That Mom. TOTALLY That Mom.

I realized today that I'm so going to be that mom who thinks she has super sweet moves, but totally doesn't.  Any dancing coolness that I once possessed has run far, far away from here.  Avery is only 2 and she already doesn't want to learn her momma's moves.  WHAT happened?  This is not the level of coolness I envisioned for myself.  Back when I found out I was pregnant with Aves I was positive that she would think, for her entire life, that I was the ultimate role model of coolness.  But, at that point I wasn't THAT far removed from impromptu roomie dance parties & 6th Street.  My how the times have changed.  And FAST...

I fear what each passing year will do to my image...  My poor children :)

Colossians 3

Source my mom & pops gave me a little pink leather-bound book almost a year ago, on my 26th bday.  It's The Message translation of The New Testament.  I have never really taken the dive, as I've always preferred reading my traditional translations of The Bible.  I DO, however, live cross-referencing the different versions, as just a single differing word can leave me with a totally different perspective.  Pretty cool.

Well... just now I checked out the 3rd chapter of Colossians, The Message style.  Col 3 (particularly verses 12-15) is one of my go-to, almost-daily reads.  Totally  a guiding passage for me.  It reminds, encourages, convicts, & excites me every time! 

Go read Colossians 3 in The Message version of the bible. My prayer is that it inspires you as profoundly as it does me!

Bootcamps {indoor!!}

I am currently working on securing indoor locations for bootcamps in the North Dallas area {specifically: Lewisville, Addison, Flower Mound}.  Let me know if you're interested in joining us starting in January OR if you have a suggestion for an indoor space!  I'm looking for open (or empty...that'd be even better!) space where we can move around a bit!  All equipment is provided by yours truly :)

2012... you're almost here.  YIPPEE! :)

Jesus: Toddler Style

I spent some time today trying to entertain the girls with the story of Jesus' birth.  I started with our little nice, heavy, pewter nativity set.  I started with how the beauuuutiful angel came to visit Mary and told her she was going to have a sweeeeeet baby.  Well... before the first sentence was completed, I was wrestling one of the lambs out of CamCam's hand so as to avoid any head trauma to poor innocent Aves (Camo has a bit of a violent streak...).  So.  I hastily dropped the nativity set back onto the mantle, out of my little peas' reach and tried another approach.  This one much less pretty :) 

After a quick trip to the playroom, I came back with scissors, a bunch of colored construction paper, some tape & a pencil.  We made our little Jesus story into an art project (if you can even classify my hasty & seriously abstract masterpiece as artwork!) and with much more success, I got to share the birth of Jesus with my little nuggets! 

When daddy got home, Aves showed daddy out pretty pic and pointed out the angel, Mary, "baby God", the three men with their "presents", and... "who is that?"  She had trouble remembering Joseph's name.  I think I kind of threw her off with the whole idea of 2 dads.  A little outside the mental capacity of a 2-yr-old I think :)   SO cute.  There are few things Brian and I love more than hearing our lovebugs talk about God & Jesus.

So.  Avery is super excited about "Jesus dirthday!!  I sing happy dirthday to Baby Jesus!"  and keeps asking where Baby Jesus is.  She knows God lives "in my heart", but can't seem to figure out where Baby Jesus is hiding. 

And while we're on the Jesus-Toddler topic, Cameron has fallen in love with Avery's little storybook bible.  She ran around for an hour today saying, "bobble! bobble!" and begggging us to read it to her.  If there's any way to make me drop what I'm doing and cater to my children's wants, this is it.  Little CamCam has got it all figured out :) 

If there's anything in this entire world I want to leave my kiddos with, it is knowledge of who God is and how MUCH He loves them.  Completely.  Unconditionally.  Of course I WANT them to know how overwhelmingly I love them and want the very best for them too.  But it all points back to Him.  What better time to remember & put some on that than during this season that we celebrate His most perfect gift to us!

Motherhood

The knowledge that God chose ME to be the mother of my 2 sweet girls is humbling, baffling, encouraging, and at times overwhelming.  My journey to motherhood has been pretty typical.  Brian and I conceived both of our children.  That seems normal.  So normal, in fact, that the miraculous part of it gets completely lost.  God decided when to create those 2 little lives.  He saw them through to a healthful completion.   He allowed Brian and I to experience their lives beyond just a few minutes, weeks, or months.  He chose for us to be their parents from Day 1. 

I realize that this is NOT the journey to Motherhood that many of God's children will experience.  For some, He has chosen the gift of a child who was conceived in another womb, maybe even another country.  But still, He created that little bundle of cells knowing who would raise her.  He saw her development through to a perfect completion.  He chose who would deliver her and where she would be delivered, knowing all the while when she would be passed into the hands and heart of the one she could call "mommy".  And for this mommy, He has worked and chipped and prepared her heart for THIS child.  No part of her story, nor her child's, is a mistake.  It's not a broken story, who's pieces He needed to clean up.  It's a jigsaw puzzle of perfection that He had planned from the beginning.  This journey is almost even more miraculous than a journey like mine.  That God uses so many people to get a single one of his children into the hands meant to hold them forever... is one of the most telling pictures of the way He loves us.  His love goes so far beyond any definition or picture we can use to describe it, that its playing out often leaves us confused and dumbfounded.  But the truth of its perfection remains.

Motherhood.  The opportunity to love, hold, teach, encourage, provide for one of His own, is never anything but perfectly planned, and flawlessly purposed.  By Him.  Our Father.  Our Creator.  The Lover of our Souls.  He is Good.  In all things, He is Good.

Thoughts on Marriage

In talking with a friend recently, I realized that I have a "view" on marriage.  I believe that entering into and maintaining a marriage that honors and glorifies The Lord is a blessing, a challenge, and takes a massssivvve amount of intentional living.  It's a series of decisions that have to be made over & over again.  Every. Single. Day.  The decision to place your spouse before every other person and thing.  Even yourself.  The decision to enjoy your spouse.  The decision to forgive your spouse.  The decision to be gentle and kind toward your spouse.  When these thing don't happen, I absolutely do NOT believe it's always because we choose NOT to.  I think a lot of times, it's just that we forget to make a choice either way.  We get caught up in the millions of other things in life.  Our spouse is one of the FEW constants in life, so I guess it can be easy to just overlook them...  So, my "view" on marriage is that it should be the most intentional part of your day, your energy, and your life.  Although I am by NO means an expert or a master at marriage, I know that I try to be intentional in my relationship with B-Riz (he usually makes it really easy!), but there are plenty of occasions (a lot more than I care to count) that I fall into the trap of marital stagnation/selfishness.

Brian and I were super into talking about marriage when we were dating/engaged.  I feel like we made a pretty intentional and informed decision on who we were choosing as a lifelong spouse.  Um, don't get me wrong here...

I mean, did he sweep me off my feet when we started dating?  YES.  

Was I blinded by love like so many other young & in lovvvve females?  HECK YES.

 ... but luckily B-Riz is the bomb, so my unconditional infatuation didn't result in any regrets :) 

But, seriously.  We talked about marriage SO much before we were actually married, that I literally can't think of one thing that took me by "surprise".  We discussed how we expected to be treated privately & in public, spending habits, banking, working aspirations, parenting, disciplining, temptations, what we wanted our kids involved in, what kind of church we envisioned our family being a part of, what we pictured evenings at home looking like, if we wanted to be the hosts or guests on the regular, what kind of house we wanted to settle into, pets, # of kids, where to live (something we never have/will be 100% in agreement on!), how often we wanted to visit parentals, strengths, weaknesses, pet peeves, concerns, dreams, travel, hobbies... you name it, we probably talked about it.  Like... 12 times.  We talked about our parents' marriages alllll the time.  The amazing qualities we saw in them that we wanted to adopt for our own marriage.  We looked at their marriages and discussed all the little things that we saw would be an inevitable challenge at some point, and tried to come up with ways we could avoid, or at least be extra aware of, these issues.  We discussed our opinions on every little teeny tiny thing, and where we differed, we just talked some more.  Until we came to some kind of COMPROMISE (one of the most beautiful, yet easily forgotten, parts of marriage if you ask me!).  

We tried to foresee what could potentially be the biggest trouble areas for each of us, in terms of being a good and BIBLICAL wife/husband, and figure out ways to be prepared.   I'm not sure if it's a personality thing, but we have approached our marriage as some sort of challenge, without even realizing it!  Brian's competitive nature won't really allow him to fail at anything he puts his mind to.  And my analytical thought processes want to know the root of every word/action/facial expression.  This has resulted in us talking almost everything out.  Honesty is the name of the game.  When we're not rolling smoothly, neither of us is down.  Sure, we have had our seasons of frustrations/annoyances, but (SO FAR) nothing that has festered into a serious issue. 

However:

We are both acutely aware of the fact that satan is just WAITING for his moment to attack us.  We know that at some point, and probably MULTIPLE points, we will find ourselves in the midst of some major marital discord.  I hope and pray that our approach will have us as prepared as we can be for those times.  I know without the slightest doubt that The Lord will see us through thick & thin as long as we continue to use Him as the glue that holds our marriage together.  We are one, now.  Two souls bound by God.  Since June 2, 2007:  Brian and Roxanne = brianandroxanne. 

I'm super thankful that thus far, we have experienced a pretty smooth ride on the marriage train :)  I am genuinely looking forward to the triumphs, trials, great times, and not so great times ahead with B-Riz as my husband.  I know there are many laughs, many tears, and many learning experiences on the horizon.  It's amazing how much God can move and teach and work through this supercool and GENIUS creation of His: Marriage.

 

Daddy's Little Elf :)

It's beginning to look a leeeetle bit like Christmas at the Bradford Casa.  Woohoo!!  

Yay!

Happy T-Giv, Fools. Love, The Stomach Bug

DISCLAIMER:  This is not for the weak of stomach! 

**You have been warned...**

It all started a week ago.  On Tuesday evening we took a nice little Family'o'Four outing to Cristina's Mexican to enjoy our last meal in McKinney before traveling for the T-Giv holiday.  All was well, until an explosion of vomit erupted from poor little CamCam's adorable little body.  Over.  and Over.  and Over.  I wrapped her in my scarf and Brian's jacket and exited the premises as quickly as possible while Brian & Aves stayed behind for damage control.  This continued off & on for the next 5ish hours.  But by morning, C-Lil was a champ!  She acted like nothing had happened.  We let the day play out and decided we were safe for travel, so we packed up as planned and hit the road for Lufkin!

T-Giv day was a blast!  Everyone was happy & healthy, full & exhausted by day's end!  A Longhorns victory was a perfect cap for a TEEriffic day.  After a good night's sleep for everyone, Friday's plan was to relax with fam, watch football, and let the kiddos play. Unfortunately, my supercool SnL came down with the dreaded stomach bug early in the day and was down & out for the next 24 hours.  After a trip to AcuteCare, some prescription meds, & some crackers & Sprite she was finally ready to emerge from her bedroom come Saturday morning.  We met up with some old friends and their little man for lunch on Saturday (dear Lord, I hope we didn't spread the germage to that sweet boy!) and watched lots MORE football that afternoon/evening.  MarshMarsh hooked us up with a delish dinner that night and everyone hit the hay pretty early.  We were all wiped.  Um.  FF to 12:30.

Little Averton was puking her little angel face off.  I was having chills and aching to the max anyway, so I didn't lose any sleep by spending my night assisting my sweet firstborn.  Poor sweet girl did so great!  She was a champ and by the end, didn't even cry anymore when the vomit sessions would hit.  She even talked/waved to a train that was driving by at about 3am in between gags.  Haha... sad/funny/precious all at the same time.  By 3:30, Aves tummy had chilled out and she slept the rest of the night.  This momma, on the other hand, was straight up MIZZZZ.  Achiness was O.O.C.  Feverish and freezing.  Dramatic?  Maybe.  True?  Heck yes.  I woke up to find out that Brian had begun throwing up that morning and was locked in the back bedroom.  My poor familia.  Brian's ANGELIC parentals saved the day and took the kiddos while I took some advil for the aches and tried to sleep off my fever.  I finally got a few hours of DEEP sleep and started the slow but steady road to feeling better. 

Brian and I were quite a scene in the car on the way home.  We looked like death, both felt like we had been hit by a bus, and hardly uttered a word the whole way.  Our girls, however, were happy as ever!  SUPER thankful their illnesses were short-lived :)  On Monday, Brian was as good as new and I was def improved.  Last night I felt great and was pumped to start a new HEALTHY week. 

So...at around 12:30, I had this dream of total DejaVu.  Brian busted into the room with Cameron in his arms because she had just started throwing up...  Wait.  Um.  I wasn't dreaming.  SERIOUSLY?  Thankfully, that was the only time Cam threw up last night.  HOPEFULLY we are now in the clear and can start venturing out in public again by tomorrow! 

Despite all of our tummy issues, we truly did have a fantastic Thanksgiving!  We enjoyed tons of quality family time, the girls spent hours upon hours with their big-kid cousins, and we enjoyed lots of football/rest/food!  Thankful for a family who is willing to HELP in times of need :)   Hope your T-Giv rocked too.  I think 2011 will not be forgotten anytime soon in the Bradford Casa!

Missed you, Curry familia! 

Building Towers

Aves is SUPER into towers & castles.  Our backyard "playground" is now known as Avery's "castle" :)  AND, she drags the girls' bag of wooden blocks around the house to build her "tower" wherever we happen to be hanging out.  And she FUUHHREAAAAKS out when it starts tipping over.  I mean like... you would think her life is being threatened.  Silly child.  SUCH a perfectionist.  :)  I love watching her build her towers and love seeing how proud she is when she builds it almost "as tall for (aka-as) me!!"

What's not to love about that proud, SUPERpumped little face??  Love my Aves :)

Fall Festival Cuties!

Since B-Riz had golf plans and Casizzle was down with that dern stomach bug, G-Money & I (in true Bradford-Weghorst Commune style) took Aves, Cam, & Tot to Hope Fellowship's Fall Festival yesterday.  THEY WERE PRESHLINGS!!

They had SO much fun sporting their cute little costumes.  They ADORED the opportunity to run around with all the big kids.  They jumped @ the chance to pig out on popcorn & cotton candy (thx for waiting in that line, Geg!) Aves' excitement about the giant inflatable slides was super adorable.  She would have gone up & down those things for 3 hours straight if there weren't lines for every ride.

Our 3 little ladies are really almost like siblings.  LOVE seeing them interact and play together.  Thanks Geg, for helping with the leetle ladies, and for taking over photographer duties since your wifey couldn't make it.  

The girls are SOOOOOOO excited to trick-or-treat tonight (esp Aves...Cam doesn't totally get it yet.)  Avery keeps asking me, "Where's Halloween, mommy???"  Love my littles and can't wait to take them door to door tonight with B-Riz!  Also TOTALLY can't wait for them to help us hand out candy.  

Cutie pies.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!