The Power of Example

I have been inspired....One of Chris' aunts and uncles have been sending us news letters every Sunday to give us an update on how his family is doing. They attatch any photos they've taken that week so we can see their kids. Chris' family is so big and so spread out we don't get to see everyone as often as we'd like. Well a couple months ago he talked about how they are teaching their son the Articles of Faith. I honestly never even thought about teaching them to the girls this young. Since then, Riley and I have been practicing them one by one. We are on the fourth article right now and will be moving on to the fifth any day. Initially, I didn't see the consequences this would have. We are now very diligent on reading our scriptures every day and saying our prayers. As we learn each article I simply explain what each one means and hopefully one day she will fully understand. My own testimony has grown through this simple little experience. I love the satisfaction she gets when she's learned a new one. She has such a sweet spirit and I'm so lucky to have her. I just want to let Chris' family know how much we love them. What a wonderful family to have. It's easy to see how much everyone loves each other. They are the perfect example of the pure love of Christ. I challenge those of you who have young children to teach them the simple things we often forget. You will be pleased with the outcome and you will come closer to our father in heaven.

The worst blogger ever!

I am the worst blogger ever, but lately for good reason. I thought I would let you in on the last few weeks. Chris and I decided it was finally time to replace the flooring in our master and second bathroom. We had carpet in the master and linoleum in the second bath. Carpet, I know. Don't get me started. Anyway, so we decided to do it ourselves mostly to save money. I like doing those kinds of projects anyway. This project has turned out to be weeks longer than planned. Plus things came up that were unexpected but needed immediate attention. I shopped for the best prices for my whole project between Home Depot and Lowes. Yes I said it, LOWES. I felt like a traitor. I got absolutely everything I could think of that I would need on a Monday night and the next day Chris called in a personal day at work so we could start our project. We didn't actually rip out any of the flooring till later that evening which I will explain later. I was really lucky though. I know someone who is a contractor and he let me borrow any tool I needed which saved me a ton of money. We decided to do the lath and plaster method instead of hardibacker (tile needs a hard surface like cement. You can lay a cement board or pour cement which is what we did.) At midnight that night we got finished laying the cement base for the tile in the master bath. We would have kept going but felt bad for our neighbors. I forgot, when we pulled up the floor in the second bath we noticed that the toilet had been leaking slowly since we moved (stupid Trophy Homes) in and the subfloor was rotting. Major setback. I called my contractor friend who came over the next day and replaced my subfloor for free. I can't thank him enough. really long story shorter...It took me the next week just to lay the tile in the bathrooms and the grout. Which by the way, I did virtually all by myself. It took me a whole day just to make all the cuts I needed. Then after the grout dried it was a horrible white color that you see in the picture. I wasn’t told it dries light than the sample so I had to re stain all of it. ANNOYING! It took me another week or so to put all the molding up. Not only did I do the bathrooms, but I did some crown molding in the master bedroom. I can officially say next time I tile: 1) it won't take me nearly as long 2) I won't let my husband touch anything 3) I've made mistakes I'll never make again 4) I'll get a babysitter. I finally made the last finishing touches with the paint about two days ago. I am officially done and ready to move on to projects outside.

Happy Easter!

The girls had so much fun today. Unfortunately they woke up at 7:30 so Chris and I crawled out of bed because we didn't want them to come down stairs and see all the fun stuff without us. So we are walking down the stairs and as soon as Riley sees the baskets of goodies on the couches she screams and starts to run as fast as she can. They looked at their baskets for a minute then noticed there were eggs around the room. So we hunted for eggs. We have our guitar for our guitar hero game by the tv and there was an egg sitting on it. She laughed about that for a long time. Avery's eyes lit up when she found out that there was candy in the eggs. Boy does she love chocolate. The girls each got a basket with princess shoes, jewlery, a little bit of candy and a barbie. It was one of those baskets from Walmart. I may be cheap but it was a hit. Avery loves to put on the jewlery and walk around the house. Their pink grandma and blue crapa came over with my brothers and sisters for dinner. (Riley named her grandparents by the colors they wear the most. It took me a little bit to figure out who was who but we got it.) We had turkey dinner. YUM!!! Oh this is the best. I bought carrot cake, you know to be in keeping with the theme, and when Riley saw it she said, "Mom is that the Easter Bunny's birthday cake? Is he coming over?" It was the cutest thing. Yesterday we went to Lehi City Legacy center and they had an Easter Festival where Riley got her face painted with a butterfly. So cute! Avery didn't want to hold still to get her face painted. She loved the Easter bunny. She kept going back for more and more eggs. By the way, in Avery's picture she has chocolate in her teeth not fillings.

I have to say I don't normally care for Easter. But this year was great. I have really been doing a lot of reading and studying the book of mormon as well as other books this year. Easter meant more to me than ever. I am so grateful for so many things. Most importantly my Savior. Riley has been watching He is Risen from the church movies and it's so interesting to see what she picks up and understands. I have always been afraid of what to say and what to explain when we read scriptures. I have learned it's best to be forthcoming. She loves to talk about Laman and Lemuel. By one of my family member's example, I have started teaching her the Articles of Faith. I figured if she can say the pledge of allegance perfectly she's ready for so much more. What a wonderful example the girls are to me. Life is so short and I don't want to miss any more. Happy Easter!

Best buddies

Riley and Avery love to play outside. We are all looking forward to warmer weather. Almost every day we go out and play in the fields behind our house. While the dogs run as fast as they can the girls and I feed the horses. I used to bring my Durango back there, roll the windows down, spin around and the girls would yell out the window at the dogs and the dogs would chase us. Since I got the Durango stuck about a month ago I haven't been back. But with all the mud and no snow it doesn't sound like such a bad idea!

An official BLoGgeR!

Welcome to the Bradley Family site! I have to say I am excited that I have an easy, well a way, to show people my growing family. I don't always have the time to call or spend time with all of you who I love so much! For the last few months this friend at work (who will reamain nameless) JODY, has been asking me (pestering) to start BLoGgiNg. So a couple weeks ago I did. It took me a long time to pick my background. I put our family picture on it and then I sat there at the computer for literally an hour typing then erasing, typing then erasing. I just couldn't figure out what to say. So finally I just left it with the picture. And then the other day at work she came in and told me how she had a friend that was looking at all her friends on her blog and she came across mine and was like, "who is this? Does your friend not know how to blog?" It was so sad. So I decided I needed to just do it! Which by the way, if you are reading this...you are 100% accurate to say I don't know how to blog. I am excited that I've finally done it though.