Moore Christmas

The weekend after Christmas we wrapped up our celebration with the Moore family Christmas.  It's nice having Kirsten and Kirk here to join in on the festivities, but we missed the Marshall family :(  Brady was battling a cold and was a little on the grumpy side.  He pretty much only wanted Grandma, but that's nothing new.  We did our traditional Christmas Eve minus Quentin because he had to work.  We read the Christmas story from the Bible, sang Christmas hymns, opened up a present and enjoyed warm homemade cinnamon rolls.  I think the cinnamon rolls is what really makes Christmas feel like Christmas to me.  We headed back over to my parents (with Quentin this time) as soon as Brady woke up Saturday and started opening all the presents.  Brady is a little obsessed with wearing this hat and sometimes refuses to take it off.  *Side story about that...He wore that hat to Lori's yesterday and did not take it off the whole day.  Even during his nap, Lori said she was worried he would get too hot and tried to sneak in his room to slip it off, but he said in a low, quiet little raspy voice "No, Wori, no."  Hopefully we break him of this by the time warm weather comes back our way.*

When's the perfect time to pick our nose?  During a picture of course!  Anyway, he LOVED this car and carried it around most of the morning.  You push a button and it talks. He also took over Kirk's little motorcycle for a while. 

During Brady's (and Kirsten and Aliisa and maybe Mom) nap time I went shooting with Dad, Quentin and Kirk.  I am not the greatest shot and definitely need some more time at the shooting range once we get our gun.  I did pretty good with the 22 :)  And when I was shooting the rental gun the barrel snapped in half because I am just too powerful for my own good.  It was pretty fun.  Now the search begins for our gun.
After that I went to Kohl's with Kirsten and Mom and got a lot of really good deals on some really cute stuff.  And spent way too long doing it, but it was fun and we don't do it often.  Saturday night Kirk and Kirsten came over and watched the new Bourne movie Quentin got from my parents.  We were all spoiled for sure. 

Christmas 2012

I worked Christmas Eve Day, but was fortunate enough to be off Christmas this year!  Mooma came up Christmas Eve to celebrate with us and since Quentin was off, they got to hang out during the day together.  When I got off work we ate some dinner and then went to see the magic tree.  I think we did that last year on Christmas Eve too, so maybe it will have to be a new tradition (assuming we are in Columbia still next year).  Brady absolutely LOVED it, but it was super duper cold and I am a pansy when it comes to cold so he was a little upset that I cut him off from the pretty lights so quickly.  The whole way home he said "I wanna see more pretty lights."  So we drove by and looked at a few houses.  When we got home we read the Christmas story from Brady's picture scriptures.  Then we opened stuck with tradition and opened up a gift on Christmas Eve.  After that we watched Elf, drank white hot chocolate, and once Brady was in bed started getting things ready for Santa to come :)  Christmas is so much fun!

Christmas morning Brady slept in until almost 8:00, which is actually pretty late for him! I consider it my Christmas present.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love my sleep.  It is probably what I miss most about pre-mom life.  Brady was not quite sure what to think when we walked down the stairs.  He was pretty excited to play with the new toys though!

He of course noticed the ball right away.  I don't think he really understood that it went with the basketball hoop because all he wanted to do with the hoop was push the buttons on the back to make it talk.  It's pretty cool actually (and pretty annoying at the same time), but he still hasn't figured out that the best way to make it talk is to make a basket!

Mooma was on camera duty at first, but we got her a few boring presents as well.  I had planned to make her a stocking filled with goodies, but when I learned she was trying to be good and not eat junk I filled her stocking with healthy treats.

Brady had some of these squeeze pouches in his stocking. Santa must know him well because this boy loves these things, and his momma loves them too because most of them have vegetables hidden with the fruits and it's a good way to sneak them in on this boy.  He ate two before we even finished opening presents.

We had a lot of fun with the train table.  Or "pay choo choo" as Brady would say.  And by we I mean Quentin and I really had a blast making the track and Brady liked to move the trains around.  We were so lucky to receive this as a gift from our bishop and his wife.  We have had so much fun playing with it and it's something that we can all enjoy together.

Quentin got me the rest of the whale-themed bathroom stuff I wanted for Brady's bathroom.  It looks really cute, and someday when we have a house and I can paint the walls and stuff it will be even more fun!  I also got some new tupperware, which was perfect because I had just been complaining about how we needed more.  I also got a new lamp that has little shelves on it, but I got it early when I came across it's hiding spot in Quentin's trunk while I was driving his car.  It worked out nicely because I got to put out more of my Christmas decorations on it.  Quentin got some clothes, a new camera (because our old one broke), the new Batman, a season of Seinfeld, and the big surprise was the gun safe!  It's just a little one, but I think it's the first time I have ever REALLY surprised Quentin with a present.  It was fun to see the look on his face :)

We have been so blessed this year in so many ways, and I am grateful to have a husband who is such a great dad to the cutest little boy in the world!  It was nice to have Mooma here to join our celebration because family is what makes Christmas fun.

Willard Christmas

We celebrated Christmas in Willard with all the Bells the weekend before Christmas.  I was fortunate enough to get Friday off at work, so we got an extra day to spend with Grandma Bell.  That gave us a little time to get some crafting in, and we made cute little Santa ornaments (the idea courtesy of Pinterest of course!) and we got to enjoy the customary Springfield style cashew chicken that everyone from that area is obsessed with. 

Saturday instead of doing breakfast like we have in the past, we did lunch at Incredible Pizza.  And it was incredible :)  Brady was about to fall asleep in his food at first because we didn't get there until what should have been the start of his nap time, but he perked up pretty quickly with all the hot dogs, macaroni, pizza, and ice cream he could eat.  Then he got to ride some of the kiddie rides and play a few games.  He loved it, but unfortunately it really messed with is routine and that made for one grumpy boy when it came time to open presents after dinner.  I'd like to say that the grumpiness is the reason for my lack of pictures from the weekend, but that would only be the partial truth.  I forgot to charge the camera battery before we left and didn't bring the charger.  Once everyone else updates their blogs I will probably steal some from them :)  Brady had so much fun, but was definitely worn out by the time we got home.  He loved baby Makinley.  This is the only picture we got (and is not great quality).  It's not so easy to see, but he put his arm around her and then decided he wanted to "hold" her.  Grandma Bell is so lucky to have so many cute grandkids!  Stay tuned for the other Christmas posts.

Ho Ho Ho

We had a special visitor at our ward Chirstmas party...SANTA!  And Brady is not scared of him at all.  He saw Santa at Bass Pro earlier and went right to him and then did not hesitate at all at the party either.  He seems to kinda like this Santa guy :) And he got a candy cane (to spread all over his body of course).  Brady also knows that Santa says "Ho ho ho."  He is such a smart boy.  He seriously picks up on things so quickly and it never ceases to amaze me.  He is starting to talk in short sentences and everything.

 Sunday we did graham cracker houses with everyone at my parent's house.  Brady loved the all you can eat candy and had fun throwing some on the house with Quentin.  We did this all the time growing up, but haven't done it the past few years.  It was fun to start the tradition again.  And who am I kidding, I loved the all you can eat candy too :)

Christmas Time Is Here

Sticking with tradition, I managed to get the tree put up on the day after Thanksgiving...and this year we have a REAL tree...in size.  It's still an artifiicial tree, but we upgraded to a 7 footer instead of our little one that sat on the table.  Brady enjoyed playing in the box of course!

 I decided to wait to decorate the tree until we could do it as a family, which really meant waiting until Quentin took his registry on Monday because he was much too busy spending all his time studying,  Well all that studying was worth it because HE PASSED!  Not only did he pass, he got a great score too!  We are soooooo proud of him and all his hard work and it's great to see that hard work finally pay off. But instead of celebrating by decorating the tree, my parents took us all out to eat at Cheddars, which was delcious!  By the time we got home from that it was time for little Brady man to go to bed, so we saved the tree for Tuesday and Brady had a blast!  He helped decorate the tree at my parent's house, so he was a pro :)  He kept grabbing ornaments and saying "To the tree!"  It is so fun to hear him talking.  He tries to say so much.  Some of it is undecipherable, but he sure tries and most of the time does  a pretty good job.  Anyway, he is such a great helper and he definitely loves to help!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween

This Halloween was definitely more fun with Brady than last year, even though he still doesn't quite grasp the concept.  My mom found us this Tigger costume at a garage sale (thank goodness for Grandma's garage sale finds!) and Kirsten told me we should do costumes for Quentin and I that went with Brady's so I did.  Quentin got to be Eeyore and I got to be Winnie the Pooh.  Although Quentin will try to make it seem like I slaved away at these costumes, they were pretty easy and didn't take much time.  And cheap.  And thanks to Aliisa and Mom's help, they turned out pretty decent.  Friday was our ward Halloween party at church.  Brady was not thrilled to take a break from running around the gym to take pictures.  He is no longer a fan of the camera, sadly.  His "other family," the Housemans, were there too. Allison dressed as a BYU cheerleader and Matthew was a BYU football player.  Brady loved to wear his helmet.  And likes to wear it at daycare too.

 On actual Halloween, Brady had a Halloween party at daycare, then we headed to my parents for pizza and did some trick or treating around their neighborhood.  Brady loved to ring the door bells and knock on the door and got pretty good at saying "trick or treat."  He is also quite the pro at saying thank you - he would say it multiple times and then sometimes even as we walked away.  What a grateful kid!  Also between the church party and actual Halloween, I got a hair cut, so you can see before and after :)  The last picture is to show off Eeyore's tail.  Quentin was a good sport!  It is so fun to do these things with Brady as he grows up, and I'm sure they will only get more fun as he begins to understand them more each year.  We love our little Tigger so much!