New toys are so much fun!

Here's Halle enjoying one of her Christmas gifts from Brian's parents this past weekend.

A Bradford Christgiving

What a busy week with family, food, and celebrations! Brian's family came over for most of last week to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and our Christmas. It was great to have them here, and Halle loved having extra playmates! My first attempt at a turkey was successful and we had a great meal. Saturday night we celebrated our Christmas with them. It was fun to see Halle open all of the presents, saying, "this one is for me," at every one. Such a hard concept for a 2 year old to grasp that every present is not for her!

Here we are at Thanksgiving:



Here's some pics of our gift exchange- so much fun!







Here is Halle's big present from her Mimaw and Pipaw- it's a princess vanity piano. she loves it!! She loves looking at herself in the mirror and dancing to the music. And here's Halle, also with her Aunt Lisa and a couple others!

Halle's antics

I've been trying to take in every moment that I have with Halle until the baby comes. I know things will be different when I have to divide up my time. She's just a ton of fun to be around- mostly talking my ear off all of the time. Here are a few funny things she's said lately...

Hanging up her pretend cell phone and looking at me, "That was Papa, he called me a message."

In the car, "Mommy turn it up bery loud"- she loves music

"When I 5, I have to go to school, I have to go to kindergarten and then I have to leave Mommy. Don't worry Mommy, I'll come back and get you."

"Mommy, I need a kleenext."

"I'll be right back, I have to go get a screwdriver." Coming back with a tape measure- "Roll your sleeve Daddy, I have to measure you. (Looking at the tape measure) How many are you?"

"I'm so proud of you Mommy." This said to me after I went to the bathroom- you can tell we've been potty training.

"Seat belts- so we can be safe!" Said each time we get in the car.

"I don't need a pository Mommy, I can push it out myself." We've had some constipation issues.

And here's our little munchkin the one day it got cold here this week and I got Halle a new hat. Now it's 70 degrees again- so much for fall! How can you resist that cute face?

A wonderful blessing!

Brian and I have been sharing a car for over a year now. We decided to sell my car when Brian went back to school in order to continue making payments on our Envoy while he was a student. We assumed we'd be able to get a 2nd car once he got a job this year. Well as it turns out, we've been sharing one ever since we got to TX. There just didn't see to be any money in our budget for another vehicle. This has led to a lot of stranded days for Halle and I and a lot of coordinating on both of our parts. Saturday night, my dad arrived after a 14 hour drive with a mini van for us! I never in my life thought I'd want a van or be proud to own one- just not the coolest car ya know? But I've been wanting a van so bad with the upcoming arrival of our 2nd child- 2 car seats, strollers, and everything else that goes along with them. We have received an ENORMOUS blessing! The van is great, in great condition, rides wonderful, and my favorite part- the doors open by the click of one button- so more free hands for me! Halle loves it, riding in a new car- which she is referring to as "Papa's car." On top of the car- we got to spend about 5 days with my dad. This is the longest I've gone in my whole life without seeing my family, so it was great to have my dad with us here for a few days. Halle had him very busy! One morning I got done showering and walked into Halle's room to find this ...



What a sight! She had him covered in a blanket and all sorts of toys around him. We were able to give him a good glimpse of our life here in TX. The weather has been beautiful, so we took advantage of being outside. One day, we took a picnic to the beach and Halle loved playing in the sand- and was sad she couldn't go in the water.






We loved having Papa here with us- and we love our new blessing. Each time I get in the car, I realize what a huge blessing a car is- let alone a van that just meets our needs. Thanks Mom and Dad for your giving spirit and generousity!

Fall in TX

It's starting to look like fall here- although it doesn't quite feel like it. But, I'll take 70 degrees over 100 any day. Plus it's been fun for us to have some beautiful weather for playing outside. Yesterday I decided to work on raking some leaves and a sweet little girl insisted on helping. Although her idea of helping was not what mine would be, we had fun! She calls it, "digging the leaves," and each time we've been outside since, she's asked to "dig the leaves." So, my front yard is still covered in leaves, but we've found a new way to occupy Halle's time. It's not often I can claim sweating from raking leaves, but yesterday I was!

Happy Halloween

We had a great time last night celebrating Halloween. Our church participated in a Trunk or Treat. All of the churches in our town joined together to put on a Trick or Treating option for the kids in the town. We all met in a church parking lot and every person chose a theme for their car with correlating costumes. It was a ton of fun seeing what everyone came up with. My goal was to find something creative and cheap. So our theme was Night at the Movies. You can see below what our trunk looked like and Brian and I were dressed as ushers and Halle as a box of popcorn. She loves popcorn so she really understood what she was and got so many compliments. Plus she's a little stinker and would not wear anything on her head, so this was my costume that I actually thought she'd wear around. It was a great thing that our community did for many kids and it was more social than just sitting in our house greeting trick or treaters. Now we get to enjoy the candy!