Brady's First Santa Visit

Bass Pro gives out free pictures with Santa and they let you take your own pictures as well. We tried to go in Springfield, but the line was too long for a Brady that is overdue for a nap. Since I was off Tuesday, we decided it would be the perfect time to go, and lucky for us, Grandpa Moore was off too so he got to be there with us! Here is Brady with Santa... He pretty much had no reaction. But I'm not sure if that's just because he's pretty laid back anyway or because Santa was a little lacking in the personality department. Don't get me wrong, it was a free thing and he definitely looked like Santa with a real beard andeverything. But he didn't speak one word. Not even a single hello. Ummm I thought Santa says "Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!" But not Bass Pro Santa. Oh well, maybe it made the experience a lot less frightening. Anyway, Brady was more interested in the train and cars and stuff like that. It was still fun to be there and let Brady sit on his lap. And maybe if I'm a really good girl next year, Santa will say hello to me.
Randomly because I don't want to make another post, I made these snowmen this year for Quentin's family and Lori and think they turned out pretty cute! Cute enough that I'm glad I made one for myself :)

Bell Family Christmas

And the whole reason for our big gathering this past weekend was to celebrate Christmas with the Bell family. We did the Christmas celebration on Saturday evening (so I had to share my birthday). Brady was pretty excited about this bow, so thanks Michelle for providing such fabulous entertainment :) The kids opened their presents and then the adults did a dirty Santa exchange. I do have to say there was a little bit more stealing this year compared to last, but it is still a pretty mild exchange! After dinner, everyone surprised me with a cookie cake (but not just a cookie cake...two cookie cakes with frosting in the middle...a cookie cake sandwich if you will) along with serenading me with the Happy Birthday song. It was a very thoughtful and delicious surprise, so thanks to everyone involved. And a sidenote here... I look a little angry in this picture because I just cut myself on the cardboard. However, the other picture of this moment is right when I cut myself and I look more than a little angry so I chose the lesser of the two evils.

10 months

Awww, what a sweet, peaceful 10 month old......until he wakes up. Then he is still sweet, but not as peaceful. This kid is seriously all over the place now! He still hasn't taken any steps on his own yet, which I am kind of grateful for because then it will be a whole new kind of busy. He has done pretty well not getting into the Christmas decorations. At our house they are mostly out of reach, but even the tree at daycare and both Grandma's houses he pretty much has left it all alone. The biggest news for this 10 month old boy is he finally has a tooth! The bottom middle on the right to be exact. Maybe someday he will get others, and hopefully soon because he is barely tolerating baby foods now that he has had a taste of real solids. He was a little fussier than normal for a few days, but I think we are pretty lucky in the teething department. He is just a good baby all around. It is fun to watch him learn new things and how proud he gets. He was climbing up Grandma Bell's stairs (with me right on his tail of course) and looked so proud at each step! He is seriously the cutest!

Steal Your Dollar City

Ok, ok, it's actually Silver Dollar City. But Steal Your Dollar is a little more accurate. The Bell clan made a stop in Branson just for SDC and the light parade there. We rode some of the kiddie rides, saw their version of A Christmas Carol, watched the light parade, and then stopped by Freddy's to eat on the way back to Willard. Brady only got about a 30 min nap in the car, so he had absolutely no reaction to the rides. He then slept in my arms for a while in A Christmas Carol, and he was back to his normal smiley self after that. In fact, after he woke up him and Garrett were best buds and hugging and kissing each other like crazy! It was so cute and I wish it hadn't been during the show because I would have loved to get some pictures of that. But here are out SDC pictures. It was freezing cold, especially once we lost the sun, so yep, Brady is very well bundled. But probably still cold. Also he got slap happy when we were eating because it was way past bedtime. It was pretty funny.

Happy Birthday to Me

I am now the big 2-5. Since we were gone on my birthday this year, Quentin, Brady and I celebrated a little bit early. When I came home from work on Wednesday, this is how I was greeted...It was a nice surprise, and of course Brady looked super cute in the hat! I also got to open my presents early, which was kinda nice because I still get a little anxious when it comes to presents :) And I think my scrub top matches my wrapping paper. I bet Quentin planned that for sure! Anyway, I got some cute new flats, season 7 of The Office, and a pink mp3 player with matching pink headphones. Thanks Quentin and Brady! And in case you haven't had enough Brady in this post, here's another cute picture of him all dressed up for church. Thanks Grandma Moore for keeping our boy clothed in cuteness!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I am behind on my posting, so there will hopefully be quite a few posts in the next few days...
The weekend before my birthday we celebrated with the Jacobs (since Karen and I both have the same birthday). We ate tacos for dinner, had yummy cheesecake for our birthday cake and then went to help them pick out their Christmas tree. Since our tiny apartment doesn't allow the room for a normal size tree, we stole this photo op with their borrowed tree...Do you notice the look of excitement on Brady's face? No? Oh, that's because it was past bedtime already and he probably was wondering why the heck we were keeping him awake to look at trees. He konked out in the car on the way back.

Thanksgiving

We went to Utah again this year for Thanksgiving. All the Moore girls and their families were there, and we had so much fun together! Brady got to meet Grandma Hendrickson for the first time. He also enjoyed playing with cousins Patrick and Luke. Last time they saw Brady, he was only 3 weeks old, so I think everyone had more fun with each other this time. They all love to read, so there was a lot of reading involved while we were there. And Luke was excited to finally have someone younger than him around so he could say "Don't do that baby Brady," which didn't seem to bother Brady at all. Luke was also kind enough to share his candy with Brady, for which Brady is eternally grateful. It was so fun to watch them play together! When we tried to get a picture of Grandma Moore with the grandsons, it was a bit of a challenge, especially because Brady kept pulling Luke's hair.Megan, Mom, Quentin and I braved WalMart on Black Friday, which was mass chaos. Luckily, we made it out with only minor injuries, as Quentin and Megan risked their lives to get our portable DVD player. Quentin kept getting shoved down, so he had to crawl out of the dog pile with his prize and Megan had a rather large man standing on her foot (who refused to move even when she told him he was standing on her foot) while everyone around was pushing and she had the bruises to show for it the next day. Overall it was successful since we got what we wanted, but people are so crazy!