Three!

Last weekend we celebrated Jack's 3rd Birthday!  It's hard to believe he is already three, and he is definitely not a baby anymore.  In the week leading up to his birthday we were talking about turing three and he said, 

"I'm going to be three, and then I'm going to be a man!"  

Even when he is a man, he'll always be my precious little boy. It never ceases to amaze me how much he knows and how much he is growing and changing every year.  He is incredibly smart and funny, so loving and sweet, and yet still all boy. He already has a heart for the Lord, and loves reading his little Bible every night. I am so blessed to be his mommy and his life has been one of the greatest gifts the Lord has ever given to me.  

We had so much fun at his Dino-mite Dinosaur party!  He was so cute- when I set up the table he said, "Mommy, it's beautiful!" He loved every minute of it, which of course, made it all worth it!

We had a couple little dinosaur activities for the kids to do. The first one was the "Dino Dig."  We filled a little kiddie pool with sand and buried dinos inside for them to dig for and sift out of the sand.  

His birthday present...the jumpy!

We also had a "Pre-historic Ice Pick" activity where we actually froze dinos in tuperware so each child had their own ice block to chip away at! It was really funny watching them hammer as hard as they could on these blocks of ice! They of course loved it, although, it did take a little longer than we anticipated and some of the mom's helped out a little :-) It was also quite a warm day, so it was fun for them to play with the ice. [Sidenote: Jack is always super hot, and his little cheeks turned so bright red, and he was all sweaty from running around and jumping in the jumpy!]

After the ice picking, we had Jack's favorite food...pizza!

Bretters & Reecey

T-Rex Pinata!

T-Rex was actually a tough cookie to crack! It took a little assistance from Papa :-) Then it was cupcake time! 

He was a happy boy with his cute little chocolate covered face! 

Such a fun day, and such sweet memories!

I love this little boy...so much!

Happy 3rd Birthday Jack Hartley Bradford!

Mmm D'Licious: Apple Crisp

There are few things more wonderful than the tastes of fall. Apples, cinnamon, pumpkin, I love them all.  After our apple picking, I knew I would have to make something tasty out of our apples, so I dug up a couple different recipes for Apple Crisp. One was my great grandmothers, and the other was from my aunt.  I sort of combined the two and did what I thought would work best.  The result was *amazing.* I mean, so so good. If you love fall and warm ooey gooey goodness topped with vanilla ice cream...make this...asap.

Ingredients:

7 apples (mine were small, so I used twice that)

1 Tbs cinnamon

1/2 Tbs nutmeg

1 Tbs lemon juice

1/4 C water

3/4 C white sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1 C flour

1/2 C cold butter

1/2 C quick oats

Directions:

Peel, core and slice apples. If you have one of these nifty little things, its done in a flash!

No he's not wearing lipstick...he had a red lollipop. (I know...bad mom)

Combine apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice and stir. 

Combine sugars, flour and oats. Cut butter into flour mixture. 

Place apples in greased pan. I poured a little water in with the apples for a little extra moisture. Sprinkle flour mixture on top.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes (or until the top is golden brown).

Serve warm, topped with vanilla ice cream :-) 

Enjoy!

Apple Picking & Bluegrass

Fall is finally here! To ring in my favorite season, we took a little drive up to Julian in the beginning of September for apple picking! We had lunch in the town and then drove to a nearby orchard called Raven Hill Orchard.

Jack had a blast running up and down the rows of apple trees, and since they were all dwarf apple trees, he could reach the apples himself!

Of course I helped him reach the ones at the top of the trees :-) 

He thought it was so cool that he could eat the apple he picked!

Claire helped Daddy pick some apples too!

At the orchard there were also two little wineries where you could enjoy a little wine tasting after the apple picking. They even had "apple pie" wine made from the apples grown there. Jacky enjoyed some actual apple juice :-)

After our apple picking adventure, we found out there had been a bluegrass festival going on in Julian that was finishing up, and the musicians were heading to a little pizzaria called Wynola Pizza.  So we headed over for some pizza and bluegrass! 

With a big red barn as the back drop, we listened to some really good bluegrass as we enjoyed our dinner. Jack was so cute and clapped along the whole time!

Little Peewee conked out after a long day of festivities.

It was a really special day with my little family.  And we took home a huge bag of delicious, fresh, apples, so of course I had to make something yummy out of them! Recipe coming soon :-)

Happy Fall!

DIY Dresser (Almost-Disaster)

Everybody is doing it. And everybody is doing it themselves...right?  Well, I was always taught I could do anything I put my mind to, and up until recently, I would say that I believed that little adage. And after a month and a half, priming, sanding, painting, [insert disaster here] which led to re-sanding, changing to spray paint, re-priming, sanding, re-painting, sanding, followed by painting, sanding, painting, sanding, painting, sanding....you get the idea.  It was a long process.  Sean and I did it together, which was kind of fun, we got to mess up together, share the frustration, and fix it...together. See the life lesson brewing?  It was fun though, and definitely a learning experience.

My little helper

Sean's parents gave us this little brown dresser for Jack {since now his white dresser is filled with pink and flowered dresses, onesies, and rompers}.  The dresser was originally Sean's Grandpas, then his dad's..so it an old piece of furniture, but it was still in pretty good condition, with the exception of some nicks and scratches mainly on the drawers. I always wanted to get Jack a blue bedroom set like this one...but since the little brown one was free we of course took it.  Then after reading a few DIY blogs, I thought I'd try my hand at a little makeover. So we headed to good ol Home Depot and stocked up on all the materials we would need.  Long story short, our first attempt was a heinous disaster. I used a Painter's Touch Navy paint, which was more like bright sea foam florescent royal blue. Seriously. It was horrible. I thought {being a novice} that it might darken when it dried, since the paint in the can looked navy. When it didn't I thought maybe a second coat might darken it. It didn't. I was too frustrated to even take a picture/ did not want to remember the disaster. The good news is that spray paint really can cover a myriad of wrongs.  And we were able to salvage our DIY disaster. 

Sanding, filling the holes/scratches, more sanding...

all primed and ready to go

Skip ahead a few steps...[painting...lots of coats....and finish...lots of coats]

We switched the old hardware out for the sailboat knobs from Jack's white dresser. I love how it turned out, and actually still kind of think I can do anything I put my mind to. It just might take a lot of help from my hubby, a lot more time than I first estimate, and a few frustrations along the way, but that's ok. 

The Bradfords in Big Bear {part 2}

Welcome to Bear Heaven! We stayed in this beautiful 3 story house. There were tons of bedrooms, a beautiful designer kitchen, a pool table, a ping-pong table on the deck, and Jack's favorite, a chess table.  I always love the morning time, but I especially love the kids in their jammies, welcoming the new day with giggles, puzzles, and of course a show.

Daddy helping Jack shoot pool :-)

my little chess master

One of the mornings a group of us went out and took the ski lift up to the top of the mountain.  It was strange seeing the mountain covered in dirt and brush and rocks instead of fluffy white snow, but the view from the top was beautiful. Jack had fun running around, jumping on big rocks and tree stumps. I was a little nervous taking Claire on the lift, so I strapped her into the Bejorn :-) 

On the lift on the way down

 Later that day, some of the guys went out fishing, so Grandma and I took Jack and Claire to meet up with the Moons at the Big Bear Zoo! It was more of an animal rescue, but it was neat to see some of the mountain animals.  It was not like our zoo here, of course, we are spoiled in San Diego, but the animals were so close, like literally on the other side of the chain link fence.  It was a little crazy. We are used to seeing them from a safe distance in their exhibits. There was a large pack of huge, beautiful wolves...definitely reminded me of the Twilight movies, and bears {even a three-legged bear}, and other smaller mountain animals.  My camera battery died while we were there, so I didn't get too many shots while we were there. 

Jack & Ellya ROARRRRRRing like Bears!

Do not feed the animals....your fingers.

Claire was bored....haha. Yawn.

When we got back to the house, Sean called and said there was room on the boat if we wanted to come meet them at the docking marina.  At this point, I tired to get Jack to nap...unsuccessfully, so I figured it would be more fun to be out on the water than sitting at the house waiting for them to get back! So we went! 

Once we were out in the middle of the lake, mostly just floating, or trolling, Jack got to take the wheel for a little bit! He loved being the Captain!

Poor Sean. There were several fish caught that day, but my poor hubby twice had a fish on his line and both times they got away. This is the face he made when the fish escaped. 

We ended up being out for several hours, and my little buddy was so tired (and needed to go potty at one point).  He was getting a little restless at one point so he snuggled up with me and asked me to tell him a story about the little Squirrel Forrest.  This time the squirrels were out on the high seas, escaping from pirate badgers. By the time the story was over, I could see Jacky was fading. He asked me to tell it again, so I did, and he fell asleep. He is such a precious little boy.  I loved having him snuggle up with me. I wish he'd stay little for a while. Time is just flying by too fast!

We had such a wonderful time, and Jack especially loved playing with Ellya all week.  She is Sean's cousin's daughter, and they are only about 4 months apart in age.  They had so much fun running around and exploring the yard around our house. There was a little stream and a bridge they would run across, and a little bench nestled in the back.  It reminded me of Secret Garden. It was so beautiful.  I had fun capturing the two of them together. Such sweet little friends.

Thank you Bradfords, Graystones & Moons for a fun week!