Natural Bridge Wildlife Reserve

With a Saturday off we loaded the kids first thing in the morning and decided to try out this place. You drive through and feed wild animals and it was pretty fun actually.

 Derek reached away for just a second with this guy and he had Elara on his lap and it bit Elara's finger pretty good. She was pretty traumatized more than anything. She cried and cried and kept saying how it bit her. The Emu's and Ostrich's were FIERCE. They would reach in your window for food so we finally learned to just hurry and throw food as far as you could and then roll up the window fast!

Derek's hand was on the window button!

The first tooth is gone!

We entered a whole new world this February when Kael lost his first tooth. He was so brave and had Mom pull it out with dental floss. I'd never pulled someone else's tooth out before so yes I was terrified. My hands slipped two or three times before I got brave and actually really pulled. We all sat in shock when it was out. The second tooth came out about a week later. Both had shark teeth growing behind them so it was time for them to come out! The tooth fairy did come and left a dollar under his pillow. I can wait a while for the next tooth, I'm not in any hurry to do this again... Oh wait, I'll have 4 kids worth of teeth to consider...

The second tooth came out in March.

February Flying Kites

The best part of January

This pregnancy has been a good one! We started out at the military hospital and had a bunch of run arounds, and eventually switched to a private OB practice and are excited. Our first doctor at the military hospital was a resident and at our 16 week appointment in December right before Christmas we asked if we could have an ultrasound to see if baby was a boy or girl so we could finally tell the kids our exciting news around Christmas. She told us she wasn't sure at all, but her best guess was a girl and that my placenta looked like Elara's low and posterior. We switched to the new doctor the first week of January who did a quick short ultrasound and thought the first doctor was crazy because my placenta looked anterior.

On January 21st we were able to have our 20 week ultrasound right at 20 weeks. This was the first time Derek couldn't make it because he was working and as much as we wanted to know I wanted to share the excitement with him. The nurse was awesome and one of the first things she checked for me was the placenta and it turns out it was anterior and very high!!! This was such great news! Then, came the big reveal, but I closed my eyes when the nurse found out and she took lots of pictures and put them in a sealed envelope for us. It was so hard knowing that inside that envelope held the biggest secret I had been wanting to know for a very long time. I resisted and never peaked. The nurse even folded the pictures in half so I couldn't try to peak. That night Derek and I opened the envelope together. It was an awesome moment for just the two of us. We wanted to surprise the kids so the next day I made a cake for when the kids got home from school. They were so excited! We prepped them a LOT to make sure they knew they didn't get to choose at all and that either a brother or a sister would be super awesome. Kael was a trooper and had asked a lot for a brother before he even knew we were pregnant. As soon as he knew he stopped asking for a brother and was just excited for a new baby. 

Here is baby!

Elara got excited that morning after I finished the cake. I put it up high on the counter, but she grabbed a chair while I was in the shower and couldn't resist herself and ate half the little balls around the bottom... I fixed it up good though.

And the REVEAL!!!

Connor Everett Bradley

will be joining our family around JUNE 10, 2015.

 Ya that cake didn't last long. It was yummy.

I bought a bunch of balloons and we had the kids pop the color that we weren't having. They LOVED this and it was so fun. 

No pink this time!

January 2015

January was filled with sickness and fun. Derek was on night shifts the whole month and was either gone or sleeping for the most part. It was a REALLY long month. 

 When the grandkids visit Grandma and Grandpa Heaton over the Christmas break they get to go pick out a toy, so this year since we weren't there the cousins helped pick out toys for our kids and they shipped them to us. The kids had a great surprise and loved their fish and spider!

 We loved holding Merlin every day and he slowly but surely has gotten bigger each day.

At least we didn't have to deal with being stuck inside from snow, but we still did lots of fun activities like decorating cookies to pass time.

We switched from 11 oclock church to 1:30 so by the time we are in the car at 4:30 the kids would look like this! They still have this problem most Sundays... Who knew church could wear you out so much. We've had awesome young women help me out at church since Derek has worked most weekends, and doing church by yourself is hard work!

 Lots of sickness and lots of sleeping to get better.