Gingerbread Houses

It's been a Moore family tradition to do "gingerbread" houses at Christmas since I was itty bitty.  Mom makes the houses from graham crackers and we put on all the candy we want :)  This year we joined up with our friends the Mills for even more fun :)  It was the same night as the Christmas Devotional, so we decorated our houses and watched the devotional together.  And ate lots of candy and treats.

 Here is a picture of everyone with their finished product.  Everyone's turned out pretty good.  Even Jade and her all orange house :)

 You may be sad to know that Jordan's dog got to this masterpiece a short time later... :(

It was so much fun to catch up with the Mills family.  They have been my second family for as long as I can remember and we definitely need to do stuff like this more often!

Breakfast with Santa

Every year Rock Bridge puts on Breakfast with Santa.  They have activities and crafts for the kids and, of course, Santa comes for a visit.  I'm glad we decided to go this year since we never made it to Bass Pro to visit Santa.  Brady seemed to have a good time and he ran into a few of his daycare buddies while we were there.  He got a reindeer painted on his face and did a great job of holding really still.

He did a few crafts and a little bowling game too and then we stopped by to see Santa on our way out.  When we were in line we asked Brady what he was going to ask Santa for and he said "presents."  Easy enough huh? Well unfortunately, Brady was so excited to see Santa that he completely wiped out on his run up there.  So he was too embarrassed to actually talk to Santa.  Or who knows, he may have been too shy anyway.  It was a fun morning and I'm not sure it gets much cute than this boy!

23 Weeks

Well, I realized that I never even made our big announcement on here.  Baby Bell #2 will be making her debut in March (or possibly April since her due date is March 26).  And to prove to posterity that I did indeed carry another child (who has already gotten less attention than the first), I took my first pregnancy picture.  I can't promise there will be a ton more, but hopefully I will remember to take a few more.  This is actually from 4 weeks ago and I am just now getting it up.  Oh well, better late than never right?

Halloween

Halloween started off the weekend before with the trunk or treat at church.  Mom and Dad went as s'mores.  Aren't they cute?

 Grandma S'moore and Giraffe Brady (yep, the costume is a little small.  Please ignore the pants hanging out the bottom).

 Brady enjoyed going around getting candy this year and actually understood the concept this time.  But his favorite part was handing out candy to the kids with Grandpa.  I guess it's better to give than receive huh?

 The night before Halloween we carved a pumpkin.  It was kind of rushed so not really a noteworthy carving, but Brady had fun with it anyway.  He was excited to light the candle.

 Here he is with the finished product.  Look at that cute little smile :)

 On actual Halloween we went to Grandma's house for pizza and then went trick or treating.  We just went up and down their street.  Brady did really well saying "trick or treat" and then he would say "thank you, next house!"  It was pretty cute.  He also made Quentin carry him "like a baby giraffe."  And once again, his favorite part was passing candy out to the kids.  Happy Halloween!

Bowling

About a month ago we finally used our bowling gift certificate that we got for Christmas last year.  I wasn't sure how it would go with Brady since he is pretty unpredictable, but he did great.  At first he was scared because he said it was too loud, but he warmed up quickly.

 We let him roll the ball on his own the first few times.  After a couple weeks, the ball finally made it to the pins (yes, slight exaggeration.  But only slightly).  Then we found this little ramp thing that worked a lot better.  You just set the ball at the top and he can push it down.  And then it actually has enough force to knock down the pins by the time it gets there :)

Isn't that the cutest little bowler you ever saw?  I would also like to point out that I won.  Thank goodness we had the bumpers up!

"Camping"

Quentin has been promising Brady for a while that they could camp in a tent in the backyard if he practiced staying quiet at night.  This trick worked pretty well for a while, and Brady was beyond excited at the idea of camping.  So after Quentin took his vascular registry (and passed...yay Quentin!!) he decided it was time to fulfill his promise.  We borrowed a tent from Lori and set it up while the burgers were on the grill.

 Excuse the blurry picture.  But this is what the boys did to pass the time...watch a movie on the ipad.  Ahhhh...the great outdoors :)  We did do s'mores (well, on the grill that is).

 Here they are in their pajamas and ready for bed.  Apparently it was a long process getting to sleep because the bugs made noises that Brady didn't like, which is no shock to anyone who knows Brady's fear and disdain for bugs.  Once they got to sleep, they lasted the whole night.  I was pretty shocked because I thought for sure they would only be out there for an hour or two.  They sure are happy campers...and cute campers too!

First Haircut

I finally decided that this boy was ready for a haircut.  Mostly I got tired of the huge nest that formed every night.  So a girl I work with recommended this place that is set up for kids.  Normally there is a car chair that the kids get to sit in, but it broke so he had to sit in the adult chair this time.  But he was just as excited to look at the car chair :)  He was excited to get his hair cut since Quentin, Butters and I have all gotten haircuts recently. Here's his before picture:

 Then here is the during picture...he got to watch cartoons and she tried to give him fruit loops, but he wanted nothing to do with that.  Luckily I brought fruit snacks as bribery, but I doubt I really even needed it.

 And here's the happy boy after:

It looks great and there is still a little curl to it so I didn't have to cry.  She also gave us a little keepsake bag for "baby's first haircut."  Definitely recommend this place to anyone with kids!  It's called the Groom Room.

St. Louis Zoo

I was off Friday, so I recruited Kirsten and Kirk to go to the St. Louis Zoo with Brady and me (Quentin has to work...ahhhh the joys of being gainfully employed).  I think Kirk was pleasantly surprised with the quality of our free zoo. He seemed skeptical at first.  I mean how can it be so good when it's free?  Brady loved it, of course.  He did not want to leave one animal to go to the next.  

 I was very grateful to Kirsten and Kirk for taking their turn carting this boy around and pushing the stroller.  I was worn out by the end of the day even with their help, so I can't imagine how I would have made it without them.  Brady is getting too big to carry around all day!

 We were so excited to see the new baby elephant.  It was so (relatively) small and cute and reminded us of the elephant from Jungle Book because it had a little tuft of hair on her head.  You can see it hiding behind the log. Kind of.

 It's a pretty big zoo, and it was hot, and we did a lot of walking.  As you can see, I was not the only one worn out.  You can see he is starting to get sleepy here.

 And much to my surprise, Brady fell asleep...on Kirk's shoulder!  It was past naptime, but generally Brady does not sleep anywhere besides his bed.  But he even stayed asleep when we moved him to the stroller.  And then through the train tooting its horn right next to us...three times!  Unfortunately he also missed the new sea lion exhibit, which I think he would have loved.  It's a little tunnel that you walk through and they swim all around.  Way cool.

 And then there was the sloth bear, which is a bear that looks like it needs a haircut.  Pretty cute.  Plus I decided Kirsten and Kirk needed their picture together.  Thanks for being my helpers for the day!

Mini Golf Fun

Saturday the weather was perfect so we decided to go golfing...well, mini golfing.  Brady was so excited to "golf like Richard,"which is what he call Jared Houseman for some reason.  He thought it was great and he had fun picking up our balls and handing them to us (which was so helpful!) I think Brady probably won...unless you take into consideration that he would put his ball right next to the hole and just taaaap it in. (Happy Gilmore quote for the folks out there who think I don't know how to spell tap).  He was so proud every time he got it in the hole.

Our Big Boy!

Our Baby Brady is, well, not really a baby anymore.  Although I still call him that.  And I can because I'm his momma :)  Anyway, we are going through a big transition time for this big boy and I am so proud of how well he has handled everything.  (And let's be honest, how well I have handled it too!)  About a week ago we started potty training.  He caught on to peeing in the potty almost immediately, with only a few accidents the first morning and only one or two pee accidents since.  Pooping has been more difficult, especially since he seems to hold it forever.  We talked about how the doctor says he needs to poop in the potty every day because if he holds it in he will get sick.  I'm not sure that registered though because ten minutes later I asked "Brady, what did the doctor say?" To which he responded "No more monkeys jumping on the bed?" And yes, the doctor did say that too, so I can't really refute that. He did, however, finally have two successes in that department yesterday.  Hopefully that is a step in the right direction.  He got to go pick out a toy and was pretty excited about that.  As you can see, he is VERY proud of his big boy underwear.  

 And we pretty much went pants-less the entire potty training weekend.  Here he is with his "bowtie" made of balloons that he got with his daddy at the Honda dealership.

The other big transition was turning his crib into a toddler bed.  I was pretty nervous about this one too because it's so nice to have your kid contained at night.  Contained equals safe.  But he did great with this one too!  He is more resistant to bedtime, but I think that has less to do with the bed and more to do with wanting to play.  He does eventually fall asleep though...and look dang cute doing it!  This is a relatively normal position, but he sometimes ends up sideways or in other strange positions.  

He likes to be able to climb in and out of his bed during the day, and loves to climb in at night.  He doesn't seem to realize that he can climb out by himself in the morning yet.  He still cries for us to come get him.  He is growing so fast and I love to hear the funny things he says.  He is so sweet (for the most part) and I sure do love him.

GRADUATION!!

After what has seemed like forever, Quentin finally graduated!  Yahoo!!  He has spent a lot of money and time (and money) and hard work (and money) and we are so glad to be done!  He has been in school the whole time we've been married, which is almost 5 years. School has not always been easy for him, and I'm so proud of him for sticking it out and finishing.  Not only will it help provide for our family, it will provide a good example for our children someday and I'm grateful for that.  I am also grateful to have such a supportive family.  Quentin's whole family (minus John...we missed you buddy) came to celebrate with us.  It was so much fun having everyone here and it was nice to have some guests stay at our house, even though we only have a twin bed and air mattress to offer up.

 I couldn't resist getting this picture...Preston was out cold for a big part of the graduation ceremony.  Can't say that I blame him, but he looked so uncomfortable and still managed to stay asleep through all the noise.

 Brady got to try on the hat.  Hard to believe that some day in the very distant future, he'll be in the cap and gown.

 With my parents, who have always been great support.  Even on the days where I just needed someone to listen while I complained about how much life sucks when your husband is in school and you never see each other, etc, etc.

I'll have to put up the group shot of the Bell side when Kendall emails it to me.  He graduated last Friday, and we had his party on Saturday.  My wonderful event planner/sister-in-law, Cassie, planned the whole thing and delegated the jobs.  We did a BBQ at a local park and the Housemans and the Lambs joined our crazy crew for the fun.  The food was yummy, the kids had a blast (especially when they discovered they could play in the water from the drinking fountain), and it really couldn't have been more perfect.  Thanks Cassie.  And I got to present Quentin with a much anticipated surprise...an ipad!  He has been wanting one pretty much since they first came out.  So I started saving months and months before to surprise him with one.  That's a huge chunk of change to stash up, and I had to be pretty sneaky!  Lori was my partner in crime when it came time to order it.  She let me use her Target card(so I could get the 5% discount of course! without Quentin knowing) and ship it to her house.  Thanks Lori.  He loves it.  A lot.  Maybe more than he loves me.  Just kidding!  But he has spent lots of time on it and it seems to be everything he always dreamed of, so I guess the last 4 or 5 years of school were worth it :)