Knee Surgery

Well, it's official. Danny is going to be having knee surgery next Thursday (the 3rd). He went to see the doctor yesterday and he has a torn ACL in both knees as well as a torn meniscus in his left knee. He also needs to visit the doctor for his shoulder to see what needs to be done to fix it. Yes, that is THREE possible surgeries that need to be done for his joints. He wants to be able to have all three surgeries in the same year for insurance purposes. We are starting with the left knee and then we'll see what we can do from there. But 3 surgeries in 4 months seems a little overwhelming to me! Just try to keep him in your prayers next week. Thanks!

Bradshaw Family Reunion - 2009

This last weekend we got to go to a cabin up in Ashton, Idaho. We enjoyed the whole weekend with the whole Bradshaw clan as we enjoyed the 2009 Family Reunion. It was a TON of fun. We enjoyed canoeing, games, hiking, games, 4 wheeling, games, Mesa Falls, and did I mention games? We enjoyed every minute of it and have to tell Grandma and Grandpa THANK YOU so much for the whole weekend. They planned it all and it was so enjoyable. Thank you and we love you!!!

Pictures

Summer 2009

This summer has been so extremely busy (as shown by previous posts), but we've enjoyed just a little down time.

But first there are pictures of a super fun camping trip we took at the beginning of August. We enjoyed sleeping outdoors in the tent and all the kids loved it. I was surprised at how well Ellie handled the whole camping trip. She's such a trooper. And then in the morning, as we were getting ready to leave, our car wouldn't start. We were nowhere near any other campers, up at the top of Heber Mountain, and we had no cell phone service. We decided to say a round of prayers. Preston started by saying his prayer that he was grateful we had not been eaten by bugs. :) Kaden continued with a wonderful prayer about being grateful we could spend time as a family and praying we could make it home.

After we said our prayers, Danny and Kaden walked down to the "main" road. Within a few minutes a very nice gentleman came and offered to take us all down the mountain and into Heber (he didn't have any jumper cables). We accepted his offer and found out that he was lost trying to find his stake's girls camp area. We also found out later that he was on the totally wrong road. I really believe he was on that road for a purpose - to help the Bradshaws find their way home.

Anyway, we ended up seeing a group gathered for a pioneer trek just a couple of miles down the road and they had some jumper cables. We didn't end up driving all the way back to Heber, so we were grateful for that as well. What a blessing prayer is in our lives!

During our "down-time" this summer, the boys enjoyed the xbox and computer games. I think I'm raising a couple of real "gamers". And for Ellie... She's just happy with eating, sleeping, and an occasional bath. :)

Here are some pictures

In Other News...

In other news, Ellie now has THREE teeth - with more on the way. Within a week or two she will probably have at least two more. Yay for milestones! Wow she's getting big!

Bradshaw Family Get-Together 7/11/09

Right after I got back from Phoenix, Grandma and Grandpa Bradshaw came to visit. We ended up having a BBQ with Danny's brothers and their families. It was a lot of fun and the kids REALLY enjoyed jumping on the trampoline. Thanks for the good times!

Ellie Got Her Ears Pierced! 7/6/09

While we were in Phoenix, I decided to take Ellie and get her ears pierced. She did cry, but only for about 30 seconds... and then she laughed. She was such a trooper!

A funny (and somewhat annoying) story: Some random old lady tapped on the glass while we were preparing to pierce her ears. She asked me if I was getting her (she pointed to Ellie) ears pierced and I nodded yes. She gave me a dirty look like I was the worst mom on the planet! I tried to ignore her and we continued with the preparations. She meandered into the store to watch as we did the actual piercing. And as soon as Ellie started to cry, she said, "And those are real tears, too!" with a hugely annoyed tone. Then she walked away. Oh, how I wish she would have stayed for 25 more seconds to see Ellie giggle!

Here are the pictures of Ellie getting her ears pierced and then showing off the bling. :)

Phoenix - July, 2009

I was a brave mom and took all three kids to Phoenix for 2 weeks. My sister, Jodi, lives there and we put all the kids in swimming lessons. The teacher was AWESOME and by the end of the 6th and final lesson, Kaden was DIVING! and Preston was swimming without any sort of floatation device. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed spending the time with my sis and her family. We love you all very much and miss you!

Pictures of the Phoenix trip

Bradshaw Family Get-Together 6/20/2009

My sister-in-law, Kayla, had a baby this year. They had their beautiful baby girl (Tora) blessed on Father's Day. That gave us the opportunity to go up to Idaho again. We had a little get together with all the family and of course got some pictures with all the cousins together. It was a lot of fun!

Pictures!

10th Anniversary - Trip to the East Coast

Danny and I had the wonderful opportunity to go back east for our 10th anniversary. We went to DC, then NYC, then to Boston, then back to NYC and home. We had such a fun time and loved every minute of the trip. We went with some good friends and were grateful for the company. I split the pictures into three slideshows:

Washington DC

New York

Boston

Trip to Idaho - 5/31/09

Before Danny and I left on our trip to the east coast, I went to Idaho with the kids to pick up my awesome niece, Cassidy, who watched our children for us. While up in Idaho, we spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa Bradshaw who made s'mores for the boys and gave them a horse ride. They absolutely loved every minute of it.

To view pictures of this event, click here.