Happy Pioneer Day!

I may possibly be slightly behind on my postings, but the upcoming holiday has gotten me to reminiscing last summer. Mark and I were able to go with our ward's youth last summer on their pioneer trek and it was an amazing experience. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Looks like Eagle Mountain, doesn't it? (I promise I'm not mad in this one!)

Awww!! He really loves me!

Crossing the Sweetwater. I totally cried like a baby. Pay no attention to the Superman bloomers.

I'm super duper grateful for the opportunity we had to go. We were stretched to our physical and spiritual limits and I would recommend it to anyone who had the chance to go on one.

And of course I'm grateful for those who came before us, who wanted us to have the freedoms we now enjoy and sacrificed themselves to make it so. I hope to someday have a fraction of the faith that they had, that pushed them to do amazing things.

My Kid's Got Talent

The other morning, between eating breakfast and getting dressed for school, an impromptu dance party broke out. This was the outcome:

Of course, Daphne wanted to do a "pretty princess dance" of sorts, so we started out sweet.




Then we have Philip who has been taking notes from his older brother on how to do the timeless dance, The Robot.




And, finally, we have Boyd who has shown us why we pay the big bucks to put him in breakdance class.


p.s. I'll rotate the video clips as soon as I figure out how. :)

Gentlemen...Start...Your...Engines!

Have you ever seen back acne on a baseball tattoo? I have.--Which brings me to my next point: You don't have to be a redneck to go to Nascar, but you will leave with one. (a red neck, that is) Luckily, I'm really awesome and always keep my collar popped, so I managed to leave the stadium relatively burn-free. Yes, we went to Nascar. In Vegas. And it was actually pretty darned fun. You've got to respect any sport that begins with a prayer (in which they bless our troops!) and ends with a lot of wrecks. :) On Saturday, as I stepped out to get a bite to eat, I decided to buy a Dale Jr. hat--Mark's LEAST favorite driver and I wore it proudly back into the stadium. Mark wasn't too amused.
Don't I look sexy? I found out later that his favorite driver, Kyle Bush, wrecked bad enough that he was out of the race while I was buying said hat. I know, awesome, right? That's okay, though, because on Sunday his precious little #18 completely embarrassed all the other drivers by starting in the back of the pack and coming in first in what Mark refers to as, "One of the greatest victories of all time". Whatever.
Mark's neck was in the early stages of redness when I took this picture, but you get the idea, right? The funnest part is that everyone in the stadium (excluding Mark) hated Kyle Bush and booed every time he was mentioned. I can't blame them. He's a showoff and he always wins. How fair is that?
After many failed attempts to capture his car on film, Mark managed to get a pretty good shot while they were driving slow because of a caution. I must say, I do like the m&m's on his car. We had a big bag of m&m's with us and I told Mark he should throw them at everyone that booed Kyle Bush, but:
1) We just did not have enough m&m's, and
2) Mark didn't really feel like leaving with any black eyes or broken bones.
I can't say I blame him.
Did I mention we saw flying Elvises? Overall, I'm going to say that Nascar is a pretty good time--in person. I still don't care for it on t.v., but that's just me. :)

Since our blog is brand new, we thought we'd tell you just exactly Why 2008 Rocked:

Our sweet little angel, Nicholas, was born.

Janis waited patiently for her epidural.

Isn't he just the sweetest?

He started out chubby--but it didn't last long.

We had fun finding Easter eggs with our neighbors: Rylie, A.J., and Braxtyn.

Nicholas was blessed....

.....and kept on being sweet.

Daphne turned five.....

....and went rockstar on us.

Boyd turned seven.....

....and got majorly buff.

Phil got a sweet tan line....

...grew an affinity for ink pads....

....and turned two.

Daphne started Kindergarten. (Boyd-2nd grade)

We had a visit from the penguin. Batman's nemesis? I don't think so.
(He started walking shortly thereafter.)

We had a night of fun with Sleeping Beauty and Indiana Jones. Phil wouldn't wear the vampire costume I bought him so we had to squeeze him into last year's skunk costume.

Nicholas had his first driving lesson.

Janis turned 30!!!! on the opening night of Twilight. Best Birthday Ever!!

Boyd's breakdance class and Daphne's jazz class rocked the stage at their first dance recital.
(Boyd's the one in the white hat with the black hoodie.)

We got to do LOTS of sledding! Phil loves it the most.
By the way, my tailbone is virtually healed now. :)

We had a little too merry of a Christmas.

Mark was attacked by a pack of munchkins.

Daphne made Mommy "pretty".

Yeah, this year rocked.

Wishful Thinking?--Definitely.

I am now (in five to seven business days) the proud owner of this sweet little polka-dotted number. I'm almost 96.2 percent sure that it won't look as good on me as it does on the headless, limbless mannequin, but at least I'll feel like a little hot potato. :)

Four kids. Two in school.....two in diapers. All of them are sweet. None of them are quiet. These are the things that make life glamorous at the Bradford household.