Taking His Act on the Road

Literally.



I'm just happy he actually knows what this word spells, unlike the original spelling video!! (In fact, if you ask him his name or point to a picture of him and ask who it is, he'll say, "You." I guess I should be happy that he listens to me all the times I say, "I love YOU" and "This is for YOU," etc!!!)

This video is over a week old, but I opted to save it for today since it represents the latest chapter in B's quest to be like his genius uncle, the smartest guy we know. And since today is Geoff's BIRTHDAY (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I thought I'd take the time to highlight his geniusness. I mean, really. Look at this guy:

He's got "intellectual giant" written all over him, right??!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GEOFFREY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS-- Happy birthday to loyal reader, Abbey, as well!!! Wish we could hang out today like we did one year ago!!

PPS-- I really do love my brother.

My New Toy

I'm not really into "toys." Maybe I'd be more into them if money were in endless supply, but since it's not, I don't really have a problem forsaking technological treats.

But............

Watching Ian edit our Christmas card photo introduced me to the wonder that is the Bamboo digitizer-- a pressure-sensitive touchpad thingy that makes photo editing so much easier than using a mouse. I might have expressed my excitement over it once or twice so was thrilled to find one under the tree on Christmas morning!

I still have a lot to learn about using the pen effectively in Photoshop, but OH MY GOODNESS am I having fun in the meantime!! And I had no idea until I started playing around with it that there's a completely different function that is super cool-- handwriting recognition and conversion to text!!! So I just wrote some words with the pen:

(Yes, I have horrible handwriting but please note that it looks even worse than usual since it was my first time writing on the pad while looking at the screen!!!)

Then...voila!! My handwritten message gets inserted as text:

In case you're wondering, I completed the above exercise immediately after finding out about some Kansas City stealthy blog reading relatives (Love you, JAV!!!) and I had the topic on my mind as I was practicing!!

Now, to be honest, I don't see myself doing a lot of this handwriting conversion for practical purposes since I can certainly type faster than I can write on an electronic pad that requires me to be at least semi-legible. But as far as toys go, man am I having fun!!!

PS-- Happy birthday to loyal reader JUDY!!!!

The Weekend Project

I always forget how industrious the big guy is until he's at home for a long stretch of time. With his bonus vacation days last week, he checked off pretty much everything on his original to-do list, so I shouldn't have been surprised when he concocted out of the blue what seemed to me to be a massive undertaking.

The idea came sometime in the afternoon on Christmas Day as more and more of B's new little vehicles were increasingly ending up underfoot. Aside from our teeny bathrooms, the kitchen is the only non-carpeted room in our house so we've had some trucks/train/cars in there for awhile now since carpet hinders their go-go power. It seems that Coach's daily 5:30 AM breakfasts (when NOT on vacay!) had resulted in a few painful toy/foot meetings, however, and he was eager to figure out another fast surface for all the toys. The plan was born...

He traipsed off to Lowe's and Home Depot on Saturday and probably would have gotten the whole thing done that day if pesky things like waiting for paint to dry didn't get in his way. So it turned into a project encompassing little parts of several days-- but amazing nonetheless.

The raw materials:

A very cute helper:

Man at work:

Painted pieces:

Putting it together:

Framed:

Almost there:

Voila!! A raised platform with three hinged doors each hiding a plastic storage bin where all the toys and trinkets can live:

As an added bonus, there's a door on the back of the far side where we can store long items like wrapping paper!

The man is amazing. He's already trying to figure out what to do for the next 6 days!!! But the real question is-- what did Brooksie think?? Well, he sure likes the "stage" feature:

This video clip is way too long but I wasn't sure what to cut out since I knew some grandparent types would enjoy the entire minute. Feel free to just get a wee sampling of his performance!! Oh, and yes-- I should've pulled up his pants first!

And For the Rest...

Ian was so generous to share his photography talents in order to help us with a photo for our Christmas cards. We got to their house with only a small amount of daylight left to seize, but he managed to get some fun shots both outside and then in the little makeshift studio he'd set up in their living room.

Not surprisingly, a candle they had on hand went a long way in making B happy. Ian tried to convince me to make this picture the official one:

I just couldn't do it.

But there were lots of great ones!! (all unedited...)

Thanks, Ian!!!! (and Assistant Karen, of course!)

Oh, and speaking of Christmas pics.... here's the little guy before the Christmas Eve service. He and his adorable sweater vest (compliments of Carter's Closet) are doing a little holiday jive!!

B's Best Day Ever?

(Hard to say since there were no candles involved!!!)

Last Wednesday, we took advantage of the 3rd of the big guy's unexpected days off and embarked on our first toddler-centric family adventure. We returned to the scene of Midnight Madness (although Elvis was not there this time, sadly) and had such a great time exploring.

We started our morning with chai and a pastry-- B was a big fan of both!

He was also a big fan of the fruit and veggies on display outside of the little general store!

And the day kept getting even better for him. Our next stop was the locally-owned toy store that is just simply a magical place. He immediately scooped up "truck and bus" and wouldn't put them down for anything.

Then we made it to the second floor where they have a big train set and we really thought he'd lose his mind. He's not a big tantrummer, but he sure did fling himself to the ground and say "No time to go!" when we told him that it was, in fact, time to go! (Don't worry-- we might have purchased a few little goodies for him!)

I doubt he thought there could be anything more exciting in store, but we then made it to the historic railroad museum at the end of the street located in the original train station. The first setup was pretty cool:

Then there was one with BUTTONS!!!

And then, finally, there was this massive display that even included a drive-in movie that was actually playing a video of It's a Wonderful Life!!

You better believe he didn't think it was "time to go" from there, either!!!

Yay for unexpected family time!!

Also on Christmas Day...

I got to meet Brady P! Clearly, he was SUPER excited to meet me!!!

Our Celebration

Hmmm.....after all this work, I realize now that it's still hard to see. (It's a slinky that B is questioning in the middle left!) Darn it! Oh well-- it was a GREAT morning!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

from some snow bunnies...

or, if you prefer, from some more put-together types...

For those of you celebrating today, we send many, many merry wishes! May your spirit be renewed as you reflect upon the birth of our Lord who came to save.

JOY TO THE WORLD!!!!

It's Almost Time!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!

On my agenda today: make cranberry bread (classic Moore Christmas-morning breakfast food), go to a "family" church service at 4 pm, and go back (just me) at 9 pm to be the reader for that service.

Oh, and do a LOT of rejoicing for the safe arrival of Brady John late last night to Kathy and Joel!! CONGRATS to the new family of 3!!!

More Snow Fun

(you know, since schools ended up canceling all 3 days scheduled for this week! WHOO-HOO!)

We ventured out for quite an outdoor excursion around the neighborhood yesterday. The blue duo:

Some quasi-sledding action:

Neighborhood swings:

More snow-eating:

And even MORE-- 30 minutes later on the other side of the neighborhood:

We are loving an unexpected early start to our family time together!

Wonder What All Those Extra Words Are?

We often Skype with Grammie Sheils in the mornings and whenever I ask B to tell Grammie he loves her, so many more words come out of his mouth than necessary. And it's the same mess o' words every time! I finally remembered to capture his professions of love on video (totally away from Skype, as you can see!)-- interesting that he gets briefer and briefer with each new version:



And speaking of briefs....

Someone has really been into doing some bathtub swimming of late!

He Eats!!!

Too bad snow has no calories...

Saturday Snow: A Photo Bonanza!

I encouraged the Big Guy to shovel after about 7-8 inches or so. He loves physical labor so he was more than happy to get a jump-start and prevent an even more back-breaking experience after the full 20 inches. We watched from the warmth of our living room:

Invigorated by the outdoors, BG wanted the the Little Guy to go outside with him. LG is none too thrilled about wearing his snowbib:

But LG managed to get all bundled up, a vision in blue:

First destination? RED TRUCK!

Then when BG embarked on Shoveling Project #2, LG followed along with his trusty bus:

Shoveling Project #2 was extended to include clearing the deck after I learned from my Snow Day Companion, Facebook (courtesy of Emily2), that 24 inches of snow can collapse a deck:

It appears that LG is helping, but really he just wanted to eat the snow:

Or stare at it in wonder:

Next up in the BG/LG Day O' Snowy Fun? Running through the paths that BG shoveled through the yards (this might have been Shoveling Project 1.5):

He's gonna get you!

That's right-- you'll move faster if you drop that bus!

Ah, snow. There are few things so beautiful!!!

CHEERS to a Snowstorm!!

(Final) UPDATE: 20 inches at 8:35 PM, and seemingly done falling. Guess the weather peeps were right!
UPDATE: 17 inches at 6:10 PM. It's really been keeping a steady pace, huh?!
UPDATE: 15 inches at 4:00 PM and it keeps coming down!
UPDATE: 13 inches at 2:00 PM and still falling heavily!
UPDATE: 9 inches at 11:15 AM!

The snow had just started falling last night so we tipped our glasses of 43-and-cream* to the excitement of a snowy weekend! (We missed you, Grand Big D!) And, by the way, FAC had gone outside to look and hadn't taken off her coat--we may be frugal with our heat but we don't keep it THAT cold inside!!!

The snow has been falling steadily since then. There's quite a bit out there and the predictions go up to 20+ inches for the day. CRAZY!! The big guy is understandably bummed that it's happening on a weekend--since he has to teach through Wednesday--but we're thinking 20 inches of snow today might still result in a snow day on Monday. Stay tuned!!

*Thanks to Gabe for introducing us to the yumminess that is the "beer shot." No actual beer involved-- the ingredients just make it look like beer!

Totally Unintentional

But the comparison is kinda fun!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fun with Candy Canes

Since Mother Bear hangs candy canes on the tree in this book, and since they were only 99 cents per box, I decided perhaps Little B would enjoy doing the same. He managed to get a few on the tree:

But he REALLY enjoyed breaking the hooks off the candy canes:

Poor broken canes:

There was still an intact one left for Kathy, however-- and a hug!!!

We're all eagerly awaiting the arrival of Baby P, but enjoyed the chance to visit with the mama-to-be!!