Early Christmas

We had an early Christmas with Grandma and Papa Bradley and Great Papa because they'll all be out of town for Christmas. The boys had a great time opening presents and Connor was smiling the whole time. Here are some pictures from our fun night:

I CAN HAZ PREZINTS?
Connor is very excited about his first present

Happy Carter
Carter loves his Curious George books

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The boys' new table

Awesome, we needed these
My awesome new pots and pans

Papas
Papa Bradley and Great Papa

Mama B and scrapbook
Grandma Bradley with the scrapbook I made for her. (Big thank you to my sister and sister-in-laws for the pictures!)


Happy boys

Presents
The whole gang (minus Ryan because he's taking the picture).

Brudders


Brudders
Originally uploaded by lights.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my little guys. Can they be any cuter?! Maybe I need to put this picture beside my bed to make me feel better when they wake up at all hours of the night...

Happy Thanksgiving


Turkeys
Originally uploaded by lights.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving this year and thanks to some assistance from Mom and Dad Bradley everything turned out great! When Papa Bradley showed Carter the uncooked turkey, he was confused and asked where his head went. I think he was happy with how it turned out!

Halloween Cookies

As a family we decorated a bunch of Halloween cookies.. they didn't last long!


Mmmm

Yummy

Eat Me

Messy


See more here

Cruise Pictures (Part 2)

Day 3:

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The huge Mexico flag at the port in Ensenada. Ryan finally made it out of the United States!

During our stay in Ensenada, we spent most of the day at an awesome resort. We swam in the pool, enjoyed the perfect weather and views of the ocean, and had a delicious buffet lunch. It was such a nice, relaxing day!

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Estero Beach Resort

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The museum at the resort.

Estero Beach Resort
View of the ocean.

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Estero Beach Resort
Enjoying our buffet lunch. The food was so good and we had a great view of the ocean.

Ensenada
We had such a great time!

I don't know.
Another towel animal that we haven't been able to identify.

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Leaving Ensenada.

Day 4:

We have very few pictures from our last day because most of it was spent sleeping. Our last day was our only "at sea" day and we had plans to hang out by the pool, but it was really crowded so we decided to go back to our room and then try again later. Well, we both fell asleep and woke up at 5:30. Dinner is at 6, so we just barely had enough time to get ready and get to dinner. Here are the few pictures we do have from that day:

Frog?
The final towel animal. I thought it was a gorilla, but Ryan thought it was a frog...any other ideas?

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Waiting for the final show

Final Bingo Night
Bingo...our favorite game in the world! We weren't going to play this time because we had lost the night before with only one space left, but we were just sitting there waiting for he show to start so we went ahead and joined in the fun. We were not doing very well at all and the people at the table next to us only needed 2 spaces to win so we knew we were going to lose. Somehow they suddenly started calling all the numbers we needed and we actually ended up winning. The prize was a cruise for 2 and we were so excited (we still are)! We've never won anything before, so this makes up for all those other raffles/games where we never won anything! We haven't booked our cruise yet, but we're planning on taking another trip to Mexico next May. It was the perfect ending to an awesome trip!

Cruise Pictures

As promised, here are pictures of our awesome cruise to Catalina and Ensenada. We have a ton of pictures, so here are the first two days.

Day 1:

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Our first of MANY meals

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Our room with a view of the port in Long Beach

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Our room

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Leaving Long Beach

Walrus?
Every night while we were at dinner, the housekeeping staff would come in and clean the room and leave us a towel animal. This was the first night and we're 99% sure it's a walrus. The rest of them are not as easy to figure out.

Day 2:

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On our way to Catalina. The cruise ship isn't able to dock at Catalina, so they drop the anchor a little ways out and tender boats pull up to the cruise ship to take people to and from Catalina.

:)

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My restaurant :)

We took a bus tour of Avalon while we were at Catalina. It was a lot of fun and we were able to see and learn way more than we could have on our own. We also got to go to the museum on Avalon. Here are some pictures from our tour and the museum:

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Fire Station

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Golf course. You can't see it, but the first hole is on a hill on the other side of the street, so you tee off and hope your ball makes it to the other side.

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The lone grocery store in Avalon

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At one point this was a bird aviary, but was later turned into a daycare center (for children, not birds).

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Just for Lauren :)

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For Karen. Apparently the Chicago Cubs used to have their spring training at Avalon when Wrigley owned Catalina.

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For Dad B. and Papa

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The wait staff was very entertaining at dinner. This time they were serenading everyone with "That's Amore".

Dog? Moose?
Night 2 towel animal. Any guesses? I think it's a dog, but Dad W. said moose and I can kind of see that, too. Carter said bunny.

Stay tuned for pictures of the rest of the trip!

Paradise!



Originally uploaded by lights.

We went on a 4-day cruise to Mexico the end of September on the Carnival Paradise. We had such a great time and can't wait to go on another cruise! A special thank you to my parents and the Baker family for watching our boys. More pictures coming soon!

Oreo Cupcakes


Oreo Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by lights.

My current coworkers and former classmates have come to learn that when I get stressed, bored, or sometimes for no reason at all, I bake. Tonight was loneliness while Katie and the boys are in Los Angeles.

Lego Dreams


Lego Dreams
Originally uploaded by lights.

Carter loves his Lego! My mom went up to check on him during his quiet time and when she found him sleeping like this she had to get the camera out. What a silly boy!

La-Z-Boy


La-Z-Boy
Originally uploaded by lights.

Our little couch potato. We're training him young!

4 Months

Connor turned four months a couple weeks ago and he's doing great. At his check-up he weighed 14lbs 6oz and was 25 inches. Here are a couple of pictures of our adorable, growing boy:


Connor and Dada at the beach


Connor and Jolene