catching up

Well, we haven't blogged since Christmas, so I felt that we were due for an update. As much as I love home and being with my family, I surprisingly was okay with being back in Idaho. I guess being away from work, thinking about bills in my mailbox, and dust collecting on my furniture kinda made me want to get home and get back into our regular routine. Even though my home may not always appear to be the cleanest or neatest, things out of place or messy can drive me crazy. Ask Kevin. He has had to learn to fold towels and shirts the "right way". We've kept busy the last few weeks. Kevin is off-track this semester but is taking a few credits online and completing an internship. I've been working and enjoy having Kevin at home in the evenings with his new schedule.

We've discovered a new fun game, thanks to our neighbors, called Things. Perhaps it was the company that made the game so fun, but it is definitely on our list of things we would like to get. P.S. We miss you Mitch and Carrie!

We have been told that snow is in our forecast this week. We shall see about that. If we do happen to get snow, we both recently invested in snow pants. We're just gradually accumulating our winter gear and plan on attempting snow boarding within the next week or so. We will have to post pictures of our new adventure. Wish us luck! We're hoping for minor bumps and bruises.

We are also anxiously awaiting the big game this weekend, the Saints and the Vikings! WHO DAT!

We wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that it brings much happiness and success to your lives!

Good to be home!

We've been in Louisiana for three wonderful and fabulous days! I could not tell you how great it is to be back. I wish it was longer, of course, but I will take what I can get. So far, we've had opportunity to visit with family and friends, eat yummy food, and do a bit of shopping. It is fun to play games with everyone, read books to the baby sister, and not apply lotion and chapstick every 30 minutes!

We hope that you are enjoying your holidays! Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!

update

It has been a while since I posted on here so I thought everyone could use a little update.

*Kevin recently finished his first semester at BYUI. Hurray!
*I have been addicted to popcorn. We pop the kernels on the stove now almost every night and it is SOOO good!

*It was been warmer lately. About 30 degrees, wow! Not really any snow, lets hope it stays that way.
*We lost power Thursday night for about 3.5 hours. A valuable lesson was learned, we need to prepare ourselves better. More candles, backup batteries, and a propane heater wouldn't hurt. Kevin has one actually but it is in Georgia, which does us no good! Guess we'll have to get it next trip out there.

*We're going home to Louisiana in less than a week!!!

I could NOT wait any longer

Yes, we have always put the tree up Thanksgiving day or shortly after but for some reason this year I just could NOT WAIT. I am pretty sure I asked Kevin everyday last week, "can we put the tree up today?" Finally, I just decided we're puttin' it up and we're puttin' it up today! I am not skipping Thanksgiving at all. In fact, Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. It seems like Christmas comes so quick after Thanksgiving. It feels like you are putting your ornaments away as soon as you take them out. I am so glad I will get to enjoy my tree a bit longer this year!


And it gets me super pumped that I am going home! Only six weeks! Yeah!!

SUPER Saturday

A friend of mine, Jenny*, invited me to her ward's super craft Saturday. It was SO fun! There was so many projects to participate in! We spent 5 hours at the activity and completed 1 craft. We assembled and designed a "days till Christmas" countdown-er thing. It was a pretty tough one, which demanded some time. Paint this, dry that, cut this, spray that, etc. I have never attended a super saturday and enjoyed the new experience very much. The crafts are adorable and the company was great. Since we did not have time to complete everything, Jenny and I will be having a super Friday to complete our unfinished projects. I am ready to get them done. For some reason I've got this craft-bug in me and I could just craft and craft and craft!

*Jenny has lived in Lafayette and attended my home ward the last few years. We both moved to Rexburg the same time this year. It has been wonderful having friends so close!

we sit at the bar

Yes, you did read that right. We sit at the bar at Applebee's and for good reasons too! While we were there tonight we saw two couples from our ward and they were probably thinking, "what are the Bradley's doing?!" So I thought I would explain why exactly we choose, and might I add love, to sit at the bar.

1. Justin. Justin is the bar tender and might I add an amazing one! Hardly anyone sits there, so we get pretty good football conversations going, talking about our home towns, and such. (We had a lady with big hair one day and we were NOT happy campers with her service. This is work people! Work or leave!)

2. And since no one sits there, we are seated the minute we walk in. How lovely, no wait!

3. We always have our sierra mist and kiwi-raspberry lemonade filled to the top. We are also constantly tended to as far as sauces, refills, desserts, and so forth. Beautiful!

4. And since we are closer with people who work there, we usually get to pick what games to play on the televisions. One time Georgia and LSU were playin' at the same time, so they put mine on and Kevin's and two others. Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot!

5. No one else is sitting at the bar, so they never rush you to leave. In fact Justin's words after we paid were, "Feel free to hang out as long as you'd like. Let me know if you need drinks or anything." And he almost twisted Kevin's arm to take a kiwi-raspberry lemonade to-go before we left. Seriously? I think that is just great!

And that, my friends, is why we sit at the bar, gladly!

busy times, fun times, GREAT times

The second half of October has been a busy one. First, we ended our work week short so that we could attend my Aunt's wedding in the Bountiful Temple. Everything went well. Keni looked gorgeous, as she always is. The ceremony was wonderful. Dinner was super yummy and so was the cake. And to top off a wonderful day my MOM was there along with my other fabulous Aunts! And I've got a pretty awesome new uncle!Keni's girls hung out with us while mom and Chris were out of town. Those two are hilarious and so fun.The next weekend was Halloween. Kevin and I decided to be Woody and Jessi from Toy Story 2. Thanks to a friend from the ward, I was able to get help on creating and constructing our chaps and vest. I hadn't dressed up for Halloween probably since I was 12. It was fun to put the costumes together and get a bit more into the Halloween spirit.
It's been a fun month and college football season still occupies a good bit of our weekends. Uncle Chris has us watching more NFL football and Emily could not be more ecstatic with her New Orleans Saints. The next few weeks will be interesting and nerve racking!