Bradley Family: January 2023

We started April out by taking the kids to visit our soon to be new puppy on the 1st! Not named yet. We made a list of about 5-10 names and narrowed it down to Brutus, Titan, Loki, and one other on the drive there. We decided we wanted to wait and get him home before finalizing it. The trip did not disappoint and the kids all got to play with all the puppies and had a blast. Not much longer until the little guy would be able to come home with us.

Eden wrote a poem for homeschool.

The kids get more and more creative every day.

We celebrated Easter and dyed some eggs on the 3rd and the Easter Bunny came Sunday morning on the 4th.

Of course we had to have egg wars.

I got a super fun puzzle that I was able to do during General Conference.

Which General Conference landed on Easter, and we were able to watch conference and do all of our Easter festivities.

We sure love General Conference. We love being together and listening to God's Prophets on earth. It fills our home with love and a desire to be more Christlike.

We can never get enough of Odin. He loves snuggling in Derek's blankets in bed.

Elara and Connor being silly outside. The snow is melting and the sun is shinning again. It's so great to be outside and have the days ever so slowly warm up.

The kids still love playing dress up. It's always more fun to dress up with your little brother.

AND just like that on April 9th we got to bring our little puppy home!

I surprised the kids and didn't tell them I was able to get him. They thought they would have to wait another whole week, so when I came home I filmed them and told them they made a big mess and better come look at the mess and clean it up. They saw Titan and got so excited.

Poor Derek had to wait until he was done with work to come home and see him.

Instant love and instant puppy joy and instant puppy messes to be had.

3 Pugs now!

But, who can settle for just 3?! We need a grumble. I decided if we were going to have to do the puppy stage again and we still wanted one more dog in our family we might as well do it all together. SO, Derek and I became sneaky. We started looking for another pug, but cheaper in Texas and would have Heidi and Haley bring the puppy to us. The hunt was on, and the secret was silent for another month.

The kids are learning to cook and one of them came up with this breakfast burrito creation.

Their skills never cease to amaze me.

Got my second covid vaccine and it hated me. my arm was swollen and red and hot and yucky. I had to mark it to make sure it eventually went down. BUT so glad we haven't caught covid!

Freya is completely terrified of Titan. She runs to the stairs to get away from him every time he approaches her. He isn't big enough to do stairs yet so it's the only safe place for her to hide from him. She will eventually outgrow this fear, but it is pretty funny to watch. Odin reacted very similarly to Freya when we got her as a puppy.

No safe place to hide anymore so the older pugs snuggle together in their kennel.

SO much puppy love happening in our house.

Titan in his space. Trying to keep the monster contained until he is potty trained.

Connor wanted to get in with Titan. So they snuggled in together.

Now that the roads don't have ice on them we are getting the dogs out walking again.

Do you see what I see?!

We have been able to see so many fun and different wild animals. This white hare will turn gray or brown in the summer months. Just hopping along our yard.

With the temperature in Alaska being so cold you have to start all your plants indoors before you can put them outside or else you wait until summer is half over to even start. So we got to work potting plants. We have a LOT to learn, but each year we plan to get better.

The dogs love sun bathing!

On April 15, we celebrated our 15 year anniversary! 15 years on the 15th. Still deep in covid, but we were able to go eat at a restaurant!

Seriously, we need to do better at asking people to take pictures of us on our dates actually together. Instead Derek got pictures of me eating the best Fish grilled cheese sandwich ever (not called that), and a weird blueberry cream soda... I'll just post a picture of him with his cute mustache, so we can be together on the page at least.

I love you more every single day Derek Bradley. There is no one I would rather go through life's ups and downs with than you. You are by my side through the good, the bad, the ugly and the incredibly beautiful moments.

Thank you for sticking by my side, loving me through my imperfections, uplifting me, helping me grow and be a better person every single day. I love waking up with you by my side.
I love you forever.

The poor kids have to put up with a crazy Mom who does crazy poses at them such as this about once a month, but probably lots lots more.

Turns out Titan HATES his bath! Oh it was so funny. The faces he made had us laughing a good hour at least. He was completely terrified.

Sweet Odin.

Sometimes the big dogs need to sneak into our room to hide and just feel a little love on our bed.

And then it happened!

We found the puppy we wanted in Texas!

Heidi and Jamie went and picked her up for us and held her in Texas until Haley and Heidi could bring her to us.

We got these adorable photos and instantly fell in love. We had to wait a whole week before they were able to fly this sweet puppy to us. We are SO grateful for these girls bringing us this joy and then getting to visit us in Alaska! I'm terrible at secrets and it was SO hard keeping it from the kids.

Sweet puppy about to come be a part of our family!

We were so glad to have this snuggly puppy to love on and wait until we had two to snuggle and love.

In the mean time it was time for some serious birthday celebrations! Connor was turning 6 this year on April 29th. It was a friends birthday year, so Connor chose a fruit pizza for his cake, and to go to the zoo with 2 friends. Eden helped him to decorate the house and made balloon dragons for him. His friends came for a nerf gun battle and made their own little fruit pizzas, and went to the zoo. It was so much fun!

Jake, Connor, and Grant

Eden's dragon she made Connor.

The kids were sweet and helped them dress up for their battle!

More battle preparations.

The battle commences.

So many fun sweet presents!

The boys each got to decorate their own cookie.

Connor's fruit pizza he made.

The Grandma birthday cards.

My happy birthday boy!

Connor happy 6th birthday! You make each of us better every day. Your big siblings love to spoil you rotten. You have so much spunk and personality. You are working hard at being a kindergartener. You are the only kid in our family to not go to a traditional kindergarten, but we have loved having our time at home together doing school. You learned to skip count each set of numbers up to 10, can count past 100, know your alphabet and their sounds. You are doing small reading, and just are full of energy and life. You love being around people. You love to dance and be silly. You tell funny little jokes, and try to make people smile. You give the best hugs. You have the sweetest heart and are easy to love. We are so glad you are our caboose! Keep being the fun and happy little boy you are.

Always remember Mom and Dad love you so much.

Happy 6th birthday!

The snow melts more and more every day! It is crazy!

Just a birthday boy sleeping with his dog.

On the 25th we went out aurora chasing. We found some, and realized down in the Anchorage area it probably will never be as good as it was in Fairbanks. But, it was still so fun and worth it!

We were getting this faint little bit up the road, and got tired and decided to go home, but on the drive back they just started dancing and we had to pull over. It was terrible for photos because of the power lines, but it was amazing just watching them dance.

With the snow melt comes chores! Lots of leaves to get up, and all the summer projects start.

Derek got to work helping to build the kids a tree house fort!

We were still doing homeschool with the Arner family. Miss Lisa had the girls and they tried native american foods like cheese and vinegar juice.

The plants are already growing in their little containers!

Spring is in the air!

And SO were Heidi and Haley with our new puppy!

We REALLY surprised the kids this time! They didn't know they could be so excited and couldn't decide if Pinkston girls or the fact they brought them a puppy was the best ever.

We made sure and got the arrival on video.