Brady and Quentin's Trip to KC

Toward the end of my pregnancy, the Bell family had a big get together in Kansas City as part of Randy's Christmas present.  Since this was the only weekend in the foreseeable future (and by that I mean pre-baby) that I did not have to work or anything, I decided to stay home and take a much needed break.  But it's always a little weird to have the house to myself for that long.  Anyway, Quentin and Brady joined the fun and Brady had a blast with his cousins, as always!  He got to have a slumber party with Rex, who apparently fell off the bed :)

 They all went to some type of kid-fun museum/play/exhibit.  I am not sure on the details since I missed out on the fun, but this picture is a favorite of mine...can anyone guess why?  The OCD in me is also annoyed at it because of the low quality of some of the x-rays and the incorrectly hung chest x-ray.

 They also enjoyed a meal at a BBQ joint, and Brady's favorite part was his very own ice cream cone.  Not sure where he gets that sweet tooth...

 And here is a picture of some of the cousins.  From left to right: Kaylie, Ashlyn, Brady, Preston, Jonas, Addison, Cora, Rex, and Garrett.  Brady sure loves playing with his cousins! What a good looking group of kids.

"Baby" Brady is 3!

Brady had his 3rd birthday on Saturday.  We didn't have a huge celebration, but Grandma Bell came for the weekend and then Cassie and her girls ended up joining us and the Moore clan for pizza, presents, and cupcakes.  Brady got spoiled with plenty of stuff, but I think Grandma Bell wins the prize for favorite present.  She got him a nice, noisy police car...woohoo!

 I made him a Spiderman cape and got him gloves and a mask to go with it.  He didn't seem as interested as I thought he would be, but Alexa enjoyed being "Spiderman's wife"

 Makinley is so cute and is growing so fast.  She is starting to talk quite a bit and after playing with her a few hours Brady proclaimed "Makinley, you can talk?!"  He is usually so observant, but apparently he completely missed that one :)

 No birthday is complete without cake, so I made spiderman cupcakes and Brady loved them.

 But apparently he does not love his picture taken while he eats :)

We are so blessed to have this sweet boy in our family.  He says the funniest things, has the best memory (which is a blessing and a curse), and he just gets more fun and cuter every day.  Maybe some day I can be better about recording the funny things he does and says :)  We love you, Brady!

33 weeks

This was two weeks ago.  I feel like I am huge.  Not sure how she even moves around in there, but she seems to do just fine :)

Christmas!

Well this is only 2 months late, but I didn't forget completely!  We did celebrate Christmas of course!  And not once, not twice, but three times (as usual).  First we did our Christmas in Willard with the Bells.  It was a fun weekend and Brady loved the motorcycles he got!  He also got to see his first movie in theaters!  We took all the kiddos to see Frozen and it was pretty cute.  He did really well and watched the whole thing.  He like to laugh and repeat the funny parts and he just covered his ears when it got too loud for him.  I'm sure the shared popcorn and treats helped keep his attention a little too.  We definitely got our money's worth of popcorn :)

Next was just our little family's Christmas.  We did our traditional Christmas Eve visit to the magic tree.  This year was FREEZING cold so we didn't stay much longer than it took to take our picture (and prove we were there).  This year there were bells on a few of the branches and Brady had fun with that.

I had to work this Christmas, but I was lucky enough to get a late shift so that we could still enjoy our Christmas morning together.  And this year was sooooo much fun!  Plus it was our first Christmas in our house.  (And yes, we have since removed the plastic from the carpet).  Brady was so excited by everything.  He didn't even see his motorcycle at first because he was overjoyed at his hard hat, which was the first thing he saw.  Another favorite was his "pack pack" and he insisted on wearing it and then I caught him checking himself out in his reflection in the window.  Have I ever mentioned how cute this boy is?

We also did a late celebration with the Moore side when Grandma and Grandpa got back from their visit to Vegas to see the Marshalls.  But I forgot my camera and didn't get pictures.  Crazy to think that next year we will have 2 kids at Christmas.  And, if it's even possible, Brady will be even more fun!

Great Wolf Lodge

Quentin received a gift certificate to a travel agency from his work shortly after he started.  Since I was pregnant, neither of us wanted to use any vacation time so we could save it for the baby so we decided to just do a weekend getaway at Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City.  It's a little indoor waterpark and we knew Brady would love it! We were right, although that may be a bit of an understatement.  We went to play right after we got there and he did not want to leave to go to bed (which isn't a huge shock since he fights bedtime anyway).  Then we went back right after breakfast in the morning and stayed until about 4:30.  It was a long day for us, but I think Brady could have stayed forever.  There were really only two slides he could go down because they won't let you hold him on your lap to go down the bigger ones, but he did it all by himself and loved every minute.  He did not love the giant bucket that dumped every few minutes and made a huge sound, so we pretty much just hung out in the kiddie part, which worked for me since I was pregnant and not allowed to ride the other slides anyway.

 This arcade was right next to the waterpark and we promised Brady we could go, so after we finished with the water we changed clothes and stopped in here for some fun.  Brady played a few games and got enough tickets to pick some cheapo prizes that he was excited about.  His favorite was riding these little "rides" though.

Afterwards we ate at Arthur Bryant's and headed home.  I thought Brady would surely fall asleep on the way home since we swam right through nap, but boy was I wrong.  He was so wound up! But it was a fun little trip (made even more fun by the fact we really only had to pay for gas, thanks to the generosity of the docs at Missouri Vein Care!)