamin Moore, and you can access their paint samples and stuff through them.  Wednesday morning the kids and I headed over to Benjamin Moore and picked up the original color I wanted called Hawthorne Yellow.  I also picked out another color in case the Hawthorne Yellow ALSO turned out to be a disaster.  I came home and painted the two new sample colors on nearly every wall in the kitchen, trying to see how it looked with every shade of light coming in.  I got the opinion of my neighbor, my mother-in-law, and Jonathan, and we all agreed that the Hawthorne Yellow was the way to go.

I was nervous.  I didn't want to make the same mistake again!  But, we went with it.  AND.....it turned out so much better!  I am really liking it!  I have to admit that I am still adjusting to the difference between the darkness of the red kitchen with the lightness of the yellow one, but I think it looks really good.  Jonathan did such a fabulous job, and so lovingly painted until 1:00 am on Wednesday evening.  I think he was just as ready, if not more, for this project to be behind us.  Yesterday I spent most of the day putting our kitchen back together and deep cleaning.  It was a much needed task, and I'm glad it's all over.

So, we WON'T be painting again for a long time.  I had hoped to also paint our bedroom, but I'm not going to mention that one anytime soon.

Pics to come!

Fourth of July 2010

I love the 4th of July!  I think have determined that it is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  It's summer.  There's water games and swimming.  There's food.  Family.  Friends.  And fireworks.  This year we had a great time!  My in-laws opened up their home to us, and we invited over a few friends.  You add in the fact that the entire neighborhood gets together for a good time with a huge blow-up waterslide for all the kids (and some adults), and things were just fantastic. 

We started the day off by going to church.  I think I've mentioned before that Liam is have a "hard time" (to put it mildly) in his class at church.  He makes it about 10-15 minutes before they call us to come get him.  If you know him at all, you are aware of his high-pitched scream, which has caused him to become known as "The Instigator."  As soon as the rest of the kids get calmed down from their own separation anxieties, Liam revs up his scream and lets it loose, getting all the other kiddos upset again.  This Sunday, however, I stayed in the class with him.  He was so pitiful for the first 20 minutes or so we were in there, but he eventually calmed down, enjoyed a snack, and wandered off to play with some toys and other babies.  I was able to sneak out for about five minutes when I heard the scream from all the way down the hall.  I was sure that he had realized I was MIA, but he hadn't.  Actually, his leg had gotten stuck in a toy and he wasn't able to get it out.  But, by the time we got him loose, he was all pitiful again, so we just stayed the remainder of the time together in his room.  Sundays are just hard for our boy.  No nap, Momma is trying to leave him.  It's a season. It's a season.  It's a season. 

Anyway, after church, we headed over to the Bradshaws for lunch with the family and naptime for the kiddos.  Liam went down early, but just as we got him settled down, the neighbors busted out the blow-up waterslide.  Nora was in her swimsuit and down the street in a matter of minutes.

Here she is checking things out.  I wasn't sure how she would handle the situation.  She was definitely the youngest kid out there, so I thought she'd be shy about it.

But, she wasn't.

She loved it, and she quickly learned how to climb up the wall all by herself.  Such a big girl!  Then, I told her to go down on her belly, headfirst.  I really didn't think she'd do it, but she did.  Then, that's all she would do.  Such a daredevil.  After about 30 minutes or so of sliding, we decided to head in for a nap.

Meanwhile, someone else woke up and needed some loving from Granna.

A bit later, it was time for Liam's supper.  Since he's in the picking eating phase, we went with spaghetti.  What kid doesn't like hotdogs? Especially on the  4th of July!?

We had quite the spread: hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, baked beans, corn dip, and a homemade 4th of July cake made by Granna and Nora Kathryn.  Nora helped Mrs. Joyce mix the cake, and she placed all of the berries on there all by herself.  Such a sweet project for the two of them.

Our friends, the Worleys, and our next door neighbors, the Walworths, came over to swim, play, eat, and watch the fireworks with us.  The kids had a blast!
Liam thoroughly enjoyed the life of luxury by eating three bowls of watermelon while lounging in my lap. 

Then, he and baby Delia had a grand time playing together.

After supper and some pool time, the neighbors came back out for some more time on the waterslide.  So, off we all went! 

We got the kids dried off and bathed just in time for the fireworks display by the neighbors.  It was a great show, and the kids loved it!  Liam woke up just in time for the show and sat in his Granddaddy's lap squealing with delight!

We had such a good time!  We are so thankful for our freedom, and for those who work so hard and put their lives on the line so we can enjoy days like this one. 

A Boy and His Watermelon