What's Been going on lately?

Happy Birthday Brad....

Brad is 31 years old now! We are really getting old! For his special day or 'happy day' as Little Brad calls it, he got breakfast in bed and diner at Red Robin! We also went to see Kung Fu panda with the kids, which I was a little worried about since, we normally do not take Gabi because when it is all of us...it just gets a little too much for us and the audience, but to our surprise it went GREAT! Gabi was good and Brad was good and the movie was VERY cute!

Fun in the Sun....

Holly took us to the promenade shoppes somewhere around here and the kids had so much fun. Gabi did not get into the water, but Brad was sitting on the water and putting his face in the water...he was a wild man. Hard to imagine I know. However, once he cut his toe, he was a man down and he sat the rest of time. Thank you Holly for showing us the fun spot...we are going to have to figure out to get there without following you in the future!

BASEBALL...

Quany came and spend the weekend in with us and we had a blast...I don't know about Quany with our loud kids and crazy running around, but we loved having her over! One of the things we did while she was here was see the Iron Pigs play which I believe is the AAA Philly team. It was fun and cheap...a great combo for our family. It was a new stadium and at the end they had a fireworks show which was pretty awesome actually. When we first arrived it was a little much because we were sitting in the sun but after an hour the sun went down and the game was much more enjoyable!

See how happy and how much fun our dear Quany is having! She is loving hanging out with us! Actually this is when we were sitting directly in the sun and she was not a happy camper...which is really not hard to tell at all by this picture.

Swimming Lessons...

Brad is in swimming lessons and he is liking it pretty good. The instructors are amazing...they really work hard to make the kids comfortable and are very positive. To my surprise there are several kids who have a hard time with the lessons and the instructors are very patient. I was very shocked because they are all young and I was not expecting much but it has been a really nice surprise. We have missed everyday this week because Brad was under the weather but tomorrow we are back on until Friday. We might even sign him up for another round of lessons if he wants to do it.

Zoo Time...

When we took Quany home on Satuday we decided to go to the Zoo with the kids. Gabi had not ridden the camel and so she got to do that, we went on the lake, road the train, horses, saw all the animals and just had so much fun! Brad knows where everything is at the zoo and he loves to ride the rides and see the monkeys. I think they are his favorite by far in terms of animals on display, but both my kids love to pet those goats. They grab a brush and get ready. Gabi trys to brush as many as she can, while Brad normally will find one all by itself and go and pet it and try to kiss it and just completely cater to that goat...it is funny because he is such a rough and rowdy kid, but has such a soft side too!

GYMNASTICS...

I enrolled the kids in gymnastics for the summer...the first week was NOT good. Gabi was so excited for her class which runs the same time as Brad's class and ultimately this was a mistake on my part. Brad would not go to his class because he wanted to be with me and Gabi. So we ended up changing their times around and will try it next week.

Change, Change, Change

So it has been a while since I updated our blog and so much has happened since my last post I am not sure where to start.

BRAD IS A DENTIST!

This is pretty exciting to be finished with dental school, but it is also sad to say goodbye to such wonderful friends who have been our family while in Philly. I will miss seeing all the kids we have had in Philly together, but excited to see where life takes all of our families. We are so proud of Brad. He is such a dreamer and has worked very hard to get into dental school and while in dental school (especially the last 3 years of school for those who knew Brad year 1)! :-) Graduation was actually much better than I thought it would be with the kids...Brad even fell asleep which was amazing!

LITTLE BRAD is 4! This is unbelieveable to me! Our baby who was just a mere 6 weeks old when we moved to Philly is now 4! Time flys by so fast! He wanted a choo choo train cake so I happily made one for him, and he gave me the best moment when he saw his cake and he grabbed my leg and say, 'thank you mommy for my choo choo cupcake, I love you'! Made all the effort worth it! He had a great birthday and got loads of presents and spoiled beyond belief!

WE MOVED! I really like our new house...it is like a mansion compared to our apartment in Philly. Plus it is only 5 years old so that is a treat coming for apartments that were 30 years old or more. Brad has already made claim to his room and he will quickly tell you to leave it when he wants to play! It feels like we were just busting at the seams and now we can actually breath! Too bad this move is just for a year...I sure hope we do not have to go much smaller when we move next time. Our move was so much easier than it could have been b/c of all the help we had. We are so blessed in the family department! We are also blessed to have taken bits of our philly family with us in our move, from the Millers we got our table which is just amazing, the Wilkins a very cool hutch all the way from Africa (top that people) and from the Newells a cooler! So we got something from almost everyone before they left...we will have to steal something from the Marsh's and Reeders homes to make ours complete so watch out...if somethings goes missing from your new homes when we come visit, consider this as your warning!

BROADWAY HERE I COME...

Mrs. Harris took me to New York while she was here and to a BROADWAY play...it was AMAZING. We went to see Cry Baby. I saw the movie when I was 13 and it was so cheesy the I fell in love with it...and so we went to see the show which was just...man...all I can say is that the next chance I have to go back I am running. I forgot how much I love the theatre until that night. Not only did we see a play on Broadway, but we ate at Bubba Gumps, got purses for cheap, ate a Greys Papaya hotdog (like from the movie "Fools Rush In"), and we went to Dale and Thomas (popcorn on Oprah's Favorite things...which to me is like meeting Oprah herself)!

PUTT PUTT GOLF

Since we had Brad's 4 year party before family left, we decided to take him to play putt putt golf and eat at McDonalds for fine cuisine! It was so much fun, Gabi just wanted to carry the balls and would scream if you tried to take them from her, and Brad was like lightening around the course, he was halfway done before Brad and I were on the 3rd hole. Brad did get a hole in one (Big Brad not little Brad) and we are never going to hear the end of it...it was impressive though! It was alot of fun and Brad really enjoyed it. His daddy tried to help him with his form, but Little Brad was not interested so it did not last long!

Swimming!!!

Gabi is adorable in her little bikini...she looked so cute I just could not stop smiling at her. Her little swimmer was coming out of the back and it was too cute for words really! She kept trying to jump in like her brother and loved walking in the water. It was hard to keep up with both of them because Big Brad was not swimming but next time he is coming in his swim trunks too to show off his rock hard body! The water was a little cold so we only stayed for an hour!

A LITTLE BIT OF HOME...

Believe it or not, I just know this next year is going to be good for us and partially because we have a little bit of my old home here with us. The East Texas post office is just about a mile from the house and if we get lonely and miss our family we can just go hang out in East Texas, PA! See it just goes to show you no matter where you live, everybody needs some Texas!

So here we are, excited and happy about the future! Can't wait to read about all of you on your blogs...I am not so great at keeping mine up but I promise to try and do better!