Bradley Family Pictures 2014 and our Christmas/New Years Letter to all

My good friend Lisa took our family photos this year for us. With Derek's crazy schedule it took until December 20th to get them done, but it was worth the wait.

Dear Friends and Family,

I am dearly sorry for the lateness of this letter, however I can blame residency for this one and get away with it.

2014 has been an amazing year for our family!

Derek graduated medical school in May, and we immediately moved to San Antonio, Texas for a 4 year residency at San Antonio Military Medical Center with the United States Air Force.

Kael turned 6 and started 1^st grade in August and Eden who is 4 started pre-k. Elara turned 2 in September.

Residency has not disappointed us. Each challenge we anticipated has come and we are meeting it head on. Derek is currently going to be starting a month of nights in January. Surgery has been tough and a LOT of paperwork, but Derek has done amazing at finding balance for our family. It is with great pleasure that he is at his half way mark for his intern year, and the last half should be the toughest. Needless to say we all are looking forward to him starting anesthesia in July.

I have been busy chasing kids and having playdates. I am loving having a HOME. Moving from our tiny apartment to a full house has been surreal. Running a house with a husband gone except when he is sleeping is no easy task. I am in the primary at church teaching the 5-6 year olds, and had Kael in my class until January when it switches. It has been fun getting to explore San Antonio a bit and make lots of new friends.

1^st grade has been lots of fun for Kael. It has been an adjustment since he is in school all day now and doesn’t get home until 3. At 6 years old he is learning to read and gets better each day, although his real love at school is math. Kael will be a lot busier now since Santa brought him a baby bearded dragon that he has to take care of. Kael loves all creatures and has made some great friends human and animal here in San Antonio.

Eden is 4 going on 16. She gets to go to pre-k at Kael’s elementary school 5 days a week. The bus gets here at 6:45 and she doesn’t get home until 11:15. Eden is the most social girl I have met and has made plenty of friends inviting them over for chocolate milk tea parties. While she is very friendly she has shown to get a bit of stage fright in front of people, but she has worked hard to overcome that in primary she did a great job reading the scripture in front of everyone.

Elara is for certain in the toddler craziness at 2. While she misses Kael and Eden while they are at school she keeps plenty busy playing with her puppy Odin and making messes for Mom to clean.

Baby Bradley #4 has decided they want in on this letter. He/She will be joining the family around June 10, 2015. This baby has been kind to me and hasn’t given us much grief. The kids got to hear the fun news on Christmas and are excited for a baby to join us.

We are looking forward to 2015 and all the great things in store for our family. We love keeping in touch with all of our friends and family and are grateful to have you all in our lives even though it is now more distant. Please know we love and miss you all and pray for you all often!

Love Always,

The Bradley’s

New Year Eve

Derek got New Years off because he was switching to nights on January 1st. So we let the kids stay up "late" until 8:30 on New Years Eve. We had our own little family party and it was SO MUCH FUN! I am so excited to do this for future years. We cut up a bunch of paper for confetti, played lots of games, ate lots of food, and had some sparkling cider. Next year we are setting a specific clock ahead to say 12 and we will do a count down even though we are party poopers and crash at the latest 10 pm. We had poppers, blowers, said cheers a hundred times, and just had a blast celebrating the beginning of a new year for our family.

More December

Meet Merlin the lizard, the newest addition to our family.

2014 Gingerbread houses

In keeping with tradition, we did make a paper Christmas tree and decorated it with bulbs that we wrote on our gifts to Jesus again this year. I failed to take a picture. It is still hanging in the kitchen however.

 Because she is cute.

We met our friends the Bentz at the park one Saturday. We arrived early and had a picnic and then let the kids play.

 Meet Merlin the lizard, the newest addition to our family.

 Halusky

Christmas 2014

One of our Christmas Eve traditions is to bring out all the presents from Mom and Dad and friends and family on Christmas Eve night. Santa leaves our kids one awesome present unwrapped and stockings.

 We had a talk with the kids that because Dad was working we talked to Santa and he would come early this year for our family on the night of the 21st because he knew how important celebrating together as a family is and that he wanted us to all be together. It was a great way to tie in what is really important during Christmas time and show that Santa wants us to be Christlike. And stop by our house he did on the 21st. Eden did get her "real" camera, Elara got her puppy dog, and Kael got a "real" baby bearded dragon.

Every year seeing the tree lit up with the presents around it on Christmas Eve just seems so special to me. It is a memory I always want to remember. It's more of a feeling than anything. When you look at the picture it just doesn't do the moment justice, but it does bring back those happy memories.

 Christmas morning before the madness.

We blocked off the stairs with a bed so that the kids couldn't come down until Mom and Dad slept long enough. We made it to 7 am if I remember right. Me and the kids are sporting our Christmas Eve jammies.

First view of Santa stuff. We let the kids play with their Santa presents and stockings while Mom and Dad make bacon and cinnamon rolls.

Playing with Santa stuff.

Christmas breakfast!

After all the other presents were opened.

 Kael and Derek put together his new lego set. This cool robot can also be built into an airplane or a car.

We played lots and lots of games during the whole of spring break.

Christmas dinner

Homemade TOMMY'S!

Those who have never traveled to Southern California, you don't know what you are missing with this greasy deliciousness!

Christmas was memorable and so special. Each year it is a wonderful time to reflect on our blessings. We have been so blessed this year. I love the opportunity Christmas gives us to teach the kids and ourselves to be a little kinder, selfless, and just Christlike. 

Something we learned with having little older kids this year. The whole naughty and nice or Santa won't bring you presents was so overwhelming this year. It took away from what the real meaning of Christmas is about the Savior. Something we realized almost too late. It wasn't helping our kids or ourselves. We then evaluated our situation and decided what would Christ do? Christ would forgive, and so we decided to do the same for our children. We stopped using Christmas as a threat. Instead, we used it as a time to forgive and love. As we showed more love to our kids there was a huge change. They still had several "naughty" moments, but were quick to change their behavior and there was more peace at home because of this.

It truly was an amazing experience and an eye opener for our little family. How cool that we can learn so much from our kids.

December leading to Christmas

 Kael had a Christmas concert on December 1st. He wasn't a big fan of the songs the 1st graders had to sing, so he never sang the songs for me at home. He had missed the whole week before Thanksgiving and then there was no school, so he was home from school for 2 weeks before this concert. He did sing while up there, but mostly refused to do the hand motions and stuck his hands in his pockets. He is on the second row second from the right with the brown sweater on. Yes, he is standing next to the kid grabbing himself. I'm just glad Kael's hands were in his pockets. In his defense the songs were lame... I didn't know 2 of the 3 they sang and they made them sing the Frozen Let it Go song. He doesn't care for that song much, but the girls sure had fun on stage.

 Kael and Odin

 I took a trip to the zoo with my friend Lisa and we went to this cute little play area, and Elara was so cute I had to take her picture on this sweet bench. I have stopped taking photos of my kids as much and have really tried to enjoy the moments we are together.

 Eden's letter to Santa.

Dear Santa,

Camera. REAL. Music box

Love, Eden

(She wanted a REAL camera and if she couldn't have that she would settle for a music box.)

 Elara didn't really was sweet and had no idea what was going on so I helped write her letter.

I thought I took a picture of Kael's letter, but it got lost somehow. It makes me quite sad because he worked so hard on it. He asked for a real baby bearded dragon (lizard).

 It wouldn't be Christmas time without some decorating. The kids frosted sugar cones and made christmas trees. We had a village of them because they loved it so much. Fun Saturday morning activity in jammies.

 Church interupts our nap time, and the kids were especially naughty this Sunday that Derek was working and I was flying solo. I took a picture in the drive way to show how zonked all of them were. 5 minutes later all 3 were up bouncing around the house again and "I" didn't get my nap.

 Derek is home! This was taken on December 21st our Christmas Eve this year! We made a poo poo platter aka veggie tray. We hung out all day and did fun things with Dad, and then got ready to celebrate.