A New Cousin!

This holiday season brought lots of babies to the Blythe family! Mary-Rian was the baby of the family for only 9 short days when she and Drew welcomed a new baby cousin on December 19. Her name is Arianna Babb Blythe and she's the only brunette in the bunch! Here is a picture of the precious princess. And here is a picture of the 2 girls getting to know each other on Christmas day.

Congratulations to Wes, Stephanie and Caroline!

It's a Girl!

Mary-Rian Bradley was born December 10 at 10:21 am. She weighed 7 lbs, 7.5 oz and measured 20.5 inches. Everyone is now at home and doing just fine. Drew seems to be taking it all in stride. Thanks to everyone who visited the hospital! Here are a few pictures from the hospital and first day at home.

Hokies Beat the 'Hoos!

Drew got his first VT jersey, so I squeezed into mine to also show a little Hokie love for rivalry weekend. Must have been good luck!

The Big Brother

Drew will be a big brother in about 2 weeks. Looks like there are lots of things he's looking forward to teaching the youngest Bradley... Drew's bathroom was under contruction for a week, so he had to take baths in the kitchen sink. Needless to say, he didn't mind.

This is the first taste of an Oreo... luckily for the clean up crew, it was only a mini-Oreo.

No comment necessary.

Clearing the Back 40

Robbye and Pops (and a couple of professionals) have worked very hard on clearing some of the areas in the backyard so that we could put up a new fence and a new shed. Don't try some of these chainsaw tricks at home.

That's Pops balancing on the stump of one tree to cut branches from another.

Yes, that is Robbye with a chain saw clearing the bamboo forest. Don't worry... the professionals were quickly called in to finish the job soon after this photo was taken.

Once the bamboo was cleared, we had pretty much doubled the size of our backyard and we were able to put up the new fence...


... and the old shed was torn down and this nice new one built.

Happy Halloween

The first trick or treating experience went okay...not quite what I had expected. Once in his doggie costume, Drew wanted to stay home and play in the sand box, so we put him in the Tahoe kicking and screaming to go over and visit our old neighborhood. Once we got over there and out of the car, things seemed to go a little smoother. Normally a camera hog, Drew wasn't really up for pictures tonight - of course.

We first went to visit our former next door neighbor, Mary. Drew quickly caught on to what was happening.

He wanted to hold the candy and would only put it in the bag when we went to another house and got more.

And then, on the way home, there was the discovery of what chocolate tastes like..... God help us.

Happy Halloween to all!

Visit to the Fair

We went to the state fair on Sunday - not a normal tradition for the Bradleys, but we decided to at least consider making it a tradition depending on how Drew took to it. I mean, he is a city baby afterall. After waiting what seemed like an hour for Robbye to get tickets (and having a small panic attack that the gorilla girl had abducted him), we made our way in. Now there were really 2 reasons Robbye and I convinced ourselves to go - Funnel cakes (for me) and Turkey Legs (for him). I didn't think I had to have one after entering the gates, but once I saw the first Funnel Cakes sign, the craving kicked in. And, although Drew may look just like his dad, seems his enjoyment of funnel cakes comes from me.

After a quick sugar rush, we made our way over to the Big Red Barn. The one tent dedicated entirely to goats (why?) was where we started. Drew was fine with the noises and the action until one got a little too close. I think he was holding on to the last piece of funnel cake and apparently this goat wanted it.

The cow tent went over a little better...they pretty much just
stared at each other. Drew knows "what a cow says" but neither
of them made a noise. We think we just missed the birthing of a calf - thank goodness!

These llama-looking things were a big hit. Drew seemed to want to sort of get in there with them, but they didn't look too trustworthy. They did look really fluffy though. I kept waiting for either spit or poo to start flying, but luckily we were spared from both.

Drew started to warm up to the chickens once we got out of the

craziness of the Big Red Barn. I can assure you Robbye was

freaking out at this point thinking Drew was going to actually touch

the chickens and contract some chicken-related disease. These chickens wanted nothing to do with us or anyone else around for that matter.

All you germaphobes, don't freak out...I did let Drew reach up

and pet one of the fluffy rabbits...much to the protest of his dad.

I'm not sure of any rabbit diseases, and had the sanitizer and

baby wipes in hand for the immediate wipe. City folk! :)

For the walk around the midway, we grabbed Robbye's favorite fair

food - the turkey leg. While Drew appears to find this pretty tasty in

the picture, I didn't get a shot of the reaction which was not positive.

Robbye and I shared the turkey leg and Drew got the fries. The

midway was a hit for all of us - it may be the best place on earth for people watching.

The fair was a hit....but a tradition? We'll have to see.

Goodbye Summer

Summer seems to be almost over and none of us can believe how fast it went by. The Bradleys stayed busy though and enjoyed it. Here are a few pictures from the summer to enjoy.

We spent some time at the ball field watching Dad play.

We spent time in Franklin. In fact, Drew had his first weekend away from home alone with BeBe and Pops.

And, we loved visiting the animals at Maymont. During this trip, the bears came right up to the fence!Hope you all had a great summer too!

Yes, we moved!

The Bradleys have finally moved to the new house! But you'll have to wait for pictures because I have no idea which box has the camera. That's right, there are still boxes to unpack. We moved on Thursday, the lights went out on Friday. So, we packed up and went to Jessica's house. Then we packed up and went to Jessica's house again on Saturday. Finally the lights came back sometime Saturday night, but we had to postpone some of the projects going on around the house which has put us way behind schedule.

Stay tuned for some pictures of the new pad....once I find that darn camera!

PS - Thanks to Jessica for taking care of all the Bradleys, especially Gagne for a week!

Little Man Walking

Drew has decided that walking may not be so bad after all. Here is a little footage of him walking around outside this weekend behind his car. He still needs help, but is getting braver by the day.

Giving in to the Mess

Drew is adament on feeding himself the messiest thing being served. He's got the finger foods down, but he still wants his veggies pureed and not whole, and doesn't want anyone to feed him. For 14 months we've managed to avoid any major messes during dinner time, but that's all over I suppose. I guess the new kitchen floor tile will need to match green beans! PS - He HATES a bib.

A blog? Seriously?

We're going to give this blog thing a try to help family and friends stay up to date on the goings-on in the Bradley household. (Thanks to the Sextons and the Millers for the inspiration.) Hopefully, I'll quickly learn how to put pictures and videos and all that fancy stuff on here, but until then, you'll have to settle for this quick message.

Just to bring you up to speed...Drew is 14 months today, Drew had ear tube surgery today, another baby cousin (name pending) was added to the mix today (Congrats to Julie, David and Olivia!), we started packing boxes for the big move today. That about does it.

So, some days there will be lots to read about and others will not. Feel free to give me a nudge if you've been staring at the last post for a week or so. Stay tuned for more!