Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve we finally got around to our Santa visit! Brady got to see Santa at our church Christmas party, but I was home sick and Hadley didn't sit on his lap then, so we made it to Bass Pro and got this cute picture!

After dinner we headed to the magic tree because a) it's magical and b) it's tradition! After that we headed home, opened up their new pajamas, put Hadley to bed and started making cookies for Santa. Our Santa really, really loves cookies!

Christmas morning was the best! Brady is at the perfect age because he's excited by everything. Hadley likes to eat things, and there were plenty of new things to chomp on, so it worked out well for both of them.  And they both got plenty!  We invited Grandma and Grandpa Moore and Aliisa over to enjoy the festivities because kids make Christmas so much better!

And here we are all dressed up in our Sunday best! Hadley's dress was very glittery.  And she left that fairy dust everywhere :)

9 months

Our sweet Hadley girl is 9 months old! She is a busy little thing and still pretty tiny.  And still very smiley.  She crawls all over the place, loves to watch Butters and Brady, and appears to be very interested in climbing.  She loves music and eats just about everything now.  She loves food, and especially loves meat, which is so different than Brady.

Here are her stats:
Height: 27.5 in (41%)
Weight: 16 lbs, 9 oz (21%)
Head: 45cm (79%)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Brady was super excited to help with Christmas decorations this year.  We stuck with my family tradition of putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving.  Hadley had no clue what was going on, but liked to look at the lights.  And grab the ornaments.  Every year I forget how much work it is to decorate, but it sure is a lot more fun with my little helpers.  And Brady was much better at spacing out the ornaments this year too :)

Decorating is a lot of work. (And proof that we got dressed that day).

Bradys say the Darndest Things - Part 2

Lately Brady has been "punishing" us by not talking to us if we tell him no or something else he doesn't want to hear. The other day he qualified the statement into, "Ugh. I'm done talking to you.  Unless I need something. Then I'll talk to you."

Quentin took the kids to Aldi for a few groceries and he gave the quarter from the cart to Brady when they were done.  Brady dropped the quarter and couldn't find it and said "Did I just make magic?" (We assume make it disappear?)
 When Quentin was telling me about that incident, Brady said "It's not a quarter, it's a COIN."

Brady was crying when his cartoons weren't on one morning.  I said, "Brady, it's not going to kill you to miss a morning of cartoons." He responded, "Yeah, bad guys will kill me.  And then Grandma will be sad. Both Grandmas will be sad."

Brady was excited about the Trunk or Treat and kept asking if it was time yet. When I told him no for the umpteenth time, he said "The clock isn't moving!" When I told him it was moving, he said, "Well it's not moving fast enough."

Brady made Quentin check under his bed for monsters.  Quentin said there weren't any and Brady said, "If there were, you would move my bed and squash them cuz you're fat."

Texts from Lori:
B: "Hey Wori...when I get big I'll be a dad.  I'll be Hadley's dad, And Crapa won't be Crapa because my dad will be Hadley's Crapa. My mom will be Hadley's Gma," Hmmm...almost. (Crapa = Grandpa)

We were talking about Matt and Allie being at the ocean today and Stella said that she went to the ocean with Uncle David. Brady's eyes got big and he said, "Is your Uncle David a shepherd boy who hit Goliath on the head with his sling and Goliath fell down dead?"

"My dad told me about cords that you plug in. He said that if you touch one, then AFTER you're dead it will sting you."

Me: "Matt and Allie are swimming in the ocean today."
B: "Are there sharks in the ocean?"
Stella: "If a shark eats them, then they will live with Jesus."
B: "What? Did Jesus get eaten by a shark? Is Jesus in a shark's tummy?"

8 Months!

We were at HyVee right before bedtime when I realized we didn't have an 8 month picture of Hadley!  So she gets to share this one with her brother (who wouldn't give us a decent smile).

 

Can't believe this girl is 8 months already.  I think I say that every month, but time seriously flies! She has two little teeth now and she is still such a happy girl. She is starting to crawl pretty well, which allows her to get into everything.  Her personal favorite seems to be dumping Butters' water bowl all over herself.  She also loves to grab his fur.  Lucky for us, Butters is a good dog and doesn't ever nip at her. (I can't say that he's the smartest as he doesn't seem to understand he puts himself in the position to be tortured). She's starting to eat solids better now too.  She sometimes can get her puffs to her mouth on her own now and she doesn't seem disgusted when you try to feed her every time either.  She is enjoying lots of babbles and gets pretty loud with it, too.  Brady is not a fan, but he is still the best brother.  She certainly agrees!

Trunk or Treat

Saturday was a pretty busy day for us.  We started off proctoring the ACT, so Brady got in some much needed Grandma time.  Then Quentin got to go to the Mizzou Homecoming game with my dad (and they had fancy box seats, I might add!).  Then our ward Trunk or Treat was that night.  Brady has been so excited to wear his pirate costume (and we were lucky enough to find it at a garage sale, thanks to Grandma Bell).  Right after nap Brady kept asking when it was time for the party. He finally asked if he could try on his costume to make sure it fit (because what if he suddenly outgrew it overnight?!). I gave in, and was rewarded with this cuteness. I may be biased, but he is probably the cutest pirate of all time. 

 I just really love this picture of the kids.  They both love each other so much, and this captures it pretty well. Brady is trying to get Hadley to smile, which is not a hard task anyway, but she pretty much smiles the instant she sees her brother.

 I finally got one where they are both looking at the camera! Not sure how we got so lucky to have the cutest kids ever! Look at those perfect little smiles

 Here's my little ladybug with her grandpa. It was really warm, so she was cooking in that costume.

 Brady had a blast running all around the gym and Hadley seemed content to be taking it all in.  Love my little pirate and ladybug!

Carving Pumpkins

For Family Home Evening last night we decided to carve pumpkins.  Brady could not have been more excited and he went with Quentin to pick out the pumpkins while I cooked dinner and fed Hadley.  He got a big one for himself and a little one for Hadley. He was a little less excited about touching the pumpkin guts.

 Hadley had no problem diving right in though :) She was pretty well covered in pumpkin, and after I got sick of pulling chunks out of her mouth over and over, I decided it was time to clean her up and put her to bed. I'm sure she would have been oh so helpful for the actual carving part.

 Brady was also very excited to put the candles in the pumpkins and "start the fire." He also thought it was awesome that he got to blow the candles out. Hadley's pumpkin is on the left (my masterpiece), and Brady's is on the right (Quentin's fine handiwork). Can you tell how much fun he was having?

 Here are the close ups of our work.  Not sure why, but we couldn't get a very good picture of the Dracula.  It was actually quite impressive though.

Cute Cousins

We went to KC for the weekend of Quentin's birthday.  Now that Kirsten and Kirk are up there, it makes for a busy weekend trying to fit everyone in.  We spent Saturday morning running around to garage sales and then went out to lunch for Quentin's birthday.  Saturday evening we got these cuties together.  It's fun to see how different they are already and it's fun to watch them grow together.

 The following week, Kirsten and Lilly stayed in Columbia to give Kirk a week to focus on school.  It was fun to have them here and watch Lilly crawling all over the place! They are such sweet babies <3 br="">

Hadley is 7 months

Hadley is now 7 months old. Boy how the time flies! She has mastered sitting up and can even sit on her own from a crawling position now.  She wants to crawl soooo bad and can scoot a little every once in a while, but it won't be long before she is fully mobile.  I'm ready for her to be able to get to things on her own, but it will bring about new challenges as well. I'm also not sure how Brady will handle her being able to get into his stuff, but it's part of being a sibling so I'm sure we will all survive.  Plus it will force me to keep my floors cleaner...right? And any challenge seems worth it when you get to see this cute face every day :)

Bradys Say the Darndest Things

I have not been good at writing down all the funny things Brady says...and boy does he have some good ones! I'm going to try to start doing better so this post is entirely dedicated to the funny things that my sweet, inquisitive, smart and funny (though he doesn't always mean to be and gets mad if you laugh at the wrong time) boy says.

Sometimes it's the way he pronounces things: Grandpa = Crapa, Crab = Crap, Weapon = Whippin (this is what he calls his sticks usually), peanut butter and sandwiches (pb&j)

When I was cutting my toenails:
"But what about the lovely purple stuff?!" (toe nail polish)

I don't remember the whole back story, but at one point he said that Grandpa was Grandma's wife.

During FHE (randomly) "Jesus would be sad if Curious George died"

After Lori saw a snake one day Brady was obsessing over it (imagine that!) and kept asking me questions about it.  I finally texted Lori to ask how long the snake was.  She responded that it was a foot and a half to 2 feet, which I relayed to Brady. After a few moments, here was our conversation:
B: "Mom, Lori can't say that snakes have feet cuz only people have feet."
M: "What about Butters, he has feet. Is he a person?"
B: "No, but he is part of our family."

Aliisa asked him if he could think of something that was gross and after a little thought he said "Hmmm...poop is gross."

Texts I received from Lori:
*We're sitting on the porch watching the rain and waiting to the school bus. A blue city bus went by (first time ever) and B asked "That's not a school bus. Is that a tornado bus?" I said, "What's a tornado bus?" B, "You know, the tornado bus.  It comes and picks us up when a tornado is coming."

*I heard B crying after he laid down for his nap so I went in and asked what was wrong. He said "It's so dark in here that I'm scared. Can you turn on a light?" I said, "Try taking your sunglasses off and see if that makes it better." He took them off and said, "Oh yeah...that is better now."

B: "Where is Justin?"
L: "He is 5 and he goes to school now, remember?"
B: "Oh yeah...my cousin Alexa goes to the garden but she doesn't go to school like Justin."
The garden = kindergarten :)

Deep Breakfast conversation out of nowhere - B: "Wori...when I get big I will marry Allie.  If Allie says no then I'll marry Stella." Stella: "I can't marry you because I am going to marry my dad. You can marry Ava." Ava: "I marry Matt." Brady (very dejected) after sighing: "Ok...then I will ask Allie after school and if she says no, I will marry my Mom. She won't say no."

That's all for now, folks.  I'll try to do better at writing these posts up more often. He is full of funny things to say, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Hadley's Half Birthday

Yep, it has already been 6 months since our lives were blessed with the addition of this sweet baby girl! The time has flown by! We think she is just the cutest (obviously unbiased opinion), sweetest girl ever! I mean, look at these smiles...

She has mastered rolling over both ways (and both directions even!) and uses that as a mode of transportation since she has not figured out how to crawl quite yet.  She also does a little scooting. Enough to get into things if I leave the room.  Her favorite thing to get into is her diapers.  Luckily, they are the clean diapers :) Brady seems to be her favorite person. She loves to watch him and he makes her laugh like no one else. And he (for the most part) loves her. I hope this positive relationship will continue as she grows and begins to get into his things.  She is lucky to have such a great brother! She also loves: Butters, singing songs, peek-a-boo, looking at herself in the mirror, watching us eat (not so much eating herself as she seems to think we are poisoning her when we try to feed her), watching EVERYTHING, and smiling. She does her best to catch any willing eye and then gives a giant smile as reward.  

We've started trying to feed her some solids in hopes of getting better sleep at night.  It's not working yet. As in, she is not really eating solids and she is also not sleeping great at night. So far, we have given her avacados (which does not elicit anything resembling a smile), and carrots.  She seems less repulsed by the carrots. Next up is bananas. I think it will be received well, but we will see! This is a huge contrast from my baby Brady who ate everything except squash.

Here are her stats: Height:25 3/4 in (39%)

Weight: 14 lbs, 10 oz (19%)

Head Circum: 42 1/2 cm (55%)

So she is still pretty tiny, but she sure is growing!

Fun at the LaBrue's

Quentin and I both took a Friday off and we decided to take a much needed mini vacation to the lake to visit Kyle and Cassie.  We went to the pool Friday and Hadley got to lounge around in a nice little floatie.  She spent most of her time eating her swim suit.

 Brady got a little brave and actually ventured from the steps (which is a huge accomplishment for him...we enjoy our small victories). He also enjoyed shooting water out of the noodles.

 

Saturday there was a Fall Festival.  The weather was unfortunately kind of dreary, but the kids still had fun.  Brady had another brave moment when he decided to go down this slide.  He has normally shied away from these types of things in the past.  He even did it a second time.  He has really started to mature in the past few months (which means a lot less whining, which makes for a much happier momma)

MU played on Saturday so we all had our Mizzou gear on.  Our family is usually a little more photogenic than this, but oh well.  While Kyle and Quentin watched the game (and the kids...who napped mostly), Cassie and I were able to escape for a while to shop...mostly for the kids.  Kind of ironic that we have to escape from the kids to go shop for them huh? Still fun, of course!

 Brady got this futon mattress to himself.  He tried to convince me to let him share my bed.  This photo should pretty much explain why I declined that...sideways in the bed. This kid is all over the place when he sleeps!

5 Month Smiles

 Man, time flies even faster with the second kid!  This smiley girl is 5 months!  She has stopped sleeping well at night.  Some nights are ok, but for the most part she wakes up twice to eat, and that's not including all the other random wakings.  We aren't sure what's going on.  Luckily, Quentin is a good helper and gets up with her a lot.  I am so lucky to have a husband that is willing to be a hands on father.  It's so hard to get that little sleep and then go work the next day.  My job is most physically demanding than most people realize, but I somehow power through and survive.  Pretty soon we'll probably give the Ferber method a try. But that is an exhausting few days, so we have to figure out the right time to do it.  Luckily, she rewards us with the smiles pretty consistently throughout the day.  The first picture is actually a week too soon for this post, but I love the smile and I couldn't resist.  The second picture is her real 5 month mark.

Moving on from the terrible sleeping, this girl has been busy with lots of other stuff.  I can't say that she's mastered the art of eating cereal yet, but she has definitely improved! We don't feed it to her every day.  I think we have only done it 3 times now.  She also loves to talk.  She started this about a month ago, but I just love to hear it.  She also laughs sometimes and that is the best!  She has started rolling from her back to her belly, but gets mad after a while because she seems to have forgotten she can roll herself back.  She wants so bad to sit, but that is still a work in progress.  She still loves to be held and still loves her Brady the most! She has also started to notice and enjoy watching Butters a lot.  Watch out, Butters, she will be on the move before long!

Swimming

This summer we joined a pool to help wear Brady out keep Brady entertained and to get some swimming lessons in.  It definitely keeps Brady entertained, but not sure how successful the swimming lessons were.  I will say he has made a lot of progress in braving the pool.  He has always loved the water, so the baby pool was a big hit from the start, but they have a little 2 foot section that he has enjoyed playing in too.  He also likes to jump off the side of the pool to us (which can be exhausting to us both).  The real win with the pool is that he plays along pretty well as long as he has an audience.  We do a lot of "watch this" but I don't mind that at all.  So it is a wonderful place for me to take him because he plays by himself and that frees me up to hold Hadley, who also enjoys it because she likes to be outside ALL. THE. TIME.  We've only put her in the water once.  She seemed pretty indifferent to it, but next year I think she will like it more.  Hopefully we can get Brady to follow along in his lessons a little better next year too.

Cereal Time

 We started Brady on cereal at 4 months.  So we decided to do the same with Hadley.  She likes to sit in the bumbo (or bumble bee as Brady calls it) and had seemed pretty interested in watching us eat for a while.  I love this first picture!  She is sooooo happy!  Plus I like the hair sticking up.

 "Ready for my food, Mom!"

"Not so sure about this stuff."

"I think I'll just eat this bib instead."

So it wasn't hugely successful.  I think she enjoyed it, but wasn't quite ready.  Not sure any of it even made it to her stomach, but we'll try again in a few weeks and see.