Along Came Moore

Visiting Papa

2011-11-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

In July, the kids and I took a trip back to KC. We got to stay for about 10 days and just hang out with family. It was great. Here are some pictures of the kids and Papa feeding the fish in the pond in the backyard.

Love this one!!

My sister also got to come and visit. This is a picture of all of us, including GG (great grandma to our kiddos - my dad's mom)

So glad to have the opportunity to visit family even though we lives so far away!

Summer Impromptu Photo Shoot

2011-11-07T23:21:00.000-08:00

During our time in Kansas City in July, I did a few photo shoots for some friends. I took the kids along on one and surprisingly enough Sadie ASKED if I could take her pictures. Um, yes!! Too bad I didn't forsee this...I would have coordinated their outfits. :) Enjoy...

Sadie wanted to take pictures everywhere I took pictures of this family. Silly girl!!

She was up for it all...even lying in the grass. It was SO HOT and SO HUMID this day!!

My serious one.

I usually ask her to kiss B for pictures, but the was completely on her own. So sweet!

I just love my sweet kiddos!

July 6th

2011-07-08T21:51:00.001-07:00

Braden was awake after nap before Sadie today which doesn't happen often at all, so I took advantage of the snuggle time. Braden is my snuggler and I'm in love with that. I take it all in now because I know the day is coming that I won't get as much of it!! B is such a cutie and has such a cute personality! He will wave and say "hi" to everyone we meet. As we stroll by random people in the grocery store or on a walk, Braden is always quick to say hello!!

Silly boy!! Love that crooked little smile!

A picture from a while back when the little guy had a double ear infection. He couldn't get enough snuggles. Poor baby. He was so puny, but I was loving holding him!!

July 5th

2011-07-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

Today was more of a low-key day cleaning the house after not touching it in honor of some much enjoyed family time over this long weekend. The kids went to school in the morning and I got some housework done. After naps, they wanted to play with playdoh and it was so fun to watch them sit and play quietly for quite some time. Braden didn't actually play with the playdoh, but loved all the gadgets!!

July 4th

2011-07-04T23:27:00.001-07:00

Today was another great family day! The kids and I started with a 4 1/4 mile jog (them in the jogging stroller, me pushing). Sadie decided to run with me a little today. She would jog until she saw a white car then get back in the stroller. Then she would get out and jog again when she saw another white car...after that we came home and rested a bit. We turned on the sprinkler and let the kids play while we prepared lunch.

The kiddos love to fill whatever container they can find with water, then go "water" the flowers for me!!

The menu for the day was: fresh grilled corn on the cob, hot dogs, homemade mac n cheese, watermellon and chips and guac. Yumm!!

Ahhh...summertime!!

After lunch we toasted some marshmallows over the open fire of the gas grill and enjoyed some smores!!

Little B got to have a toasted marshmallow inside of his graham crackers. No chocolate for him as we are still battling his dairy allergy!! He didn't know the difference and was quite happy!

Yumm!!

Sadie enjoyed her smore open-faced. She wasn't much of a fan of the graham cracker, but loved the filling!!

Evidence of a love of the filling!!

After naps and baths, we headed out to join the rest of the city at the Yorba Linda fireworks show. We decided to walk the 1 1/4 mile since we would probably have had to park that far away anyway!

Mersadie enjoying one of the inflatable obstacle courses at the park.

The wonder in her eyes just amazes me!!

Sissy and Mommy!!

Our sweet family! July 4, 2011

It was a good night with an amazing fireworks display!! We had great seats and the kids LOVED it! Braden was scared right at first, but then he settled down and wouldn't stop jabbering about everything he was seeing. It was precious. Sadie just sat and watched and took everything in. I love how our kids are so different, yet so wonderfully themselves!! What a wonderful day!

July 3rd

2011-07-02T22:39:00.003-07:00

Last night, Mersadie and Braden's little friend, Bennett, spent the night at our house. I was a wondering if we would actually make it out the door and to church on time, but surprisingly, everything went super-smooth and we even had about 30 minutes to play before church. Here are the 3 kiddos in the backseat of the car. So happy together!!

The funniest thing happened this morning as we were heading to the car. It was just me and the 3 littles as Brian was already at church for 1st service. I told the boys and Sadie to go to the car, so we all headed to the garage. I buckled Sadie in first because she was in the middle, and when I turned around to get one of the boys, they weren't right beside me. With the garage door wide open, my first thought was that they had run outside and I didn't realize it, but no, there those two cuties were sitting in the car. Afterall, that is exactly what I had told them to do. Only thing was, their car of choice was Sadie's little Mustang!! Silly boys!

July 2nd

2011-07-02T22:39:00.001-07:00

Today we went to Sadie's little friend, Audra's, birthday party. These girls have been friends since their family moved here 3 years ago. I am not looking forward to the day this coming spring when they have to say goodbye to each other as Audra's family will be moving. :( In the meantime, we are going to keep things happy and share some pictures of my silly girl and her precious friends.

I love it when I capture keepers like this right in the midst of a normal day!!

Sadie decided to wear her party hat as a "pirate" - her words. :)

Here are the girls. L to R - Isabella, Audra, Mersadie. When we got home and I showed Sadie the picture, I said, "why didn't you smile?". Sadie's response: "I did!" Hmmm.

July 1st

2011-07-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

July 1st was one of those days I wish could bottle up and replay over and over. Started the day with an 8 1/2 mile jog, then took the kids to preschool for water play while Brian and I worked on goals together and went to lunch. After lunch we picked the kids up from school, played a little and then it was naptime. When the kiddos woke up we wrestled around on our bed a little. Tickles, giggles and a little WWF!! After a dinner of waffles and fruit, we played outside and then took a walk. This time Sadie wanted to ride her scooter, so we just put Braden in the stroller and walked around enjoying our family time.

I feel so blessed to have a loving husband and healthy children. My prayer is that we will honor God in everything we do and say!! Thank you, Jesus for my family!

Braden and Daddy enjoying some "after nap" snuggle time on the bed.

Summer, Summer, Summertime!!!!

2011-05-27T14:29:00.001-07:00

The sprinklers came on today as the kids were playing in the backyard and since it is so incredibly beautiful outside, I ran upstairs to get their suits and my camera and just let them have some fun!! Enjoy the pics and your long weekend!! Welcome, Summertime! Please stay for a while!!

Braden got into the dirt and then decided it wasn't so tasty.

The Ones Who Call Me "Momma"!

2011-05-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the day at church for our 3 services and then went to lunch afterward and home for a much desired nap after that. Here are some pictures of me with the kiddos that I had Brian take before we went to church.

My sweet kids...

Sadie and I matched today. I figured I had to have her match me at least once in our lifetime and I better do it now rather than later. She still thinks the idea is fun!!

Braden did not want to give up his bagel or soy milk for the picture. Oh well!!

Mom's Spa Day at Preschool

2011-05-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today Sadie's preschool held a spa day in honor of Mother's Day. It was probably the cutest thing ever!! The moms were invited in and there were different stations in which we could go to receive different services...all performed by our own children!! I'll walk you through my wonderful morning!!
Our first stop was the hand/foot massage and lotioning!

Here I am getting some lotion. Sadie took her job very seriously. I wouldn't have expected anything but seriousness from this girl!!

Here is the back massage station. I didn't get a picture of me getting one, but Sadie did that too! You can see the other stations for mani/pedis and the hand and foot massage.

Here is my precious manicurist painting my nails. Again, notice the concentration!!

So happy to have such a fun day with my girl!

Pedicure!!!!

Sadie just couldn't resist and had to ask if I would paint her nails. So, I did!! She also got a back massage from me. I'm a sucker!! ;)

What a fun day with some wonderful memories!!

Braden's Dedication

2011-04-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

These are super long overdue pictures of Braden's dedication at church which took place a year ago January. I came across these pictures when I was downloading the pictures from the internal memory on my camera. It's amazing how far God has brought our little guy. From 6 weeks early with all kinds of allergies...now 18 months, still with allergies, but as rambunctious as ever!! We are so thankful to God for the blessing of both of our children!!

Easter 2011

2011-04-29T23:55:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures from Easter day this year. There will be more to come, but for now enjoy...

Mersadie picking on Braden...

Mommy and Little B

Mersadie with the Easter basket!!

Mommy and Mersadie

The family - Easter 2011

Date Night!!

2011-02-21T06:59:00.000-08:00

Brian and I were super good about going on dates before kids. It was easy. Decide we want to go out and...go!!

Since The Girl and then The Boy came along, so much more thought goes into date night. We could even be planning a date just to El Torito or someplace close and we have to think ahead (quite difficult for my spontaneous hubby), call a sitter, arrange for the kids to have something to eat, give the rundown to the sitter, make sure B eats "safe things" while we're gone, show the Epi-pen and explain how it works to the sitter just in case B happens to stop breathing, explain bedtime routines and what Sadie may or may not say to try and get out of brushing her teeth...and the list goes on. But,

we do it. Why? To have the coveted "alone time" that ALL parents should take together!!! Last night was one of the REALLY special nights that we planned 2 weeks in advance and made reservations!!! Brian surprised me with where we were going. All I knew is that it was in L.A. and I needed to dress up. Uh, don't have to twist my arm for that!! :)

Here we are in the car getting ready to pull out of the driveway! So excited for some "no sippy cup to pick up off the floor 100 times" time together!!!

We were at a stop light and Brian said, "look up, that's where we're going...Astro Burger!!" Nice try, Mr. B - I know that is not what I'm wearing this dress for!!

This, my friends, is what I was wearing the nice dress for...(well besides for my husband)...Providence - an unassuming very cool, #1 rated new restaurant in the country!!

So we go in and get seated and open the menu...to discover that we don't even know what 1/2 of the stuff on the menu is!! We got a good, long laugh out of trying to pronounce things and act like we were all "cultured". We finally decided on a meal after I asked the waiter what his favorite things were (just so I could figure out how to pronounce what I wanted). Before we knew it, these cheese pastries and this "shot"* of cheesy stuff were in front of us. The waiter completely described everything that he put before us and when he left Brian said, "what is this?". My answer to that was "blah, blah with a cheese blah and and blahddy blah shot with Parmesan foam on top". Honestly, we both had NO idea what we were eating, but the experience was fun. The pastry thing was good, the cheesy shot*, not so much.

*the shot was only called a shot because of the container it was in ;)

Next up...our "Cold" - a lobster salad (that's not what the menu said, but that is what we called it). This was actually pretty good!!

And then our "Hot" - Ravioli!! I have absolutely no idea what was inside, but this was my favorite dish of the night.

The main course - I chose to have Duck...here it is. It wasn't what I expected. Not horrible, but not my favorite. It was fun to try something new, though!

Brian got the steak. It was very yummy!! I loved the presentation of the food. Wish I could do that at home - haha!!

At the end they gave us some "palette cleansing desserts". They were quite tasty - strawberry something followed by chocolate something and pear something or other.

After a yummy meal at a very cool restaurant with no kiddos!!

We headed to the Melting Pot for dessert after our dinner. Mmmmm.

Hot Chocolate!!!

Smores Fondue!!

Dipping items - bananas, strawberries and brownies were our favorites!!

Our waitress gave us mints after our dessert. Brian made me laugh when he said, "this is the kind of palette cleansing item I'm used to".

What a wonderfully fun night with my equally as wonderful husband! I am so blessed to have him to share life with! It was fun to not plan anything myself and not know where we were going because I didn't have to think about a thing except for having a great night!!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-19T08:16:00.000-08:00

We don't go crazy for Valentine's Day in the Moore household, but I couldn't resist getting some pictures of the kiddos on Monday. Just an impromptu photo session with the kids on the front porch. I really wanted to document Sadie's cute outfit for the day!!

This was the last picture taken. Sadie was opening her reward for doing a good job letting me take a few pictures. She was standing right in front of me and Braden was holding on to my leg. I looked down and saw this and couldn't resist capturing the moment. Poor Braden always wanting what Sadie has. And who could blame him? Her hands are directly at eye level for him!!

Sadie's attempt at "kissy lips"!! Hee hee!!

Sadie's cute shirt!!!

Love these little ones!!!!

The B-Man!!!

And Sadie-Sue!!! (Seriously, I think that's what we should have made her middle name!!)

Stink-Bug!!!!

The Joy of Love: Kiss

2011-02-18T00:09:00.001-08:00

Capturing the kisses of your loves...

Mersadie and Braden: sibling love. So sweet. Melts my heart!!

Brian and I on our anniversary last year - 11 years!!

The Joy of Love: Eyes

2011-02-17T23:39:00.000-08:00

The assignment was "Eyes" this time. I chose the first picture because even though this is not of Brian's eyes, it's of him looking at me and there is no better feeling than knowing that after almost 12 years of marriage, he still "only has eyes for me". I love him so much!

This one of Braden was taken back in September when he was figuring out how to pull up on things. In this picture, he is so proud of himself for doing it and not falling down!

Here is a picture that I just took a couple of days ago. This is my girlie...I think her eyes are beautiful!! :)

And of course I had to add a silly picture. Here is Sadie when we were watching a 3D movie the other day!!

The Joy of Love: Where they are comfortable

2011-02-17T23:05:00.000-08:00

"Where they are comfortable" was the assignment this time.

Sadie and Brian are comfortable in most situations/places you put them in! One of their favorite places to hang out and get comfy, though, is cuddling on the couch watching "Beauty and the Beast" or "Toy Story 1, 2, or 3" (always Sadie's choice, of course).

A few weeks ago Braden was sick and all he wanted to do was to lay on me. I snapped this picture with my iPhone. In my arms is where this boy is most comfortable. He is a people person, but if his Momma is in the room, his Momma is who he wants! That makes my heart happy!!

The Joy of Love: Gift from the Heart

2011-02-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

Today's assignment: what has your loved one given or promised to you? Well, this was another difficult one because Brian has given me so much (material and immaterial). One of the most recent "things" he has given me is the gift of Friday mornings to do whatever I want. He gets the kids up and dressed and they head out to breakfast so I can do things that I can't get done with both kiddos at home. This means so much to me at this very stage in our lives because a toddler (well, almost) and a preschooler are very fun, but very busy and tiring. Each Friday they leave the house my heart aches a little because I want to go spend time with them and have breakfast, too! But once I see how much I can get caught up on, it sets me at peace to enjoy the rest of our Friday as a family! Thanks Babe!!

The Joy of Love: Passions

2011-02-10T22:42:00.001-08:00

This time I am recording the Passions of my "loves". Brian, Mersadie and Braden are passionate about a lot of things, but here are a few that stick out to me!!

Mersadie is "passionate" about anything Disney! Her favorite place to go is Disneyland. She switches her favorite princess almost daily and is also very "passionate" about the Toy Story Trilogy!! Here is Sadie with Snow White - who happened to be the favorite that day!

Braden is "passionate" about 2 major things these days. He is quite passionate about eating - he will definitely let you know when he "needs" to eat! And, taking after his "dada", he is seriously very passionate about basketball!!

And Brian. He is the definition of "Passion" - but one thing that he is most passionate about is teaching and telling people about Jesus!!

The Joy of Love: Generations

2011-02-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

"Generations" was the title of the next assignment. I have kind of sat on this one for a couple of days because I realized that I don't have many pictures of my kids with their Grandma and Grandpa Moore. We need to change that. Next time we get to spend some time with them, my sole mission will be to take some amazing photos (or at least just some photos) of Brian's parents and our kiddos!! In the meantime, here are some pictures of Mersadie and Braden with some of their "generations" from my side. Enjoy!

This is a picture of me and my Grandma Yearta.

My mom (Mimi) and the kids!

Mersadie and her GG (Great Grandma Yearta).

My dad (Papa) and the kids!

This is Grandpa Charlie with the kiddos. Grandpa Charlie is my "adopted" Grandpa - he holds a special place in my heart and it's always fun to spend some time with him and all of the York family when we can!

The Joy of Love: What they Love

2011-02-08T16:29:00.001-08:00

The assignment this time was really supposed to be "Who the Love". "They" being the love(s) of my life. Instead of trying to fit in all the people they love in this post, I decided to change it to "What they Love". Although there are a lot of things my loves love, these are the things that happened yesterday that I was able to photograph. Enjoy!

Mersadie "LOVES" ice cream. Yesterday, chocolate was her favorite flavor when asked. Sometimes it's vanilla, sometimes it's pink, but yesterday it was chocolate and that is what she got!! I love this little girl so much! I "LOVE" discovering all of her loves and am so blessed to be her momma!!

Yummy!!

Braden "LOVES" all of Mersadie's toys! Especially when she is playing with them! Here he is enjoying some "Sadie's toys time" all alone before she comes in and finds him!! Braden LOVES all sorts of things these days! Just yesterday he was LOVING watching the birds by the ocean - he just squealed with delight. As with Sadie, I LOVE discovering what he loves and am so incredibly blessed to have him call me "momma" - which I'm pretty sure he LOVES to do! ;)

Brian "LOVES" to read!!!! And this Kindle was one of the all-time best gifts for him! He reads EVERY DAY - 8 books so far this year!! I am so blessed to have him in my life. He is a magnificent husband, father and God-chaser!!!

The Joy of Love: Love to Hate

2011-02-05T22:24:00.001-08:00

There is a photographer that I came across who is doing a "Joy of Love" challenge for the month of February. Every day she gives you a different thing to photograph. I got in on it on day 5 and the topic is "Love to Hate". The assignment was to photograph the one(s) you love doing something you love to hate about them - the picture doesn't have to include people every time, just as long as it covers the theme. I don't really like that this was the assignment I came in on, but the pictures to follow are of my loves...minus Brian - you'll see what his photo is. I am going to be doing the assignments every day, but you may not see them posted daily. I might post a bunch on the same day.

My biggest "love to hate" with Little B these days is the fact that he is 15 months old and the first time I gave him Lucky Charms cereal, he figured out that the marshmallows are the best part and now picks through and eats all the marshmallows and discards all the grain on the floor!!!

I "love to hate" that Sadie won't give me a real smile anymore! She always has to be silly for the camera!!

I "love to hate" that Brian leaves his clothing/shoes RIGHT where he takes them off. The only thing that doesn't bother me about this particular pair of socks being right in the middle of the floor was the conversation I heard surrounding why they are there.

Sadie: "Daddy, take your socks off."

Brian: "Why?"

Sadie: "Because I have mine off."

Brian: "Oh, okay!"

Sadie: (a few minutes later) "Here comes the tickle-bug!!"

Brian and Sadie: Laughter and Squeals!!

My heart is happy to have those socks on the floor RIGHT where he took them off! Best Daddy EVER!!!

I couldn't "gripe" about what my family does that bugs me without sharing something that bugs me about myself: I HATE laundry!! It's a never-ending cycle. I like it when things have a beginning and an ending. I feel accomplished that way. Not the laundry. NEVER done. Anyway - here is the laundry that I have been doing in stages. It got washed and dried. Then it sat in a basket in the laundry room. Then I took it upstairs and dumped it on our bed. Then it stayed there for a while until I folded it. Then I went to do something else and FINALLY put it away. I have another load waiting downstairs for me!!

Mersadie These Days...

2011-01-29T18:06:00.000-08:00

Oh my! Miss Mersadie!! This girl is 3 1/2 going on 13!! She's such a hoot these days. One minute she is sweet, the next she's sassy! She drives me wild - in both good and stressful ways. All that said, I wouldn't trade her for ANYTHING in the world! I love this girl - she is smart, beautiful and fun, fun, fun!!!

Sweet Sadie!!

Sassy Sadie!!!

And you can tell both of these faces happened withing mere seconds of each other by the way she has her hands! I'm telling you, life is not dull in the Moore household!!

Visit With Santa

2010-12-30T00:05:00.000-08:00

We braved the mall one week before Christmas to take Sadie and Braden to see Santa. We had a surprisingly short wait for the week before Christmas. While we were waiting in line, I took a few pictures. Sadie is really into making silly faces these days. Braden is just chillin' in the stroller while sissy is silly! Enjoy!

The picture I took with my camera. For his first time visiting the "Jolly Guy", Braden did very well! No screaming baby! Sadie told Santa she wanted a Buzz Lightyear and Woody. She also told him that Braden wanted socks.

The official 2010 picture with Santa.

The Building of the Gingerbread House

2010-12-29T06:47:00.000-08:00

About a week before Christmas, we had family fun night at the Moore house! It started with homemade pizza and then we built a gingerbread house. Sadie was so excited to do this (note her face in the picture below). We had a blast, but in the end it looked like what I imagine a "Charlie Brown Gingerbread House" would look like if he ever built one. Enjoy the pics.

Ready to get started!!

"Whoa, the roof is going on!!"

Carefully placing the star candies on the roof.

Now for the gumdrop lined roof.

Braden couldn't help us build the house because he was too little this year, but surprisingly enough, he was able to eat the gingerbread - no milk or eggs in it!!! Here he is deciding on his plan of attack...

I wasn't surprised by his choice - head first!!

"Ta da!!" Finished product!

These gumdrops slowly disappeared in the days after the house was built. Not sure who could have eaten them ;)

Our humble abode!!

"Oh Christmas Tree" 2010

2010-12-03T21:45:00.000-08:00

We (by we I mean Sadie and I) set up and decorated the Christmas tree this evening. This has never been one of Brian's favorite things to do (although he LOVES the finished product) and that is okay with me because I'm a little particular. Brian has always helped by bringing in all the stuff, but when it comes to the decorating, it has always been me. Until this year that is. Mersadie really got into putting the ornaments on the tree. She was thrilled to help and I was thrilled to have a helper. Even if it did mean that I had to let go of the "symmetricalness" of the ornament placing.

Here is the finished product. Mersadie wanted to know where the presents were.

Mersadie's placement of many of the ornaments. All in one place, all in front, all about the height of her shoulder.

Another shot of how close Sadie liked to place her ornaments together.

The "old" me would have moved those to different spots on the tree once Sadie went to bed. The "new" me is letting them be because they were placed there by my VERY excited daughter and I do not want to squelch that spirit!!

Although I love the tree, my favorite part of this evening was when I was cleaning up and overheard Brian reading to Sadie in the living room. It was "Piper's Night Before Christmas" by Mark Lowry.

So, so sweet!!

Christmastime at Disneyland!

2010-11-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

Last night we braved the crowds to go and experience the "Happiest Place on Earth" at Christmastime. It was perfect...the weather was nice and chilly (for So Cal), the kiddos had taken their naps, we parked in Downtown Disney for free (and didn't lose our car this time), we had ice cream, popcorn and hot chocolate and had a great spot to see the fireworks. It was so much fun and definitely something I think we'll make a tradition out of!!

Cinderella's castle decorated for Christmas.

Our family...gotta love the kiddos doing their own thing, but hey, they are happy! Notice the weird guy peering in from behind? You know he's doing that on purpose. Thanks guy!

"Small World" ride. The outside of the ride has 50,000 lights on it and the inside was all decorated for Christmas with 100,000 additional lights!! These pictures don't do it justice, of course!!

Little B and Mommy waiting for the Small World ride.

Silly, sweet Mersadie!!

Mommy and the kiddos!

Daddy and the kiddos.

Beginning of the "Small World" ride. If you've never been on the ride...you go through a lot of different cultures. There are little characters and things that dance and music plays for the different countries. This time, every culture was decorated for Christmas and there was Christmas music playing. As we rode along, there were also different smells of Christmas. I have never enjoyed this ride so much! Disney definitely knows how to make an "experience"!!

Woody and Jessie!! Sadie has never seen the Toy Story movies but LOVES all the characters. Guess I should have her watch the movies!

Braden was having SO much fun watching all the things move and dance. With the festive Christmas music playing he was dancing right along!! So fun!!

My happy boy!

Brian and the kids on the carousel ride!

Chuck E. Cheese

2010-11-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Today we took Sadie (and Braden) to Chuck E. Cheese. It was another one of Sadie's rewards for smiley faces. Truth is...we would do these things with our kiddos anyway, but it just makes it better to have Mersadie have a reward for good behavior. And yes, there have been a few weeks where we didn't get to do our fun thing because there weren't enough happy faces. Thankfully, only a few. If all goes well this coming week, we get to go to Disneyland again. Yes, WE - that's me being just as excited as Sadie to go. They will have all their Christmas decorations up, so I'm rooting for Sadie big time this week! In the meantime, enjoy these pictures from Chuck E. Cheese today! *Warning...there are A LOT* but you'll want to scroll all the way to the end, because those are special!

One of Sadie's rewards was that she got to get a "coke" - which actually was Sprite. I have NEVER let her have her very own coke to drink. This was a special day. :)

Very first thing she wanted to ride was the horse.

Then, she wanted Daddy to play the next game. He did so happily.

I love B's wonder and amazement in this picture. He looks a little scared, but he was really mesmerized!

First "ride" by himself. Loving it!

There was this car ride with the guy from Curious George. The next few pictures are funny. Sadie was being so silly with that guy!

I think she's in love. Haha!

Smooch!

Sadie's first go at air hockey! She didn't really get the concept of NOT letting the puck into her goal. She got so excited no matter if she got a point or if Brian got a point! I love this oblivious age!

More air hockey action!

Sadie was having so much fun!

Braden was watching from the other side.

Here's Braden looking in on the air hockey game. Can't you just see the words in his head: "can't wait until I'm big enough to play with Daddy!"

And now for the most precious shots of the day...no pun intended. Here is Brian helping Sadie with the basketball game. He's a natural at teaching his favorite sport ever!!

Sadie picked it up really quickly!

She even has good form already...look at the follow through!

Awwww!!! This one I will treasure forever! Like father, like daughter! I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband who has turned in to such an amazing father right before my eyes these past 3 1/2 years.

One Year

2010-10-27T07:37:00.001-07:00

Last year on this day I woke up a mother of one and went to bed a mother of two. It has been the longest and shortest year of my life all at the same time. Braden came to us completely unexpectedly exactly 6 weeks before his due date. I knew we were in store for some complications, but I had no idea what the next few months would hold. Braden started out in the NICU and suffered a collapsed lung the day after he was born. All in all, he spent 13 days in the hospital. Bringing him home was such a joy! Mersadie finally got to meet her younger brother and our life as a family of 4 began. Read about Braden's birth story here. Read about the rest of his journey here.

By December, I knew something with Braden was just not right. After numerous doctor visits, x-rays, exams and a G.I. specialist, and a span of 5 months, I finally figured out that he was allergic to cows milk. We put him on a special amino-acid based formula. This solved almost everything and everybody (especially me) started getting A LOT more sleep!!

Even though he was a preemie, Braden has met most developmental milestones on time. He started rolling over around 5 months and sat up at 6 1/2 months. He started crawling a little late for his actual age, but right on time for gestational age - at about 10 months. As soon as he could crawl, he would go straight to whatever he could pull up on and cruise around it, so I'm sure the walking thing is right around the corner!

Through this year, nothing has stopped this boy from flashing a huge smile (well, maybe getting picked on by Sadie doesn't make him smile, but everything else does)! He is such a joy and we are so excited to see what this next year holds for our birthday boy! Happy birthday to the most wonderful son anyone could ever ask for...we love you Little B!!!

Smiley Face Clean Sweep!

2010-10-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

We have a smiley face system that we have been using with Sadie since late July. If she gets the required amount of happy faces, she gets to do something special. There are 3 things we've really been wanting her to work on: being nice to Braden, obeying the first time, and no throwing fits. She's been doing very well, but this past week, she was PERFECT in all three areas! So her reward was to go to Disney and see World of Color.

Sadie's board this week! Way to go girlie!!

The princess waiting for the show!

Silly girl!

Daddy and Sadie!! (How did she get so old so fast?)

Mommy and Braden - he'll be one year old in 12 days!!

We each got a treat last night. Sadie picked suckers, Brian picked Haagen Dasz ice cream and I picked a Mickey caramel apple!! I've had my eye on one of these since we tried to duplicate them for Sadie's birthday party. We finally splurged for one last night. Yum. Well, I actually haven't eaten it yet, but I'm sure I will say "yum".

Yes, even Disney sometimes makes mistakes...notice the caramel dripping from the top? I'm sure it won't make it taste any less than delicious!!

Yellow.

2010-10-04T22:24:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine that has a wonderful, fun blog (www.debraparker.blogspot.com) started doing weekend photo challenges. This is the first one I participated in. The challenge was to photograph yellow. Here is my take on "yellow" for the weekend. Enjoy.

I recruited Sadie to help me with the challenge. She picked out the yellow lemons on our tree in the backyard.

I found a yellow rose hanging on to the last bits of summer.

And another pretty yellow flower. I should probably know the name, but I don't. But I can appreciate its beauty.

My sweet girl and our yellow findings. Hope this makes your Tuesday a happy one!

Keeping Up with Braden!

2010-09-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

Sadie getting ready to pry Braden's mouth open to get the UNused bandaid out. He even bit her and she still went for it. This was a good big sister day.

Chewing on the 1st of three items in a 3 minute period...an UNused bandaid. Ew.

Going for the stairs...down stairs.

This boy thinks he's funny!

Sadie says, "geez, can Braden get into any more stuff today?"

The 3 things pulled from Braden's mouth today. Unused bandaid, plastic ring, piece of wicker from the toy basket. Watch out! This boy is on the move and into everything!

Almost Crawling!

2010-09-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

So, today I finally figured out what would get Braden moving...FOOD!! I should have known. I've been trying to get this little guy to crawl for months, enticing him with everything from the remote to Sadie's puzzle pieces. He's been so frustrated and just cries because he can't make himself move forward! Well, here he is going after his beloved "puffs". Hopefully this is the beginning. And yes, I know what I'm asking for! Enjoy the video!!

Sibling Love...or something like that.

2010-08-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

Mersadie loves Braden (most of the time). When he first came home and was pretty much immobile and non-expressive, she didn't care much for him. Now that he watches her and laughs at her silliness, she loves to entertain him. Sometimes her form of entertainment is not Braden's idea of fun. See example below:

You can see it in her face. This isn't going to be a joyful encounter.

I told you guys. And for all of you out there thinking, "why didn't the momma put her camera down and save the poor boy?", I want to say that this all happened in the matter of mere seconds. I have a fast shutter speed on my camera. I saved him, I promise.

After I saved Braden, Sadie asked if she could hug him. "Sure", I said, thinking that she was gonna "hug it out" as a way of making up with him. Wrong answer. This is what happened as a result of that "hug".

Once this boy has words, I'm sure he is going to be saying, "heeeeeyyy - stoooooopppp!"

And the full tackle from the result of the hug. I have learned my lesson.

On to other, more glamorous things about Sadie. Here is some more of her artwork from random toys in her room. Sadie has a ball pit in her room and the other day while Braden was playing in it, this is what Sadie decided to do with all the balls she was stealing from him.

She's a genius. I know!

I love my artistic little lady! Brian and I still aren't sure where her creativeness comes from.

Braden & Mersadie

2010-08-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

I posted this picture of Braden recently on the blog and my sister reminded me that I took a very similar picture of Sadie when she was about the same age, so I found the picture of Sadie and decided to do a comparison. Many people have told me that Braden and Sadie look just alike. I didn't really think so until I put the pictures side by side, but every time I look at the pictures I have a different opinion about if they look alike or not. So......what do you think?

Whether they look alike or not, they sure are stinkin cute!

Pizza Night at the Moore's!!

2010-08-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

Thursday night was homemade pizza night at our house! I told Brian that we were having homemade pizza for dinner and Sadie was in the room, so I turned to her and said, "do you want to help Mommy make the pizza?" You should have seen the look on her face and how fast she jumped up to help me!! It was so much fun. Enjoy the fun pics!

Spreading the sauce.

Mmmm - cheese!

Now for the pepperoni!!

Gotta snack a little while you put all that yummy stuff on. Sadie couldn't resist the cheese.

My Pizza!!!

Ready for the oven!

On a completely unrelated note, Sadie has this green shirt and when I bought it for her earlier this summer, she said, "Daddy has that shirt!!" Now every time I dress her in it she says the same thing. So, finally the other day Brian and Sadie were wearing their "matching shirts", so I HAD to get a picture of them!!

Playtime in Mersadie's Room!!

2010-08-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've realized that Braden LOVES anything "Sadie". He would rather be in her room playing than anywhere else in the house - except for maybe in front of Sadie's kitchen. Here are some pictures of Sadie and Braden playing in her room.

Mersadie is being MUCH nicer to her little bro these days. He laughs at her and loves to watch her run around. They just giggle at each other. It's so much fun.
Braden playing with Sadie's ball pit.

Sadie was playing with her blocks. I wasn't really paying attention until she said, "hey mom, I made the beach". The blue blocks are the water. The tan blocks are the sand (the one random blue block Sadie said is a towel). The red blocks are the cars in the parking lot. She is so funny!

Playing with Barbie and her corvette.

Braden's New Favorite Passtime!

2010-08-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

We are still waiting for Braden to learn to crawl around here. This boy is pretty content to stay where he's put as long as the toys are switched out every once in a while. I have found that he's getting kind of bored with the same 'ol toys, so the other day I sat him in front of Sadie's kitchen and he LOVED it - new place, new toys. Enjoy the pics of Braden enjoying Sadie's kitchen.

And there they go...

...all dumped out on the floor...

...ALL!!!

And now that the food is successfully dumped on the floor, time to bang on the shelves!

Sadie the Flower Girl!

2010-08-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

Brian's youngest brother, John, got married a few weekends ago and we were blessed to be able to be a part. I titled this "Sadie the Flower Girl", but the first picture is of us. The rest mostly of Sadie. She did a GREAT job as a flower girl, but not a great job as a model for pictures. It was really hard to be in the wedding and have Brian in the wedding and try to take care of Braden (which Brian did most of the day) and try and get a girl who doesn't like to take pictures to smile really pretty and "pose" for pictures. Anyway, it was a GORGEOUS wedding and we had a great time with the family. I don't have a whole lot of pictures and definitely decided that I am not and do not and don't have the equipment to be a wedding photographer.

Brian helping Sadie practice...

We used torn up pieces of paper towel to practice. The next day she said "We're not using tissue today. We're using flowers."

Sadie's pre-wedding warm up.

Getting her tiara secured. She ended up not wearing it because it gave her a headache.

As I said, Sadie wasn't in to taking pictures, so here is the back of her hair and her beautiful dress.

The best picture of the day...grrr.

More practice.

Isn't the dress gorgeous?

Look at Sadie's little buddy the ring bearer. He is A-Dorable!

Here Kyron is trying to talk Sadie into taking a decent picture.

At least she smiled for a couple.

Amy (Randy's wife) and I.

Once we were at the reception and Sadie was "free" and loving it!!

Love this picture of Sadie spinning!!! I just know she's thinking, "mom can't tell me to sit still any longer. I don't have to worry about my hair or what my dress looks like!!! Yay, I'm free!!!!"

Baby Jay!

2010-07-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

We got to finally meet our super-cute nephew, Jay Jay, last week!!! And the best part is that he (and his mom and dad) got to come back to Cali with us! Here are some adorable snapshots that I captured of Baby Jay last week! Don't worry, family, there are some of my kiddos to follow!

Baking Cookies!!!

2010-07-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

Today we had planned on going swimming, but it was overcast and cool until about 2, which just happens to be nap time around here. So, what's a mom to do with a disappointed 3 year old little girlie? Yep, bake chocolate chip cookies with her! Braden helped out by sitting on the counter reaching with his "go, go gadget arms" for all of the cookie ingredients.

Opening the butter.

So focused!

That's gotta be the biggest bag of chocolate chips I've ever seen! When we had Mersadie's birthday party and made the apples, my mom and I thought we needed 2 of those bags from Costco. This is the end of the first bag, so I have one more 72 ounce bag of chocolate chips!!

Adding the best part.

Ready to be chilled before baking.

Randomly Sadie just started kissing the bowl saying, "I love chocolate chip cookies". Man, this is MY child!

All through this whole process Sadie kept saying, "can I taste it yet, can I taste it yet?" So, going against what I know is right considering the eggs in the mix, I let her lick the spatula! Who can resist some good 'ol chocolate chip cookie dough?

I think the swimming was successfully forgotten about!

Can I Feed Him?

2010-06-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Mersadie has been wanting to help out more and more these days instead of just terrorize her little bro...so yesterday she kept wanting to feed him and at lunchtime I decided to put aside all my control-freakness and let her feed him his pears...

The first pic is just a fun random picture that I took of the boy yesterday and I fell in love with it, so I had to share it with you!

Braden has had his squash and is ready to bring on the pears.

Sadie getting a spoonful for Braden.

Yum! She actually didn't do too bad - just one little spill on the floor. She just squealed and squealed with excitement the entire time!

More Birthday Pictures!

2010-06-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

At Sadie's birthday party, we rented a bounce house. What better way to keep a bunch of 3 year olds entertained than have pizza, cupcakes and a bounce house. The bounce house arrived early and was in our backyard until evening, so Sadie got a lot of time to enjoy it by herself (and with Mimi, Auntie Reece and me). LOVE her hair in the picture below!

She looks like she's dancing!

Auntie Reece and Sadie

This girl could have jumped all day long!

Sadie even persuaded Mimi to get in with her!

While we were singing "Happy Birthday" to Sadie, she blew out one of her candles...

...and I think she was afraid she was going to get in trouble.

When we were done singing, she blew out the other two candles.

A lady at church brought over a pinata for the party!! The kids loved it!

Little Joe - Sadie's future husband!

It took some adult strength, but in the end the pinata broke open and the candy rush was on.

All of the kiddos at the party (17 of them)...We had A LOT of fun!

Sadie's Birthday Party Preparations!

2010-06-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we had a birthday party for Sadie. Here are some of the pictures of the preparations for the party. It was a Mickey and Friends theme...

More pictures of the actual party will follow this post shortly. I PROMISE!! For now enjoy!

This is the invitation we sent out to all her little friends. I can't even tell you how hard I had to work to get this picture of Sadie. I felt like I should have paid myself for that photo shoot. Let me just say my blood pressure was sky high by the time I was finished and I had to shower afterwards from sweating so much because of how frustrated I was. Good thing you can't see the photographer on the other side of the camera when pictures are taken. All you see is the beautiful finished product.

I started realizing just how expensive a little birthday party can get with bounce house rental, cupcakes, party favors.... So, I got this bright idea after much research on the internet and decided to make caramel/chocolate apples to look like Mickey and Minnie Mouse to give to the kids as a "goody bag". Well, let me just say THANK THE LORD FOR MIMI!!! My mom was such a big help with this project. About halfway through I was thinking it would have been better to just spend the money on goody bags, but after they were done, I was so glad we did this!

Step 2 of the Mickey Mouse apples done!!!

Step 3 of Mouse apples...YUMMY!!! Aren't they cute? And, no it was not my original idea. I saw this on the internet. Disneyland makes them - and waaaaay cuter by the way. But for a homemade job, I was pretty proud of these babies.

Step 4 - and DONE!!! Look at those cute things!

Here are our homemade cupcakes. They looked good, but unfortunately tasted awful. Good thing we were serving little kids who did not care one bit.

And the party tables...

Mersadie is 3!!!

2010-06-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

My baby turned 3 today!! So hard to believe.

Newborn

One Year

2 Years

3 Years!!!

Braden's First Tooth!

2010-06-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

Braden's first (and second) tooth made their appearance on Monday!! He's such a happy little fella and his teeth haven't seemed to bother him a bit. We have just had a lot of extra drool to go along with all the spit-up!

Shake-ogy

2010-05-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

So, we are on something around here - it's called shakeology. Sadie still can't pronounce her L's, so it comes out "shakeogy". It's so cute. Anyway, shakeology is a healthy meal replacement drink that has lots of vitamins and stuff - Brian and I are drinking it, but the most amazing part of the whole thing is that Mersadie LOVES this drink and I love that she loves it because it is so healthy and she's not much of a veggie eater - she's kinda like her mom. Enjoy these pictures of our "shakeology mustaches".

Sadie's mustache...

...and she thought Mom needed one too. Be nice people, I just got back from a run with the kiddos.

Mommy Date

2010-05-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

Today at Mersadie's amazing preschool, we had a Mommy Date for Tea. We got all dressed up this morning (I even curled Mersadie's little pigtails) and she and I hopped into the car for some much needed girl ONLY time together! Braden stayed at home with Daddy while Sadie and I had tea. Here are some pictures from our day...

I got Brian to snap a few pictures of us before we left. I've been noticing that I'm not in many pictures, so I've been trying to hand the camera off more often. So glad I did today. I think I'll cherish these pictures forever.

Sadie and I at our Mommy Date - the teachers ALWAYS do such an amazing job when they put events on. No detail is overlooked. I'm so glad that we have such a wonderful preschool family who loves God and our children!

Here was the table...

Here is my place setting - after almost 3 years, it's still difficult to see my name and Mommy together and think of them as synonyms.

Mersadie's place setting.

Sadie wearing my "Super Star" crown. We all know she's really the super star in our house!

Yummy Cupcakes! Gotta love that face - "Geez, Mom, take the pic so I can eat this thing!"

Yummo!

After our Tea Party, we went home to get Brian and Braden and we spent the afternoon at Disneyland. I am so thankful for my wonderful, adorable family. God is SOOOOO good to me!

6 Months!!!

2010-04-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

It's so incredible and hard to believe that 6 months ago today this little fella entered our family! It's been quite a rocky road with Braden from the get go, but an extremely joyful and happy road! Just today we got the confirmation that our boy does in fact have a milk protien allergy. Wow! All that we've been through - breast milk, soy formula, back to breast milk, hypoallergenic formula, back to breast milk again, back to hypoallergenic formula again, then finally to an amino acid based formula. Poor Braden has been through so much, but smiles all the way.

He's met some milestones recently. Last week he rolled from his tummy to his back all on his own for the first time! He is holding toys and bringing them to his mouth and babbling constantly. He is also trying so so hard to sit up on his own and I think he's getting his first couple teeth! It's been exciting around here!

Hope you enjoy the pictures in this post as much as I do! I know he's mine, but I sure do think he's stinkin' cute!!! I just wanna eat him up!

When Braden smiles like this, he reminds me of a little old man!

I just love the following set of pics.....

Don't you just want to laugh out loud with him?

Kissy Lips!!

LOVE this expression!!

Ridiculous!

2010-04-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

Ridiculous is the only word that came to mind when Brian and I pulled all of Mersadie's old clothes down so I could put them in a garage sale. These are the clothes from Newborn - 18 Months. Can we say excessive? The sad part is I don't think that we purchased more than 6 outfits for this girl in that time. All of the clothes were given to us by grandparents, aunts and uncles or friends. There were 6 large buckets, 1 small bucket, 2 large space bags and 1 medium space bag and they were all stuffed so much most of the lids wouldn't stay on. I started feeling really guilty about having so much for her. The only thing I could justify all of this with is the fact that she was the first grandchild on both sides. I should have just had everyone put money in her college fund. Way better investment. Now I'll just have to sell them and put that money in her college fund!

My Babies!

2010-04-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little guy is doing better at keeping himself up on his arms when he is on his belly. He's also getting stronger and wants to sit up really badly, but we are still missing the "milestone" things like sitting up and rolling over. The doctors keep saying to adjust his age for milestones from his due date, so I guess I shouldn't be expecting sitting up and rolling over for a 4 month old. It's hard to believe that Braden is 5 1/2 months old!!!

Our Braden loves to be talked to and to have attention. Just say his name these days and he'll look at you and be "yours".

I thought about editing the drool out of this picture, but it defines who he is at this stage, so I left it there. Oh...my baby boy is growing SO fast!

I noticed after going through all of these pictures that Braden has my ears. Poor guy. At least I can cover mine with my hair. Unfortunately, he will have to figure out how to deal with them a different way.

Sadie being silly! This comes very easy for her. She must get it from her daddy. :)

My sweet little Elmo-girl!

Mersadie is ALWAYS up to something. And that's actually not a bad thing. Sometimes she will be playing in her room for a while and will come out in the funniest get-ups. I had been here and there cleaning the house the other day and this is how I found her. Mis-matched p.j.'s, funny pink hat and polka-dot rain boots! I love EVERYTHING about my imaginative little lady. She's the best daughter anyone could ever ask for and like I've mentioned before, makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis!

"I'll Stick with the Milk, Please"

2010-04-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

I decided it was time for Braden to try some "real" food the other day to hopefully help with our reflux issues, so I mixed up some rice cereal...

Here is our happy little fella before the whole cereal ordeal.

And here he is getting the first taste on his tongue. It did not produce the reaction that I expected! Look at that crinkled nose! It's as if Braden were disgusted!

I really thought he would like cereal, but look at this face. Don't you just feel so sorry for him? He just sat there looking at us and then - all of the sudden - his bottom lip went out and he did this...

...screamed his head off! I'm not sure why he decided to cry, but he got happy pretty quickly. He still did not want any more cereal, though. So I guess we'll try again next week.

Maybe I'll get this wonderful reaction out of him next time.

And we can't leave out little Sadie two posts in a row, so here she is with oatmeal all over her face. I thought it was appropriate for the post. Enjoy your Monday!

Yeah! Duke Blue Devils Take the National Championship Title!!!

2010-04-05T22:54:00.000-07:00

Well, our family team, the Duke Blue Devils just took the NCAA Basketball Championship for 2010!! We are very excited - finally our brackets held strong to the end! Here are a few pics of Braden who was rooting for the Blue Devils. Mersadie, on the other hand, said she wanted the "black" team to win. Duke was in white tonight. I think we have a competitor on our hands...

"Yeah, Go Duke!"

At first, we weren't sure if Duke would be able to pull it out...

...it was even a nail-biter of a game at times...

...and we didn't even want to look at other times...

...but we were VERY happy with how it all turned out! Congratulations Blue Devils - what a great game!

Easter 2010!!!

2010-04-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

After wonderful Easter services at church this morning, we got to spend the afternoon with our "family away from family" - our staff and Peaches' parents. Bert and Vicky are always so gracious to open their home to us and cook some wonderful food - I am still stuffed! We got to just sit and hang out with some of our favorite people - thank you for a wonderful day!

Poor Braden missed out on many of the festivites because he was napping, so here is a picture of Brian, Sadie and I....

...and here is the boy. This is the best picture that I got of him all day. Stinks, I know, but he was throwing up all evening and we went through 3 outfits in a matter of minutes and about 7-8 burp cloths. Poor fella. I can't wait until he starts feeling better. I will have to take some "formal" pictures of the kiddos in their clothes from today and post them.

Timothy, Sadie and Nathan - ready for "the hunt".

Mersadie starts looking for eggs with Auntie Peach. I think it was about this time that we had an earthquake that neither Peaches nor I felt, but everyone else did. We were too busy finding those eggs!

Mersadie got the hang of the Easter egg hunt this year. Last year I remember us helping her find the eggs and then she would just put them back where we found them. This year she wanted to gather all she could find! She now knows what is in those eggs! CANDY - and if you show up at the Badajos household, they also add a little cash to them! How nice! Where was that Easter bunny when I was little?

Here's Mersadie checking out her findings! I think she likes this game!

"Oooo" I think she found another one!

It's behind the bush!

Got it!!!

Sadie is happy with all of her "findings"!

After we thought we had found all the eggs, we were told that there were at least 4 more. Man, were they hard to find! Papa Bert and Miss Vicky sure are good at this Easter egg hiding thing. Finally someone had a REALLY good eye and spotted in egg in these homemade nests. Sadie found one - with the help of her wonderful Auntie Peach.

These football eggs were hard enough to find because they were brown, but add on top of that them being put in "real" nests!

We also dyed and decorated some Easter eggs today. This is Mersadie's creation. Purple egg with glitter. She's a girly girl - but take note of the Ninja shirt. We borrowed one of Nathan's old p.j. tops so that Sadie wouldn't stain her shirt.

I told Mersadie to smile and show me the egg. This is what I got. Love.This.Girl.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Bubbles!!!

2010-04-01T16:42:00.000-07:00

Mersadie LOVES bubbles, I mean REALLY loves them. She rediscovered the bubble machine the other day and she was ecstatic! Here are some pictures of her enjoying some of the simple wonders in life. Oh, to be 2 and find the thrill in all the little things!

Sadie thinks it's hilarious to put her face right up next to where the bubbles shoot out.

And then the bubbles smack her in the face.

But she loves it anyway.

Jumping up and down for bubbles. I love how her hair is in this picture.

Another jumping picture. My silly little Sadie, I love you and your energy and wonder SO much!

Braden is 5 Months Old!

2010-03-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

Where has the time gone? I find myself asking that a lot lately. My baby boy is 5 months old as of Saturday!! I think this boy is always going to throw me off since he was early. I still can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that he joined our family in October instead of December. Things have been a whirlwind with trying to get him healthy and happy. He is doing much better health wise - although we are still battling severe reflux and what I think is probably a milk allergy of some sort. This is just me as "mommy doctor" talking, though. We are waiting on some lab results before anything is "official". I'll keep you posted. Other than that, Braden is a happy little fella. He sleeps well - about 10 hours at night and two wonderful naps during the day. When he is awake, Braden loves to watch his big sis play and sing songs. He is mesmerized by her. Maybe it's because she gets right in his face and talks so loud that it makes him blink really fast. Cracks me up every time. Braden has really started to notice everything around him and he LOVES to play on his play mat where the toys dangle down over him. Life with this boy has been non-stop and fun! We love you big little man!

This guy will flash a smile to almost anyone who will stop and take the time to talk and smile at him!

My big boy sitting up....

...with the help of a bumbo seat anyway. I love this thing. I can't believe he's big enough to actually use it!

And here is Braden grabbing for his toy. I know even more active days are in our future!

Thumb or Pacifier?

2010-03-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

Pretty much from birth this boy has been trying to find and figure out how to suck his thumb. I was a thumb sucker too, for way longer than I actually want to admit. Sadie was a pacifier girl and gave it up with no problem at all around 8 months. From the day he came home from the hospital, I've been trying to offer Braden the pacifier over and over, but all he wants to do is gnaw on his hand. Well, the other day it happened. Braden found his thumb - but he gets super frustrated and sometimes even ends up gagging himself. So, when he was fighting with his thumb the other day during naptime, I went in to offer him the pacifier and found him like this...

...but I was able to exchange his thumb for the pacifier. I was so happy he actually took it.
So, what do you think? Should I keep trying so hard to make him take the pacifier or should I give in and let him have his thumb? He does look so cute in that first picture though doesn't he?

Home, Home on the Range

2010-03-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

Before I get to the actual post, here are some pics of our big little guy. I figured if I just did a post about Mersadie I would really hear it. Braden is doing great. Still spitting up like crazy, but the prilosec makes him comfortable at least. He is sleeping really well and is a very happy baby. I have a lot to post about our trip to MO and new things this little guy is doing, so stay tuned!!

Okay, now to the reason for the "Home on the Range" title. A couple in our church invited us over for dinner and they wanted Mersadie to be able to ride one of their horses! Man, was she ever excited! She told me before we left that she wanted to ride the purple horse. I think she was thinking we were going to ride another carousel.

Here is Sadie sporting her cute helmet.

At first she was a little timid as you can see. Not sure what to think of that big fella. By the way, look at the eyes on that horse - beautiful!

Pretty soon, with Miss Jackie's help, Sadie was ready to pet the horse.

Here are the loves of my life. Sadie was just about to hop on!

This is Mr. John. He is Jackie's husband (they are the horse owners). I totally cut Braden out of this shot on accident!

Up on the horse - not scared at all!

She's having a great time thanks to Miss Stacy! Stacy is John and Jackie's daughter and probably the best horse trainer/teacher ever! She did such a great job with Mersadie!

Sadie felt like a big girl holding on by herself and everything!

Sadie is patting "Lily" telling her thank you and that she is a good horse.

Stacy hopped on with Mersadie so that she could ride a little faster and Sadie loved it! She just giggled and giggled.

And then it was Brian's turn to ride! I think he had just as much fun as Sadie did!

Love is in the Air!

2010-02-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

Love for my babies that is! I cannot get over how Sadie looks like she's 12 in this first picture. "They grow up too fast" has never been more true in the past few months! Wow!

My beautiful girl!

Sadie loves Braden (most of the time). She really tries to help me and pays a lot of attention to him. I think they'll love each other!

My beautiful (and big - almost a whopping 12 lbs now) boy!

This is Sadie's "ta - da" pose to show off her Valentine outfit that Mimi sent - "Thank you Mimi!"

Love this picture of Mersadie's face after her Valentine party at Pre-school today. Can you tell she enjoyed the punch? Gotta love a good "kool aid mustache"!!

I've Been Outsmarted!

2010-02-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

So I put Braden's pack 'n play in our family room and put his playmat in it so Mersadie can't terrorize him anymore and he can play in peace. I thought I had come up with a great solution! Well, this morning I walk into the family room and see the ball that I distinctly remember putting in the pack 'n play last night sitting on the chair. "Hmmm", I thought. How did Mersadie manage to get that ball out? Did she climb on the chair and lean over? She would have fallen in. Did she climb in the bed? No, she couldn't have done that. Well... I walked in a little further into the room and found it. The step stool. The girl carries that thing EVERYWHERE these days! She is definitely in "I do it, I do it" mode! I guess I'll have to find a new hiding place for Braden to play peacefully until he's big enough to defend himself!

See the white stool? Sadie's ticket to the world. She thinks she can reach and do EVERYTHING with that stool!

Sadie and one of her best buds - Audra!

A little teaser of the Disneyland post that I will do next - yes, folks, we finally took the little lady to Dizzy-wand and she LOVED it!

I forgot to put this in the "We Love Reece" post - little Braden LOVES Reece too!

We Love Reece!

2010-01-29T23:17:00.000-08:00

My sister came to visit over Christmas with the rest of my family and let me tell ya, she's a hit with Mersadie! The girl LOVES her Auntie Reece - here are a few pictures of them having fun together!

So cute! This is frameable!

Man, so is this one!

Maybe I should just make a storyboard and have it framed! I think they look alike in this one. The only difference is my sister's tan - poor Sadie looks ghostly!

Oh, and how Mersadie LOVES to talk on the phone these days! She even asks to use my "ear piece". This is how I found her the other day...

...yep, it's so big on her that she still uses her shoulder to hold it up like she does the phone.

Precious, just precious. Oh, my little Mersadie - please don't grow up so quickly! And, if you're wondering what happened to Sadie's face - she met the concrete while playing outside. She didn't like it too much!

Me and my wonderful sis - I love her! Wish we didn't live on opposite coasts!

At home with Braden and Sadie!

2010-01-25T16:52:00.000-08:00

I know it's been way too long since I've posted - but as most of you know, we have been dealing with a baby with severe reflux and a milk protien allergy (both which have been found out through trial and error of medications and switching to a special formula from breastmilk). It has taken what seems like an eternity to figure everything out and poor Braden had to suffer while we tried EVERYTHING in the book to make him feel better. So, since Braden is finally doing better (taking prilosec twice a day and sleeping upright in the swing), here are some long-awaited pictures of the kiddos. I am finally getting some sleep as of the past 4 days, so I am able to stay awake all day without a nap and get some things done. Enjoy!

Sadie loves her little bro, but lying on him like this won't help the reflux issues, I'm sure!

"Cheese"

Smiles! I thought we'd never get smiles out of this little guy!

Don't know who he was rooting for last night - but here is Braden's "touch down" pose!

This one is for Grandpa Moore - I just know this is Braden's favorite shirt ;)

Halloween 2009

2009-12-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

I know this is way-late, but I've been going through files on my computer from the past 6 weeks so I can update the blog. I would just skip this stuff altogether, but the blog has become my scrapbook, so I really want to include it all because I'm also in the process of turning my past blog posts into book form (so it really IS going to be our family's scrapbook) - how cool! Check out www.blurb.com if you want to know what I'm talking about.

Anyway...here is our fun family outing on Halloween. A church in our city does a huge family festival - so we went again this year. This was just 4 days after Braden was born, so he was still in the hospital, but we had a good time with Sadie and my mom and sister. Enjoy!

The Fam (minus one)

Sadie LOVES the bounce house!

I love this picture!

I thought she would be scared of the horses, but she had a great time as you can see!

Mersadie got to play a lot of games - she got candy at each one, so she was really into this!

No tossing for Sadie, she just walked right up to the pumpkin and put the beanbags in the slots.

Mersadie LOVES her "Reece" and Mimi!

And I think she loves Mommy too!

Sadie and some of her best buds!

Another one of Sadie and Brian

I wanna go Dizzy-Wand!

2009-12-02T11:18:00.000-08:00

I don't know how Sadie figured out that Mickey Mouse lived at Disneyland and we lived close enough to be able to go to Disneyland, but every time she sees the commercial for Christmastime at Disneyland, she says she wants to go to "Dizzy-Wand". I usually tell her, "yes, baby, we'll go to Disneyland sometime soon, but not today". This usually satisfies her and she goes on to talk about how Mickey Mouse lives at Disneyland and then gets distracted by something else. Well, last night - my answer wasn't good enough and she WOULD NOT STOP saying "I wanna go Dizzy-Wand". I got tired of it and asked Brian if he would do something to get her to stop. His solution was what you find in the video. Nice. I picked up the video camera after about 2 minutes of this going on and it lasted another minute and a half. Not my idea of how to get her to stop saying it, but it worked... She was done after this.

And, yes, we will be taking Mersadie to Disneyland sometime soon. Just not today. Enjoy!

Braden's Newborn Pictures

2009-11-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of my favorite pictures that I took of Braden the other day. He slept like a champ right through it all. I have more to show, but he is calling me now - he needs to eat. The last 2 are my favorites I think! Enjoy!

Our Little Man is Finally Home!

2009-11-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

Praise the Lord - today we brought our little Braden home! He is doing so well and has come a really long way in his short 13 days of life! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. Enjoy the pictures from today!

Finally at home!

First car ride.

Mimi is just as happy as we are to have Braden home - and to be able to love on him!

And our Mersadie. She LOVES her little bro! She couldn't wait to hug and kiss him. Brian and I got her a little baby doll and gave it to her when we brought Braden home. In this picture she is trying to share it with Braden.

Sadie is showing us how the baby eats and how she is going to help with Braden. She's got this big sister thing down already!

Kisses! This melts my heart!

She couldn't stop touching his "yittle" face.

Proud big sis!

More pictures to come soon - Sadie wanted to hold him tonight and we got some great shots of that!

Braden's Update

2009-11-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

Before I get to Braden (because blogger put my pictures in reverse order) - here is our little Sadie. She has been such a trooper through this entire process. She has not fussed one time in the million times that Brian and I have had to leave her. It's amazing. She's pretty independent anyway, but I figured us leaving all the time would eventually get to her - but she is just great staying with Mimi or Brian when my mom and I go to the hospital. Anyway, here is how I found Mersadie the other morning. She had her hat, my shoes, her suitcase and her money and she told me she was going on a trip - on an airplane. I don't know where she was headed, but it looks like she was ready for fun!

And for Mr. Braden ~ he is doing SO much better! He is now completely bottle feeding - the nurse took his feeding tube out of his nose while I was there this morning! He is back under the photo therapy light for jaundice, but his levels were down this morning, so they are just keeping him under it today just for extra precaution. The only reason Braden hasn't been moved to a regular open air crib is because of the jaundice. He is doing well breathing with only short periods of faster breathing. The doctor said today that he has really come a long way and we should be looking forward to having him home soon! We CANNOT wait! Bring on the sleepless nights - we just want our healthy boy at home!

This picture was taken yesterday morning - that is why he still has the tube in.

My mom finally got to hold Braden! Here he is with his Mimi!

And I couldn't resist posting this picture because I just know he is smiling because he's in his mommy's arms! Thanks for your continued prayers!

More Updates on Braden

2009-11-02T23:47:00.000-08:00

First photo of Brian and I together with Braden. We can't wait until Mersadie can be in the picture too! Because of the H1N1 virus, children under 14 are not allowed in the hospital for visitation whatsoever. Don't you love our fashionable blue gowns? We have to wear them EVERY time because of the virus as well. Lovely.

Anyway...as you can see, Braden only has one little tube going into his mouth for feeding. He is off of the respirator, has the chest tube out and the tube that was going to his belly button. He was also taken off of photo therapy (for jaundice).

Since all of this was done, we FINALLY got to really really hold him. I sat and held Braden for an entire hour and a half today and it was SO good for my soul.

What the doctors are concentrating on now is getting Braden's digestive system to work. They were feeding him small amounts through the tube, but they were getting a lot of residual left in the tube which indicated that Braden was not digesting it well, so they stopped the feeds for today and will try to start again in the morning. After his digestive system starts working (he needs to have some bowel movements), we will start trying to get him to learn to suck. In the meantime, I am just thrilled that Braden is doing better and I can hold my precious little guy.

Mid-yawn. So cute.

Brian and his boy. Awww.

Mommy and Braden. Just love that little guy to pieces!

Now you see why I just sat and held him for an hour and a half!

And, of course, SADIE!!

My sister and mom have been helping us with Mersadie and it has been a life-saver! Here is Mersadie having Cocoa Puffs for dinner while she is still in her p.j.'s from this morning. (It was my sister's turn to take care of her). Don't you just love the look on Sadie's face? She knows she's getting her way and getting VERY spoiled. I'm afraid I'm going to have a lot to fix once Mom and Marisa leave, but I'm incredibly thankful for the love and support!

Braden's Progress

2009-10-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day for our little Braden! (The picture above is from today before he got all of the tubes taken out). He got to come off of the respirator and get the chest tube taken out!!! He is now breathing on his own, but they still have him on oxygen because they didn't want to take everything away at once. He is slightly jaundice so he is under a light but that should be able to be taken off tomorrow. The tube that was going into his bellybutton was also able to be removed today! They started feeding him small amounts today through his feeding tube instead of just IV fluids. The best part of all - Brian got to hold his baby boy for the very first time today!!!

We are SO incredibly thankful to God for answering prayers. We are still taking one day at a time but are so thrilled about the progress. Thank you to EVERYONE who is praying for our family. Your prayers mean more than any words I could ever express!

And to not leave our little princess out of the limelight...here is a picture of our Minnie Mouse from this evening. We went to a local church's fall festival and Mersadie had a blast. I have plenty more pictures to share - just too much to do tonight - so I'll post them later. Isn't she just precious?

Our Boy - Braden Christopher is here!

2009-10-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

Brian and I got the surprise of our lives this Tuesday evening, October 27th with Braden Christopher Moore joining our family exactly 6 weeks early. On Sunday afternoon after having lunch with our church staff and missionary friends, we were walking out of the restaurant and my water broke. We were in SHOCK to say the least. After a whirlwind of events and getting Mersadie taken care of, we went to the hospital where they confirmed, sure enough, that my water had indeed broken. There they informed me that I would be in the hospital until Braden was born, which would not be more than 9 days.

On Tuesday morning, when I still had not gone into active labor on my own, the high risk OB came in and highly suggested that we schedule a c-section to reduce the risk of infection for myself and Braden. I had already been given the 2 steroid shots for Braden's lungs to develop. With reluctancy we went ahead and scheduled the c-section for that evening at 7 p.m. (Reluctant because I REALLY wanted to try and deliver naturally this time around after having a c-section with Sadie). We knew this was the best choice though.

At about 4 or 4:30 Tuesday afternoon I started having contractions so fast, painful and close together that we called the doctor into my room. She checked me for progression and to my surprise, I was 2 cm dilated and 100% effaced. They decided to let me progress naturally and see where it led. Well...it led right to more and stronger contractions, A LOT of pain, an epidural (THANK YOU GOD) and after about 30 minutes of pushing - our handsome son Braden Christopher was born at 8:25 p.m. - 5 lb 14 oz. - 18 3/4 inches long. - BIG guy for 6 weeks premature!

Braden is still in the NICU because he is not breathing well on his own. Things have been so up and down. The worst being him going through a collapsed lung on Wednesday evening. The doctors got him stabilized and he is on a respirator. It will be a fairly long road to recovery, but things are looking up. He is breathing 70% on his own and they say he is getting better. The next thing he will need to do after breathing on his own 100% is to learn how to suck so he can eat. Then they will make sure that he is regulating his own body temperature. After all of those things are successful, our boy will be able to come home to meet his big sister.
Thank you for your prayers and concern as we go through what is the biggest trial of our lives so far.