Brady Is Two!

I can't believe my baby is two years old already!  Time goes by way too fast, but it is so fun to watch him grow!  Life is pretty busy right now and since there are two brand new babies on the Bell side who are not ready to travel yet, we decided not to do a party this year.  But we still had plenty of celebration!  I made these cute cupcakes for Brady to share with his friends at daycare (thank you, pinterest and Megan).  He also got a balloon from Lori and some cute Nemo bath toys.  She sure knows what Brady loves and we are lucky to have our Lori!

 After daycare Grandma, Grandpa and Aliisa came over to do presents and Brady had a lot of fun with all of his presents!  He got to read his new book with Grandpa

 He also thought this sports wrapping paper was pretty awesome and much cooler than the Christmas wrapping paper that I used to wrap his presents.

 He also got a fun little animal puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa!

 I bought this marker set online and had no idea it would be this huge!  But Brady loves markers so I'm sure we will have a lot of fun with it (and here's to hoping they are actually washable)

 I bought this fun little tunnel set online a long time ago and decided he is the perfect age for it now.  And I really nailed this one!  He played with it for quite a while and, as you can see, Quentin had fun with it also.  And it just folds back up when you're done, so it's pretty neat.  Quentin appreciates my online shopping habits a little more when it comes time for birthdays and Christmas :)

 Brady also got his very own "laptop," which I knew he would love after I saw how much he loved playing with Allison's at daycare.  Plus anything with buttons that makes noise is awesome...right...?

 After we did presents we went to eat at Wendy's, and Brady ate SEVEN chicken nuggets!  We also ran into Stella and Hamilton from daycare and Brady even shared his fries with them.  After our tummies were full we went to get Brady his very first fish.  He was so excited and maybe a bit overwhelmed by all the animals at the pet store, but I tried to have him pick a fish.  I had him pick blue or red and he picked red so I gave him two choices of a red betta and he picked one.  On the way home we asked what his fish's name was and he said "water" at first, but then I asked again and he said what sounded like "Ian," so here he is with his new friend Ian, the red betta fish.

I don't think he actually grasps the concept of a birthday yet, but he sure had fun celebrating anyway and it was fun for me to watch my hard work preparing pay off with the big smiles and excited looks he had.  He really is such a sweet boy and we are so blessed to have him in our family!

Early Valentine's Day

 Since Valentine's Day is on a Thursday this year (and Quentin happens to work Thursdays), we decided to celebrate a little early.  So Friday night we met Cassie and Kyle in Jeff City and went ice skating.  I'm proud to say that none of us fell.  Cassie may or may not have had a death grip on the wall 90% of the time, and none of us were very daring, but it paid off as we were able to keep both feet on the ground...errrr ice.  I did notice my ankles have aged quite a bit since I last went ice skating.  We didn't last long there before we called it quits and headed to Red Lobster, where we enjoyed our endless cheddar bay biscuits, so much so that we hardly had room for our food when it came!  I even had someone take our picture so we have proof of our ice skating.  I think Cassie and I started out closer, but she must have tightened her death grip on Kyle before the picture was taken :)  We had a lot of fun and feel lucky to live close enough to do stuff like this with them!

Busy Boy

 Remember how I used to have a seemingly endless amount of pictures to post?  Well, I have noticed that as this boy gets busier, the number of pictures goes down.  And he is a very busy boy now.  So even though it has been quite a while since my last post, I really only have a few pictures to share!  But they are all very cute of course!

This is how Brady accessorizes.  And yes, he did insist on wearing this stylish necklace to church.

These are the play doh glasses Brady made with Daddy.  Isn't he lucky to have such a cool Dad?

 This is when Brady insisted that Aliisa take some pictures of him, and I liked this one best.  He has been getting pretty excited every time Aliisa comes to visit (he used to just point and say no when she walked in the door).  He is talking a TON now, even though we don't always understand him.  He also likes to repeat himself until you either say it back to him or just agree with him.  He loves to "help" with whatever you are doing and also likes to do everything himself.  Some of his favorite phrases are "I do it." or "my turn" and "I nooot." Here's an example...tonight he was "helping" Grandma make cookies and he was licking the spatula. When Grandma told him not to lick it yet he said "I noooot" as the spatula was still in his mouth.  It's kind of funny sometimes, but can also be frustrating.  He is so much fun and says cute and funny things every day.  He definitely keeps me on my toes!

New Slide

Grandma and Grandpa Moore have a really fun slide that Brady loves to play with at their house, so they decided that it might be fun for him to have his own.  He sure is a lucky boy!  He was so excited when he walked in the toy room and saw this!  I actually have a video of that, and if you're lucky I might even post it.  He also likes to let his toys ride down the slide.

Currently I am trying to get another video unsuccessfully.  Quentin taught Brady to flex his muscles and it is probably the cutest/funniest thing I have seen in a while!  Unfortunately, he does not like to perform.  Also he hasn't really been doing it as much in general lately.  He talks more and more every day.  He has started his "why" phase and if you ask him "why" he will say "coz" so I guess that's the answer he is used to getting.  He also likes to say "my turn, my turn" because he is very independent and likes to do things himself.  I can't believe how smart he is and how much he remembers. We are so lucky to have such a cute, smart boy!

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.